misterhobb's p170em/Nyx 1712 review

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Notes/Updates

1. The pictures are from a cell phone and, therefore, not the best quality. If you'd like better quality photos, my fiance has a nice Nikon and I could use that.
2. I added some more side by side comparison photos of the screen as well as a screenshot showing GPU utilization and temps during a 3DMark11 run.
3. There was a mixup and I received the 72% NTSC matte screen on accident so the photos are of that screen and not the 90% glossy screen. Mythlogic has been great and is paying for two way shipping to get this fixed. I'm not upset because I know this was a hectic time for them and everyone is human. The important thing is that they are fixing it. I chose them for how they react when there is a problem or mistake and this is testament to that.
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OPTION 1

Spoiler

This is my first review so if there is any constructive criticism or suggestions I'd appreciate them. I'll not only review the system but also give reasons why I chose certain upgrades, such as the CPU upgrade. Furthermore, I'll talk about dealing with Mythlogic and my reasons for choosing them.


Hardware Specs/Reason for Choosing:

-Chassis: Mythlogic Nyx 1712 / Clevo P-170em: I didn't need a mobile laptop since I'm not using this for work or school but I still wanted some portability. I wanted the laptop to function as a desktop replacement, be rugged and built well, and come from a company of proven reliability. The Clevo P-170em model was the natural solution for me as it supports powerful hardware, has a large screen, is relatively upgradeable, and comes from a company that has a reputation for a good build and solid design.

-Screen: 90% color gamut AOU B173HW01 V.4 glossy screen: I read a lot of reviews that the higher gamut screens are an excellent upgrade. Also, Mythlogic does the color calibration free of charge, which should make this screen look even better. I didn't necessarily need this, but my fiance does a lot of photography work and she could definitely use this upgrade

-CPU: Intel Core i7-3720QM: This was only a $46 upgrade on this Mythlogic system so it was easier to accept when compared to the $160 upgrade for Sager. It's not a huge jump from the 3610qm, but with the partial overclock that is allowed on the 3720qm, the performance jump is decent. I encode videos relatively often so I can benefit from the upgrade. I also play around a lot with virtual machines and would like to see how well the Vt-d works when compared to software solutions for the peripherals that I've had to use up until now. I'm realistically only getting the upgrade for CPU heavy tasks and the Vt-d is just an added bonus. If it's available why not try it out for curiosity sake?

-RAM:16gb (4x4) 1600mhz Samsung RAM: I wanted a decent amount of RAM to help with running VM's, having a ton of tabs open in Chrome, not having to worry about tossing more in for a few years, and maybe trying out a RAM-drive. If I ever have to upgrade and get an 8gb stick or two, I'll just toss the 4gb sticks into my fiance's computer.

-Video Card: AMD Radeon 7970m: I want to game heavily and this is an excellent card for that. The 680m may be a little faster, but the 7970m is a known quantity at this point that has excellent performance and good overclocking ability. I couldn't justify the $308 upgrade on top of the 7970m upgrade price. Also, I've been waiting for this computer for so long and don't want to wait any longer.

-mSATA: Kingston 64gb SSDNow: I had this lying around not being used so why not toss it in? I will install Linux Mint on this drive and dual boot by switching the boot order in BIOS. I've always had dual boot systems with both operating systems on one hard drive but I'll give this method a try to see how I like it. If I don't end up liking it, I'll probably use it as a cache drive.

-Main Drive: Samsung 256gb 830 SSD: I scoured these forums to find the best SSD and it came down to the Crucial M4 and Samsung 830. I ended up choosing the Samsung, but if I knew the Crucial prices would have dropped as much as they have I would have gone with that instead. I wanted a drive that gave me great performance but had proven reliability so the Samsung 830 was a natural choice. I had chose the 256gb drive to have a little more room to keep all my programs on it and because it performs slightly better than the smaller models. This drive will be booting into Windows 7 64bit.

-Data Drive:1tb 5400rpm HDD: I needed the storage space more than performance so I chose this over a 7200rpm model with less storage. This also gives me plenty of space to back up the files on the SSD in case it does fail. Additionally, I have 2 1.5tb external drives that will back up both of the drives in the laptop. I've lost important data before and will do everything I can to prevent this from happening again.

