Specs look mostly good as is; but unless the ram's easily upgradable I'd strongly recommend 12+ GB for any new gaming notebook. Console ports expecting to have 8GB to work with are probably going to show up within the useful lifetime of any current generation gaming system; and the console's OS is almost certainly going to be much thinner than Windows + whatever you leave running in the background while gaming.
Don't forget two things: 1) Consoles are unified memory (System + Graphics = 8GB). this has 8GB + 2GB GDDR5. Granted it is more complicated than this, but ultimately I expect the two to be of similar usage. 2) At least on the Xbox One, only (If i recall the number correctly) 5GB are usable for the games, and 3GB is reserved for system+app usage.
I don't think more than 8GB is really necessary, plus a configuration like 12GB would require 3 sticks of ram which is bad. For best performance, you will want a full dual channel configuration, so 8 or 16GB. I assume they will allow this to be configured.
12GB would be two sticks: 8GB + 4GB. Only a few laptops support three SO-DIMMs -- those were only the DTR models using Bloomfield CPUs from a few years back. Today, there are high-end workstations and DTRs that have four SO-DIMMs, but then you'd want to install 4x4GB ideally, or perhaps 4x8GB for even more extreme needs.
Apologies since this is a double post, my original post did not reply to the correct post (stupid noscript :P) --- Having mismatching sticks of ram is going to set you up for a lot of trouble, especially once you get into high usage and one stick of ram starts handling the majority of the requests since the other stick is full. 2 identical sticks is the only way to go to maximize performance, thus 2x4GB or 2x8GB.
Intel has had their Flex Memory technology and AMD has had something similar for a while now, so mismatched sizes isn't a huge deal. Really, dual-channel only helps a lot with integrated graphics and a few memory intensive workloads, and flex memory gets you about 80% of the performance increase dual-channel offers over single-channel. Still, I'd go with matched sizes just to keep things simple.
Yes, but for a gaming PC you want to maximize performance, not make silly sacrifices. 2x4GB will almost certainly end with better performance than 8+4. The flex configuration, even at 80% performance could mean a couple FPS, which is something no true gamer would sacrifice just to have a bit more ram.
I believe that this is a clevo w230st (the spiritual successor to the w110er) and I've been keeping my eyes out since rumors of it emerged at the beginning of this year.
What is really nice about this model is that it has TWO mSATA ports (that can be configured to be RAID0 or RAID1) along with a 2.5" bay. The LCD is suppose to be an IPS model that was used in a Zenbook and garnered excellent reviews.
This looks great! Finally, there's a good 13" gaming laptop. Sure, the aesthetics are kind of cheesy, but It looks solid, and this looks like a worthy upgrade from my HP ProBook 4320s. I'm going to have to look into this laptop, especially if it's user-upgradable.
Having mismatching sticks of ram is going to set you up for a lot of trouble, especially once you get into high usage and one stick of ram starts handling the majority of the requests since the other stick is full. 2 identical sticks is the only way to go to maximize performance, thus 2x4GB or 2x8GB.
I think it was the actual _quality_ of the panel that freaked a lot of people out on the Blade, myself included. Yeah the resolution is ho-hum these days, but it's fine for the 13"-14" range, at least if you still want to use desktop apps without zooming often (not counting pixel doubling with less effective real estate on super high DPI panels). But having an absolutely atrocious quality panel in a ~$2K machine is just nuts.
As for this, it looks interesting. I'm always glad to see more competition in the high power portable space. It seems to line up closely with the Alienware 14 as far as specs/price goes. I'm hoping you get both in for a review soon! And while I'd prefer that more companies offered cleaner designs (like the Blade or reinventing a 14" Envy with similar specs), at least this isn't as hideous as the crap that MSI offers. The aforementioned Alienware is the first time their designs are toned down enough for me to be interested.
Oh and I'm a little concerned with the relatively small battery size on this and the Alienware 14 (bigger 8 cell would be nice), but I wish this had mini-DP like the latter. And unless I missed it, no card reader is a bit of a bummer on something this thick. Okay, I'm already less excited about this :/.
Yeah I miss 1680x1050 :/. And since I'd be living in desktop mode on a non-touchscreen device, it would probably be a more livable resolution for me than 1920x1080 at sub 15" resolutions. I love how crisp 1920x1080 looks at 13" or 11", but using desktop apps isn't always fun (like reading email in Outlook). I think the newer 3200x1800 panels are the way to go with pixel doubling on the OS. Game at 1600x900, and that effective resolution is usable in desktop mode on smaller displays. But we can still dream about 3360x2100 :).
