*** Official Clevo P950HP6/Sager NP8950 Owner's Lounge ***

Hello everyone, I'm fairly new here and I would like to weigh in my thoughts on the p950HP6. I just recently bought one of the variations of the p950HP6 (A norwegian version, Multicom Kunshan P950HP6) and I have to say, I'm extremely impressed with the laptop. I have the 120HZ model and it is just amazing. The laptop is extremely thin and light too considering what it's packing under the hood. If any one is interrested in a full review of this laptop just let me know.

 

Thank you for your thoughts. I'm sure a full review would be appreciated by the community in general and potential buyers in particular. Target demographic for this model will probably emphasize aesthetic/ergonomics, gaming performance/benchmarks, temperature and noise, battery life and screen quality. Also, if you have something noteworthy to say about the reseller it could prove specially useful to other people looking to but in Norway.

 

Like Arondel said, a full review would be very much appreciated

 

Looking to buy this from HIDevolution, can you post your review before I seal the deal? What's the battery life outside of gaming?

 

Before I start, a little background: Half a year ago I had a desktop computer that I used for everything. Work, gaming and some rendering. It worked fine for me, but then I started to travel a lot. I had a decent HP laptop with very outdated specs that I took with me every time I had to travel and it was just painful to work on. So after some consideration I decided to sell my desktop to purchase a laptop instead to do everything my desktop did. After really considering a Razer Blade and the XPS 15, I stumbled across this laptop and decided that this was cheaper than those two, had 120HZ and the same specs. So here we are.

Link to the laptop: https://www.multicom.no/multicom-kunshan-p950-156-full-hd/cat-p/c/p10637303
Price: 13995 NOK
Specs: i7-7700HQ, GTX 1060 with 6GB VRAM, 8GB of DDR4 running at 2400MHZ, 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD from Samsung with an extra slot for an 2.5 HDD/SSD, Intel Dual Band Wifi Adapter.

The Good

Display
Let's start with the display since it's the main reason for why I picked up one of these. To put it simply, the screen is really good. It is a TN panel yes, but the trade-off is that you get a buttery smooth 120HZ. There are other panels that come with this laptop namely an IPS Full HD, 4K IPS and 120HZ TN, but I would honestly trade an IPS panel for 120HZ one any day of the week if you ask me. The viewing angles are acceptable and the color reproduction is decent. You can sort of circumvent the color accuracy by tweaking the color values in the settings, but don't expect much. I haven't had much time to test the screen, but I'd say if you game a lot and value high refresh rates, you won't be disappointed. The response time is at 5ms which is also a nice bonus for the competitive gamers out there.

Build Quality
I must say, at this price point I didn't have high hopes. I did know that the laptop was all metal, but didn't expect the build quality to be great. Now to clarify it is no MacBook levels of build quality, but for the price I can't say that anyone would complain. The chassis is very sturdy and there is no noticeable flex on any points of the laptop. The screen does flex a little, but considering that this laptop is ~19 mm thick and is just under 2Kg, it is impressive the screen doesn't flex a lot like I've seen in the past with other high end laptops. The build quality overall is great.

Performance
The performance is pretty much what you would expect from a laptop that boasts a GTX 1060 and an I7-7700HQ. Everything is buttery smooth and runs at high settings without problems. I achieved over 200FPS on CS:GO and somewhere around 150FPS on Overwatch. I tend to focus on high framerate rather than good visuals to take advantage of that 120HZ screen and I would recommend you do the same if you plan on getting the 120HZ model.

Keyboard
The keyboard in general is good. There is acceptable travel time and it features RGB lighting which in my opinion didn't really feel like they had to include since it's so basic (I'll get to this later). It does also have a numpad which is a huge plus for me since I work with numbers a lot and having that numpad is super handy. One thing that may put off some people is the "gamery" font that this keyboard has. For me personally it is not an issue, but I understand if some people don't like this type of font. It is possible that your variant of the P960HP6 may come with a more standard looking font, but I have no information regarding this.

Cooling System
This laptop has 3 fans inside it. 2 for the GPU and 1 for the CPU. The heatpipes are made of copper and it looks like that Clevo didn't skimp on the heatpipes, since they probably knew that a laptop this thin would need good cooling. After some heavy gaming sessions and a little Aida64 stress tests the fans managed to keep both the GPU and CPU under 80C. However, you will probably not achieve these results since the fan curve is extremely weird out of the box. The CPU fan is always on and spinning even though the CPU isn't doing anything and I know for a fact that the 7700HQ can manage just fine without a spinning fan when browsing the web for example. Thankfully you have the option to easily change the fan curve with a couple of clicks and manage the same temperature results that I achieved and turn off the CPU fan when not doing anything intensive. The cooling system gets an A+ from me honestly, but only after some tweaking is done.

