*** Official Clevo P870DM/Sager NP9870-G Owner's Lounge - Phoenix has arisen! ***

I think that in the past, Alienthingy was a Clevo reseller, am I right? This means that when they sold Clevo, they were great, and afterwards they fell down?

 

This exactly! Basically old alienware's were clevo's! So if you want an old school alienware experience.. Buy a clevo! Haha

 

A maxed out new AW Laptop is only a more expensive GigaBook or a CromeBook. Awbook 17R3 have the whole 2 ram slot, 3 ssd slot, no anti-ghost keyboard, 3 standard usb, a small nice heatsink with shared pipes to cool soldered hardware and of course no G-sync + you can't use a external G-sync screen either... But you get a a nice battery and Optimus, slim design, Hybrid bios and a proprietary graphics port so you can attach a graphic amplifier for a external G-sync screen(you need of course to buy a external graphics inside for this functionality). In short a crippled GamingBook Surly more but I can't remember all flaws.

 

Basically, after alienware are was purchased by Dell everything went down hill as they tried to stop enthusiasts from overclocking by power limiting and secure signing the bios then crappy bios and hardware all together. Put it all together and you have todays alienware, great support but horrible nonperforming product.

Sent from my LG-H901 using Tapatalk

 

nice description of a superfast chrome book. 2 RAM slots? LOL, they just keep going back

what's worse is their reputation here in Dubai is still high. I was talking to a 3D Design engineer and he was like, my next laptop is gonna be an Alienware as I want the best! LOL people here don't even know who is Mr. Clevo

 

People often follow brands and it takes time for the ripples of products to reach their reputation.

 

I can tell you something... I had alienware for past 5 years. Stay away from this laptop and dell company. I've bought my p870 in february that was the best I've done in my gamer life. This machine is amazing and you can't even compare alienware to p870.

 

Well said.... I had them for 3 years... 3 different models all with issues. This has been my best computer ever.

 

And DELLIENWARE think the proprietary G/A port for the graphics amplifier is a feature, but this proprietary port ruin for full performance on NVMe drive in slot 2. A very nice feature you think @Phoenix ? And of course the TB port can't support G-sync screen. Yeah... DELLIENWARE make their own special gaming models. This means ... A fully functioning NVMe slot, one that is crippled , and finally only a single 2.5'' SSD / HDD slot. Less is more in Dell's world... And I haven't started to talk about their nice expensive Alienware <high end> desktop models yet

 

The sad thing is that technologically Clevo faces zero competition and blows everything else in the Notebook sector out of the water. Every other brand is focused on catering to the mainstream user to make the big bucks...if Intel/NVIDIA would get it their way everything would already be BGA by now...

This may sound cool to our "Clevo-gang" but in the long run being the only enthusiast brand left also tends to slowdown innovation.

 

Totally agreed, the more rivals are in usually tend to more innovative decisions.

 

I actually really wanted to hear as many stories / experiences had as possible about why not chose Alienware. I kind of know only looking at specs that it is going to be pretty awful, but I wanted to know how did Alienware experience go for people who actually had one. I had a Dell in the past, and it was ok-ish for it price at that time, and now I have an Acer I am kind of happy with, and was very good for it's price to say the least.

None of these were even close to what P870 can do, and I want to convince as many as possible of this fact.

 

Hi guys...
Yesterday I have received new GPU from my reseller (Hyperbook). Indeed, replacement was fast (very good support).

But! Still the same. And now I feel like an idiot...
Today I've flashed Prema vBIOS and...

So after 10h testing on stock and prema vbios on stock settings... i managed to check +74Mhz (1200MHz) Core OC (1,062V stock voltage)
GPU went to the 85-86*c (after 5m) and... black screen again! What the hell! I don't know if I'm angry or sad... or even depressed... This isn't normal!

*Automatic fan profile (I think that overclock profile shouldn't be nesesery for OC under +150Mhz on core...)

Whaa... what may cause it? Every thermal pad is placed perfectly... thermal compound of highest quality (and damn high price)... Black foil removed from bottom cover... Room temp 21*c... Never had such issue... my brain gaved up right now.
Should I order new, better thermal pads? No damn idea... heatsink doesn't seems to be cracked and isn't even scratched...

@edit: Checked also +200MHz Core OC with 1,1V. Black screen when GPU reached 75*c Core temp (4 minutes?). Maximum fan profile and I've raised notebook about 2cm so it could get more air...

New GPU temps (stock vBIOS):
Automatic: 80*c
Overclock 68*c

 

Is this the 980m or the 980 desktop?

and how are you applying the thermal paste? Also are you applying a tiny bit, a lot of it. With the default pads you might need more than usual amount of paste.

