13.3" Samsung NP900X3C with Ivy Bridge CPU

Another recent x3c-a01 owner here. Almost 4 weeks in and I love it (knock on wood). The zenbook prime got scratched pretty early on because of the many reported issues. Interestingly for me, after a lot of research, it came down to the x3c and MacBook air with similar specs. I'd definitely have to run windows on the air in boot camp. MacBook air is an impressive machine when running Mac os but a different story when running windows. So I went with the x3c. It just felt like the right machine for my needs. I don't do a lot of gaming on my PC but loaded up the usual productivity software. I also work with complex financial models that are pretty CPU intensive. With multithreading turned on in the models, the run times are pretty impressive for an ultrabook. Would definitely recommend the x3c. I'm on the same page with chicgeek about upgrading the ssd. I'll perhaps go for it sometime in the future but not now. They are getting better and cheaper.

 

Sorry, I didn't really explain it well. I meant not to just clean it, to have it permanently fixed.

I remember reading how one user had so many prints that they eventually covered it completely and it didn't look like it had fingerprints anymore. The oil off a persons hands etc.

Was just wondering that instead of trying to cover it completely over time, if there was an oil based solution of some kind to get it done straight away.

 

No way.
I read about the person who had so many fingerprints that they thought that it eventually didn't look that way, and I have more than serious doubts. I think that they are carrying around a slimy Series 9!
I use spray eyeglass cleaner and a microfiber cloth. Safest way is to spray the cleaner onto the cloth, then wipe the notebook. I have done this with notebooks made of plastic, aluminum, and other materials. Same as the drop of detergent that John uses with (in my opinion) less residue left behind. Once every couple of weeks, take a can of compressed air to the keyboard and you are done.

This thing is going to show fingerprints, and there is nothing that you can do except to wipe them off, or get some sort of skin.

 

Unless of course you have the Magnesium Silver Fox.

 

There isn't much about the fan noise on this machine through the thread search function. If someone was to be so kind.

Is there any noise when it's idle?
Noise when ~10 tabs are open on a browser?
Noise when you run a 720p/1080p video/ on an external monitor?

 

Ah okay. Thought so but just wanted to make sure.

I'll go with one of the options you mentioned to keep it clean. Cheers.

 

Fan noise isn't discussed because this notebook is exceptionally quiet. There are two fans to cool a 17W CPU (see my X3B review for internal photos - it's essentially the same inside). And with two fans on board they don't need to spin frantically in order to shift enough air.

John

 

Indeed, that's one of the strongest points about this laptop. When mine is unplugged I can't hear a thing.

 

Hey Guys,

My first post here! First off, I would like to say that I love this laptop! It is a uniquely perfect fit to my life as a student and avid bike commuter. If anyone is still on fence as I was about this device, buy it! you wont regret it!

With that being said, my only gripe about it is that the screen does not fill up all the way to the bezel. I know it may not bother some people, however, it really stands out to me. I'm wondering if that was just a design flaw in my device only. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

 

Not sure what you mean by not filling all the way to the bezel. Can you post a photo of what this looks like? I don't see any problems with mine.

 

this is what it looks like. its slight but big enough to make it hard not to notice

 

Which is the problem bit? The thin black border? If it runs all the way around the display then it's normal.

John

 

Hi there,

I have a problem with my Samsung 900x3c. First of all I think that the 900x3c is great Ultrabook, the screen is outstanding and the overall quality is great.
Unfortunately I have my second 900x3c here after the first had a problem with the keyboard. As chance would have it the second 900x3c has the very same problem, which is the "o"-key that is not fitting correctly on the keyboard. The key is a few mm deeper at the bottom. I made two pictures that show that.
Did anyone has the same problem? This is only a small problem but it really annoys me. So what do you think - is that normal?

 

The Nifty MiniDrive by niftydrives — Kickstarter

Made for the Macbook Air, so not sure if it fits this computer.

 

Euler, the bezel indeed is not directly over the edges of the display; there's a small rim of black on the inside of the bezel. I believe that it's designed to be like this.

Anywho, I finally got my Series 900X3C-A03US! For those who are wondering about the color, it seems that the "Titan Silver" is indeed just a very blue-tinted gray color. In dimmer lighting, it looks like a very sexy and deep navy. I'm liking it. The packaging still said "Mineral Ash Black", though, so unless someone posts pictures of their A01 model, I'm unable to verify whether they are the same or not.

