Fermi Goes Mobile: AVADirect's Clevo W880CU with GTX 480M
by Dustin Sklavos on July 7, 2010 11:45 PM ESTIntroducing the Fermi-in-Your-Backpack
The shell of the Clevo W880CU we're reviewing today probably looks very familiar from Jarred's review of its predecessor, the W870CU, back in September 2009. Sure the red trim has been replaced by a tasteful chrome, and one of the ports is USB 3.0 now, but it's the same Clevo you've all known and... sort of loved.
The basic format hasn't changed at all, although this time the test system came with a 1080p display instead of the HD+ model. (More images of the W880CU are avaialble in our preview.) The LCD is the same high contrast HannStar HSD173PUW1 as the panel in the ASUS G73Jh, so you can read our comments on the panel in that review. The complaints with the W870CU still exist as well—i.e. the crappy keyboard layout on the number pad, and the unwieldy door on the rear of the unit hiding the ports.
What's going to be staggeringly unfamiliar is the new meat sitting inside the W880CU: NVIDIA's new top-end mobile GPU, the GeForce GTX 480M. While we can knock the chassis around again, Clevo is far more interested in being first to market with GTX 480M, and the W880CU does just that. Here are the details of the review system we received from AVADirect, which will make for an interesting comparison against the GTX 285M/HD 5870 notebooks from AVADirect that we reviewed last month.
| AVADirect Clevo W880CU Specifications | |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-820QM |
| (4x1.73GHz, 45nm, 8MB L3, Turbo to 3GHz, 45W) | |
| Chipset | Intel PM55 |
| Memory | 2x2GB DDR3-1333 (Max 2x4GB) |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480M 2GB GDDR5 |
| (352 CUDA Cores, 425MHz/800MHz/2.4GHz Core/Shader/RAM clocks) | |
| Display | 17.3" LED Glossy 16:9 1080p (1920x1080) |
| Hard Drive(s) | Seagate Momentus XT 500GB 7200 RPM Hybrid Drive |
| (additional empty bay with RAID 0/1 capability) | |
| Optical Drive | Blu-ray Writer |
| Networking | Gigabit Ethernet |
| Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (a/b/g/n) | |
| Clevo Bluetooth | |
| V.92 56K Modem | |
| Audio | Realtek ALC888/1200 HD Audio |
| 4.1 speakers with line-in, mic, optical, and headphone jacks | |
| Capable of 5.1 | |
| Battery | 3-Cell, 12V, 48Wh battery |
| Front Side | N/A |
| Left Side | Modem |
| Antenna In | |
| MMC/SD/MS Reader | |
| 4-pin FireWire | |
| 1x USB 2.0 | |
| Optical Drive | |
| Right Side | Headphones, Mic, Line-In, Optical |
| 1 x USB 3.0 | |
| ExpressCard/54 Slot | |
| eSATA | |
| DVI | |
| Kensington Lock | |
| Back Side | HDMI |
| AC Jack | |
| 2 x USB 2.0 | |
| Ethernet | |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
| Dimensions | 16.25" x 11" x 1.69"~2.25” (WxDxH) |
| Weight | 8.35 lbs (with 3-cell battery) |
| Extras | Webcam |
| 103-Key keyboard with 10-key | |
| Flash reader (MMC/MS/MS Pro/SD) | |
| USB 3.0 | |
| Bluetooth | |
| Dual drive bays with RAID 0/1 | |
| Warranty | 1-year basic warranty |
| Pricing | $2936.80 as configured from AVADirect |
The Clevo W880CU demands only the briefest of rundowns; the shell is identical (coloring notwithstanding) to the W870CU, and the guts are mostly the same as the W860CU we reviewed recently, though the chassis is slightly larger. Our review unit comes equipped with an Intel Core i7-820QM quad core processor, 4GB of DDR3 (two DIMMs in two slots), and one of those new-fangled Seagate Momentus XT hybrid hard disks.
Oh, and the GeForce GTX 480M. That's what you came here for, right?
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Dustin Sklavos - Friday, July 9, 2010 - link
Every time someone charges me with an Nvidia bias, an angel gets its wings.When I write I have to try and remove my own personal biases from the material, so the fact that my printed bias swings in the exact opposite direction as my personal one (all of my machines with dedicated GPUs are running Radeons), I feel like I've achieved something.
GamerDave20 - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
Yes, I own one. It plays Fallout 3 at four to five FPS at 1280 x 800 and has developed 28 vertical lines on the screen. But, my XPS Gen 2 is still my front line pc for a few reasons:1) it's paid off,
2) it runs XP satisfactorily for general computing,
3) although it was "flashy" back in it's day, it is not nearly as terrible looking as most "gaming" laptops these days,
4) and, it HAS ports on the back!
With that said, this base chassis has to be one of the best looking laptops on the market.
It is just difficult to justify if you are also considering a desktop PC.
How about a give-away with one of these as the prize!
Ha ha, and thanks for the article Anandtech and Dustin.
Dave (GamerDave20)
iwod - Sunday, July 11, 2010 - link
The Rumors suggest GF104 would actually have the same Core as the current 465 without the wasted transistor. I am wondering if those wasted transistors will leak power as well?If so, then with the better yield and leakage improvement from GF104, we could expect an even more powerful GTX480M, or a lower power version of GTX480M with smaller die, less heat, less power, same performance.
Until then, i am waiting for a better power management, tweaked version of Fermi with 28nm LP die shrink on laptop/ Notebook.
VIDYA - Monday, July 12, 2010 - link
bull shit man they are selling dinosaurs at the age of aliens......kind of funny, that a few stupids will still buy them for the ad and all....... for a laptop that performs lower than a desktop and cant play when its unplugged :)VIDYA - Monday, July 12, 2010 - link
GF104 is the new born baby BTW....this one is lean mean overclocker too!maarek999 - Thursday, July 15, 2010 - link
You can definitely use different Nvidia cards accelerated on Premiere cs5. There is a very simple hack for it:http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=209116
Works on the GTX470 and GTX480 so should also work with the mobile versions. Makes A WORLD of difference and a huge boost to users of Premiere. Especially when dealing with RED material or Canons DSLR-line.