*** Official Sager NP7339 / Clevo W230SD Owner's Lounge ***

The next update to the Clevo W230 is available now with the GTX 960m. It looks like essentially the same machine as the NP7338 / Clevo W320SS except for the updated GPU.

See specs for this model below:






More images below in spoiler tag:

Spoiler: Clevo W230SD Images

 

Thanks for stating another thread HTWingNut!
Hopefully some day we can add a video review to this post

 

This is a great little laptop. I loved my W230ST and SS. I only hope they update the chassis a bit with the next revision. Not much needs updating though, but my thoughts:

- Improved USB placement. Please place three USB ports on the left and near the back, with one on the right and near the back, it's just a hassle for us mouse users.
- Improve speakers and speaker placement. The speakers in this machine are miserable. I don't expect much out of laptop speakers but these are basically tin can on a string. Especially comparing with the P750ZM line.
- Add a metal palm rest. The painted surface just wears off too easily and quickly.
- Ditch the 2.5" drive and offer two M.2 slots and an mSATA slot (yes both)
- Based on above removal of 2.5" drive, improve cooling a bit by offering larger fans and heatsinks and possibly battery.

And those are really just minor updates I feel will improve an already awesome laptop.

 

what is the recommended 120GB / 128GB SSD as OS drive?

 

If you are referring to mSATA drive, out of the Sager options available I would choose Intel 530.

 

I must admit those ports are horribly placed. Pretty much everything right next to your mouse hand.

Other than that I've been eyeing this machine for a while. Well, that and the surface temps. After having gotten used to max keyboard temps of 34C on my ROG and Alienware machines, anything hotter than that is intolerable.

 

Hold on a minute - I just noticed that the specs table includes an ;integrated fingerprint reader'. If the chassis is exactly the same, where is the fingerprint reader?

 

Well spotted, those are just stock photos from the w230st so we will have to see.

 

There is a review of the W230SD already, with photos by HTWingNut:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/sager-np7339-clevo-w230sd-review-by-htwingnut.774424/

I can't see the fingerprint reader anywhere, I suppose it doesn't exist.

EDIT:
And in the official specification (updated?) of the Clevo website:
http://www.clevo.com.tw/clevo_prodetail.asp?id=779&lang=en

There is not any "integrated fingerprint" anymore.

 

Indeed. Must have been a mis-type.

 

The fingerprint reader may have been the result of an internal copy paste job @ Clevo...

 

Just like the W230SD.

 

Wouldn't it be better if this and the W230SS Lounges were merged? There's barely any difference between the two notebooks save the GPU (which are also technically the same, just that one is an OCed version of the other).

 

Well W230SS is a W230ST with 860m instead of 765m and that owner's lounge flourished.

 

Except that was a different chip I suppose.

 

Some benchmark results:

3d Mark Firestrike:

Desktop i7 4790K + GTX 970 --> 10491
Desktop i7 4790K + GTX 760 --> 6237
Desktop i7 4790K + GTX 570 --> 3911

W230SD i7-4710MQ + GTX 960M --> 4097.

Overall, not bad!

 

It's pretty capable at 1080p

 

Got my W230SD friday last week, been playing around with it.

I have some temperature issues (i7-4710MQ), I wonder if my reseller hasn't actually repasted as I thought they would. Underclocking and undervolting the CPU has got everything under control though. The fan doesn't seem to spin up fast enough sometimes by the way, it only starts spinning up when already at 90C plus. A shame Prema's W230SD BIOS mod isn't ready yet, I believe it would help quite a bit. If I leave stock clocks and voltages the CPU hits 95C+ nearly instantly.

I have some quirks with the build quality, some parts of it seem to be weirdly bent (like the portion just below the keyboard, leaving a small noticeable gap, and the strip above the keyboard is bent up). Overall nearly irrelevant, but annoying nonetheless.

Other than that, the maintenance options are indeed great. By just opening the "hatch" below the notebook you have access to literally everything.

Currently trying EVGA Precision X to see what can be done with the GPU. I am using Nvidia 353.00 drivers.

Overall, I must say this small laptop is great so far. Screen is great, game performance is amazing for it's size, I still can't believe I fit 16 GB RAM and a full quad-core Intel CPU inside it haha, it will be amazing for work.

EDIT: I am indeed getting thermal throttling (even undervolted and underclocked) because of the fan not spinning up fast enough, this is easily noticeable with XTU's benchmark tool.

 

Try Fn+1 and see it the fan even reaches full speed. If it does and XTU stress doesn't throttle anymore then there might be an issue with the fan table. If it doesn't spin up then either the fan is defective, it snags on something or it doesn't get enough power from the fan connector (try re-plugging the cable).