Webcam
Of all the things you would expect them to save some money on, you'd think they'd most likely put a cheap 480p or 720p webcam on here, but no. The webcam is surprisingly good and is actually 1080p. So if you use the webcam a lot you will be pleasantly surprised. Definitely did not expect this.

Fingerprint sensor
One of the biggest complaints of the earlier Clevo laptops was the fingerprint sensor. In the earlier iterations, you had to swipe to use it and even then it worked like 20% of the time, It was simply put bad. I'm happy to report that the fingerprint sensor on this model is vastly superior. You no longer have to swipe to use it, just place the finger once, the accuracy is far better than the older ones and it is very quick to register. So if this is something that you care about, I really have nothing negative to say about the sensor.

I/O
This laptop, in my opinion is almost perfect when it comes to I/O. It has all the necessary ports that every type of person would ever need. Need an SD Card reader? You got it. Need to hook up a display? Choose one of the 2 mini displayport ports or an HDMI port. Need to charge your brand new type-c powered Android smartphone? Plug in 2 of them if you'd like. Need a LAN port? No problem. Hell this laptop even includes a slot to set in a sim-card which is just bananas to me. There is also a headphone jack along with 2 USB 3.0 and 1 USB 2.0 ports.

The Bad

Speakers
The speakers are just simply put awful. I should have probably seen this coming since I can't expect Clevo to deliver a laptop that does it all and has everything, so they decided to put the tiniest and the most awful sounding speakers to save on some cost. Even my tiny iPhone 6S has a superior speaker. It's really a shame since this laptop proudly shows it's "TUNED BY SOUND BLASTER X" sticker, but what does it matter if the speakers are bad. If media consumption is not something that you do a lot, you won't probably care.

Software
Now I have a lot to say about the software because I had a really bad experience with it so far. The do it all Control Center that comes with the laptop is really poorly programmed and it shows. First of all, why is this software allowed such high amounts of control over the laptop? The fact that I can't even change the screen brightness let alone change the fan curve is just a terrible design choice. Now you would ask, what is the big deal, just install the software, change the settings and forget about it. Well I did just that and I thought that everything would be fine since Control Center doesn't eat up much space or RAM. Well little did I know that Control Center is such a buggy software. It worked fine for a couple of days, then one day I boot up the laptop and see that Control Center doesn't launch. So I proceeded to launch it manually only to find out that now it just stops working the second I start the application. I try to reinstall it and still, the same error "Control Center has stopped working". Alrighty then, after trying to fix this issue I decided to reinstall the the OS (yes, I reinstalled the OS just to make this software work again, this should tell you how much of an issue it is if it stops working). After reinstalling everything, and trying to start Control Center again, success. It finally works again. Now everything works as it should. If there is a BIOS update or anything that they'd like to improve, I'd say this: THE SCREEN BRIGHTNESS SHOULD NOT BE TIED TO A BUGGY SOFTWARE, THAT IS A STUPID DESIGN DECISION! THE FACT THAT I CAN'T EVEN CHANGE MY SCREEN BRIGHTNESS BECAUSE SOME CONTROL CENTER IS NOT RUNNING IN THE BACKGROUND IS JUST STUPID. Sorry I just had to get it out, since I've been so immensely frustrated with this piece of software. When Control Center works, it allows you to change the fan curve and other various things like power options and such. I'd say leave it at Quite mode and just adjust the fan curve yourself since the Automatic fan curve is just weird and seems like it's completely random. The fans will start spinning for no reason and just do whatever they feel like when the curve is set at automatic. Now coming back to the keyboard, yes it has RGB, but it is the most basic type of RGB. There are 3 zones and you have the option to set a specific color to each one. There are of course some flashy looking lighting effects but I just turned it all of and set it to static white color since it saves battery and doesn't look like "Hey, look at me I can do all these cool things".

Coil Whine
Now this is something that I can't really talk about without mentioning that your unit may be completely fine without any issues, but so far I've sent this laptop once and both of them had very audible coil whine. For some people this is not an issue since they don't notice or hear it, but I simply dread this sound. The coil whine for the most part is coming whenever I connect my laptop to the wall. The power supply also makes a strange hissing sound. It is most likely that my power adapter is defective.