Actually, I was wondering if anyone could help me with removing some of the software on this beauty. What is Intel Manageability Firmware Recovery Agent? Google turns up nothing but other similarly confused people. And why are there both "Intel PROSet/Wireless for Bluetooth 3.0 + High Speed" and "Intel PROSet/Wireless for Bluetooth Technology" on here? And lastly, what are the "OpenCL 1.1 support for Intel Core processor family" and "PlayReady PC Runtime amd64" programs? Microsoft Signature is a serious load of crap, in case you were wondering. XD

 

I think I'll be signing up for one of those in spite of the Samsung SD card slot being undesirably slow. A quick measure of my X4C card slot (X3C is about the same) reveals that the end of the minidrive will be about half way between the edge of the slot and the edge of the computer, so that should fit OK.

John

 

I am convinced they are not the same. I too originally had the MS version that says mineral ash black on the box but Titan Silver on the website. It is definitely, in my opinion, different than my second one which I got from Amazon and says mineral ash black everywhere.

 

Thanks, looks about right. Guess I'll have to wait till they've actually produced them.

 

I have a problem with the touchpad. I did a quick search of this thread, but didn't find what I need (e.g. the enhanced configuration options by running the different exe in the driver installation folder).

My problem concerns the tapping - specifically, when I want to put my left or right finger on the touchpad to prepare for a "hard" click, it is registered as a tap. I know I can disable the entire tap feature, but this is not how I'm used to using the touchpad (i.e. I need the tapping option). Now, the solution would be to disable the tap option for the left and right bottom corners. I see that the registry has such options (e.g. corner tap zones and functions), but I don't know which software can actually edit those zones.

Now, I can turn the option on manually and define the zone sizes, but I'm not sure how to define the functionality for those zones. I'd like to have the bottom tap zones to ignore taps and maybe to narrow the top ones which would then serve as back and forward web page options. Any ideas on how to do this? Thanks.

 

There are innumerable entries in the registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Elantech\SmartPad. You can backup that key and then start experimenting.

John

 

Thanks, but I'm aware of that, hence why I wrote: "I see that the registry has such options (e.g. corner tap zones and functions), but I don't know which software can actually edit those zones."

This is why I hoped there's some software (ELAN or 3rd party) made to edit these values in a user-friendly way..

I tried to enable the corner tap, but saw no difference after the restart. Perhaps the driver (or at least the Windows driver) is not using those values yet, which might explain why they're in the registry, but not in the configuration options.

 

Hello all,

I have two 900x3c's, one of which has a clean W7 installation and one has a stock installation with the recovery partition. I need to get the one with a clean W7 installation back to factory defaults with the recovery partition intact. Is there any way I can build the recovery DVD's from the factory imaged laptop and do another installation of Windows with that to get the recovery partition back? I basically want to make it so when I turn it on it is like turning it on for the firs time and takes me through the initial set up.

Thanks!

Patrick

 

Use software such as Acronis True Image to make a full image of the SSD with recovery partition onto an external HDD then restore that image onto the computer where you have deleted the recovery partition. Then, I think, Fn+F4 at the BIOS screen will get you into a BIOS level version of Samsung Recovery solution.

John

 

IMHO, it can be done with the supplied tools. I made the backup and read how it's done when I got my S9, but it was a few weeks ago so I'm talking from memory.

On the laptop with the recovery partition, press F4 and then use the Samsung Recovery Software to create the image on some external disk (maybe in the Tools section?). Then I think you can also create a USB admin disk (which has the SRS software I think) on some USB stick; then you boot the USB on the other laptop by pressing F10 during boot and run the SRS and import the previously created image to restore the recovery partition.

BTW, saw the X3A in some shop and was appalled - the X3C is a huge step forward in the looks department. That glossy plastic and the ugly sides.. Ugh..

 

Hey guys!
Newbie (to this section of the forum)
I just bought the X3C-A01US today and she should be arriving on 8/28.
I now consider my nearly 3 year search for that (up to) 14" portable over!!
Anything I need to know beforehand?
Is she loaded with lot's of bloatware? Is a clean install uber easy? I'm pretty good with Dell clean installs
I can't wait! :thumbsup:
TIA! Cin.

 

Welcome to X3C!
What I can tell you from my experience is to update your drivers immediately, especially the graphics and wifi. Other than that, the computer has, to my knowledge, minimal bloatware.

OT, anyone experiencing battery loss during hibernation? I'm losing about 6% in 10 hours. hibernation set to 30 mins after sleep.

 

Thanks! : )

I will surely do all that! Does it feel pretty much "weightless" in your hands?

Beside researching more on this subforum, I am going to be looking at some cases. Amazon seems to have some deals, and will checkout ebags. Meritline used to be a good standby but meh on their selection lately.

 

I have a 9xb and 9xc. The 9xb has the samsung ssd and 9xc has the sandisk u100.

I am going to sell the 9xb to my brother. He is not going to care about which ssd is in there. So i want to swap out the ssd between the 9xb and 9xc. What would be the easiest steps. Clone both drives? Would just plugging it in toeach new PC work (probably not right since they have different drivers for the sandy bridge vs ivy bridge)? How about just cloning the recovery partition of each and replacing those only?

