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

Hi, regardless all heat problems with this model, is it overall good gaming Laptop in long terms?(3years ++) i worry about 1heatsink for both gpu and cpu, can it handle well? . I am not hardcore gamer but one at time i will play all day long with it. I have no worry when i play at home because i use coolingpads. Is there korrelation with high fps with gpu and cpu temperature? I mean when i play with ultra settings and got +- 30fps and with normal - high settings with over 60fps, does cpu and gpu work same hard as ultra settings?

Thanks,

 

So long as you maintain it properly with a good cleaning every so often it should be fine for decent sessions.

 

When are the refreshes for the W230SD typically announced? I want to purchase one but if it's shy of a refresh I can wait.

 

Sager usually announce and launch at the same time a short time after a launch, so keep an eye out as skylake launches.

 

There will be no refresh for this model this year, they want to keep the CPU socketed and mobile Skylake doesn't deliver.

There will be changes in the P6 / BGA model class...

 

Yes the mobile chips don't look to be going back to sockets.

 

So I'm fine to purchase for the foreseeable future? Like in December? I was hoping a chasis update would be in the cards.

 

It's hard to say exactly what will be available in 4-5 months time.

 

is there a battery management software for this laptop ?

... like if I wanted the charge to start when the battery is say 50% full and stop when it gets to 90% full, and do nothing until it drops down to 50% again ?

thanks.

P.S. From the looks of it, the cooling seems not enough for that CPU. I can see that copper option over xoticPC though, anybody have it ?

 

Why do u even need it? Charge it whenever and wherever u can without battery. use ur battery wisely. Store the battery at 50% capacity for a time being.

Btw copper option is not worthed. It is just extra mini copper that u can add urself..
For example:

http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Copper...r_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342054688&sr=8-1&keywords=
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

 

because I dont want to keep buying new batteries every 2 years, lol. And running without a battery is not really an option these days.

 

Quite right, a 70% charge option would be preferable for longevity. Even so ... it'd still wear out.

Yet, buying a new battery doesn't have to be expensive; the only thing that's worn out are the 18650s inside, so $10-15 would cover that (charge-protected). Will do so soon; they're over 1/3th down. Haven't opened this one yet (SS model), but should think there's 4x 4200 mAh inside. Might as well use the 6000 mAh versions for a nice 40% boost. The controller won't know, but that doesn't matter; it'll charge to 100% just fine, except taking longer and its reported capacity will be off the mark (what else is new ...). The only skill needed is soldering; trick is clean tab, filing properly, good flux and, important, decharge before soldering.

 

Thank you for the suggestion, however last time I've tried that same thing and it turned out that the original batteries on one of my T61 laptops are pinch-pressed with a thin connecting plate (not copper). Soldering was not really an option, I've tried that and it didn't work. I've then tried to put my own connecting copper lines (somewhat thick) and I managed to make it, only to find out the batteries that I bought didn't last as much as those were supposed to.

long story short - I ended up buying another battery. And most importantly, I figured out it's not worth the effort to fix the old ones ....

 

Hmm ... you have a good point there ... it seems the 6000 mAh versions aren't all that; funny comment. Better stick with Japanese factories then. Had to open up anyway to determine number and type:

Spoiler: Clevo W230SS - battery pack

And resealed, almost can't tell ... :

Spoiler: Clevo W230SS - battery pack resealed

Anyway, so it's 6x 2800 mAh instead 4x 4200. Both equal 11.1V @ 5600 mAh (= 62Wh). Brand/type is Samsung ICR18650-28A, total for 6 is around ~$35, less than half the cost of a new pack. There are a few Panasonics with 3400 mAh too, which would make a 21% increase in capacity. Need to make sure to order unprotected type; there's only room for the 65mm batteries, the protection pcb adds 2mm and those won't fit inside this casing.

Ordered a bunch with soldering tabs, price wasn't much higher and it's a bit easier. Should get original run plus an extra hour with these.

