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

If its too fragile, what would you recommend that's also upgradable?

 

For travel i'd probably go for a older model, did you check ebay? Seems most logical since you want to use older hardware anyway.

 

I'd like it to be forward compatible though. How far back would I be able to go and still have Thunderbolt 3 and RTX gpu compatibility though the MXM slot?

 

The Clevo P750TM and P775TM work with RTX 2000 series cards. Both have a thunderbolt 3 port on the left side.

Is the X170 really that fragile? I'd imagine it's a pretty robust laptop being built like a tank and all like it's predecessors.

 

I'd be more inclined to the P775Tm then since its a 17.2" model but is it worth the price? I found a barebones with a 2060 in it for just under $1,900 USD.

That's what I though. It looks like an absolute chonker! And that cooling system it has is absolutely insane!

 

Given the P775TM has been replaced with the X170 and the barebone you're looking at only costs $29 less than a basic specced X170 from zTecpc, I'd say get the X170 instead.

You could get the P775TM barebones from RJTech for a while after the X170's release, but they don't offer it anymore unfortunately. Since it's been EOLed, it's going to be very hard to find a barebone kit, especially one that i actually worth buying.

The basic specced X170 from zTecpc costs $1929 and comes with the hardware you want: https://ztecpc.com/product-detail/81033/zTecpc zT-X170SM-G-6 Gaming Laptop. If this is in fact what you want, you should PM @Donald@zTecpc.

Regarding the chassis strength, this machine is definitely NOT fragile. If anything, it will be a very robust machine with much better structural integrity than regular run of the mill craptops.

 

That makes sense and the X170 that you linked is definitely a better price considering it'll be faster than the P775TM simply due to minor architecture improvements from coffee lake to comet lake. Then there's the panel. If I remember right, the P775TM came with a 1080p 60hz or a 4k 60hz, at least when I was originally shopping around for mine. The X170 has a 1080p 144hz, which is extra nice. I will definitely keep that in mind. At the moment, I don't have the funds to spare but maybe by spring, I might have enough to set aside for my new setup.

Yeah, I don't know why I had so many hardware issues with my P750TM but as far as chassis strength, it was pretty damn solid. Though, I wasn't a fan of the keyboard. I found a bit mushy to type on. At least it was backlit. Working as a service tech at Frys, I worked on a bunch of different laptops and the ones we saw the most were MSIs. The fans went out on them ALL THE TIME and I hated how thin they were because they had a tendency of overheating quite easily over extended use, which led to the fans failing since they were always at 100% We had a few Alienwares in too, even an old one with an extreme edition X58 chip and dual HD 5970. That things was a tank. Big old magnesium plate to give the chassis rigidity and a plate under the keyboard deck. I can't imagine that machine was under $6000 back when it was state of the art. It wasn't really in for any hardware faults either, just needed a new LVDS cable for the monitor. Maybe my P750TM was just a dud. I really did like it whenever it worked properly. It was an amazing machine with desktop performance.

 

I think your P750TM was a dud as well. Unfortunately no company can produce every product defect free. There's always bound to be a few rotten apples amongst the ranks.

According to user experiences I've seen on these forums, the Clevo DTRs are generally reliable and last a long time. I'd say give them another shot. There really isn't a better offering on the market anyways. The Alienware Area 51m and MSI GT73 Titan both perform worse in games despite having similar hardware.

 

When it comes to performance on a laptop, the cooler design is the point of separation between all the competing machines. Thin and lights in the gaming market that have become so popular are at the worst end of the spectrum in terms of temps and sustained performance while chonker dinosaurs like X170 and its predecessors have little trouble maintaining cool temps under normal operating spec and even less so under power and thermal optimized situations. Sure, when you crank the dials all the way to 11, thermals climb but so does overall performance. My old P750 and its 8700K could hit a 5Ghz all core oc under stock voltage just fine, though I ran it at 4.4Ghz with a 110mV undervolt all the time while at home and at about 2.3ghz when on battery mode all core. Sure, I was kneecapping the 8700K by quite a bit but performance was plenty good enough for 1080p 60fps and temps were rock solid. The fans barely hit 40% making for a remarkably quiet experience, which was especially nice in my lecture hall classes where the fans spiking for a moment was noticeable to everyone there. Kinda embarrassing. ^^;

I think I may give it another try and with my new approach to using it, it may even last much longer than any other laptop might given that it's fairly modular and TB3 means plenty of exotic upgrades with docks and enclosures that support more than one pci-e device. A RTX 2060 is plenty strong enough for on the go usage while sipping as little power as possible. I can keep the heavy lifting card at home when I really need it. Not that I need anything more than a 2080 Ti at the moment. Even that is overkill for a 1440p/144hz display. Well, for regular rasterization performance. There's not that many games I play that support RT or DLSS. Maybe one day, just not today. Maybe not even this year. Maybe around the launch of the 40 series I might be compelled to really consider a better card for RT performance. By then, a RTX 3090 might even be a reasonable price to get and stick in a enclosure. :3

 

I took the original X170 back and forth to the office for a couple of months. Have a heavy duty backpack with sponges and protection all over..
It’s bulky and it weighs a lot, but it’s not fragile.

if you have to ride a bicycle, or even a motorcycle, it’s gonna be tough lugging around over 20lbs. But if you ride a car, Uber, etc. it’s no big deal.