Any links to how to disassemble the 9x to get to the ssd?

 

That's nice of you, hope you at lest give him a discount.

Turn off rapid start, delete the hibernate partition, backup each drive externally, swap, restore, enable rapid start. Just swapping the drives isn't good because of the windows license.

 

why do you recommend deleting the hibernate partition?
how do i tell which is the hibernate partition?
I see one called windows, one is SYSTEM, one is smasung_rec (recovery i resume), and one not titled.

 

1. Just hope that you don't get the Sandisk U100 SSD. If you do, then read this thread.
2. If you want to do a clean install then first make a backup of the drivers / software using the backup option in Samsung recovery solution. You can then use this to install what you want.
3. Note that it is likely that the Intel Rapid Start Technology won't be working properly. More here about how to fix it.

Is it actually hibernating? When you open the computer after an overnight break does the display come on almost instantly or after about 10 seconds. If the former then it is not hibernating properly.

I use a very thin cheap neoprene sleeve. Any else adds a lot to the bulk and weight of these notebooks. There are some suggestions in this thread.

John

 

Perhaps you don't need to, but rapid start can be finicky. I suppose you could reimage and reconstruct if there's a problem as well.

It is the 4GB partition. To delete, turn off rapid start in easy settings then use diskpart;list partition;select;delete override commands. After you reimage turn it back on.

 

sp you are saying if you delete it, then when you turn rapid start back on, it will create that partition from scratch again?

 

I recently purchased the NP900X3C-A04UK (128GB SSD, 4GB RAM), this model comes with Windows 7 Pro and the TPM chip. It also currently qualifies for both the Samsung 5 year warranty promotion (via redemption) on business laptops in the UK plus the £100 Back to College cashback promotion (via redemption from the end of this month). I must say that the screen is fantastic, both the resolution and brightness.

Note that the standard NP900X3C-A02UK model sold by most retailers has the same spec but with Windows 7 Home Premium and possibly no TPM chip only qualifies for the cashback offer and not the warranty. Worth shopping around for the A04 model in the UK as a 5 year warranty directly with Samsung is pretty good value, at the very least offsetting a bit of the extra we pay over US prices!

Unfortunately mine also came with the dreaded Sandisk SSD so I'll be looking to swap in a replacement, most likely the 256GB Crucial M4 mSATA which is currently listed at around £172 direct from Crucial but should be coming into stock soon at Scan for £159.99.

 

Thanks for the info John!

It's arriving a day earlier now.. The 27th v. 28th

I will be sure to check and see if I was blessed with the U100 SSD or not. If I was, I will take action with the thread you linked.
Thanks for the other links for the Clean Install and information regarding the Intel Rapid Start Technology, also.

I look forward to checking out that Accessories thread for the Series 9. I also ordered a fairly inexpensive neoprene sleeve from Amazon today which should arrive the same day as my X3C.

John, whats your feeling on purchasing extended warranties on these?

 

Well, I just confirmed my S9 is on it's way from jr.com (fantastic customer service BTW). I returned my UX32VD to them after it died and they couldn't tell me when more were coming. It had other issues before it died like screen light bleed and a flexy keyboard. The ability to upgrade was fantastic but I think I can live with 4gb of RAM. Shopping for mSata drives right now (probably the crucial M4 256gb)

 

How are you guys cloning your drive with Acronis? When I tried using an external DVD drive, it does recognize my usb hard drive including one with a ssd drive in a usb enclosure. Also tried a 500gb portable HD and no luck.
Please help.

I have Fast BIOS turned off.
Intel Rapid Start turned off

 

it takes about 7~8 seconds for the screen to turn on, as opposed to 1~2 second when returning from sleep. From your thread on rapid start, I did the suggested method of checking by lowering hibernation time to 0. As expected, it does enter hibernation however it still loses battery when left in hibernation overnight :\

 

I'm not sure whether or not to purchase this. The screen is great (resolution is nice and anything higher would hurt even my young eyes) and so is everything else but the 4GB of RAM is annoying me (I mean seriously why couldn't they add an upgrade to replace the 4Gigs with a one 8x1 Gig Ram Stick).

If 8 GB ram is really necessary I was considering the 15 inch version but I'm not sure if the bad display, lack of a second fan (bad temp readings) and added weight worth it?

I'll be using this for college.

 

The RAM is a special DDP module that hasn't yet been made in higher capacities. A single SODIMM module could fit in about the same space but would run as single channel memory and result in reduced performance, particularly for graphics. You can try to make an assessment of your RAM needs from your current software usage.

John

 

According to task manager I regularly run about 50-80% of my 4 GB of RAM. In the future I can only hypothesize that applications will become more memory intensive.

