Introducing The 2013 Series 7 Chronos with AMD HD8870M!

I'm having second thoughts again now. Spoke to the Samsung store in London today, and although they had received more stock - they had promptly sold out.

Mainly because they received a grand total of 5 machines (that's the NP780 model I'm talking about) and are not sure when they will receive any more. It may be Friday, but it might not. And they were unsure if they could post one out to me anyway.

Compare that with me walking into any other store (or even an Apple store) and I could no doubt pick up any other manufacturers models no problem. How can the flagship store - and bear in mind they are the only store other than one other retailer stocking these machines - only get 5 pieces in stock???

I could understand if they were having to supply every online retailer in the country, but they aren't. I need a machine fairly quickly but can't keep hanging on. I was excited when I saw this machine, but that is quickly waning because of Samsungs inability to provide stock.

 

There is no point in keeping it if you upgrade to an SSD. Intellimemory is supposed to be a substitute for not having an SSD. It is not made to be used in conjunction with an SSD.

Jason

 

I wanted a desktop replacment so got the 17" which lacks touchscreen.

So i added a logitech k800 and more importantly the logitech t650. This way you have the touch functionality without needing to reach for the screen. Did a review of the keyboard here and you can seee the setup:
http://www.gadgetnutz.com/2013/04/18/the-logitech-bluetooth-illuminated-keyboard-k810-review/

Sent from my GT-N8010 using Tapatalk 2

 

For those replacing the hdd with a Samsung 840 Pro, dont use the migration software or acronis to clone, as the recovery partition wont work and which means youll have to open the laptop again, which can be hard. Just use a usb sata holder and clone to the sdd using Samsung recover, which has this option.
Many of you used the migration software that came with the ssd or acronis and sooner or later youll find out that the recovery partition isnt working.

Sent from my GT-N8010 using Tapatalk 2

 

Try to see if F4 works on stratup, chances are it wont since you used acronis.

Sent from my GT-N8010 using Tapatalk 2

 

Thank you for raising this issue. It's been a classic with these Sammies for as long as I can remember -- not just when cloning, but when backing up the factory HDD using image software: F4 will be broken after restore of the Recovery partition(s).

We have posted about a thousand warnings about it in various threads, but many people still never see it till it is too late. I am glad others are working to get that message across.

 

First off, I never knew Apple-haters who require Windows applications for work own iPhones and Macbooks.

Second,
Asus makes plenty of high-quality notebooks similar to Samsung's
Top 10 Multimedia Laptops - NotebookCheck.net Reviews
You can even get a first-generation Chronos if you really want an identical alternative to this.

 

Wait, you can just copy all your data from the HDD to an SSD, then plop it in and it will work?

I tried cloning my disk using Recovery's Disk Copy function, but it says the target drive is too small, even though I only have about 100GB of data on the internal drive and the target drive is 256GB. What's the deal here? I really don't want to have to reinstall my programs and such.

 

I appreciate that you brought this up as I did not know that this was a downside to using the migration software, however I actually like the fact that the migration software did not bring over the recovery partition. At 256GB my space is limited and I am paying a premium for that space as I purchased the 840 pro. I took the steps of creating a windows image using the windows 8 built in imaging utility (Search -> Search Settings -> File History -> Lower Left click Windows 7 file recovery -> upper left create a system image). I then moved this image to my NAS. I am attempting a restore tonight to make sure all goes well, if it does then I am very happy with this solution. This maximizes my hard drive space, if people want to they can use the 1tb drive they tore out to store their backups/images on and use that if they need to restore files.

Thanks again, this is good to know.

* They made the windows imaging software less accessible in windows 8 but it is still there even though it still mentions windows 7.
Jason

 

Lol it's not that I hate Apple. I just hate how people see them as the second coming of technological Christ. I love aesthetics and power. That's why I have an iPhone. It's powerful and it looks good. Which is also why I want a chronos. To me the next best thing in power and design is. MacBook Pro Retina. I use 3Ds max and A host of other Animation programs. But thanks for the top 10 list. I'll check it out.

 

Why don't you all just install a clean Windows 8 without migrating the old partition? You will be able to download all needed driver by using Samsung SW Update software. To install Windows from an USB stick you just have to go into the bios first and deactivate secure boot and fast boot.

 

Using Samsung Restore?

I used it and it should work. I think u need to use the option to restore factory image.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

I dont see no benefits to a clean install. The recovery partition allows me to restore and recover whenever i need to. This laptop is fast and once you uninstalled norton its good.

Also im sure there are optimizations and sammy hidden stuff that are optimized for this laptop.