 

The heavier it gets the more likely its to break, the screen is super flimsy thus fragile, the plastic is also pretty mehish at best. You put it in a regular backpack and see how far you go, your description perfectly describes fragility.

These laptops aren't meant to be moved around daily. 2 charger thin paper screen plus 3.7kg weight meeans any carelessness and we see the screen collapse.

 

Going from my experience with the P750TM, which is probably lighter, using it day to day at school and taking it to work wasn't a big deal. My backpack, which isn't like the run of the mill bag you get at walmart, has a padded compartment with a rigid backer. It's actually the bag I used when I started dual majoring in culinary when I was in Tech School back in 2014. I used that compartment for my laptop and by book, if needed for that day's class, and binder in the second compartment along with my lunch. It help just perfectly fine and my bag was no heavier than what I'm used to. If anything, its lighter than bag I used back in grade school that had like six thick, fullsized books and two smaller quarter sized books. Now that, was pretty ridiculous. Either way, I never really threw it around. The most tossing around it'd experience was the road bumps at 5mph infront of the Fry's I used to work at. The train I took to school was pretty smooth, the bus that took me to campus was pretty smooth and I'm not the running type so no real jostling going from class to class. If anything, I treated it much better than some people treat their ultrabooks.

Other than that, having two power bricks would be inconvenient to take to class so I'd probably only take my Nvidia Shield K1 with my bluetooth keyboard as a backup or for a class I only need to take notes on rather than referencing online material. The battery life on that isn't steller either but if I can manage 3 hours on the laptop and another one on the tablet, that covers my longest day on campus. Well, once in person classes start again. They're online only at the moment but I'd assume they would start allowing in person attendance towards the Fall 2021 or possibly Spring 2022, assuming Covid has declined enough that it isn't a major pandemic. Only time will tell how this year will play out.

 

hmmm this is a little concerning, I mean the X170 is a "Laptop" be it a very large laptop, isn't the point of a laptop for travel? How is it fragile? I mean it is never going to be a Macbook Air.... its not suppose to be.

And clevo does make smaller fully upgradable laptops if you don't want something so big.

 

Most X170 use 2 power bricks. Mine used only 1, but it is a single 780w power supply with 2 cables coming out of it. Easier to travel with.

 

I think this is getting kind of blown out of proportion.

1. It is big and heavy and that's why it's awesome. If you don't want awesome, buy something that is not.
   This applies to any and all laptops that could legitimately qualify as a "desktop replacement"
2. It is no more flimsy, and the screen no more weak, than 99% of the other laptops that are thinner and lighter. It is well made and sturdy, and will have no problem holding up to the rigors of travel.
3. You only need two AC adapters for gaming and heavy workloads. For taking notes in a classroom or business meeting, or doing light office productivity, or sustaining usability while traveling you can use one AC adapter.

The X170 is well made and nothing about it is fragile. As far as desktop replacements go, it is smaller and lighter than the monsterbooks most veteran Clevo and Alienware and MSI DTR owners have grown accustom to and learned to appreciate. I have logged hundreds of thousands of miles of air travel carting laptops larger than the X170 along with a second employer-provided laptop, camera and other gear for well more than a decade. If you are used to using thin and light turdbooks for school and travel, perhaps you should continue doing so if the size and weight are concerning. If you're a wimp or have any physical limitations, then this may not be a good option for you.

There are no other respectable options available. There are no thin and light desktop replacements and the few that pretend to be have weak performance and thermal management inadequacies. Every aspect of notebook ownership involves compromise. You have to decide what you are willing to compromise. Nobody makes a product that runs like a desktop with a turdbook form factor. There are some with a DTR form factor that run like a turdbook, but the opposite does not exist.

 

Thats all true, however the screens these days are so thin if you put your bag down too fast and careless the weight will collapse it. This can't be said about older hardware where screens had massive frames.

Thus for daily travel i wouldn't recommend it. It's a desktop replacement which can be moved easier but in all honesty lugging around 3-5k euro back and forth is a terrible choice once you have a drop like the guy higher up having it dropped accidently.

