*** Official Clevo W230SS/Sager NP7338 Owner's Lounge ***

Thanks for kind offer, it's nice to that some people still care

And I have a pretty killer custom liquid cooled desktop that should be able to run watchdogs at a pretty decent frame rate on decent settings

Also, I had a few questions (I also posted these in HT's review of the laptop):

- I've seen two different versions of Clevo Control Center. Right now I have the black/gray simple version installed on my laptop, like this:


Then there's this version:



Where can I get the second version of the clevo control center from?


-Second, in the review under the "Fan Noise" HT stated that the fan can be set to quiet in the Clevo control center...how do I do this? I tried the fn+1 key combination and that does toggle the full/normal fan speed operation, but is there a way to do it directly from the control center?

-Third, I noticed in some of the pictures in the review, that in the taskbar there is a horizontal battery icon (like what Lenovo/thinkpad laptops have to show battery life/time)...What software is this, and where can I download it?

-Fourth, once the battery of the laptop is fully charged, if I leave the laptop plugged in to an outlet, will the battery deteriorate faster?

 

I'm bummed about this also. I can only get an always stable OC of 5200ghz effective with mine. Heck, I was able to overclock the vram on my HP's 650m with 4000ghz ddr5 (not sure what it was binned at though) all the way up to +1100 for an effective 6200. Granted it was quite warm (very hot) at that OC, but it ran stable. I usually ran +900 or +1000 to have it run at 5800-6000 and the temps would stay at the high side of acceptable in games. The huge memory OC helped frame rates a lot over stock settings. It sucks I can only get +100 OC on this 860m. I do realize the +100 on the 860m would be the same as +600 on the HP to compare apples to apples.

 

Great. It's almost perfect; unless someone could help me with this; then it would be perfect:

And then I'd make the guide.

 

That battery icon is an app called BatteryBar.
Theoretically, if the Battery doesn't have a SMART circuit, yes, it will wear out faster if continually plugged in. However, it is not neccessarily the constant plugging in that degrades the battery. There are 3 factors that degrade a Lithium Ion battery
1. Heat, every additional 20 degrees of prolonged heat exposure reduces the permanent capacity by 20% from maximum. Heat is your enemy, one reason continually plugging degrades the battery is that you are generally doing intensive activities on the processor/GPU which generates heat, which then conducts to the battery.
2. Storage Voltage: Batteries don't have a constant voltage, they are actually a matrix of smaller cells. The maximum voltage of a battery is usually at 100% charge. Generally speaking, a battery kept at 100% (i.e. high voltage) will degrade twice as fast as one kept at 80%. High endurance units tend to have an "overprovisioning" built in, I.e. they only have 80% of their maximum voltage at 100% charge. However, this is very expensive, heavy and generally only implemented on embedded systems where it is difficult to change the battery. Within the scope of our discussion, when you continually plug in the power, you are forcing the battery to stay at 100% which degrades faster (I assume the W230SS unit isn't designed for high endurance)
3. Depth of discharge: Li-Ion batteries are generally rated for a specific number of complete discharges (usually 300-500, maybe higher for high quality units), logically, complete discharges degrades the battery faster than incomplete discharges. That being said, discharging is what this battery was designed for so you can't really be too religious about this factor.

Some further reading if you are interested
How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries - Battery University

As for the fan, I know you can set it to ACPI mode (i.e. software controllable) instead of Direct I/O (Firmware closed feedback circuit) in Prema's BIOS. I haven't yet found a program that can interface with this ACPI Fan without crashing the system (e.g. Speedfan tries to access all the buses)

 

I'm also Canadian and am looking at the NP7338 for school in Sept (will be doing some drafting including AutoCAD/Solidworks, figured the quad core would be nice). I found these guys: Reflex Notebook Canada - Your Source for Sager Notebooks and Laptops in Canada looks like they have a rep on here (NBR) also.

Kinda upset I missed out on the Upgrade to 4810MQ promo.

 

You're correct it is the CCD cable. I guess it's just better tucked away in the previous shots.

 

I've been trying to make processor cooler under gaming but it's hard. I have 37W i7-4712, undervoltage -50mv, limit turbo power 46W -> 37W and no-turbo 37W -> 30W and still processor gets over 90'c with metro: last light. Gpu gets 86'c max. Already re-paste with mx-4. Any extreme cooling mods?

