*** Official Clevo X170SM-G/Sager NP9670M Owner's Lounge ***

It seems to be working correctly for the keyboard. I do not have it start with Windows. I only run it if I need to.

 

The problem stays the same, the app isn't loaded ( the clevo one) unless it is opened. Since I am everything but fond of using a computer that resembles a christmas tree and a disco put together, I will remove them manually, that is until clevo moves its ass and fixes this thing.

 

I'm sure they will update to fix this issue soon. Remember its just 1 guy working on this.

 

Indeed, which is why I fully supported and bought both apps, my remarks were aimed at clevo , however, the problem resides in their app or whatever they've done with the bios settings , not the obsidian one

 

Maybe drop them an email and let them know what needs to be fixed.

 

to clevo themselves? do they have a contact and even read them?

 

hi. how to obtaine prema bios for sager customer?
for keyboard software trouble was dissolved by install acpi driver from obsidian updater

 

No, sorry I thought you meant Obsidian.

It is not available through Sager and it might affect the warranty if you flash any firmware that is not provided by Sager. It has not been officially released even to PremaMod Partner shops yet.

I am glad to hear that the updated ACPI driver fixed that for you.

 

so prema bios will be possible to buy from PremaMod Partner shops ?
who will sell it?

 

zTecpc will have it once it’s available. They were supposed to be releasing it sometime this week. ((The laptop itself)) And the Prema bios would be available for download hopefully soon after. HIDevolution is a Prema partner also. So they should have it available also. But zTecpc has made some improvements to the cooling thanks to @Mr. Fox so I would highly recommend buying from them when it’s available.

 

Just to be clear, the PremaMod BIOS is not available for purchase or download from a PremaMod Partner shop. It is remote flashed by the staff of the company where the system is purchased, or it comes already flashed prior to purchase. It cannot be distributed or sold as a standalone product and the firmware files are not provided to the end-user. This is to prevent unauthorized distribution. If the PremaMod Partner shop distributes it without the purchase of a system it is a violation of their agreement and they would most likely be removed from participation in the program if that were to happen. (I know of one that it did.)

 

Well that was a silly thing to do to Prema :/

 

All the more reason to buy it from the right place.

 

He did mention that he was going to try to find a way to make it available to other folks in some fashion while not losing control of the distribution process. I am not sure what those plans look like or how he envisions it, but I think it is safe to say he wants for there to be a way that it can happen. It's unfortunate that the bad behaviors of some conniving, greedy, and dishonest people ruined things for the masses. Seems like that happens too often in multiple ways in this messed up world. Society's lowest common denominators have a real knack for screwing things up pretty badly for the rest of us.

 

My X170SM-G died a few weeks back now. Just wanted to let people know that apparently swapping older pascal cards with g sync can stop the internal display from working. At least that is what has happened to me. The laptop fails to boot from the internal display anymore, even with a bios and ec flash indicating that either the cable has failed or the edp power rail on the motherboard has failed as there is no backlight whatsoever. I replaced the screen and still no joy. It’s always interesting to see the different flaws of newly released products. Well at least hdmi out still works

I’ll be buying another motherboard for the system and the mxm compatibility forum will still be made. A small wrench in the works never stopped my interest

 

What are you referring to, Brother Meaker?

It may not be a flaw, per se. It may be an intentional design that has adverse implications that throw a kink in the works.

Makes me curious if Clevo is using a proprietary pin-out configuration in the MXM slot and installing a GPU that is not a current-generation Clevo part has fried something. Probably need to try to find some sort of schematic before attempting any non-standard hardware configurations with a non-10th generation Clevo GPU. Otherwise, it may happen again.

I think the days of using any old MXM card to have a working laptop or plug-and-play upgrade are over now that the Green Goblin has abandoned support for MXM and left every man for himself. If MSI, Clevo and Alienware are all out there doing whatever, and only building systems with parts that work on their brand, and then only supporting one GPU generation because they keep changing things, having an "upgradable" laptop will be a thing of the past.

In that scenario, the only benefit of MXM will be modularity supporting repairs. That dramatically diminishes the value of owning an expensive monsterbook.

 

Very much hoping that happens since the only option was to import from the USA to the UK, which was just prohibitively expensive, and then there would be issues with warranty should anything go wrong.

