We take a look at one of OcUK’s new extreme gaming notebooks with Intel Ivy Bridge CPU, AMD HD7970M and much more!
Product on Review: Limited Edition P170EM
Manufacturer and Sponsor: Overclockers UK
Street Price: £996.91 (Default) £1335.92 (Custom)
Since Caseking took over Overclockers UK at the beginning of the year, the dynamics and focus has been an ever-changing facet over at the popular etailer. Case King are well known for their extensive affiliation with cases and cooling and thus this has moved on to OcUK too but that isn’t all. Systems were an area which needed some attention and OcUK’s portfolio and choice has now changed quite dramatically, one such area in particular is the new range of notebooks/laptops.
Today we will be taking a look at a Limited Edition P170EM boasting Intel’s new Core i7-3630QM, AMD’s flagship HD7970M and a plethora of other components and features. The question is, at sub £1000 can this high-end gaming laptop be regarded as a good quality and value for money offering? Let’s find out.
OcUK on Limited Edition P170EM
This Limited Edition of 10 units only now makes it possible to have a state of the art hardcore gaming laptop for under £1000. Though we do recommend customising the laptop with more memory along with additional storage. But now you can have an Intel based 7970M powerhouse of a gaming laptop all for under £1000, though you can also spec the system up with options that take it beyond the £1000 price too. Rest assured the 7970M graphics in this laptop can handle any game with ease.
Technical Specifications
– Operating System: Choose from the drop down options!
– Display: 17.3″ SuperBright LED True HD Display (1920×1080 Resolution)
– Graphics: AMD Radeon™ HD7970M 2GB GDDR5
– Storage: Choose from the drop down options!
– Optical: Choose from the drop down options!
– HD Audio
– Mic Noise Suppression
– Dolby Home Theatre®
– 4W Stereo Speakers (2W x 4)
– Subwoofer
– 2 megapixel Webcam
– Processor: Intel® Core™ i5 / i7 Processor – Choose exact model from drop down options!
– Physical Specification: 412mm x 276mm x 41.8~45.4mm (3.9kg with battery)
– Memory: 4GB DDR3 System Memory at 1600MHz (4GB x 1) OR choose 8/16GB DDR3 Options
– Main Chipset: Intel HM77
– Communication: 10 / 100 / 1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN,Wireless LAN, Widi Support
– Intel Centrino Wireless N 2230
– 1x HDMI Port
– 3x USB3.0 Ports
– 1x USB2.0 Port
– 1x E-SATA
– 1x DVI-I
– 1x DisplayPort
– 1x Microphone IN
– 1x Headphone OUT
– 1x DC IN
– 1x RJ-45 Jack
– 1x IEEE 1394a
– Kensington Lock: YES
– 8 Cell Smart Lithium-ION Battery
– Fingerprint Scanner
– 9in1 Card Reader
– 2yr Warranty (1yr Parts, 2yr Labour)
BONUS
All Orders placed on the 22nd October 2012 and after shall recieve FREE copies of FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs PC Games along with 20% off the latest Medal of Honor WarFighter. This bundle is worth in the region of £100 and is completely FREE (Subject to availability) – You will recieve your gamecode from 2nd November onwards in the email address you provided when placing your order!
– Display: 17.3″ SuperBright LED True HD Display (1920×1080 Resolution)
– Graphics: AMD Radeon™ HD7970M 2GB GDDR5
– Storage: Choose from the drop down options!
– Optical: Choose from the drop down options!
– HD Audio
– Mic Noise Suppression
– Dolby Home Theatre®
– 4W Stereo Speakers (2W x 4)
– Subwoofer
– 2 megapixel Webcam
– Processor: Intel® Core™ i5 / i7 Processor – Choose exact model from drop down options!
