MSI ge40 vs Clevo w230st

[Azard]

Hey Guys I'm wondering which laptop is better overall. The MSI ge 40 When configured with an i3 4000m and gtx 850m at PC specialist UK costs £440 ish. The clevo costs £540 ish with the same configuration but with a 1080p display and gtx 860m vs 850m. Are all those extras worth £100. Which chassis has the better cooling? Is the 14 inch screen noticeable compared to 13.3? Which has better build quality?

 

[dasulman]

dunno how you're configuring it to be £440 - even without the operating system, the I3 makes it £500
with the skyfire, it comes with 4GB, both 4GB and 2GB are going to severely bottleneck what you can do
even for gaming i'd suggest getting an I5 4200M , save up to about £600 and get the skyfire - it's chunkier but its slightly cheaper
as for build quality, that's really up to pcspecialist - they're just chassis, though clevo has recently updated the chassis

 

[Azard]

The skyfire doesn't have an optical drive (don't use disks) or HDD since I don't need them (have an ssd) and what I meant by build quality was how durable the chassis is. I already have 8gb of ran sitting spare as well so I can just swap them in.

 

[dasulman]

well as long as they're laptop RAM sticks its fine, If that's the case, i'd still save up a few more quid to get the I5, but if you're set on the I3 I would say the clevo is worth the extra - the clevo definitely has a better build quality than the MSI chassis - plus dat graphics power is pretty beastly - the difference is around 25% better? for a 1080p, a much better chassis and that extra power - i'd say its worth the extra
though still can't stress enough to get the I5 - just to be safe

 

[Azard]

The gtx 860m is just a higher clocked version of the gtx 850m so I could just overlclock it for some extra performance (Maxwell takes over clocking quite well I assume) and if I get an i5 I'd have to stick with the ge40, what do I lose out compared to the clevo chassis, are the clevo materials better? Thanks for the help dasulman anyway though

 

[dasulman]

if its the DDR5 version then yes it is - but if you do, you run the risk of voiding the warranty.
the clevo chassis are just higher quality - you can check the equivalent reviews if you like here:
http/www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Clevo-W230SS-Schenker-XMG-P304-Barebones-Notebook.113676.0.html
http/www.notebookcheck.net/Review-DevilTech-Fire-DT14-Notebook.97465.0.html

ge40 chassis hasn't been updated this gen so the old-ish review is still relevant. you can decide if the differences are worth it.

 

[Azard]

Hi thanks for the reviews but how is the clevo better quality? Better cooling? Better plastics or less flex? Because configuring the ge 40 with a 1080p display and i5 its still less than the clevo. The reviews were informative but I'm still curious what the throttling would be with i5 and i3 CPUs instead which draw less power. Also have you found any direct comparison against the 850m ddr5 vs gtx 860m with similar CPU? Thanks!

 

[dasulman]

well the clevo 1080 is an IPS panel which is much better - though even things like the ASUS ROG laptops use a TN panel instead of an IPS.
it's better in both cooling and material - though the brushed aluminium on the skyfire tries hard - it is just worse - it's kind of hard to describe.
the CPUs won't throttle, it's just whether or not they'll bottleneck the GPU - the absence of turbo boost is also quite a key thing for the I3.
comparing benchmarks you can use this:http/www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html
and then just select your GPUs. It depends on the game - titanfall shows an increase of 2fps - metro 2034 shows 7 fps, DOTA II shows 16, bioshock 12 etc.
the difference normally breaks the 30+ FPS boundary at ultra 1080p for games - so that being said I'd say it's worth it.

 

[Azard]

When your talking about chassis quality are you talking about asthetics? And the msi still seems to be a go to due to much more balanced specs all around, is the build quality rrally that much worse? Gtx 850 and 860 seem to have a reasonable gap but i think overclocking it would make it just slightly worse than one at around 80£ less for 10% less performance. Im settling on the core i5 though just for the boost clocks. Thanks for the continued help btw.

 

[Azard]

Is the clevo that much better overall, im still leaning towards the msi due to the lower price. Is the clevo chassis much much better overall as worth 100£ extra more. The gpu should be ok for my needs as gaming at 1600x900 would be fine by me, performance drop could be mitigated by overclocking, again the 850 is a lot cheaper. Settled for an i5 cpu however and why is the clevo that mich more expensive?

 

[dasulman]

honestly if the 1600x900 is enough for you then go for the MSI / skyfire.
honestly I've no idea how they do their pricing XD