HTWingNut's Sager NP7330 / Clevo W230ST REVIEW

THE PREVIEW THREAD WAS MOVED TO THIS THREAD TO REDUCE NUMBER OF THREADS.
FIRST POST FROM PREVIEW THREAD DUPLICATED HERE FOR REFERENCE: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...r-np7330-clevo-w230st-review.html#post9296921

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


HTWingNut's Sager NP7330 / Clevo W230ST Review

CPU Benchmarks
- Cinebench 11.5
- wPrime
- x264

SEE MORE DETAILS AND VIDEOS IN THIS THREAD: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...30-clevo-w230st-first-impressions-videos.html


intro INTRODUCTION

Clevo had a hit with the miniscule but mighty laptop that was the W110ER. A very popular model that packed in the components typically found in much larger laptops into a 11.6" form factor. Well Clevo decided to discontinue that model, but they bring us a 13.3" model with an even more impressive full feature set of hardware. It can house a full 47W TDP Intel Haswell CPU, the powerful nVidia GeForce GTX 765m, up to 16GB RAM with two RAM slots, a wi=fi half-height card, and two mSATA plus one 2.5" SATA slot, not to mention a 1080p 13.3" IPS panel and backlit keyboard. This model is coined Sager NP7330 based on the Clevo W230ST and it is chock full of gaming goodness.

specs SPECIFICATIONS
The laptop being reviewed here is a Sager NP7330. And has been fitted with the following components:
LCD: 13.3" 1920x1080 Chi Mei IPS
CPU: Intel i7-4800MQ (2.7-3.7GHz)
GPU: nVidia GeForce GTX 765m with 2GB GDDR5 @ 2000MHz
RAM: 2x8GB Kingston HyperX 2133
STORAGE: 2x128GB Plextor M5M mSATA RAID 0 + 960GB Crucial M500 2.5" SATA SSD
Wi-Fi: Intel 7260 802.11AC Wi-Fi
OS: Windows 8 Pro
Dimensions: 12.99 x 8.94 x 1.26
Weight: 4.6 lbs
Battery: 62WHr / 11.1V, 5600mAH
Power Supply: Chicony 120W / 19.5V, 6.15A (5.75"x3.0"x1", 1 lbs)

ports APPEARANCE AND PORTS
First I will offer a general overview of the laptop. Clevo is known for their conservative styling, but this year they've thrown us a curve ball with their larger SM models with hard angle styling, more accent lighting, and backlit touchpads. Well the W110ER isn't quite as dramatic, but it does offer a lot less bland styling cues from previous generation laptops. First and foremost is the two-tone design; black outer surface with steel gray touch surfaces i.e. keyboard and touchpad bezels, and LCD bezel, and nice touch with a chrome accent around the power button. The black bottom bezel comes up the side and covers about the front third of the laptop and then the gray bezel extend down the sides to the rear. The LCD bezel is a smooth surface and has two thin bumpers, one on each side to keep the LCD separated from the keyboard with the lid closed. The keyboard has chiclet style keys, and a white backlight. All the way around the laptop the top face angles down to a smaller base. The construction is entirely made of plastic, but it is a very rigid and sturdy machine.

As far as ports and features around the laptop, a majority of the ports are located on the right side of the laptop: three USB 3.0 ports at the front, with HDMI, VGA, ethernet, power jack, and Kensington lock slot at the rear. On the left are two audio jacks, one headphone, and one mic, with a single USB 2.0 port behind that one. The single system fan vent takes up the rest of the left side of the laptop. The only device on the front of the laptop is the card reader nestled on the lower right side. The back side houses the 62WHr battery. While I understand there had to be compromises in order to engineer all these powerful components in a small package, having most of the ports on the right side is a bit of an undesirable concession. All the ports are at the front of the laptop so if you have a couple USB cables, ethernet, and a VGA or HDMI cable plugged in, it can get in the way of your mouse, so the cables need to be tightly packaged to go to the rear of the laptop, and 90 degree flat connectors might be a worthy investment if you plan on plugging in HDMI, VGA, or ethernet frequently while using a mouse.







A 2.0MP camera is in its traditional location above the LCD in the center with mic port to the right. A red LED to the left lights up when the webcam is active.

Underneath there is a single large panel to access the internal components of the laptop, secured with three screws. One speaker is located on each rear bottom side of the laptop. Similar to other Sager laptops as of late they utilize Onkyo speakers.

Fit and finish is very good with little to no noticable gaps around the perimeter, and no soft or squeaky spots on the palmrest or other areas like the USB ports where you want a rigid panel when plugging and unplugging USB devices.