 

Holy hell that's hot. I've found the quickest way to cut temps is to disable the turbo boost entirely and underclock to 2.9ghz or so (I can drop to 2.5 and still be perfectly usable). Since the GPU and CPU share a heatpipe, lowering the CPU temp will have knock-on effects with the GPU. You may also be able to get away with undervolting the GPU slightly (if you're not overclocking).

You say you've already re-pasted. How much did you use and how did you apply it? You should only be using a small blob in the centre and letting it spread when pushing the heatsink down, do not spread it yourself. If you remove the heatsink and the paste is flowing out from the edges then it's too much.
Contrary to what you might expect, thermal paste is a terrible conductor of heat (relative to copper for example). It's just better than air.

EDIT: Just saw you have a 1TB in your sig. Is it a 1TB SSD or mechanical? If it's mechanical, note that they can get pretty hot under load as well and impact ambient temp.

 

I've actually re-pasted two times, first with a tiny drop and second time i spread paste myself, latter was better. And yes, it's 1t sshd and it gets quite hot.

Gpu is overclocked +200/+130. And summer is really hot in finland now, in my home it's almost 30'c inside...

It helps cpu to stick under 90'c if i lift laptop a little from desk.

I've heard that if it's possible to get more pressure on heatsink against cpu it helps...

 

Sonofagun, that's hot, even for 30 weather. I've got an -80mV undervolt, Turbo still switched on, and I can get 86-87 in SINGAPORE, where it can be 32-34 even at nighttime. You might consider RMAing... My wattage settings are only about -2W from default. I only reach 90+ when I play on the bed.

 

I dont want to RMA...

But there is something wrong with fan too, it keeps strange noise sometimes, i think its coming from bearing.

Edit: and for comparison, only cpu stress with prime temps are at 80'c.

 

Repaste with GELID Extreme or Phobya Extreme . They're both the same thing, this paste is the most thermally conductive non-metallic TIM available at the moment. You should get a 4-5 degree drop in temperatures if the contact is poor, if the contact is already fantastic then expect only a 1-2 degree improvement. The only issue with this TIM is that it's more expensive than MX-4 and lacks the brute durability of ICD.

I would also check your mounting, when you remove the cooling system, try to take a photo of the underside of the heatplate. Some cooling units may have poor contact due to QA issues.

Finally, do you have Prema's BIOS mod? this allows you to force the fan speed to 100%, useful if you're worried about temperatures.

 

I'm using Prema's bios, full speed toggle with fn+1 is working too.

Maybe i could polish heatsink with something...

EDIT: I did re-paste once again, and this time very little of paste and temps went down few degrees. Now cpu maxes around 90'c while gaming, gpu maxes 84'c. Before cpu was around 96'c.

 

As HTWingNut mentioned Sager computers do have a 30 day return period, all our other brands are 15.

 

Latest XTU lets me Undervolt Cache voltage too but i lost control of the Cores multiplicators (greyed out). Can anybody confirm (i the use Prema mod BIOS)

 

Thanks for the detailed reply, That actually helped a lot. I'll also check out that link.

Do you know about the two different versions of the Clevo Control Center? Also, is there a link for a tutorial for Prema Bios Mod?

 

Hi, I'd like to know if 720p gaming is a problem with the 1080p screen. I'll be buying this laptop online so I can't test it myself. Thanks

 

Anyone from Xotic wanna chime in here? ..and here..

 

This guide might help:
FLASHING GUIDE | Prema Mod

My W230SS is due to arrive today and I'll be flashing mine

On a separate subject, I didn't opt for the QHD because it only came in glossy. Is there a WQHD or QHD option that is matte?

 

My XMG P304 is with matte WQHD. And dont flash mod bios immediately, use it few days first to see if its working good, for the warranty.

I tried to flash stock bios back because with mod bios i dont get always picture on boot, its a bug. And stock bios (from the prema's thread) didnt work, lan adapter gave error on boot (rom version mismatch or something) and it was dead.

 

Would you recommend the WQHD screen?

