*** Official Clevo P770ZM / Sager NP9772 and P770ZM-G / Sager NP9773 Owner's Lounge ***

First, review the OP in the P750zm thread, then please repost what questions are left
Also, review the review htwingnut posted in the forums of the batman (P750zm). The internals are set up the same mostly.

 

Set up the computer to be held at local hub thinking I could shave off some wait time but turns out it backfired. Batman would be out for delivery right now with an average drop off time of around 2 pm at my house. Instead since I did local pick up for whatever reason UPS here only does pick ups between 430-6:00pm. I've got table made out with everything I need. As soon as she arrives I'm going to wrap it in a blanket and warm it up to room temp. Make sure it runs fine. The dive in and repaste add the 850 pro and ram start tweaking. Quite possibly the best weekend ever haha.

 

If you can, take baseline benchmarks, heat measurements, etc. That way for comparison. Put them in an excell spreadsheet. It's a great way to see what this can do. If you change the core volt, please provide the actual voltage as well as the offset, if possible.

 

Yeah no problem. Are you recommending doing this before installing the SSD and ram or just before the repaste job? I'm assuming the repaste. If you can let me know what the best was to get these benchmark points then I'll be happy to run them and post my results. I will allow one full day of testing to get whatever data is needed on the stock TIM after that she is mine and the tweaking will begin ha

Edit. I also plan to write up a "non technical" review on the build quality, screen, and performance as well as the overall impressions I get from the batman. You guys are much more knowledgeable than me about a lot of this stuff so I feel for the slightly above average consumer (knowledgeable but not as technical) this may help is making a decision for them.

 

Anyone have the 330w PSU? How massive is it? Curious, though I will find out soon enough.

 

Benchmarks:
BurnIn Test
WPrime
Prime95
XTU stress Test
Intel Burn Test
OCCT
Linpack (of any form)
Cinebench (both R15 and 11.5)
Aida64extreme
last x264
Handbrake
memtest86+
Unigine Valley
Unigine Heaven 4.0
3dMark (specifically Firestrike score)
3dMark Vantage
3dMark 11
PCmark 8
Furmark
MSI Kombuster
Passmark performance test
Utilities:
Cpu-z
GPU-z
HWmonitor
XTU
Nvidia Inspector (or your favorite GPU OC utility (MSI or Ntune)) if video card OC is being done!
Speedfan
I am thinking any or as many of these as you would like to perform. I am going to do a widespread benchmarking on my own machine before and after my planned changes, stock, undervolt, undervolt/OC, etc. Also, what video card do you have? Before changing to a modded vbios (if you were going to), could you back up and upload the vbios using GPU-Z. Take notes on all driver versions used for the hardware also! This will give a great baseline comparison for your write-up. Those are the benchmarks and utilities I could think of. I will create a hyperlinked version of the list and add more in about a week!

 

Ok I will get most of them done either today or over the weekend. Stupid question. How do you get under the keyboard on the machine. I don't want to break anything so figured I would ask

 

http://repo.palkeo.com/clevo-mirror/P770ZM/
read the service manual. Also, if you choose to update the bios before testing, make a note of it (both bios and ec version)
Edit: You may have to remove the heatsink to get to the clips that a spludger should release (I can't remember and haven't removed it myself yet)

 

its quite a thing to behold, weighing in at 1.25kg not THAT much bigger than the stock 230w psu though, which is surprising. also, the psu cable to the laptop is quite thick! significantly more than the stock cable, quite impressive

imo thats actually the only dead give-away of how much power is slumbering in this laptop, since its visuals are so subtle / professional for such a highend machine (me likes, they have NO IDEA at work mwahahahahaha)

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Big.

 

I have all the screws taken out but I can't quite see where to eject the keyboard. I also do not have an eject stick but I believe I have something that should work. Where is this eject spot though I can't seem to locate it.

 

It should be hole of the center screw that you just removed.

 

Two 330W bricks weigh as much as a light 15 inch notebook.

 

and one as much as the new dell xps 13

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Then again a single 330W brick can power 7 dell XPS 13 machines lol.

