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

First, that's pretty awesome they let you check things out remotely, definitely something to do when buying online so you can see everything working as you want before they ship it to you.

If online sellers offered a line item to pay for such access before shipping, I would pay for it.

The CPU speed is often off a tad because the Reference clock is often not exactly 100mhz, even though it says 100mhz.

If I am feeling OCD, I bump up the Reference clock a tick at a time until I get exactly 4.0ghz, for example.

Right now I am running 41x, but seeing 4094.1mhz... resisting the urge to click up the clock a tad, and potentially crash...

Ok, I bumped up the Reference clock from 100mhz to 100.1739mhz, and now I am at 4101.4mhz

 

Bro we were doing a live build last night for 4 hours using Skype, they showed me every step of the build, then when all the hardware was done, they were showing me pics on Skype of every phase of the Windows installation, I told them how I want each partition / disk size, etc. It's like I was there building it with them.

See more details here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...from-hidevolution.783000/page-5#post-10133490

 

Here is the 6700K after IHS removal. With no surface-mounted stuff in the way, this was very simple. Used a brand new retractable razor blade (nice and thin) with electrical tape on one side for a "handle" to grab without slicing myself open.

Went back together with Liquid Ultra on the die and on top of the IHS. Pretty sweet temps. Took about 10 minutes for me to do my first de-lid... from bottom cover off to bottom cover on was around 20 minutes.

[parsehtml]<iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="750" frameborder="0" src="//imgur.com/a/miuBd/embed"></iframe>[/parsehtml]

 

4.5ghz at 70-75c it just doesn't get any better than that! Thanks for sharing!

 

that's true it's outstanding

 

THAT is pretty awesome stuff! Laptop-Building as a service including live implementation! :thumbsup:

 

What is the progress on the PREMA MOD BIOS? When can we also have it?

 

I have not been following this one as closely as I normally do, but LPC-Digital provided me with a review laptop today. Here's very rough overview. Will provide more details later. That bottom panel is a bear to remove.

Should be available by 1pm Eastern Time 11/11/15.

 

Try digging your fingers into the thin front intake grilles and lift it up there to separate it from the palm rest. It comes loose really easy for me that way. It's a real bugger if you try separate it from the back by the exhaust grilles, which was my first effort. I was like OMG, that sucker is ON THERE, LOL. Look at my teardown video and I show what I am referring to by separating it from the front.

Did you find the screws on the very rear outside corners of the bottom cover, by the exhaust vents, difficult to remove the first time? I almost stripped the screw heads because those two screws were extremely tight.

You're welcome. It is really amazing. Everything about this monster SKY X9 is amazing.

 

Link doesn't seem to work.

What was the temperature drop that is attributable solely to the de-liding, all other factors being equal?

 

Ha! Thanks for that video. You've had yours for almost two weeks now. I did not notice that. Very nice.

 

Thanks, bro. Most of my review is posted on Prema's web site. There are some other videos there also. I'm only posting teasers in forums. Now that I have the de-lid done, I'm going to finish up the review with some extreme overclocked benchmarks and probably a gameplay video of Black Ops III (which should look really sweet with the 980 and G-SYNC). If you haven't seen it already, here is a link to it: EUROCOM SKY X9 | Prema Mod

What link doesn't work? Are you talking about the album? Displays fine on PC in Google Chrome. I never check IE or platforms other than PC because I don't care about IE or functionality on anything except PC. Here's a direct link to the album: http://imgur.com/a/miuBd

I will let you do the math. Temps prior to delid were...

 

Thanks, I did see that initial post, I just didn't go back to keep up, now I will! Wow you're doing a total teardown. Good work. Great that you are using Prema's mod to push it to the limits. Curious to see what you get out of it, with a delid and all. That takes some guts on your part, lol

 

Yeah, I'm doing it in parts. It's taking a while to get the final part done. I am hoping to have the extreme overclocked benching part done by this weekend. We had to get the kinks worked out of the BIOS mod, so there was no point in doing the last part yet. It's still not 100% done, but very close. That @Prema is a real wizard... his skills are nothing short of amazing.