If it had to be one i'd highly recommend getting trash for on move and 1 pc for each place.

All of this ofc doesn't matter if you invested into muscles, a backpack that has alot of padding and you take care its clean in your bag and you give zero about size.

 

I love free speech...let everyone say their piece...then let the listener/reader draw their own conclusions about credibility.

 

I understand what you are saying. That is a reflection on the industry, not a shortcoming specific to the X170. Sadly, those days seem to be gone for good. The kiddos and their fetish for cute garbage and folks that prefer thin and light rubbish over heavy artillery have ruined it for enthusiasts that value massive performance and a supporting form factor. We can complain about similar compromises in a number of things, not just laptops. Cheap and cute is what makes consumers happy. Most manufacturers don't give a rat's butt about niche market expectations.

 

Its unfortunate that the trend is thin, light and stylish rather than durable, powerful and rigid. Nothing says you can't make a tank stylish, it just has to be thick to contain an adequate cooling system for powerful components.

 

Is it normal that when you start stressing the CPU, the laptop does make some cracking noises? I suspect that the heat generated from the CPU causes the laptop components and the case to warm up and to expand, and thereby generating the cracking noise when releasing the tension. When the CPU stressing comes to an end, and the fans return to idle rpm, then I can hear the cracking noises again for a short while with a few seconds between each cracking noise. This could be the reverse process of components cooling down? While the CPU and fans are on idle for a while or under stress for a while, then there is no cracking noise.

Do you guys have that as well? I haven't noticed it before, just noticed it about a week ago. I haven't changed anything on the laptop recently and also the room temperature of about 24C hasn't changed.

Just want to double-check with you guys to make sure nothing broke in my laptop.

 

Remember the fans in X-170 have reverse spin for cleaning. This function will kick in while the fans run at slow speed. Never when they run at a higher speed. Just test out. Begin stress test when the fans is above a certain RPM.

I doubt this cracking noise has to do with what you try to explain.

 

Yeah, I know the reverse spin cleaning noise well. But the cracking/popping sound I was trying to explain is different. It sounds like you squeeze a plastic bottle until it crinkles. The sound is not very loud, but it is clearly audible. My first guess is that it is caused by thermal expansion/contraction, because it only appears directly after you start putting the CPU under heavy load for about 4-5 times. When the CPU is under heavy load for a while it stops. Then it starts again after the CPU load is removed. Then it will be there for a few seconds / minutes until it stops (about 20 times). When the sounds is present, it is audible every few seconds. I could locate it mainly originating from the area of the left side of the keyboard (don't know if it is the keyboard or components below).

 

Pict of X170. You can open up and put the machin down, use external screen and KB. Then see if you can find what make the noise when you start the load.

 

Now that's a gorgeous pic right there. That thing on the bottom right, is that a speaker?

 

Yeah, the big Subwoofer.

 

Biggest pro of the century has to be the speakers. They are kissed by gods god.

 

Yeah. And you won't get it in Dell's gaming flagship. They treating the thickest AW 17 inch model in the same way as their thinner and slimy gaming jokebooks. Their mantra... No need for it in an gamingbook. In same way as they said there wasn't need for raid options in gaminbooks when they throw out their first AW BGA models in 2015.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...2-owners-lounge.832848/page-233#post-11064456

 

Does it sound as good as those specs imply?

 

Yes.

 

That's really impressive. This machine really has it all then.

 

Not trying to be a ass to all other dealers but if you purchase one i'd pick the praised version from ztecpc with mrfoxs cooling upgrade and premas bios on it.

You have to be USA based tho, not like us EU plebs having to deal with a stepchild version of the laptop.

It's by far the best desktop laptop but also the loudest.

Recommending 1 week of Rammstein/ManOwar to get used to the noise.

 

I'd definitely want that custom bios and I am US based. Certainly beats the default bios that came with the P750 I got from AVAdirect. I had to use throttlestop to undervolt and underclock. Not that it was difficult to do or anything, just a minor inconvenience of having to make sure to run and load the custom profile I made for it. It'd be easier just to take care of all that from the bios side instead. That and the custom cooling sounds rather interesting. That picture from above, I assume that's the stock configuration? What's there to improve? :0

 

Pure speculation .. probably heatsink pressure adjustments and a rare genome of mrfox.

And yes top post is stock.

 

Reading through the material when specing out a X170 through zTecpc, it says under thermal design that there's hardware mods that are done to the heatsink and a barrier to contain liquid metal. If I had to guess, it might be a step above simply using conformal coating as a chemical barrier over the sensitive SMDs and contacts around a cpu/gpu and using high quality electrical as a physical barrier. Under the thermal solution, it talks about changing the thermal pads to more conductive ones wherever needed and repasting the cpu and gpu with higher quality thermal paste and/or liquid metal (cpu only).

