AVADirect's Clevo X7200 Redux: AMD 6970M CF Takes the Crown

Heat, Noise, and Battery Life

It goes without saying that the Clevo X7200 with an Intel Core i7-990X and a pair of AMD Radeon HD 6970M GPUs is the fastest notebook we've ever tested, but it ought to be: the combined TDP of the processor and two graphics chips is nearly 330 watts. Understanding that this 13-pound land monster is seldom going to be run off the mains, the included battery is basically a glorified UPS system. Take a look.

Hope you weren't planning to game on the battery. The pair of 6970Ms may be faster than the 480M SLI configuration, but they also seem to draw just a bit more power in our non-gaming testing. And again, this is a high-end desktop processor in the X7200; it just can't compare to the sub-45W envelopes of the mobile chips.

Before we get into thermals, though, a brief tangent on noise and power consumption proper. We've seen reviews of the Clevo X7200 where the 300-watt power supply just can't handle the stress and begins to shut down. So far, the most stressful test I've seen for any gaming system has been Mafia II's benchmark: nothing I use on desktop testing gets anywhere close to as high in power consumption as that does. When I tested power draw at the wall, the X7200 peaked at 301 watts with this configuration: not great, and maybe cause for concern, but the system never throttled or shut down. What may be more amusing (depending on your sense of mirth) is the 130 watt idle consumption, which handily beats the majority of desktops I test. That's not entirely fair, though, since the X7200 has to power its own screen as well.

As far as noise goes, it's not exactly pleasant. From about a foot above the notebook (I tried to approximate where my head would be), my sound meter picked up 50.8dB during the Mafia II benchmark. The speakers are going to have a hard time drowning out that noise, so you may want to pack a pair of headphones. There's only so much you can do, though: there are four fans inside this notebook, and they're cooling about 300 watts worth of hardware in a "small" chassis. Idle noise isn't quite as bad, but it still measured 40dB at 12", with periodic cycling of the fans to 43dB.

Thankfully, those fans keep the system running surprisingly cool. With a now-mature 32nm process, Intel's Core i7-990X actually doesn't get too hot, and the Clevo X7200 chassis does a decent job of keeping temperatures down. We were only able to get one temperature reading of the 6970Ms, but it seems like they're both running cool, too. At least you don't have to worry about the X7200 overheating.

Naturally there are hot spots, but nothing particularly dire. You'd be insane to try and run this notebook on your lap (especially with the intakes on the bottom of the chassis), but at least it's not going to make your palms sweat when you're trying to game. That's appreciated given the sheer amount of performance the X7200 is capable of supporting.