Clevo M570A Review (Genex M570A)

Today we’re proud of being some of the first to have a test of the Genex M570A notebook. A notebook that so far is quite unique because of its extremely fast graphics chip – the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX med 256 MB of GDDR3 RAM. The drool should already be dripping from the tech-savvy gamers as they’ve just got access to one of the fastest desktop powerhouses on their notebook.

A neat feature of the M570A is the option to change its graphics chip. Clevo – who’s manufacturing the notebook – have made their own system were you can buy the chip you want. It opens up for a new possibility of configuring the notebook with a faster chip if it’s getting slow though Clevo has to continue the trend of releasing newer modules with the future graphic chips. But the M570A has more to offer than a fast graphics chip as you’ll soon find out.

Genex have chosen to abandon the big software bundle as most international manufacturers ship their notebooks with. Instead they’re focusing on most bang-for-the-buck. If you want Windows it can be bought separately. There’re the usual driver CDs and Nero but that’s about it. The printed manual has been skipped in favour of an electronic model that’s on the CD. There’s also a decent nylon bag. It has an estimated street price of about 300 DKK and if nothing else you get if for free though you can always buy a new one if you don’t fancy it.

It’s equipped with a 17” display with a native resolution of 1680x1050 giving it a wide chassis of 39.7 cm. With all this room they’ve included some good speakers or so it sounds when compared to other notebook speakers. The bass is nothing spectacular but the other tones impress and are above the rest of the field. Quality wise the Genex M570A is just average. The plastic isn’t of the same splendid finish and doesn’t have the same spicy touch as that of Asus for instance. But less can also do and the design of the Genex reflects it’s being dictated by the price.

The notebook weights 4.28 kilo including battery and DVD recorder on our own weight which is only decent for a notebook in this class. The extreme cooling of the graphics chip is most likely to blame for this. It measures 39.7 cm wide, 29.3 cm deep and 4.49 cm tall.

Processor	2133 MHz Mobile Intel Pentium-M 770 (Centrino)
RAM	2048 MB DDR2 RAM
Hard Disk	60 GB 5400 RPM HD SATA
Optical Drive	DVD-RW
Graphics Chip	nVidia GeForce Go 7800 GTX med 256MB GDDR3 RAM
Display	17" TFT WSXGA (1680x1050)
Communication	V.90 modem, 10/100/1000 Mbit Ethernet, IEEE1394 Firewire, 802.11g WLAN
Battery	Li-Ion
Operating System	None
Pointing Device	Touchpad
Weight	3,8 kg
Other	4-in-1 Card Reader
Price	USD $ 2320

The keyboard is a positive surprise as it’s often linked with the chassis. If the manufacturer hasn’t spent too much on the chassis the keyboard is generally nothing special either though it’s luckily different with the Genex. The keyboard has a very fine keystroke and a tight button setup. You don’t get the same wobbling feeling as you do with the cheaper notebooks. They’ve also included a built-in numeric keypad which is something not commonly seen although it’s gaining in popularity by the rise of the 17” and 19” widescreen notebooks.

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The notebook is equipped with a 17” widescreen display running with a native resolution of 1680x1050. A healthy resolution for those on the job for a longer period as it feels just right with this setup. Working with a 1680x1050 resolution on a 15.4” widescreen can be a little tense to work with over time due to the smaller text size. It’s also been specially coated with a glare screen with all the pros and cons it has to offer. The colours are vibrant and the black is fantastic. The reflections you get from the glare display aren’t that bad on this notebook as it can be on others.

The Genex M570A it equipped with something as unusual as a DVI port and a serial port! It brings cheer to the reviewer since a DVI port is rarely seen on the notebook. The traditional four USB 2.0 ports are also there where two are placed in the right side and two on the back. There’s no VGA port though there’s a DVI converter giving you the option of using the port for your analogue monitor as well.

1 x DVI port
1 x Serial
4 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x 32 bit Type II PC Card slot
1 x S-Video Out (NTSC/PAL)
1 x IEEE 1394 port
1 x RJ-11 jack
1 x RJ-45 jack
1 x Line-In jack
1 x Line-Out jack
1 x DC-in jack
1 x 4-in-1 Card Reader (MS, MS-PRO, SD, MMC)

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The noise level is expectedly higher than the high-end notebooks from Asus or Acer for instance. The fan is spinning almost constantly with varying speed depending upon what you’re using the notebook for. We’ve tested the Genex with Notebook Hardware Control and even if we managed to lower the CPU temperature from 43 to 35 degrees Celsius it didn’t affect the fan. That would indicate it’s the powerful graphics chip that’s the cause for all the noise which is only natural given the fact that NVIDIA’s GeForce 7800 GTX is a desktop chip and not known for being the most silent either.