 

Make sure that gsync is not enabled for windowed applications.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

I really like my 17r2 haven't had any issues at all with it.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

It might be because he is using GTX980M. I saw the first post with the problem. I wonder if it is SLI 980M. Then, the problem might be too high power draw, and many other related things to OCing a GTX980M sli.

 

I can never imagine buying a prebuilt desktop, doesn't sit right with me

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

Bought my first laptop in 2014 as I wanted the best back then. Didn't know what a Clevo is...

It was an Alienware 18 with a 4800MQ CPU and 16GB RAM and Dual 770M in SLI

A few days later, I noticed that when looking at dark backgrounds like in movies, there is light bleeding in the corners which was very annoying. So I called Dell and within 2 days, I had a technician come to my place to replace the screen.......that didn't help.....then he came another time with yet another new screen and this time and LCD cable, still didn't fix it. Seemed like a design flaw as the screen bezel was being pressed too hard against the screen when you screw it. He then tried to put some pads between the bezel and the screen, that didn't help as well.

Then I waited another week and DELL replaced my laptop, they upgraded it for free to a new laptop with Dual Radeon M290X and a 4810MQ CPU and 32GB of RAM, nice free upgrade.

Then a few days later, I noticed I was getting an event log error upon every restart regarding an error in the CPU, I forgot the error. Dell tried diff. BIOS versions, then finally replaced my CPU and motherboard.......

problem didn't go away.....

so they gave me yet a 3rd new laptop, this time it was another upgrade to a 4900MQ CPU and Dual 780M in SLI

I was happy about the upgrades but not happy about me being without being with a properly working laptop for a while......

I then upgraded my CPU myself from a 4900MQ to a 4940MX CPU just to be able to run @ 4 GHz stable on all cores.......

While their warranty hear in Dubai is superb, why did I even have to go through all this with a 3K USD++ laptop? Why didn't it work right out of the box?

That's when I came to know about Clevo and their superior specs compared to what I have and the fact that at that time, there was no way to install 980M in the Alienware 18 and have it work properly without throttling, I sold it for $1500 USD and got this Clevo...because their new laptops lineup is a joke and an insult to all enthusiasts with BGA components, only 16GB RAM options (2 RAM slots only vs 4), no PCIE x4 NVMe SSD support just the standard m.2, and I certainly didn't wanna lug a graphics amplifier with me, that defeats the whole purpose of having a mobile laptop.

 

GTX 980M

Usually I'm applying dot or perfect spread (with good amount). Currently dot (with good amount). It's not my first high-end notebook and GPU.

Since new GPU has no issue with voltage (like previous one). This new GPU is working very well. But still can't hold OC.

As far as I know, 980M SLI owners don't have any trouble with 170Mhz Core Clock...

EDIT: +160Mhz Core Clock, +300MHz Mem (+0mV) - black screen after 18 minutes on Overclock Fan Profile. GPU reached 85*c (with Prema vBIOS stock 1.0625 Voltage...)

At least now I have good working GPU. But still P870DM Cooling for 980M is probably garbage and disaster...

 

I did, was happy when I first got it, then I couldn't live with 10s of cables and the bulky size, sold it for a big loss and went back to desktop replacement laptops......

You never appreciate the versatility of a laptop and having everything in one small box which is easy to manage until you get a desktop......

man even upgrading the SSDs in the desktop was a nightmare, had to remove so many cables and the SSD bays were very hard to access:

My ORIGIN PC MILLENIUM Review

 

Yeah, that is rather odd. I had this issue where temps would be really high if there was not enough TIM. So just put a bigass glop of Kryonaut in. But that much amount should not be needed. Im assuming the pads are too thick and are preventing good contact.

 

I am patiently waiting the arrival of my P870DM tomorrow. While I wait, can someone give an idea of how the quality of the display compares to an Alienware M18X R1? I've actually never had a matte display. Recently I've upgraded some of my monitors at home to IPS ones, so I can see a huge difference between those and the M18X, which I had previously thought was pretty good - but technology moves on. I am hoping the FHD on the Clevo is a huge improvement - is it? Thanks! Will post more once I have it.

 

Depends on what you want to do on it. For General use and gaming, the FHD is good enough. For any serious work that requires color accuracy, the 4k is amazing.

 

while I was never a fan of matte screens since their colors look washed out especially on white backgrounds, this matte IPS screen looks so good you would think it's a hybrid between a glossy/matte screen the great color reproduction of glossy minus the glare.

you will be very impressed.