Hoping that other place will at least sell your cooling mods as a seperate piece though. I will absolutely buy that, along with a delidded CPU.

 

I have been waiting more than a year now for an alternative solution to acquire Prema bios.

Did he try to contact Obsidian PC about this ?
They are Prema partners and they have the tools to make this possible.
They could mod their driver update software to download and update Prema bios. That software needs a license that is linked to the motherboard and that license can be purchased and since it is linked to the motherboard's unique ID, people could not just share the license so a purchased Prema bios would be linked to the motherboard.

This would be possible and Prema bios would be available to the masses however other Prema partners probably would not like this since Obsidian would have a monopoly over the distribution because no other partner has the tools and infrastructure for it .

As for Obsidian PC, I doubt they would decline an offer like this.

 

I believe you are mistaken. I only mention it so that others are not misled by an inaccurate statement.

And, you would have to ask yourself why anyone would intentionally make bad decisions that would be detrimental to the best interest of all existing partners. Doing something that is not in the best interests of partners would be very foolish.

The real problem is Clevo and their competitors sell systems with crappy firmware that are crippled. Any angst or sense of entitlement should be directed at Clevo and their competitors for selling systems with crappy firmware. Clevo can always get help if they lack the skill. The problem with the industry is lack of will, not skill.

If they cared about excellence they would not be using Insyde BIOS (an inferior option) and their products would not benefit from firmware mods.

 

The fact that each OEM is doing their own MXM-esque GPU is that there is zero economy of scale, and since the GPU is made for just a couple models of laptops only, it also means that they do small runs, making the expensive GPU, even more expensive, heck I can't find a single 2080 MXM from MSI for sale if I wanted to upgrade my 2070..

Only Eurocom seems to be selling Clevo 2080, no Super models to be found, and its at around 1400€ for a single 2080, if it fails after 2 years a new laptop with a better performing GPU can be bough, and not even the cheaper repair advantage stands, because in 2-3 years this MXM cards are going to be rare, very rare..

And the generic MXM gpu's from China are of no use due to their crappy power stages..

 

So I finally have my x170sm-g with me now. I returned the HIDevolution unit as it had a funky motherboard on arrival which died within a few hours and took the CPU with it (unfortunately for me I took the CPU out thinking to put it in an interim motherboard while the unit had gone back to HID for in-warranty repair only to find out that the CPU was killed by the motherboard as well and I had to keep it with me. I have RMA'd it from Intel). I had to travel abroad so I postponed my purchase and decided to return it instead of getting a new one shipped. Now that I am back home again, I bought a new unit from a local reseller instead (this time with a 240 Hz panel instead of 300 Hz, I'll replace the screen sometime in the future) and an i7-10700KF. The unit arrived and I tested it out for a few hours before it met with the same fate. A crash happened that killed it but no smoke this time (HIDevolution unit did give off some barbecue smoke). So the unit went back but because it was a local reseller, the turnaround time was very quick. I got a new unit the very next day and started my testing again. This time, it was rock solid. After testing it out for multiple days, I took the i7 out and put in a new i9 10900K that I bought separately. Then after testing it out for a while, I decided to delid it and replace the thermal pads.

The delid process was simple and quick. I then put in 4 x 32GB Kingston HyperX 3200 MHz memory along with my delidded i9 10900K in it. Also replaced the thermal pads with brand new ones. The temperatures increased for GPU which immediately told me that the VRM thermal pads that I had replaced for GPU were a lot less mushy compared to factory ones which was causing the GPU dye to make less firm contact with the heat sink (although same thickness at 1.5mm) so I took those 2 out and restored the factory thermal pads for those positions. I do plan to open it again in the future but for the most part it seems to be working quite fine now. I replaced all the other thermal pads with very high quality ones that I bought off from digikey.

I also added additional washers under the springs to add additional mounting pressure on both CPU and GPU and that increased the thermal stability quite well. For paste I used Gelid GC Extreme. Now both CPU and GPU are quite stable.













I also tried the copper IHS from rockitcool however it was too thick. I had to lap it quite a lot but even then it was no good since I figured out that the CPU part of the heat sink is concave and not flat. The IHS that I lapped became flat and it would not make good contact from the middle and only make good contact around the edges of the rectangular top which was no good so I reverted back to the factory heat sink.

