Eurocom X5 (Clevo P177SM)

The Eurocom X5 is an interesting system to review. There’s a definite market for Clevo-based systems, something that’s abundantly clear if you spend any amount of time on the various notebook forums around the internet. Whether its because of the value or the customizability, or the close relationship that the various resellers have with the online notebook enthusiast communities, these whitebooks have endured in popularity despite their flaws. And, no doubt, there are many, particularly when it comes to design.

But there’s a lot of raw power on tap here for relatively accessible prices; in a mobile system, it’s almost unheard of to get a GTX 780M for less than $1800 like you can with Eurocom and other Clevo resellers. It’s just not possible to get something this powerful from a big box manufacturer for this price point. The cheapest configuration of Alienware 17 with a GTX 780M runs several hundred dollars more, though admittedly, that brings with it an aluminum chassis and much more polished industrial design. I think it’s pretty clear that the P177SM is a better high-end gaming platform than MSI’s GT70 chassis, the single fan cooling architecture that MSI chose is kind of laughable given the amount of compute the chassis houses. I’m not sure who their thermal engineers are, but the series of decisions that led them down that path show pretty poor judgement.

In the past, I never really understood buying a Clevo, and even still I don’t think I could ever get over the rawness of the design enough to actually purchase one. With that said, I came very, very close to buying a W110ER last year, and I probably should have. The ability to pick your components, from the exact display panel to the manufacturer of the hard drive, is pretty awesome. You don’t get anywhere near that level of control with the bigger companies; it’s much nicer to be able to choose and select the parts that go into your notebook instead of playing the component lottery game with Dell and ASUS. I genuinely like that, and if the raw power and value for money take precedence over aesthetics, it’s not hard to recommend going down the Clevo route.

The question of whether to go with the P177SM or the P170SM kind of depends on your personal preference. I’d rather have the former, as the dullness of the P150/170 design is too much for me to take. The P177SM has more flair, so even if the design is more gaudy and less clean, it at least isn’t as generic as the older models. If I actually owned it, I’d consider dismantling it and repainting some of the components to add a bit more color to the overwhelming blackness. But generally, after spending time with the Eurocom, I understand it. I know our evaluation unit carries a very hefty pricetag, but if you pay attention to the configurations, you can get a very powerful, highly capable portable gaming workstation for not too much money. And if that sounds appealing, look no further, this is the computer for you.