Lafite III vs Lafite II Review

I wrote a review for the Lafite II I purchased last year as I was really impressed with it after receiving it. It was my first foray into building a custom PC of any sort, and earlier this year had thought about getting one for my other half as our other laptop runs at a glacial pace. Unfortunately the Lafite disappeared off the website, but version III appeared just as Clunk decided to stop operating all together.

Since the husbeast had initially been thinking about a Macbook as he does a bit with music recording and wants to get back into photo editing/graphic design - but was put off by the cost. We specced out what an i7 Lafite would be with a m2 drive and pulled the trigger. Thanks to the collapse of the pound we couldn't stretch to any more than a 256 Samsung m2, but we can also add another hard drive in the near future.

I have to say that I am even more impressed with the Lafite III than I am with the Lafite II. I love my Lafite II, but the build quality lets it down when put next to a Macbook, and it does mark or scratch if you so much as look at it with anything other than a microfibre cloth. I've really babied this machine, but on occasion I've taken it out of the furry lined laptop sleeve it lives in to find new marks of inexplicable origins. This is also important for typing - the edge on my Lafite, where you rest your hands is quite pronounced and leaves a line in your wrists. The Lafite III has a curved edge, eliminating this problem.

The Lafite III appears to be of a much better build quality and stronger chassis. I've taken some side by side photos for those would like to see how they compare. The footprint of the Lafite III is slightly wider, but it's slightly shorter in terms of length and depth. The fan placement is also better - with a grille hidden in the screen hinge, so you can use it more easily as a laptop without having to make sure it's resting on something solid all the time. That said, the i7 does mean that the fans do kick in at the slightest provocation. Changing the mode has helped a little here, but I know it's just the nature of i7s.

The Lafite II is on the left/top of the below pictures and the Lafite III (Calvin & Hobbes!) is on the right/bottom. I find myself a bit jealous and tempted to upgrade myself when the new Intel processors come out.



You can see the difference in footprint here:


The Lafite III is definitely narrower - better choice of ports too:



The Lafite III has specific mouse buttons, full-sized arrow keys and a row of Home/End etc. Weirdly though, the screen doesn't go back quite as far. I also think the new keyboard feels nicer to type on:



Hopefully here you see what I mean about build quality - the Lafite III is just much better finished:



I hope that was useful! Let me know if you've got any questions

Nice review and nice pics. Thanks for taking the time to share.

Good review. For music recording I would suggest dual-booting with a Linux Studio distro as that will have a low latency kernel, plus something like Ubuntu Studio (https://ubuntustudio.org/ )will give you the option to include various packages, GIMP is one, on install and they are great for photo editing, graphic design and stuff.

Thanks for the tips! We've already installed GIMP and Gravit but I hadn't thought of dual-booting Linux. Might be something to consider once we've added more HDD space.

Ubuntu Studio will not take up much space: https://ubuntustudio.org/

If you keep an eye on Amazon and places like that there are often some quite good deals on external USB drives. I have a load of Seagate ones, they are not too expensive and have all lasted really well. Nice and slim these days as well, the first 1TB drive I got years ago is still going strong but the casing is actually bigger than the 5TB I got a couple of months back.

We've got a couple already - a Toshiba hooked up to the games console and a tiny Samsung 2TB one that I use for carting movies around. I did wonder, if I wanted to install, say a Samsung Evo 850 for extra storage at some point (which is what I have in my laptop - kicking myself for not having gone down the m2 route when I ordered to make it easy to add extra drives), am I able to easily fit it myself? I assume there's some adapter or cable I'd need to connect it to the motherboard and maybe a housing for it? Or with it going in a laptop, can it just slot right in? I'd open up the laptop myself and take a look, but he's using it I've switched out RAM and HDDs before, but never installed one where there's been a gap, so excuse my lack of knowledge!

There's a service manual for the Clevo N131BU, which is what I believe the Lafite III is, here: https://tinyurl.com/ycycr9mk which details replacing an HDD in section 2 - 7

It should slot in, and you can do it yourself without it affecting the warranty (as long as you don't break anything in the process, etc..) Seems as simple as it is with many other clevo laptops.

The drive needs to be 7mm thick, which I think would include the 850 Evo. A 9.5mm drive would apparently not fit.

Thanks for the service manual link, I came here to ask for advice on cleaning out the fans. Anything I should be aware of before I open up my auntie's Lafité III?