Clevo P370SM3 / Santech G37: i4930 YES or NO?

I'm about to buy a top-spec Santech G37 (Clevo P370SM3 from Italian Reseller), with following specs:

Intel i7 4930MX
32 GB DDR3L 1.600MHz CL9
2x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4GB
17,3" LED 3D/120hz FullHD 1.920x1.080 NO-GLARE 72% NTSC
256GB Plextor M5M on mSATA
2x SSD 480GB Intel 520 Series on S.ATA III in RAID0
Blu-ray Burner SuperMulti 6X
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260
Windows 8 Professional 64bit
Zero Bad SubPixels Guarantee

My doubt is as following: without considering money at all (i'm not paying for this, so spending 1k or 10k is exactly the same, budget is unlimited), I would get better performance with the 4900mq 47 TDP and overclock it, or starting from the 57 TDP 4930mx for the overclock?

My fear is that I could be more limited in terms of power (hit the limit of 330W) or heat, by starting from the higher-TDP extreme CPU.

The goal should be achieve maximum possible stable overclock performance for 120hz/3D gaming, using a single 330W adapter (don't wanna travel with 2).

As I said: ignore the price difference between 4900 and 4930, just focus on which one would be a better baseline to start from.

Suggestions?

 

The 330W adapter will be fine. Each GPU is 100W, the CPU is 57. That leaves 143 for the mainboard, screen and SSD's and everything else. The SSD's only take about 1 to 10 W each. The BD drive can be from 5 to 10 W depending on manufaturer. I can't find the 120hz screen Watts, but I found that a 24" 120hz monitor takes 24W, so my guess would be 15W in a notebook. That leaves the mainboard, which I don't really know its consumption, but it has at least 80W left for it

 

Thanks for the kind answer.

My concerns come also from the wonderful HTWingNut review: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...ingnuts-sager-np9390-clevo-p375sm-review.html

There you can see that the power absorption is as high as 315/320W as measured at the wall when OC a bit, and that is with 4800, 2x8GB, standard screen and just 1 SSD.

My setup will have 4930mx, 4x8GB, 120 hz and 3 SSD, so more power required.

Also, I'm warried about the thermal headroom: will it be better to start from lower TDP 4900 and overclock it, or start from 4930? Considering that clevo thermals are not bad, but also not as good as an AW.

 

330 - 257. Actually it leaves 73 for the mainboard if both GPUs and CPU is at 100% usage. Am I doing something wrong here?

 

What are you going to be doing with this machine, Why so much power requirements? Unless you need the processor for something specific, you can get the base quad core for hardcore gaming. The extreme processors are needed for running many virtual machines or some other big CPU tasks. I can game Tomb Raider 2013 on ultimate settings at 45 FPS with my one GTX 780m. Anyway If HTwingnut is getting 320W draw, ram is 1.5v per stick (making its watt draw negligible), and SSD's (good ones) are average 2.5W (OCZ Vertex 4 was my reference). You should just about make the 330W. You can always get a 400W power supply online though.

LOL, I was just throwing out numbers willy nilly, should have double checked either way, he should have enough.

 

I needed the CPU power for calculation/development.

I need to run 3-4 VM for work purposes, run heavy parallelised java application (100+ threads, that will run on a GRID, but need to test them locally), and CUDA applications.

RAM and CPU are needed for that purposes, I know that for gaming a 4700 and 16 GB of RAM would be exactly the same.

My question is if I will run into a thermal and/or power wall with the 57 TDP CPU.

I don't pretend to have better FPS with the 4930mx for gaming, but wouldn't want to be hindered by it compared to a 4700 OC setup.

So my final question is: will I be able to achieve equal or better performance with the 4930 compared to 4700/4800/4900, or with the 4930 57W TDP I risk to be more limited by the thermals and/or power limits of the clevo?

In case I can still dial-back to a 4900 or 4800, losing something for work purposes, but being sure hot to hinder my gaming

I have clear priorities

 

Also, keep in mind that my target is to be able to game at 3D/120hz on latest games at ultra settings, so the 2x 780M are the bare minimum, since they need to ensure ideally 100+ fps at 1080p (to fully take advantage of 120hz 2D, or to guarantee 50+ FPS for 3D gaming...).