Some additional thermal mods:


Here is a quick thermal pad guide for anyone who wants to know what size thermal pads are needed for this machine.



Just be aware that in case of GPU vrm pads, the pads need to be sufficiently squishy otherwise your gpu temps will increase which will be no good so choose wisely.

I will post more details once I replace the screen which I plan to do very shortly.

 

Cant you drop to thinner pads all around? or the gaps require at least 1.5mm pads?

 

1.5mm is minimum. Can't go thinner than that.

 

What a tease.....


and the link 404's

 

Do you guys all recommend Obsidian Tools for fans and leds? Worth the payment? Better than CCC?

 

Don't use ccc (clevo cancer crap in my @Mr. Fox voice) the Obsidian tools are way more superior and don't cause cancer to rampage your laptop.

 

Where did you leave the 2 regular pads from the gpu at?

 

Obsidian pc isn't affiliated in any way with Prema. They provide their own laptops with their own modded BIOS. Not affiliated to Prema in any way.

John from Obsidian PC knows how to modify his own BIOS and provides his own mods. Prema isn't the only one that knows how to modify BIOS (thankfully)

Just give a look to win-raid forums, they have loads of tutorials for example on how to apply your own mods, unlock BIOS and so on. There are many other forums that teach you too. I'm pretty sure Prema learned from those too. You can too. It's not rocket science lol

 

The ones tick-marked in red:

 

Ty

 

What kinds of pads you used? Alphacool Eisschicht Thermal Pad? Or fujilopy?

 

Hello guys,

as an amateur I am now quite satisifed with my results in 3d mark:

- Firestrike 25298, ranked #2 behind @Mr. Fox
https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/53240208

- Timespy 11781, ranked #1
https://www.3dmark.com/spy/15387096

Achieved with custom voltage curve and +800mhz memory clock, i7-10700K undervolted by -100mv all cores @5.0GHz. I don't have PREMA BIOS so just stuck with this regular ****ty one. Hopefully there will be an option to purchase it next year in some miraculous way. Any tips for improving/stabilizing my performance? Using throttlestop and MSI afterburner.

 

Yes, that is all really sad and it is harder than ever to get excited about buying an expensive laptop. The industry has basically been totally ruined. Desktop has always been the best option overall and it is more true today than ever.

 

None of them. I used these pads from digikey (for now).
https://www.digikey.com/en/products...xwGwA4C0AVA4qggnMArAAypxElklgB0BqAcgCIgC6AvkA
https://www.digikey.com/en/products...IxwGwA4C0AVA4qggkxADKgCxGmpwB0ArKgHIAiIAugL5A
https://www.digikey.com/en/products...IxwGwA4C0AVA4qggnA7MgAyoAsJ5qYAdCQHIAiIAugL5A

Make sure to not use any graphite filled silicon thermal pads (e.g., Panasonic pads) on this machine where there is connection to current carrying bare connectors as those pads can conduct electricity and must never be used on bare circuit components. Make sure that the thermal pads you are buying have high enough dielectric breakdown voltage (air has 3.5kV/mm and a thermal pad should ideally be more or at least equal to this). This basically means how much voltage is needed per mm of distance covered by the thermal pad for it to electrically break down and start conducting electricity. The higher, the better.

 

Before you even replied I bought the same ones lol

 

Gonna delid my 10850k using @Mr. Fox video in like 2 days for better temps. I had my 10850k binned was binned 5.1ghz @1.355v all core which I'm super happy with because silicon lottery said top 6% only get that they said 5.2ghz could be done @1.375v (not all core) but the temps would get crazy in a laptop as they used 420mm rad on it to tame temps and bin (binning was not done by silicon lottery but by a local shop I trust). I'm gonna just keep it at 5ghz as there not much a difference in gaming and it will keep temps lower. I was able to lower voltage to 1.25v ty again @Mr. Fox i can go further but I haven't tested further waiting on memory to come in 4000mhz 32gb cl19 I'm gonna try to lower to cl18 or better as I have flexability in bios currently for xmp and in setting max memory speed settings up to 4266mhz (still better then jedec memory cl22) Changing all my thermal pads on the laptop as well to 16.5w/mk pads and 12w/mk for 2.5mm application as the 16.5w/mk are not available in that size. I will also be putting those washers in for gpu. I had already modded the cpu one and will be possibly changing all the screws in the entire laptop with stainless steel ones. Ty @S.K for your ideas/mods you shared.

