CyberpowerPC's Compal NBLB2: Affordable Gaming
by Dustin Sklavos on December 21, 2010 5:50 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- AMD
- Intel
- CyberPowerPC
- Compal
Conclusion: You Can Make a Case for It
When we reviewed the competing Clevo B5130M from AVADirect (and also offered by Cyberpower), the conclusion was fairly clear cut: it'd be an easy sell if Dell's XPS 15 didn't exist. That was reasonable enough then: the two are comparable in spec, but Dell offers a better screen, better build quality, and better battery life. With the Compal NBLB2 in the mix, though, things get murkier.
Shopping around can get you an NBLB2 for $899 or better, which automatically places it above the B5130M because the 1080p screen is standard as opposed to an upgrade. Compal does well on the insides, too: the AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5650 often comes out ahead of the GeForce 420M/425M that the Clevo and Dell notebooks use, so if gaming is high on your list of priorities there's a strong case to be made for going with this notebook over the competition. You still won't be running most games at high quality settings—and certainly not at high quality and 1080p—but medium quality and 1080p is still within reach, especially if you tweak a few of the settings to get above 30FPS. Clearly, AMD had a great design when the HD 5650 launched, and it has held up well over the past nine months.
Unfortunately, getting decent gaming performance means a fairly large trade-off. The Compal notebook's design is horrendously outdated, and while the battery life is fine in and of itself it's still lagging behind our editor's choice-winning Dell XPS 15, thanks to NVIDIA's Optimus Technology. The Dell notebook also offers the potential for an even better screen than the already impressive one in the NBLB2. [Update: Well, at least it did when the 1080p upgrade was available; that's currently missing, presumably because of insufficient supply.] You'll have to contend with Dell's customer service instead of the more personalized service you'd get from a smaller boutique vendor, but we have to wonder if the trade isn't worth it.
Mercifully, at the end of the day the NBLB2 doesn't feel like a complete "also-ran." While the Clevo B5130M found itself butting squarely up against Dell's incumbent, the NBLB2 presents a viable alternative for those looking to get as much gaming performance as they can out of a 15.6" notebook. At $899 from Sager or $945 from CyberpowerPC the price isn't too steep, either. It's not competing with the freak deals Acer periodically throws into the wild for a couple months, but the Compal has a much nicer screen and a better keyboard. If gaming is a top priority but you don't want to break your back with a big notebook (or your wallet with a big budget), the NBLB2 is very nearly as good as it gets.
Of course, besides the build quality and aesthetic problems, there's one other item this Compal notebook has to contend with: Sandy Bridge is coming next month, along with some other hardware updates from the various parties. We can't go into performance specifics any more than Anand did in our preview, but Core 2010 and the HD 5650 are both due for replacement in the near future. When Compal inevitably updates the NBLB2 yet again, hopefully they can make a break with some of the current design points and deliver a product that's better on all fronts.
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synaesthetic - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
The BB version of the G73 has a 1600x900 screen... so, no, no full HD for you.frozentundra123456 - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
No, it doesnt have a 1080p panel, but can the 5650 in the tested notebook run games at 1080p anyway? I dont think so at any kind of high detail.So I still think the G73 is a better value. I would prefer to have a somewhat lower resolution panel and the power to run at native resolution than a good display without the graphics power to use it properly.
synaesthetic - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
Can I put this screen on my Gateway NV5925u?Also, damn! That 5650 gets hot! It's hard for the 5650 in my laptop to reach 70 degrees, even overclocked to 5730 clocks!
... somehow I got really lucky with the GPU in my laptop. I can OC it to 850/900 without any stability issues so long as I use a laptop cooler.
Zoridon - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
I'd be willing to recommend a mid range gaming notebook just like the NBLB2 if they made the native resolution 1680x1050. at 1080p the 5650 can't run most games at native resolution. 1680x1050 seems to be the breaking point or 1600x900. They could use the money saved on the screen and include USB 3 and a keyboard backlight with a decent touchpad. Throw in the Momentus XT hybrid drive as well. All of which could be done for about the same price. That way if you are forced to play at 720p you are much closer to the native resolution and will have a better picture than if you step down from 1080p.NJoy - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
You forget that they all have switched to 16:9 panels, while 1680x1050 is 16:10. In any case, thanks to small pitch the picture looks ok when you scale it down to 1600x900NJoy - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
Very nice review. thanks.The touch buttons are supposed to work with the software, mainly to switch between different color profiles. However, the implementation is so bad that most compal users just disable them right away
Next, the cooling. Traditionally, these compals cool the cpu a lot better than GPUs, probably due to a shorter heatpipe, but it should cope with quads without much problems. I recommended one to a friend recently and he got it with i7 840QM - havent heard any complaints from him yet.
The GPU temps just make me feel really sad about the anemic DDR2 9600GT in my JHL90, which idles at 57C since day one and gets to 95C with toaster speeds. All that while cpu (p8600) never gets over 55.
All in all, even despite the glossiness and dated design, I find this model to be one of the best laptops you can get for these money. There are not that many laptops packing so many nice features in a 15" chassis, especially here, in UK. DELL UK doesn't give you so many customisation options as the US one and their customer & repair service is to stay away from, so it's not a competitor, really
7Enigma - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
Glad to see some dual-core laptops with mid-range graphics getting some review time. The quad-core fad for laptops is really only beneficial for a small minority, the rest of the time it's a battery-wasting expensive upgrade that your graphs show to be of little improvement over a good dual-core.I'm very interested in seeing how Sandy Bridge can close the gap for the notebook sector, because as of right now unless you REALLY need the quad, a dual with better screen/faster gpu is definitely the way to go.
Pjotr - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
Acer Aspire TimelineX 3820TGI still find this increadible value, ATI 5650 1 GB graphics, Core i5, 1.8 kg light weght and up to 8 hours of battery time. It should be around the top of the gaming charts... with a lower price than the reviewed unit and a lot more portable, although the standard low res screen.
synaesthetic - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
The 3820TG is still not available in the US, else I'd own one already. -.-;TrooperOttawa - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
Right now the Dell XPS 15 is only available with the 1366x768 resolution. I agree that if you could still get the Dell with the 1080p screen then the Dell is the better system.So my question is, out of the following machines, which offers the best bang for the buck?
- Compal NBLB2
- Clevo B5130M
- ASUS N53JF-XE1