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

Mmkay. Time to raid the box of bits.

 

Where is the list of Prema Partners? Prema's website does not offer any information at all or are all businesses that sell re-branded Clevo's Prema Partners?

 

I will be buying from you guys.

 

I might save up and toss a 3070 in here. That should be fine for the 1080p144 panel.

And work well enough for the 1440p one I have on my desk.

 

Are all the USB / USB-C ports bootable for thumb drives? Some other brands of laptops (bios) are picky about which USB port you can use to boot say a Windows 10 installation thumb drive or a live image of Fedora on a thumb drive, etc? Cause I would like to move my live boot OS's to USB-C thumb drives or use the USB 3.1 Gen 2 2*2 port for booting the other operating systems.

 

I thought your laptop runs fine for what you use it for?

 

Clevo has already released laptops with AMD desktop CPUs in them and I wouldn't want one as a gift. They're crippled badly in terms of power limits, still run insanely hot, and considering AMD CPUs generally don't overclock worth a damn unless you use extreme sub-zero cooling just to break into the 5.0-5.2GHz realm, crippling one on top of that seems like a counterintuitive maneuver. I think what you'll end up with is a boring laptop that doesn't really perform as well due to limitations.

Here's an example of how lackluster and disappointing that might look. Even when it is working "as intended" it is incapable of holding boost clocks in a high stress load like Cinebench.

 

Is it confirmed that the new Intel chips and new Nvidia cards will/can be swapped successfully into the X170SM-G? That would be great news.

Forgive my ignorance. I'm a bit late to the party.

 

The next generation Intel chips really aren't an upgrade. If you have a 10-core CPU it will likely be a downgrade. I kind of doubt that an 8-core Rocket Lake CPU is going to perform as well as a 10-core Comet Lake, but that's just speculation on my part. My predictions could be off a bit. If you're running a 10700K there could be a benefit of some sort. I know some folks are excited about PCIe 4.0, but I'm not really convinced that it's going to matter all that much in the grand scheme of things. We'll still be stuck with a Windoze OS X suck-o-rama, too.

 

You forgot mention that this Joke have soldered graphics. On top you can't get it with the top dog from Nvidia. Screwed with the medium tier card at its whole lifespan.

 

You're right. I did forget. But, even if it had MXM it would be a joke based on how much they crippled the CPU. And, @Prema has already made it pretty clear that there will be no PremaMod BIOS for any AMD-based Clevos. Their Agesa firmware is a nightmare.

 

It is Intel's next gen architecture on 14nm and socket 1200 before the 10nm shrink and new socket 1700. Leaked benchmarks show it with an appreciable IPC uplift. If you don't need cores galore, it will be an upgrade. It is still 14nm, but with 8 cores vs 10, you're looking at potentially better cooling too. Core for core, clock for clock 11th gen i9-11900k and i7-11700k will be faster than comet lake. The question is will it be fast enough for their 8 core design to beat the 10 core of comet lake if your workflow can take advantage of 20 threads (outside of non productive software like bench marking).

As for mobile Ampere, I would speculate (aka educated guess) that Ampere will make its way to the X170SM with a spec refresh when ready.

Personally, while using a 10900k rig while my Z390 MB was being repaired, I quickly found out a 10900k did nothing for me versus my 9900k (Basically a 10700k now) for day to day use @ 5ghz daily clocks all core on both and returned it and stuck with my 9900k. Literally, it did nothing better outside of better benchmarks (!). For me, the 11900k is a performance upgrade from the 9900k not the 10900k.

 

That heat sink looked cheesy and those tiny fans made me swear lol! I wish they made the AMD version a bit better. The only problem seems to be the companies trying to go cheap whenever it comes to AMD because of it's image in the market established during the last 10 years. Everyone thinks an AMD machine should be cheaper and people will not pay a pretty penny for anything AMD even if it is more powerful than Intel, so they cheap out on internals to keep it that way. Somebody will have to become the first rain drop eventually.

