Clevo W110ER/Sager NP6110 Catch All

With Alienware discontinuing the M11x, Clevo and Sager have picked up the slack with a new 11.6" beast that offers non-ULV Sandy or Ivy Bridge processors together with the nvidia 650M, for what should be the most powerful subnotebook to date. This model is popping up under the guise of a number of different brands, including Sager, Origin, Maingear, and Mythlogic. The Sager branded model is also available from a number of outlets, like XoticPC, LPC-Digital, and others.

Notebookreview.com currently has a couple threads going about it here and here.

In addition to the greater performance, Sager/Clevo resellers offer much greater customization than Alienware in choice of hardware (except the GPU). The CPUs are socketed rather than soldered, so users can even upgrade this later if they wish. Some resellers also offer matte screens, but they are pretty expensive.

There is a video of the laptop playing BF3, and apparently doing so quite well:

Only a few people have received their laptops so far, but from what I've read I'd say the pros and cons are like this:

Pros
Very fast
Lots of customization options
Better screen than M11x
About the same weight as an M11x
Much better price:performance ratio than an M11x

Cons
Battery life may be lackluster, at just 3.5 hours of light use--despite having a similarly sized battery to the M11x
Screen is a bit dimmer than M11x
no back-lit keyboard

Not sure
Heat. Despite a powerful fan, this thing can get very hot, running 60C at idle and a bit north of 90C on the CPU under heavy load, although throttling doesn't seem to kick in until 95C. TDP is 105C, so it is within parameters, but it is something to think about when selecting a CPU. GPU temps seem to stay below 90C.
Fan noise. Just haven't seen any comments about it at full speed. Very quiet when not gaming, though.

I ordered one from Origin... supposed to ship 6/6

I recently purchased a clevo P170OEM from IBuyPower.com. There is nothing like laying on your couch with this thing on your belly playing any single player action game with controller in hand. Even if it does eventually give you a first degree burn.

It's good to see there is a thread on these machines. I've only owned Dell laptops and my machine is too new to fully get a feel for Clevo's craftsmanship and support.

Please post your first impressions.

willcode4food wrote:

I recently purchased a clevo P170OEM from IBuyPower.com. There is nothing like laying on your couch with this thing on your belly playing any single player action game with controller in hand. Even if it does eventually give you a first degree burn.

It's good to see there is a thread on these machines. I've only owned Dell laptops and my machine is too new to fully get a feel for Clevo's craftsmanship and support.

Please post your first impressions.

I have the M11x and probably won't be getting a Clevo any time soon, but I really like the idea of these compact powerhouses becoming less a niche thing. Hope Clevo does well with it. From what I've read the frame is not quite as solid as the M11x, which has a magnesium body, but is nonetheless very sturdy with very little flex.

Gameguru what config did you go with on the Origin?

The frame on the Clevo is plastic and definitely not as durable as magnesium. Sometimes if I pick it up by its spine when it is closed, I can impress the outer cover on the screen with my thumb. I am a little concerned about it. It feels like some 17" HP laptops I have used at work in the past. Still I am very happy with the computer and the ability to customize a laptop in the same vein as a desktop is incredible.

Does anyone know to what extent these machines can be upgrade as new and better components come out?

Gameguru what config did you go with on the Origin?

Nothing fancy.. I did go with the i7 Ivy Bridge.. other than that I will add my own SSD and 16GB of ram. Came to $1347 with Shipping.. should be here around June 6th according to their status page.