AVADirect's Clevo B5130M: GeForce GT 425M with a 15.6" 1080p Chaser
by Dustin Sklavos on November 23, 2010 12:00 AM ESTGaming Performance: Medium and High Presets
Now that we know the 96-shader NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M has room to breathe at 1366x768, let's see what happens when we start bumping up game settings. Our medium preset makes all of these games a lot more attractive, but may also bring the gap in memory speed out into the open.
Left 4 Dead 2 is the odd man out here; everything else shows a minor to moderate increase in performance over the 420M and general parity with the 335M. Unfortunately, the GT 425M still spends most of its time either nipping at the venerable ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650's heels or outright eating its dust. The HD 5650 is pretty heavily CPU-bound here, saddled with AMD's slow Phenom II P920 processor, but under better circumstances would probably surpass the 425M. That's not entirely fair, though: the 425M is positioned closer to NVIDIA's entry level than the 4650 and 5650 are.
Let's see what happens when we kick things up to our "High" preset. It's here that you'll also get an idea of just how entry-level the GT 420M and 425M really are, and the massive gulf between the low and the high ends of mobile graphics.
At these higher settings and the 1600x900 resolution, the GeForce GT 425M powering the Clevo B5130M quickly loses steam, rendering most of our games unplayable. That's to say nothing of bumping up to the notebook's native 1080p resolution, where none of the games are playable. Again, though, some perspective here: the GeForce GT 425M is intended as more of a budget part, and NVIDIA doesn't really bring anything to the table much slower in their 400M series. (Yes, the G 415M would be slower, but we have yet to see anyone ship a laptop using the part.)
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Hrel - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
You said if you want to up performance AND have storage capacity you'd have to spend 500+ on an SSD. But Clevo offers the Seagate Momentus XT all the way up to 500GB. Based on your review I gather that hard drive is plenty fast AND much better bang/buck. SSD's are still WAY too expensive for most people. Personally I simply refuse to spend more than 100 bucks on any single hard drive, no matter what the speed is.I've said it before, when something good like the sandforce controller is paired with 128GB ish of storage capacity for less than 100 bucks, that's when I'll take the SSD plunge.
P.S. Personally, I like the look of the glossy around the screen. I'm not sure why you hate it so much, I guess I just don't open laptops in a way that my fingerprints end up there. I'm just glad the palm rest isn't glossy.
Hrel - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
Done: Well I'm sold. Dell forces you to upgrade the CPU, even if you don't want to, if you upgrade the GPU. That pisses me off AND it's stupid in no small part because they claim it's a "compatibility issue". I'm impressed with the performance numbers here, and the screen. I like the thermal headroom and would probably overclock the GPU a little. I do wish the speakers were better, like in the Dell. In the end I think this offers a better Bang for Buck ratio.I asked several times for you guys to review the Clevo unit Cyberpower.com sells, I asked them to let you review it too. My friend ended up buying it, the screen looks a lot better than my 1.5 year old Dell Stuido screen, 1080p. Has the HD5650 in it, a Core i5 560M. The thing lasts 4 hours while he's playing Civ 5 on it. It's CRAZY hot though. All in all I think this Clevo unit is the new best bang for buck laptop out there. I like that the GPU is Nvidia instead of AMD cause my video rendering is sped up my Nvidia, but Cyberlink doesn't support AMD. And Optimus is always good. I do really wish you guys could get one of those in house though from Cyberpower. The design of that one is glossy and worse than this one; not a deal breaker though. I kinda like the minimalist design of this laptop.
Finally, I like that avadirect offers the Momentus XT out the gate. Cyberpower doesn't so we had to buy one and swap hard drives then re-install everything. Anyway, I've carried on too long now, Great review!
Hrel - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
I meant compal from cyberpower, not Clevo.JarredWalton - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
I've sent in another request... with SB coming so soon, we may or may not get a chance to look at the Compal, but we shall see.coldfoot - Wednesday, December 1, 2010 - link
Jarred, why not the Asus N53Jf-XE1? It's just over $1k at Amazon, and has the same screen and GPU as this laptop.Hrel - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
I agree, that laptop is 999 on newegg and it looks pretty amazing. Includes blu ray for under 1K? Wow. Jarred, you know if you guys ever need any help reviewing stuff I'm available, haha, but seriously.Diosjenin - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
Since I'm writing this from my B5130M (Sager-branded as an NP5135), I suppose I'll throw in a few thoughts re: comparison to the XPS 15.* Yes, the numpad sucks. But this is in comparison to the XPS 15, which doesn't HAVE a numpad. If having one is a must for anyone, regardless of the specifics of its implementation, then the Clevo wins, period.
* Port placement along the Clevo is unquestionably better. The ports on the XPS 15 are spread out all over the place, whereas all but the DC port (rear) and a single USB 2.0 port (right) are along the left side - a godsend to any right-handed users who connect any external drives/monitors/etc. and don't want wires getting in their way while they're using the mouse next to the right side of the laptop.
* If memory serves, the Clevo is about half a pound lighter, as well as a quarter to half an inch smaller in both width and depth.
* The screen is beautiful, but could definitely stand a matte plastic border (as you well noted).
* I'm not sure where you got your price figures from, but I have to say that I got mine far cheaper. I only have an i5-460M, but with a 1080p screen and 500GB hard drive, mine only cost ~$844 (before shipping, which was an extra $28). Considering that was an extra ~$75 less than an equivalently specced XPS 15 (which was itself discounted about 9%), the choice for me was quite simple. I'm rather curious to know if your $930 base price figure comes from Clevo or somewhere else...?
Diosjenin - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
"Edit": Re-read the article a bit more closely; I assume the price comes from AVADirect (though do correct me if I'm wrong). So I went back to my vendor (XoticPC): base price of $769.00, price as yours is configured of $1044.00.http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np5125-built-clevo-b1...
Hrel - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
Their price also probably included an OS, which I always take out so I can do it myself.Diosjenin - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
Yeah, first thing I do to a new PC is wipe it, too. :PEven if I *do* include 64-bit Home Premium with the XoticPC configuration, though, it *still* holds a ~$75 lead over the equivalent AVADirect...