 

There are three screws that hold the keyboard to the chassis. Two of them are clearly marked witha K/B the other is above the GPU fan. After removing these three screws, if your screw driver is thin enough, you can insert that in the middle screw hole and gently push when you have the laptop screen opened. eventually the Keyboard will pop out on the top/top-left side and slowly pull it along the top edge. There are two magnets holding the keyboard to the chassis as well, so do it gingerly. Then remove the three ribbon cables carefully noting where they go. The big bottom ribbon (the keyboard ribbon) goes UNDER the clip. The Lights for the keyboard goes ABOVE the clip.

 

Perfect thanks I'll give it a shot shortly

 

As for the power brick I'm actually kind of impressed it's not bigger. Don't get me wrong it's pretty large but coming from my m17x r4 that I believe out out 220W this one is relatively the same size so I've got no complaints so fsr
Edit: I have the 330W

 

@ajc9988 I have the 980m

 

Hey guys, is there anything special I need to do to Overclock the 980m? I'm on 344.75 and when I use Nvidia Inspector or Afterburner I can't change core clocks.

 

Just got mine, in the process of migrating and getting set up. I took some photos too. I'll post details soon. Migrating licences for solid works, labview, and the other software is going to be a pain.

 

If you have upgraded the firmware then the clocks are now locked. From my understanding and I won't know until I dive in over the weekend the only way to unlock the clock is to install a modded firmware. However rumor has it that Nvidea caved and soon will put out an update to allow you to modify clock again.

 

Ok so installing the drivers and the IME driver will not install. Basically it asks if I want to continue I press yes and then nothing. I try to move past it and causes the program not to respond. For now I guess I'm going to skip it unless one of you guys think it is needed.

 

As far as I am aware, Nvidia only locked out the clocks via software. So if you use driver version 344.75, you'd still be able to overclock. And yet I can't.

 

Jaybee was looking for the stock vbios on that card. Shoot him a pm with a link to an upload. I'm seeking a 970m, I have an msi stock 970m, just want to verify vbios version with clevo.

Do not know, maybe try doing a DDU in safe mode and installing a fresh download of 344.75 from nvidia

So, install the IME driver before installing the chipset driver as the chipset driver updates one file in the IME driver. It can effect controls in XTU and have an affect on performance (although minor). If the one you have doesn't work, download it from a website. If you did download it, try a different download source or use the one that came with the laptop on a disk or thumbdrive.

 

First Round of testing Data

This is a stock sager P770ZM with the default 1T HDD and 8G 1600mhz ram.
The only upgrade is the NVidia 980M.

First impression:
Sound is fairly loud and is noticeably better than traditional laptop. It does produce more low tones.
Fans Run a lot but not too loud.
Keyboard got warm but not as Hot as my old Dell M4600
eSATA worked out of the box to transfer files
CPU GPU temps seemed cool for a laptop.

Complaint:
Cant find Win 8.1 Key, it is not behind the battery as I expected.

Factory image after first boot is 20Gig.
Installed Norton, comcast build
Installed LastPass
Installed BurnIntest
Ran BurnInTest, Pass no issues.
installed Wprime
Ran Wprime
32M = 7.904
1024M = 239.11

Installed 3dMark 1.4.8
Default Benchmark with Nvidia Drivers 344.56 yields a result of 8439.
Fire Strike 8439
Sky Diver 21751
Cloud Gate 24030
Ice Storm 154439
With the exception of fire strike, almost everything was 100+ FPS.

This is in the top 89% of all PC with no tweaks at all, and it stomped the "Gaming Laptop" score reference point of 3364.

 

Keys are not put on the machine anymore, in OEM systems they are in the bios, in custom systems they will need to use an individual license, you should have got the key with the machine in the box.

 

There are software that can tell you your key from within windows, you can check one of those out...

 

For the key win 8,check in the manual that came, look for separate sheet from windows. Also, could you install hardware monitor or open xtu while running tests. Xtu can give cpu temps, hwmonitor gives temps from all sensors

 

Belarc Advisor will tell you the key. http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html Download, install, update, run. It opens in a browser. Scroll down to Software.

 

Just to add to the above:

source: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015...isions-with-a-clean-install-of-windows-8-1/1/

 

I'll send the stock vbios once I do a dump of it first I need to finish up installing everything. Just got home about to do another clean install since the IME didn't work. Going to try to do it first then the chipset like you stated.

 

Damn. Hardest dies and heatsink to clean ever. EVER!

