iBuyPower Valkyrie CZ-17 Notebook Review: MSI and iBuyPower Tangle With Alienware
by Dustin Sklavos on August 21, 2012 12:01 AM ESTConclusion: Not Pretty, But a Great Personality
iBuyPower is a company that you need to be paying attention to. They're slowly but steadily growing from being a boutique player into a mainstream player, and the Valkyrie CZ-17 is proof enough of that. It's true that at its core, the CZ-17 is a slightly modified MSI chassis, but keep in mind that way back when the Mobile Athlon 64 was launched, eMachines/Gateway was doing roughly the same thing by taking notebooks built by Arima and rebranding them. This is how it starts.
As for the CZ-17 itself, it continues to suffer from the same aesthetic issues that plague boutique notebooks. An overreliance on plastic and a lack of real regard for polish make these notebooks much less attractive to use, something companies like ASUS and Alienware can capitalize on by deploying similarly-equipped systems with much better-looking chassis designs. That said, though, the performance is there.
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Where I think the CZ-17 excels and even exceeds the Alienware M17x is, frankly, in how comfortable it is to use. Alienware's time-honored design features a fairly comfortable keyboard, but the front lip of the notebook is full of hard edges that can dig into your wrists if you're not paying attention and I've found that it can be uncomfortable to use over time. That's a problem the CZ-17 simply doesn't have, nor does it have any of the issues associated with a glossy finish on the display. There's also the excellent tactile response of the keyboard in the CZ-17.
The ace in the hole for iBuyPower is the price tag. Our review configuration was $1,459, which is frankly exceptional for the graphics hardware alone, but the starting configuration is just $1,259 for a notebook featuring what's essentially last generation's fastest mobile GPU. That's a bulletproof deal that you just can't beat; comparable systems from NewEgg start at least $400 higher. Graphics hardware is the hardest thing in the world to maximize in a notebook and you have to get it right the first time; with the CZ-17, you're able to do so incredibly cheaply and leave yourself room later on to upgrade the storage subsystem if you're so inclined.
Ultimately however you feel about the way it looks, the CZ-17 is comfortable to use and a wicked deal for the performance you get. This is one of those notebooks you read hardware review sites to learn about; if you want a monster laptop for a low price, you're not going to be able to beat the iBuyPower Valkyrie CZ-17.
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xTRICKYxx - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - link
I don't understand why they chose a rebranded 580M over the 7970M....And 4GB of VRAM is absolutely overkill for 1920x1080 even with maxed anti-aliasing.
The pricing is actually quite good for what you get, but the 7970M is cheaper and beats the 675M....
Mugur - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - link
Optimus?Freakie - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - link
This. Once AMD can compete on the battery front, then they will find themselves very successful in this market because in this economy, people want to merge devices into one package and having a gaming rig with low battery life is hard to justify over a dedicated desktop for gaming and a laptop for when you're somewhere else. But if you throw in 4+hrs of 720p video watching, then suddenly you can combine your two devices and save some money in the mean-time.But of course, AMD has to completely change the way they do Drivers to pull that off. Nvidia has done damned good work on their drivers to get Optimus to work so smoothly, and it took a few hiccups along the way. And as we've seen with AMD, they really suck at implementing new software features over a whole family of products.
But I of course await the day when AMD can become more competitive :)
jtd871 - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - link
I was actually shopping this unit w/ the 7970m within the past 24hrs as a replacement for my 5-yo lappie (ThinkPad T61p with Core 2 and Quadro NVS140M - don't laugh still runs great for older stuff).However, I then learned about the recent Enduro (AMDs Optimus) issues with laptops using the 7970m (and possibly all GCN dGPUs), and stopped shopping as seriously until such time as AMD works out their issues with Enduro.
That having been said, I'm still glad to have Dustin's opinion on the rest of the build.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - link
I'm meeting with AMD tomorrow to discuss Enduro/Switchable Graphics, so hopefully they'll have something to tell/show me in regards to drivers. [Crosses fingers...]mpschan - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - link
I'm sure you're planning on it already, but please let us know if there are any developments on that front (assuming no NDA of course). AMD desperately needs this feature in the mobile space.TheHolyLancer - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
As an owner of a saiger NP9170 w7970m that is having massive driver issues (since the NP9170 is optimus enabled, and something about how the output from the GPU has to go thru the IGP....)I would love to know what will their response to this issue.
ATM, I have to run the old custom version of the driver from saiger as the newest offcial driver will not install willingly, if I force it by pointing the driver update to an extracted driver folder's right location and update to the newest version, I get issues if I run two copies of eve online (or two copies any any two game that uses discreet). The performance boost is very nice tho, granted at the point it was more like 100 fps vs 60-70 fps so I reverted to the old driver that lets me run multiple games at the same time without crashing badly.
jtd871 - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - link
Whoops, must have confused this with the Origin/Sager/AVA machines. iBuyPower doesn't show AMD graphics as an option for the CZ-17...hardwareguy - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - link
My M17xR4 with the 7970 can hit about 4 hours on battery with pretty high web use and visual studio. Buddy with same laptop who does everything through RDP gets about an extra hour.xTRICKYxx - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - link
Nice! I didn't know the Walter White got an Alienware.