 

I get the dual GPU's, but why i7 4930m extreme processor? As of yet, Gaming relies mostly on GPU, and CPU for multiple threading, as long as you have 8 threads you'll be more than fine. You'll have to overclock your GPU's in the future before you have to overclock your CPU when it comes to gaming. Looking around though shows that 330W should be enough even with i7 4930m. They only offer dual PSU's in the Clevo P570EM with its desktop CPU and SLI GPUs

 

Because I need it for work reasons (development, 3-4 VMs, heavily threaded calculations, CUDA).

This is why I chose 4930 and 32GB, I know that for gaming a 4700 and 8GB RAM would be more than enough.

But I don't want my choice of 4930 to be a bottleneck for OC for gaming, in that case I could dial back a bit the work needs and go middle ground (4800/4900).

 

FYI a 780M is between 110-122W not 100W.

It's probably closer to the 110w range though because they are slightly underclocked from the ref design.

Starting with the higher power CPU will be better for OC though as for starts it's already faster and followed by the fact it has a higher power range it can probably clock faster still.

Most SSD don't go above 3-4w.

I think you will be fine though.

Wish I could have had unlimited budget on my order hah.

 

Maybe TheOldGuy did the same as me and checked on notebookcheck website. Is stated to be 100W there. Are you sure is 110-122?

Tapatalked from my Galaxy S4

 

Yup. It's over 100 for sure, just dunno how high above it actually goes.

The 780M is based on the 680MX (122w) card. The 780m actually uses slightly less voltage which normally would help lower that but remember it's a faster card with more pipelines activated (while still being same base chip). Boost only further adds power usage.

Now in defense the reference card is 823MHz and all the OEM's have it clocked at only 771MHz due to the increased power to help account for that (not sure if that's why the lower voltage too or not) but it's still slightly over the 100w. I admit the 110 I pulled out of my a** but it's probably more realistic.

I want to say the actual usage on a 17" clevo turned out to be like 128w peak but it's always higher on the larger notebooks for some reason. Even the 580m used more on a 17" vs 15" oddly (not much though, few w) lol but similar is true for CPU. They can say rated for 47W but it will really get closer to mid-upper 50's depending on the turbo etc.

FWIW the notebook check site says "The power consumption of the GeForce GTX 780M should be similar or slightly higher than the GTX 680M (100 Watt TDP)..."

I can't find the link now but was a review of a Clevo notebook with the card in which they had the actual usage but for some further info:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M | techPowerUp GPU Database
GeForce GTX 780M vs 680M
Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M compare Nvidia GeForce GTX 680M GPU

 

Thanks for all the details. I was referring to this:

"The power consumption of the GeForce GTX 780M SLI should double to 200 Watt (including board and memory) compared to a single GTX 780M."

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-780M-SLI.93346.0.html


Tapatalked from my Galaxy S4

 

Yeah, basically same thing. They are just taking the 100w number they posted, but admit they are not sure on and doubling it for SLI.

I think the safer would be to say it uses 220-230w for dual 780M (just cards, and only under full load). That said, I think the remaining left over power is fine for the 330w PSU the OP is concerned about.

I think users like me have it worse.

I got a P157SM with 780M & 4900 CPU and only get 180w PSU. That leaves me approx 23w for HDD/SSD, memory, screen, backlit keyboard, USB, MB chipsets etc.. not much really and basically means the 180w I have to use will be running near capacity which generally increases wear on components. I am annoyed at Clevo. They pushed the last few 15" models too close as was but now with a more power hungry GPU it's even worse, not to mention the addition of more fancy LED's to eat more power lol.

My NP8150 180W in my specs cuts off if I don't disable the internal screen (I use external monitor) and I fill the USB ports... Even without the GPU OC. Grant it only if I play a game or something that puts full load but it's silly. I suspect the newer one will too when I get to getting setup and testing.

 

OP, the 4900MQ is great for gaming and it's the best thing to use with the clevo if you're not using the extra power adapter for ocing. You can still OC it at work when not OCing your cards, of course, but it'd be better at home. That's my two cents I think.