Plus I like things to reemain in their orginal state. i would highly advice against a clean install.
Many people say you gain performance, but its actually fast with the standard software.


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The notebook is fast, but it gets much faster with a clean install

There are no hidden optimizations except the drivers, which you can install by using SW Update. The only "benefit" you will get by using the preinstalled Windows is Norton and all the other crap (like this Intel HDD speedup tool) you actually don't need.

 

Hi,
I would like to make a save of the actual situation of the Chronos (Windows 8 made in samsung, recovery etc..) on a external support , then i will install a clean Windows 8 but i would like may restore the initial situation of the chronos one day, for example if i resell it. If I read good, that won't work with Acronis (for the recovery). How can i do ?

 

Use Samsung Recovery to backup the recovery partition to an external drive or usb key that bigger thats about 30gb.

I uninstalled Norton in minutes. If im not mistaken you need to go buy another copy of windows for a clean install, money you can use for extras.
Also, I can restore to factory defaults, you can't. In fact you can uninstall all the stuff you want and keep just the basics.

Advicing people to do a clean install, many are going to wipe the drive removing the partition, without backing up first. Later they are going to come to these forums complaining how they can't restore their laptops to factory defaults.



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Grainy? Mine is fine.

 

A good photo snapshot speaks a million words!

 

Intellimemory is simply Diskeeper in disguise (an on-the-fly file defrag software, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diskeeper). When active, it sucked up too many GB of RAM instantly and persistencely... I've this rouge software removed quite early on!!!

I've instead opted for RAMdrive + Supercache + Expresscache (there is software driver) on my 1TB 5400 rpm hardisk.

See ATTO benchmark based on Supercache (with 5 secs lazywrite) +Expresscache:

 

Yeah, I was also talking about the Samsung SSD. Samsung sells two models of each drive, one has a model number that ends in KW, the other ends in BW. The KW includes the brackets and the USB/SATA cable, along with the software. The BW is the drive with software.

 

Would appreciate if someone could run the ATTO benchmark using "Overlapped I/O" option on his/her SSD. Hope to understand how many times faster would a SSD be, while different brands of SSD may have speed differences, it's still good to know roughly how many times faster, eg. 5 times? 20 times? 100 times etc. Thanks.

The ATTO software can be found here: http://www.attotech.com/products/product.php?scat=20&prod=70&sku=Disk_Benchmark

 

No, Intellimemory is a program that caches commonly used applications into RAM, which allows them to appear to launch faster since they don't need to be loaded from a slow disk. If you have an SSD you can still use it, and it may (from a benchmark perspective) make applications launch faster, since RAM is still faster than an SSD. But it wasn't designed as a substitute for anything.

I'll try it when I get home today and see. I honestly can't imagine why it wouldn't have worked. I chose to clone the entire disk and all partitions, so as long as it grabbed all of the partitions (and it appears to have done so) then it should have worked.

I think that a lot of people make a mistake of running Acronis from within Windows to clone the disk/partition that they're running from, which can result in some partitions not getting copied correctly since Windows makes recovery partitions from boot disks inaccessible. I've done offline cloning using Acronis and other tools for close to 20 years now, and I've yet to have a disk that couldn't be cloned. I'll let you know what happens. I still have the 1TB HDD sitting on my desk in case I need to give it another go.

Intellimemory is not Diskeeper. Intellimemory is an application that caches applications in RAM to speed application launches. Diskeeper is a defrag application. They are both produced by the same company, but they are completely different products.

Expresscache isn't a software-only solution. It's software + caching hardware. So how do you use Expresscache on a system that doesn't have a caching SSD/flash memory installed?

 

Of course everybody should do a backup first! And no, you do not have to buy another copy of Windows since you already bought a Windows licence together with the Chronos. The product keys are registred somewhere in the BIOS. I didn't have to enter any product key during installation or after the installation. It was just all fine. The only thing you need is either an external ODD or some USB stick with a Windows 8 copy.

What i would recommend: replace the HDD with a SSD and keep the HDD in a drawer. Whenever you decide to sell the notebook or send it to the service center (e.g. because of the image retention issue), you just build in the HDD with the preinstalled Windows on initial state.

 

So im hoping to get the Chronos 7 soon, and I have my 840 SSD ready and waiting, but I havent done anything like this before and there seem to be lots of different opinions on how best to do it and what software to use. Can anyone clarify how to set up the SSD with windows etc from the HDD and the pros/cons of the different ways of doing it?

