Advice before final decision? (Clevo W230ST)

Hey everyone!

Sometime within the next month I plan on ordering my new laptop, and as of now the Clevo W230ST seems to be best option available. The only real competition it had was the Maingear Pulse 14, but I've read that it's basically an MSI GE40, and those seem to have heat issues. I haven't really read anything containing much detail about the Pulse 14 yet so I might wait a little while longer just to be safe. But until then I'm planning a Clevo purchase! There are just a few areas where I'd like some advice.

1) I plan on ordering it through XoticPC. I've read nothing but good things about them, but is there anything important I should know that I might have missed? I live in Canada by the way, if that makes any difference.

2) The i7-4800MQ seems like a solid choice for the processor. Would the 4700 make that much of a difference for power usage? Or would undervolting the 4800 be fine? I'd like the performance increase, but if that results in the computer slowly killing itself then I'd rather play it safe.

3) The 512GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD looks awesome, but would there be any benefits to an mSATA or some combination of them? I'm most likely going to have both Linux and Windows. 3/4 of the space for Linux (probably mint if anyone is curious) and 1/4 for Windows, just for some games, iTunes, and other specific software.

4) Wireless cards. Sadly I know very little about them. Should I go stock or upgrade to the Intel Dual Band? Bigfoot sounds cool but I don't think I would need it.

5) Will I be able to get the most out of the hardware with Linux? Will drivers be a huge pain? My current lapcrusher (Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G) never liked to cooperate and constantly runs hot while on Linux, to the point where I almost cant touch the underside.

Thanks in advance! I appreciate any advice you guys can offer

 

Hi JamesBA,

For shipping to Canada you should know you will see UPS Ground (3-7 business days) but with this option you have to pay UPS brokerage fees at the time of delivery which average $80-100. There is also the UPS Express (1-4 business days) which does not have brokerage fees on top of that so its cheaper in the long run. You will have to pay any taxes (PST/GST/HST) at the time of delivery regardless of which shipping method you select.

The CPU upgrade could help out depending on what you're doing. If doing CPU demanding tasks then yes you could benefit from it. Its its mainly for gaming you wont see much of a difference but a slight one.

If you get a SSD the mSATA will really just be for storage. Unless you want to put an OS on each drive.

The Bigfoot cards are preferred for gaming but the Intels support for the new AC makes me lean towards that.

Cant answer your question about Linux but hopefully a user can chime in.

Edit: for Linux check out this link http://forum.notebookreview.com/lin...e/726682-sager-np7330-linux-guide-review.html, thanks to joeelmex for posting it and HTWingNut for providing the link on the owners lounge.

 

Thanks! I'll probably go with the SSD and make a small partition for Windows. Do you know anything about the built in wireless card? The 7260 seems to have problems with Linux I guess I could always go with the Bigfoot.
As for the CPU the 4800 sounds good, as long as it won't get too hot or lower the battery life that much.

 

Hey James, I'm glad Hutsady was able to help you out! I will say in regards to the Linux + hardware question: there is a good deal of support on Linux's end, but few developers support OpenGL/CL, and instead develop for DirectX (Windows).WINE is nice to have, but ultimately, it's probably ideal that you'll be partitioning your drive in part for Windows; you may find you'll need it from time to time, simply due to support.

 

For a successful Linux dual boot config see this thread here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/lin...e/726682-sager-np7330-linux-guide-review.html

 

Nice guide. :thumbsup:

I think Linux Mint requires 200 MB for /boot.

/boot
/swap
/
/home

That seems to be the most technical, but arguably, the most preferred partitioning for Mint. If you use Windows 7, your disk will be MBR, in which case you can only have 4 primary partitions (so you will need a logical partition if you go this route). If you use Windows 8, you'll be using a GPT disk, in which case you don't need to worry about it, since GPT supports up to 128 primary partitions.

If you dual boot from the SSD and not by using a separate drive, you will either need to use software within Windows so the boot manager will allow you to select Linux, or install GRUB 2 to the MBR so you can use that to select your OS.