-Optical Drive: Stock 8x DVD +RW/CDRW drive: I still have a slight need for optical media but zero need for Blu Ray. I have plenty of storage at this time so I'm just leaving the optical drive in place for now.

-Wireless Card: Bigfoot Killer 1103: I transfer a ton of files through WIFI and I'm getting a 450mbs router soon so either of the 450mbs models were a good upgrade for me. The Bigooft was recommended for gaming because of the reduced latency so I sprang for the upgrade. If I were to buy this system again I'd probably just go for the Intel 6300 because it pretty much can do everything the Bigfoot card can but is a little cheaper.

Total: $2669 (with the 3% military discount)

______________________________________________________________

Build Quality/Construction:

The construction of this system is excellent. It's definitely the most solid and well built computer I've owned. Nothing feels flimsy, loose, or cheap. I took the laptop apart and it was very easy to get into its guts. Upgrading later on will not be difficult if needed. It took me about 5 minutes to install the mSATA SSD that I had laying around.

Some Pictures (Note: the computer next to the p170em is an HP DV6T 15"):






[





Keyboard:

The keyboard is very good. It has much less flex than my old HP and not nearly as "clanky". I would rate this keyboard as excellent if it was full sized with a larger shift key and another Windows key. The backlighting, however, is excellent, both in a well lit and dark room.





Screen:

The extra color gamut upgraded screen is gorgeous. I wish my camera phone could do it justice, but sadly the pictures from it come up way short. The viewing angles, brightness, crispness, and colors are all incredible. I'm coming from 1368x768 screen so this is a huge improvement. Even when the brightness is turned all the way down everything still looks great. On my old computer I could hardly read anything when the screen was completely dimmed unless I was in a dark room. I'm sitting right next to a lamp with a fully dimmed screen and I'm having no problems. Again comparing it to my HP, this screen looks matte in comparison and haven't had any reflection issues, even with it dimmed completely. I've added a few more pictures comparing the two screens with the P-170em screen on the left and HP on the right. It's obvious how much more reflective the HP screen is in direct light. Furthermore, the HP screen is way more of a fingerprint and smudge magnet. For the glare test photos with the monitors on, both had them set to max dimness.






Sound:

I know some people say the sound isn't the greatest, but I think the Onkyo speakers are pretty good when compared to my HP, my fiance's Gateway, and my roommates Macbook from a few years ago. It has decent levels and both music and movies sounded good to me. I didn't feel the need to go digging around for external speakers like I do with some other laptops.

Fans/Cooling System:

I don't know why people were complaining about the fan noise. These fans are incredibly quiet. I don't know if Mythlogic puts in separate fans, but these don't make a lot of noise. The noise while browsing and doing light computer tasks was pretty much nonexistent. I ran the 15 minute 1080p Furmark burn in test and the fan noise was still fine. We were watching TV at normal volume during the test and had no issues at all. As far as the cooling system goes, the 7970m never went above 87C during the test. This isn't nearly as cool as the Alienware systems running the 7970m, but the temperatures never reached any dangerous levels. Update: With an overclock of 950/1350 I was hitting 69C max in 3DMark11 and I ran it multiple times.



Power Brick:

Yes, it's massive, but why this system is powerful and a huge power brick is to be expected. It doesn't get hot to the touch like some other power bricks I've experienced. I do wish the cord was slightly longer, however.




Trackpad/Mouse Buttons:

The friction of it seems kind of funky to me right now, but I'm picky with trackpads. It doesn't feel as smooth as my HP as well as it not being as sensitive, and this will take some time getting used to. The buttons are great and responsive, though. Hopefully they will last longer than the junk that came on the HP as those buttons started to come loose and falling off. One thing that's slightly annoying but doesn't affect performance or durability is that those little bumps in the buttons like to trap specs of whatever.

