My new Clevo W370ET from PWNPCS.CO.UK

Hello all, you may know me from such posts as this. I do more reading than posting on here as I'm the quite type, when not complaining. Anyway I thought I would do a little review of PWNPCS.CO.UK once again as I've just received my latest laptop from them, the Clevo W370ET. I gave my old Clevo W170ER (which is still running flawlessly) to my brother who was in need of a laptop for business purposes as well as wanting to play a few games and movies every now and then. I didn't really want to give it away but I suppose I'm just full of softness underneath this rugged masculine exterior. I was left with my two year old gaming desktop which is still reasonably powerful but can't really justify using it for anything other than playing really demanding games as it sucks 240watts on idle alone and 400watts+ in-game. 80% of the time I just browse, watch movies and listen to music so I needed a new laptop. Electricity is a ripoff in Ireland and I'm a tightwad.

Since I was in the market for a new laptop and had such a positive experience with PWNPCS.CO.UK last time, it seemed sensible to get my next purchase from them also. I would have liked to go for the Clevo P170EM but simply didn't have the cash for the build I wanted as I'm currently semi-retired/half unemployed (can't decide which) at present. So in the end I settled for the Clevo W370ET.
Again, ordering through the website was simple. It took all of 15 minutes to choose the specification I wanted and pay through PayPal. Any questions I asked through email support were promptly answered by the boss man Scott, some even late at night which makes me wonder if the lad ever takes a day off. I got regular email updates on it's building status and it was built, shipped and in my hands 6 business days later. I would have had it even sooner only for the Blu-Ray drives were out of stock for a few days, which Scott kindly notified me and gave me the option of having a regular DVD-RW drive installed instead so I could receive it sooner but I decided to wait.

Packaging:
Can't really say much about it except that the box had a carry handle, it was tidy and the laptop was well protected inside. All the needed drivers were included on 2 disks (for Windows 7 and Windows 8).

Laptop:
I find the build quality very good. The hinges from the screen on to the laptop frame feel very sturdy. The keys are a good size, have a nice click and are responsive. Laptops in general aren't great in the sound department from my experience but the sound in this laptop is a good bit better than the W170ER at least, the Onkyo sound bar across the top of the keyboard is a nice addition. It's louder and crisper. Since I use the Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 USB sound card and Roccat Kave True 5.1 headset, external sound quality isn't a priority for me but it is good none the less. The screen is the best feature of this laptop, the picture from my ancient phone doesn't do it justice at all. It's really vibrant, colourful and crisp. On idle the machine only uses 20watts, which is great and the battery lasts a good 2-3 hours when doing general browsing, watching Youtube etc.

Game Performance:
The newest game I own is Max Payne 3 so it seemed the best game to try out. I let "Nvidia Experience" (which is a new feature included in the latest drivers) tweak the best game settings to use automatically. In-game the laptop was using an average of 75watts. You can hear the fan kick in in-game but again it's quieter than the W170ER at least and the air from the vent seems cooler too. On average with the settings selected I was getting 50 FPS. Highs of 70, lows of 30 depending on environments but mostly 50, as you can see in the top right of the in-game pictures below. The graphics look really good and I'm very happy with it, even if everything isn't set to the total max.

Conclusion:
Sorry if this post is too long, I just wanted to get in as much info as I could think of. I'm probably forgetting a bunch of stuff. Overall I would recommend getting a Clevo as your gaming laptop, for anyone with the cash and I think I will stick with them for the foreseeable future.
For the performance and quality I would give the W370ET a 9/10.
For the service, price and extra speedy build and delivery provided by PWNPCS.CO.UK I would give a 10/10.
There's really nothing else I could have asked for, they seem a nice bunch of lads and it's good to support the smaller businesses.

Cheers...

BattleOn Notebook Enthusiast