The Average

Battery
The battery is exactly what you would expect from a gaming laptop. Very average and nothing exciting. I got around 3-4 hours of normal (web surfing, watching a movie) use time which isn't bad by any means, but nothing impressive. It is also to note that the battery is not removable, so you are not going to be able to swap a battery on the fly which is to be expected considering the thinness of the laptop.

Touchpad
The tracking is ok, it feels responsive especially since this is a 120HZ panel, but the lack of a physical press on the pad itself is a pain to me since I really dislike pressing the dedicated left click button. The touchpad is alright.

Fan Noise
I really did not know how to feel about the fan noise. On one side the fans are not audible at all when not doing anything intensive on the other, they get very loud under heavy load. Ofcourse you can adjust the fan speed to your liking, but Clevo or any other laptop manufacturer for that matter can't beat physics and heat in such a thin profile has to be transferred away somehow. Thus we get very loud fans under heavy load.

Overall Thoughts
Overall I am very satisfied with the laptop. If they ironed out a couple of the frustrating parts of the laptop, this would without a doubt be the perfect laptop in my opinion. The screen, performance and overall build quality are really good and I just hope that Clevo continues with this line of laptops because there is big potential here. Multicom, the re-seller that sold me the Norwegian variant of the P950HP6 are very friendly and helpful, although they take their sweet time to respond. Also, I didn't want to include SSD tests since you are highly likely to get another drive than me so I didn't bother. All in all, get this laptop if you value good performance and portability.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

If there are any question, just PM me and I'll try to answer them.

 

does the 1070MQ worth the extra 200 usd over 1060?

 

I'd say it depends entirely on what you want from your laptop. Are you looking to future proof it or are you just looking for best value?

If you want future proofing, then I'd suggest getting a laptop that doesn't have a Max-Q variant of the 1070 since that one is heavily underclocked even compared to the laptop version of the 1070. The performance gains over 1060 are not going to be anything massive, but if you really want that 1070 in a slim chassis and have some extra money to spend, go for it. Just keep in mind that you will be dealing with higher temperatures thus leading to more fan noise. Max-Q in my opinion is just another way of bringing the M versions of the GPU's back.

If you are looking for best value, your best bet would be a 1050Ti or the 1060. Both perform really well, however the former isn't quite capable of running everything at high settings while the latter is just a beast for 1080p gaming.

 

I just want to get the best for 1600 usd. i just want portable light + 1070 with least issues. thought i should get p950 1060 and save money but still don't want to do it. i need 1070 because i'll keep the laptop for long time

 

The p950 does come with a 1070 Max-Q variant and I'm not trying to say that it's terrible, but that you just need to adjust your expectations and dont expect the same level of performance as the regular 1070. Seems like you plan on keeping the laptop for a long time, I would go for it though, since it is still better than the 1060 and for 200USD more it seems reasonable to me, especially since this Max-Q thing is fairly new technology.

 

Great review. Couple questions. Are you using stock thermal paste with your configuration? Have you undervolted your laptop? As someone who doesn't play super graphically demanding PC games (more strategy oriented games, not FPS's) do you think the 120 HZ is necessary? How many hours do you think you can get from the laptop without watching videos, but just web browsing, using Google Docs/Microsoft Word/Powerpoint?

Does the laptop get hot for normal usage on your lap? I read that configuring the speakers with the software that comes with laptop helps the sound a lot. Have you had any issues with Control Center after your reinstall?

 

Yes, I haven't tried to remove the fans just yet since I'm not sure how the re-seller would feel me changing the thermal paste and since I don't want to risk loosing my warranty. I'm gonna see what they say first.

I have tried it and let me tell you, these Clevo laptops are really not friendly with Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. The software does work, but for some reason the motherboard doesn't have any fail safe switches and Intel ETU does warn you about this beforehand thankfully. So if you undervolt too much you will have to return the values manually, something that you don't have to do with other 7700HQ based laptops. If you really want to undervolt i'd recommend checking out ThrottleStop, it's basically an alternative for Intel ETU, just for Clevo laptops.

