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    Solid Review & Comparison of W370ET and P150HM

    Discussion in 'Sager/Clevo Reviews & Owners' Lounges' started by b0b1man, Nov 17, 2012.

  1. b0b1man

    b0b1man Notebook Deity

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    Alright, this will be The Great Wall of Text that will sum up my Clevo experiences and I hope some of you guys would find useful information in it. So, without further ado, lets get down to business :D

    What I bought and where from: I bought a Clevo W370ET (XMG A722) from the German reseller MySN, also known as Schenker Notebooks (tronic5, etc.)
    Which Clevo models have I owned: I still own both Clevos, the P150HM from last year and this new W370ET. Both are acquired from German resellers, the first one was from NEXOC.
    Reason for doing a review and side-by-side comparison: This is for all of those people, sitting on the fence and hesitating about switching to a new type of laptop, namely a customized one. There are a ton of OEM brands out there (Asus, Dell, Acer, Lenovo, MSI, Toshiba, etc.) but sometimes its good to switch to something new – you might as well learn a thing or two, and you might just make the best computer purchase that you ever made. There really are a lot of reasons to choose a custom-built laptop over the stock shop-window configurations.

    Okay. Let’s start with both laptop configurations and specs and after that – I am going to list pro’s and cons to both of them :D


















































    Clevo: W370ET (XMG A722) P150HM (NEXOC G647)
    Display: 17.3" FullHD Matte 15.6" FullHD Matte
    Graphics: Nvidia GTX660m 2GB, DDR5, 128bit AMD 6990m, 2GB, DDR5, 256bit
    Processor: Core i7 3740QM, 2.7-3.7Ghz, 6mb L3 Core i7 2760QM, 2.4-3.5Ghz, 6mb L3
    RAM: 2x8GB Corsair 1600mhz 2x4GB Kingston 1333mhz
    Primary HDD: Intel SSD 520, 120GB SATA-3 OCZ Vertex 3 SSD, 60GB SATA-3
    Secondary HDD: Seagate 750GB, 7200rpm Samsung 320GB, 5400rpm
    DVD Drive: None, Universal HDD Caddy None, original Clevo Caddy
    WiFi & BT: Intel 6235 + BT 4.0 Intel 6230 + BT 3.0
    Keyboard: Standart (German Layout) Standart (German Layout)
    Warranty: Basic 24m, 6m quick repair Standart 12m
    Thermal Paste: Arctic MX-4 Arctic MX-2

    This table will be self-explanatory. Both models will be listed with Pro's and Con's to eachother. They are in a completely different league, but still - this is useful if you are contemplating what to buy, having to decide between size, performace, ease of maintenance and price ;)




    Pro's, Con's & Undecided* (detailed explanation provided)​












































































    Columns: W370ET (XMG A722) P150HM (NEXOC G647) Explanation!
    Screen Quality: This one. X Brighter and better contrast.
    Processing Power: Equal. Equal. Both machines work best with 45W cpu's. And Ivy bridge vs Sandy bridge ain't fair to compare.
    Video Card Power: X This one. No upgradeability on W370ET. And P150HM is able to use current high-end cards too.
    Overall Portability: Debatable. Debatable. Some say 17.3" is too large. I say these models are both equally portable. The P150HM is thicker and W370ET is wider. Both can be carried easy.
    Weight Comparison: Equal. Equal. Both weigh almost the same (W370ET is 100g lighter). PSU's are almost the same weight too. And if you fit one extra HDD in the W370ET, they will really be equal.
    Laptop Surface: This one. X I prefer matte screen bezel vs glossy. I like plain plastic cover vs rubberized (rubber is a magnet for dust).
    Keyboard Comparison: Im indifferent. Im indifferent. I dont use the laptop's keyboard at all. USB external ftw. Both keyboards work fine enough when I tested them.
    Easy to clean? This one. X In w370et we are dealing with 1 Fan and much less heatsinks. And the bottom has less holes in it. Fast & easy to clean, compared to P150HM.
    Battery life: This one. X Optimus 2012 on that one. Also, we've got a VGA button that disables the Nvidia card and we get tons of battery savings. Even P150EM doesen't have that feature :D
    Gaming & Working conditions? This one. X Now that I own a 17.3" laptop, I really see the difference. Just a few cm of size make a world of difference for the better both when I work and while I play on it. FullHD resolution is straining the eyes on a 15.6"
    Connectivity: This one. X Dedicated VGA port for projectors. M-Sata combo port is using USB 3.0 now. No DVI, but who needs it - we've got HDMI on both. Sound card outs are metallic, not plastic (and I like that).
    Sound Quality: This one. X ALC269 vs ALC892. 98db DAC, 98db ADC vs 95db DAC, 90db ADC. Clear winner - w370et with crisp microphone ADC and more powerful sound output trough headphones. With THX studio, the bass is ridiculous!!! Also - sound is fuller and more natural, while the "7.1 HD thing" sounds like a tin can trough a brick wall.
    Price-to-Performance: Balanced out. Balanced out. You get what you pay for - no GPU upgradeability and cheap price vs high-end GPU options and a slim "chance to upgrade" next year (depending on MXM standard staying or changing). Both options (and of course the new P150EM) are better priced than any other high-end DTR's on the market world-wide!
    Power Supply Compatibility: This one. X Looking for a spare PSU for your laptop will depend on its max power rating. Not many manufacturers offer 180W PSU's with interchangeable connectors. I will have to write a more detailed comparison below this table.
    Alright now. Much of the individual points have been made, the basic comparison is done. Now let's discuss more details about some key things on these laptops! :)

