Size vs Res vs Gpu

mrsalgado76 · 6 Apr 2013 at 16:17

Ive been looking for a notebook for gaming for a short while now, im going to be doing a lot of traveling and also spending holiday time visiting the girlfriends parents, been there a couple of times before and the language barrier is impossible watching the tv is a no go, so investing in a notebook is looking a good idea, was looking for a smaller size, ive seen one on some custom pc site that is 11.6" but 2 things concern me the resolution which is non upgradeable at 1366x768 and also the gpu which is also non upgradeable and is an nvidia 650m.. obviously when playing games at such a small resolution its not as stressful on the card but do you think its sufficient as a whole for a travel (keyword) gaming laptop, games i have to give you an idea: skyrim, dishonored, tropico, supreme commander 2, starcraft, fifa... i really like the small form factor and am some what willing to sacrifice i little graphics. or is that gpu so pathetic that its not even worth looking at.

cheers ahead

Raikiri · 6 Apr 2013 at 16:34

The 650m is pretty decent, especially at the lower resolution. I doubt you'll get anything more powerful in such a small form factor.

mrsalgado76 · 6 Apr 2013 at 16:42

Aye, i cant find a better gpu anywhere, i do have £1500 budget but dont really wanna go for a larger size.. 14" is about my max, unless its something stupid thin like razer blade but i aint gonna get one of them in the budget ive got

Axeboy · 6 Apr 2013 at 16:56

Might be worth taking out the name of the other shop

The Clevo 11.6 is a great little laptop and actually has decent cooling too. As the res is low the card should be fine with most games on high settings or more.

If you search for reviews under Clevo 11.6 i think notebookcheck done a good one and if I remember correctly the only real gripe was that the screen was a bit lame.

Kreeeee · 6 Apr 2013 at 18:18

I spent a long time researching and that particular model at that particular store was the best performance I could find for the size, and also happened to be an excellent price!

I game at 1080p on a 660m (a 17" laptop from the same site), and the 650m is meant to be great for lower resolutions too.

CEUOTC · 7 Apr 2013 at 08:48

Aye the 11.6" Clevo is a little champ, it got a bit of a slating in Custom PC however they had arranged it against laptops with mobile i7's while it had been fitted with a i5 3210m.

I also looked at the 11.6" Clevo however l went for an Asus G46VW from the States and atm in the process of upgrading the i5 to a i7.

The GT 650m or GTX 660m (Higher clock than the GT 650m but essentially the same as long as it is fitted with DDR5)

The 11.6" chassis will be ideal for travel (Just gave the wife my old M11xR3 which was ideal for travel, however due to some wonky eyes on my part l decided to upto a 14" model however the M14xR2 was just too expensive for my taste)

Marine-RX179 · 7 Apr 2013 at 09:22

Yea I think for 11.6", it would be ideal to have a i7 QM CPU together with a GT650M (make sure it is with GDDR5 not GDDR3) or better for 1366 res. At that screen size, I wouldn't worry too much about not having FullHD res.

I do hear that the viewing angle for the 11.6" Clevo screen is not that great and the image quality is fairly average, but I think if you were to sit directly in front of it, then it be ok...

Personally though...I think 11.6" is a bit too small for my liking...something around 13" would be better, but I don't think there is any Clevo for 13"...

mrsalgado76 · 7 Apr 2013 at 18:56

Cheers guys.. i looking into the gpu and its not GDDR5, its GDDR3.. will that make a great difference??

i may aswell list the spec i am looking to buy so you can see how it looks

11.6" at 1366x768
i7 3740qm at 2.7
16GB corsair vengeance 1600mhz (bought separately from OCUK)
GT650m (GDDR3)
480GB intel 520 series SSD
Killer N 1202 wireless thing

£1300 all in....

mrsalgado76 · 7 Apr 2013 at 19:02

CEUOTC said:
Aye the 11.6" Clevo is a little champ, it got a bit of a slating in Custom PC however they had arranged it against laptops with mobile i7's while it had been fitted with a i5 3210m.

I also looked at the 11.6" Clevo however l went for an Asus G46VW from the States and atm in the process of upgrading the i5 to a i7.

The GT 650m or GTX 660m (Higher clock than the GT 650m but essentially the same as long as it is fitted with DDR5)

The 11.6" chassis will be ideal for travel (Just gave the wife my old M11xR3 which was ideal for travel, however due to some wonky eyes on my part l decided to upto a 14" model however the M14xR2 was just too expensive for my taste)

Also just googled that asus which looks perfect and i never heard of it, is it possible for you to tell me where you got it from, also you say you got it from America, i never ordered from overseas before, do you have to pay import tax or anything like that, and if so is it very expensive

Marine-RX179 · 8 Apr 2013 at 14:12

mrsalgado76 said:
Also just googled that asus which looks perfect and i never heard of it, is it possible for you to tell me where you got it from, also you say you got it from America, i never ordered from overseas before, do you have to pay import tax or anything like that, and if so is it very expensive

By law you (or the sender) would have to declare for the import duty/VAT etc, and unless you can somehow pay for them in advance, if the parcel was labeled as "merchandise" and the value was declared on the box and reached ParcelForce not yet paid for, they will "helpfully" hold onto your parcel, sending your a letter demanding you to cough up the ransom of the import VAT/duty, plus the £15-£30 "administration fee" for the trouble of their staff pressing a few keys on their computer while having tea and cookie, before your parcel will be released and be on the way to your home. Oh and also the letter will contain polite threat of failure to pay up within 30 days (if I remember correctly) the parcel will be returned to the sender.

It's really not worth buying a laptop from US, especially considering the warranty might not cover Europe area and you might need to send it back to US should anything goes wrong.