Is getting the i7 model of the Series 9 worth the extra price? Assuming that I could get the 256 GB/i7 + 4GB 13 inch for 1650 USD. Considering that I will only be using it for web browsing, school related functions and watching/streaming 1080p movies.

 

1. 80% RAM usage is likely to trigger RAM contents being dumped to the swap file. If you don't have the Sandisk U100 SSD then you most likely won't notice. Graphics-intensive programs tend to be the most RAM-hungry. Open up a few hi-res photos and they will start to fill the RAM: 16 megapixel x 32 bits per pixel = 64 MB.

2. But for your likely usage 4GB is probably plenty and the i7 CPU is more than you need - they won't stress an i5.

3. The 13.3" PLS screen will give slightly richer colors for movie watching, with viewing angles not being critical. The 15" gives you more screen to watch.

John

 

Any owners of the 13" Series 9 ever wish you had gotten the 15" instead?

 

I first got the X3B but the 4GB RAM limitation caused temporary slow-downs on occasion (the poor queued I/O of the Sandisk U100 was a contributor to this). So I then got the X4B with the 8GB RAM (and potential to go to 16GB if I ever get the need). The first thing I realised on using the X4C was that I was sitting very close to the X3B's screen in order for my eyes to handle the smaller text. The 50% extra battery capacity of the X4C is welcome as is the row of dedicated navigation keys. These offset the attraction of the 13.3" PLS screen (but I'd buy an X4 with one if Samsung sell it).

I'm now wondering what to do with the X3B. Originally I was thinking to keep it for when I want to travel light but the X4C is sufficiently thin and light that I don't need something smaller (and I have a Galaxy Note for when I want something really light).

John

 

What sort of tasks were you doing that caused temporary slow downs due to a lack of RAM + the u100 SSD? I notice that after games my computer is extremely stuttery and slow (my current PC, has 4GB ram, i5-2410m, GT540m). Could this be due to me needing more than 4GB of RAM?

Gosh, why does each model have such distinct advantages and disadvantages. I could wait for next years model but T_T.

 

I was thinking which one to get between the two and then I played with both of them at the store and 13" just felt perfect for my needs. I'd love to have 8gb of RAM on board but 4 is sufficient for my needs. I let my desktop do the heavy lifting anyway (which is not that often). I know the U100 is not the fastest cat in the benchmark numbers but honestly I haven't seen any real world slowdowns due to it.

So.. no, I'm perfectly happy with the 13" and never really thought about the 15" after getting the x3c. But really depends on personal needs and preference I suppose.

 

In my case the slow down (more like a temporary freeze) was often opening a GIS project which contained satellite imagery and / or scanned maps whereupon Windows was concurrently trying to dump some RAM contents to the swap file and load data from the SSD into RAM. That's exactly the situation where the U100 shows its limitations. However, after about 15 seconds things would be running smoothly again but it's very annoying when I have someone else waiting to be shown something.

Your current problem is not the same and more diagnosis is needed. I would start by using HWiNFO to check whether the CPU is not throttled. Task Manager (Performance tab will show the RAM and CPU usage). The latter should be less than 10% when the computer is idling.

John

 

How do you check for throttling? All I can see is that Core 0 spikes up a lot more often than Core 1 (which explains why when I check core temps it is usually higher) and the clock speed is usually at 1197 MHz with a ratio of 12.0x as of writing this. When I watch a 720p TV show (as I am now) left core is spiking up to almost 2700 MHz with a ratio of 27.0x and the Core 1 either goes down to 8.0x or goes up. According to notebookcheck, the base clock sped should be 2300 MHz so I'm assuming my CPU is underclocked but I can't be sure. My maximum frequency on the Resource Monitor can go really high with the 60% being the minimum. CPU Usage seems to range from 10% to around 35-40%. RAM usage hovers from 50 to 75% with around 60-65% being the usual case. In general I have about 1 GB of Standby Ram and from 400MB to 1 MB of Free RAM.

Ah, I see opening an image like that I guess would be memory intensive.

I believe the monitor used in my laptop is the same as this laptop Review Schenker XMG A501 Notebook (Clevo W150HRM) - Notebookcheck.net Reviews but I cannot be sure.

It has a contrast level 748:1, Bright Distrib: 86%, Max Bright: 215 cd/m^2 and Black: .27cd/m^2.

O_O

 

That CPU performance looks normal. The CPU idles at 1200MHz and speeds up when necessary to do the work. HWiNFO shows throttling in red. Your RAM usage also looks normal although what you think is standby RAM may be used as a cache. Do you have a HDD? If so, writing to the swap file will be quite slow.

However, we are starting to go off-topic here.

John

 

Never. No regrets.

The X3C has a noticeably nicer screen and is perfect for my needs. No scaling issues at all with Ubuntu. Then again, I'm coming from another 13", so YMMV.