 

This is totally true. You're spot on in your analysis, as usual. There is also the possibility that by the time someone eventually actually pulls it off properly, if ever, Intel might actually get their act together and come back with a Ryzen-killing product. I am really glad that AMD presented Intel with some very fierce competition since they had the only game in town for so many years. But, I am hoping Intel gets a gut full of being displaced by an underdog and reclaims the crown in a decisive manner that makes it extremely difficult (again) for AMD to compete. I don't want it to be impossible for them to, because then we will end up back where we started. I just want it to be a bloody battle, that's all. It's nice to see them finally making NVIDIA squirm. Unfortunately, finding a desirable AMD GPU to purchase is nearly impossible... practically a paper launch.

The intro to this video is pretty great.

 

Last time AMD beat Intel, Intel came roaring back with their Core architecture. Let’s see if history can repeat itself....

 

So this is what I read also that 11th gen CPUs will be a downgrade but wouldn't that be offset but PCIe 4.x support, I mean, going from 3500 MB/S to 7900 would make some difference with storage right? (if the X170 will support PICe 4.x) which on one is answering yet.

 

Hey everyone. This thread is ridiculously long and I love it. I ordered a bare bones model through RJTech. I haven’t done much with laptops before. Given how large the heatsink is, I was wondering if I need to add any aftermarket thermal pads. I bought some thermal grizzly liquid metal for the CPU and such, but wasn’t sure if pads were needed for any of the spots.

Would love any suggestions on whether to use pads, where to place, and what thickness to use.

Thanks all.

 

I guess it depends on the user and what they find exciting. Unless I run an SSD benchmark, I honestly can't "feel" a difference between an OS running on SATA SSD or M.2 SSD versus NVMe. I can see the difference in an SSD benchmark, but not in my overall experience and not in other benchmarks.

 

"... soon.", not already

 

I've owned every SSD since their inception until now, starting with a cheap 120GB ADATA SSD in an old ASUS laptop to Samsung NVMe 960 PROs in Triple RAID 0 to my current WD SN730 in RAID 0. Not once was I able to *feel* the difference other than in synthetic benchmarks.

What a lot of n00bs believe is wow, X Company is saying that this or that SSD is 3500 MB/S or Thunderbolt 3 is faster than 2 and now 4 is faster than 3; What they are clueless about is those are SQUENTIAL speeds not 4K Random Read/Write speeds which is what the average, power user, and even enthusiasts is using 90% of the time, loading OS files, programs, game files which comprise of hundreds of small files. So all those big numbers mean squat! The only time one would benefit from these high sequential speeds is for example rendering some gigantic video, copying big sets of data which contain big files, an no one is really doing that all day long maybe once or twice.

Really, what is one gonna do with all that speed on a Thunderbolt 4 or even a Thunderbolt 3 port for that matter!

 

Amen Brother...Preach the truth! People keep getting caught in the Testosterone Trap.

 

Well point taken because you know that 90% of the noobs buy an X170SM-G just to surf the web and check their email? Who needs an X170SM-G when they are recording 8k footage off their Red video cameras and 150MP raw files from their Phase One XF's and do batch processing remotely.

So to some people 7900MB/S means something. LOLOLOLOLOLOL

 

Exactly. And 4K Random Read/Write speed doesn't benefit much from PCIe 4.x support. The only gain you'll get from Rocket is better gaming performance and no gain in multi thread tasks vs. 10 core Comet lake. But will yoo feel the better IPC for single threaded tasks... Probably not. Rocket lake = 1 step forward and one step back. The real change will come with Alder lake spring 2022.

Intel should stop with the trash and rather spend their resources on the core product.
Intel hopeful of folding computers in 2021

 

The great thing about Rocket Lake is the width of the CPU cores. The increased surface area per core over Comet Lake will make these CPUs easier to cool. I think reduced height, increased width CPU core designs are progress. We're going to need them to combat the power density of upcoming CPU generations on smaller process nodes.

So theoretically, Rocket Lake can be a better overclocker than Comet Lake, and therefore quite the beast especially considering its IPC increases. This is however theoretical based on the information I've seen. Benchmarks in games after these new CPUs release willl be the best indicator of their real world performance.

 

The only real benefit (if the specs I see are correct) other than a shade better IPC is the 20 CPU PCIe lanes versus the 16 we have with Comet Lake. What that potentially means is the ability to accommodate one more NVMe drive. That might not be meaningful in a laptop with a chassis that has fewer drive bays than the chipset can handle, but it would be meaningful on desktops that are not limited by a chassis design as we are with laptops. I'd love to have the ability to add one more NVMe on my desktop without the GPU dropping from 16x to 8x. But, not at the expense of lower benchmark scores with 2 cores and 4 threads less at my disposal.