– Physical Specification: 412mm x 276mm x 41.8~45.4mm (3.9kg with battery)
– Memory: 4GB DDR3 System Memory at 1600MHz (4GB x 1) OR choose 8/16GB DDR3 Options
– Main Chipset: Intel HM77
– Communication: 10 / 100 / 1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN,Wireless LAN, Widi Support
– Intel Centrino Wireless N 2230
– 1x HDMI Port
– 3x USB3.0 Ports
– 1x USB2.0 Port
– 1x E-SATA
– 1x DVI-I
– 1x DisplayPort
– 1x Microphone IN
– 1x Headphone OUT
– 1x DC IN
– 1x RJ-45 Jack
– 1x IEEE 1394a
– Kensington Lock: YES
– 8 Cell Smart Lithium-ION Battery
– Fingerprint Scanner
– 9in1 Card Reader
– 2yr Warranty (1yr Parts, 2yr Labour)
BONUS
All Orders placed on the 22nd October 2012 and after shall recieve FREE copies of FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs PC Games along with 20% off the latest Medal of Honor WarFighter. This bundle is worth in the region of £100 and is completely FREE (Subject to availability) – You will recieve your gamecode from 2nd November onwards in the email address you provided when placing your order!
Packaging & Bundle
OcUK’s P170EM arrives in a nondescript double-reinforced box which is fairly common for notebooks and laptops. This box has a carry handle for easy transportation and OcUK pack this box within another box so that it will arrive safely at its destination.
Inside, the laptop is covered in an anti-static bag whilst being held in place with polystyrene pillars. It’s safe to say that no damage will come to P170EM thanks to the robust packaging.
Packaging for P170EM is tough
A look inside the box
Taking out the contents we are left with a number of items. Included are the following items: AC power pack and cable, 8 cell smart Lithium-ION battery, Driver CD with user manual, User guide and the laptop itself. OcUK have removed the battery during transit to avoid any drainage, leaks or damage.
P170EM accessories bundle
Closer Look
OcUK have gone with a professional approach with P170EM. It has an intricate top cover which is brushed aluminium giving a fantastic look and feel. A glossy plastic trim follows around the edges, again the quality here is very good. The dimensions for P170EM are: 412mm x 276mm x 41.8~45.4mm and the unit weights 3.9KG.
On the underside of P170EM there are four rubber pads which prevent the laptop from slipping and pinpointed beneath critical components are ventilation panels to help extract unwanted heat. Should any components require swapping out respective screws simply need to be removed to gain access to different areas.
The subwoofer has been positioned on the left side and helps bring in bassy tones to audio – to work in collaboration with Onkyo Speakers.
A sleek brushed aluminium top
The underside with rubber feet
On the left side are an assortment of ports for functionality. From left to right there is: Mini IEEE 1394 port, Gigabit RJ45 port, Dual USB 3.0 ports, USB 3.0/e-SATA port, 9 in 1 card reader. It’s great to see such a variety of different ports available on P170EM, an SD card reader is an essential tool for many users so its inclusion is important. This reader has support for: SD, Mini-SD, SDHC, SDXC, MS, MS Pro, MS Duo, MMC and RSMMC.
The left side with a plethora of functionality
Over on the other side there are some audio jacks and a single USB 2.0 port. The default option of P170EM comes with a Samsung DVD-RW which uses the SATA interface – there are no specifications regarding the read/write speeds.
The right side with Samsung DVD-RW
At the back of P170EM is a 4-pin DC-IN port and a group of video out ports which include: DVI, HDMI and display port. These can be used to extend display onto a standalone display screen. At the back there is additional ventilation for heat dissipation.
The back of P170EM with display ports and DC-in
P170EM utilises an 8 cell smart Lithium-ION battery which is rated at 5200mAh. The battery is relatively small compared to other counterparts. This battery delivers up to 3-4 hours of usage from a full charge.
An 8 cell smart Lithium-ION battery is used in P170EM
Closer Look (Continued)
P170EM uses Intel’s new mobile Ivy Bridge chip Core i7-3630QM which is quad-core with a clock speed of 2.4GHz – boosting up to 3.4GHz when loaded. This chip has 6MB of Smart Cache and has 8 threads to use. The chip sits on a CLEVO P170EM (where the laptop gets its name from) which uses the HM77 chipset. So from a processing point of view this laptop is very capable indeed.
Other components include 8GB of Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 and a small capacity SATA 3 SSD for the OS drive for fast bootup times – ADATA SP900 64GB. OcUK have also installed a bigger drive for general storage since the 64GB will not be sufficient for hosting all data, they have opted for Seagate’s Momentus XT 750GB which operates at 7200RPM.
The graphics power is delivered by AMD’s high-end mobile GPU – HD7970M. This has 2GB of VRAM, is ready for DX11 and has the following specifications: Core speed 850MHz, Memory speed: 1200MHz, Memory bus: 256 bit. As you will appreciate, this is high in specification and should be able to deliver excellent 3D performance.
