*** Official Sager NP7352 - Clevo W350ST/ Sager NP7370 - Clevo W370ST Owners Lounge!! ***

So I looked around and couldn't find an owners lounge for this laptop, so I thought I'd start it myself.

I just purchased a sager NP7352 with the following upgrades:

-95% gamut screen
-Crucial M5 240gig SSD
-Intel Centrino Advanced card

Any other owners here that could give their first impressions on the laptop? I probably won't be receiving mine for another week or two!!

 

Nice, Congrats, so the 2 week limbo begins.... Been waiting for some thermals and graphics performance benchmarks on the NP7352. "Bishibot" did you configure the Intel dual band 7260-AC wifi card?

 

The Wlan card I got is Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Combo Module to be specific. The only other options were the killer cards which I've heard mixed reviews about.

Yeah, the only feedback I could really get about this laptop was this review: Review Schenker XMG A523 (Clevo W350ST) Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews
This is why Ive made this owners lounge, hoping that other owners would chime in! Very hard to get any customer feedback from this model lol, yet I'm confident it will be much better then the MSI ge60 alternative.

 

Just noticed, Xoticpc and LPC have started to offer the 7260-AC. Well 6235 isnt bad anyways.

Same here, thats the only review I could find but its a Schenker build. It certainly should be better than GE60 in terms of battery life, cooling etc based on what ive read. GE60 had everything I need including a backlit kb but unfortunately too many issues. I seriously do not understand why dont they put backlit kb into all clevo models...400$ lenovo laptops have them for an year now!

 

Thank you very much for opening this needed thread!

 

Yeah I dunno, I never thought the BL keyboard was that big a deal, and I think that the build quality and heat dissipation of this model is much much better. On top of that a battery life of around 4 hours and this laptop is perfect. A bit bulky but I can deal with that.

 

Hey guys, I ordered my optimus V from pcs a while ago.

I have to admit its fantastic laptop and overclocks like a beast using Intel XTU and nVidia Inspector.
I've managed increase on the dGpu of 135MHZ and the memory of 400MHZ! now running at 2400MHZ! with stock cooling and paste. And I pushed the multipliers all to max on Intel XTU and decreased dynamic voltage by 100mv. I've run Prime95 on a single thread hitting 3.6GHZ cpu temps around 82c, completely stable!
Temps are around 75c cpu and 60c gpu when playing Crysis 3 1080p.

I would definitely recommend this laptop. I'm glad I didn't spend the extra £250 to get the 770m in the other Clevo, this one overclocked more than meets my needs. But my only problem is with the onboard sound. geez.. I'm thinking about replacing the speakers with some I've cannibalised from my old laptop. I've managed to remove the keyboard and see the speakers but I don't know how to get to them. (the socket where the speakers plug into the motherboard is under the keyboard and I've already tried out my old speakers with it and it sounds so much better) but I'm unsure as to how to remove the old ones under the casing.
Could anyone be so kind as to guide me how to reach them, i.e. which screws to remove and in what order? Possibly with pics?
Thanks.

 

I also just ordered mine a couple days ago!
Can't wait to get it

 

I ordered one couple of days ago and is sound really that terrible? Don't plan to use speakers all the time but expected kinda decent sound nothing special but decent

Sent from my XT925 using Tapatalk 2

 

I ordered mine from Xotic a week ago Saturday (June 29), and it per UPS it should be here tomorrow. As I get it set up and everything I'll post in here with my impressions.

 

That would be awesome, please do so as soon as you can! What kind of upgrades did you get for yours?

 

I ordered mine with 24G of RAM, the i7-4800MQ processor, and the dead pixel warranty. I've also got a 256G Crucial M4 mSSD and a 240G Mushkin Enhanced Chronos Deluxe SSD waiting on my desk here for it to get here -- got them off Amazon & Newegg when the prices were too good to pass up.

 

No, it's not great, my 6 year old Fujitsu laptop sounded better. But it's not bad, except I usually can't hear speech in films and stuff. Maybe its just me being picky!

 

Looks like a nice laptop. Allready got a P370SM though, but when you buy this laptop it seems like you'll get good bang for your buck.

 

I'll join the party.... I got mine on the 3rd of July, I was eying the usual suspects... Lenovo , MSI, and such... Took me a few weeks of looking and contemplating, eventually I decided to place the order with Sager.