 

well I've decided to pass on that laptop due to inadequate cooling

good luck all.

 

Any sense of the battery life yet?

 

No, boat from China has yet to arrive; swear it's taking longer the past year or so ... container ships run in low gear now to save fuel. Anyway, wish I'd ran a test when the battery was still new. Guess will have to use Battery Eater; NBC seems to use that and they had 6:30 and 2:00. Curious how this'll pan out, in theory it'd have to be around 7:53 and 2.26.

 

Just about the pull the trigger on this and get one. Seems to be a pretty good little machine. It really is my only option besides the Alienware one but that thing is dual core and I feel its more of a down grade than a upgrade. I have the W110ER right now and I love the little bugger but my hinges are broken after it got thrown and now I am have RAM and HDD issues. So after all that I decided its time for a new one haha.

Anyone get one with just the 1TB 7200 rpm drive? What are your thoughts on it? I have a WD black right now and it is plenty fast enough for me. I want the m.2 drives but I see that as something I can add later on.

You all think I should be worried about the heat issues on this thing? It is primarily going to be used for basic word processing, Netflix, and that kind of stuff. Only ever going to play games on it when I am not around my desktop which isn't very often.

I can also assure that the ships did not slow down

 

What do you mean "inadequate cooling"?

This system takes mSATA. Buy one, you will not regret it one bit. Even if you get a 128GB for your Windows boot and keep the 1TB HDD for games and storage. Difference is phenomenal.

 

Hmm ... used to be two weeks, now it's four.

Cooling is sufficient, especially when pushing cpu alone. With dGPU active the fan will be a bit noisy, of course. It's not M.2, btw, it's mSATA (stripe/mirror optional).

 

1TB 7200RPM will be the same performance if that is what you are currently using. The best upgraded to see a very noticeable increase in performance would be to get a SSD (m.2 or SATA) in there.

 

Even just a small SSD for now to run the OS on makes a big difference.

 

What does this modded BIOS add compared to the stock one? Is there a list of features inside? Thanks!

 

New with these BIOS is a lot, bug fixes, cpu microcodes, performance tweaks, RAM SPD writes, latest BIOS & EC base, removed RAM locks in systems that throttle fast RAM, additional BIOS options, latest Intel vBIOS – LAN – SATA/RAID, updated style, latest ME Firmware, improved stability, proper support for latest GPUs and FAN control, unlocked vBIOS with removed throttle on W230SD (now also runs all cards @ 1202Mhz and not only for the select few)…etc…

 

Won't these affect the notebook with higher temperature? Or fan controller is also tweaked to keep up with higher frequency on the GPU side?

 

Take a look at HTWingNuts review. His card is effectively running at 1202Mhz as its stock frequency while only reporting 1176Mhz as its advertised default speed.

The reason is that the stock vbios works in a way that it will only allow selected chips of higher quality to run at the higher speed and limit all average GTX960M to 1176Mhz.
I removed that quality lock, so that all W230SD owner can enjoy the same speed that they saw in reviews.

Apart from that the Mod will allow the user to clock the card a lot higher with software like nvidia inspector or evga precision, if they so desire.

 

Are there any improvements on battery side?

 

You have additional options like ASPM to achieve that.

 

Thank you a lot! I read in some reviews this model lasts for about 5.5 hours. Is it really true even with this new 960M model with a 1080p screen?

Have someone here bought it from PC Specialist?

 

I think if you lower the screen brightness quite a bit, and change other settings to help for battery life you can get about that long of a charge. It also depends on what you are using the computer for as well.

 

5.5hrs will be tough. That could have been a test just to see how long it would go with no use at all and all sets set the lowest possbile.

 

4.5 hours of watching video content can be achieved.

 

I bought it from PC Specialist
so does it have an m.2 slot ?
in the official clevo page it says that m.2 is a factory option for wwan
so is it there and if it is can it be used for ssds ?

 

I believe there are 2x mSATA slots standard on this model. If you have not bought a m.2 SSD yet, then get a mSATA instead.

