State of Clevo in 2023, especially regarding durability?

[yhancik]

When I bought a new laptop 5 years ago, I picked a Clevo partly because I believed the ease to repair the machine would ensure I would keep it for a long time. For the same reason I picked a reasonably powered machine in a full metal body.

 

It proved me right as I indeed could replace the eDP cable & wifi antennas when they wore off. But then the motherboard (I assume) just died last week, a few weeks after turning 5 years old. Except if a miracle happens, I will have to find a replacement.

 

Five years is much shorter than what I had in mind for this laptop – I more or less expected to keep it around 8 years, taking in account that I don't even use the machine daily (my main computer is my desktop). Not so long ago, I went back to Obsidian's website, and found out they left the business, mentioning among other things "a general lack of quality and support from laptop manufacturers, with poor hardware choices". I didn't really follow, so I don't know what happened there, but has there been a drop of quality lately?

 

Right now, I can't help but wonder if 5 years is actually a normal lifespan I should have expected from a Clevo, or if my late P950HP was an outlier? Is Clevo still a brand that is reliable for a durable machine today? Is there something more reliably durable?

 

(I hope it's ok that I posted two different but related threads in a row, but I thought they are two different discussions indeed)

[a.Techie]

On 2/18/2023 at 3:27 PM, yhancik said:

Five years is much shorter than what I had in mind for this laptop – I more or less expected to keep it around 8 years, taking in account that I don't even use the machine daily (my main computer is my desktop). Not so long ago, I went back to Obsidian's website, and found out they left the business, mentioning among other things "a general lack of quality and support from laptop manufacturers, with poor hardware choices". I didn't really follow, so I don't know what happened there, but has there been a drop of quality lately?

 

I remember contacting Obsidian back in 2018 about ordering a Clevo P641 and was told that the units weren't reliable and that they might have received repaired units as factory new. There was also talk in the NBR Clevo section about how unhelpful the manufacturer was when it came to implementing the fan control software; Obsidian basically had to reverse engineer everything. All this is to say that basically whatever issues there are have probably been around for a while now.

[Blacky]

On 2/18/2023 at 3:27 PM, yhancik said:

When I bought a new laptop 5 years ago, I picked a Clevo partly because I believed the ease to repair the machine would ensure I would keep it for a long time. For the same reason I picked a reasonably powered machine in a full metal body.

 

It proved me right as I indeed could replace the eDP cable & wifi antennas when they wore off. But then the motherboard (I assume) just died last week, a few weeks after turning 5 years old. Except if a miracle happens, I will have to find a replacement.

 

Five years is much shorter than what I had in mind for this laptop – I more or less expected to keep it around 8 years, taking in account that I don't even use the machine daily (my main computer is my desktop). Not so long ago, I went back to Obsidian's website, and found out they left the business, mentioning among other things "a general lack of quality and support from laptop manufacturers, with poor hardware choices". I didn't really follow, so I don't know what happened there, but has there been a drop of quality lately?

 

Right now, I can't help but wonder if 5 years is actually a normal lifespan I should have expected from a Clevo, or if my late P950HP was an outlier? Is Clevo still a brand that is reliable for a durable machine today? Is there something more reliably durable?

 

(I hope it's ok that I posted two different but related threads in a row, but I thought they are two different discussions indeed)

You can probably find the replacement motherboard on Aliexpress. 2 years ago I managed to find one for an P177SM-A . I strongly recommend you get the official tehnician manual of the laptop, check the code of the part number you need, and search it up on the internet. I am fairly certain you will find a replacement unit.

I have a Clevo M570TU bought in 2009 which still works. I had to replace the GPU twice though.

[1610ftw]

On 2/18/2023 at 2:27 PM, yhancik said:

When I bought a new laptop 5 years ago, I picked a Clevo partly because I believed the ease to repair the machine would ensure I would keep it for a long time. For the same reason I picked a reasonably powered machine in a full metal body.

 

It proved me right as I indeed could replace the eDP cable & wifi antennas when they wore off. But then the motherboard (I assume) just died last week, a few weeks after turning 5 years old. Except if a miracle happens, I will have to find a replacement.

 

Five years is much shorter than what I had in mind for this laptop – I more or less expected to keep it around 8 years, taking in account that I don't even use the machine daily (my main computer is my desktop). Not so long ago, I went back to Obsidian's website, and found out they left the business, mentioning among other things "a general lack of quality and support from laptop manufacturers, with poor hardware choices". I didn't really follow, so I don't know what happened there, but has there been a drop of quality lately?

