The Highest-End Notebooks, 2009
by Jarred Walton on October 14, 2009 3:10 AM ESTConclusion
Our opinions haven't changed much from the Clarksfield launch, but this time we have more to say about the notebook specifics. We'll start with the Clevo W870CU.
Clarksfield looks to be a reasonable processor, despite relatively high prices. Users should be able to get better than Core 2 Duo performance for single-core and dual-core tasks, along with better than Core 2 Quad performance on multithreaded tasks. This is all thanks to the Turbo modes on Clarksfield, and it's nice that Intel allows the mobile variants to boost a lot higher relative to the desktop Lynnfield parts. As much as we like Clarksfield, we really aren't very happy with the Clevo W870CU design. The construction of the chassis just feels cheap in a few places, and that's not something you want from a notebook that will cost well over $2000. The little hatch covering the rear ports is also a very poor design, as it only serves to get in the way. Finally, the W870CU really needs a larger battery in order to make it attractive relative to other options. Really, if you're looking for a high-performance desktop replacement, we feel you would be better served by one of the other two notebooks and you should give the W870CU a pass. Once we see SLI variants of Clarksfield, our opinion might change, but right now a slightly lower price and slightly lighter chassis isn't enough to convince us the W870CU is a good notebook.
The AVADirect/Clevo D900F is an easier recommendation. It's big, heavy, and it runs pretty hot, but it also has the fastest consumer CPU currently available. If you don't care about graphics performance, you could pick up the D900F in place of a desktop workstation and the only thing you would give up is expansion options -- and more money. You can configure the D900F with 6GB or 12GB RAM, and you have eight virtual CPU cores available if you run virtualized operating systems. If you're on the road a lot and you need a good mobile workstation, the D900F is worth a serious look. For gamers, once again we would give this one a pass; gaming GPUs are nowhere near as fast as desktop GPUs, so you would be better off getting the fastest graphics setup you can afford if you're looking for a mobile gaming solution. Or, you could learn to get by with something a lot less powerful and turn down the details in your games, saving a couple thousand dollars in the process.
The Eurocom M980NU represents the current fastest gaming solution, at least if you're looking at NVIDIA GPUs. Alienware's M17x is similar, and Alienware even supports ATI HD 4870 CrossFire, but with the mobile driver situation we would recommend sticking with NVIDIA's mobile GPUs -- especially if you plan on running multiple GPUs. That makes the GTX 280M SLI our preferred high-end gaming solution for notebooks, and you have a choice between notebooks like the Eurocom M980NU and Alienware M17x. The M980NU offers a larger LCD, which means it also weighs a bit more, but we're happy to report that it's a good quality 1080p LCD. Pricing also favors Eurocom (and other vendors that carry similar designs) over the Alienware M17x. The catch is that the Alienware M17x supports hybrid GPUs, allowing you to switch between discrete and integrated graphics. It requires a reboot, but it's nice to be able to get over two hours of battery life on your $3000+ notebook when you want it. The M980NU does support more hard drives, so you can get the benefits of RAID 0 SSDs as well as cheap mass storage. Our biggest complaint with the M980NU is the mirror finish on the cover and palm rest; look at the Dell Precision M6400 to see the sort of styling we'd prefer on a large notebook. Ultimately, you really need to like mobile gaming if you're looking at these sort of notebooks, because a $3000 desktop could easily run circles around the M980NU. (Core i7-860 overclocked to 4.2GHz, dual HD 5870 GPUs, and 4x2GB DDR3-1600 RAM with a 30" LCD would cost less money than this particular M980NU.)
The short summary then is that the AVADirect D900F is the fastest mobile processing platform we've ever seen -- and the fastest we're likely to see for a while. The Eurocom M980NU goes the other route and provides the fastest overall gaming laptop we've tested to date. It's not likely to have as much staying power, as NVIDIA will likely have faster mobile GPUs sometime in the next year, and there are definitely situations where the GTX 280M GPUs are CPU limited. It will be interesting to see how dual-GPU notebooks based on Clarksfield perform; if you're not in a rush, it might be worth waiting for someone to come out with an i7-920XM SLI gaming notebook, but if the past is any Indication it could be six months before such a product is available for purchase.
For the rest of us that don't have $3000 burning a hole in our wallets, the more interesting option is going to be Arrandale. We should start seeing the initial Arrandale laptops in early 2010, at which point we will hopefully get better CPU performance, better battery life, and better graphics.
