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

Been terribly busy with ..err.. life I guess.. and a flu on top, but I've had a little play around with my new NP7338.

After booting up to make sure everything worked ok (no worries), next thing was to put in a new 500GB Samsung 840EVO mSATA as the primary disc, and relegate the installed 750GB mech drive to storage duties instead. A few little screws to remove the back cover and just slide the mSATA in with one securing screw and good as done.. of course installing Windows 7 again (and the endless updates) took like an evening and into the next day... I did notice the EVO mSATA got very hot installing Windows, but that's an unusual amount of work for the little thing. I was told there were two mSATA slots (as well as the one standard SATA slot), but only saw one mSATA.. wasn't looking all that hard though.

Love the display - very crisp and bright. I installed GuildWars2 and only then noticed a slight yellow hue to everything compared to my desktop and my NP6110, so quickly ran the Windows advanced color management and recalibrated slightly (I think 2 notches down on red and 1 down on green, and everything was great), gamma was a little bit out but only slightly, contrast and brightness were spot on. Very minor tweaks to get it perfected (for my eyes at least).

It's quite a big bigger than the NP6110 (I mean bigger than I expected in comparison when moving from 11.6" to 13.3"), but hey, at least I won't get ribbed any more about my 'cute little laptop' fitting into my purse next to my tampons (I'm a guy btw..) ..lol.

AIDA64 (ex-Everest) did not recognize the motherboard and did not get all readings off the GPU either, but I ran a report for them so hopefully they will update their software soon.

Will comment more when I find time to do some intensive testing, but so far I like it - very responsive, loving the display, only con so far (very minor one at that) is that the stock outer skin/surface is a fingerprint magnet if you have any slight bit of grease or oil on your fingers (and I mean just natural oils in your skin, not deep-fried omnomnom kinda stuff).. I much preferred the textured skin on the NP6110.

 

So I've been playing around some more with Intel XTU running in the background. I mostly leave my laptop in entertainment mode (balanced power setting) and my average temps while surfing the net for the CPU is 45-49C. The fan hardly runs or if it does it's low enough for me not to notice. My most intense cpu temps while gaming so far (supreme commander: forged alliance) was CPU peak of 93C and GPU peak of 73C. Gaming with older games that can run on the iGPU is a really nice feature too. They run flawlessly and the fan stays off or on low. The CPU is definitely the power/heat hog in this laptop. The nvidia dGPU is downright docile in comparison. I'm going to have to give undervolting a try on the cpu. The 4810mq is like dropping a corvette engine into a Geo Metro, sure it's a blast, but why?!?!??!

The nvidia 860m is a phenomenal piece of work. So far everything I've run on it has run flawlessly. BF4 and Elder Scrolls Online look great and run smooth. I think the auto setting for BF4 is medium quality and I have plenty of head room to push it up a few notches, but I don't see the point on a 13.3 screen. There's only so much detail your going to notice. If I was driving a bigger display it's nice to know it's there if needed. I haven't done much benchmarking yet, but I was worried that the 860m would be prone to large fluctuations in fps due to the smaller 128bit mem bus bandwidth. I haven't found that to be the case at all. It gives you the feeling that it can handle anything you can throw at it. So far all I can say is what a great little machine!

 

What about the display? Do you own the FHD or QHD? QHD is available in a couple of month in germany. Don't know how's the availability at your site. Does the FHD display fits your expectations?

 

New owners of w230ss battery life improve or same as w230st??

 

My panel is FHD and think its a great little display. The colors are deep and rich with excellent contrast. Thanks to the pixel density it is much sharper than my 1900x1200 glossy ips display on my older 17" laptop. My main computer has a viewsonic 27" tn panel that doesn't come close to the little 13.3. I find text clear but small on the 13.3. After reading for awhile i tend to have zoom in to avoid eye strain. They eyes are not what they once were i guess . Games look great but if they have online chats the txt can be small. I dont mind since i bought this as a travel machine. When home i have my monster with its 780 gtx classified so there no reason to run it. In a few days ill try and take some pictures of 3 or 4 panels together.

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The higher res panels are not available yet.

 

How are the temps? Does it feel hot to the touch?