    First I wanna talk about the cooling systems on both. Both laptops do a great job of cooling their components when in full use. The P150HM and EM have separate fans, doing a great job at cooling down the system, while remaining relatively silent. We all know that.
    However, there were some video reviews about the W370ET in which it was stated, that " only one fan is used for cooling down the whole system", making it sound as if it was not doing a good job. Guys, from my real-world performance tests, this one fan in the W370ET has proven more than enough to cool both CPU and GPU while under load! :D
    Here is what I did.
    1.) I used the laptop out-of-the-box and played some heavy 4v4 matches in StarCraft 2 on maxed out settings. The fan barely kicked in, it was at 40-50% speed capacity while doing heavy battles in the game. Windows is always set at max performance power options.
    2.) Then I switched on ThrottleStop to test the CPU while gaming. As you might know (it has been discussed around these forums a hundred times already), the CPU gets its Turbo Boost disabled while the gtx660m is in use. Well, after switching ThrottleStop on and playing StarCraft 2 4v4 matches on max settings, I notice the CPU is staying at 3.5Ghz stable all the time! :D Every time I alt+tab, I see my Turbo Boost gadget showing 3.5Ghz while the game is active! The fan is spinning at 50-70% now, but only while in-game, cause the CPU lowers its clock while you are alt+tab. The fan never really hits 100% of its speed, even with both CPU and GPU being heavily utilized! So here it is, the cooling system handles everything just fine with all components doing their standart maximum capacity. :D
    3.) While working with Photoshop, browsing the net, writing WORD and EXCEL stuff and general computing, the laptop remains extremely cool and the fan is working at its minimum values. Its completely silent!! Way more silent than P150HM and probably P150EM, since both models share the same cooling architecture. I am amazed how well the system works with this one fan. ;)

    As I mentioned in the comparison table, PSU versatibility will be discussed here. I have lugged around the P150HM's collosal PSU 180W with me and I know its heavy. Large and heavy. Its cable is also short. This larde PSU needs to be put somewhere cooler and out of sight. It takes lots of space on my desk. It fills up so much room in my laptop backpack. The only solution for work and travelling, is a spare 150W PSU, thats a little smaller, with a longer and more flexible cable.
    The W370ET however has a lot more options. Most universal PSU's on the market (Fortron, Corsair, LiteOn, Spire) are inbetween 65-120W. For work and travelling, I can buy a 90W adapter thats small and light, with an easy to bend cable and the system will be powered sufficiently for non-intensive tasks. Since we have a VGA button on that laptop, we can fully disable Nvidia's GPU and our power consumption will be between 65-90W, so a 90W adapter would be ideal! We have all the options out there, some of them are really cheap and small-sized.
    For overclocking, I bought a 150W Fortron PSU, thats the same size as my original 120W PSU supplied with my laptop! Now I can overclock it without worrying about whether the PSU will handle it or not.
    Overall, you get better versatility regarding PSU's with W370ET.

    About the sound quality. Lets face it - both laptops offer mediocre speakers at best. So none of them receive any points in that regard.
    The P150HM has a subwoofer that simply CANT produce any kind of bass - maybe 200-500hz and thats it. This cannot be classified as bass at all, thats a mid-range booster rather than subwoofer. :D
    Ive only had one other laptop with worse sound than this - my Acer 5742g which had 1 speaker that produced less punch than my grandma's old home phone from an unknown chinese brand :D
    Moving on to sound cards. While the 7.1 channel HD card in P150HM (and in all other current EM series) can hook up a full-sized home theather system, its by no means "High-Definition sounding", lol!
    You'd expect A LOT MORE out of this thing, but there just isnt enough punch in it to power even some average headphones! Low SNR ratio plus tin-can sound and muddy bass - thats what we get out of it. It offers an equalizer in Realtek's drivers and some environment effects that noone ever uses (still not sure why the hell we need those). THX can somewhat "compensate" for the lack of bass, but the sound remains a little below-average. Still better than those netbooks, lol!
    W370ET has a much simpler codec built-in. Its the ADC269, which has an analog stereo output (DAC) and 2 digital outputs (one for HDMI and other for SPIDIF). Not even 5.1 theather capable.
    But it offers better DAC (digital-to-analog) and ADC (analog-to-digital converter). As I mentioned in the table above, ALC269 versus ALC892 in stereo music playback, the first one wins hands down.
    I get tons of bass with THX, higher sound output due to the 98db SNR (vs the 95db SNR of ALC892) and better Skype Call quality due to the microphone input's extra sensitivity (again 98db vs 90db).
    In Realtek's Panel we dont get an EQ nor the Environment effects, but we really dont need those. All we need is THX and a good music player (I use good ol' Winamp and Windows Media Player).
    And I also didnt like the plastic ins and outs of the 7.1 card. I prefer the metal ones on my W370ET :D