I upgraded to the 95% Gamut screen, because I do some photography work now and then, and really wanted the better screen, the ability to get this screens is part of what sold me on the NP7352.
I upgraded to the IC Diamond Thermal Compound, because I do want things to run cool, and didn't feel like tearing the thing apart myself on day one of getting it.
I upgraded to the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 - 802.11A/B/G/N + Bluetooth Combo , because I wanted all flavors of 802.11 and the bluetooth
I also got it with Windows 7 Pro installed, as I really didn't want Windows 8, and... well not really interested in running linux..

So far, I can't really complain about much, other then the speakers. The speakers , have no bass at all, I kinda knew I shouldn't expect much from the sound on this thing anyway, so it's not too big of a let down for me... If I want good sound I'll listen though headphones, or add some external speakers..

I have been able to confirm, that it's possible to get right around 4 hours when browsing the net, with the screen brightness down relatively low and such.... Which, for me is fine, normally I'm plugged in anyway and really just need to be able to get though a business meeting now and then ( a couple hours typically ).

I don't do a lot of gaming, but have been on secondlife, with virtually all graphics options enabled, running the GPU at 99% capacity for about a hour or so, the GPU stayed at 66C, CPU around 75C, I think I could run indefinitely like this. So, it seems the cooling is reasonably good on the NP7352.

I may play around with overclocking, but I really don't have a large need to..

 

Is the sound from the 3.5mm audio jack muffled or clear? Will be nice if you could explain by comparing with some old laptops, as I primarily game and listen to music on my headphones!

 

Quick question. I ordered this laptop with an ssd and an hdd with no operating system.
I heard if you install an OS on an ssd while an hdd with an OS is already installed, you will have boot issues.

If neither drive has anything in them, will there be any problems?

 

From what I've gathered (although I'm no professional) you should have no issue as long as you install the OS on the SSD. And you can change the boot order I believe in the BIOS if needed.

 

Hey Guys,

I've got mine a few weeks ago.

I am satisfied with most of the properties of the laptop (its speedy, slim, not too heavy, etc.), except for one thing;
Once in a while the fan randomly starts to turn at 100% capacity for no reason while the laptop is (almost) idle (the CPU% is below 10% and the CPU/GPU temperatures stay around 55 degrees Celcius all the time).
This then lasts for a couple of minutes and then it goes back again to its lowest level, this often repeats itself every 5 or 10 minutes or so.
I experience the same behaviour under Windows 7 as well as under Ubuntu 13.04 and 12.04 (64 bits).

Most of the time the fan responds as expected (only runs at 100% on high CPU/GPU load). I did some tests (using Linux) and while fixing all CPU cores frequencies to 1.8GHz, I can stress all cores at 100% CPU time (with a avg. temp of 65 degrees Celcius) without the fan running above 50% or so. But while fixing the frequencies to 1.8 GHz (and having no load), the random behaviour as described above still occurs (with the fan running at 100% capacity at random times).

So it seems there is some bug in the fan controller or something. This is really annoying while using the laptop in a quiet office space, library or for presentations.
Does anybody experience the same behaviour? Any idea as to how to solve it?

Thanks

P.S. Also, did anybody manage to get the GTX765M driver working under Ubuntu 13.04 64bits?

 

I'm interested to hear this too, I plan to mostly connect the laptop to AVR so will use normal speakers, but if the audio jack is really horrible than probably getting external sound card or DAC is a good investment

 

Is the audio output through headphones just fine (as opposed to the speaker output)? Also, will most SSD's be able to fit assuming you have an HDD and an optical disc reader?

 

I also ordered an NP7352 about a week ago. I'll probably be waiting another week or two before it shows up at my door.
Only upgraded to a 95% NTSC Color Gamut screen along with 16GB of RAM. I didn't order with an OS since I already had Windows (will be putting Win 7 Pro on it).

Two things I am still not quite sure about:
(1) Audio ... given there's been numerous complaints about the audio jacks being underpowered & almost no bass output on many Clevo laptops.
So for the cheapest backup plan, I picked up a Syba SD-CM-UAUD in the scenario that the audio jack wasn't going to drive my headphones well. Ironically while it seems that Clevo lacks the amplifier & bass output, the cheapie $7 USB sound volume default on Windows is extremely loud (tuned to 1%). The simplest fix to that was Equalizer APO by dropping the pre-amp settings.

(2) Power since the newly upgraded GTX 765M (65W) is more power hungry compared to the previous gen GTX 660M (50W)
I seriously don't feel that the 120W power adapter is going to cut it in the long run. When you look at the power consumption, the i7 will drain 47-56W for a brief moment (standard turbo boost settings) while the GTX 765M could draw up around 65W under heavy load (while somewhat unrealistic, but possible in rendering tasks). Not counting the motherboard, RAM, HDDs, USB attachments, and screen, the power consumption could be up at around 110 to 120W.

