Clevo P170em Review-and Clevo with 7970m in general

Clevo P170em Review
I know it's pretty late for a review for a last gen machine. However, this could still be of help to someone on the fence about what to expect from a Clevo machine in general.
Specs:
Processor
2.4-3.4Ghz 3630qm
GPU
Ati 7970m
RAM
8gb
HDD
750gb
Screen
Standard Matte Screen

As you can see, its pretty much the stock config except for the upgraded GPU.

BUILD QUALITY:
The build quality on this thing is solid. It doesn't look flashy like the alienware or asus machines, but looks durable and well built. I've only used it for a few weeks but I get the feeling that this thing will last. It is quite heavy though which was probably to be expected. Some people mentioned how the power plug sits a bit loose but I did not seem to find this problem with my device. Another problem some people mentioned was the keyboard. I find the keyboard to be satisfactory. Pretty much a standard keyboard that you can expect with any other laptop. Works well. The backlit effect is nice. Helps find the keys in the dark. The touch pad is decent. I have some trouble locating its side for scrolling due to it being flat on level with the palm rest. It is no big deal though.
SCREEN:
A big decision making factor was which screen to get. The standard matte screen or the high gamut screen. I read through a lot about this on these forums. In the end, I went with the standard matte screen because I felt I didn't really need the high gamut. Now I have a lot of high gamut screens on my phones so I had a decent idea of what I was missing out on. The standard screen is very nice on its own though. Sharp, bright and a wide viewing angle, I have no trouble with it even in somewhat bright conditions such as my office (building corner with 2 sides consisting of windows). I'm glad I went with the matte because the glossy screens on my other laptops was very annoying here. Bottom line, I don’t think you will regret it if you go with the default screen.
PERFORMANCE:
This is the reason why anyone really decides to go for the Clevo in the first place. The Price/performance ratio. It doesn't disappoint. The specs pretty much speak for themselves and you can find all sorts of benchmarks here on this website. The only debate was regarding the 7970m vs 675m/680m. I decided to go with the 7970m. I was not disappointed.
7970m Experience:
Now I've read a lot about all the trouble this card has given to its owners over the course of last year. Naturally, I had my fingers crossed. I installed the latest beta (13.6) from the ATI website and so far I have had no trouble whatsoever with this card. All the games I've tried have worked as expected and I really don't have anything negative to say at this point.
Games I've tried:
Pro Evolution Soccer 2013
Tomb Raider (2013)
Call of Duty 4(multiplayer promod only)
Skyrim
League of Legends
Dota2
Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition
GTA4
Saints Row The Third

It's not a huge list, but I have had no complaint running any of these. GTA4 of course has its bugs and issues, but it's still a playable experience maxed out. Other games I can run comfortably on max settings. Enduro doesn't seem to be negatively effecting my experience. I can even play on battery for over an hour so I'm actually glad for enduro. All in all, I think most problems with enduro and this card in general were due to bad drivers which seem to be more or less fixed at this point. I can easily vouch for this card as a very good option with similar results to nvidia’s 680m. However, I hear the 680m overclocks better, I am not interested in overclocking this gpu so in my books they are pretty much equals.

BATTERY:
I’ll be honest, I did not expect much from the battery. Maybe it is due to the low expectations that I was pleasantly surprised. When browsing and going through other light office work, it performs similar to any other laptop (i.e. a less heavy laptop). That was no surprise. However, what was pleasing was to see that I can squeeze out something between 1.5/2 hours of gameplay on battery. Yes, the GPU is underclocked. However, the beast as this is, even the underclocked gpu can run most games on decent settings. League of legends and dota2 can easily run on max settings on battery. PES2013 can run smoothly if you turn down the settings a notch. Even Tomb Raider can be played with slight tweaking. Not bad in my books =).
SOUND:
Ah yes, this is a tricky subject so I will start with a disclaimer.
DISCLAIMER:
I am no audiophile and am easily satisfied with $2/3 headphones and consider the ones they ship with the samsung galaxy phones(S2,S3,Note2) to be fantastic. As you can see, my standards are pretty shallow =).
However, even as that is, I couldn’t help but be disappointed with the sound I got from the headphone jack. I refused to believe that they made a soundcard even below my sub-par standards. I even contemplated getting a $20/30 USB soundcard as long as it would be small enough to not be a hindrance.
Eventually, upon scouring the forums, I pinpointed the problem. The problem is the lack of any bass being output to the headphones. Changing the THX settings from built-in sound to headphones or external speakers made a world of difference. I can’t say how good it is, but at least it isn’t terrible anymore.
NOISE/HEAT:
I have been using this laptop for a couple of weeks now. Gaming for 2-3 hours continuously has not triggered the top-speed fan setting. The palm rest is aluminum and doesn’t get anything more than slightly warm. The left side fan on the back seems to be working at a decent pace when gaming heavily but that that is to be expected. It isn’t working on max setting though and doesn’t make too much noise. My air conditioner probably makes more noise than my laptop has so far. Once again, I am satisfied.
Bottom Line:
A fantastic Laptop for anyone looking to go all out power within a budget. Doesn’t look ‘as premium’ as some of the other laptops available in the price range but looks sturdy nonetheless. However, blows everything out of the picture in the price/performance race. I got mine for a little over $1400/-.
Last but not the least, a little shout out to Hutsady and the others in the XoticPc team. They listened and helped me out at every turn and delivered the laptop without any noticeable faults. I would totally recommend them to anyone who is looking for a reseller.