Wireless Card/Range:

The Bigfoot UI is easy to deal with and much better than what I had before. The range I have on this when compared to my old computer on the same router is much, much better. As soon as I fired the computer up there were twice as many SSIDs that popped up compared to my HP. I'll try to do some transfer tests soon to compare those speeds as well. I took screen shots of the available networks and signal strengths to compare. The one with the blue background is my old HP on Windows 8 and the white background is the P-170em with Windows 7. The Bigfoot card was able to pick up more networks from the exact same spot with overall better signal strength. Connecting to a network also took less time and has had fewer drops.

Bigfoot User Interface




Packaging:

There were three boxes in total. I felt like I was opening one of those Russian dolls where you keep finding another smaller one inside. There was a ton of insulation, protection, and plastic wrap and my computer arrived in perfect condition. Obviously, this is to be expected and should be the norm, but it's still a plus. Nobody wants to wait a few months for their expensive toy to find that it arrives broken. Note, the animals in some of the pictures are for size references.








Operating System/Drivers:

They installed Windows Ultimate 64bit for me as well as all the drivers. Everything is running perfectly with no issues whatsoever. The BIOS is also much nicer than what I'm used to with my old HP. I also installed Linux Mint on the mSATA SSD and it's running excellently. I was able to get a boot loader for both Windows and Linux on the mSATA drive so I don't have to toggle the boot order in BIOS. I just left the mSATA as the first to boot and choose the OS from there.






Mythlogic:

Mythlogic was a complete pleasure to do business with. Every single question I had, at pretty much every hour, big or small, through email, chat, or phone, was answered quickly and completely. I paid a little more than what I would have with Xotic or another reseller, but IMO it was worth it. I feel confident that I am getting my specs built with the highest quality and care. Everything is working 100% as it should be right out of the box. Also, I'm originally from Michigan and wanted to support a local business.

Performance:

I will post performance attributes on the next post. Right now I have some of the benchmarks that Mythlogic provided and the Furmark benchmark I just ran. As I start installing more games and benchmarks, I'll post the results. Furthermore, as I get a better idea of battery life in a day or two I'll post those results as well.

END OF OPTION 1
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OPTION 2

This is my first review so if there is any constructive criticism or suggestions I'd appreciate them. I'll not only review the system but also give reasons why I chose certain upgrades, such as the CPU upgrade. Furthermore, I'll talk about dealing with Mythlogic and my reasons for choosing them.


Hardware Specs/Reason for Choosing:

-Chassis: Mythlogic Nyx 1712 / Clevo P-170em: I didn't need a mobile laptop since I'm not using this for work or school but I still wanted some portability. I wanted the laptop to function as a desktop replacement, be rugged and built well, and come from a company of proven reliability. The Clevo P-170em model was the natural solution for me as it supports powerful hardware, has a large screen, is relatively upgradeable, and comes from a company that has a reputation for a good build and solid design.

-Screen: 90% color gamut AOU B173HW01 V.4 glossy screen: I read a lot of reviews that the higher gamut screens are an excellent upgrade. Also, Mythlogic does the color calibration free of charge, which should make this screen look even better. I didn't necessarily need this, but my fiance does a lot of photography work and she could definitely use this upgrade

-CPU: Intel Core i7-3720QM: This was only a $46 upgrade on this Mythlogic system so it was easier to accept when compared to the $160 upgrade for Sager. It's not a huge jump from the 3610qm, but with the partial overclock that is allowed on the 3720qm, the performance jump is decent. I encode videos relatively often so I can benefit from the upgrade. I also play around a lot with virtual machines and would like to see how well the Vt-d works when compared to software solutions for the peripherals that I've had to use up until now. I'm realistically only getting the upgrade for CPU heavy tasks and the Vt-d is just an added bonus. If it's available why not try it out for curiosity sake?

-RAM:16gb (4x4) 1600mhz Samsung RAM: I wanted a decent amount of RAM to help with running VM's, having a ton of tabs open in Chrome, not having to worry about tossing more in for a few years, and maybe trying out a RAM-drive. If I ever have to upgrade and get an 8gb stick or two, I'll just toss the 4gb sticks into my fiance's computer.