Does the NP7352 use the standard 5.5/2.5mm power jack connectors? (looks like it from the images, but I'm not 100% certain)
I was planning on getting an ASUS ADP-150NB D 150W 19.5V 7.7A power adapter for this.


@InconspicuousBarrel
Well there are physically two 2.5" HDD slots, one mSATA slot, and the optical drive (which is technically a 3rd slot if you remove the optical drive).
You would be able to fit a standard 2.5" SSD into the empty HDD slot alongside the original HDD and optical drive. The mSATA slot is also open for an mSATA SSD.

 

It sounds just fine to me though my Klipsch Image S4 earphones.... that is, after I found the settings for headphones... The soundblaster settings make a big difference. When setup to use headphones, it sounds pretty darn good actually. The speakers on the laptop, have no bass at all, no matter what I've tried. But based on what I've heard thus far, I don't see that there's any inherent issue with the audio hardware on this laptop.

 

Also can confirm that the 3.5mm jack produces better sound on headphones than the built in speakers but definitely download the sound blaster software. Just that I like to watch films with the wife on my laptop (hence getting a new one with 1080p!) and it's not really a viable option given their performance. Having said that, in comparison to what this laptop is capable of compared to my 6 year old Fujitsu (core 2 duo t5750) it's a fantastic deal from PCS and I would still recommend it over the other brands (MSI etc.) although I can't comment on their sound performance.

As for the fan issue, yeah mine does the same, I've tried using speedfan but to no avail. I'm pretty much used to it now, so it doesn't really bother me.

There doesn't seem to a be a power issue with the laptop, i've played crysis 3 (performance battery settings, overclocked gpu/cpu, 1080p, most settings high) and the battery has remained at 100%, no issues of battery drainage whilst plugged in. Remember the 47w TDP is the MAXIMUM that it can withdraw, and that is for very brief periods, which can be set using Intel XTU, if you decrease the Turbo Boost TDP, and the boost time. Also I have undervolted my cpu and gpu (with nVidia inspector), which means less power drawn too.

All in all, a bloody good laptop!

 

The 47W TDP is the maximum intended continuous current draw, not the maximum power that the CPU can actually pull off for a short boost. I've done this with my i7-2670QM which has a 45W TDP.
When running Autodesk and rendering an image, it will use 100% CPU, starting off at 50-56W for the first 30 seconds before leveling off at 45W usage (visibly noted when the clock drops from 2.8ghz to 2.5ghz). Using Intel XTU I can force it to continue to use up to 56W even after the initial boost. Similarly, running Prime 95's stress test, it will drain about a constant 53W with no decrease in clock speed.

In my previous Asus, there's not much cooling overhead, so it will hit 90C with the increased turbo wattage without the dGPU on. Seems much more doable on the W350ST though.

 

Glad to hear that! Thanks.

 

I´m considering purchasing the np8230 based on that fact (ie. that it has the 770m) because I´m not really a big fan of overclocking. If I do overclock on this laptop it would most likely shorten its life span quite a bit no?

Also, anybody care to elaborate on how it performs while doing pretty intense gaming for multiple hours? I´m especially interested in how it performs with the Total War series, and the latest ie. Shogun 2, because I plan on playing them all including the new Rome II that´s coming out soon. I´m split between this laptop and the np8230 with the GTX 770m.

 

For the record.... with Windows 7 Pro as the OS... My fan does NOT run on high all the time... Yes it does run when it's setting , doing little to nothing, but it's not running on high, and it's not very loud. The CPU temp is around 56C, the fan running , barely audible, this is when just a web browser open, with some little bit of whatever whatever advertizing and such that any given web page may have active... when truly idle the CPU at 55C, the fan speed is even lower... I know that the fan does get faster , as things get warmer... the highest I've seen my CPU temp is like 75C to this point, and I know the fan is a bit louder then, but not to the point where I feel it's a problem. So, it seems on my NP7352, the fan is working more or less as I would expect it to.

 

It all depends on your budget, I was able to get my build down to £800 including express build and delivery (one week turnaround). If you can afford it, go for it, if not ask yourself is £200 (depending on your currency) worth an extra 20% odd boost in performance. In my case it was not, but as I said, your call. So far, playing continuously for about 3 hours the laptop gets HOT, not unbearably so, but if using external keyboard and mouse, as long as it is positioned with sufficient air circulation its fine. Also with the 770m, the power consumption is higher too, so the cooling requirements of both laptops are quite different. In terms of lifespan, yes and no, I don't really have extensive experience with overclocking myself, however I'm sure if you don't go overboard and overclock and overvolt, it should last you many years (depending on usage/treatment).