2013 and still no DisplayPort? Come on Clevo, you can do better than this. If the build quality is anything like my W150ER then don't expect it to last two years anyway.
And what happened to your saving graces, price and bland design. I for one loved the old Clevos that didn't look like the designer had alienware posters on his bedroom wall.
I'm not so sure about this. The MSI GE40 2OC is a 14" laptop that runs an i7-4702MQ including a GTX 760M and it runs HOT. Like touch the keyboard and it is too much to keep you hands there for too long. Link: http://www.kitguru.net/laptops/zardon/msi-ge40-2oc...
With this laptop coming in an even smaller package with even more powerful hardware I am sure it is going to run even warmer than the MSI GE40. I'm not sure that is a good thing since it will likely throttle all of the time.
Specs look mostly good as is; but unless the ram's easily upgradable I'd strongly recommend 12+ GB for any new gaming notebook. Console ports expecting to have 8GB to work with are probably going to show up within the useful lifetime of any current generation gaming system; and the console's OS is almost certainly going to be much thinner than Windows + whatever you leave running in the background while gaming.http://www.top1gamign.com
Is there any reason why they couldn't squeeze in a GTX 780M? Is it more a cooling or a voltage issue for the mini 14" or less form factor? As soon as they figure out how to get a GTX 780M in one I'm sold. Traveled enough with a 17" to know I don't really want to even travel with a 15".
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nathanddrews - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
Scha-wing!!!DanNeely - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
Specs look mostly good as is; but unless the ram's easily upgradable I'd strongly recommend 12+ GB for any new gaming notebook. Console ports expecting to have 8GB to work with are probably going to show up within the useful lifetime of any current generation gaming system; and the console's OS is almost certainly going to be much thinner than Windows + whatever you leave running in the background while gaming.inighthawki - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
Don't forget two things:1) Consoles are unified memory (System + Graphics = 8GB). this has 8GB + 2GB GDDR5. Granted it is more complicated than this, but ultimately I expect the two to be of similar usage.
2) At least on the Xbox One, only (If i recall the number correctly) 5GB are usable for the games, and 3GB is reserved for system+app usage.
I don't think more than 8GB is really necessary, plus a configuration like 12GB would require 3 sticks of ram which is bad. For best performance, you will want a full dual channel configuration, so 8 or 16GB. I assume they will allow this to be configured.
thesavvymage - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
yeah i believe xbox has 5gig for games and 3 for the OS, whereas ps4 has a 7/1 split.JarredWalton - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
12GB would be two sticks: 8GB + 4GB. Only a few laptops support three SO-DIMMs -- those were only the DTR models using Bloomfield CPUs from a few years back. Today, there are high-end workstations and DTRs that have four SO-DIMMs, but then you'd want to install 4x4GB ideally, or perhaps 4x8GB for even more extreme needs.inighthawki - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
Apologies since this is a double post, my original post did not reply to the correct post (stupid noscript :P)---
Having mismatching sticks of ram is going to set you up for a lot of trouble, especially once you get into high usage and one stick of ram starts handling the majority of the requests since the other stick is full. 2 identical sticks is the only way to go to maximize performance, thus 2x4GB or 2x8GB.
JarredWalton - Friday, July 12, 2013 - link
Intel has had their Flex Memory technology and AMD has had something similar for a while now, so mismatched sizes isn't a huge deal. Really, dual-channel only helps a lot with integrated graphics and a few memory intensive workloads, and flex memory gets you about 80% of the performance increase dual-channel offers over single-channel. Still, I'd go with matched sizes just to keep things simple.inighthawki - Friday, July 12, 2013 - link
Yes, but for a gaming PC you want to maximize performance, not make silly sacrifices. 2x4GB will almost certainly end with better performance than 8+4. The flex configuration, even at 80% performance could mean a couple FPS, which is something no true gamer would sacrifice just to have a bit more ram.chuckey - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
I believe that this is a clevo w230st (the spiritual successor to the w110er) and I've been keeping my eyes out since rumors of it emerged at the beginning of this year.What is really nice about this model is that it has TWO mSATA ports (that can be configured to be RAID0 or RAID1) along with a 2.5" bay. The LCD is suppose to be an IPS model that was used in a Zenbook and garnered excellent reviews.