 

Yes this is what i was intending to do
i was just asking out of curiosity (and for the pcie x2 potential)
does this factory option mean a different motherboard ?
thanks for the answer by the way

 

Yeah, it is just listed as "factory option" on Clevo's site, so it might not be that way with every one. I don't think most places are going to offer that m.2 from what I've seen. You might want to open it up and see what the slot is or ask PC Specialist if they know what wireless slot configuration is in there.

 

Factory option means the buyer ordering from Clevo get to decide if they want it in there or not. As Pat mentioned, shoot PC Specialist an email and see if they can tell you for sure. Then you can also share that here so others will know

And you're very welcome for the answer.

 

Thank you for the detailed answers pat and Hustady!
PC Specialist is not offering any wwan cards with the w230sd (13 Optimus VI)
so I am going to assume its not there until i have a reason to open it up.

 

If it's not specified it wont be there with clevo based machines usually.

 

[Edit: Terribly sorry. Should have posted this in the NP7338/W230SS lounge.]

 

Hey guys, I got pretty tired of the rubberized surface on top collecting fingerprints that don't really come off easily.

So I ordered a custom skin from "decalgirl.com". And so far it works perfectly. I was worried that it wouldn't stick but it's on there good.

The logo looks decent kinda behind the vinyl.

You might be thinking, glossy? But I I've had glossy laptops before (NP6165 - still in use). 100% easier to deal with than this rubber stuff.

Love everything else about this machine.



Link to full size: http://imgur.com/yo3eWXF

 

I like the choice on the skin. Always nice when you can make your computer truly unique as well.

 

Think so too; before modding anything it just doesn't feel like it's my laptop. Doesn't have to be paint or anything like that. Soldering, dremel, anything goes. As long as it's different (and improved) from the way it rolled of the factory line.

 

TTM (time to modding) is usually as soon as it is out of the box for me It's always my machine though.

 

Speaking of modding - I plan to paint my SS throughout, and get custom heatsinks - I think it could do with some improvements.

 

I'm thinking of getting one of these (from XoticPC) as a replacement for my W110ER. Basically I'm looking for a small gaming laptop that will fit easily in my backpack. I've read a couple reviews, and I think this one coupled with an i7-4810MQ and 16GB will fit the bill. One thing I didn't find in either tech specs or reviews: is the GPU upgradable? As in, is it a MXM module, or is it soldered on the motherboard? In the W110ER it's the latter, so not upgradable - but in my other laptop, P150HM it's a removable MXM. Just thinking of the future.

In the same size range (12-13 inches) is there another laptop that would be recommended?

 

No, it's not upgradeable. The CPU is socketed, but not the GPU, which is soldered. But there's no real point in having a socketed mobile CPU any more, if upgrades are what you're concerned about: all new mobile Intel CPUs are BGA packages, which mean they come soldered.

Perhaps the Razer Blade, which is 14". But that's very expensive and over-priced. The W230XX series themselves are two and a half years old - I suggest holding out till next year for a new chassis, with Skylake and (perhaps) Nvidia Pascal.

 

As SRSR333 mentioned it is not upgradable. You'll start to see that option in some 15.6" models like you mentioned. In a 13.3" or smaller there are no better gaming notebooks that I can think of.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/official-sager-np7339-clevo-w230sd-owners-lounge.773424/

There aren't a lot of 13 inch computers that are very powerful. That one is going to be one of the best for what it offers. There is the MSI GS30, but that requires the dock as it doesn't have it's on graphics card. Or the Asus UX303, but that isn't as powerful of graphics card again or processor. Plus the processor in the Sager is going to be better than most 13 inch models offer, and is more upgradable.

 

Ah, not a MXM module... My HM150 was saved from the recycling bin once by the fact that the GPU was modular and could be replaced without changing the whole motherboard. I like things that are removable.

Perhaps I should then look into the next size up, as long as it's not too heavy.