Here are a couple more shots that are not posted in the review... In the first photo you can see where the aluminum "skeleton" frame stops and connects to the plastic frame that goes across the front. Once all of the screws are removed from the bottoms side, 3 ribbon cables near the battery that serve components attached to the palm rest are disconnected, you remove the keyboard, disconnect the speaker wires, 3 more ribbon cables to the keyboard, one ribbon cable for the power button, two more screws under the keyboard, then the palm rest assembly lifts off of the frame. Other than lots of screws and ribbon cables, it's super easy to do. You do not need to remove fans, WiFi module or antennas, or the M.2 drives to get the palm rest off. The sub-woofer does not need to be removed, but you do need to unplug the wire because it connects to a PCB attached to the bottom of the palm rest. You do have to remove heat sinks to access screws underneath the radiators. There is a metal plate on the back plane that serves as a sight shield and chassis reinforcement. That is held on by 3 screws, but it does not need to be removed for taking off the palm rest. As you can see, the display stays attached to the aluminum skeleton frame... no need to remove it unless you are separating the motherboard from the frame. Removal of the palm rest is not required for any kind of normal service or maintenance like memory, drives, thermal paste or CMOS battery access. There should seldom, if ever, be a need for most people to remove the palm rest.

 

Thanks, I'm on Chrome in Windows at work, and it wasn't showing properly for some reason.

And...holy jeez, you're looking at close to 10C on average in temperature drops. Impressive indeed.

It's almost unconscionable that Intel ships these chips out running that much hotter than they need to be.

 

I know, right? I mean, I got the IHS off and looked at that sorry excuse for thermal paste that was on it and I'm like... W-H-U-U-U-U-T? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
I'm totally surprised it actually ran as cool as it did with that little dob of crap on it.

 

I would totally agree to pay an extra $5 for my CPU if Intel did a non-crappy job of fixing the IHS to the die. I mean common Intel, you can pass the increased cost on to me. I'll take it. Maybe team up with a good TIM provider to do it, or go back to actually soldering the IHS to the die.

At least this is one area where mobile CPUs benefit - no IHS.

 

Looks like the job on these is less than devil's canyon. Happy for it though!

 

Yes, that's really great about mobile CPUs. That's probably why I get fantastic thermal results with overclocked 2920XM, 3920XM and 4930MX.

Yeah, I'm glad, too. It's not a big deal if you're willing to pop the hood and fix it. If you're not able to, scared of voiding warranty, or something like that it sucks. But, I'd rather have the Liquid Ultra on it than have it soldered like Ivy-E. Crazy how easy it was to get the IHS off of this 6700K. I was also surprised how thick and heavy the IHS was. I haven't built a desktop since P4 and HT was a new tech... been using only laptops since then, so other than the 4930K in my Panther (which cannot be delidded) this is my second desktop CPU in many years, and my first rodeo with delidding.

 

I hear ya... This is my first desktop cpu since Athlon XP came out. I was a broke college student. Then got a cheap HP, followed by the P170HM. Now going to sell the ZM and go to this beast. A mobile desktop! I also stole all my mod skills from studying threads on water cooling. You have the same sort of considerations. Delidding was new, and scary for Haswell. Something tells me my skylake experience will be better. Just need to warn forum members DO NOT LET THE BLADE CUT THE PCB! YOU COULD DAMAGE THE CPU! OTHER than that, it's pretty easy

 

VR SLI support is coming to Unreal Engine 4 and it will not increase latency unlike AFR SLI: https://trello.com/c/dvP7BPni/666-perf-mgpu

 

So since the keyboard issue is in general anyone knows of ANY laptop with skylake tech, 64gbram, dual sli gpu, and UPGRADEABLE if need be other than the MSI gt titan80 ( because of the placement of their mousepad makes it impossible for me to game ) and of course the Un-Upgradeable Alienware?

 

FWIW, I sent emails to both Apacer and GSkill regarding their upcoming DDR4 offerings for Phoenix and Wingman. Silence for 3 to 4 days now.

I know I'm just one little ole consumer, but the non-responsiveness is Hogwash. You would think large companies would have someone around for these types of requests, like when is the release date...