-Video Card: AMD Radeon 7970m: I want to game heavily and this is an excellent card for that. The 680m may be a little faster, but the 7970m is a known quantity at this point that has excellent performance and good overclocking ability. I couldn't justify the $308 upgrade on top of the 7970m upgrade price. Also, I've been waiting for this computer for so long and don't want to wait any longer.

-mSATA: Kingston 64gb SSDNow: I had this lying around not being used so why not toss it in? I will install Linux Mint on this drive and dual boot by switching the boot order in BIOS. I've always had dual boot systems with both operating systems on one hard drive but I'll give this method a try to see how I like it. If I don't end up liking it, I'll probably use it as a cache drive.

-Main Drive: Samsung 256gb 830 SSD: I scoured these forums to find the best SSD and it came down to the Crucial M4 and Samsung 830. I ended up choosing the Samsung, but if I knew the Crucial prices would have dropped as much as they have I would have gone with that instead. I wanted a drive that gave me great performance but had proven reliability so the Samsung 830 was a natural choice. I had chose the 256gb drive to have a little more room to keep all my programs on it and because it performs slightly better than the smaller models. This drive will be booting into Windows 7 64bit.

-Data Drive:1tb 5400rpm HDD: I needed the storage space more than performance so I chose this over a 7200rpm model with less storage. This also gives me plenty of space to back up the files on the SSD in case it does fail. Additionally, I have 2 1.5tb external drives that will back up both of the drives in the laptop. I've lost important data before and will do everything I can to prevent this from happening again.

-Optical Drive: Stock 8x DVD +RW/CDRW drive: I still have a slight need for optical media but zero need for Blu Ray. I have plenty of storage at this time so I'm just leaving the optical drive in place for now.

-Wireless Card: Bigfoot Killer 1103: I transfer a ton of files through WIFI and I'm getting a 450mbs router soon so either of the 450mbs models were a good upgrade for me. The Bigooft was recommended for gaming because of the reduced latency so I sprang for the upgrade. If I were to buy this system again I'd probably just go for the Intel 6300 because it pretty much can do everything the Bigfoot card can but is a little cheaper.

Total: $2669 (with the 3% military discount)

______________________________________________________________

Build Quality/Construction:

The construction of this system is excellent. It's definitely the most solid and well built computer I've owned. Nothing feels flimsy, loose, or cheap. I took the laptop apart and it was very easy to get into its guts. Upgrading later on will not be difficult if needed. It took me about 5 minutes to install the mSATA SSD that I had laying around.

Some Pictures (Note: the computer next to the p170em is an HP DV6T 15"):

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Keyboard:

The keyboard is very good. It has much less flex than my old HP and not nearly as "clanky". I would rate this keyboard as excellent if it was full sized with a larger shift key and another Windows key. The backlighting, however, is excellent, both in a well lit and dark room.

Spoiler

Spoiler

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Screen:

The extra color gamut upgraded screen is gorgeous. I wish my camera phone could do it justice, but sadly the pictures from it come up way short. The viewing angles, brightness, crispness, and colors are all incredible. I'm coming from 1368x768 screen so this is a huge improvement. Even when the brightness is turned all the way down everything still looks great. On my old computer I could hardly read anything when the screen was completely dimmed unless I was in a dark room. I'm sitting right next to a lamp with a fully dimmed screen and I'm having no problems. Again comparing it to my HP, this screen looks matte in comparison and haven't had any reflection issues, even with it dimmed completely. I've added a few more pictures comparing the two screens with the P-170em screen on the left and HP on the right. It's obvious how much more reflective the HP screen is in direct light. Furthermore, the HP screen is way more of a fingerprint and smudge magnet. For the glare test photos with the monitors on, both had them set to max dimness.

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Sound:

I know some people say the sound isn't the greatest, but I think the Onkyo speakers are pretty good when compared to my HP, my fiance's Gateway, and my roommates Macbook from a few years ago. It has decent levels and both music and movies sounded good to me. I didn't feel the need to go digging around for external speakers like I do with some other laptops.