The hard disk can’t really be heard as the fan is making its mark instead. After reading our depiction of the noise level some might think it’s the same as a vacuum cleaner… This is not the case though the notebook NEEDS more cooling than a regular notebook hence it makes more noise. Personally I find the noise level acceptable when considering the tremendous power that’s packed under the hood. It’s not recommended for schooling or quiet office usage but as a desktop replacement or for gaming it’s fine since the fan is only making its real mark when the graphics chip is being used.

Genex has their own configuration tool as more Danish resellers are using. That way you can decide what software you want – for instance Windows XP. A standard configuration consists of the Nero package along with the necessary drivers and that’s about it. It would’ve been nice with more included accessories or perhaps a power management program like Asus’ Power4Gear that would be able to control the M570A more accurately than Windows’ built-in features. It’s no secret that the graphics chip uses a fair share of power along with the big display and could it be fine-tuned more specifically the battery life would improve without compromising too much with the performance.

Genex offers a full two-year warranty period on the M570A which is far better than the standard two-year warranty period commended by law. They have no hotline support on their products and you’re left with the reseller who’s also the one to contact in the case of a hardware defect.

Genex handles the repairs themselves and has a fast response time. It’s normally 3-5 days plus shipping back and forth. Genex is a Danish brand and the advantage it clear. In case of a hardware defect the notebook doesn’t need to be shipped abroad to be repaired but only to Ringkøbing in Jylland.

Last week we tested the Acer Ferrari 4000 together with the ABook 3600TX that were both way faster than the rest of the field in practically all of the benchmarks. The sovereignty has now been firmly overtaken by the M570A with an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX graphics chip. In almost all of the tests it’s twice as fast and even up to five times that of the X700 chip running on a Ferrari.

Starting with 3DMark2001 which is very dependent upon both CPU and the graphics chip the M570A is almost twice as fast as the second fastest notebook. When looking at 3DMark2005 which is almost only GPU bound its score it nearly triple that of an X700 chip. The Doom 3 and Far Cry benchmarks shows the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX chip is suffering from CPU limitations since the frame rate in the resolutions 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768 is about 200 FPS. How often is that seen on a notebook?

Unfortunately we had very little time to test leaving no room for a SYSmark run though I’d guess it’s in the high end of the spectrum since the tested configuration is very well equipped when it comes to the hard disk, CPU and RAM. For mysterious reasons it behaved strangely in the DVD test. MobileMark simply refused to run the benchmark which wouldn’t make any sense as the 800 MHz a Pentium-M processor normally resolves to when unplugged should be more than enough to run the DVD test.

If it’s plugged and operating at full speed there’re no problems which would indicate a driver or hardware problem in the tested notebook. The MobileMark performance score also seems lower when compared to other models. It would indicate there’s a built-in power management feature that’s very aggressive when the notebook is unplugged and might lower the CPU frequency a little too much when it’s on battery.

The battery life is as expected not in the vicinity of a regular Centrino due to the big display and the blazingly fast graphics chip. When taking this into consideration it does have a decent battery performance with a little over two hours. You can buy an additional battery for the multibay getting an extra hour on the clock. The latter wasn’t tested.

All tests results are available here.

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The Genex M570A is a unique notebook in many ways. In some cases it appears so extreme it’s hard to recommend it when compared to a Ferrari 4000 (Athlon CPU and X700) from Acer or an ABook 3600TX though it’s of course up to what you want from your notebook. If it’s a nice all-round notebook that’s screaming of quality, good performance and low weight it’s obviously the wrong notebook you’re dealing with. But if you’re on the lookout for a mobile desktop computer that’s usable everywhere and is primarily being used at home for gaming, DVD playback or a LAN party the Genex M570A is brilliant. It offers a wicked gaming performance, good sound quality, nice display and a fine keyboard.

It’s also nice they’ve found the room for a DVI port so you can jack in you flat screen or plasma screen with the best possible connection. It certainly gives the avid gamer a solid choice when it’s time for a new gaming computer. Do you want the traditional desktop or a mobile notebook with about the same performance as the high-end desktop? The price is fair too and for only USD $2320 you can get an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX, 1.7 GHz, 1 GB RAM and a 60 GB hard disk. That would be the configuration we’d recommend since it’s only in the lower resolutions the graphics chip suffers from CPU limitations.

It all sums up to 4 stars this time but had the finish and weight been a little better it would’ve got a “Recommended Buy” label though the last is missing.

+
Superb 3D performance, keyboard, nice display, price, speakers, DVI port

-
Noisy, finish, small software bundle





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