It depends if you have ever seen or used a screen with 120HZ or above. Once I saw 144HZ, I simply could not go back. The amount of responsiveness and smoothness that you get from such a high refreshrate is unmatched by any other type of display on the market. I'd say that 120HZ does definitely improve the gaming experience regardless of what you play, but for strategic games 120HZ is not required. If you plan on gaming something like CS:GO or Overwatch then I'd definitely recommend getting the 120HZ panel. G-Sync is another alternative to 120HZ, but it's a different class of product for a different audience.

If you run on "Power Saver" both on Windows and Control Center, then I'm sure you could squeze out full 4 hours of use time just by doing very light work.

The CPU gets to around 45C (without a spinning fan) when just surfing the web. The GPU however is off since it is not being used when doing light work. so you don't have to worry about those GPU temps. I'd really recommend tweaking the fan curve and turning off the fan since the 7700HQ is very efficient and doesn't require a constant spinning fan to do some light work. All of this was observed when the laptop was used on a lap.

I would be forever grateful if there was a lad that could help me with this. I tried to fiddle around the Sound Blaster software, but couldn't do anything really.

No issues so far, but I don't know really. It could just stop working any second and I'd probably have to install Windows all over again (which I wouldn't have had the nerve to do to be honest). It really saddens me that it has to be this way, but it is what it is. Maybe this software is far more stable on Windows 7, but the problem here is that the 7700HQ doesn't support Windows 7 or 8.

 

Thanks for answering my questions, much appreciated.

I did some digging and I might have found some things that could help your Control Center, fan profile, and XTU issues?

Have you tried using this Clevo Driver Utility software by any chance? http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/clevo-drivers-update-utility-by-obsidian-pc.801464/

I'll quote this from the above link:

" Modded Control Center
When you install control center using this app you are actually using a modified control center that will not install the XTU service hence disabling the CPU_RAM_OC software. If you want to tune up your laptop just use ThrottleStop like all the cool kids are doing."

No clue if it supports the P950HP6??

I also came across this: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/just-ordered-evoc-p670hs-g-from-hidevolution.800628/

I'll quote the following:

"When installing the Clevo Control Center:

Edit the OEM.INI file in the Clevo Control Center's directory before you install it:

Change SupportXTUFanTable=1 to SupportXTUFanTable=0

This will install the Control Center without the built in XTU

don't ask me how Clevo messed up but Intel XTU has long known to mess up the fan tables making your fans spin up to max speed even when idle and CPU temps are low"

Idk, just found this stuff interesting and was curious if you came across this?

 

About the Obsidian Tools, whenever I launch the application, it just asks me to purchase a licence and that it didn't find any on my computer. No idea what to do anything here really. The OEM.INI tweak though definitely seem to be an interessering piece of information. Will try that and see how the fans behave. Thanks for the help, really appreciate it!

Edit: Also if anyone is able to download a new version of Control Center for me I'd be very grateful since I'm fully unable to download it from Clevo's site. The website is incredibly slow and the download doesn't start for me. Maybe some of you are lucky and manage to download it.
Here is the link to the download page: http://www.clevo.com/en/e-services/download/ftpOut.asp?Lmodel=P95xHPx&ltype=9&submit=+GO+

Select "Control Center AP for Windows 10"

 

I came across the Obsidian Tool from this YouTube video:

The guy said it will only for Clevo chassis' only. Not sure why it won't work for the P950HP6? Anyone know why? @Phoenix might know?

 

I suspect it may be due to the fact that the P950HP6 model is just too new? Or that Obsidian simply don't support this particular model.

 

Ask @John@OBSIDIAN-PC

 

Apparently there is fee NBR license you can use.

Read this post by John@OBSIDIAN-PC

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...y-by-obsidian-pc.801464/page-80#post-10557820

 

Well, I tried to download the licence and did what he said, still the same issue.

 

Hello, I've been lurking this thread for a while after reading about the new Max Q Clevos. Thanks to HTWingNut and Salthy for the reviews so far. My situation is a bit similar to Salthy - I have had desktops for ever but swapped to a laptop so I could get 10 minutes of a game in on the sofa rather than having to go to another room. To this end I bought a second hand Lenovo Y50-70 with a 960M just last year, but it gets hot (90/85 CPU/GPU when gaming) and loud. I think I should re-paste it and see what happens then. If that doesn't help then I'm going to think hard about a P950.