 

Where your left hand rests on the wsad keys and palm gets warm while gaming. The heat sink and fan is directly below that spot. It is warm enough for your hand to get sweaty for long periods of play, but not enough to burn. I found a laptop cooler helps reduce that somewhat keeping your hand comfy. While surfing the net and using apps the laptop will also slowly warm due to the fan being off and the natural radiant dissipation of heat. Putting the fan on for a bit cools it down nicely, but i don't find it uncomfortable enough bother doing. Laptop cooler again helps in this case too. Remember what your buying here. Its a ultra portable powerhouse. If you very sensitive to heat on your hands your better off with a 15 or 17" with more room for cooling

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Well, this laptop is fantastic. I spent all of yesterday setting up Arch Linux on it, so I am familiar with all the ins and outs of the laptop. Everything went in fine (i7 4700MQ, Sager factory wifi chip). This keyboard is great, it's so nice to have real touchpad buttons, the screen is drop-dead beautiful (I had to config XFCE in HiDpi mode because of the insane PPI). I ordered from XoticPc, and I got the Realtek RTL8723BE for my wifi chip. The drivers sucked, the guy who wrote it on github kept updating it for kernel versions nobody was using . Eventually, I checked out an older driver version that works beautifully. Feel free to PM me if ya need help with those wifi drivers.

I mean, even on Arch, virtually everything worked out of the box. Setting up Bumblebee was... fun... but not nearly as bad as I thought. I don't even have any games to test the Nvidia GPU TBH. Most intense games I have on Linux are L4D2 and TF2. I'll have to buy some nicer games. Anyways, super duper happy with this thing, the only things I can complain about are a slightly sticky trackpad (it'll get worn with time) and ty speakers. At least they're loud and give good positional audio.

9.5/10, amazing especially coming from a 2008 Macbook.

 

Anyone else having any issues with Bluetooth? My Microsoft BT mouse seems to loose it's connection once or twice an hour or so. If I cycle power on the mouse, it will then reconnect and work properly for another 1/2 to full hour.

I'm using these same mice on 3 other machines and not seeing the same behavior, so I don't think it's the mouse.

 

How'd you get the 860m working on the unix drivers? It's not currently supported in the short-lived branch (334.21 as of this writing) and I've been unable to find the file to simply add it in (seeing at the 750ti is identical it should work.)

Thanks.

 

If you haven't tried yet. I'd check intel's website for updated drivers(assuming you have the intel card of course). There was an updated driver for me on windows 7. Here's the link to the utility. I bluetoothed my phone to the laptop with no problems or disconnect. I didn't do much with it, but was checking to see if it worked. I was playing music through the laptop with no problem.

Intel® Driver Update Utility

 

Got my laptop a couple of days ago and it's pretty good so far. Unfortunately, some stuck pixels popped up today I got the no dead pixel guarantee but it seems that I may have to pay shipping both ways since I live in Hawaii. I'm not sure what to do now

 

So they don't cover shipping to/from Hawaii? That sucks. I would order a replacement screen since the screen will probably cost less than the back and forth shipping of the laptop. It seems they should have informed you when they saw a Hawaii address that they don't cover shipping.

 

I'm really interested in this laptop as I plan on replacing my current one with something more powerful.
I just wanted to know how many have replaced the TIM with something better and what improvement did you notice.
Eurocom recently announced the M4 which is basically this same chassis but they have the option of an i7-4940xm which is exactly the cpu I wanted in a laptop. Was looking for an msi but something this small with this much power cannot be ignored. So I want to get an idea of the temps an 57w cpu will be delivering. Anybody plan on using Liquid Ultra or Liquid Pro as tim for ultimate contact?

 

I must admit im moving away from 13.3".. I loved my W230ST and W110ER, but I dont actually need it to be that portable so moving on to a 15"... Anyone recommend the W350ST? I really want the maxwell gtx 860m, im not worried about top end GPU's, my desktop is for maxing games.. laptop for away from the house.

 

You'll want the W350SS (NP7358) which is a 15.6" and GTX 860M Maxwell. The W350ST was last years version and 765M.

 

Ah thanks thats the one.. any reviews out there do you know?