 

I'm using GRUB 2 right now, so I'll probably continue to do that. I'm also considering using the SSD for Linux and then a small mSATA for Windows.

 

Hey, I just bought a Clevo W230ST from Xoticpc.com like 2 weeks ago. Don't get the pulse, it's native resolution is 1600x900, and its graphics card is the nvidia 760m, whereas the Clevo has 1920x1080 and a 765m.

1) Xoticpc is legit. For some reason, if you pay with a capitalOne card, they'll ask you for extra verification and to send a scanned picture of the card. It's safe, I just blacked out the CCV code on the back (so they really don't have any info they don't already have)

2) I got the 4800MQ. It's a much better processor than the 4700. The 4800 lets you change the voltage, but the 4700 does not let you do this. Power usage is fine, the processors underclock themselves to like 800 MHz when you're idling, so power consumption isn't an issue.

3) I actually also have the Samsung 840 512 GB SSD lol. I'm not sure what you're asking by "would there be any benefits to an mSATA or some combination of them?". The computer has only 1 slot for a hard drive, it's an mSATA port.

I also have a Linux partion (Linux Mint, actually), and this next bit is important, here is what you need to know:

4) The wireless card I have is the dual band intel 7260. The 7xxx series is Intel's latest line, it's less than 2 months old. Because of how new this is, the wireless drivers have not been implemented into the stock kernel that Linux Mint uses. Even when you plug in an ethernet cord and fully update Linux Mint, it will bring you to Linux kernel 3.8.something. The wireless drivers for the 7260 are only in kernel 3.11. It's currently up to release candidate 6.

To upgrade to kernel 3.11, all you have to do is type these 4 lines into terminal: How To Install Kernel 3.11 RC6 On Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian And Derivates | LinuxG.net

Be careful to use the lines for 64bit, the first time I did this I accidentally used 32bit and it messed up my linux install.

5) Aside from that, linux has native drivers for volume control, keyboard brightness, but so far I have not been able to dim the screen while using Linux Mint. I found this thread because I was searching for linux drivers for screen brightness by startpage searching "clevo w230st linux".

Linux will "get the most out of the hardware". This runs super cool while on linux. The laptop also weighs 4.6 pounds, so it's really light. I'm totally content with this. Also, get 16 GB of memory. You won't regret it. And this way, if you want to run a virtual machine, you can give your VM like 8 GB of ram, and still have another 8 for your main OS, which is a luxurious amount of memory for both.

Also, this computer uses optimus technology (natively switches on the nvidia 765 only when you're running a demanding application). However, Linux doesn't have native support for optius yet. If you use linux, the 765 will stay fully on, running but processing nothing, killing your battery, and the OS won't detect it. The way to fix this is to install a program called bumblebee (named after the transformer). It natively turns your nvidia card off, but lets you run applications using the card if you type into terminal: bumblebee nameOfApplicationYouWant. Here's how to install it: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bumblebee#Installation

Also, if you want to watch netflix in Linux, here's how: How to watch Netflix (Watch Instantly) in Linux - a great resource for How To's from Wikia

 

It's much easier if you install your windows partition first. Personally, I like making a small NTFS partition for the windows OS (which will create 1 primary for the boot info, 1 primary for the OS itself), then a larger NTFS partition for data (which is your third primary partition), then put in the linux partitions (1 primary, but linux can create and use tons of logical partitions within it)

 

Hey catfan42, thanks so much for all the useful info! I''m going to order it within the next couple days and you really helped me with any last minute doubts I had.
There are a few other things I've been thinking about recently. Would you recommend windows 7 or 8? 8 seems to be better in terms of boot times and whatnot, so it seems like a worthwhile upgrade. I don't really care about the usual "it's only good for touchscreen" complaints because all I need windows for is a few games and other specific programs.
Also, recently I've been looking into OpenSUSE as an alternative for Mint. Do you think I would run into any problems? As far as the wireless card goes I'd probably end up going for the bigfoot.
And finally, is an external disk drive worth it? I figured I might as well, because it's pretty cheap and it might come in handy. How much set up (if any) does Xoticpc do?

Thanks again!