Ok good idea- I'll use it a couple days without the mod. I feel silly- I can't get windows to instal (7 or 8). I'm installing via a USB, and when I select the partition it says "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one". I tried DISKPART (command line) to format as NTFS but it still doesn't work.

Can anyone help? Thanks

 

WQHD is damn sharp display, and GTX860M does have enough punch to get good fps on games with 2560x1440 resolution. I've been playing metro: last light with very high graphics setting. Colors are good, only problem is backlight bleed but it's normal with IPS-panels.


Strange problem with windows installation... All I did was change uefi to legacy in bios when installed windows 7.

 

I enabled UEFI booting but that wouldn't even boot to the installer (says: "insert media & press a key")

 

The codes are typically provided after you get the computer delivered. Once its in hand we email you the download instructions and provided a redeem code then you download the game. There is no physical games provided with the promo's anymore, they are all downloaded. Could you PM me your order number and I will look into this for you.

 

I just installed Windows 7 on my new W230SS. I haven't installed any updates yet, but it doesn't seem to find the GTX 860M. In installed CPU-ID PC hardware detector and this didn't find it either. Nvidia drivers won't install because it can't detect it.

It is in there...right?

 

Make sure the Intel HD graphic driver is installed.

 

It definetly is. I'll install windows 8.1 today, then I can be sure.

On a seperate note- I'm looking at doing hackintosh. I have a question (maybe a dumb one)- I have two hard drives- 120gd ssd for Windows 8.1 & 1tb mechanical for storage & Mac osx. Will the files/hard drive of the Mac (1TB) be accessible in Windows?

 

Ok, thanks .

Since you're one of the few people with the WQHD ... care to have look at the LCD/J_LED1 connector?

Am now worried that Schenker/XMG is currently the only supplier of the mb revision required for the WQHD screen (provided that is what the J_LED1 is for). Don't mind buying from them, but they don't offer 'no-cpu / no-memory / no-hdd' configurations (have those already, so am not keen on redundant hardware).

View attachment 114587

That is fascinating ... patently unworkable, but fascinating nonetheless. Perhaps Prema's OSX tutorial can help?

 

Not a dumb question. In short, without drivers, they won't - if you want native read-write access, you'll need to get a driver, such as TransMac, MacDrive, or Paragon HFS+. I've had several issues with Paragon; MacDrive has worked very well for me so far. I don't know about TransMac much.

Only issue is when you force shut down your OS X partition; the drive letter changes and you have to enter Disk Management to change it. Otherwise, you can read, write and format disks as HFS+, without breaking a sweat.

Note that all three are paid offerings; if you want just read access without needing to write to Mac disks, you may consider installing Apple's Boot Camp drivers, or getting HFSExplorer, which is less intrusive than the previous four, as it doesn't install any drivers. Both the Boot Camp drivers and HFSExplorer are free. However, the latter is pretty cumbersome as you have to re-mount disks every time you reboot, and that too within the application.

As far as I'm concerned, it's quite essential for me to have write access to my OS X disks; it makes life much easier if I mess up something while tinkering and I need to fix it, such as after installing a bad kext (kext is short for kernel extension; it's the OS X version of a driver, which are installed in /System/Library/Extensions.) Otherwise I have to reboot using my UniBeast USB drive and enter Terminal. Not that I don't like Terminal; I'd just rather use a GUI.

 

Actually, it gets fixed by sleeping the screen; however, I find this extremely annoying as I need to perfectly time the opening and closing of the lid so that the screen turns back on without these weird lines.

It is a framebuffer issue; I've already referred to Prema's OS X tutorial. Clover or not, it doesn't matter as the Intel HD framebuffer in OS X, AppleIntelFrameBufferAzul.kext isn't patched to include the framebuffer sizes for the Intel HD 4600 in this notebook. This typically requires a BIOS fix, and the option doesn't exist in Prema's mod yet. Which is why I asked earlier on if the size could be detected from Windows.

I don't know how to contact him, as his WordPress says he's travelling... for nearly a month now. That's some long travel. But of course, I shouldn't complain as there's at least some guy who volunteers to do all this for us. If not for him, many of us would be left in the lurch, in terms of OCing and power stuff... Thanks, Prema.