 

you realize you're on the Phoenix forum, correct? Or are you dismissing Phoenix because you deem the keyboard too small?

 

Dbl post

 

Good luck on getting a response. Same thing happens to me when I ask companies when they are getting certain laptop models in. My guess is these companies don't like to disclose information regarding release dates of new products so they can continue to get as much business as possible...if that makes sense.

 

Yes I do realize, was a question out of frustration nonetheless. And yes the issue is the small kb for such a big chassis. Was looking for some insight since all of you have way more knowledge than me.

 

There is no keyboard issue, the keyboard size is part of its design. I think you may get better help posting in the " Which Notebook Shall I buy section" for suggestions to find a laptop that suits your needs brah

 

@jclausius @RighteousIndignation GSkill DDR4 is already being tested but isn't stable at the moment. There's also a big shortage of DDR4 SODIMMs in general so information will be sparce until enough stock is built up ready for a launch.

 

I got you.. but it is an issue having a 17inch chassis with a mini 15 inch chassis keyboard. I understand clevo makes it that way ( for whatever reason they do ) but its senseless.. Its like putting a toyota steering wheel in a Mack truck if you get my drift. But ill use your suggestion. thanks

 

I guess, I mean I probably wouldn't have ever noticed this until you now mentioned it. How did you know or judge that it's not a 17" keyboard? you mean it looks too small for a keyboard of a 17" laptop?

 

Contacted 2 of the most renowned system config companies with the same question and they both gave the same answer. Clevo does NOT make keyboards for their 17inch lappy's, they use the same ones they use for their 15's. Only 2 companies use the correct size KB according to the chassis size wont mentioned them because its irrelevant on this thread. Thats how I know. Heres a proof,

 

darn what a bummer

 

You could go here and let your feelings be heard. You won't be the first to bring up the 17" keyboard but every voice helps. http://forum.techinferno.com/clevo/8226-2016-17-clevo-models-what-do-you-want.html

 

It is.. I had everything ready to click on the purchase button... 5.4kusd... And I went back up to see if everything was right and saw that tiny KB on that huge chassis and said, hmmm let me send a mail and ask. Thank God i did..

 

Good luck finding a more capable machine. Clevo keyboards aren't bad after you get used to either not using the right shift key or you get used to hitting it instead of the up arrow. I wish they would make a system with a full keyboard but if you want a system with this class of parts, you don't have another option. End of story. You get used to it... It took me maybe a month coming from a cheap Dell chiclet board. It's no Alienware keyboard or MSI keyboard but the sum of the parts of the Phoenix greatly outweigh the keyboard and if I had the coin I wouldn't hesitate.

 

Sadly, a lot of manufacturers do this (aka use a standard 15" keyboard and just dump it on their bigger machines). MSI does it, Clevo does it, ASUS sometimes does it. Alienware/Dell is an exception, as they actually make keyboards specifically for the size of each machine.

I think it's not only lazy, but a waste. Look at all that space that could be used for a full-size keyboard, extra macro keys, etc.

But hey, that's partly because historically (and recently) 15" machines sold much more than bigger machines, so it was much cheaper to just use a common keyboard. A lot of these machines also use a common motherboard and cooling system too. For example, the P750DM and P770DM share the same keyboard, cooling system, motherboard, etc. Which is wasted potential, as all they've really added to the larger 17" machine (beyond the screen of course) is a subwoofer. They could've done so much more, improved the cooling substantially, put in a larger/better keyboard, added extra connection ports, storage slots, etc.

Maybe if larger 17" models start selling better, we'll get machines that are fully designed from the ground up as a 17" (or even 18") machine, rather than machines that simply build upon the foundations of their smaller 15" counterparts. That being said, with a machine such as the P870DM, which uses a desktop CPU and a desktop GPU (as an option), and given its size, it really boggles my mind they didn't create a keyboard specifically for it. I mean, when some people are spending $6k+ on it, for god's sake Clevo, put some effort into the keyboard!

Here's hoping.

It's the exact same keyboard used on the P750DM.