    Last topic will be the size of both laptops and screens. Guys, I know some people just prefer a small 15.6" laptop for portability. But if you need a gaming machine, a 15.6" laptop will not be the ideal choice in my opinion. On a screen that small, a FullHD resolution can mean a slow sight deterioration over time, as you are straining your eyesight regularly.
    I have worked with Photoshop CS5 on my P150HM and as all of you know - its icons are pretty darn small. Playing RTS games like StarCraft 2, trying to control small units (zerglings and the like) on the map is a real pain for the eyes. Even some FPS shooters are hard to play at FullHD res. If you lower the res, then everything gets all bricky or blurred because of the stretch.
    Either get a lower-res panel for your 15.6" gaming machine, or just get a 17.3". Whats the point in buying an external monitor if you are going to take the laptop with you while travelling?
    I found out the 17.3" screen is just ideal in my case. Big enough to relieve my eyes (Im NOT wearing glasses, my sight is almost perfect), better contrast and brightness, equally as portable as my 15.6" laptop.
    Besides - W370ET is regular-sized and P150HM is thick, so if you need a notebook sleeve - both will fit only in a 17.3". As I said, weight will be the same for both.
    This is not the case with the P170x or P370EM series however. Both of these are just gigantic, with even bigger PSU's and not very comfortable to carry around. I was only comparing a slim 17 incher to the performance-based 15 incher.

    Final words (finally!)... To wrap things up, I am super satisfied with both my Clevo laptops so far.
    Durable chassis, well-made cooling system, lots of customizeability, clean and lean looks, professional connectivity options, high-quality screens (no matter which one you choose), cheap price and a really cool alternative to OEM brands. This is what Clevo is all about. And if you are an adventurous person, looking to buy something reliable and different from the window-shop brands, then welcome aboard the Clevo Express! We've got reviews and lots of benchmarks to share! And really - some resellers offer just awesome customer service and nice deals on high-end components.
    If you are really into gaming/programming/designing, you need a stable and powerful system. And should you decide on a mobile platform, then Clevo is the chassis you would want your hardware to be installed in. In this community, we have highly experienced forum members who can really help you to choose the best components and the most fitting model for you, with nothing held back on its pro's and conns.

    Thanks for reading, I hope someone would benefit from that wall of text here! :D
     
  2. b0b1man

    b0b1man Notebook Deity

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    Special thanks to:

    unclewebb for helping me understand and configure ThrottleStop
    jaybee83 for being awesome and helping me out with some stuff
    prema for his epic BIOS mod, Im using it and wanna say a big THANKS for developing it!
    Also thanks to all the testers of Prema's Bios Mod, hope you guys continue doing stuff like this!

    P.S. I wont be doing benchmarks for the laptop, since there are a lot of them already available by many users. Notebookcheck also did many benchmarking, so Im not feeling like doing the same stuff.
    Also, I didnt include any temps while idle/under load, not sure if I would end up including these. Depends on my lazyness. :D
    Rest assured, MySN did a good job on applying the Arctic MX-4 (I was told they were using this as standart for every config they assemble), so my temps may very well be lower than other W370x configs. :D
     
  3. b0b1man

    b0b1man Notebook Deity

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    View attachment CPU Log 2012-11-18.txt Turbo (W370ET) Dual 1.jpg Turbo (W370ET) Dual 2.jpg

    Here we go.
    Turbo Boost in Dual Core operation = 3.5Ghz Constant :D
    Nvidia Turbo clock while gaming = 950mhz (standart is 835mhz) :D
    CPU Temps at turbo: 72-79'C
    GPU Temps at turbo: 55-58'C

    Thoughts?
     
  4. jaug1337

    jaug1337 de_dust2

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    Very nice and the temps seem good too! Thanks man :D wish I could rep you more!!

    Great job, also please include pictures side by side comparison :D I love pictures