AVADirect's Clevo W860CU: Mobility 5870 vs. GTX 285M
by Dustin Sklavos on June 3, 2010 11:25 PM ESTBattery Life, aka Mobile UPS
Credit where credit is due, Clevo has a very good idea of how the W860CU is intended to be used. What could charitably be called a “battery” is a paltry three-cell, 42.18Wh affair. Anyone expecting to enjoy a notebook like this on a long plane ride is barking up the wrong tree; the battery included is essentially a glorified UPS system. AVADirect's website doesn't even quote an expected battery running time, and that's understandable. We tested the battery with the computer's power profile set to “Power Saver” in Windows 7 and the screen brightness measured as close to 100 nits as we could get it.
And there you have it. With the GeForce GTX 285M you can push battery life to a touch over an hour, assuming you do next to nothing with the notebook. On the flipside, however, these notebooks are configured with top-of-the-line components, the fastest single-chip mobile graphics solutions available, and require cooling systems that add considerable weight. Portability isn't a major concern here and time off the mains shouldn't be a priority for someone looking for a notebook with this much power.
What is troubling is that the Mobility Radeon HD 5870 doesn't seem to even clock down on the battery. There's no reason for this, especially given the excellent power characteristics of its Juniper-based desktop counterparts. The GTX 285M clocks itself quite low, and the battery life results bear this out. Unfortunately, the HD 5870-based notebook posts the worst battery life results we've ever measured. Looking at the ASUS G73Jh, we have to assume this is more of a bug with this particular configuration. The ASUS has 8GB RAM and dual hard drives and still manages significantly better relative battery life (and the larger battery means it lasts much longer as well).
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SlyNine - Thursday, June 3, 2010 - link
I've been waiting for this, Could you throw in a 5730 for another video card.Also I think the I7 620 would out perform both the 720 and 820 in games.
crackedwiseman - Friday, June 4, 2010 - link
"Thanks, we'll take the 820QM for $570 less. The i7-820QM comes with all the trimmings: 8MB of L3 cache, Hyper-Threading, and a 2.5 GT/s QuickPath"i think you mean DMI
JarredWalton - Friday, June 4, 2010 - link
Fixed, thanks.cacca - Friday, June 4, 2010 - link
Frankly is disheartening to see a good opportunity to compare 2 notebooks identical except for the GPU being wasted like in this review. I am not looking at the results but on the complete mess of the tables and the methodology.If you want compare them first you do a round at directx 11, after you do a directx 10 and if you really want you do the directx 9. Is complete nonsense to use all the 3 different Directx in the same table.
It really seem cherry picking of results, for me is exactly t he same who is the best, what i want to know is the difference in power. Comparing the notebook to other in the same table adds even more confusion.
I hope that the next time there is a similar opportunity you will think the methodology before.
Ninjahedge - Friday, June 4, 2010 - link
Um.... If the 920 adds $800 to the base, how is NOT using it only saving $570?
Also, the $2500 you listed in the beginning, is that the LIST price? The price you say you got it for (1500-something?) is quite a bit less and hard to believe even with the known disparity between MSRP and Online Discount Prices......
JarredWalton - Friday, June 4, 2010 - link
The base price of ~$1500 at AVADirect includes 2x1GB DDR3, HD 5870, a Seagate 500GB 5400RPM drive (I think that's right), and an i7-720QM. So the $800 extra for the 920XM is only $570 more than the 820QM. The upgrades to the memory and SSD add a lot to the price as well, giving the test configurations a cost of $2500.Ninjahedge - Friday, June 4, 2010 - link
Sorry, just read the section again.It is hard to use a price for "reference" when you have nothing to go on. Could you list the added components to be able to index the test model to the "base" system?
Kaboose - Friday, June 4, 2010 - link
With the Asus G73jh-X1 at about $1600 on newegg almost $1000 less then your two champs I feel it does extremely well in most categories and anyone thinking of buying a notebook with a budget but still looking for high end performance i would think that it would be a no brainer. No offense to your clevo w860cu but really for price vs. performance i think the Asus wins.JarredWalton - Friday, June 4, 2010 - link
Which is why the ASUS got a Gold award and these just got a "nice laptop" declaration at the end. If you were to put an i7-820QM and SSD in the G73Jh, it would affect the price (about $450 more give or take). But the ASUS certainly has the better overall design, provided you don't mind the 17.3" chassis.mod_to_odd - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
When it comes to quality gaming laptops, I dont think any body comes even close to Alienware and Sager. They have amazing customization options which no other brand offers.I had almost bought the Asus G73jh but after reading thousands of horrifying issues on the net regarding the customer support and faulty components even after RMA, i dint want to take any chances. In fact, one of my own friend who recently bought the G73jh is in a state of depression as he is dealing with new issues since the very day his notebook arrived.
The most ridiculous of all is that when you are all excited to unbox the G73, u realize there is no windows7 dvd, you actually got to make backup discs of the Operating System. Asus does not provide you with a windows7 dvd along with such an expensive notebook, instead they fill up your laptop with loads of bloatware. Way to go ASUS...
Asus needs to really improve big time on quality and customer satisfaction.
It rather makes sense to buy a gaming notebook from a reputed company even if the price is a bit on the higher side. But then again, to each his own.