Clevo Guide v2.0 - FAQ and Reseller Info

Legal action?? Where did that come from?

 

Sorry if offended you (or company).

I see that happens too often, didn't want this to go that way... So, as we say here, "a dog bitten by snake fears the sausage". As usual, idioms does not lend themselves well for translation.

 

No offense taken

We have no hard feelings toward Powernote or their lightning bolt...or you pmarc.

Now as for that snake...that is a different matter

 

Ok, Nice of you.

I just thought to myself: "This is not the best way to get along in the forum. Newbie just jumping into the fray, stirring things up... not good..."

Thanks anyway.

 

Why not legal action? USA is the land of opportunities (read: lawsuits)

Nah, joking with the legal action.

 

Hello guys!

I have some questons and I have no idea where I can find the answers.

I count on you though.

I have a Clevo M660n laptop (under the Icom brand - Polish one)
I use it for music production, and so far it works fine.

I was thinking about changing my core duo 2ghz (yonah) for Core 2 duo 2Ghz (merom) - do you think it's wort it?
I read that on the 667Mhz bus C2D are no more than 10% faster with the same power consumption.

I am also wondering if I can upgrade to 4 Gb of ram, I know that my chipset (intel 945 GM) can handle it, however on the laptop's spec sheet it is clearly written that 2 Gb is max. Do you have any info on that?

And most importantly - I am looking for an alternative cooling fan, the standard one is way too annoying for my purposes, if you know any company that manufactures anything compatibile, I would be VERY grateful.

I know that some of you might say 'get a new laptop' , but I have important reasons to stay with it.

 

Welcome to the NBR forums.

the CPU upgrade wont make much of a difference other than adding 64-bit OS support to your system

the notebook is using a Napa platform which will cap the memory (detected by the BIOS) at ~3GB.... even if you phycially stick in 4GB.... its the chipset limitation

there is NO alternative cooling fans in the notebook, its proprietary and will need to be replaced with the same one.
- most of the time, its dust that clogs the fan and the vents that makes the noise increase and maybe even prevent the fan from working properly
- so get some compressed air cans (or compressor set to ~50 PSI) and give the fan and vents a good cleaning.
- you can however try to clean it to make it spin better and have less noise... like new.
..... to do this, turn off the system, remove the battery, you will need to get to the fan directly (by taking the system apart), get some WD-40 and give a little spritz into the bearing of the fan, then manually rotate the fan for a few minutes in both directions. Then let it sit for an hour and turn on the system to see if the fan is better.

 

Gophn, what about K-Tron's fan mod? if it's the same type of fan, he could have a go at replacing it..

 

Thanks Gophn!

I'll leave the cpu in place, I'm thinking about applying some nice Zalman thermal paste instead of the stock thing on the heatsink.

My cooling fan is clean, I only use in in studio environment and sporadic live perfs. It's just its nature to sound like a hairdryer so I don't know if wd-40 will help, but maybe I'll try that.

Umberto V, what fan mod are you talking about?

As for ram - I would like it to work in dual channel so I need 2 mem cards of the same kind. I know that kingston makes 3Gb sets (2+1) but as far as my knnowledge goes it does not work in dual channel.
Buyng 4 gigs of ram is not a big issue nowadays so I may sacrifice 1Gb, and buy hyper X CL4 ram instead of my noname CL5 modules... I only hope that my notebook will recognize the 2Gb cards.

 

dual channel is not really important for overall performance.... it used to be back in 2003-2005 computers, but not after that.

 

Kingston HyperX DDR2-667 CL4 is not "special RAM" because almost all of regular DDR2-800 CL5 RAM out there (OCZ, Mushkin, Patriot) will run in FSB 667 with CL4 timing.

If you want lower timing, buy this one instead:

Kingston HyperX Ultra Low Latency DDR2-800 4-4-4-12

The timing can go as low as 3-3-3-9 if you run it in FSB 533 and FSB 667.

 

xor01: Unfortunately it's not so easy to find such memory in so-dimm, all I found was a regular dimm ddr2.

i'll keep looking though.

 

Here you go, $218 for 4GB dual-channel kit.

Kingston HyperX ULL PC2-6400 800MHz CL4-4-4-12 SO-DIMM

http://shop.kingston.com/partsinfo.asp?promo=PRCGRBR&ktcpartno=KHX6400S2ULK2/4G

 

dont get the lower CAS Latency, its not worth it for what you are doing..