LG LP173WF4-SPF1 Spyder5Pro Calibration Profile

 

I actually wanted Glossy if there would had been one. I am not bothered by glossy surfaces as much as I am by the grain of matte that is visible sometimes.

 

This sounds like a second instance of this - http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...71dm-p775dm-thermal-paste-replacement.789825/

I wonder if taking a 2nd look at the thermal pads is something every P870DM owner having heat issues should consider?

 

I got dual 980ms ... The cooling on the primary GPU is excellent. When it comes to secondary.... not so good. There is about 10C difference between them. M primary maxes out around 76c and secondary around 86-88c depending on the game (without any OC) this makes it impossible to overclock the cards without any Cooling pad. 85c under load sound about normal for secondary card.

 

Probably, im as it is going to change all the pads later this weekend, with Fujipoly 2mm and 1 mm ones. Because my ambient temps arent too high, and my cooling is pretty darn good.Will try to reduce the contact gap as much as possible.
Most wont really need to do this, unless they plan on really pushing the card.

 

I'm with 980m SLI here.

+300mhz on memory proved too much for me. I can get to +185 stable on core with +140 only on memory with stock voltages.

Only on Witcher 3 that I can't go higher than +130core/+120 vRAM without instability.

I got surprised how far I could push my cores after I decreased the vRAM core increment.

With + 75mv I can get my cores stable with 1396mhz, but again, with only +120 on memory, but still hadn't found a good clock past +130mhz for Witcher 3! Damm game!


Also, regardless of core frequency, it ALWAYS gets unstable regardless of temperatures, if I give them more or around 1150mv. So, I'm trying with 1137mv.

 

You can't always just maximise the voltage and expect the best clocks, you do have to balance it, especially in a notebook.

 

Is there any good way to differentiate a hard crash or PC shutdown/reboot caused by CPU or GPU OC? Without running one completely stock?

 

Hardware shutdowns usually don't let you start the system again straight away but it's always better to test each device by itself at a time. When you combine them if you have to lower one then it's likely system related (power delivery or temperature limits usually).

 

It's definitely (or at least almost definitely) not temperature related as my temps across the board for CPU and GPU stay 60s-70s. I just can't determine where some of my random crashes Come from. It's weird because it's never a bsod. It's literally shut down then reboots itself. Sometimes a hard lock that requires holding button in to reboot. If it's just a driver crash then I know it's gpu OC tweaking.

 

It's hard to say without being there, it can be instability at certain clock/voltage levels or overall power limits. What power setup do you have?

 

When you say power setup what do you mean? I'm running dual PSU with the adapter. Been that way since day one for OC purposes.

 

Probably voltage.

 

CPU or GPU voltage though?

 

CPU. If its the GPU voltage you will start to see flickering or memory corruption and if the MOSFETS reach their limit then black screen with audio,

 

What PSU/PSUs are you using?

 

I have 2 330s with the adapter. Pretty standard setup for sli with OC. I knew I couldn't rock only 1.

 

Have you monitored both to ensure they are both drawing equally?

 

Never had to do that so how can I??

 

Side note I changed my voltage offset to -10 instead of -40mv and made it through 2 1024 TS benches with no crashing. Likely that's my culprit. But only gaming will tell. I'll keep you posted thanks for the assist! Still curious about how to monitor my PSU to make sure they are good.

 

Use a wall monitor for each and make sure the values are roughly the same.

 

Probably it's because temps. Higher Memory clocks are pushing Memory to generate much more heat. And very weak p870dm GPU cooling can't hold it.
Overclocking 980M in P870DM is very bad idea, unless you have good cooling pad (i.e. Notepal U3).
I wonder if there is enough space between bottom cover and GPU plate above VRM&MOSFET to stick copper heatsinks. With Notepal U3 it would give aloot.

Now I have finally good GPU... so maybe I will check it next month (copper heatsinks and notepal u3). Good Notepal3 with Noctua/Enermax 120mm fans (x3) would do the job.

 

@Mr. Fox @Prema

Bro, someone asked me, is the brightness control issue with the 4K panel sorted?

What is that all about do you know?

 

What brightness issue ?

 

There's an issue for those of us who switched the display to 4K from FHD losing control over brightness. While you can use the Fn+brightness increase/decrease combo to bring up the icon, effectively it won't change the brightness, (though the combo for turning the panel off still works) even when going in the power and battery settings. It probably has something to do with using the G-sync bios with the 4K panel which was blacklisted before I believe.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

 

right, so no solution for this? Is it a Clevo Control Center issue or an nVIDIA driver Issue?

@Prema , what do you think?