Opening up the P170EM we are met with a large 17.3″ SuperBright LED True HD Display which is capable of up to 1920×1080 resolutions. This screen offers truly vibrant and crystal clear results and even has an integrated 2 M/Pixel webcam placed within the top bezel for Skype and other activities. Again, like the top of P170EM the underside has very good build quality with yet more brushed aluminium attributes.
Under the lid of P170EM
Surrounding the keyboard is plastic whilst the palm rest uses brushed aluminium. Running along the top is a speaker and LED indicators with power on/off button.
The keyboard uses a standard QWERTY layout and as with most laptops the gap between the numpad and alphanumeric keys has been removed in order to fit within the provided dimensions. Typing on P170EM feels fluid and efficient, the key clicks are soft.
This keyboard has the added bonus of having backlit keys to assist with late night usage. A blue glow emits from behind the keys to help with visibility and create atmosphere. The colour and brightness of the lighting here can be modified via the fn and respective adjustment keys.
The keyboard layout and brushed aluminium palm rest
Backlit keyboard – emits a blue glow
The speaker system comes courtesy of Onkyo – the exact model is unclear but one thing is sure, this system delivers crystal clear audio without any compromise. Audio from movies, music and games are reproduced with clarity and the bass effects are surprisingly good. The sub-woofer has been integrated to sit on the underside of the laptop and helps to deliver bassy tones to audio.
Onkyo speakers come integrated
As previously mentioned the palm rest area has been given the brushed aluminium treatment. Another region which sees similar implementation is the touch pad. The click controls on the touch pad have perforated holes for grip and feedback. We’re pleased to say these buttons don’t require excess force to supress – like many other laptops. In the centre a fingerprint reader has been installed as a security feature.
Above the touchpad you will notice a slight indentation – this is a built-in microphone to correspond with the integrated webcam and is useful for conference calls and the like.
Brushed aluminium features frequently
With the overview of P170EM now complete, let’s move on to testing this laptop and see how it copes with our benchmarking suite.
Test Systems & Methodologies
OcUK P170EM (Limited Edition)
CPU Intel Core i7-3630QM (Ivy Bridge)
Motherboard CLEVO P170EM (HM77)
Memory Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3
Graphics 2GB AMD HD7970M
HDD 1x ADATA SP900 64GB SSD 1x Seagate Momentus XT 750GB (7200RPM)
CPU Intel Core i7-3630QM (Ivy Bridge)
Motherboard CLEVO P170EM (HM77)
Memory Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3
Graphics 2GB AMD HD7970M
HDD 1x ADATA SP900 64GB SSD 1x Seagate Momentus XT 750GB (7200RPM)
MSI GT70 Notebook
CPU Intel 3610QM
Motherboard MSI-1762
Memory 16GB DDR3 – 1600MHZ CL11
Graphics 4GB NVIDIA GTX 680M
HDD 2x 128GB SSD (RAID0) 1x Hitachi Deskstar 750GB
CPU Intel 3610QM
Motherboard MSI-1762
Memory 16GB DDR3 – 1600MHZ CL11
Graphics 4GB NVIDIA GTX 680M
HDD 2x 128GB SSD (RAID0) 1x Hitachi Deskstar 750GB
Benchmarks
Windows 7 Boot Time – Measuring with digital stopclock
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
CrystalDiskMark 3 – Sequential Read/Write
Cinebench 11.5 – CPU Score
AIDA64 – Disk/Cache benchmarks
SiSoftware SANDRA 2011 – CPU benchmarks
3DMark 11 – Performance and Extreme preset
Gaming – DIRT 3 and Skyrim (Average FPS)
The above benchmarks will be run on both systems amd compared. The P170EM delivers high-end performance and will be compared to a series of previously reviewed systems.
P170EM takes advantage of Intel Ivy Bridge’s mobile desktop CPU – 3630QM which uses 6MB of L3 cache and has a frequency of 2.4GHz, this of course boosts from 1GHz when not loaded to 3GHz.
P170EM also uses a substantial 8GB of DDR3 operating at 1600MHz and CL9. Combined with a 2GB AMD HD7970M and you can well imagine this notebook is very powerful indeed. Furthermore the boot drive has been given SATA 3 treatment and utilises a 64GB ADATA SP900 SSD for fast bootup times – so the fundamentals for a speedy system are all there, let’s see how P170EM performs.