 

Ok so one more hiccup. When trying to install the Intel rapid start technology it says computer does not meet the minimum requirements. What am I doing wrong here. It doesn't make sense?

 

Could it be that I installed the 850 pro in sata port 1 and left the HDD in sata port 0. I figured if I labeled them the way I wanted it shouldn't matter but does it?

 

I think I got it. Apparently I needed to create a partition of 32GB for it to work.

Yup that did the trick. Looks like I'm all set for now. Going to install all the programs I need for my meeting tomorrow and then will begin to play.

 

quick update. finished repasting with gelid extreme and initial temps seem to have dropped another 10* from previous. i am testing prime95 currently which would hit 98* and crash at some point, not sure why because i wasn't available when it crashed, but at the moment peak cpu temp is 96*. even gpu dropped 10*. it's been hovering @ 49* during the prime95 test and before repaste it would always hover at 60-61*. will update after prime95 finishes with some other info from xtu and my daily usage scenario.

 

Wow really nice results. Any advice? I'll be pasting mine tomorrow but since I'm no an expert I just picked up some IC thermal since it is fairly easy to use

 

Settings please. Multiplier, voltage offsets or if at stock, etc.

 

I ran all of my benchmarks back to back CPU never went above 75C, the fans throttled to keep it there. Gpu was kept at 55-60C. HDD was at 48C after 1 hour at full load. This was during the testing posted above.

I did pay for the factory IC Diamond Thermal Compound, and it appears to make the difference I was expecting.

 

-80 dynamic, -60 both analog and digital, -110 cache, and -60 system agent offset. Gonna still work on undervolts tomorrow. Xtu for some reason was overclocking my ram by default and might be reason I was unstable at lower voltages. But I gotta say, between undervolts and repaste I've knocked 20* off my temps. Can't complain.

Oh BTW, getting old paste off was a *****. And wiggle method when pasting does not work as someone previously mentioned because there is no wiggle room once you set heatsink. I also used regular pea size on GPU and and a big fat pea glob for CPU. Was worried I might have to repaste two or three times because of one big heatsink but it worked out. Hope that small bit of info helps somebody when they repaste. Make sure to clean well. I had to use a floss pick to get around edges of GPU die and there was still a little left but I figured no biggie since the paste needs to work from die to copper and the little bit left from edge wouldnt hurt. Obviously it worked out.

 

Test this for me, change the input analog and digital back to 0 offset. I set them to -50 earlier today and roar temps by 3-5 degrees.

 

Maybe tomorrow. Requires reboot. Trying to work with what I have now so I know uptime.

 

Btw, what multiplier or is it stock with turboboost?

 

oh yeah. sorry. i have turbo off. running 40x straight across. turbo isn't that valuable to me. would rather keep low temps and stability rather than a slight short boost.

 

btw, how long does prime95 run? i am at 1 hour 39 minutes currently. all pass and peak is still 96*. my temps are bouncing all over 70* the last hour or so. gpu is still sitting at 49*.

uh oh. uh oh. cpu temps are floating low 70's and high 60's now and gpu dropped to 48* steady.

 

Hours to days running for different primes. Cut it off whenever. And those temps are in line with what others have reported.

 

oh ok. thanks. thought there was a set time. i guess it looks for big prime numbers? i'm at the 1728k passed point now.

just wow. the gelid repaste did wonders. cpu idling in high 40's and gpu @ 45*. that is -10+ (really more like close to -20*) on cpu and -15* on the gpu idle. awesome.

ok. just xtu stress tested cpu and ram 10 minutes apiece. cpu peak was 72*. ram peak was 74*. still about a dime from previous paste.

i'm gonna go ahead and try the analog/digital back to 0 voltage offset and see what happens. i've hit 24h stable under a lot of conditions so what the hell.

 

Tried 0. Added 3* to both CPU and gpu idle. Sometimes too high an undervolt can be stable but add temps and that might be your case.

ok. real world usage says the gelid extreme knocked a solid nickel off my temps. so i'm not hitting 80's on cpu and barely into 60's on gpu. not too shabby. my benchmarks didn't test gpu much so my expectations on that front were let down a little bit. still not too bad hovering around 65* before and now 60* while it's being used. system is also quieter overall. fans don't hit as high as often.

 

Stock everything I'm hitting 94+ on cpu stress test under XTU. Not as cool as I was hoping that's for sure.