Fans/Cooling System:

I don't know why people were complaining about the fan noise. These fans are incredibly quiet. I don't know if Mythlogic puts in separate fans, but these don't make a lot of noise. The noise while browsing and doing light computer tasks was pretty much nonexistent. I ran the 15 minute 1080p Furmark burn in test and the fan noise was still fine. We were watching TV at normal volume during the test and had no issues at all. As far as the cooling system goes, the 7970m never went above 87C during the test. This isn't nearly as cool as the Alienware systems running the 7970m, but the temperatures never reached any dangerous levels. Update: With an overclock of 950/1350 I was hitting 69C max in 3DMark11 and I ran it multiple times.

Spoiler

Power Brick:

Yes, it's massive, but why this system is powerful and a huge power brick is to be expected. It doesn't get hot to the touch like some other power bricks I've experienced. I do wish the cord was slightly longer, however.

Spoiler

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Trackpad/Mouse Buttons:

The friction of it seems kind of funky to me right now, but I'm picky with trackpads. It doesn't feel as smooth as my HP as well as it not being as sensitive, and this will take some time getting used to. The buttons are great and responsive, though. Hopefully they will last longer than the junk that came on the HP as those buttons started to come loose and falling off. One thing that's slightly annoying but doesn't affect performance or durability is that those little bumps in the buttons like to trap specs of whatever.

Wireless Card/Range:

The Bigfoot UI is easy to deal with and much better than what I had before. The range I have on this when compared to my old computer on the same router is much, much better. As soon as I fired the computer up there were twice as many SSIDs that popped up compared to my HP. I'll try to do some transfer tests soon to compare those speeds as well. I took screen shots of the available networks and signal strengths to compare. The one with the blue background is my old HP on Windows 8 and the white background is the P-170em with Windows 7. The Bigfoot card was able to pick up more networks from the exact same spot with overall better signal strength. Connecting to a network also took less time and has had fewer drops.

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Bigfoot User Interface

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Packaging:

There were three boxes in total. I felt like I was opening one of those Russian dolls where you keep finding another smaller one inside. There was a ton of insulation, protection, and plastic wrap and my computer arrived in perfect condition. Obviously, this is to be expected and should be the norm, but it's still a plus. Nobody wants to wait a few months for their expensive toy to find that it arrives broken. Note, the animals in some of the pictures are for size references.

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Operating System/Drivers:

They installed Windows Ultimate 64bit for me as well as all the drivers. Everything is running perfectly with no issues whatsoever. The BIOS is also much nicer than what I'm used to with my old HP. I also installed Linux Mint on the mSATA SSD and it's running excellently. I was able to get a boot loader for both Windows and Linux on the mSATA drive so I don't have to toggle the boot order in BIOS. I just left the mSATA as the first to boot and choose the OS from there.

Spoiler

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Mythlogic:

Mythlogic was a complete pleasure to do business with. Every single question I had, at pretty much every hour, big or small, through email, chat, or phone, was answered quickly and completely. I paid a little more than what I would have with Xotic or another reseller, but IMO it was worth it. I feel confident that I am getting my specs built with the highest quality and care. Everything is working 100% as it should be right out of the box. Also, I'm originally from Michigan and wanted to support a local business.

Performance:

I will post performance attributes on the next post. Right now I have some of the benchmarks that Mythlogic provided and the Furmark benchmark I just ran. As I start installing more games and benchmarks, I'll post the results. Furthermore, as I get a better idea of battery life in a day or two I'll post those results as well.

 

VIEWING OPTIONS: READ FIRST

1. If you hate having to click on all the spoilers to see the picture, click on the first spoiler. Inside this spoiler is a mirror of the entire post but without spoilers so the pictures are display automatically.
2. If you like to choose which pictures to load, whether it's because it's how you like it, you have a slow connection, or whatever, SKIP the first spoiler and continue on to the rest of the post.



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OPTION 1

Spoiler

Saved for performance benchmarks and anything else that may come up.

