*** Official Clevo W230ST/Sager NP7330 Owner's Lounge ***

So I've had the laptop (Metabox W230st) for about 5 months now here's a couple of things that bothers me:

1. Makes a lot of noise, even when I've underclocked it.
2. Track pad looks worn out after just 5 months and I mostly use a mouse.
3. I went with i7-4900 and it's too good for this machine, hit around 100c the other day so the cooling is def. not good enough for it

I'm running it at at x35, x34, x31, x31 with -70mVA on both Dynamic CPU Voltage and Cache Voltage, still makes a lot of noise and hits about 70c. I'd like to swap the CPU to see if that would be better but might as well save those $500 for the next machine

 

Contrary to some reviewers (engadget), I like the keyboard a lot. A bit stiff, but it's easily my fastest keyboard on a daily basis (Elitebook from my job, and I used to have a couple of Asus ROG for instance). Not as 'mushy' as the thinkpads, course is comparable to macbooks but it's a bit stiffer. Maybe a personal taste, but it's definitely one of my favorites

Schizophrenic, no noise at all when on the internet, watching a movie, writing code or paper. Pretty noisy when the GPU kicks in, or when the CPU is taxed.

No problem since the recent kernel releases (3.11/3.12), everything pretty much works out of the box. The Intel graphics driver keeps improving, and battery life is at least comparable to the windows one (provided you spend some time configuring everything. The display has the PSR technology from Intel, which is used under Linux but needs to be activated for instance.) 5h in 'airplane mode' for me, with a light usage. Everything works.

 

Im sending in my laptop to get the hinge fixed, I currently have premas bios on it, which stock bios do I put on it so they wont say that the warranty is void or does that not matter.

 

That was exactly my point when I decided to go for the 4700 undervolted instead

 

Safe stock BIOS/EC packages are also on my blog (link in signature).

 

Thank you very much. What do you mean with "schizophrenic" fan?

 

Hmm, if you're doing something casual, then the PC is the most silent laptop ever, the fan is off or so low that you can't hear it. If you're taxing either the CPU or the GPU, then it's one of the most noisy. Not so surprinsing given the crammed power within a rather slim case, but it's better to know it beforehand.

 

Got it, thank you

 

Another thing that sucks: My webcam seems disconnected and I don't know why..

 

Possible you accidently turned it off? Try Fn + F10 to turn it back on.

 

That did the trick! Thanks, didn't know it turned off like that. Cheers!

 

Nice, easy fixes are the best :thumbsup:

 

Hello guys, I've been wondering how many of you have had the w230st for longer than 6 months? If so
1. Are there any major problems with the build quality, case ext?
2. What have you found are the positives of your machine after that period?
Thanks...

 

no problems here. have this little beast since september. great screen, great power, top quality. the sound is not so good but nothing to stress about.

 

build feels solid but its cheap plastic parts can easily break "a little", nothing major so far.
touch pad has a finish problem, its surface can wash out very fast, in monthes.
screen is a lotery, you can get a lot of backlight bleed, even after some use.
I believe it is fixable though, will try that next week.

the positive ? no better 13" around even +6 months after =)

 

Thanks for the information. I have ordered one of these so will keep posting about the screen ect. Which kind of cooling pad do you prefer to keep your temps down?

 

Hmm, my temps on the CPU spiked 99 on all cores last night. Guessing I should do a repaste , before I do, is there any advice?

Pea dot for the CPU, and just let it squash with the heat sink. 3 quarter line for the gpu?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

You'll get a ton of recommendations on here, all recommending something different. There is an article floating around that does a compare/contrast of the methods but you'll find the majority, including Hutsady and I here at Xotic, doing the pea size dot method.

 

Double post.

 

Thanks, and for the gpu?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Same story all the way

 

Happy Tuesday!

I was wondering what you guys are using as a bag/sleeve/case for your laptops? I did do some digging around, but there are tons of options and I was wondering what others with the same laptop have found. The accessories forum here has a ton of posts about mice/coolers/keyboards, but not a lot about cases/bags.

Thankies,
Nyct

 

I use something like that : http://www.ebay.fr/itm/13-13-3-Pink-Green-Lotus-Notebook-Laptop-Handle-Shoulder-Sleeve-Bag-Pouch
It just fits in (could be a bit wider though) and is solid enough for my use.