Picking up and handling the machine itself, it has some heft to it, but it's noticeably lighter and can be easily handled with one hand. It's thinner than the 11.6" W110ER and packs performance nearly double that of the W110ER. For the few days I've had this laptop I can easily say I will gladly port this laptop around instead of the 15.6" NP9150 that I have been in the past. Not to mention the power adapter is much smaller and lighter as well.


internal INTERNAL COMPONENTS
In typical Sager fashion, all the system components are easily accessible through removal of the bottom panel. Once the three screws securing the bottom panel are removed it just lifts up and pivots for easy removal. Inside the laptop you will see all the replaceable components: CPU/GPU Heatsink, CPU (socketed), GPU (soldered), wi-fi card, two mSATA slots, one 2.5" SATA slot, two RAM slots, CMOS battery, and even the system fan is removable for easy cleaning and/or replacement.

Screws are already existing for the two mSATA slots, so no need to worry about finding one for it if you decide to add your own mSATA SSD. There is a basic plastic bracket used for the 2.5" drive bay that comes preinstalled with whichever SSD or HDD comes with your laptop, otherwise Sager will provide one in your kit along with the screws. The bracket really isn't needed as the drive pulls out easily without it, but there is a foam block on top of it that presses against the back panel to help keep your drive from flopping around. If you have a 7mm height drive you will need a 2.5mm spacer to make sure the SSD is properly engaged and not flexing in the slot.

The heatpipe/heatsink assembly attaches to both the CPU and GPU with two separate heatpipes to a common heatsink and single fan. Four spring captured screws secure the CPU and three small removable screws retain the GPU. All seven screws need to be removed in order to pull off the heatsink. Removing the heatsink and reapplying thermal paste can be done in a snap, with no difficulty.



lapcomps LAPTOP COMPONENTS

keyboard Keyboard:
Adding to the features of this laptop is a nice white backlit keyboard. Using the Fn+F12 key combo or Clevo Control Center, there are two white intensity levels to the keyboard backlight, and can also be turned off. It is a chiclet style keyboard and has a very solid base and does not flex. Main keys are full size including the arrow keys located at the lower right. Home, PgUp, PgDn, Del keys are nicely aligned along the right edge as well. F keys are half height, and Print Screen, Pause/Break, Insert, Del keys are to the right of the F keys. The left Ctrl key is in the far left corner with the Fn key just to the right followed by the Windows key. I only mention that because some laptops swap the Fn key and Ctrl key locations. Personally I like the Control key at the outboard edge.

Ghosting is present like other Sager notebooks. Of note are when the W+A or Q+W keys are pressed the X key does not activate. Also with Q+W+E pressed Z,X,C,V,Space will not activate. But this is no big concern, seeing as it is common among laptop keyboards.

So far I have not experienced any missed keystrokes. Overall it is a very solid keyboard.

psu Power Supply:
Thankfully Sager offers a thin and light power supply with this laptop. The Chicony 120W supply is significantly smaller than the 120W that was provided with the W110ER, and weighs only 1lbs. So far it hasn't seemed to skip or stutter even with the laptop maxed out. In very few conditions though did the laptop push the 120W limit, although when it did you wouldn't know it because the performance was maintained and fluid with this PSU. For the cable that connects between PSU and the wall it uses the round three prong type instead of the typical PC three blade type typically found on desktop PC PSU's. The barrel connector to the laptop is 5.5mm outer diameter, 2.5mm inner diamter so the laptop should be compatible with many other brands, as long as they match the 19.5V output.




lcd LCD:
One of the major selling points of this laptop is the 13.3 inch 1920x1080 matte screen. The specific screen in this laptop is Chi Mei IPS. Other machines may apparently get the AUO AHVA screen, which is AUO's version of IPS. The Chi Mei screen though is simply gorgeous. The contrast is rich, brightness is very bright, and viewing angles are better than what you'd get with your regular TN panels. 1080p resolution on a 13" screen is much more enjoyable than I thought. Things are smaller but they also look very crisp. The pixel density is very tight and makes it look like a much higher resolution than it actually is. The matte finish and brightness make it useable outdoors, even in direct sunlight if max brightness is used, 50-60% is usable in shade.

The high resolution and high quality screen makes it easier to be productive because of the extra pixel real estate we're used to with larger monitors, so less time is spent flipping through windows and more time multi-tasking, at least that's my take on it. I was concerned with the high pixel density and size of icons and text in Windows, but so far it has not been challenging nor resulted in any eye fatigue, and I've used this laptop for running the benchmarks, writing this review, and compiling all the data.

Video scaling during gaming for 1280x720 hardly shows any "jaggies" that would require any amount of Anti-Aliasing. However 2xAA seems to improve whatever jagged lines you may have. It is really difficult to tell if you're running 1080p or 720p.

