*** Official Clevo P770ZM / Sager NP9772 and P770ZM-G / Sager NP9773 Owner's Lounge ***

I cant understand...sorry can u be more specific. thanks

 

Mxm might change soon.

 

Subwoofer Fix

Initially, the subwoofer would not work in my P770ZM. However, after installing the latest Realtek audio drivers (available through Windows 8.1 Updates or from Realtek), I was finally able to get the subwoofer to work with the following settings in the Realtek Audio Manager:

From here, you can click the subwoofer to invoke an audio test. However, under the Windows Playback Devices, I find that selecting the Configure option for the Speakers and then clicking the subwoofer provides a more definitive test.

 

well the current trend is going towards soldered components, both for CPU and GPU. but lunap, another user here, shared some info about upcoming clevo models with socketed desktop cpus, such as the current ZM series, that makes me hopeful that theres gonna be future MXM GPUs as well especially since combining a desktop CPU with a soldered GPU wouldnt make much sense imho aside from that, i dont think that the MXM form factor itself will change, i dont really see a need for that (yet). that might change with volta though...

 

So, I will refer you to msi which stated they will continue to support mxm for at least a year. Meanwhile, the top bit bandwidth is about 256, we have hbm coming next year, pcie 4 (but this isn't yet nec. b.c we haven't saturated pcie 3 on laptops).

As to future changes, the mxm 3.1 std rev. 1 was published in 2012, meaning a new standard is due to arrive. I see card dimensions being relatively similar, but pins may change for new support (if they are evil). So time will tell. Also, msi may have been promising to support two card versions during this time, the new standard and a stripped down version ours supports (by std., not theory for what may be able to use and be transmitted over the current mxm3.1b connect in our machines). Sorry, I'm having my first cup of coffee.

 

No matter what, there will be two "generations" (likely two refreshes or one refresh + one generation) after the current 900M series. This is because MSI offers two full generations of official, paid upgrades to their (mostly) high end models, the GT72 and GT80, after the 980M. So we're not going anywhere jusssst yet.

Beyond that though... no way to tell. If AMD doesn't bring anything nVidia could just say "solder it all" like Intel and force people to buy more machines, and TDP lock them on a BIOS level that's doubly re-enforced in drivers (as we've seen drivers officially ignore vBIOS blocking, which also means they COULD fix maxwell/880M fluctuations with drivers, but failed entirely to do so because "lol what is competition".

Getting off track, but yeah. I'll be surprised as all hell if come 2017-2018 we're back to full sockets and letting our hardware roam free like the birds in the sky. I still think those days are long gone.

 

Fall 2016 is two releases beyond current 980m. Considering AMD is doing this year as a new taste of lower energy (and temp) use add to the potential that next spring's arctic island gpus may be competitive. Volta is primarily two things: hbm vram and virtual ram share. Nvidias virtual ram share is actually a couple years behind amds, but amd has not fully incorporated what they've developed on it because they have it categorized with the hsa interface of apus and nvidia won't support it with amd apus (Nvidia's choice) as Intel won't support it with amd gpus. So it is moot. But, with directx 12 and vulkan, it will theoretically divide the workload better amongst components and may add support allowing for amd gpus to do it better than nvidia. Considering amd has stated they are now incorporating the best of all ip into both zen/k12 and their arctic island set, and Intel will likely support it because of Nvidia, amd could pull some competition next year (also being on 14nm instead of 16nm). Also, they are trying to unify socket across chips, which could incentivize Intel to sip this bull s of a new socket per year, which isn't needed. Only reason the enthusiast board supports two years is the Xeon using companies told them that two years is the minimum the would allow without telling Intel to scuttle off!

 

What we don't know is if pascal will be in that second release, or if they're going to do it like Kepler (600M, 700M, 800M). Previously, there were only two gens... 9000M/200M, 400M/500M, with some 600M rebrands that were more of a placeholder until kepler actually came out (670MX, 675MX) that doesn't count as another release. So if fall 2016 is Pascal, then pascal should stay in MXM straight. That'll clear us till 2018. But as I did say... if come 2017/2018 we're back to full socketed, non-power-limited, non-crippled hardware, well...