 

Hello guys, just to share with you that I just installed another 8GB of RAM and the Crucial M500 240GB mSATA.
Really happy now, if the price of the SSD keeps dropping, I'll buy another one just to fill my ego

I am using a Tucano Second Skin. You can see it here: Colore for notebook 13/14
Might seem a little expensive but trust me: I am still using the one bought for my old Sony in the 2007. It has some damages in the corners but the overall quality is really good.
Moreover, when it gets dirty you put it in the washing machine and go!

 

I'm using an 13.3" Elecom Zeroshock 4 and I'm very happy with it. I've used them with my 8.9" and 12.1" Convertibles before and was always very satisfied with the level of protection they provide.

 

Heh the prices of ssds are set to still fall

 

If this unit shipped in July of 2013, how frequently does Clevo come out with new models? I've never heard of them until I started looking into 13" systems with discrete graphics, sorry - so I don't know much about the company but this W230ST looks great. But if there's a good chance (what do people who work at Xotic or PowerNotebooks think?) that the revised version might come out within the next 2-3 months, perhaps I should just wait?

I figure I'll buy this one if the new model is 6 months out or more, and wait if it's less than that. Thanks for any advice, Sager Sages!

 

There's no definitive dates as of yet but rumors point to sooner rather than later. The latest we typically see is 4 months out from now so if 6 months is the cutoff time you should be fine.

 

We are mid cycle at the moment.

 

The sizes smaller then 15.6" do vary as well. Last gen there was a 11.6" with the NP6110 but they didnt refresh that with Haswell, instead introduced the 13.3" NP7330.

 

I should get a possible solution for the touchpad problem later today. We'll see how it turns out.

 

I'll take care of the BL bleed problem then, let's join forces =)

 

I have just received the W230ST today. Here are some quick points about this machine that I've noticed straight away.

1. The screen is excellent quality compared to my old 17" PB this thing has higher res and better quality.

2. The keyboard is great just as good as any I've used on these sized laptops.

3. The heat wasn't that bad. I was expecting higher temps but with the back of this machine popped up it barely reached 90 after playing for two hours on a 36 degree day. (still haven't bought cooling pad)

4. Sound is as to be expected in these sized laptops although the speakers are underneath a panel.

5. Most impressive power and performance in demanding games like GTA 4 which flogged my other machine. With this it runs smoothly without effort.


6. Price for quality. Some of the reviews have said that his thing has a cheap feel however I quite like the build quality and for this price I would recommend it to others.


One last point if there are any people out there who feel that their cooling pad has significantly reduced the temps on their machine could you please post the make/brand. Otherwise if its only two degrees difference I'll just keep propping up the back of it. Cheers

 

It's a deal.

 

Thanks for the reply! So you're saying that Clevo will likely do "some" sort of refresh within 4 months, but judging from Hutsady's post below you, we might not see a refresh on the 13" systems? I figure that Xotic and PowerNotebook have lots of experience with Clevo's update schedule, so I appreciate you two representatives weighing in.

 

Yeah, we just don't know what Sager is planning until they officially announce it. Nobody expected to have them drop the 6110 type machines in this generation, but they did and the world survived. The 7330 is another model along the same lines of popularity and I'm hoping they keep it around but only time will tell in the end.

 

How do sales of the smaller machines compare with the 15.6 inch ones? Big enough to justify refreshes?

 

Likely won't be a problem. Just for clarification, Resellers have no hand in that decision. This is solely a decision made by Sager/Clevo.

 

I know. But I know that you have sales numbers and was wondering how popular they are in comparison.

 

You'll have to buy me dinner first before you get my sales numbers

They'll all pretty popular, not sure what info you're looking for specifically, but our sales numbers have nothing to do with Sagers decision, it depends on their numbers and the costs of future machines to bring on and customize depending on Clevo provides them. That stuff we have no information on as we aren't the almighty Sager.

 

Just if the 13.3 inch machines are selling well comparatively with the other sizes. But, like you said, that's definitely not the same for all Clevo and Sager resellers.