Screen in direct sunlight with maximum brightness



Different angles of the W230ST (center) alongside the Sager NP9150 (1080p 15.6" 72% gamut) and NP6110 (11.6" 1366x768) in spoiler tag

Spoiler

Front Head on Full Brightness:


Front Head on Min Brightness:


LCD's full tilt back (~ 135 deg)


LCD's top down


LCD's From left side of laptops


LCD's from right side of laptops

touchpad Touchpad:
The synaptics touchpad is 3.25"x1.25", has two separate left and right mouse buttons, and pretty much on size with the Clevo W110ER. The buttons have a solid but softened click noise to them, only accentuated by harder presses. This specific touchpad requires more than just a feather touch to move the mouse, but in my opinion, this is better than the alternative where your mouse jumps all over the place just by resting your hand on the palm rest, and you accidentally overwrite text or place the cursor in a random location. Three finger press and three finger flick are supported, otherwise it's your standard one, two finger commands with pinch zoom, rotating, tap and drag, and configurable tap zones.

speakers Speakers and Audio:
Dual Onkyo tweeters make up the stereo system. They are located in the rear bottom of the laptop, one on either side. They lack bass, otherwise the audio is pretty normal quality for laptop speakers, nothing special. Sound Blaster Cinema software is included which helps tune the audio to your liking and can actually boost the loudness a bit. It won't overpower my kids when they're yelling and screaming, but in a medium quiet environment it can easily be heard.

Audio through the headphone jack was crisp and loud, and did not exhibit irackle.



ccc Clevo Control Center:
I bring this up in every review, but I think it's important for users to know this software exists. The Clevo Control panel offers a plethora of options for controlling system options like power options, screen brightness, speaker volume, along with a handful of other things like camera, touchpad, backlit keyboard, etc. Easily accessible through keyboard Fn+ESC. It's a nice little app to have at your finger tips.




perf PERFORMANCE:

ssd SSD
No laptop these days can be considered a performance laptop without using an SSD at least for the boot drive. In the case of the NP7330 it offers two SATA III speed mSATA ports and a single SATA III 2.5" port. You can RAID any combination of two of these three with either RAID 0 stripe or RAID 1 mirror. For this review unit I decided to RAID 0 two 128GB Plextor M5M mSATA SSD's and use a single 2.5" Crucial M500 960GB SSD for additional storage. While RAID isn't for everyone it is good to have the option than not. If not RAID 0 for improved throughput, even running RAID 1 mirror may be useful for users with frequently changing critical information that want to keep running real-time if a drive for whatever reason decides to quit (although quite rare).

Boot times with UEFI are incredibly fast. Not timed but on the order of 10-15 seconds even with a RAID array. I believe there's a way to hasten the RAID detection as well with UEFI boot drivers, but I haven't figured that out yet. As it is, it is running very well beyond expectation.

In any case here are the performance numbers for the two Plextor M5M in RAID 0 and the single Crucial M500 960GB.





wifi Wi-Fi: Intel 7260 802.11AC
The Intel 7260 Wi-Fi card is based off the 802.11AC draft standard which theoretically can run up to 1300Mbps, faster than gigabit. The Intel 7260 card, however, is rated up to 866Mbps and also supports Wi-Fi N as well as B/G. Using an Asus RT-AC66U router, which supports up to the maximum 1300Mbps transfer speed, I was able to attain about 40-45MB/sec (or ~ 320-360Mbps) up and down stream. While this is a far cry from the 866Mbps max that the card is rated for, it is also somewhat expected considering the performance drop due to the wireless protocols. Wi-Fi N achieves about 12MB/sec (~ 100Mbps) using this same configuration.

Range for this card/router configuration is pretty good. Where I use my laptop 90% of the time in my home is within 20 feet direct line of site to my router. If I go outside with the laptop, I switch to 2.4GHz because 5GHz just isn't good for penetrating walls. And while I get a signal about 50 feet from the router outside my house, sustained speeds are on the order of 25-30Mbps. Testing for this was pretty informal and accomplished just by doing file copies to/from my home server and timing the transfer.

One minor thing I noticed is while connected to the router with minimal network traffic, the speed states 866Mbps, but when I load it up, the speed shows 650Mbps, and the wi-fi graphic bar in Windows drops down to one or two bars. It doesn't really matter, because speeds are sustained, but it's always nice to have accurate status indicators.