 

Right now, I can't help but wonder if 5 years is actually a normal lifespan I should have expected from a Clevo, or if my late P950HP was an outlier? Is Clevo still a brand that is reliable for a durable machine today? Is there something more reliably durable?

 

(I hope it's ok that I posted two different but related threads in a row, but I thought they are two different discussions indeed)

 First thing is of course that you should try to fix your unit.

 

If that fails or isn't worth it then I would recommend to go with a Dell or HP workstation. Build quality will be better and you will get a socketed GPU (or no GPU) if you want and parts availability should be better 5 years down the road and the same seems to go for overall reliability.  Depending on where you live you may also get great offers on refurbed units directly from the manufaturer with added warranty package options.

 

What made Clevo special to many of us was the ability to swap the CPU and/or GPU which isn't possible any more and then there was the @Prema bios which also is a thing of the past it seems as at least for now he has moved on to Tongfang / Uniwill but they so far do not have much of a track record for longevity so I would not recommend them for a laptop that you want to keep for such a long time.

 

[RobsLT]

On 2/20/2023 at 4:42 PM, 1610ftw said:

 First thing is of course that you should try to fix your unit.

 

If that fails or isn't worth it then I would recommend to go with a Dell or HP workstation. Build quality will be better and you will get a socketed GPU (or no GPU) if you want and parts availability should be better 5 years down the road and the same seems to go for overall reliability.  Depending on where you live you may also get great offers on refurbed units directly from the manufaturer with added warranty package options.

 

What made Clevo special to many of us was the ability to swap the CPU and/or GPU which isn't possible any more and then there was the @Prema bios which also is a thing of the past it seems as at least for now he has moved on to Tongfang / Uniwill but they so far do not have much of a track record for longevity so I would not recommend them for a laptop that you want to keep for such a long time.

 

I've had my P170Sm for over 8 years now, still running windows 7pro 64bit. Clean, always works. I picked it because I have three drives. The only thing I have had to replace is the CPU fan - which I had to purchase and have shipped from China - but it did not take too long to get here. I use it as an editing machine - Premier pro - so it does get a work out from time to time. I have 10TB tower attached and other back up drives as needed. Knock on wood - alas, time marches on and many things are becoming legacy in operation. So this year will be the year I upgrade to new system. Funny enough - I usually put it to sleep, maybe shutting down once a month. Its my opinion that when you buy, get the best and most recent components you can afford. Needless to say, my next purchase will be a bit pricey. Cheers.

[1610ftw]

1 hour ago, RobsLT said:

I've had my P170Sm for over 8 years now, still running windows 7pro 64bit. Clean, always works. I picked it because I have three drives. The only thing I have had to replace is the CPU fan - which I had to purchase and have shipped from China - but it did not take too long to get here. I use it as an editing machine - Premier pro - so it does get a work out from time to time. I have 10TB tower attached and other back up drives as needed. Knock on wood - alas, time marches on and many things are becoming legacy in operation. So this year will be the year I upgrade to new system. Funny enough - I usually put it to sleep, maybe shutting down once a month. Its my opinion that when you buy, get the best and most recent components you can afford. Needless to say, my next purchase will be a bit pricey. Cheers.

 

Great story and indeed your next purchase could be a bit pricey if you stay with a laptop. If again you want at least 3 drives that alone will probably narrow down the selection to only a handful of models in each generation. In the current generation and to my knowledge this is only offered by one model each from Clevo, HP and MSI and three models from Dell.

[runix18]

My modded P870DM still going strong from 2015.

 

[1610ftw]

On 1/5/2024 at 5:48 PM, runix18 said:

My modded P870DM still going strong from 2015.

 

And you could run that 2015 laptop with a 2018 CPU and 2021 GPU - THAT's what upgradeability should look like!

[Developer79]

I have already commented on such things!
Apart from the fact that the new generations are perhaps a little faster, all manufacturers are developing at the same pace. Apparently, the intention is to prevent upgradability and increase profits in the short term. In my opinion, the P870xx is still a really good choice. My review of the CPU specifications of the P870xx show that the CPU can be upgraded to 13th/14th generation notebooks. Of course, you have to develop the additional boards and make certain changes to the P870xx motherboard. Theoretically it is possible!!!

[KabyZen]

My current KM1 is going strong on 6 years. Need to find a 9th gen CPU to and a 3070 to put in it.

[Raven]

I can't really say anything about newer models but my P870Tm-G has survived hell so, Take that as you will.

[Linux]

I have one of these hated BGA machines. It's from 2017 and currently triple-booting 2xLinux and Win11. Running like day one. No need to upgrade.