Real World Performance – Windows 7 Boot Time
Synthetic testing is valuable in the examination of systems, but some of the tests may not mean all that much to some readers so this real world test will show the Windows 7 boot time. A digital stopclock is used to record time duration.
Real World Performance – x264 HD 4.0
Simply put, this test measures how fast your machine can encode a short, DVD quality MPEG-2 video clip into a high-quality x264 video clip. What’s x264, you ask? It’s more or less the next-generation Xvid/DivX codec. I think it’s ideal for a benchmark because the application (x264.exe) reports fairly accurate compression results (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encoding process, and it uses multi-core processors very efficiently.
HDD Performance – CrystalDiskMark 3
CrystalDiskMark is a disk benchmark software that analyses different types of hard drive. Giving sequential benchmark write and read statistics in MB/s. A simple program that is very useful. Sequential read/write performance is monitored.
Primary drive (ADATA SSD) is tested.
HDD Performance – AIDA64
Benchmark pages of AIDA64 Extreme Edition provide several methods to measure system performance. These benchmarks are synthetic, so their results show only the theoretical (maximum) performance of the system.
CPU Performance – Cinebench 11.5
CINEBENCH can measure systems with up to 64 processor threads. This test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects which in turn contain more than 300,000 polygons in total, and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights, shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. The result is displayed in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor. CPU score is monitored.
CPU Performance – SiSoftware SANDRA 2012
SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.
Sandra is a (girl) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.
It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.
Sandra is a (girl) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.
It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.
3D Performance – 3DMark 11
Designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.
3D Performance – DIRT 3 & Skyrim
It’s important for us to perform a number of game benchmarks as well as the synthetic tests because it allows us to test the 3D performance. So here we have some popular titles, critically acclaimed and action-packed. FRAPS and in-house benchmarking tools were used to capture average FPS.
Conclusion
When OcUK contacted us about reviewing the P170EM Limited Edition we were intrigued to know what configuration they would opt for in this Limited Edition laptop.
Just browsing over the specification doesn’t leave much to the imagination; this laptop is high in specification and features some of the fastest kit available to mobile systems. At the heart of the beast is Intel’s mobile Ivy Bridge chip Core i7-3630QM which is quad-core ready and capable of processing the most demanding of tasks simultaneously. P170EM’s graphics power is also very substantial, AMD’s HD7970M is regarded as the flagship for extreme mobile gaming and it’s clear to see why. Pitching the P170EM against MSI’s GT70 with 4GB GTX 680M revealed nominal differences in performance yet the OcUK variant is much better value.
In the 3D benchmarks P170EM excelled and proved its worth in this division, looking at other areas such as encoding, processing and HDD performance revealed similar traits. P170EM is quite the powerhouse.
Looking at P170EM from a visual aspect illustrates how clean and professional a laptop can be engineered. It oozes style and has been given brushed aluminium to retain quality and a sleek appearance. To many the display is a fundamental principle for laptop use and in this regard again P170EM does not disappoint, it has a large 17.3″ SuperBright LED True HD screen which is capable of up to 1920×1080 resolutions. It gives a crystal clear and vibrant display.
If extras are important to you then P170EM has also got this covered, there are up to three super speed USB 3.0 ports for efficient data transfer and a fingerprint scanner helps to maintain a good level of security. A handy card reader is integrated to the side of the laptop and covers up to nine different standards.
P170EM Limited Edition delivers high-end gaming at sub £1000 – something which is extremely rare nowadays. This laptop oozes quality and finesse, is capable of handling a variety of tasks and is available at a killer price – it’s easy to see why we are impressed.
Pros
+ Very good build quality
+ LED/HD display screen
+ Onkyo sound system with subwoofer (THX enabled)
+ Backlit keyboard
+ Great assortment of included features
+ Low noise levels
+ Handles 3D/gaming very well
+ Price is reasonable
Cons
– Rough surface touchpad
– Weighty
+ Very good build quality
+ LED/HD display screen
+ Onkyo sound system with subwoofer (THX enabled)
+ Backlit keyboard
+ Great assortment of included features
+ Low noise levels
+ Handles 3D/gaming very well
+ Price is reasonable
Cons
– Rough surface touchpad
– Weighty
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