 

Forcing the fan to max does work. The issue from my observation is when leaving the fan at the default automatic settings, and applying loads like XTU's benchmark, which goes from 0% do 100% utilization, then back to 0% and next 100% again very quickly, and the fan doesn't increase it's speed fast enough to cool the CPU. I could post XTU's graph to illustrate what I mean, I'll do that later to add to this discussion.

I tried using custom fan settings with the Clevo Control Center but it did not help much, though it was definitely better (rather than leaving it at automatic). I agree there might be something wrong with fan tables.

I read about people complaining that the W230 models are too loud, in my case it seems to be too quiet.

EDIT: Not sure this is relevant but my current bios seems to be "Style Note", this is the image that appears at boot:

Spoiler

I don't know this brand.

EDIT2: I did some further undervolting (now at -100mV) and that isn't happening anymore for some reason, but I'm not sure if the undervolting is actually related or not. Hopefully that issue with the fans not behaving correctly was a "once in a lifetime" occurrence.

Question: my W230SD has those black tapes covering the extra grilles below it. Why are they putting this now? I just can't think of any reason. Should I remove them, or will there be no gain? Not sure if my reseller is going to threaten taking my warranty away (although I've already opened it after asking them).

The same as this post:

Spoiler

 

Style note is the default one from clevo I believe.

 

It's the default splash unless the logo is disabled in BIOS (in which case it's AMI's display).

 

Does anyone else have something going on with the screen? Like Dynamic contrast? I disabled it in the Windows 8 settings as well as the Intel Drivers settings, but I still "feel" like it's auto adjusting which is driving me nuts.

 

I noticed some kind of "screen auto-adjusting" a few times, but it honestly didn't annoy me much and I believe I'm not noticing it anymore lately. Had no idea there was actually anything like "dynamic constrast".

That is the case, I had no UEFI and no splash logo before and the AMI display appeared at boot. Changed to UEFI with logo and the Style Note logo appears.

 

Hi guys, just joining up here after my P180HM bit the dust (we have a hand-me down system in the family so my current machine is a NP6165, which has been fantastic). So new laptop for me, passing this one down, and sadly parting out the 180. Otherwise prob would have waited for Skylake. Figures they also release the quad core broadwells THE DAY AFTER I buy this. But, you have to take the plunge sometime.

I'm getting it on Wednesday, can't wait

Feels like this laptop is a "sleeper". Unassuming, composed, and small. Few will suspect the beast hidden within.

Config is not anything too special, i7-4710MQ, 8gb, ic diamond, win 7 pro, 500GB M-sata (evo) and the 1TB mechanical drive was mandatory, no big deal, lots of space. Will update once I get it.

 

Congrats on your purchase - make sure to tune up your laptop as the GTX 860M/960M have some really good overclocking potential (just need Prema Mod).

Don't worry about Broadwell too much - all the laptop parts were BGA, i.e. soldered, annoying, non-upgradeable chips (seen by the -HQ prefix). Haswell is just as good.

What I think W230ST/SS/SD owners need to be looking out for is Skylake + Pascal somewhere next year. I will probably upgrade then, and leave this venerable beast behind.

 

There will be no new BGA Broadwell models from Clevo, they where all canned earlier this year...
(Only ZM will be able to run Desktop Broadwell LGA CPUs)

 

D: meaning to say that next year the P65/67 series chassis would be recycled for Skylake/Pascal? Damn, I was waiting for a 13/14" metallic chassis with a GTX "1065M"...

 

Due to development and manufacturing costs chassis usually are kept around at least 3 generations.

 

Is the GTX 960m worth an extra £100 over the 860m? i have the option to buy either the W230SS or W230SD but am unsure on whether the performance gain will be worth it.

 

No, it's not worth it. The 960M is basically an overclocked but locked-down GTX 860M. Save yourself £100 (that's a lot, actually...), get the W230SS, install Prema Mod and overclock the GPU to exceed 960M levels of performance. You can use that £100 to upgrade to a larger SSD or something instead.

P.S. Don't make multiple duplicate posts in different threads - choose one, please.

 

I was thinking I'd go with the SS, hasn't there been new drivers for the 900m series enabling overclocking?

 

Yes, Nvida did removing the overclocking option a couple months back, but they have updated the drivers to allow it again. Version 353.00 or newer should be good for that.

 

Guys, I need some advice. I received my W230SD a couple weeks ago. At the beginning I remember doing some tests and temperatures seemed to be fine. Now, I am noticing that my GPU temperatures are fine (barely if ever hits 80 °C + when heavy gaming), but my CPU temperatures aren't. At stock voltage and clocks, I'm hitting (i7-4710MQ) 98 °C instantly before the cooler even has time to start when running the default stress test (not benchmark) at Intel XTU. Even when running software that I work with it hits 98 °C extremely fast.

