Clevo W350ETQ Barebones Assembly and Review

Part 1 - Introduction:

Hey guys, I received my W350ETQ barebones from RJTech yesterday and I figured I should snap a few pics given the dearth of information about this model and to help out future DIYers.

System Specs:
-15" 1080p matte display (the same LG LP156WF1-TLF3 in pretty much every non-95% gamut 15" Sager)
-i7-3610qm
-Nvidia GTX 660M
-Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 B/G/N wifi (no bluetooth)
-8GB (2x4GB) Crucial 8GB 1.35V 1600mhz CAS11 RAM
-256GB Samsung 830 SSD

Rest of the specs are stock and can be found in the owner's lounge thread.

Total Bill of Materials:
- Clevo W350ETQ Barebones: $674.30 shipped from RJTech ($619 base + $30 matte screen upgrade + $25.30 shipping)
- Intel i7-3610QM (OEM): $192.50 shipped from Ebay
- 8 GB Crucial RAM (Model CT2KIT51264BF160B): $33.15 shipped from Newegg (originally ~$42.99, but it was on sale and there was a 15% off code avaliable)
- Intel Centrino 6205: $15.85 shipped from Ebay
- Samsung 830 SSD (256GB): $203.29 shipped from Newegg

Parts Subtotal (No HDD): $915.8
Subtotal (with SSD): $1119.09

Misc parts and doo-dads:
- Plastic Pry Tool: $1.99 shipped from Ebay
- IC Diamond 7 Carat TIM + Solvent Wipe: $10.25 shipped from Ebay

Grand Total: $1131.33

So why would anybody choose to assemble the W350ETQ themselves instead of buying from Sager? Well, here were my reasons:

1. Cheaper. A similar configuration to the one I have (matte screen + IC Diamond + crucial SSD + stock wifi) would cost $1259.01 ($1221.24 w/ cash discount) at XoticPC as of the time of this writing. That's a savings of $100!

2. Don't have to wait 3-7 business days for Sager to assemble you notebook. Just get the parts shipped to you and do it in an hour. (look for free Amazon Prime/Newegg Shoprunner trials and Ebay expedited shipping)

3. More choice in parts. E.g. I never use bluetooth so I got an Intel dual band wireless adapter over the stock single band one + bluetooth.

But there's some downside too:
1. Obviously you have to do the assembly yourself. It's not very hard (I have no experience doing putting together barebones notebooks, but I've built desktops) and its pretty intuitive if you're good at this kind of stuff, but the package I got from RJTech came with no instructions. So prepare to do your own research.

2. No 30 money back guarantee. You better be sure you're going to like the notebook, because you're stuck with it.

3. No tech support. If anything breaks, you gotta figure it out yourself. (And no "overall" warranty, you gotta take out the part you bought and send it to the OEM.)

But all in all I think getting the barebones is a good deal for people with some know-how and technical intuition.

Part 2 - Assembly:

Some out-of-the-box pics. Apologies for my phone camera... It's not the best.

(DVD as a size reference)

Cover and heatsink off.

CPU socket/GPU.

Heatpipe and some other stuff.

CPU and solvent wipe (use gloves!).

CPU in the socket (make sure to lock the CPU in).

Cleaned the stock TIM off of the heatpipes.

IC Diamond applied instead. Not perfect, but I wasn't used to applying ICD.

Everything back on.

The barebones comes with a HDD tray. Took me a while to figure out that the screws for attaching the HDD were in a separate bag.

SSD in. I actually screwed this up at first if you see the crease in the black wire next to the SSD. Gotta make sure to pull it back a bit so that it doesn't press down on the SSD when the back cover is on.

Plastic pry tool. Wasn't needed in my case since the speaker cover came "pre-pried", if that's a word.

Speaker bar off.

5 screws to remove the keyboard.

Wireless card/RAM slot under keyboard.

It POSTs!

For some reason, I my barebones came with a UK keyboard, but RJTech is exchanging for a US one.

More detailed assembly guide coming soon.

Part 3 - Review:

Coming soon! In the meanwhile, I recommend reading the Notebookcheck review, which is very well done.

Some impressions though:
1. Standard Clevo build and "boring" design.
2. Speaker bar is kinda loose, not sure why.
3. The speakers suck. Atrocious.
4. No "lack-of-bass" problem with the headphone port though. Sound is pretty good with headphones.
5. Pretty loud at full tilt, but I'll have some more info after I do some stress tests. Update: Not that loud actually. It seems that there are 3 fan settings: off or silent/loud/loudest. Loudest isn't that bad, but when you're just browsing the web and the fan goes from silent to loud, it's pretty jarring. More granularity with the fan would be nice.

R3d Notebook Virtuoso