... the notebook is not going to take advantage of it anyways since its not going to play high-end games or anything.

 

Xor01: Thanks! I meant it's hard to find it here in Poland

Gophn: Thanks for advice, I might try upgrading to 3 Gb though.

One more question: is upgrading to 500Gb HDD a problem in these laptops? I mean if a SATA300 HDD works in SATA150 does it cause a tangible decrease in performance? I don't think it should as average transfer for a 7200 2,5" drive is around 70-80MB/s . Any comments on that?

 

there is no loss in performance.

SATA-II (300MB/s) is just the new standard, it does not mean that notebook HDDs actually go that fast.

In fact, they did not even fully utilize the previous SATA-I (150MB/s) standard.

For bang for the buck, get a 320GB (and larger) 5400rpm, since they give you the same performance as previous generation 7200rpm drives due to their higher density... while giving you more storage and less heat.

But if you want the fastest, get a 320GB 7200rpm or upcoming 500GB 7200rpm... which will definitely have a price premium.

 

does anyone know a place in washington that i can buy sager notebook?

thanks

 

does it have to be in Washington? .... I guess you want to physically pick it up.

I do not know of a Washington vendor, there used to be a Clevo reseller there through Pro-Star but went away a few years ago.

I recommend to get a Clevo through a vendor that gives you a satisfaction guarantee (like Sager and their resellers), so you can check out the system and if you do not like it, you can get a full refund.

 

you're not recommending RJ Tech?

 

RJtech is good, they get their systems through Sager mainly.

so you will get the Sager warranty on the barebones that you buy from RJtech.

 

What I do like about RJ Tech are:

1. Their laptop doesnt have Sager logo on it.
2. You can buy barebone while other Sager reseller just give you configurable system.

I'm wondering whether I can buy Clevo from them without GPU and ODD too.
I really like the ODD in my Lenovo, Hitachi-LG GSA-T20N.

 

Is this a fact?
If it is, then my next HDD will be Hitachi Travelstar 5K1000 1TB
(assuming Hitachi will release 5K1000 along with the "confirmed" 7K750).

 

yes it has been proven many times.

talking about notebook HDDs..

320GB (and higher) 5400rpm drives performs as well as previous generation 7200rpm drives (200GB and under)

but new generation 7200rpm drives (320GB and higher) are faster... of course.

 

so the conclusion is:

1TB 5400RPM performance = 500GB 7200RPM performance

Due to higher density in the slower RPM HDDs.
Q-rect?

 

cannot confirm that for desktops (since I have not done the tests) or notebooks (since those drives do not exist)

that is pretty accurate though.

 

One last question - which one would you choose?

Seagate Momentus 5400.6 2,5'' 500GB, 5400RPM, SATA/300, 8MB c., G-F Prot. [ST9500325ASG]

or

WD Scorpio Blue 2,5'', 5000BEVT, 500 GB, Serial ATA/300, 5400 RPM, 8MBcache [WD5000BEVT]

 

I like the Seagates... they have the best compatibility for both SATA-I and SATA-II systems.

 

I wanted to get a Seagate from the start, but I read a couple of tests in which WD was considerably faster in real life tests (copying files etc). And sometimes it was 70% faster. Hmmm....
I am a little concerned about WD's shock resistance though.

 

My M860TU runs with the WD 5400RPM 500GB. After a few months on the road (It's done a lot more than the odd mile ) I can confirm that any knocks have not affected it. It runs extremely cool as well, even without the NC2000 there to assist.

After all that the only time I'm even considering replacing it is for an SSD drive of similar size upwards. The wait of a couple of years strangely doesn't seem worrying.

 

Oiad: Thanks! I'm going WD.

So far this is the most helpful forum I have ever registered on. Huge thanks to all of you guys!

 

good choice.
currently, Seagate HDDs has been lacking in quality control.
they won't even release the new firmware to public for their "high failure rate due to firmware bugs" drives. So people who already bought the faulty drives can't download and upgrade the firmware themselves.

 

Just wanted to share that the new HDD 500Gb WD Scorpio Blue drive works flawlessly and was recognized without any problems by my Intel 945 GM chipset. Probably because I have the Legacy Sata mode set.

And if anyone plans to replace a laptop drive with keeping all the data and partition structure I truly recommend Acronis True Image. Few clicks, drive swap and done. I was truly amazed.

One more question - I have Insyde BIOS, does it have any 'hidden' service mode to set some more things up? I was wondering if I could change the temp at which the fan starts working, right now it's 40 C.