Anyways, back to my promise of a solution for the touchpad finish problems that many of us are having. My solution arrived today from Malaysia via Deutsche Post.



It got here a lot faster than I thought it would only took about 10 days. Inside there are installation instructions and the solution itself.



I got these little guys from Tecty at Dark Metal for PC 11 - $9.90 : TectY, PC Laptop Touchpad Protector Skin. They come in a wide variety of colors and graphics or you can upload your own picture for one. You measure out your touchpad and if it has any curved corners you send them pictures of them. As you'll see, they did a pretty good job at matching them. Unfortunately I somehow measured the height of my touchpad to be 4mm taller than it really is (or input the measurement wrong) so I had to trim it down a bit to make it fit. It was a perfect fit to the dimensions I sent them, so I don't think you guys need to worry about fit issues.

Before:



And once I had cut it down and installed it:



Corner fit:



As you can see it's a lighter color than the laptop for this particular finish, but it still looks good. I'm sure I could've taken a picture of the laptop itself, cropped it to the right size, and gotten an almost perfect color match, but I was a little lazy to go through the trouble of doing that.

The two matching touchpad covers come with a backing and have a light adhesive on them. They are quite thin and flexible. I was worried that they would be thicker than the depression that the touchpad is in but they don't come close to being that thick. The edges are still well defined by the height difference. Application was very easy. I just cleaned off the touchpad, peeled off the backing, and lined it up. There weren't any issues with bubbles like there are with screen protectors.

So, how do they feel? Great. They've got a light texture that's uniform (something that was sorely lacking from my worn out touchpad!) and don't seem to impede the touch sensitivity at all. If anything it feels better to use it now than it did stock. Obviously I can't say anything about durability as I have only been using it for a few hours, but I am hopeful that it'll be much better than the stock finish for the touchpad.

Feel free to ask any questions! I'll let everyone know if the finish starts to wear off or anything of that sort.

Edit: has anyone managed to install a Synaptics driver higher than 16.3.4? All the later ones fail for me.

 

Regarding the Synaptics driver... I have 17.0.9.1 installed (driver date of 8/13/2013), and it's working fine and well.
I'm on Win8.1 Pro.

 

Edit: Never mind. I got it to work.

 

So does any one know if I could buy a palm rest (part 6-39-W2302-012-N), would I be able to get one from XoticPC? Would like to have a spare in case it gets scratched or worn, as I've got a small scratch on it all ready and it's annoying me, but such is life.

 

Go to the site that Frewster recommended and get a transparent palmrest protector: Transparent Palmrest Protector for PC - $9.90 : TectY, PC Laptop Touchpad Protector Skin

My palmrest is pretty worn already.

 

Being a reseller we don't have any parts ourselves. If you bought the machine through us, you can work with out service team and they can get it ordered for you, but otherwise contact your reseller or Sager directly and they can help you out.

 

Yes, I bought it from XoticPC. I'll contact you guys later.

I actually was doing 3M DI-NOC vinyl wrapping on the lid and got very minor scratches on the top of the palm rest because I wasn't paying attention how deep I was cutting, it was my first time doing it so, I know better now! I'm happy with how it looks, the lid looks perfect. I'm going to wrap the palm rest with Avery Supreme black matte vinyl as well so that will cover it up and prevent wear, just waiting for materials.

 

Actually I was thinking to do the same on my notebook. Apply some kind of vinyl wrapping (like the one used for cars) on the top, because the gummy finish is wonderful but tends to be always dirt.
Did you had the job done? Any photos to see what's like when it's done?
Thanks.

 

I liked the feel of the rubber but was annoyed by how much it attracted finger prints. I've never done vinyl wrapping before so this was my first time, though I usually have a local auto customization do my wrapping and they are awesome about doing computer stuff. Just watch a few YouTube videos, you just need a razor blade/Xacto knife, a hair dryer, and some patience. Quick cell phone pic:


I think it turned out pretty good.

EDIT: I just got the Avery Supreme Wrap, it's really hard to work with compared to 3M DI-NOC. Don't get it to save a few bucks, you will get a much better result with 3M's product. I'm just going to order a new palmrest to fix the scratches.

 

You do have to do it well or it does look bad, but that turned out really well