Saying that, I've already thought quite hard about one! I'm in the UK, and I've priced up configs from a few US resellers but shipping (and probably import tax) is a killer (10% of laptop cost)

I don't know the best place to get a P950 in the UK - I emailed PC Specialist ("no plans to add further chassis to the site") and Scan ("Clevo P950HP6 is not currently listed [on the new products list and supplier items]"). Do any of the other UK resellers on the EU Reseller thread have incoming stock (Box, CyberPowerSystem, Novatech) ? MySN don't have an English language page and my German isn't that great, but doesn't look like they have this laptop on there.

Slightly further afield there's the one.de K56-7P (which is both P950HP6 1060 and P950HR 1070 Max-Q editions), and I've found them on Dreammachines (the English listing page doesn't show them when you select the P950HP6 chassis) and Hyperbook (available on the 27th July apparently).

I'd like to see more videos if anyone has one and has some time to show it off. For example the P650 looks (IMO) lumpy and ugly but some videos (thinking of Jarrod'sTech Metabox review) show it looking (IMO) actually quite slim and nice. So I'd like to see a few videos to get a better idea of appearance, but the only video unboxing / review I can find are these :




...but he doesn't really show the laptop much (the review is just him talking), and he complains about the thermals, which seems to contradict HTWingNut's glowing review.

And then there's the 1060 vs 1070 Max-Q question - I like action games, but don't need 120FPS and am happy with 1080p. The 60Hz panel seems fine so a target of 60FPS in games tells me I probably only need the 1060? If anyone has the 1070 Max-Q edition and wants to provide thermal information then that would be amazing. I have had a quick look at 3D mark and it seems the 1070 Max-Q is about 20% faster than the 1060 and 20% slower then the full 1070 (Fire Strike - 10k 1060, 12k 1070 Max-Q, 15k 1070). So probably not worth the extra temperature... but I don't know what the temperature difference is between the two editions.

So, I'll shut up now, my three questions are :

Any UK Resellers getting this laptop?

Anyone want to make some videos showing off the slimness?

What are 1070 Max-Q thermals like?

Thanks for reading, sorry for blathering.

 

Hi, I can probably upload some pictures of the laptop when I get time. Or would you rather have a video instead?
Have you tried Amazon? I'm pretty sure that I've seen bunch of different P950's there.

 

Video would be great, but pictures are good too if you don't have time. Thanks!

Amazon has some Prostars but they don't ship to the UK unfortunately. I can't find any others on there.

 

We ship the EVOC High Performance Systems P950HP6 and EVOC High Performance Systems P950HR to the UK, and will accept your UK credit/debit card, PayPal, or Bank Wire Transfer (T.T.) for payment.

We collect 20% of your purchase price plus shipping cost which covers all of your import duties and taxes. You can rest assured, when it is delivered, you will owe nothing more than what you have already paid HIDevolution, and getting through Customs will be a breeze since everything is pre-paid.

Just configure the model you want and click Add to Cart. Then enter your Ship To address as you Checkout and it will show you the available shipping options and their cost before placing your order. You can then decide whether you want to place your order.

The bottom line is, compare the total price for buying in the UK, or USA. Keep in mind that UK pricing will already have the 20% VAT included.

If you will email [email protected] I will reply to your email with details on the Notebookreview Active Member Discount. Please feel free to email me at [email protected] or call me at our local UK number - 02033183302 ext 44 - between 5 PM - 2 AM GMT Monday through Friday to discuss any other questions you might have.

 

I have some quick questions

1. On the top cover of this laptop there is what looks like a perforated aesthetic in the shape of a upside down shallow V. In the pictures for the video review done by Jake Olaso, the video posted in post #119, and in the review done by HTWingNut here on the forums, it looks like a plain perforated aesthetic. However, when I look at pictures for this laptop on re-seller websites and in the OP, this aesthetic takes on a white color. Is this something that lights up while the laptop is on?

2. I've seen complaints about the heating and fan noise and that they're manageable with tweaking. My question is would the fan noise generated from this laptop while doing browsing, basic applications, and video streaming be acceptable for a lecture and/or library environment?

 

1. Yes, the V shaped thing lights up, however it is very subtle and strangely enough the lighting intensity depends on what screen brightness you have currently.

2. Yes, the fans are totally acceptable under light work. They are not obnoxiously loud or anything, it just annoys me that the fans have to spin at all when not doing anything that stresses the CPU.

 

Hi everyone, did anyone purchased the Sager NP8950 from GentechPC? I am curious what display model it is using when choosing the stock display configuration. Thanks!

