Razer Blade (2014) Owner's Lounge

Well we can get a 480 from amazon for about half the price, plus you end up with an extra 128 to reuse too.

However I am still hopeful that there are two slots and that support is wrong. It would not surprise me if they have to answer that no it doesn't have a 2nd slot since they do not support self upgrades. I would actually be even happier if there is only 1 M.2 slot, and the old 2nd slot is still an msata style, I doubt that though.

 

Yeah, I think there's still room to be hopeful. When I replied with my gripe that I'd rather have 2x mSata than 1x M.2 SATA, he replied a few minutes ago and let me know that they cannot answer questions about the possible modification of their systems. "As such, we can only share specifications that have been posted to our product pages and PR materials.
Endorsing user modification would lead to frivolous warranty claims."

So basically "no second slot" but there might still be one. Honestly, having that second slot is kind of smart for them to have if you can just cancel warranties for the user utilizing it. These are long chips though so there might not be space for two.

 

I would highly doubt that they put only one M.2 slot on the motherboard. It would be a pretty major regression in design, and I'm fairly certain the Razer is fully aware of the fact that most of the people who buy Blades are going to want to open them up and add as much storage as possible. They just can't say anything about it because they don't offer dual M.2's themselves. Advertising something that you don't sell fundamentally makes no sense at all.
Still a throw-up between this and the Clevo W230SS for me. Definitely leaning towards the Blade though, most likely one from HIDevolution with dual Crucial M550 512GB drives in RAID 0. Should be absolutely killer, especially with that 870m only having to power 1600x900 res when gaming (gotta love IGZO when it comes to downscaling).

 

Hoping you are right haamun. And hoping we have confirmation soon.

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Since I have normal ground shipping I likely won't be the first but I will rip mine open as soon as I test it out to make sure there are no defects out of the box, and that I am sure I won't want to return it.

I won't be able to manage with 128GB SSD so I will have to open it and upgrade no matter what. Only reason I went this route is because I got a 512GB with the 2013 version and kicked myself for it because I only wanted to open it up and replace it with bigger SSD's and at a cheaper cost.

 

Guys, let's try to keep the shipping stuff to the Ship Date thread... If possible, we should keep this thread as clean as possible until people actually start receiving their Blades.

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What SSD brand do Razer use for their Blades? Does anyone know?

 

I believe I read somewhere they were using Samsung XP941 but I'm not certain. You may be able to find out from a Blade Pro (2014) owner but I don't think we'll really know for sure until the Blades ship and somebody opens theirs up.

 

I doubt it's that model. XP941 is PCIe, and their website and reps say the drive is sata. That Samsung drive is crazy expensive too.

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Eh? Pretty much every laptop provides specs of the machine even if you can't buy it pre-configured that way.

 

Really? I've opened up older devices to find unused ports. Most motherboards are printed for mass use, and not all functionality may be utilized. It makes total sense if they want more 512GB orders as well to not offer it as an option or make it known. Pretty sure the original marketing material for the 2013 Blade didn't mention the second bay either.

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People over at the Ship Date thread have had their Blades beginning to ship. Let's hope to have some footage and mainly, details about the M.2 slots around tomorrow!

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I'm more interesting on how it handles temps during gaming, fan noise under load and how games look when lowering the screen res to 900P/1080P.
If it can handle those relatively good I will join the ranks of RAZER ownership.

 

Me too! I've just been waiting for reports until I decide which to buy.

 

Hey guys, can we keep the shipping posts on the shipping thread? /s

 

This thread will need a massive cleanup when person #1 who actually owns one steps in.

 

Which means we might as well delete all posts up till the first person who receives his/her Blade.

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Or split the thread off as "Razer Blade (2014) Pre-Orderer's Lounge"

 

Blade 14 wishing well

 

Renaming to pre ordered lounge is the best idea yet. Who's in charge around here?

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Eh - might as well keep the thread. When we have actually useful information, I'll add it to the first post. The XPS 15 thread was similar at first, but it ended up being productive.

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is there a way to order the 2014 blade via phone?

 

Sorry, there is not. Razer Contact Us for any questions related to placing an order online.

 

Any chance you will head over to the 2014 Razer 14 Ship thread and tell us what is going on? Some people (the haves) are stoked there systems are shipping. Others (the have nots) are left wondering when they will get theirs and look on with envy at the "haves".

http://forum.notebookreview.com/razer/749913-2014-razer-blade-14-ship-date-thread.html

 

It's almost May and there is still no actual review on this model??

 

Soon, they just started arriving today to people, I would imagine this includes major tech outlets at the least. At best those places may have had them for a bit already and will post reviews now that users are getting them.

 

So I am one of the lucky ones who got their new Blade 14 today. Currently DL'd games. I'll post some FPS asap.

I'll be testing:
D3 RoS
ESO
Metro Last Light
Tomb Raider
Skyrim
Bio Infinite
Dark Souls 2.

Gonna test at native with various settings, and 900P.(Prolly safe to assume its gonna smoke 900P)
I'm guessing at native w/medium graphics FPS at 40-50ish...

