17" inch silent machine, and more questions

Hi.
I am planning on getting a laptop and from the researching I have done a Clevo machine is the best option for me. I can customize that I want, even the screen and no Microsoft tax forced on me.

The machines I am locking at is W270HNQ and W170HR (It is leaning against W170HR). A lot of USB ports (Even two USB3. W270HNQ=3 ports total), 17" with 1920x1080, not so expensive graphics card but Intels integrated would work perfect for me and eSATA.

Then you read the questions you will notice that I am a little concearned about the fan noise. Maybe a little to much. When I do hard work at the machine I can accept fan noise but not at video viewing and web surfning.

I just have some questions.

* Can the machines I'm looking at be work without a extra graphics card and still work perfect with only Intels integrated in the CPU? Can the GPU cooler cool the CPU even when it is not GPU in the machine?

* What ports is SATA3 (6Gbps)? The Harddrive and the optical OR the eSATA port? Or is only the harddrive the only SATA3 and the other SATA2?

- Sidenote question:
** One other question I never have found the anwser: Do the ports on Intels chipsets support the FIS protocol? FIS protocol is so you can connect more then one unit to a SATA port using a splitter of some sort. A great alternative for laptops with SATA3 eSATA port, if it is a SATA3 on the machines I'm looking at.


* The problem is that I now use a old Macbook with a SSD drive and for web surfing and writing text the machine is almost 100% silent. The fan spins at low speed in idle and one meter (3,2 feet) from the machine I can not hear it. My experience with other PC laptops is that the fan spin up to the max when a program is started. It seems that the fan is controlled after how hard the CPU is working and not how hot it is. On the MacBook the fan only speed up if the CPU get hot. If the CPU is little hot the fan will increase the speed a little.

How is the fan controlled on a Clevo machine? Can the fan speed be changed manually in example in the BIOS or in a software that can run under GNU/Linux? Underclock the machine a little for a much cooler system?

* Is 17" models cooler then 15" and then more silent?

* How is todays machines with video viewing and fan speed? On my now some years old 2 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook the fan speeds up at max with YouTube clips and the same with 720p video files. Can todays machine handle these things without speeding up the fan? Is it possible to have a silent Clevo machine viewing a 720p flash video at YouTube? A silent machine is my highest priority.

* I do not do so much hard work on my machine but want to have a buffer for future power need. I do not want to buy a new machine in two/three years because of a slow CPU or other factors. Some times I encode video, compress files and other things that eats a lot of performance. A 35W I5 2620M or a 45W I7 2760QM is in my area. Around the same price but I5 is 10W lower and then probably cooler and lower noise. But lower performance and then needs to work harder and then produce more heat?


* Will Clevo adopt the Display Port? I would like to see the VGA replaced with a DP. One HDMI and a DP on machines I think is enough.

* If Display Port is adopted, will the laptops support Thunderbolt? Thunderbolt will not be integrated in the Ivy Bridge chipset according to the information I have seen and the technoligy will not be integrated in all the machines according to Intel. How is Clevo thinking regarding Thunderbolt support in the laptops?

* I have read that Ivy Bridge will be released some months in 2012. How long after Clevo will release Ivy Bridge machines? I can use my Macbook a couple of more months to wait for the new platform.

* How well will Ivy Bridge work out of the box with GNU/Linux when it is released? My feeling is that it will work nice because it is only a little update to Sandy Bridge.

 

Wow, ok, so you have a ton of questions here. I'll split them up and answer as many as possible:

1. Integrated Graphics- There is no option currently to have the machine without a third party graphics card. You'll have to get it with an Nvidia card and Optimus support in addition to the Intel iGPU. The higher end models (P151HM1 and up) have NO support for the Intel graphics though.

2. SATA - the primary hard drive bay is SATA III. The optical bay and external are SATA II

3. Port Multiplier - I assume you're referring to port multiplier when talking about FIS. It is not a supported feature at this time. Only one disk will be recognized when plugged into the eSATA.

4. Fans - This machine is not whisper quiet, due to the upgraded graphics system and CPU. The fans aren't loud, but they're noticeable. The EC that controls them is not recognized by any third party software so you cannot manually control the speed.

5. Size - The 17" models do in general have better cooling than the 15". It's not significant, but a few degrees or so is average.

6. Video - again, the fans aren't dead silent, so this is kind of moot. They will ramp up for higher loads like HD video/gaming/etc.