 

Personally, I just hope that AMD starts treating its mobile GPU line like its gpu line! AMD is still the best cards out for 4k (qualified statement, pending review of the new titan benchmarks, updates on 980 benchmarks at 4k). The new Titan release actually was in response to the R9 release at an NVIDIA event in 2013. Middle fingers flying between these companies. So, what became a potential release of a card seemed to be pushed off so that it wasn't competing with Titan sales for Nvidia fanboys and to give time to release an assault on all fronts, mobile, low, middle, and high end desktop (haven't checked to see if the server market is due for an update as well).
Personally, I am looking at 2017 being my upgrade (except to a new videocard next year). At most, NVIDIA or AMD will receive ONLY one upgrade for this machine in sales. Beyond that, I'm looking at updated Zen (if AMD pulls it off AND Clevo supports them) or whatever Intel is calling beyond cannonlake.. I might stretch it to 2018 IFF they are incorporating the new light (photonic) standards into laptops at that point (it will be in high end servers starting 2017/18). Look at the ending of the JV to develop photonics etc. recently. That gives 2-3 years to get it into high end devices (and is one of the last ways to significantly boost speeds to meet the 2020 industry goals).
I'm praying hard that AMD isn't just puffing that the Zen cpus will be the next opteron and athlon of this generation (the last time they provided major competition forcing Intel to pay HP and others NOT to use AMD chips, made illegal contracts preventing competition, lost many antitrust cases, etc.). If so, and in conjunction with a decent ARM chip, Intel may get a bug up its ass. Also, AMD is making the socket possibly interchangeable with server to desktop and possibly some desktop to ARM... Skybridge http://www.amd.com/en-us/press-releases/Pages/ambidextrous-computing-2014may05.aspx

 

Whats your advice regarding the Wifi card? Intel AC 7265 or Qualcomm Atheros Killer AC 1525 in P770ZM? I´ve herd that both of them have/had issues..

I'm finally going to order mine today after reading both this thread and the Batman thread.

I must congratulate everyone involved as I´ve never seen a forum with so many helpfull users with so much knowledge about the machines.

 

You will find that each person has his or her preference. Like you said both have been know to have some issues however I have the Intel and have had zero issues with it at all. I know some may disagree with this but you really can't go wrong with either as long as they are function as they should. Use the correct driver and you should be fine.

 

I have a question regarding the M.2 2280 slots. I thought I saw a post that one PCIe drive would run @ x4, but two of them would have to share the PCI lanes dropping both to x2. Is that correct?

I was thinking about mirroring these drives as a system boot once SM951 comes out. I was wondering if it would be overkill two throw multiple drives in there. Also, what would it do to performance.

Anyone have any details on what they did (or would like to do ) with the M.2 2280 slots?

TIA.

 

I could be wrong here but my understanding is that if you run a sm951 it will use 4 lanes so you will not have any additional lanes available for multiple drives.

 

But a SATA M.2 could also be used with the SM951 using all 4 PCIe lanes, as I understand it.

 

Yes that is correct I thought he was saying running two sm951 in raid

 

Yes, he did. I was just adding options t0 use both slots if one is SM951.

 

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Seems like what we all paid. I opted to go barebones( well not true barebones but as close as they would let me get) so only 8gb ram and the 1tb HDD. I also opted for the 330W power supply and it came out to right at 2 grand. Since then of course I've dropped 32GB of ram and 2 850 pro ssds and a few other things so as of now I'm much closer to $2600 all said.

 

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You know I never thought about it. Possibly since they do not have a store in the state they can get away with it. I do know it was a close call between xotic and power notebooks but after speaking with a guy named Donald he had me sold as I just got really good vibes from him and he seemed like if I ever had any issues would be on top of it to make it right. Either way the pricing was basically exactly the same so both do not charge tax. Why that is I don't know but I'm guessing it is for the reason said above.

 

people keep quoting msi for future mxm upgrades, but how does that ensure that CLEVO machines will have mxm cards to upgrade to? no one said that those msi cards will be compatible with clevos... so it would be better if future clevo machines had mxm gpus, even though compatibility would still not be a given for current machines, of course, but at least improved as when compared to gpus from a different brand...

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

It's because current-gen MXM modules are compatible, and thus the same method we have now (praying to the little bios mod aka @Prema) should work for any later chips that would work on the same machines. MSI can't change the layout of their ports (though the heatsinks etc can) so if the card fits now, later ones WILL fit, etc etc. Even if we need to do some thermal pad re-arranging on heatsinks etc.

If MSI was going to do trade-ins (take old machine, swap board with new cards but keep same hardware otherwise; which is even impossible as the CPU would be changed anyway) then it'd be a different story.