 

Ok, so, how hot is too hot and/or do I maybe have some bad thermal paste application on my CPU?

I did a bit of a stress test, went into secondlife, cranked up all sort of graphics options, forced my GPU to run at 99% , with clock at 901mHz ( not overclocked, standard issue clock rate) I did this for about a hour and a half... The GPU itself seemed to stay at a respectable temperature of 67C maximum, this was with the laptop sitting on a normal/hard flat surface. The CPU however, crept up over time to about 84C, with occasional peaks of 89C

I did notice, that if I raised the laptop up off the surface, the GPU temp went down to 61C, the CPU dropped to about 81C...

Now, if I reduce some of the graphics setting, to the point where the GPU is running at 80%, still at 901mHz... the GPU is running at about 60C on a table, and 55C when lifted up a bit. The CPU went down to 72C on the table and 68C lifted up...

So, are those CPU temps abnormal? should I consider re-pasting the CPU cooler? if anyone else can give me some examples of what temps they are seeing under similar conditions, I'd really appreciate hearing about them.

 

Temperatures about 85C are a bit high, but not too critical. It is strange, that you see these temps, though, they should be lower, I think.
I'm thinking of bying myself this laptop and before doing it I would like to verify one thing - how hot get palmrest and WASD area under heavy load? I'm asking because now I have Lenovo y580 and it is really uncomfortable to hold hand on a palmrest longer, than 10-15 minutes when under load. Unfortunately, I'm not able to measure presise temperatures.
From this review - Review Schenker XMG A523 (Clevo W350ST) Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews - I can see, that they should be ok, especially when compared with values from y580 review from the same site, but blimmy's comment on this laptop getting "HOT" made me a bit worried. So I would be very grateful if someone could describe palmrest temps from personal use.

 

I got mine coming in the mail next week (hopefully) without an OS.

So, I just wanted to ask, Windows 7 or Windows 8.1?

I personally am getting 7 because I get it for free with my student id and I'm so used to it

 

Im also planning to buy this one
I dont have knowledge about computers that much, i just want a decent laptop for gaming(mostly online) and school use
i live in the tropics so the environment will be kinda hot, i just want to know if the ic diamond thermal compound upgrade and an external fan will help in keeping my systems cool? and also will the bigfoot killer wireless cards be worth it?

Thanks

 

1. With my experience at tropics: Remember no thermal paste will help as it only makes a difference of 2-5 deg. For tropics I will highly recommend, a good laptop cooler, regular dusting, keep space under laptop for good ventilation and have an air-conditioned room to remove all that humidity .

For casual gaming and school use, an i5 with nvidia 750m would be enough. Inherently the laptop would be lighter, consume less power and produce less heat! (New games will run nicely at medium graphics settings with few shader settings on). Having said that, for hardcore gaming at medium to high graphics NP7352 with nvidia 765m is more than enough. You should be able to play future games - next 2-3 yrs at medium graphics with no problems. Even though 765m can run games at 1080p high, in the long run it will heat up and decrease life span in a humid region, so avoid playing at very high settings.

2. Bigfoot card is good for online gaming based on user reviews. But it is just a remodeled atheros card. I will highly recommend the Intel 7260-AC wireless card. It is dual band and it is AC which is 3 times faster than wireless-N! Also it will futureproof your laptop as in some years AC-routers will become the standard.

Hope this helps!

 

Physically, this laptop does not get that warm, no where near as warm as my Dell Studio XPS gets. The only spot on my NP7352, that gets physically warm, is a very small area near the left rear of the laptop, right where the heat gets exhausted. Even this spot is not so hot that it's uncomfortable to the touch. Neither the keyboard, or the spot where my palms typically rest have any issues with high temperatures. So, as I say, this laptop does not get warm to the touch, anywhere that your hands would normally be.

FYI for others.... I did get the IC Diamond 'upgrade'. To some degree, I wonder if they applied it correctly , but as someone else has said, I'm not sure it's likely to account for more then a few degrees lower temperatures at the CPU. I may eventually go buy some high quality paste and re-paste my CPU/GPU, however at this point, I really don't operate my laptop under the conditions I subjected it to when I was doing that stress test and seeing those 85C temps.. Normally , I see around 72C temps , or maybe 75C.