 

I did a search through the thread and couldn't find the answer. I'm in Denmark and am looking for a clevo reseller. The ones listed in the original post seem to have gone out of business. If someone has any info I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

 

Why don't you order from the UK, for example? But you msut have some stores that sell it, maybe under another name?

 

I have a Sager now which I bought while still living in the States. There have been issues with it that I would like to avoid this time around: sending a computer internationally is expensive, and having a warranty in another country can also be problematic, and I'm betting that DK is going to be a pain in the with trying to charge me VAT. All in all, it'd just be easier if I could get something in DK.

 

I can only give you the example in Portugal, where the Clevos are sold in 2 stores and one of them is under the name INSYS. Neither of them are in this list unfortunately.

Maybe someone from .dk can help you or try searching in your local stores (websites too).

 

Zepto used to carry some of their products. if you are looking for more high end mycizmo.com should be able to help you

 

Why is this not stickied?

 

its a duplicate thread... for people to comment and ask questions, the other that is stickied is read-only.

 

oh yeah, sorry, completely didnt see that

 

Thanks milamber1983. Although they are in Sweden, mycizmo.com looks like they could be a possibility. I've emailed them to get a few questions answered.

 

too bad there no resellers in portugal... i could get them from germany but there would be a problem... the keyboard layout :s
i don't find a site with portuguese keyboard option just common US-UK-DE-NL and even FR

 

btw, the danish reseller data teams a/s is closed down.

only Zepto sells some in form of their hydra and proshop.dk sells barebones.

 

Yea I was unable to find any resellers in DK at this time. I emailed mycizmo in Sweden a week ago with some questions, but haven't heard anything back. After looking at some of the British resellers I would most likely go with Kobalt if and when I order a new Clevo. They seem to have very positive reviews and most importantly offer a 3 year warranty which covers shipping in both directions should the laptop need to be repaired. Great value at only 70 GBP.

 

There are 2 in Portugal

www.inforlandia.pt (named INSYS)
www.webservinfor.com

 

Hej, før du besltter dig for Kobalt kunne du lige kigge på nogle af de tyske sider Står selv og skal til at anskaffe mig en ny bærbar, og har haft kig på følgende sider tyske sider (som alternativer til Kobalt):

www.notebookguru.de

www.mysn.de

www.deviltech.de

Den første bliver, som jeg har forstået det, regnet som den billigste af de tre, dog er de lidt bagefter, da de stadigvæk kun sælger de gamle 9800-grafikkort. Jeg har derfor kig på de sidste to, da der er penge at spare på den opsætning jeg har valgt, ift. Kobalt (500-1000 kr.). Men det kommer nok helt an på hvilken "rig" du kigger på. Deviltech tilbyder forresten svenske tastaturer uden egentlig merpris.

Short recap in English (+ a little more) :

Basically, it's worth (for Europeans) to consider the above-mentioned German Clevo dealers as alternatives to the British ones, for as far as I can see, there is money to be saved (depends on the rig you configure, of course). But generally it would make good sense for prices to be lower in Germany, as it is Europe's biggest market and most populous state, and the price level on electronics is usually one of the lowest in EU. It's a highly competitive market.
So if you are willing to accept the widespread obsolete methods of payment (yes, often you can't pay with credit card), it could likely turn out a whole lot cheaper. Freight prices are usually significantly lower also than, e.g., from mainland UK. All in all worth considering the available markets. Hope this has been of some help.

 

I had the same problem, finding a good dealer in DK - last time i bought a clevo it were from rock in uk, they're a bit expensive...

Im doing kobalt next time if the pound is as weak as it is atm

 

Just because you can´t find that option, it doesn´t mean that you can´t have a portuguese keyboard. Just email whatever store you want to order the laptop from, asking them if they can put a PT keyboard in.....

I´ve heard people with the same problem that ordered from notebookguru with no problem....all they did was to send them an email....

Don´t buy in Portugal, it´s too expensive.

 

great work Gophn

 

Gophn thanks alot for the list, Alot of the canada distributing clevo sites are gone which disappoints me. It sucks that The same performance laptop of a m860tu on eurocom will cost 2609 dollars CAD before shipping and taxes, meanwhile xotic pc and other sites like pc torque only charge about 1550 totalbefore shipping equating to about 2000 dollars CAD, a whopping 1 grand difference after taxes for eurocom.

Guess i'm definitely getting it from a US based location.