Intel XTU pic: http://postimg.org/image/qsnw33o7z/

Is this behaviour at stock settings normal? I'm inclined to believe my reseller did something wrong when repasting my CPU, but I'm not too experienced so I'm not sure. If I "heavily" underclock and undervolt my CPU (such as -80 mV at everything and max turbo clock 2.8 GHz instead of 3.5 GHz) temperatures are fine (~70 °C max), and that's what I'm using right now.

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

EDIT: Reseller used Arctic Silver 5 for repasting.

 

It is odd how it changed behaviour so quickly. I would pop it open and make sure the screws around the heatsink on the CPU are all the way tight. Also consider redoing the thermal compound on it. Before you do that contact your reseller to make sure their warranty is OK with you doing so.

 

I found it odd too. I will try tightening the CPU screws, thanks for the tip! I am already in contact with my reseller.

 

Also check the cpu heatpipe is working correctly.

 

Apparently, tightening the screws did not make any noticeable difference (I have the impression it is slightly better but not considerably so).

I am going to see if my reseller sends me some thermal paste so I can try replacing it. I believe they are going to send me Arctic Silver 5, which is safe in terms of it being conductive and capacitive, right?

Is there any easy way to do that? I thought about flipping the laptop upside down with it's cover off while it is running some stress test but that doesn't seem very safe.

 

The "easiest" way is to take the heatsink off, clean it, and immerse the cpu contact plate into hot water, the pipe should immediately heat and the fins get warm if it's working.

 

Thanks for the tip! I believe I will try repasting first, and if that doesn't help then I'll try what you suggested. Hopefully a good repaste will be enough to solve this issue.

 

If they send you Arctic Silver 5 for free then you may as well use it. If you have to purchase some yourself go with IC Diamond.

 

You might have a faulty heatsink - I experienced the exact same issues with my W230SS last year and the problems vanished after sending it in for repairs to my reseller. CPU temps hit 99 degrees C at 50% load - this was very strange considering that my friend had a W230ST, overclocked his i7-4700MQ to exceed the performance of even the 4710MQ and never hit temperatures that high even at maximum load.

They said the heatsink was probably faulty, swapped it out for a new one and applied a new coat of IC Diamond, and all was well - 70 degrees C at 50% load.

 

I suspect a manufacturing defect in the wick of the cpu pipe pretty strongly.

AS5 is not conductive but it is capacitive so don't get it everywhere.

 

Just wanted to update on my temperature issues: I discovered that apparently the heatsink was pressed too tightly on top of the CPU, and it was pushing the thermal paste out of the way or something like that, and coming into direct contact with the CPU. I have reapplied thermal paste, and have not tightened the CPU screws at all, only one or two turns to keep the heatsink fixed. Now the temperatures are fine once again, on XTU's stress test temperatures don't go above 90°C anymore, with stock voltage and clocks. I have been using it like this for a few days already and have been testing temperatures everyday, and am quite satisfied with the results so far.

I used the Arctic Silver 5 that they sent me. Very thin line of paste on the CPU, and very small dot of paste on the GPU (noticed that on notebooks these are really tiny haha).

The reseller said that if the temperature issues start appearing again, they will send me a new heatsink. I kind of wanted to demand a new one either way, but considering that the issue is not happening anymore and that I have 3 more years of warranty, I decided to wait and see what happens.

Thanks for the help and tips people, I appreciate it.

 

You may want to tighten it at least half way, it may slightly convex which could cause this issue.

 

Hey all,

Well I've had this laptop about a month now. I'm very happy. It's the perfect combination of power and portability. It works hard, plays hard, stands up respectably in looks to the typical macbooks (yawn) at work (ie no bling). Easy to carry, battery life not bad. Temps seem ok, the fans are quiet enough. Stands up to 5 hours of gaming. No complaints.

A few wishes/irritations -- they really could have put a 14" screen as big as the bezels are, eliminate them, go bezel-less and make the entire top half a screen. I wish the speakers were louder. Not expecting good quality sound, but audibility can be poor. The top has a rubbery matte material that gets handprints on it easily and they can be difficult to remove (compare with a glossy top that has the same problem but is easier to wipe away). I wish Clevo's "Hotkey" program were more configurable and didn't steal focus from things at types when I'm trying to type.

But yeah that's my review, for anyone considering it I recommend it, overall it's a solid machine.

 

The chipset drivers are messed up; if you try to plug in an Android phone, the USB starts power cycling like mad.

 

Depends on the phone and the port used. For some reason, my One M8 on Kit Kat 4.4.4 did that, but on Lollipop, it doesn't happen any more.

 

Nexus 4 on Lollipop 5.1.1; I tried all 3 ports and they all have the same issue, doesn't happen on my other laptops/PCs.

Which chipset driver do you use?

 

Prema Mod for these model has been released:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/prema-bios-mod-review.667818/page-168#post-10041080