It certainly isn't my first rodeo with either of those nor is delidding. I have a Delid die mate 2 that I got so I could delid the 8700K in my laptop as well as other Intel cpus I've encountered before. I've been thinking about getting the AM4 addon but I'm not super sure as I've never delidded an AMD chip before. That said, I certainly wouldn't mind delidding some of my older chips in my collection, namely an i7-970 (X58) and a Phenom II X6 1090T just to see how far I could push them with fresh liquid metal TIM instead of whatever they currently have. I know the X58 chips are soldered but its at least a decade old now and the solder might be cracked or deteriorated. That one would definitely be tricky to delid.

Still, I'm pretty sure using my own liquid metal and delidding the cpu myself would probably void the warranty.

 

I have noticed a sound coming from the laptop and was trying to figure it out and it seems like the bearings in the fans make a little bit of a whining noise sometimes, they are not 100% quiet noctua fans.... it is what it is.

 

Often places will use some foam to prevent the liquid metal getting away from the chip package.

 

There are some modifications to the heatsink to improve thermals that are exclusive to zTecpc.

 

In that last one, what other premium thermal pads would be used instead of stock or other typical high performers such as Fujipoly Extreme/Ultra Extreme pads? High conductivity thermal puddy? I wouldn't have thought there were thermal gap fillers that performed better than those given that their conductivity is so high.

 

@MrFox Persuade Ztec to set sail to the old continent. Europe is in a dire moment of unsophisticated hardware.

 

You'll have to get one to find out. Almost like Obamacare... you can't know what kind of secret surprises are in the package until you say yes to it, LOL. Only this is much cheaper and much better.

That problem is not unique to Europe. Laptops are garbage on every continent unless you find a company willing to do something to correct it. That being said, @Donald@zTecpc is overdue for a European vacation.

 

Lol, fair enough I suppose! Its something that makes that version of the X170SM stand out from other system integrator versions of that platform. That and the custom bios. That's definitely a huge plus. But yeah, I don't doubt that. Fujipoly extreme and ultra extreme pads are definitely pricy. I've always hesitated to buy them because of the price. I ended up going with Alphacool Eisschicht pads rated for 14w/mK for my old P750. Those are pricy too but at least I got double the amount for the same price as the Fujipoly pads. They seemed to work well and were kinda reusable. I just didn't really like how stiff they were as they tended to crack a bit if you didn't pick it up carefully.

 

Not a single sound like that came on mine ever!

 

If I had to take a wild guess without more to go off of, it would be that a foreign object is in one of the fans, or one of the fans has some kind of unusual problem. Could be as simple as rattling from vibration if fans screws were omitted or something like that.

 

Yeah a recording might help with finding a cause.

 

Thanks for your responses. I'll try to make a recording of the sounds tomorrow and maybe open it up whether I can see anything obvious. Hopefully nothing serious

Btw, it must be somehow connected to thermal expansion and contraction. If the laptop is on idle for a while or under heavy CPU load for a while, then there is no cracking/popping sound audible. It is just appearing after changing between idle and load. And I just noticed that if I shut down the laptop directly after stressing the CPU, then the cracking noises appear also for a while every few seconds - with the laptop being turned off. The longer it is turned off after stressing, the noises become less frequent until they stop after several minutes (~10 min).

If it is due to thermal expansion/contraction, then I guess there is not much what I can do. It is just weird that I haven't noticed it before and now I feel like it gets more and more frequent (or I am just being sensitised to that noise now ? ) And the other weird thing is that nobody of you has experienced anything similar. The laptop hasn't been modified since the noises started, also the room temperature ( and with it delta T ) hasn't changed (has been always on 24C).

 

Links to these pads that are being mentioned?

 

Is the sound kinda like the crackling you hear after you turn off a car's engine?

 

Maybe the vapor chamber?

 

Hi guys,

I recorded the clicking/popping noise of the laptop for about 2 minutes after the laptop was shut down. Before the laptop was turned off, the CPU was stressed for a few minutes (warning: the noise is not very loud). I would appreciate your advice and whether you hear similar noises from your units.


@Mr. Fox Do you suspect it is thermal expansion / tension release of the vapour chamber, or do you suspect the vapour chamber is defective?

 

Honestly, I have no idea. I was taking a guess. After hearing it, I am more puzzled. I've never heard anything like that... ever. You're going to need to take off the bottom cover and put your ear directly on it to figure out where the sound is coming from. It sounds like someone pecking on a mechanical keyboard in your recording.

That is really interesting and now my curiosity is piqued. Please let us know what you find out. I'm sure others are going to be equally curious.