7. CPU Power - The 35w and 45w CPU's will not differ much in heat. 99% of the time, you will be running them at lowered power and clocks to save battery. They will almost never run at the highest TDP listed.

8. Displayport - No idea, that's up to Clevo. I prefer HDMI over DisplayPort myself as that's what everything has.

9. Thunderbolt - This seems to have been a non-starter. Most PC vendors and peripherals are going USB 3.0 instead as it's cheaper and backwards compatible (and almost nearly as fast).

10. Release - The current rumor is around March, but that depends heavily on Intel and Clevo's plans. This is rumor for now, so it can and may change.

11. Ivy Bridge - I doubt there will be any issues. Intel in general seems to just work with Linux. Video cards and peripherals are the places where there can be issues.

 

1. Ok.

2. The chipset support two SATA3 but they only use one SATA3 port? That was very weird. I plan on using a external case with two drives and use GNU/Linux software RAID1 so the system will shuffle the same data to the drives. But SATA2 (3Gbps / 384MiB/s is my calculations are correct, practical around 250MiB/s) will be enough for two 5400rpm drives I think.

Aha. This weirdness seems to come from Intels side:
Intel® HM65 Express Chipset
"eSATA - SATA interface designed for use with external SATA devices. It provides a link for 3 Gb/s data speeds to eliminate bottlenecks found with current external storage solutions."

3. Ok. With FIS you plug in a special splitter to connect more drives to one port. Great for people whos building file servers with software RAID and low load on the drives.

4. My MacBook isn't wisper quiet but I have a desktop machine with a Noctua 120mm fan at the lowest voltage I could get it spinning at (5 or 7 volt) and it is for me loud.

I will have the machine on a stand that will make it easier for the fans to cool the CPU and GPU.

5. Ok.

6. Will the GPU can be running when I only use Intels own integrated when locking at video, surfing and other low power things? Or will Nvidias card be used when looking at video and flash?

7. I thought it would be something like that.

8. Ok.

9. It seems to be something like that. But the VGA are now being replaced. The big companies have said they will all have dropped the VGA by 2015 and replaced it with DisplayPort.

10. I had around the same idea.

11. Same here are above.


Other questions have come up.

11. I do not like technoligy like Intel Anti-Theft that can disable my system from the outside. We all know Windows has back doors in it and I do not like that Intel is building in things like that in the hardware. Can Intel Anti-Theft 100% be disabled?

12. I was looking at a i7 2760QM because it has integrated support for VT-d. That technoligy, what I can find, will help with performance when running a operating system in a virtual machine. Example Windows in a virtual machine under the software Virtual Box for GNU/Linux, ir not Virtual Box supports it. The thing is that the HM65 chipset so not support VT-d. Will the system support and take advantage of VT-d support in 2760QM or will a 2670QM with 1333 MHz memory (Instead of 1600 MHz for 2760QM) perform almost the same regarding virtual machines?

Or is VT-d more for big companies that run big Virtual Machine parks and there makes a big difference but almost none on a personal computer with one virtual machine?

 

6. If you're looking at Optimus, the use of the Nvidia card depends on how you set it up. If you have your browser plus flash set in the control panel to only run on the iGPU, then the Nvidia card shouldn't be used at all. The fans may still run though, as even not in use it will produce heat. Obviously they'll be on fairly low settings then.

For your other questions:

11. Short a bios hack or something, I'm not aware of any way to remove that feature. If you don't enable it I don't think it will matter.

12. I believe you're right with Vt-d on the HM65, as it does not show up in CPUz as supported. The higher clock and turbos of the 2760QM still makes it attractive if you need the speed. That said, Vt-d is something that most consumers will never need. It's specifically "directed IO", but unless you're running rather a lot of VM's at one time, you'll never see a benefit from it. Plain old Vt-x is all you need really, as that allows virtualization.

 

6. Control Panel? That sounds something like Windows. I will not run Windows on this machine. Do you know if this setting wil be found under GNU/Linux?

I did some search and have found that there are people out there that is working on this and have made it work.
[Phoronix] NVIDIA Optimus Unofficially Comes To Linux

12. I think of getting the 2760QM or later Ivy Bridge CPU when I am ready for a new machine.


Thanks for the anwsers. This has cleared out a lot of question marks for me. If someone ells, or you MARIBAL #2, has anything ells to say or point me in another direction I am open for it.