 

Review Clevo W355SS (Schenker XMG A504) Barebones Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

 

I'm curious to know why you'd need a cpu of that kind of power in a small mobile machine? I'm only using the diamond compound from sager. I know there is better paste out there, but I don't think the paste is the limitation on this laptop. It can only help so much, then it's up to the heat sink and I think there's just not enough surface area to keep a 57W TDP chip cool. Do you know if eurocom is changing the cooler out to something else? This laptop will have a really hard time trying that cpu cool especially if you were using the GPU at the same time. I'd expect some major throttling.

 

Seeing as it comes with 1080p panel it makes sense to have the extra cpu power for extra frames when gaming at that resolution. And it somewhat safe proofs the laptop for future gaming.
I very much doubt that Eurocom changed the cooler as that would imply a redesign in the components inside and I would assume they tested the configuration with the I7-4940XM.
Maybe a different fan or always at max speed. Don't know until we get a review of that particular unit.
Just wondering those that changed the TIM themselves, how much of an improvement you saw in temps.

 

Cpu usage for gaming on this laptop average 50% with the 4810mq. Remember the more thermal u use to cool the cpu. The less is available for the gpu.

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I would have to agree. The 4810mq is not coming close to bottle-necking the 860m. A higher TDP chip in the 57w range is just going to make things much hotter and start throttling all while giving you less overhead for the GPU to work with. All this will lead to next to zero improvement in FPS in games but more than likely even worse performance than if you stuck to i7 4702mq at 37w or at most one of the 47 watt quads. The 4702mq seems to the sweet spot. A lot are going for thr 4810mq because it's only a $35 upgrade right now. This laptop can BARELY handle the 4810mq as it is and has some minor throttling when running hard already.

 

It's a 47W chip, all the 4702Mq is basically doing is pre-throttling itself. The 4810mq has some extra cache and much more room for those who undervolt/overclock it.

For a tweaker in a system with XTU support there are NO cases to get a 4702Mq over a 4700mq or higher.

 

As I'm no longer interested in tweaking, I guess waiting for the 4702MQ to become available is the right move .

 

And so I wait...

 

Unfortunately about half the models Sager offers had a delay from Clevo. They are all expected on the 15th.

 

Thank God I got mine! This thing is a monster, with the 3 week wait.

 

Hi, I've finally pulled the trigger on the W230SS! I really hope I won't regret buying it over waiting for the P34GV2 ... that thickness and weight ....

Anyway, wanted to ask a quick questions:
Can you fit a 9.5mm SSD into the HDD bay?

Thanks,

 

A 4700MQ is still the better choice as you set a slider once and leave it and end up with a faster and more efficient chip.

 

Yea it's a 9.5mm bay. I had to improvise a source for my Samsung 840Pro

 

Why does everyone use the term "pulled the trigger" when it comes to buying first world items?

Is it because we in America like our guns?

So I'm going to be buying this laptop in two weeks.

 

I'm glad I got my order in before the shortage hit. Feel bad for the people that just missed getting a unit shipped from Sager. It makes the added three or four days added to my shipping because it was accidentally shipped ground instead of 2nd day air not so bad. I only have two more days to wait. It's supposed to be here at the door on Thursday...unfortunately, I will be out of town Thursday so I won't get to play with it till late morning Friday. I'm getting excited.

 

They'll play catch up pretty quickly though, hopefully it wont delay shipments too much.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts once you get a chance to play with it.

 

That's good to know, thanks. Now I know for sure I can use my new M500 480GB in my deskptop and my old M4 256GB for my W230SS.

Well, I'm not American, so it's not because of that.

"Pulling the trigger" is quite a common expression ... but I probably subconsciously decided to use it as I had seen it used by people purchasing new laptops many, many times. I guess it comes from the fact that we had to make decisions as to what to buy and making the decision concrete (by "pulling the trigger") makes us feel better about our choice.

 

I'm sooo saaad most of the models on Sager have an ETA - back order up to April 29th (with 95% NTSC screen?) ! T_T Is there any info. if a batch was already made before the April 15th? or is there a wait list ?

 

When making a laptop purchase many forum users spend days looking at all the choices available to them. I know I did. It would have been nice to be able to go to a store and check out all of the options. Sadly, most stores only some of the consumer name brand laptops and not the enthusiast brands. I stopped by best buy to get a look at a Razer blade 14" and none of them stock em. They only order them online. After many days of research arrive at the decision and using the phrase pulling the trigger is very apt at that point don't you think?