 

Unless you intend to buy the two 330W bricks and adapter the 4900MQ will have all the overclocking headroom (4.2ghz all 4 cores) you can handle.

 

I just bought this CPU and after reading your post I'm curious. Is it possible to overclock the 4900MQ to 4.2? What tool is used?

Tapatalked from my Galaxy S4

 

I understand and I think i see the point.

But my question is: if 4900 and 4930 would cost exactly the same, which one would you pick for maximum performance in OC, considering the heat/power limits of the clevo?

Because effectively for me this is the current situation: I'm not paying for this notebook (my company is) and I can pick whatever I want.

 

Intel XTU

And 780m is definitely higher TDP than the 680m, by 20%. I believe it's about 120W. Overclocked it can draw significantly more.

 

The 4930 is going to be the better option.

For starters it starts off at 3GHz vs the other 2.8GHz, plus they increased the TDP which will give it more headroom. They designed that CPU to be overclocked (thus increased speed and TDP) so odds are it will clock much better vs. the 4900. Now that said it is going to get warmer and use more power as a result, but that will be true for almost any big overclock.

If money isn't an issue get the 4930. You will have much more options.

 

Yep, get the 4930. Its unlocked and you can always underclock to 4900 levels if you need to. Games will not push both the CPU and GPU to its max power consumption.

And the 4930 will be faster when doing development work.

 

Thanks HTWingNut, that's kind of sad to hear. So 240W (GPUs) + 57 (CPU) = 297W. Only 33W for everything else on the laptop.

 

Just in case, I ordered it with 2 power adapters.

In case I see i'm power limited for the OC, I will buy the T-junction to use both ;-)

 

Sorry my silly question, but how's the best way to be sure (power limited)? I don't know for sure but 33W doesn't seem to be enough for 2 SSD, 2 msata, screen, USBs, ram etc and I want to check as well.

Tapatalked from my Galaxy S4

 

Is not true simple way to know. Sometimes when you hit the limit the PSU cuts off/resets. This won't result in the machine going off probably as has battery but performance would drop like a brick the second it happened.

Other times I have seen performance just be limited, but that generally is only on systems with smart PSU and ability to read them. I don't think Clevo does this.

33w is probably just enough but USB can be the iffy one as depends how many, if using the powered one to power something etc. Most people end up with the 47w CPU due to the crazy cost of the next step and that would leave 43w roughly.

I wouldn't worry about it. Not near as bad as those of us with the 15" who have no true options. I suspect the screen is prob around 15w, RAM will only be a few W per few modules. SSD generally are 1-4w each and msata prob similar. Plus odds are with all that power the GPU's and CPU's wont both be using 100% power as that puppy should fly doing anything and laugh at any games! hah

 

Not relevant on the 9390.

1. TDP is fully adjustable.
2. The 4900MQ is partially unlocked to 4.2ghz on all 4 cores and 4.4ghz on one core.
3. The CPU is not designed any differently to the 4930MX, it's simply picked differently, the 4900 is unlikely to be that different as a 2nd from top sample.

Quite frankly I don't think the cooler on the 9390 is going to be much good for pushing past 4.2ghz. Which is hardly a hardship however.

 

I finalised the configuration I want, and I ordered it:

SANTECH G37


Intel Core i7-4930MX
32 GB DDR3L 1.600MHz CL9
2x Intel 525 Series 240GB in Raid 0 (mSATA)
2x Samsung 840 Pro 512GB in Raid 0 (SATAIII)
17,3" LED 120hz 3D FullHD 1.920x1.080 NO-Glare 72% NTSC
2x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4GB in SLI
Blu-ray Writer 6x
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260
English Keyboard (EN)
Windows 8 Professional 64bit
Tucano AreaPlus Bag
Zero Bad SubPixels Guarantee
Additional 330W PSU with power converter box (for 400+ watt extreme overclocking of both CPU and GPU)

The more I think about it, the more I think I will be power limited by the PSU 330W (this is also why I bought the second PSU)

Overclocked 4930
Overclocked 780M SLI
120HZ 3D Panel (emitter + 120hz!)
4x SSD! (2 intel 525, 2 samsung 840 pro)

That's a lot of watts!

 

If you want to do some serious clocking you will need both PSUs lol, good luck