New Clevo lineup with Thunderbolt 3? (not DM)

Hey guys, I'm in the market for a new notebook and have been eyeballing the P640RE.

My current notebook is a Thinkpad w520 in a dock and I don't think I can live without a dock anymore. Unfortunately the P6xx series do not come with a TB3 port so I can't use any of these babies.

So my question to you is, when do you think we'll see a Clevo lineup of 14/15" notebooks with a TB3 port? If at all?

 

I don't think Clevo will refresh until the new GPUs come out as that's relatively soon.

Given the P600 series are all integrated motherboards that'll be the best/logical time for them to implement a TB3 chip. The chassis would also need to be modified for the port as well.

 

Yea sounds logical. So, trying to get an idea when it will be released: the P640 was released in september 2015 I think, does Clevo have a release schedule that I could make an inference out?

And the Pascal desktop GPU's will hit the market at around Q2, the mobile versions some time later I guess. So by following that logic I'll probably have to wait till near the end of this year for the new lineup with potentially TB3.

I don't know if I can wait that long

 

Clevo's release schedule is almost non-existant. From what I can see there's no discernible pattern to it other than roughly following CPU/GPU developments.

I'd definitely wait though. If Polaris GPUs are anywhere near as efficient as AMD claim (and demonstrated), that will shake up the mobile GPU space for sure. Mobile GPUs are ruled by TDP and whoever can shove the most compute power into ~100W TDP basically wins. Simple as that. Also explains why Nvidia basically booted AMD out of the market altogether with Maxwell.

It will be an interesting year to say the least though.

If you're absolutely set on spending money now and TB3 is a must, then I'd suggest looking at the MSI GS40 and GS60. They're thin/light i7-6700HQ+970M combos with USB-C/TB3 combo ports.

 

Pretty much any company, not just Clevo, does their new models around the schedule of new processors and graphics cards. I haven't really seen one company that has a set schedule.

Usually you won't see any release dates until Intel/nvidia/AMD announce their release dates, then systems manufacturer's and resellers will maybe give info out at that point. But you won't see a lot of info until launches are close due to NDAs.

So then you are left with the time old question: Do I buy now, or wait and see what is down the road? Always the tough question.

 

Yea that's going to be a wait for me then. Here's hoping that Nvidia will announce the new GPU line at the GPU Tech Conference next week.

Also thanks Stooj for the insight and the suggestion. I hadn't mentioned yet that I absolutely despise hardware that is designed and marketed towards 'gamers' so I'm going to pass on those MSI machines haha. Altough I've seen worse.

 

Stay away from that TB15 dock. If you buy it, you'll be sending it back just like 99.9% of all the other purchasers have done, myself included.

Search the Alienware and Dell Forums for TB15. Also, check Dell's own Forums. You can also read the Amazon Reviews - but keep in mind Amazon has the TB15 mixed in with some other USB dock. Basically, all of the bad reviews are about the TB15.

Also, the Thunderbolt Port on many of the Clevo/Sager Laptops doesn't work until you do a BIOS, Firmware and Driver Update. They don't make these updates available on their Web Sites so you have to ask for them. It took me two weeks to get my Thunderbolt 3 port working on my NP9758 (P750DM-G).

Sager support is great but this non-working Thunderbolt 3 chip caught them by surprise.

Kenny

 

Thanks for the heads-up kenny, I hope they get their **** together regarding TB3 drivers!

Anyway, I'm glad you got it working. Are you using any dock with it atm? In your thread you mentioned a number of docks and hubs to be released next month. Could you name a few?

 

I'm using the AKiTiO Thunder3 Duo Pro RAID enclosure. There are currently only 2 Thunderbolt 3 devices. The AKiTio and the Dell TB15.

I'm keeping a watch on the Startech Thunderbolt 3 Dock

https://www.startech.com/Cards-Adapters/Laptop-docking-stations/thunderbolt-3-laptop-dock~TB3DK2DPW

and the Pluggable Thunderbolt 3 Dock

http://plugable.com/thunderbolt-3

The release dates on both docks keeps getting pushed back. At first it was the beginning of April, now they are saying May.

If/When you end up buying something, make sure you can return it if need be.

Kenny