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MonicaS - Friday, October 30, 2009 - link
I think the best way to get a high end laptop is to build one. Obviously you are very limited in what you can with a laptop over a desktop, but still the options are enough. The obvious upgrades are HD and Ram. On that note you can Raid to SSD's and put in some serious ram on a 64 bit machine and have a incredibly fast machine. The other benefit of this is that you can basically pick your own laptop to upgrade and not have to buy fugly one.Monica S
Los Angeles Computer Repair
http://www.sebecomputercare.com">http://www.sebecomputercare.com
Shadowmaster625 - Thursday, October 22, 2009 - link
"Unfortunately, 60GB isn't enough space to install even a small subset of our gaming benchmarks"All you have to do is move the game folders to the big drive when you're not using them, and move them back over to C:\Program Files when you need to use them. It takes all of 2 minutes (or 10 seconds for a multitasker) and is surely smarter than wasting hundreds of dollars on bigger SSDs, no? Are we that lazy?
Draxanoth - Thursday, October 22, 2009 - link
I see a lot of complaints for no good reason in these comments. If you don't like them, don't buy them. Complaining about something you don't own nor want sounds like bitterness at the price tag.I have an M570etu, which is the dual core version of the GTX280 Clevo model with the orange trim. It's a lot better looking in person, those pictures are awful. 3.2ghz I think but I'd have to check. My battery life is 3 hours non-gaming. It easily functions as both a mobile and a gaming machine. I don't have any problems with Call of Pripyat in HD either. i7 in a laptop is overkill, and if you want one with a decent battery life that's a poor choice. Why is anyone surprised by that?
Meaker10 - Saturday, October 17, 2009 - link
You can already get official mobile drivers for all laptops for windows 7 the same version as the desktop set for the HD 2,3 and 4 series.JarredWalton - Saturday, October 17, 2009 - link
True, but the real question will be whether this is a one-time thing (because Win7 is launching and ATI has to have valid drivers or they'll be in deep trouble), or if this is a change going forward. I'm inclined to think it's just for the Win7 launch, since they don't provide mobile drivers for anything besides Win7. Vista and XP users are still the vast majority of people and will be for a good while to come, and there are laptop users that literally haven't received updated ATI drivers in years.I'll keep an eye on things, and hopefully ATI will change their stance officially at some point. At present, searching for ATI Mobility Radeon drivers for XP and Vista only gives you the choice of X1800 or earlier GPUs. It looks like perhaps the integrated HD 3200 on laptops might also have up-to-date drivers in XP/Vista, but discrete GPU laptop owners are out of luck for now if they don't upgrade to Win7.
jmhorridge - Saturday, October 17, 2009 - link
I and my work colleagues must regularly fly to other countries for a week or two, and there perform computations (economic forecasting) that can occupy a quad-core for 2 or 3 hours. These big DTR laptops (or luggables) are the only way to get the job done. Battery life is not an issue -- always used plugged in.An mATX system (with monitor) would weigh twice as much, might not suit all voltages, and, in a suit case, would bust the flight weight allowance. However, everyone is allowed to carry on a laptop -- no matter how big.
I'm very pleased to see such machines reviewed.
Mark Horridge
Kishkumen - Friday, October 16, 2009 - link
"it appears most notebook manufacturers are convinced users aren't interested in matte LCDs anymore."Then they are wrong and I will not buy their product. I've passed up some pretty awesome notebooks over the past couple of years. Looks like I'll be passing up many more. If I'm the only one who can't stand glossy displays, then so be it, but I'd rather go without then pay good money for something that is the visual equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard for me.
EBH - Thursday, October 15, 2009 - link
Falcon NW should have been in the review. Their machines > than any Aienwarehttp://www.falcon-nw.com/">http://www.falcon-nw.com/
JarredWalton - Friday, October 16, 2009 - link
I'm not sure why you say Falcon is so much better than Alienware. They're basically the same thing as AVADirect, but with far fewer options.Fragbox DRX = Clevo D900F with custom paint.
Fragbox TLX = MSI MS-1722 (GX720) with custom paint.
I/O = MSI MS-1361 (X340)with... yup, custom paint.
AVADirect also offers all three of those, with optional custom paint. Pricing definitely isn't in favor of FNW, though perhaps they have better customer service. Let's see, using as close to identical options as I can get (including custom paint on the AVADirect models):
D900F AVADirect = $4545
Fragbox DRX = $6086
MSI GX720 AVADirect = $2229
Fragbox TLX = $2625
MSI X340 AVADirect = $1292
I/O = $1727
I think the main draw of Falcon is if you want a special paint job with some custom image (i.e. not just the Exotix Single Color option). That can add over $1000, but at least then you have something truly unique. Anyway, inasmuch as performance and features are concerned, Falcon was in this review, albeit indirectly. The same goes for WidowPC and ProStar and anyone else that uses whitebook chassis.
nortexoid - Thursday, October 15, 2009 - link
I'm sure most would be better off buying a desktop (of the same caliber) and a cheap netbook for mobility, and for the same price as these ghastly beasts.The only market I can see for these things is someone who goes to LANs more often than he should, and who would rather port around a 10lb+ notebook than a desktop + LCD or all-in-one. But this has to be a very small niche market.