 

Just got my beast today after I missed the signature with UPS and went to pick it up at their customer center. Threw Win8 Pro on it and am done installing drivers (except the Airplane Mode driver keeps failing because it says it's incompatible, and I don't know how to get the fingerprint reader working just yet). Wow, is this thing fast. I love it already and I haven't even done much! Will enjoy running some BGs in WoW tomorrow and possibly some CS:GO . XoticPC did a great job!

 

How are you liking the 17.3 inch screen?
I honestly can't decide which size to go with. Id love a bigger screen, but it seems like most users go with the 15.6, which kinda gives me doubts about going with the 17.

 

Most users go with the 15" either because they want it just that much smaller or they have desktops/external monitors/etc. 15" laptops are just the most popular all over I think.

Get the 17" if you want the bigger screen. I'm a 17" guy myself.

 

17" is best of both worlds. Only if you dont mind carrying it around while travelling.

 

Ultimately I went with 17" because of subwoofer and DTR as I rarely travel with it. It's heavy, or defi itely noticeable compared to my previous 15", but really it's light for how much power it's packing. The 330w power supply doesn't help with the weight. Lol. But 15" has more screen options.

 

17" all the way.

PS: I love Batman's rubberized touch but...how do you clean it??

 

That's a good question. I don't know the "proper" way to clean it but I've been using a terry cloth with a dab of water and it works fine. No ill effects so far

 

Thanks for the replies, guys. In that graph, max. temps were around 85ºC, no thermal throttling during the test. I noticed, however, that power profile was set to Entertainment with auto fans. I also had updated Hotkeys to last version.

When I tried the same test with High Performance profile and XTU fans, max. temp was around 80ºC, no thermal throttling, and what's more interesting, I could play, say Skyrim, with temps hitting a max of 65ºC, even on a flat surface with no propping the back nor cooling base. This is a huge difference with my first experience (99ºC) so I understand that the first time there was something amiss with the configuration.

I'll check anyway if I could get a repaste inside the warranty (definitely will do myself once warranty finishes), but would hate staying away from Batman for a couple of days

 

I would switch that to a 330W adapter if you plan on doing any tweaking. Otherwise, looks fine

I have the same rep @Powernotebooks. Did he say when it would likely ship? I ordered mine on March 10 and they ran out before they could build it. Next shipment is supposed to be in on 2 April.

 

yupyup, thats also what i do been cleaning my previous P150HM that way as well and there were no ill effects over the course of 4 years (the HM also had a rubberized finish) u can basically just use any kinda cloth, wet it a little with water (and wring it out before using it, so that its damp and not completely wet), wipe off the chassis and repeat with a dry cloth all shiny and like new afterwards!

 

If I was you I would check with the vendor and see if you will void warranty by repasting yourself. It's extremely easy and a good skill to acquire for enthusiast. Buy yourself the artic clean kit and some gelid ultimate and you will be good to go for a while. You don't need the artic clean as you can use alcohol instead, but I like the added touch of the two part remover and purifier myself.

 

If you put in a PCIe drive it will use all 4 lanes, if you put in two drives each will use 2 lanes. So it would be a waste to put in 2 drives since you would not see any speed increase.

Using water does work, but you want to make sure its 100% gone before you go any further. One of the reasons rubbing alcohol is recommended is because of how fast it dries and leaves no residue.

 

Lol, do you actually have anything installed on your computer in the background? Whichever way, get a 2GB stick or even 1 GB.. It will ensure that RAM is running on dual channel mode and this won't affect performance.. You'll get like 5-10fps extra in games...

7265: Wifi can be wonky, bluetooth works
1525: Wifi works, bluetooth is wonky...

Pick your poison!

 

Aww, I'm getting people to buy the Arcticlean kits because they remove ICD easy <3

 

Ic diamond is easy to apply and clean off with 90% alcohol... But what do I know, used it from 2011 till now.

 

[/QUOTE]

7265: Wifi can be wonky, bluetooth works
1525: Wifi works, bluetooth is wonky...

Pick your poison![/QUOTE]

Never really had problems with Intel WiFi cards. Drivers can be the culprit. My 6230 I upgraded to latest and had intermittent issues. Rolled back a couple versions earlier and am still good. My 7265 is awesome. Very low latency and Afaik, good distance.