Overall I am personally satisfied with these results. It just means indoors I can cut the cord. If doing lots of large file transfers I may hook up the wire but for the most part I feel more freedom to roam.

cpu CPU - Intel i7-4800MQ
The laptop used for this review utilizes the i7-4800MQ CPU. It is really the entry level power user CPU when you look at the line up of i7-4702MQ (37W), i7-4700MQ (47W), i7-4800MQ (47W), i7-4900MQ (47W), i7-4930MX (57W). The i7-4800MQ is the first "full featured" CPU if you look at the specs of the CPU's but the few items omitted (VT-d, TXT, V-Pro) from the i7-4702MQ and i7-4700MQ likely won't affect most users anyhow. While the W230ST is designed to accommodate 47W TDP Haswell mobile CPU's, they can also run fairly hot, by that I mean upper 90C in some situations, but typically only with gaming where the CPU and GPU are both taxed since they share a heatsink and fan.

This machine also supports some limited functions with Intel XTU software. The CPU multipliers can be adjusted up to +400MHz over stock boost speed with the i7-4800MQ (which means max boost from 3.5GHz to 3.9GHz with all four cores, or 4.1GHz with single threaded apps. Keep in mind that the i7-4700MQ can overclock +200MHz, and the i7-4900MQ can be overclocked as much as +600MHz. That being said this machine is pretty much thermally limited so the 4800MQ won't be able to use it's full potential and a 4900MQ just will be overkill and likely not perform much better than the 4800MQ.

In addition to the limited unlocked multipliers, the CPU voltage can be adjusted so you can optimize performance with cooling. Running CPU -100mV lower than stock the system was able to sustain all four cores at 3.5GHz for XTU stress test, Cinebench, wPrime, and x264 benchmarks while remaining under 80C. Otherwise at stock voltage it would struggle to maintain 3.2GHz. By reducing voltage the machine will actually run cooler and also maintain better performance for much longer resulting in better performance as shown by the benchmarks, while also running cooler.

DDR3 1600MHz RAM has been pretty standard for a while. One thing to note, however, is that this system recognized the DDR3 2133MHz RAM installed running at 1866MHz. Ivy Bridge systems wouldn't recognize past 1600MHz regardless of RAM installed. This may be due to the i7-4800MQ CPU or the chipset. In any case it is nice to see a system that recognizes faster RAM. In real world use, however, users won't see much difference in performance. Except with the IGP, it should improve performance with faster system RAM.







You can see results of the CPU in a few CPU benchmarks here, comparing stock config with reduced voltage, which actually performs better because it runs cooler and doesn't trip the TDP limit resulting in CPU throttling.

Here is my recommended way to overclock and see how undervolting can help performance.

<iframe width='560' height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/hRtFy7FpQF4" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>


gpu GPU - nVidia GeForce GTX 765m
Kepler is the latest architecture from nVidia and with the first generation Kepler cards in the 600m series it was clear the performance improvement over Fermi was significant and cooling vastly improved. The 700m series cards are more or less Kepler 2.0, and they made some revisions and improved performance efficiency while still maintaining a cool running GPU. The GTX 765m is quite a great performer and a great choice for this laptop considering how cool it runs, but still delivers exceptional performance even at 1080p.

The GTX 765m has a 128-bit memory bus which can limit its performance at higher resolutions, however it is equipped with 2GB of 2000MHz GDDR5 which helps make up for some of that bandwidth. The core is spec'ed at 850MHz + Boost speed. When taxed it actually runs at 900MHz steady no issue. With the review unit I have the core could only be overclocked +120MHz to 1020MHz with boost, but the vRAM seems to be running like a charm at +600MHz for a 2600MHz speed (5200MHz effective!) which makes up for some of the deficiencies of the limited width bus when gaming at 1080p. The 768 CUDA cores also help keep framerates high.

GPU-Z Stock


GPU-Z Overclock


Performance of this card, are shown in the BENCHMARKS THAT CAN BE FOUND BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK.

Games and benchmarks, where applicable, were run at both 720p and 1080p with Ultra or as close to ultra details as possible. Also an overclocked, or really optimized system was also run to show how much cooler an undervolted and slightly underclocked CPU can run but maintaining more than enough performance for gaming. This optimized system also ran the GPU overclocked to 1020MHz core and 2600MHz vRAM.


temps Temperature and Noise:
In a compact and powerful system like this, temperature is always a concern, and along with that comes fan noise, but a necessary evil, to help keep it cool. Suffice it to say that the cooling system is more than adequate for the 765m GPU, but it struggles a little bit with the i7-4800MQ. Of course using measures described earlier, namely undervolting (thanks to Intel XTU software) helps maintain reasonable CPU temperatures. Other tricks like limiting the FPS of games using nVidiaInspector also can greatly reduce CPU and GPU temperatures.

Following are the peak temperature results of the CPU and GPU for each of the benchmarks performed.