Is there anyone else who already has installed OS X on their W230SS, and has encountered (and perhaps fixed) this problem? Help guys...

 

Thanks so much for the response- I'll be trying MacDrive.

Does this apply both ways (ie using Windows files in the OSX enviro/OSX files in WIndows enviro)?

 

Maybe this post is of some use?

Even so, using a single id is a bit iffy (depending on the cpu it is on, its id differs). So perhaps this makes for a nicer/cleaner solution. Or it's simply a matter of changing the ig-platform-id according to that table:

Code:

uint8_t haswell_ig_vals[16][4] = { /* - TESTING DATA --*/

{ 0x00,0x00,0x06,0x04 },// 0 "AAPL,ig-platform-id" //FB: 64MB, Pipes: 3, Ports: 3, FBMem: 3 - mobile GT1
{ 0x00,0x00,0x06,0x0c },// 1 "AAPL,ig-platform-id" //FB: 64MB, Pipes: 3, Ports: 3, FBMem: 3 - SDV mobile GT1
{ 0x00,0x00,0x16,0x04 },// 2 "AAPL,ig-platform-id" //FB: 64MB, Pipes: 3, Ports: 3, FBMem: 3 - mobile GT2
{ 0x00,0x00,0x16,0x0a },// 3 "AAPL,ig-platform-id" //FB: 64MB, Pipes: 3, Ports: 3, FBMem: 3 - ULT mobile GT2
{ 0x00,0x00,0x16,0x0c },// 4 "AAPL,ig-platform-id" //FB: 64MB, Pipes: 3, Ports: 3, FBMem: 3 - SDV mobile GT2
{ 0x00,0x00,0x26,0x04 },// 5 "AAPL,ig-platform-id" //FB: 64MB, Pipes: 3, Ports: 3, FBMem: 3 - mobile GT3
{ 0x00,0x00,0x26,0x0a },// 6 "AAPL,ig-platform-id" //FB: 64MB, Pipes: 3, Ports: 3, FBMem: 3 - ULT mobile GT3
{ 0x00,0x00,0x26,0x0c },// 7 "AAPL,ig-platform-id" //FB: 64MB, Pipes: 3, Ports: 3, FBMem: 3 - SDV mobile GT3
{ 0x00,0x00,0x26,0x0d },// 8 "AAPL,ig-platform-id" //FB: 64MB, Pipes: 3, Ports: 3, FBMem: 3 - CRW mobile GT3
{ 0x02,0x00,0x16,0x04 },// 9 "AAPL,ig-platform-id" //FB: 64MB, Pipes: 1, Ports: 1, FBMem: 1 - mobile GT2
{ 0x03,0x00,0x22,0x0d },// 10 "AAPL,ig-platform-id" //FB: 0MB, Pipes: 0, Ports: 0, FBMem: 0 - CRW Desktop GT3
{ 0x05,0x00,0x26,0x0a },// 11 "AAPL,ig-platform-id" //FB: 32MB, Pipes: 3, Ports: 3, FBMem: 3 - ULT mobile GT3
{ 0x06,0x00,0x26,0x0a },// 12 "AAPL,ig-platform-id" //FB: 32MB, Pipes: 3, Ports: 3, FBMem: 3 - ULT mobile GT3
{ 0x07,0x00,0x26,0x0d },// 13 "AAPL,ig-platform-id" //FB: 64MB, Pipes: 3, Ports: 4, FBMem: 3 - CRW mobile GT3
{ 0x08,0x00,0x26,0x0a },// 14 "AAPL,ig-platform-id" //FB: 64MB, Pipes: 3, Ports: 3, FBMem: 3 - ULT mobile GT3
{ 0x08,0x00,0x2e,0x0a },// 15 "AAPL,ig-platform-id" //FB: 64MB, Pipes: 3, Ports: 3, FBMem: 3 - ULT reserved GT3

platform-Id
00 00 06 04//Intel Haswell Mobile (GT1)
00 00 16 04//Intel Haswell Mobile (GT2)
00 00 26 04//Intel Haswell Mobile (GT3)
00 00 16 0A//Intel Haswell ULT Mobile (GT2)
00 00 26 0A//Intel Haswell ULT Mobile (GT3)
00 00 26 0D//Intel Haswell CRW Mobile (GT3) - ???
00 00 26 0C//Intel Haswell SDV Mobile (GT3) - Software Development Vehicle
00 00 16 0C//Intel Haswell SDV Mobile HD 4600 (GT2) - Software Development Vehicle
00 00 06 0C//Intel Haswell SDV Mobile (GT1) - Software Development Vehicle
00 00 26 0A//Intel Haswell ULT Mobile (GT3)

If it's accurate; the " mobile GT2" is either 0x04160000 or 0x04160002. Though that last one seems very out-of-place ... maybe an early i3.