Inteli - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
This looks great! Finally, there's a good 13" gaming laptop. Sure, the aesthetics are kind of cheesy, but It looks solid, and this looks like a worthy upgrade from my HP ProBook 4320s. I'm going to have to look into this laptop, especially if it's user-upgradable.inighthawki - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
Having mismatching sticks of ram is going to set you up for a lot of trouble, especially once you get into high usage and one stick of ram starts handling the majority of the requests since the other stick is full. 2 identical sticks is the only way to go to maximize performance, thus 2x4GB or 2x8GB.hfm - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
I know everyone says blah blah low quality 900p panel. But frankly I'd rather have the 900p panel. It will keep the 765M relevant longer.Bob Todd - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
I think it was the actual _quality_ of the panel that freaked a lot of people out on the Blade, myself included. Yeah the resolution is ho-hum these days, but it's fine for the 13"-14" range, at least if you still want to use desktop apps without zooming often (not counting pixel doubling with less effective real estate on super high DPI panels). But having an absolutely atrocious quality panel in a ~$2K machine is just nuts.As for this, it looks interesting. I'm always glad to see more competition in the high power portable space. It seems to line up closely with the Alienware 14 as far as specs/price goes. I'm hoping you get both in for a review soon! And while I'd prefer that more companies offered cleaner designs (like the Blade or reinventing a 14" Envy with similar specs), at least this isn't as hideous as the crap that MSI offers. The aforementioned Alienware is the first time their designs are toned down enough for me to be interested.
Bob Todd - Friday, July 12, 2013 - link
Oh and I'm a little concerned with the relatively small battery size on this and the Alienware 14 (bigger 8 cell would be nice), but I wish this had mini-DP like the latter. And unless I missed it, no card reader is a bit of a bummer on something this thick. Okay, I'm already less excited about this :/.piroroadkill - Friday, July 12, 2013 - link
I'd love to see some 13" 1680x1050 IPS panels, but I guess it's not happening.Bob Todd - Friday, July 12, 2013 - link
Yeah I miss 1680x1050 :/. And since I'd be living in desktop mode on a non-touchscreen device, it would probably be a more livable resolution for me than 1920x1080 at sub 15" resolutions. I love how crisp 1920x1080 looks at 13" or 11", but using desktop apps isn't always fun (like reading email in Outlook). I think the newer 3200x1800 panels are the way to go with pixel doubling on the OS. Game at 1600x900, and that effective resolution is usable in desktop mode on smaller displays. But we can still dream about 3360x2100 :).piroroadkill - Friday, July 12, 2013 - link
One hell of a myspace angle. Goddamn that thing is fat.rhx123 - Friday, July 12, 2013 - link
2013 and still no DisplayPort?Come on Clevo, you can do better than this.
If the build quality is anything like my W150ER then don't expect it to last two years anyway.
And what happened to your saving graces, price and bland design.
I for one loved the old Clevos that didn't look like the designer had alienware posters on his bedroom wall.
ingwe - Saturday, July 13, 2013 - link
The specs say mini HDMI but the picture has a full size port. I am assuming the picture is correct.cib24 - Saturday, July 13, 2013 - link
I'm not so sure about this. The MSI GE40 2OC is a 14" laptop that runs an i7-4702MQ including a GTX 760M and it runs HOT. Like touch the keyboard and it is too much to keep you hands there for too long. Link: http://www.kitguru.net/laptops/zardon/msi-ge40-2oc...With this laptop coming in an even smaller package with even more powerful hardware I am sure it is going to run even warmer than the MSI GE40. I'm not sure that is a good thing since it will likely throttle all of the time.
lcmarrio - Tuesday, July 16, 2013 - link
Specs look mostly good as is; but unless the ram's easily upgradable I'd strongly recommend 12+ GB for any new gaming notebook. Console ports expecting to have 8GB to work with are probably going to show up within the useful lifetime of any current generation gaming system; and the console's OS is almost certainly going to be much thinner than Windows + whatever you leave running in the background while gaming.http://www.top1gamign.comJape32 - Thursday, July 18, 2013 - link
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EHRMike - Saturday, July 20, 2013 - link
Is there any reason why they couldn't squeeze in a GTX 780M? Is it more a cooling or a voltage issue for the mini 14" or less form factor? As soon as they figure out how to get a GTX 780M in one I'm sold. Traveled enough with a 17" to know I don't really want to even travel with a 15".AlexNT - Friday, July 26, 2013 - link
Cooling. You'd at the very least need separate heatsink + double heatpipe assembly for both CPU and GPU and a dual or even quad fan setup.At that point you have no space left for a regular HDD/SSD in a sub 14" chassis. (For a good example refer to the Blade 14 internals.)