 

Hm, this fan circus can be a real deal breaker for me (not sure if i want this laptop anymore),
So, can anyone of the actual owners of, 15" Sager NP7352 (W350ST), confirm the sudden FAN revving up/down, while laptop is idle?

If so, what speed in % can you estimate, compared to 100% under heavy load. (for example, those fan revvings are 50% out of MAX noise, or what), how bad it is?

 

Hi guys I just got my np7352 from reflex notebooks. Great service I tell ya. One thing though is my network card doesnt detect wifi signals anymore. Ive only had the thing for 3 weeks but 1 week after it network adapter decided to not run..ive tried everything and sager says i should replace the network adapter with a newer one. What would be a good network adapter and how do i open my laptop to replace it? i understand that its a slip on one? also i have a logitech g930 and apparently the wifi is interfering with my wireless headset. So is there a better/faster network adapter that i can purchase to not interfere or less interfere with it? im planning on just straight ethernet at home and wireless when im with my friends to play.
To simplfy:
Which network adapter is really good for gaming which does not interfere with my wireless gaming headset logitech g930 (or even lessen it)
and how do i locate the network adapter so i can replace it?
Thank you guys and forgive me as I am new to the forums.

 

I am a owner of the w370st i can confirm that the fan jumps in idle for a few second nearly to max.... i talked to some owners and thats "normal".. it happens when the temps jump to 70°c cause of the intel turbo boost.... the idle temps are normal between 50 -60 °C at 60 degrees the fan is on the first level... when you open a program / new browser tab or something else it can happen that the laptop recaches 70 degree and the fan starts for a few second to "gaming level noise" i think thats level two, because there is a maximum third level ( longer gaming ).

the most time in idle mode you dont hear anything from the laptop...

 

I recently picked up this laptop myself from UK distributor Overclockers UK. I initially put Windows 8 on it and all appeared to be fine, but I really hated some of the changes in it so I ended up switching back to Windows 7.

Everything appears to work fine, with the exception of the brightness control. No matter what you set it at, the screen remains the same brightness. Any ideas why this might be? I have the latest Intel and nVidia drivers and version 7 of the Hotkey application courtesy of Sager's download site. I'm also experiencing the fan 0/100% issue - would be much better if it increased slowly.

Other than that, no real issues. With an SSD for the primary drive and a Hybrid HDD as the secondary drive, everything is beautifully fast!

 

Whoa thanks it helped me a lot ) i would surely get that intel 7260-AC wireless card but can you recommend some good laptop cooler that will also elevate my laptop for good ventilation?
i will take this chance to ask more questions haha
so how bout an i7 haswell with nvidia 750m? im looking at this model now clevo W650SR
and what do you think win 7 home premium or win 7 pro?

 

Hey, pseico, thank you for prompt answer. :thumbsup: Especially about hinting at turbo boost being the cause of CPU temp peak, which in turn lead to FAN profile triggering lvl2

Know what? Looks like probably theres a solution to this. I found interesting info about turbo boost HERE.

Can you please try setting windows like that and see how it goes? Then report back here, im sure it will be a valiable info for many other folks here.

 

Thanks for the feedback.
BTW, in review, link to which I posted earlier, they state that under full load both CPU and GPU ended up with 70C, but the CPU lowered it's frequency. Maybe your CPU did not do so for some reason. If this is the case, then I would say, that your temps are normal.

 

Oh, I can definitely keep the processor going at 901mHz and 99% load on it, indefinitely. Now, I'm using MSI Afterburner to monitor the temps and such, I don't know the program well enough to know if it somehow bypasses some other settings to allow my GPU clock to remain at 901mHz like this. When I was playing with Afterburner's settings, I didn't think they were really doing much.

Anyway, I just changed my CPU power settings, and set it to 99%, figuring maybe for gaming, it might be better to keep the CPU at no more then 99% clock rate, just to keep the overall temps down. At this point, I haven't redone my stress test, so I can't say for sure how it will effect the overall temps at this point in time.

 

i know that "trick" to disable the intel boost... i set the 99% in my energy saver profile.... but i wont set it when i use the power supply... if you want i can do some testing "without" intel boost .. but what testing should i do ? if you want some tell me what u want to know...

prime 95 maximum heat setting + furmark burn in test is not a real scenario....

i looked at the temps when playing diablo III with intel boost and there the temps didnt seem to be to high... some peaks with 80°C but normal the temps are around 70-75°C. So a real szenario temp test could be crysis 3....