 

Thanks for answering and that's great to hear. I saw in your review that you got the 120 Hz TN panel. I don't know what seller you got it from, but I know @Donald@HIDevolution said it was a AUO B156HTN05.2. Would you say that it has a good vertical viewing angle? I always hear about horizontal viewing angles when it comes to TN panels, but I never hear about vertical viewing angles except when it's noticeably bad like in the case of some AWs. The review that HTWingNut did says that the laptop opens up at just about 45 degrees which means it will be hard to work with if I'm working on a surface that's too low compared to me and it has bad vertical viewing angles.

 

The vertical viewing angles are acceptable. The colors and image don't get washed out at all and it is perfectly usable if the screen is opened up completely. It is correct, it opens up to about 45 degrees. My seller was Multicom (just google them). They did not specify what the name of the panel was, but I'm pretty sure it is that exact panel.

 

I'm not sure what your definition of acceptable is. Is it good at lets say a 45 degree angle from the center of the screen?

In your review, you got a 3 hour battery life with the 120 Hz TN panel and HTWingNut got a 3 hour 32 minute battery life with the 60 Hz ISP panel. From what I can tell, the testing conditions are fairly similar. Does the battery life difference sound about right considering the different power requirements for the different refresh rates? My apologies about my ignorance for this. Google isn't proving very useful on this topic. I'm currently debating between which screen would be best for me. After that, I'll be checking out the P650 and see what benefits it holds over the P950 and vice versa to see which fits me the best.


I realize that this is purely hypothetical discussion since there isn't too much info regarding the Max-q cards, but would the 1070 Max-q model for this laptop have better thermals than the 1060? One of my bigger concerns is ensuring components don't get damaged from over heating since I'm wanting a laptop that can last a minimum of 3 years.

 

How do I put this, if you've ever seen a high quality TN panel, then it's basically the same story. The panel is kinda like a hybrid between IPS and average TN. Not too good, but not too bad either. At a 45 degree angle from the center of the screen the image is still readable and the colors are mostly the same. Just don't expect IPS like viewing angles.

A higher refresh rate panel does sap more power, but not as much as you would believe. Also I want to point out that battery test vary drastically from user to user. 3 hours is what I got from what I would consider light work, but I'm sure that you can squeeze more juice out of the battery if you're willing to use Power Saver mode, which I personally do not use. I would only recommend 120HZ if you value high refresh rates and care about overall smoothness and responsiveness in games, provided you are willing to sacrifice on some graphical settings (if you plan on getting the 1060 model that is). If none of the above is something that you care about and you're mostly casual about games, then go for the IPS panel as it is vastly superior in almost every regard compared to TN.

If by "better thermals than the 1060" you mean as in better thermal system compared to the 1060 model? I'm fairly certain that Clevo pretty much reused the same thermal system that it has for the 1060 model and just simply swapped the 1060 with a 1070 Max-Q. How do I know this? Well, a lot of the 1080 Max-Q laptop manufacturers are doing the same. Reusing the same chassis and thermal system that they had previously built for the 1070.
I would not worry about overheating components. As long as you allow some air through the ventilations, everything should be fine. If you really worry about overheating, then you have the option to set the fan speeds higher, although with an acoustical cost.

 

It's the Lg lp156wf6-spb5 or spb6
Maybe spb1 (This is from @edit1754 and me looking at the P950HP6 system I had access to)

The usual for Clevo 15" machines.

 

It sounds like the IPS panel would be my panel of choice then. I've never seen a high quality TN panel before. My eyes haven't been spoiled yet.

Sorry for not making that very clear. I was referring to if the 1070 max-q would generate more heat compared to the 1060. Based off pictures for both versions of the laptop, it definitely looks like the same chassis. I was asking since I might consider the 1070 max-q version if it has lower heat generation. However, if it has higher heat generation, then I would avoid it since that would mean much louder fans to compensate.

 

I would bet that the 1070 Max-Q won't have better thermals than the 1060. Despite what Nvidia says, more power = more heat, unless it is made on a smaller node or has a new architecture which the 1070 Max-Q is not. It is still the same GPU and architecture.

 

I have a question ;
For similat specs, how does the P950 compare to the P650 ?
The laptop is a lot thinner, is the cooling affected ? How does battery life compare for "regular" use (web, text editing) ?

I am looking for a laptop that I will use mainly for gaming but also for school work (programming mostly). 15.6" is a minimum for me, and I want a laptop thin enough for transport, with good battery life so I dont have to plug it in all the time when just working, and still good perfs in games (1080p as high settings as possible).