So, yes... as Brother @Papusan has accurately stated, a step forward and a step backward.

If it overclocks better as Brother @Clamibot believes it will, and that is enough to make up for the reductions in cores and threads, then I will chalk it up as a win. Even if it matches the performance with that core/thread count handicap, I will call it a win. If the performance is not enough to offset that, then it will be a bittersweet trade-off that I would classify as a "not worth it" upgrade.

 

We can only hope that there is a Gen 12 that is compatible with LGA1200 that has the best of both worlds and all it needs is a bios update.... I guess I could have waited to buy a new laptop.

 

Alder lake come with Socket 1700 and DDR5. LGA1200 will die togeter with Rocket lake. Aka spring 2022.

 

There is always something new that is going to come out sooner or later. Buying a new machine should depend upon what you need instead of what the speculations say. Personally for me, if I need something new 2 years from now, I'll go for it but if not, I'd stay with what I have. I recently sold my Area 51m R1 primarily because I needed extra RAM horsepower which I need to run 6-7 virtual machines in parallel on top of several other things that run on my machine. And, the current machine cost me roughly 1/3 of the market price after including the money I got from selling my previous machine. So it wasn't that bad. You can always upgrade.

 

Depends on the power the chip uses to get there I guess.

 

This is true, but over the years I have gone from using a Mac Plus with 2 floppy drives, Photoshop 1.x and film cameras to an i7 3840QM with Capture One, CS6, etc,etc, and 32MP images and now to a 10900KF with 128gb of ram and 16TB of storage and 150MP raw files and 4k and 8k video....

Back in the days of the Mac Plus, people would have laughed.... 4 cores, 32gb of ram.... but you know what? every upgrade I have done has cut my editing time down considerably so it is what it is right?

I cannot open 150MP raw files on a Mac Plus with 2 floppy drives these days....lol

I took my Powerbook G3 into the Apple Store last year and said I wanted to replace the 5400RPM hard drive with an SSD and they were going to call the police to escort me out store...... so much for Apple Care..... (By the way, there is a company that makes PATA SSD's that are compatible with that laptop), its just not a normal request. LOL.

 

Your CPU cache can hold more data than that Mac could lol.

 

the fact that we "*Already*" have confirmation there is a possible upgrade for the x170, when not too long ago we didn't know whether we would see rtx 3000 mxm, is indeed great news.
Also yes still wondering about wattage, a 200w limit would be quite a cut from those power hungry cards, regardless of efficiency curves.

 

Well, it’s based on the GA104, same chip as the desktop 3070 (220W), so 200W wouldn’t be a huge cut.

 

Wattage of the GPUs is one thing...the power limit of each laptop may vary. We will have to wait to see what is going on.

 

Watt is still heat and Rocket will consume equal much power as 10 cores from previous gen. One of the reasons Intel skipped 10 cores. Also due costs. 10 cores would be more expensive to make than 8 cores.

PL2 is rated at 250W. This means that when hitting its maximum advertised clock speeds, the CPU could indeed be pulling the said amount of wattage and be one of the most power-hungry 8-core chips ever produced. This might also explain why Intel didn't go 10 cores and 20 threads on its 11th Gen lineup since it would've turned out to be a power-hungry monster of a chip breaking even past the 250W power limit.

And Cinebench R20/23 include AVX 512 instructions which means the 8 core Rocket will run hot in this popular benchmark You think it will run colder than 10 cores Comet lake? Depends on what you want it to do or what clock speed you'll deal in

As a reminder... It seems Intel went with lower base clock frequency, and this for 25% less cores. Not exactly what you associate with a colder running chips.



Intel Core i9-11900K sample tested, clocks up to 5.3 GHz, issues with PCIe interface

 

That was quite a story lmao! Congrats on making the jump from jokebooks to real computers. I only use my employer provided jokebook as a cutting board for opening parcels and cutting thermal pads with a cutter or as a base for sanding something with a sandpaper.