 

Technically the 6, 7 and 8 generations were worse IMO.

 

Yes they were. Way worse. I gave 4k euros for a laptop with dual 780m's and only hdd's lol. Bought a new my P7xx for less than 1900euros (yes you read it right.) without disks only but with 16gb of ram, 6700k cpu and the 1080 gpu.

 

I keep telling myself I’m gonna be that way one day. Stay one gen behind and grab all the deals when the new shiny stuff comes out. I keep wanting the new shiny every time.

 

Regarding Obsidian clevo software, I advise against installing "chipset" whenever not detected, as it can cause a plethora or problems including Bsods and such. Took me an age to delete those pestilential drivers and managing to install the correct intel ones. Acpi drivers also require caution.

 

It is always a good idea to not update drivers whenever possible if you have a stable system. With the exception of display drivers, I try to avoid updating any of them unless one that I am using has bugs, and then I generally look for relief from an older version first.

 

I also found that my new ram sticks ( crucial jedec 3200 cl 22 2x32 GB) may account for less stable undervolt and benchmark results than my old 2x8 2666mhz corsair vengeance ram. No idea if that's more related to this driver issue I mentioned or to maybe something else.

EDIT: a cleanup of some leftovers and throttlestop helped achieving the same results I had before changing ram, so my mistake on that part.

 

That is likely as the popular new JEDEC. 3200AA spec (3200 CL22) is a joke... sloppy loose timings and 1.200V is too low. It is designed to seem impressive on the surface for notebook trash with no memory control options and poorly engineered motherboards.

I am running G.SKILL sticks with the same crappy JEDEC at 3200 CL15 and 1.400V totally stable. You will need Samsung or Micron ICs. The sticks built with Hynix ICs are lousy and cannot handle 3200 CL15. I have tested 3 brands that use Hynix and none were any good.

I found that using 2 sticks installed in DIMM slots 1 and 4 works better for memory training than using 1 and 3 (slots by the CPU) or 2 and 4 (slots under keyboard).

 

Daily reminder early adopters of so called flagships isn't always a great idea for rock solid stability at least there are great people working around it and doing an excellent jobs with guides and suggestions like yourself

 

Thank you for the kind words.

This part can vary from one system to the next. Prema's X170 does memory training better using the two bottom slots next to the CPU. DIMM slot #2 (under the keyboard on the left, that is obstructed by the keyboard ribbon cable interposer) is the worst slot for memory training for both of us.

 

Thanks for the heads up I came close to buying these yesterday to test something and didn't ty

 

Just had a quick look at this post on notebookcheck, (RX 6800 undervolted and draws only 183W) if what is being said is true I hope Clevo is taking notes lol. I'd love to see RDNA 2 GPU's inside this beast. Hopefully not too much work has to be done to implement this onto clevo's custom mxm pcb. Luckily AMD stuck with GDDR6 which makes me more hopeful lol.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Under...atching-the-desktop-RTX-2080-Ti.505084.0.html

Only downside would be raytracing performance but I'm not one to use that feature anyways.

 

I can see Alienware possibly offering it. They are showing some love for AMD. Hopefully Clevo takes note also.

Or you know if eGPU performance didn’t stink. . .

 

Donald is finally up with...



zTecpc zT-X170SM-G-7 Gaming Laptop

zTecpc zT-X170SM-G-8 4K Gaming Laptop


@Prema @Donald@zTecpc @Mr. Fox Windowsreport jumped on Dell's sweet lies. Dell as usual, promo this as world's fastest in same way as last years burning mess. They don't own shame.

The world’s most powerful gaming laptop is now up to $770 off

If you’re excited about getting the world’s most powerful laptop, just go ahead and visit their website, press the Build Yours button, and start creating the perfect laptop for your need.

Let us know if it makes you consider buying a new laptop by leaving us your opinions in the comments section below....

 

Only the 4K option currently?

I was checking the prices on the area 51m r2 the other day just to see what they were going for. And the price did not change since then. So I have no idea where they have this $770 amount from. And the x170 is cheaper still with a delidded cpu. Seems like a no brainer to me.