How good is this Gaming Laptop?

[tunkeytrunks]

Hi guys, man it's been a while!
I'm looking for a good laptop, one that can run modern games decently. not the likes of Crysis etc. I came across the Clevo W110ER 11.6", and I wanted to know if it's a good machine?

I've got a strong desktop at home, and plan on taking the laptop with me to college, so I'm not after a huge 18" beast!!
Is gaming on an 11" really that bad of an idea, or should I look into getting a 15"? I've seen one that weighs around 3.5kg?
Thanks!

 

[jaguarskx]

It's actually pretty good all things considering. I would even say that you can play Crysis 3 with that laptop. As long as you have good eyesight 1366x768 resolution on a 11.6" laptop should be fine. As for playing games on a 1366x768 resolution screen I find that to be acceptable. However sniping at long range is a bit difficult compared to a higher resolution screen because fewer pixels are used to draw the target at long range which means it is harder to aim and even if your shot does seem to be on target, you may actually miss because on a higher resolution screen more pixels can be devoted to that target's silhouette. I played games on my 14" Lenovo Y470 with a 1366x768 screen.

Playing games with a higher resolution screen is more demanding so while you may find that the GT 650m is really good for a 1366x768 resolution screen, you may find it to be only good enough at 1600x900. So the larger the resolution the better the GPU needs to be to maintain similar performance.

3.5kg for a 15" laptop is pretty heavy, that's 7.7lbs. Great for toning up muscles, but not so good if you are not looking to do a little workout.

 

[tunkeytrunks]

Ok, thanks for the information.
Any tips on how I would go about keeping a machine that small cool, like any good tips or great laptop coolers suggestions?

 

[jaguarskx]

Here's a review:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Clevo-W110ER-Barebone-Subnotebook.75104.0.html

The CoolerMaster U2 seems to be a very good laptop cooler since the fans are movable.

http://www.laptopmag.com/accessories/coolermaster-notepal-u2.aspx


I must warn you that the laptop does get hot when playing games. The review states 93c - 96c; they said:

While not critical, these temperatures are nevertheless relatively high.

If 93c - 96c is not critical, then what is 100c when the laptop starts throttling down? For me anything 89c is considered critical. 80c - 89c is consider high. 70c - 79c is something I would consider to fine. Anything below that would be awesome.

 

[tunkeytrunks]

Here's a review:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Clevo-W110ER-Barebone-Subnotebook.75104.0.html

The CoolerMaster U2 seems to be a very good laptop cooler since the fans are movable.

http://www.laptopmag.com/accessories/coolermaster-notepal-u2.aspx


I must warn you that the laptop does get hot when playing games. The review states 93c - 96c; they said:

While not critical, these temperatures are nevertheless relatively high.

If 93c - 96c is not critical, then what is 100c when the laptop starts throttling down? For me anything 89c is considered critical. 80c - 89c is consider high. 70c - 79c is something I would consider to fine. Anything below that would be awesome.

Yeah, heat is a computer killer!
I read somewhere that this laptop's fan was inefficient at keeping it cool. So I will be investing in a reliable cooler, thanks for the suggestion btw!

 

[tunkeytrunks]

What about the Clevo W230ST? I can't really find many reviews.
How would you rank that in comparison?
Thnaks!

 

[jaguarskx]

The Clevo W230ST is noisy because the fan is always running to keep that little laptop cool. Even when idling. Here's a review:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=6959&review=Ava_Direct_Clevo_W230ST_Review_Gaming_Notebook

The issue with all small gaming laptops is heat. Small laptops generally means small heatsinks and less airflow than larger laptops. This can lead to the CPU getting hot. For example, the CPU in my 14" Lenovo IdeaPad Y470 (i5-2410m) heats up to 90c - 92c when playing games, that's a bit too hot for me. The nVidia GT 550m is somewhere between 65c - 70c. That CPU temp has been confirmed by several reviews and user comments. Based on many review for many different 14" laptops 90c - 92c seems to be the "industry standard".

The larger 15.6" Y570 with the same specs had reviews which stated the CPU ran at around 76c. That is a huge difference from 90c - 92c. If you want a small gaming laptop, then you need to accept the fact that it is going to run hot.

 

[tunkeytrunks]

The Clevo W230ST is noisy because the fan is always running to keep that little laptop cool. Even when idling. Here's a review:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=6959&review=Ava_Direct_Clevo_W230ST_Review_Gaming_Notebook

The issue with all small gaming laptops is heat. Small laptops generally means small heatsinks and less airflow than larger laptops. This can lead to the CPU getting hot. For example, the CPU in my 14" Lenovo IdeaPad Y470 (i5-2410m) heats up to 90c - 92c when playing games, that's a bit too hot for me. The nVidia GT 550m is somewhere between 65c - 70c. That CPU temp has been confirmed by several reviews and user comments. Based on many review for many different 14" laptops 90c - 92c seems to be the "industry standard".

The larger 15.6" Y570 with the same specs had reviews which stated the CPU ran at around 76c. That is a huge difference from 90c - 92c. If you want a small gaming laptop, then you need to accept the fact that it is going to run hot.

Yeah, I just wanted something that would allow me to carry it to college for work, aswell as being strong enough to handle games well. I'll mainly use it when I'm away from my desktop.

 

[Thailander01]

Hi all, First time poster here.
I have a Clevo w110er with the 1gb 650 m inside.
This weekend I decided it was time to try to sort out my FPS as lots of my games have started to run badly.
Arma 3 was bought and not played as it ran at 12 - 15 fps and spiked crazy.
After a bit of tinkering i have rectified these problems and now have Arma on a solid 35 FPS on standard settings. BF4 now plays like a boss on default detected settings (Medium) and open world games (MMO etc) have greatly improved.
The FPS issues were being caused by 2 issues which would happen at the same time resulting in crazy fps spikes from 40fps right down to 20 fps then back up to 35 in the space of 3 seconds.
1. The turbo in these will nerf the cpu speed when the temp gets too high.
2. If you operate win 7, Then you have a power saver mode on which parks your cores when they are not needed. Noted for causing stutters and drops in BF4.
What I think was happening is the cpu would unpark when it needed the extra power and then the heat would rise causing the turbo to nerf the speed.
These two thing happening in conjunction was causing my issues.
Solution.
I unparked my cores using a free utility found in this forum.
I had a look at the airflow in the clevo w110er and noticed that there was no intakes near the cpu at all :0.
So out with the power drill and drilled roughly 9 x 0.5mm holes in the cover right above the cpu.
Now my temp is regulated a bit better and windows does not have to bother with parking.
The above has sorted my fps out massively and stopped me buying a new rig for £800 which I was about to do.
I have now created my own cooling pad from an old cpu fan and that helps a little too.
This weekend I will be repasting the cpu and gpu as this has not been done since I bought it end of 2012 (And I game on it way longer each day than I should.) and will try to update this when I get the results.
I would not have managed the above if it wasn't for the help and advice on these forums so I thought I should give you a little back