 

This thread is too long, I cannot locate my post about which USB ports allow booting OS's from thumb drives on the X170. Does anyone have information on this? can they all boot from thumb drives or only certain ports?

 

I've been sticking with the standard USB 3.0 ports for booting.

However, I do have a USB-C to USB 3.0 hub and THAT works for booting too.

 

I have booted from all ports so far and faced no problems.

 

Hello!
Has there been any update regarding the overshoot/inverse ghosting issue?
Has any of the resellers forwarded this problem to Clevo and did any of the resellers ask for a fix? (Maybe a button in CCC to disable the factory enabled LCD overdrive) ?

 

Have you tried manually lowering the refresh rate in NVIDIA Control Panel to see if that makes any difference? If there is not a preset value that you want to test you can try to change it to a specific refresh rate using the custom resolution feature.

 

Yes and the resutl was driver dependent. If I remember correctly with the first drive on Clevo's website if the panel did not run at max refresh rate then it turned off G-Sync.
With other drivers maybe it was just a placebo effect (I did not test is very much) but the lower I went with the refresh rate (for example to 144 Hz from 300 Hz) the less I saw the inverse ghosting. G-Sync did not disable with other drivers, however it produced another issue if I lowered or increased refresh rate: G-Sync was flickering the screen. Same way when years ago a beta NVidia driver was released to enable G-Sync on laptops that did not officially support this. When the fps dropped under the VRR window, then G-Sync did not turn off but instead started to turn on/off the screen itself.
I tried Gears of War UE, when FPS was unlocked and the game produced 80-90 FPS, I saw inverse ghosting, however if I locked the FPS to 60 FPS/60 Hz then the ghosting was not visible.

 

I am in a bit of an emergency and would like to ask all you experts before I commit to anything. I got a Clevo chassis x170sm-g built by Hyperbook - a polish reseller, a rtx 2080 super wariant with 144 Hz G-sync full hd display. Actually, the display is no more since my laptop fell down from my desk and the display is cracked now, the inner layer

https://imgur.com/bQUld6U

I am working as crew on a cargo ship which visits New Jersey US every week. We encountered a really rough weather on our way to the US and the laptop despire being mostly secured managed to slip from my desk and fell down screen first. I will be signing off the ship and going home earliest middle to end of april 2021. That leaves me with 3 options:

1. Ignore the damage for this time and connect external display for everyday use and replace the display once I get home in 4 months.

2. Try to order a replacement screen from Amazon or some US resellers, get it delivered on my ship and attempt a replacement myself.

3. Try to get in touch with US based Clevo resellers and ask for some support in either ordering the part for me or carrying out the replacement service.

Can I get some comments on the best course of action to take? Maybe something I didn't include at all? I was thinking that if the display has to be replaced why not try to get a better one instead, like the 240 Hz or 300 Hz? Is it possible to do this in my current configuration? How can I find some spare part names or numbers to do this properly? Sorry if I am asking too many questions, but I am really devastated and need to cool down and start working on my options.

 

I dunno what the postage is like for you atm, but it's bloody terrible here in the UK due to the world situation.

So I'd personally use an external display, wait until you get home and then get it replaced.

 

I would immediately get an external display to get up and running. That allows you to keep using it and give yourself some time to sort out your internal display issues and not have downtime. They are relatively inexpensive especially for 1080p displays. As long as you can get a hold of the service manual, screen replacements are a bit time consuming but relatively straight forward. It never hurts to reach out to other resellers, but most do not work on other sellers systems normally but you may be able to get a price quote or source a panel.

 

I spend less time replacing a display than I do cleaning/repasting the heatsink, it's pretty straight forward. The easiest thing is to find the exact panel model number on the back of the LCD panel and swap it in.

 

I already found the one I currently have installed in the laptop, LP173WFG-SPB1 (LGD0615)

https://www.laptopscreen.com/English/screen-part-number/LP173WFG(SP)(B1)/

I tried to find the model numbers used in US resellers offer for their variants of x170sm-g using the 240 Hz or 300 Hz but I cant find any information freely available. Guess I will have to contact each store seperately by email since their facebook chats are not replying. I was thinking on getting one of these 2 instead:

https://www.panelook.com/B173HAN05.0_AUO_17.3_LCM_overview_43400.html 240Hz variant
https://www.panelook.com/B173HAN05.1_AUO_17.3_LCM_overview_44168.html 300Hz variant

Does anyone have any idea if they are compatible? Most of the dimensions and connectors are the same for all 3.