Anyways I'll update asap. Let me know if you want any other info. I have a 2013 Blade and so far the 2014 feels more solid. Screen is WAAAAAY better(obviously) looks just as advertised, Refresh is 60Hz.

Cheers!

 

Sorry, do you mind downloading the free trial of X-Plane 10, and trying it out at native, 900p and 1080p?

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Any chance you wanna let us know if there's a free SSD slot?

 

Do you have a 1440p monitor to hook it up to? Wondering if the HDMI supports 1440p at 60hz. Also noise/heat/batterylife/zomg more deetz.

 

NP, gonna be a while though.

 

Lol, I'm not a tech guru, I would wreck this thing trying.

 

Don't have a monitor, sorry.

 

So Diablo 3 RoS...

Native Max settings w/o AA... FPS: Idle @45ish. While playing 25-45, 30ish average.
900P Max settings... Idle 110, Playing 90-110, 95 average.

Looks amazing at native, def playable, reducing shadow to med gave an extra 10ish FPS.
900P looked same as my 2013 blade. My 2013 blade FPS at max is 40-50ish for comparison.

Also the game is not fully downloaded...not sure if this makes a difference or not.

 

Thanks a lot for these reviews, so far based on your D3 test it seems like it wasn't so much of a stretch to go 3k on the 870m. By any chance could you comment on the temperature and fan noise? And I know there is a "do not touch" hot bar at the top, but does the heat extend to the keyboard ?

 

NP Brotha,

Yeah, so far so good. Native at Max with shadow at Med seems to be the sweet spot hasn't dipped below 35 and averages 40+. I don't know the exact temps, but it feels the exact same as my 2013. Heat is above the keyboard and actually the middle of the keyboard is cool to touch unlike my 2013. Fan noise is the same, maybe very slightly less loud. A nice quite hum with volume down.

 

This is excellent news. BTW, when you say it looks the same as the 2013 in 900P, do you mean as in it doesn't look downscaled? The 2013 wasn't exactly known for its screen images...

 

Yeah, 900P does not look downscaled, or at least I don't notice a difference. But....It is sooo hard to not fall in love with native.
Wish my internet was faster so I could try a more demanding game. And to think if I lived a mile south of where I am now I'd have Google Fiber.

 

Well.. Looks like I have an order to place..

 

Can you run HWMonitor while you game and report out those temps? Just reset temps in between games to get max temps for each game? Thanks, and enjoy your machine!

 

There are interior pics in the shipping thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/raz...blade-14-ship-date-thread-39.html#post9634773

There's no second M.2 or mSATA slot (at least, not on the side of the board we can see). One slot is all we appear to get.

 

Someone on reddit mentioned that the trackpad wasn't "clicky" like the rMBP. Would anyone care to elaborate on that? Also, could people talk a bit more about the physical aspects of the blade, such as its keyboard, speakers, overall build quality, etc?

 

Also please comment on how well the trackpad works and responds to multi touch gestures. Comparisons to MBA/MBP and Zenbook trackpads would help too. Thanks in advance.

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The lack of a second M2sata slot is a bit of a surprise and very disappointing to me. With the new screen this would have been a great laptop for photographers but there simply isnt enough hard disk capacity. Sticking with 2 msata slots would have been so much better especially with 1TB msatas available. M2sata doesnt add anything anyway. I wouldnt buy a laptop without the ability to have 2 separate hard drives in any case. To me it really cripples the specs at this sort of price range.

 

I will try to verify that there isn't another slot on the other side of the board when I get mine.

Plus, if there is room, I may try to put in a 1TB mSATA drive in using an adapter. It only adds about 1mm height, so I'll have to look at mine and see if I want to try it or not. While 1Tb is still not as good as 2Tb in the 2013 Blade, I would take 1Tb over 512!

 

That's a really good idea. Please share how it turns out. I agree with the above post. I would rather have 2x msata over 1x m.2. Makes no sense why companies use m.2 if it's not pcie compatible. There's no speed advantage and they are larger in size. Also, nobody has a TB m.2 yet. Still not a game changer for me but certainly a big bummer.

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With everyone complaining about the drive space... whats the big issue using a USB 3.0 portable drive. If you are worried about gaming on the go -- install what you need locally -- key word...NEED. Install what you dont need -- on the portable drive.

USB 3.0 is FAST..maybe not as fast as eSATA on writes but pretty damn close. Im not going to argue that internal is best -- bc it is... but its not a deal breaker.

I picked up my 1TB drive for 60 bucks on tiger direct. It should fit in any lap top bag.. jusssst fine

 

Usb 3.0 is fast maybe if you have an external ssd. Spinning drives? No sorry, especially for a photographer's needs. Batch processing is insanely faster on an ssd.

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Problem solved: Amazon.com: Kingston DataTraveler HyperX Predator 1TB USB 3.0 Flash Drive (DTHXP30/1TB): Computers & Accessories

 

Wow, nice lol! Just a tad pricey

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