:CPU TEMPERATURES:








:GPU TEMPERATURES:





Surface temperatures in the area above and below the CPU can get a little warm, but on the keyboard nothing uncofortable even with peak CPU loads that encroach 90C. Measured surface temperature around the iopjkl keys at peak CPU load were no higer than 50C. At idle the temps remained in the mid to upper 30C range.





Noise is a tricky one to describe. The fan profile for this machine needs a little bit of work. It can burst to fast speeds out of the blue. It doesn't ramp up, just bursts. Although once fans are enabled they do a great job of keeping the system cool. If you need a quiet environment, however, there is always the Clevo Control Center option for choosing "quiet" mode which will prevent the fans from bursting on. It basically favors noise over temperature, although if you're gaming, the fans will obviously be blow near full intensity. The fan noise, however is a whoosing sound and not a whining noise. The one thing I did notice, however is that the fan when running very low RPM can cause a slight vibration in the palmrest, almost similar to what some hard drives do to laptops.

With Sager laptops, they incorporate a fan option to initiate full fans using the Fn+1 key. So if needed full fans can be applied for maximum thermal performance, however at the sacrifice of a louder machine.


power Power Consumption
Power consumption of the laptop as drawn from the wall during benchmarks:







battery Battery Life:
The laptop configuration used here is probably the worse case scenario for battery life. It has a higher end CPU, two sticks of 1.5V fast RAM, and three SSD's installed. In my browser test, basically taking four Firefox browser tabs using the "reloadevery" add-in, refreshing each of the four fairly flash heavy pages every 1 to 5 minutes, resulted in about three and a half hours of use.

The laptop itself was set to power saver mode, LCD at 30% brightness, wi-fi on (of course), and keyboard backlight off.


conclusion CONCLUSION:
Overall the NP7330 is very sturdy, with high quality components including an IPS 1080p LCD, solid backlit keyboard, plenty of ports, and a decent style to boot. While the system is offered with CPU's up to and including an i7-4900MQ, users are best to stick with an i7-4800MQ or i7-4700MQ or i7-4702MQ if offered due to thermal constraints. There are options to improve the cooling thanks to Intel XTU support, but it's not possible for the higher end CPU's to perform at their maximum potential. This does not mean that users looking for high performance with a CPU for video encoding or compiling code shouldn't consider a faster CPU, just that they won't realize the full performance of them.

The Sager NP7330 offers excellent gaming performance in a nice little package. Gaming performance was admirable, even at 1080p with ultra details in most cases. But dropping settings a little boosted performance well within playable levels for games that struggled a bit. Even if the machine ends up not performing to your expectations at 1080p (which Ultra details pushes even to end desktops), running at 720p or 900p was almost indiscernable in fidelity compared with the native resolution of 1080p due to the high pixel density, and I really had a hard time telling the difference.

Port location isn't the most ideal, as they seemed to push everything to the right side front of the laptop where cables and USB drives can interfere with your mouse. It appears the speakers forced this location, and to be honest am still trying to figure out why they weren't moved topside. But it's a minor gripe considering the rest of the laptop design and performance is top notch. Battery life is also a concern, but my testing was really worse case scenario. It should easily exceed 4 hours of light use, and will do some further testing to validate that claim. Sager also has been known to update their BIOS to help battery life as well, but right now, we can safely say 4 hrs is a light use realistic scenario.

If you're looking for something more portable than a 15" notebook but don't want to sacrifice screen pixel real estate or gaming performance, then this laptop will deliver. It's size makes it easy to grab and handle with one hand, but doesn't feel like it will get damaged sitting in your bag.

Overall I give this laptop a 9/10.

 

benchmarks BENCHMARKS

Three configurations of benchmarks:
(1) RED - Stock configuartion at 1280x720 resolution
(2) BLUE - Stock configuration at 1920x1080 resolution
(3) PURPLE - Overclock configuration at 1920x1080 resolution

Stock configuration:
CPU @ 3.5GHz (quad) stock voltage
GPU @ 900MHz core, 2000MHz vRAM

Overclock Configuration:
CPU @ 3.2GHz (quad) -100mV (0.9V)
GPU @ 1020MHz core, 2600MHz vRAM



artgpu Artificial GPU Benchmarks

3dm113DMark 11


3dm133DMark 13
Ice Storm


Cloud Gate


Fire Strike


abenchAllbenchmark RC5 (Catzilla)


heavenUnigine Heaven


valleyUnigine Valley





gamegpu Game Benchmarks

bf3Battlfield 3


bsinfBioshock Infinite


crysis3Crysis 3


dirt3Dirt 3


fc3Far Cry 3


ffxivFinal Fantasy FFXIV


grid2Grid 2


hitmanabsHitman Absolution


metrollMetro Last Light


re6Resident Evil 6


sleepdogSleeping Dogs


tombTomb Raider


shogun2Total War Shogun 2


witcher2The Witcher 2





cpubench CPU Benchmarks

cineb115Cinebench 11.5


wprimewPrime


x264x264

 

