Are internal power/cooling components identical on P150SM and P151SM?

The P151SM is often offered with dGPU up to 770M, and I recall reading somewhere that the internal power/cooling components are somewhat different on this model so it can't handle the high power cards very well. However, there's a local reseller who claims that the P151SM they offer works well with the 122W 780M as long as you have a 180~240W PSU ,which makes me confused.

Is there really any difference between 150 and 151 beside keyboard, coating and default PSU?

 

Per Clevo, on the previous models (NP9130 NP9150) some components on the motherboard are different and the NP9130 could have its lifetime shortened with the higher TDP video cards. We havent heard on the current models but I would guess its the same thing.

 

The cooling itself should be similar, though fan profiles may be tuned slightly differently.

 

I suspect most parts are similar but the EC/FW is programmed different. Thus how the bios knows one model vs. another. I have "heard' and not sure if true the lower end models actually have restrictions on power output so you can't just swap PSU and pop in a better card and rock on. That might be all they really did though, who knows. Someone would have to have both, gut both and compare every chip, capacitor etc. as it could be missing some or have different.

 

Hey Guys,

This year, yes the power chokes etc on the P150/P151 are different, the P151 has less "capacity" for higher voltage GPU's because its missing some power chokes, as well as a few other power related things. Also be aware that while the BIOS/EC is shared between the P150/P151/P157 there is what is called the board-ID which is a specific set of resistors that identify the specific model (P150 or P151 or P157) to the EC so it can make decisions, now that is a hardware thing on the board, so even if you put a 100W GPU in there, the EC would still know its "really a p151" just as a FYI (I don't think that would cause any specific issues, but it could)

thanks

 

That's very helpful. Thanks.

I'll tell my friends to stick to P150SM then.

 

Yes the P150SM is also missing a CPU phase compared to the P170SM this time round too.