 

whoa, that's pretty stupid really

 

Well, its also the keyboard used on the P770DM (and the prior ZM models), as well as a ton of older Clevo machines, such as the massive Eurocom Panther.

Essentially, Clevo machines seem to use three different keyboards. The small 13.3" machines have a common one, the cheaper/mid-range machines (P650, N150, etc.) have a keyboard (used on both 15 and 17" sizes), and then the more premium machines have this keyboard (common to 15" and 17" machines).

 

Honestly I don't see the big deal... Especially if they use the same keyboard parts... It makes it a simple swap from machine to machine.

I agree about the cooling though... My P377SM-A has foam where the heatsink ends that was obviously designed around a 15" size. Obviously this isn't a problem for the Phoenix but yeah, Clevo has room improve just like everyone else. It's a matter of what you deem an acceptable sacrifice. If you find a soldered CPU to be acceptable, by all means look elsewhere.

 

Well to each his own, I guess. I just find it lazy design, since a big, specialized (and expensive) machine like this really warrants its own keyboard. Its not like there isn't any space on the chassis, and given how much these things cost, I'm sure a few extra dollars in cost to cover a really top-notch keyboard would be acceptable.

I also find it odd that people obsess over turbo clocks, RAID compatibility, etc. yet don't give much thought/care to the primary way they interact with their laptop.

Imagine buying a super-expensive Ferrarri and realizing it uses the same crappy steering wheel as your neighbours' Toyota Tercel. Yeah, technically the steering wheel works, but wouldn't you expect better on such an expensive car?

 

I understand them using the same keyboard across 15 and 17 inch sizes, just for the ease of manufacturing and swapping parts out if need. But I would agree with your earlier point, it would be nice to maybe see some macro keys or something else to take up some of the real estate on the sides there.

 

I guess for me, I have used much worse keyboards... The only keyboard I've used on a laptop that was better was my Alienware keyboard so I guess the steering wheel analogy wouldn't pan out for me since as long as it worked just as well and had my car manufacturers logo, I wouldn't give it a second thought. That's just me though. Once I got used to not using the right shift key at all, it's been a breeze and you couldn't pay me to switch back to any of my old keyboards - even the Alienware because it wore out fast.

I agree about the macros though... They really should do something with the extra space.

 

My point of view is also "tainted" by the fact I'm used to using Alienware machines, where the keyboard is designed specifically for each model. Not to mention the AW keyboard is really nice.

It's also not like Clevo is alone in doing this, MSI does it too. It's just that Clevo has been one of the leaders recently in pushing the envelope in regards to laptop design and technology (hence why I keep giving them lots of my money) and as such I thought they would've also applied this R&D towards their keyboards.

 

They probably realized that they needed to put their R&D into their cooling lol.

 

Probably, and their cooling is indeed top-notch. These machines (and the P750/770) use desktop CPUs, yet they keep those CPUs as cool as laptops that use mobile CPUs. Outstanding really. And they are relatively quiet too. Not as quiet as a ROG G751, but quieter than most machines running a mobile solution.

Keep in mind I'm not hating on the machine. Heck, if the keyboard is really the only thing I have to complain about, Clevo should take it as a compliment!

 

With this machine sporting a new chipset I am assuming you probably can't flash the vbios right away? I figured I would ask to hopefully shed some light on this topic since its usually one of the first things done and to help out with any issues could occur since VGA cards aren't cheap.

 

Correct. Unfortunately, since it's a new chipset (i.d mismatch) it looks like we might have to wait a little while for the DM-G vbios, at least according to Prema on his site.....scroll down to the comments.

https://biosmods.wordpress.com/gtx9-g/comment-page-2/#comment-7081

Kind of puts a damper on things when mine arrives. I originally thought the Eurocom partnership was just for the actual bios.

 

Hello to everyone. I'm going to buy a new laptop for gaming and P870DM-G seems to me the best candidate, with a whole bunch of advantages.
I have a question to the XoticPC represantative: is there a chance, that such a newest system on the market, as P870DM-G will be put to discount on Black Friday/CyberMonday days?
Or, the maximum we may expect is a free mouse-pad? Thank You.

 

2 weeks of brutal and excruciating waiting just began