THE PREVIEW THREAD FIRST POST IS REPOSTED HERE FOR CONVENIENCE. THE PREVIEW THREAD HAD SOME INFORMATIVE STUFF THERE FROM MANY USERS, BUT HAD THAT CLOSED AND CONTINUE CONVERSATION IN THIS THREAD TO KEEP IT CLEAN AND NOT SO CONFUSING.

SEE THE ORIGINAL PREVIEW THREAD HERE: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...30-clevo-w230st-first-impressions-videos.html

I finally got my little guy. I'm naming him Defiant based on the "though little ship" commanded by Worf in Star Trek First Contact.




NOTES:
- LCD is CMN 1343 or Chi Mei Innolux N133HSE-EA1: Innolux N133HSE-EA1 Stock 510 pcs - Panelook.com
- 2133MHz Kingston RAM is running at 1866MHz out of the gate with i7-4800MQ
- Fn+1 full speed fan works like in other Sager notebooks
- Looks like Intel XTU will allow voltage adjustments to CPU!
--- UPDATE: Sustained 3.5GHz all four cores with i7-4800MQ at <80C, dropping voltage 0.125V.
- Fan profile needs some work. It tends to burst time and again, and if spiked with a benchmark like Intel XTU or SuperPi or whatever the temps will go to 80C+ before the fan kicks in.
- Keyboard ghosting same as other Clevo keyboards
- Temperature on the keyboard after a 20 minute BF3 gaming session was ~ 37C at the WSAD and palm rest/touchpad, and ~47C at the IOPJKL area of keyboard.
- BF3 gaming session pushed the CPU to 90C but GPU never exceeded 70C (but remained > 60FPS at high settings and 1080p)
- Battery life was 3hrs 25mins with browser test.
- Slight vibration can be felt in the system due to fan.
- Touchpad is not ultra-sensitive and so far have not had any random moving of the cursor because of it.
- Bottom panel held on by three screws, lift up from side to pivot open, everything accessible: CPU, GPU, RAM, 2xmSATA, 1xSATA, Wi-fi
- Keyboard is solid, no missed keystrokes, two levels of white backlight.
- Propping up the back of the laptop reduces peak temps by about 7-10C !!!
- GTX 765m will run sustained at 900MHz with Boost 2.0 (stock)


IMAGES:
Backlit Keyboard:


Bottom Opened:


Wild Animals:


Here's images of the NP9150/P150EM, NP7330/W230ST, NP6110/W110ER LCD's (Left to right) = 15.6" LG 72% Gamut 1080p, 13.3" Chi Mei IPS 1080p, 11.6" AUO 315C 768p

It's really difficult to take a good photo for this type of thing with my camera, so sorry if it's not better.

Front Head on Full Brightness:


Front Head on Min Brightness:


LCD's full tilt back (~ 135 deg)


LCD's top down


LCD's From left side of laptops


LCD's from right side of laptops



I did some quick and dirty videos to show you guys some detail. This is basically raw footage, sorry for that, and I'm no cinematographer or presenter, so you'll have to live it.

SPECIAL THANKS TO LPC DIGITAL and LARRY especially for expediting this order.

But here's some videos to help out from the start. More details will be coming as fast as I can post them:

<iframe width='640' height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/uz05XpeHAqA" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width='640' height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/R3Pm3-j261s" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width='640' height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0cgtAcWSToM" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width='640' height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/QutTmEdGBCI" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width='640' height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Jfsv41gUa0k" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width='640' height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/bmOCTJ5vjvw" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>


COMPARISON of 1080p vs 720p IN GAMES (select 1080p for best comparison):

<iframe width='640' height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/9dyxtoIkVKc" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width='640' height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/YZyub87L8pM" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width='640' height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/I-nBltF8p4E" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width='640' height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/AIPh8kdaY8c" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width='640' height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/hRtFy7FpQF4" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width='640' height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/avuyVVG8kVg" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

About damn time HT!!!! Kiddin

Time to read it

 

Wow!!!

 

Good stuff as always, bro

Btw, when mine comes, if someone would care to show me how to record gaming videos (aside from me holding my cameraphone in front of the computer), I'd be glad to share some.

 

Excellent post. Gonna use this as much as I can.