Also, if the P950 turns out to be the better choice, there is no reseller where I live (in France. We have P650s but no P950s yet), is the international shipping worth it from websites like gentechpc ?
I tested prices and their P950HR with a 1070MQ with shipping would cost as much as our local P650 with 1060 ; but while prices say "go for it" I am worried for all the warranty and RMA stuff. Does any user from outside the US have any experience with them ? Are their products of good enough quality so I should not have any problem with them ?

Thanks

 

The battery life is a little lower and it's a little noisier with the 1060 and similar with the 1070 (but the 1070MQ runs a bit slower).

 

I can't help much with your situation, but in post #122 for this thread (page 13), donald talked about how HIDevolution handles international shipping. Might be a good idea to talk with him about your questions on top of talking with other customers that have experienced it.

I also recommend checking out the re-seller feedback forum on here. There's a large number of reviews you can check out and I'm sure you can find an international buyer buried in there if you're willing to dig for it.
Found here.

You might also want to ask your questions in the "Ask the Resellers! Questions to Reseller Thread." in regards to international offerings. Make sure to read the OP rules for asking questions in there to make sure you're asking appropriate questions.
Found here.

 

@Galm I noticed in the Aero 15 thread that you were talking about the P950 fans and fan curve. Could you go into detail about the fan in a classroom/lecture setting?

 

The curve is set by Clevo and can't be changed right now.

The fans kick in at crazy low temps, so it's on way more than it should be. That's about it. Instead of kicking in at like 60C or something they kick in a like 40C and fairly loud.

 

That's a disappointing to hear. Donald had mentioned in a reply to you that this model doesn't have the prema bios and that there aren't plans for clevo to update. That might kill me getting this laptop. I'll start looking at the P650 and it's variants more intently.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

I'd maybe ask @John@OBSIDIAN-PC if he knows any way to fix it, otherwise it's really sad.

 

Don't worry, that is very common with CLEVO.
Usually that gets fixed on EC firmware updates that are released one or two months after model released.
Stay tuned and in touch with your store.
Almost all models went through that, last one was the N130... The latest EC fan curves completely change the behavior and noise level, it's like a new machine.

 

Yeah it's HWID LGD046F. Should be the LG LP156WF6-SPB5 based on this. I feel like I've seen the SPB1 with this same HWID but I'm not sure, so probably most likely the SPB5. Either way, it's 72% NTSC, not 45%.

I don't think it's the SPP1 since that's HWID LGD04D5.

 

That's a bummer. It's still not guaranteed.

 

Hopefully that comes sooner rather than later. I'd prefer getting a laptop before the start of the semester. I'm more than willing to exchange fan noise under load for the form factor, but not fan noise across the entire spectrum as it is now. I don't think I would mind having a larger chassis as long as the fan noise and temperatures are better.

 

Then get a P650.

Sent from my MI 5 using Tapatalk

 

Dang so no likely way to fix the fan curves in the future...? I can't really think of a reason Clevo would do this. The fans can still be loud, but there is no need when your temps are like 55C.

I second the P650 as an alternative though.

 

I just said it would be fixed in the future, always is, the N130 was fixed before i even got the first unit in.
When a model is released at first it´s loud then comes EC updates and it gets A LOT better.
BUT if you need to buy now and want a model that is already properly tuned get the P650.

So:
A) Get a P950 and wait for a EC Firmware (maybe it already exists, i dont know since i dont sell that model)
B) Get a P650, it´s almost the same, just a bit thicker, but it´s metal finish and is G-SYNC

Those are your choices.

 

Oh my fault I thought my comment was the last on the previous page and missed what you said. Thanks!

 

The only advantage of the P950 is that it's thinner, or am I missing something? The P650 is cheaper, has better cooling, G-Sync, more upgrade options etc...

 

Not only is it thinner, it's considerably thinner and lighter than P650. The P950 is basically the same computer with the same specs, but 6mm thinner and 700g lighter.

Not sure what you mean with better cooling. Better cooling as in it will cool your components better because the computer is thicker? Because from what I've seen, both models have the same amount of fans and the same amount of heatpipes.

Again, both models can be upgraded with more RAM, they both have an extra slot for an 2.5 drive and both can be upgraded with faster WLAN cards.

 

Fin area is also important for cooling, a deeper machine can have a larger fin area.