 

I'm sure I'm just paranoid here- but I just received my W230SS and I can't seem to detect the GPU (GTX 860M).

I've tried Windows 7 & Windows 8.1 (with all updates).

I've installed the Chipset, then the Intel Drivers (I believe it has got the Intel 4600 too), then the Nvidia ones (but Nvidia says the Nvidia Hardware can't be detected).

All drivers are from Clevo's official site, and I tried Nvidia's site too.

It's not listed anywhere (two "Other devices" in Hard ware manager- see pic- exist but manually installing drivers to them didn't work!)

Am I going crazy?

 

this is spooky. I have no idea.

 

Yep, those are the Nvidia devices. Try to right click and use the built-in Windows driver updater to see if it works.

As for your previous question about Windows disks in a Mac environment, OS X already has NTFS read-only drivers so you can see the contents of your Windows disks but you can't write to them. For write access, you can try NTFS-3G or Paragon NTFS; but as I mentioned, Paragon's drivers have some issues.

 

I've tried every single ig-platform-id. Some give me a garbled screen like you see above; some don't even work (i.e. hangs at the verbose screen). None work.

 

Hutsady, we would appreciate it if you would look into the above mentioned issues also. Thanks.

 

Give him a PM or call them directly, as mentioned all games come via codes on vouchers to be redeemed on digital services.

 

Cleaning the dust and repasting my XMG P304 made a big difference in temps, from over-heating with skyrim to barely getting the fan on while gaming.

Since its very to read all 178 pages of this thread. Are there any highlights on how this laptop can be improved relating to performance, heat and noise?

 

The prema unlocked bios I suppose would be the biggest source of tweaks.

 

Well no response here after several requests. I (coincidentally?) received an email from XoticPC yesterday just asking for feedback on if I was happy with my NP7338. I responded that yes I was very happy with the laptop but I never received the game code. The response I just received - I have to fill out an RMA or email them (I already did email XoticPC). Seriously? Ok fine, I'll RMA the laptop to get the game code.. lol. Filling out RMA now. Stupidest thing I ever heard.

edit: They just emailed again to clarify the RMA is to get the info to them, or I can email their service group about it instead. No idea why they didn't just forward my email to the service group themselves, they are both at XoticPC.com..

 

There is multiple people in that department and so the person asking for feedback probably didn't know you had sent that email in. If you've already emailed the service team for the code they should be looking into getting you that code.

 

I did also reply to it yesterday at 8:55AM, its odd though as it quoted the link you provided instead of your actual post. Please do PM me your order number and I'll look into this for you.

 

Oh ok thanks Hutsady, I thought you were replying to Rahz.
I'll PM you shortly. Appreciate your help.

 

Hutsady forwarded me your order number since I was originally helping you out. I do show that I received your email on it and also that I replied to you shortly after, but we switched over to a new system and my reply itself seems to have got lost in that switch. So honestly can't see what was communicated but typically the response I'd provide is to shoot an email into our service team and let them know you're looking for that code. They'd then send it to you in an email for your use. We're still waiting for the next game code promotion to launch but once it does I'd be happy to look into getting the new code for you.

 

I've got the option of getting a 4810MQ upgrade (over the 4700MQ) for $85USD. I'm not a heavy gamer, but I do often use photoshop/video editing/music production software. Would that be a worthy upgrade?

 

If it were me, I would do it.

 

Oh ok thanks Derek. No I didn't receive your email so thanks for posting here. Appreciate your help.

 

I would since it's a small amount and of all the jumps it's the biggest.

 

Now the 860m has been out a little while whats everyones best 3dmark 11's with mature drivers?