 

I'm surprised at how poorly Far Cry and Bioshock performed :/

 

Why what's wrong?? did the performance throttle? Or is the 765m not enough power?? If it's the latter then can you imagine how your slower gtx 660m will do at 1080 native res? Maybe you need something like 770m or 780m in the 13-14" oh wait they don't exist except for 15"-17" bigger/bulkier gaming laptops.

 

Thanks for the great review... you didn't mention though that your LCD had a blemish (someone else's did too, from the lounge thread). I hope the fault rate isn't too high for this laptop.

How blurry does it look when downscaled to 720p? 900p?

 

Htwingnut, since you have the laptop I figure I ask something that's been bugging me. I am looking at obtaining either the Sager NP7330 or the Alienware 14. However the more I read the more I study about the geforce gtx770m and the fact that everyone that has it says is way better than the geforce gtx765m by about 30%. I understand that there's 1extra gb of ram to be had with the 770m GPU and that the memory is at 192bit. I also understand the fact that neither of the above mentioned machines could be obtained with the 770m. It is why I'm now looking into the Sager NP8230.

My question is could the supposed 30% improve performance of the 770m be achieve with careful overclocking off a 765m? If the answer is no, how close can the gap be narrowed?

Thanks in advance.

 

He already answered your question---in the figure charts with and without overclocking in the second post in the review. Look at the FPS for different games---they are about 30% higher with overclocking.

 

Is it not weird that the oced CPU reaches lower temps? Can you explain this?



edit: what about the GPU?

 

You should probably re-read the review, the overclocked run is actually just generally optimised. At stock voltage the cpu was generating too much heat so had trouble maintaining absolute top turbo speed, Wingnut reduced the voltage but the cpu remained stable and in doing so the cpu produced less heat so could consistently run at top turbo speed while also being cooler.

As for the gpu, that side of the system was always pretty cool, so that just got a nice overclock though most of the performance boost comes from overclocking the vram which is a bit bottlenecked at higher resolutions.

 

For Windows desktop it's actually not bad. Here's some images for you, click on the images to expand much larger:

Spoiler

Text (browser):
1280x768 (Win 8 won't do below 768 vertical)


1600x900


1920x1080


Desktop:
1280x720


1600x900


1920x1080

Undervolting, and actually CPU is underclocked to maintain speed. That was the point of the spiel in the CPU section of the review.

 

LOL I realized I put "NP7330 1080 OC 1080p" when it just should read "NP7330 OC 1080p". Sorry. I'm not in the mood to go and fix them all right now.

 

Do you know at what temperature throttling starts? I mean, just to know what's the margin because there is a lot of people complaining about temps.

 

Allright, I couldn't find an answer to this so far, but maybe I just lost track because so far we have got 4 threads about this one notebook ;P Anyway, my question is: Does the lid stay closed when you carry the notebook around with one hand/under your arm? What I mean by this is whether or not the lid flexes or wobbles or if the hinges are strong enough to really hold the lid against the base without any play. This is a pet peeve of mine because I might have to carry it around libraries like that. Thanks in advance.

 

Based on TDP not necessarily temperature. It can throttle at 75C when just CPU is fully taxed and no GPU, or at 90C when incombination with GPU.

Yeah I think we need to close the thread in the regular Sager and Clevo forum (Could this be the 13" we've been waiting for). I'll add my PREVEW post to my REVIEW thread, and close the preview thread, and that way we have the Owner's Lounge and then Review thread. Of course hopefully others offer their reviews as well.

Regarding the lid, I'll check that when I get home from work today. It seems pretty solid, but I'll hold it and see.

 

so the machine is reviewed with the gpu heatpipe damaged heatsink?

 

Damaged? Where did you read that? No, no damage.

 

Sorry, I don't actually get it.TDP isn't constant? You got a link or something? xD

 

Trying to explain TDP is kind of like trying to envision the fourth dimension of a tesseract. It makes your eyes bug out and your head hurt.

 

TDP="this is the maximum power your CPU might use, but it's usually less than that"

Unless I'm wrong, it tells you what your *max* power usage can be expected to be---it's not some precise measure of how much power you are going to use.

 

Preview thread moving to this thread to reduce confusion.

 

You know one thing about this notebook that's bothered me is why no esata and still a VGA port?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

Hey WingNut, very thorough review. I very much appreciate the information you have provided as I have been watching the model for a couple weeks. Having been a fan of the M11x line and performing my own CPU/GPU heatsink modifications but still lacking the performance I would desire from a performance system this looks like the golden ticket.