 

1. Personal experience: All laptop coolers suck! Either the fans or the power port stops working rendering it useless. So I usually get a laptop cooler (MIN 2 Fans) at lowest possible price (10-15$ deals does it!) until it works (~2 yrs if lucky) and get another one if it doesn't.

2. I do not know about cooling performance of the Clevo W650SR but I guess it should be fine. If you put a msata 120gb SSD + 7260-AC card + Win8 in the config and do the same with Clevo W350ST (NP7352), u get a diff. of 70$ ($1200 vs $1270). So for an additional 70$ you get an awesome GPU and the fact that both laptops have almost same dimensions and weight I don't really see an advantage there with that model.

3. I have been using Win8, and all games install just fine and run with no probs. Win8 was a problem in the game developer's front and not for gamer's. I prefer using the latest iteration as all softwares/games/drivers will pretty much be designed to the new OS, hence good compatibility. WIN7 vs WIN7 Pro...hmmm, I guess the only diff: Pro allows you to log into university/ company domain network if you allow them to configure and agree to their policy (That is why you will find all univ/company computers using pro versions). If anyone else on this thread has more experience with the pro it will be nice to list any other advantages. Personally I do not see any advantage with Pro.

 

Hi guys I just got my np7352 from reflex notebooks. Great service I tell ya. One thing though is my network card doesnt detect wifi signals anymore. Ive only had the thing for 3 weeks but 1 week after it network adapter decided to not run..ive tried everything and sager says i should replace the network adapter with a newer one. What would be a good network adapter and how do i open my laptop to replace it? i understand that its a slip on one? also i have a logitech g930 and apparently the wifi is interfering with my wireless headset. So is there a better/faster network adapter that i can purchase to not interfere or less interfere with it? im planning on just straight ethernet at home and wireless when im with my friends to play.
To simplfy:
Which network adapter is really good for gaming which does not interfere with my wireless gaming headset logitech g930 (or even lessen it)
and how do i locate the network adapter so i can replace it?
Thank you guys and forgive me as I am new to the forums.

 

OK, I did some more 'stress' testing... set things up on Secondlife, with nearly all graphics options on, full shadows, etc... GPU running at 99% load, 901mHz... Processor (CPU) power set to 99% max, to force no turbo boost to happen.... Total package power at about 20 Watts... change settings to allow turbo boost to happen, power consumption goes up to 33 watts, processor running at no more then 120% frequency... heat instantly starts to rise in the CPU...

So, for a extra 20% CPU frequency, it uses over 50% more power... Oh boy, is that a good deal, he says with extreme sarcasm...

I tell you what, if I ever figure I need a little more CPU frequency, I'll be finding out how to overclock and adjust voltages on my own... it seems the standard Turbo Boost, doesn't give a hoot about how much actual power it uses.

 

Thanks again i agree i also have personal experience with laptop coolers and out of all the laptop coolers i bought all of them didnt even live for more than 6 months, and yeah i should probably stick with the W350ST (NP7352) as it is much more faster.

ok now for my final question(s) lol what does the msata 120gb ssd do? will it benefit me? and what do you think bout the msata 128gb plextor M5M is it better? do i need a primary hard drive if i get an ssd? and wth is that raid stuff? im so friggin noob at this >_< sorry for asking so many questions.

 

Received my NP7352 today.
First impressions - yes the laptop on maximum fan speed is practically a mini airplane, however upon temperature monitoring, the fans kick in somewhere around 60C and bring it down to 48C before dropping off. At the same time, the idle temps seem to be a bit higher than I'd like. So it's basically a periodic cycle of maximum fan speed and CPU heating back up to that level. The idle temps right now are like 55C with the stock paste.

Using XTU, I note that there are small temperature spikes occasionally that jump perhaps 10C higher than average even though it's not really operating at that temperature since XTU doesn't record those values. This appears to cause the fans to kick in as they were practically running full blast while I was installing Windows 7 Pro and drivers. (opening programs usually causes some temperature spikes)
It'll see how much a repaste will do when I get around to it.


Haven't installed Soundblaster Cinema yet, but even with just the audio driver, the sound from the onboard speakers is as expected - very high and tinny with little trace of any bass. However, like others have recently reported, the headphone output jack appears to perform much better than the onboard audio. There does not seem to be any volume or underpowered amplifier issues - I'm running my headphones at 12% with pretty normal volume levels.

 

Interesting. Would the fan turn on occasionally even during mild usage such as web browsing?