 

B173HAN05.0 - That ships in the model for sure.

 

Hello y'all! I was window shopping for a new gaming machine, something that's good for on-the-go use and gaming, upgradable to keep up with any change in needs, and powerful enough to drive a 2k/144hz display via a eGPU. I didn't want to find myself coming back around to a Clevo laptop since my experience with the P750TM1-G wasn't great. I had sent it in 3 times for service. The first was a motherboard failure, the second and third were gpu failures. I ended up selling it after a year of owning it because I wanted something more reliable. I don't know if mine was just an edge case or if that's just a common issue with Clevo based systems. I'd like to think it was just bad luck of getting something as an edge case. My current system, a desktop powered by a Ryzen 7 2700X and a R9 Fury X is getting to the point where I need to upgrade it soon with a new gpu. The original AIO for the Fury X failed and I had to resort to custom water cooling, which only cost me about $100 due to having collected second hand open loop parts and only needing to buy a pump/res combo, tubing and fittings. While I like my desktop and suits my needs for something easily upgradable and powerful, its very big and heavy. I probably won't sell the system, I'll just use it for a different purpose where its size isn't inconvenient. With me moving between cities to take care of my mom and going to school, it made me realize that its not too practical for me to have a large desktop. In a perfect world, I'd build a compact ITX system that's small enough to move easily but the problem is that its still a hassle with having a separate keyboard, mouse, and display.

I'm getting a little sidetracked. I was looking at the X170SM-G as a solid option as it has everything I need, as much as I'd prefer to get the Ryzen powered one so I could reuse the R7 2700X I already have, Intel currently only support thunderbolt 3, which allows for the use of eGPUs. I was looking at getting something pretty mild. a K series i5 for the purposes of power optimizing it by underclocking and undervolting it for maximum battery life. I had done the same thing with the P750 I had with a 8700K and GTX 1070. I was able to get 2.5 hours of battery life under a gaming load. If I had a more power optimized setup with a lower power gpu and cpu, I could probably get more battery time. I know that's not really the point of a DTR class laptop, I just think its a really nice bonus. My main attraction to such laptops is the upgradability. While I'd prefer going back to a P750, or rather P775 since its the 17.3" model, they aren't made anymore. I liked the dual 2.5" bays for inexpensive spinning storage. The X170SM doesn't have that but it has four m.2 slots. I certainly don't need that many but with a dual bay external dock (Like the AKiTiO Node Duo), which would allow the use of a full sized gpu and a second card, in my case, a sata 3 controller for mass storage when at home. I'd only equip the laptop with a 500GB boot drive and a 1TB storage drive. Most of my files and games will live on the larger 4TB drives that'd sit on my desk at home. My monitor and peripherals would also be connected to the back of the dock. My speakers would connect directly to the laptop via a 3.5mm cable. I'd have the laptop just sitting on a cooling pad to help keep it chilled while using it.

What I'm curious about is if the MXM slot in this laptop is compatible with older cards. I don't need a huge amount of gpu grunt when I'm on the go, especially with a 1080p display. I could get by with something in the power range of a 1660 Super/Ti. I don't know if cards that low end exist as MXM cards. A GTX 1070 would also fit that power envelope as they are 120w cards.

My last question is if there's anywhere that sells these as just barebones boxes with/without a gpu in them. I can buy most of what I'd like to put in it second hand to save a few bucks here and there. The toughest part is the gpu since MXM cards always cost a premium over regular desktop cards. Most confiscators seem to list the RTX 2060, which also happens to be a 115w card, its just that something lower powered would be more economical. I can't imagine it being that it'd be that big of a price drop to really warrant downgrading to a GTX 1660 type card.

I know my specific case is quite odd but its the best compromise between a full fat desktop experience and a mobile powerful machine that works on a battery. I know I'm weird. >_>

 

Regarding first part i wouldn't recommend getting the x170 if you travel daily back and forth, it's fragile, bulky and heavy. It's basically a small factor desktop replacement. Unless you are that kind of guy who doesn't give a crap.