PCMark Vantage:
P21463 3DMarks with AMD Radeon HD 7970M(1x) and Intel Core i7-3720QM Processor

3DMark 11:
P5901 3DMarks with AMD Radeon HD 7970M(1x) and Intel Core i7-3720QM Processor

Uningine Heaven w/o Tessellation:


Uningine Heaven w/ Tessellation:


Samsung 830 Benchmarks:



Battery Life

I unplugged the battery exactly at 8:00pm. It is 10:05pm as I type this and the battery still has 41% remaining. I've been browsing the internet, downloading and viewing HD photos, and installing/uninstalling some programs. The brightness is turned all the way down, the keyboard back lighting is still on (solid blue), and I selected the power saver option. I'm very pleased that it won't be hard to make the battery last 3+ hours.


7970m Utilization/Temps During Benchmarking/Gaming

During the 3DMark11 tests, the 7970m went up to 99% during the testing and down to almost zero in between. While browsing and doing light tasks it remains close to zero so hopefully that is an indication that Enduro is working somewhat. The first screenshot here is showing the temps and % utilization during 3DMark11 with an overclock of 950/1350. MSI Afterburner was used as the monitoring tool. Note the max temp of 69C even with the OC.



Furmark 1080p Burnin Test: 87C

END OF OPTION 1

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OPTION 2

Saved for performance benchmarks and anything else that may come up.

PCMark Vantage:
P21463 3DMarks with AMD Radeon HD 7970M(1x) and Intel Core i7-3720QM Processor

3DMark 11:
P5901 3DMarks with AMD Radeon HD 7970M(1x) and Intel Core i7-3720QM Processor

Uningine Heaven w/o Tessellation:

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Uningine Heaven w/ Tessellation:

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Samsung 830 Benchmarks:

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Battery Life

I unplugged the battery exactly at 8:00pm. It is 10:05pm as I type this and the battery still has 41% remaining. I've been browsing the internet, downloading and viewing HD photos, and installing/uninstalling some programs. The brightness is turned all the way down, the keyboard back lighting is still on (solid blue), and I selected the power saver option. I'm very pleased that it won't be hard to make the battery last 3+ hours.


7970m Utilization/Temps During Benchmarking/Gaming

During the 3DMark11 tests, the 7970m went up to 99% during the testing and down to almost zero in between. While browsing and doing light tasks it remains close to zero so hopefully that is an indication that Enduro is working somewhat. The first screenshot here is showing the temps and % utilization during 3DMark11 with an overclock of 950/1350. MSI Afterburner was used as the monitoring tool. Note the max temp of 69C even with the OC.

Spoiler

Furmark 1080p Burnin Test: 87C


_

 

Great review. Quick question:
Which keyboard option was that?

 

Thanks!

It is the stock keyboard.

 

Excellent review!!! +rep

 

+rep, with your overall laptop review and my benchmarks combined we would have the ultimate review of P170EM w/ the 7970M >

Nice pictures!

 

Thanks for the thorough review! I just have one question—how well are the graphics card drivers working for you in Linux? Was it a pain to get them working, and do you have any kind of 3D acceleration?

 

+1 Wow so many pictures! Amazing really, so much work put into it, gj misterhobbs

rep ASA I can give again!

 

I installed Linux Mint and did a quick check to make sure everything was working correctly and then switched back to Windows to start installing software. When I get some more time later today or tomorrow I'll devote more time in Linux. I didn't try out the switchable graphics and that will be something I'll look into a lot more.

Edit: I'm in Linux right now trying to set up the AMD drivers in catalyst. I initially had an error but am fiddling with it. I'm still relatively new to Linux but if something goes wrong it's not hard to find online support. The only problem is that I have a little box that says Starcraft II on it right next to me. Who knows what else I may find in the stack underneath it.

 

Awesome, thanks a ton! Can't wait to hear how things go for you! I'd be dual-booting (also for SC2...want to practise sometime? ) for anything graphics-intensive, so as long as you can easily get an image on the screen and maybe some Compiz effects (I plan on going Ubuntu 12.04), it would meet my needs!

edit: Nice touch on the DVD in the power brick pictures

 

Why WEI is so low? Only 7.3 for graphics?
Other peoples have 7.9.

my OC gtx460 show 7.3
gtx675 show 7.5