A question though, provided heat not being an issue, think we could get an aftermarket PSU for 140w to provide a bit more overclocking head room? Or maybe the internal connection could be a limiting factor? I plan to push this machine to its limits after collecting more information

Thanks again man

 

From the Intel Xeon white paper:

"TDP is not the maximum power that the processor can dissipate... The thermal design power is the maximum power a processor can draw for a thermally significant period while running commercially useful software." (page 2)

So a processor can actually exceed TDP for a short time (turbo boost does this sometimes), but the time averaged power dissipation (over a long period of time) should always be at or below TDP. Yep, it's complicated.

 

Hey HTWingNut. Great review and preview of the new Clevo. Awesome job.

I have one question. What program are you using to overclock the GPU? I'll be getting the Mythlogic Chaos 1313 laptop soon, and I'll be doing the same overclocking and undervolting as you did.

Thanks!

 

Does anyone know how to fix the fan rattle on this laptop? It sounds like a hd is constantly being accessed.

 

The Sager 180W will work fine with this laptop. I don't know that you will need anything much more powerful than the 120W though. You shouldn't have to worry until power draw from the wall exceeds 130W or so. And that won't happen unless you have an overvolted highly overclocked GPU. In any case if that happens I'll probably just use a 180W at home and 120W for "on the go".

 

WingNut, Thank you for such an excellent review!!! Now I just have to survive the torture of waiting for mine to arrive.

 

is there any laptop you would recommend that functions like this one but with a better battery life/thinner/larger screen?

 

MSI GE40 (thermal problems though)
Gigabyte P34G (not out yet)

 

yea I was thinking about the p34g, it might be out in taiwan, in that case I can get someone I know to ship it over.

 

Look at the bottom of the first post here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...-clevo-w230st-sager-np7330-owners-lounge.html

I list competitors to the W230ST. They are all pretty much 14" machines, although most are 750m or 760m and not 765m. Razer Blade is the closest competitor overall, except their screen is crap and costs ~$700 more for one equipped with 256GB SSD.

 

Thanks for a great review. Waiting in agony to get mine here in Norway. Its called Xishan W320S up here.

What is the correct weight of the computer? In the video you put on a scale displaying 4.1 lbs, and in your review you write 4.6 lbs.

 

I believe that was 4lbs and .10oz or 4.65lbs

 

No. That would be 4lbs 1.6oz or as it reads 4.1lbs.

[EDIT]
as to the missing weight it may have been done before he added all of the extra drives... which along with the memory could weigh a collective .5lbs. (8Oz. or c. 227g)
[/EDIT]

 

Awesome review HT. :thumbsup: I pulled the trigger for this laptop. This will be my portable buddy now.

 

I did last Friday as soon as I had read about temps in hist 1st impressions thread and good results with control by undervolting. The 8250 while smaller than my GT725 is just still too big/heavy/unwieldly to be lugged around as much as I had hoped, although I'm keeping for use when I will be traveling somewhere where it will be/could be parked for periods of time. All other cases it'll have to be the 7330...

 

htwingnut you sure have gotten alot more knowledgeable about laptops over the last few years. excellent review

one question though have you tried windows 7 on it? are there drivers for windows 7? if there are im buying one of these this week and retiring my desktop. i only play dota2 nowadays and a desktop with gtx680 is kinda overkill.

 

Pulled the trigger on mine last week. Still waiting for Mythologic to put it in the build queue though. I wonder how long it is gonna take.

 

The laptop comes with Windows 7 and Windows 8 drivers. I will install Windows 7 soon but using a single SSD. I don't see the drivers available for download yet though.

 

thanks for replying so fast, are the driver included in a usb drive and shipped with the laptop?

if so i probably order one today, hoping to get it before i move next month. according the benchmarks the gtx 765m seems to be almost on par with a desktop gtx 650 ti which should be more than enough for dota2.

 

where would be the best place to order this laptop (the cheapest)?, also i don't see the ips display HT is referring to. I only see AUO AHVA ips display. Is the Chi Mei IPS better or the AHVA?

 

Nobody has gotten an AUO yet AFAIK since they are still shipping them with Chemei, but that is going to change soon.

 

The drivers are on DVD. You will have to copy them onto USB Flash (using another computer) or attach external DVD drive.

 

damnnn. gonna have to buy a dvd drive first then. none of my desktop or notebooks have one lol.

 

Hey HT I've been having a weird sound issue.

So yesterday when I got this, I installed windows 7, upgraded it to 8, then played some youtube videos and I was blown away with how crisp the sound was coming through my headphones (no drivers installed except for LAN driver). Everything else default.

Today I installed all the drivers from the CD and the optional soundblaster driver. The audio is noticeably worse. Even tuning in soundblaster. It sounds really hollow. Also, sound only works when I disable Intel Display Audio (leaving only VIA High Definition Audio).

Any thoughts on this?