 

BLASPHEME *burns the heathen*

 

They said it will be available within 3 weeks, because they said it will be ship from sager ( California) , then to powerbooks (Nevada) then to me (California)....

 

Thanks, Hutsady. I was afraid of that. I'm currently considering retiring my x7200 with 2 sets of mirrored drives. Note, this is not a gaming machine, but a developer's workstation, and not being able to work can be costly. I was hoping to get some redundancy on both sets of drives, but if I go with a single M.2 2280 PCIe that could be a problem in terms of downtime if I use that as a boot drive.

One option is to mirror them (or wait and mirror the XP941 assuming there is a price decrease with the release of SM951). Another is to buy a 2nd drive, in the case of failure, swap them and restore from backup.

I didn't really hear from users, but would really like to know if/how people are using the M.2 2280s. One drive, no drives, RAID-0, etc.

 

Can anyone tell me which two ram sockets should be used for two modules?
I currently have one module (8gb) installed by the shop, in socket marked RAM 1 situated under the keyboard. And my natural instinct would be to install a second module in RAM 2, again under the keyboard.

But, the service manual states that the 'primary' sockets are the ones on the underside of the laptop, and it also states that if only two modules are used, then they are the ones to use.

So which ones is it?

CPU-Z says I have the first slot populated, not the 3rd or 4th, so just wondering who had what where?

Cheers
Mick

 

There are 2 lane PCIe drives. You could mirror them. Or choke two 4 lane drives (Samsungs) down to 2 each. But why over spend and under perform? Two M.2 SATA drives could be mirrored too.

 

Duh!! Brain Cramp! Don't know why I didn't even see that. I was so caught up in reading about the SM951 I forgot x2 PCIe M.2s even existed. That is probably the best option if I want to mirror.

There are also m.2 SATA III drives that fit this socket too. Safe to assume M.2 2280 drives would be PCIe x4 > PCIe x2 > SATA III in terms of IO?

Thanks.

 

Looks like that is a big 'Heck Ya!' The jump from M.2 SATA III to PCIe x4 is astounding.

 

I would say not safe to assume PCIe x2 > SATA III. I haven't seen the results of M.2 SATA in steady state yet. High performance (SE Pro, 850 Pro) 2.5" SATA drives are ahead in an OS environment in steady state. Those high sequential numbers don't really matter for an OS drive.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-sm951-m.2-pcie-ssd,4045-6.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/silicon-motion-sm2256-ssd-preview,4066-6.html

 

PCIe x4 - yes, over single drives.

 

I think the screen size is perfect. I do programming and most of my other school work on my laptop so this fits me nicely, as well as the fact that a 17 inch screen is more fun for gaming than something smaller

Initial impressions after a few days of ownership:

1. This thing is not much heavier than my previous 17 inch HP laptop, so that's cool. But the power brick is definitely a challenge to fit in my backpack. (230W)
2. The keyboard backlight software is easy to use as well as the software to switch between "modes" like performance, power-saving, etc. However the drivers for the fingerprint reader that I have do not seem to be working...it looks like the reader is detected but when I go to swipe during initial setup it doesn't register.
3. The keyboard is very comfortable to type on and has a nice level of feedback.
4. The physical touchpad buttons are GREAT. I hate touchpads without physical buttons.
5. The chassis does show grease easily, but it can be cleaned easily as well.
6. It is not overly loud for being a gaming laptop. Running BF4 at Ultra pushes the fans to a noticeable level but it isn't horrible.
7. The Micron SSD is fast as hell. Boot times are close to 10 seconds.
8. The soundcard gives a very good boost in sound quality. I love listening to music with this thing.
9. Gaming performance is, of course, awesome with that 980M. Just remember to be in performance mode as I was staring dumbfounded at WoW earlier today wondering why I was getting 30FPS, until I realized that Power Saving mode was enabled.
10. The ability to disable the touchpad and Windows Key is something that I will never be able to go without ever again.

XoticPC did a great job. Their customer support is stellar and the machine is top-notch. No complaints whatsoever. I can't wait to use this for years to come!

 

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I was referring to M.2 drives only. Is it safe to assume SATA III M.2 SSDs are comparable to their 2.5" counterparts?

In any case, to re-state my post, it seems with the bench numbers I found, a general rule of thumb would be:

M.2 2280 PCIe x4 SSD >> M.2 2280 PCIe x2 SSD > (only slightly??) M.2 2280 SATA III SSD