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Can you elaborate, please ?

I have a 840 Pro on the way as well, and you got me a bit puzzled...

(I don't have a W230SS yet, but I might * pull the trigger* at some point )

 

What he means is that he had to get something to fill the 7mm to 9.5mm height difference -- or at least that's how I saw it. I know that Crucial provides them (they call it a spacer) but I don't know about Samsung.

 

I just use a piece of cardboard to fill the gap.

 

From what I gathered, they don't provide a spacer (which is a shame, at those prices).

@HTWingNut: Any ETA on your review ?

 

I actually started looking at this laptop last summer (W230ST) and was on the fence for the longest time. It's not my main machine. I also use a NP7280 which is almost the size of a Buick. So I keep another smaller laptop for email and working for short periods away from home. It's a great little machine, but the NP7280 is what I use for heavy lifting for my main development.

It's funny in today's world where most people think you can buy a decent laptop from Best Buy for <$500. They just kind of tilt their head to the side like a dog when you tell them you have a laptop that costs >$2,500. Hell, even the ~$1,400 I have in this W230SS puts most people off, they just don't under stand the power that is in such a little machine.

 

Damn, and now that I've read a bit of that thread, I'm considering waiting for the next generation of 13.3" Clevo which should boast 20nm Maxwell chips...

Good thing I'm not in a hurry.

 

Most people also don't need anywhere near that power. They just need a cheap device that they will destroy anyways through award, viruses and physical abuse. Most of what I have seen normal people do on computers would not stress even a fairly low end dual core system.

Unless you do higher end games (which most people don't) or do intensive things like software development you just don't need that much power. I have an old llano system that uses an A8-3500M processor in it plus a 6750M graphics card in it along with 16GB of ram and it has done everything I wanted to with it for about 3 years now. Even runs games like skyrim at 1920x1080 just fine. It was a $550 laptop from bestbuy. I have even run a lot of MATLAB code and other software dev on it and only recently has it become a performance problem. I ordered an NP7378 to replace it which will completely smoke it by about 10x in some of the stuff I am doing now.

 

I agree. For most people that just Facebook, a low powered tablet is fine.

Funny thing about just doing normal things on a laptop... I have an ASUS Zenbook with Win 7 64Bit & 4GB ram. I run Outlook and IE for browsing. When I get more then about 6-7 tabs open I start bumping up against the 4GB RAM limit and it slows way down to crawl as it swaps to disk. Even though I have an SSD, it becomes almost unusable. I have to shut down IE and then the RAM drops back below 2GB. I just think it's crazy that you need 4+ GB to browse the web. I'm guessing it just very poor memory management in the things that IE (or any web browser for that matter) uses like Flash and so on.

I remember back in the days if you had 1MB on your Atari ST or Mac you had something. lol

 

The reason it takes so much ram to browse the web is not because of the browser. It is because modern pages are HUGE. Customers want more and more features but they also want stuff done cheaper and cheaper and faster and faster so something has to give. What you do is use large javascript libraries and do a lot of the work client side and also stream in a lot of parts. This takes FAR more ram than the older style pages where where pure html + optimized images. There is just no way around this. I have even talked to my customers about it and they don't care. They want stuff done now and cheap and people should just get more powerful computers to view their sites. I don't see that trend changing in any way.

On the plus side I will be out of that industry soon and into biotech which is far more interesti

 

WOOT!!!

Hopefully it ships this week but its not a huge deal to me. Ive been working 12hr days so its not like I really have the time to sit and anguish (except every time I have to use this stupid Macbook Air that my company shoved down my throat)...

 

Hey guys. I got my tracking number from xotic pc today! Should arrive on Monday.
If any of you want benchmarks for games just let me know. I have a crap ton (around 70) on my steam account and would be more than willing to share. FYI no battlefield 3/4, crysis 3, or any Assassins Creed.

Cheers.

 

Congrats, let us know if you have anything come up!

 

Has anybody undervolted their CPU in their W230SS yet? I'm wondering what that would do for the throttling under load and high temps.