 

FYI the ATIV Book section just appeared on Samsung's US website !!!! (it's empty for now)

 

Edit: Before you do anything with your HDD I highly recommend to do a full backup of the whole HDD and keep it on a safe place! If you do the clean install you will loose the ability of using the Samsung recovery software. Best would be: replace the HDD with an SSD, do the clean install on the SSD and keep the HDD at a safe place, just in case of warranty etc.

I can tell you what I did with my first Chronos:
- Go into BIOS and deactivate both secure boot and fast boot
- You can download Windows 8 from the Microsoft servers, just google it
- Set up a USB stick with the Windows 8 installation files by using "Windows 7 USB DVD Tool" (important: the USB stick should be UEFI compatible, for that I found this tutorial on Google: How to Setup Windows 8 with UEFI BIOS in UEFI Mode | Code Chief's Space )
- Plug in the USB stick and install Windows 8
- After installation: Download Samsung SW Update and install all driver (do not install Intellimemory! only install the drivers you really need, e.g. graphic card, touchpad etc.)
Thats it

What you get is a clean Windows 8 without all that unnecessary stuff which slows down the whole system.

 

Thanks for your reply! Was someone not saying though that doing it this way means you lose the ability to restore?

 

Ativ Book 5 and 6 have been posted on Samsung's US website ! No Ativ book 8 though... The graphics card is 8770M at best. The Ativ Book 6 is pretty much a downgraded version of the Chronos 7 with a 2x2W pair of speakers (instead of 2x4W) a 4cells battery (instead of 8cells) and is 0.97" thick (instead of 0.89").... This is disappointing... Hopefully the Ativ book 8 will come out some day and fill the gap...

[The price of the Ativ 6 is also the exact same ($1199) as the Chronos 7 with 8770M.... I really don't see how that is even remotely possible/honest ...] <- I take this back. They've in fact increased the chronos price to $1,299 and it is no longer available on Best Buy website.... This is all too weird for me...

 

Yes, except if you do a full backup of your HDD which I highly recommend!

That, of course, is not needed if you replaced your HDD with a SSD. Then just keep your HDD on some safe place and do a clean install on the SSD. In case of warranty you can simply put the HDD back into the Chronos.

 

I will be very interested if you gentlemen can point us to an image backup solution that can restore Recovery Partitions and preserve the F4 link -- other than using the tools built into Samsung Recovery. There may well be one, but it is NOT Acronis or Paragon or Terabyte -- nor Windows Backup & Restore (oddly renamed to Windows 7 File Recovery in Win8).

We have hundreds of posts in other threads of this forum discussing how to backup, restore and/or re-create Recovery partitions on Samsung computers -- precisely because normal image backups do not restore the F4 link, and because many people only discover this too late.

The problem is not a failure to accurately save and restore the partitions themselves (as goibhniu mentioned) but rather that the F4 link is stored in the MBR/GPT table using some secret Samsung magic.

Fortunately Samsung made Factory Image and Recovery backup and cloning a lot easier with Samsung Recovery Solution 6 (which comes with Win8-delivered models). In SRS5 it was a highly involved procedure (as described here). But if you know an imaging utility that does this correctly, you will help a lot of Samsung owners around here. Mostly future ones, I guess, who didn't already wipe their original Recovery partitions

 

Why go get software when you can use Samsung recovery.
Also the name srs5 or 6 is misleading. When i had to do the backup people in the forums were talking about SRS, something i thought i didnt have. Just type recovery in windows and it should be there.



Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

I apologize, SRS5 and SRS6 are the names we've used here in the past and short for Samsung Recovery Solution 5 and 6, respectively. I didn't even think about it. I am NOT referring to the Windows package, but rather to the software on the Recovery Partition (the one you boot with F4) -- though of course they are related.

I agree, using the built-in Samsung tools is preferable when they can do the job (which they could NOT until recently). And I Liked and Rep'ed your post about this for the same reason

But notice how many people use 3rd party imaging/cloning tools, assuming they're safe. We're trying to help them before they lose their Recovery.

One legitimate reason is to make an image backup/clone BEFORE you boot anything for the first time. But even that shouldn't be a problem: Using Recovery DOES indeed create a log entry (and stamps the purchase date of the PC) but those can be reset with the right tools.

 

I'm so confused XD So whats the best way to get my SSD running with windows from the HDD which doesn't lose restore etc

 

No worries.
Think im going to make how to guide.
I didnt have a clue either, with a lot of trial and error i got it working.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

Step 1: Get an external usb hard drive enclosure and place the SSD inside. Connect this to the laptop.

Step 2: Press F4 when turning on the laptop to open the samsung Recovery tool.

Step 3: Click the disc clone feature and let it run.

Step 4: When completed, remove the bottom panel and replace old hard drive with SSD.

Step 5: Done!

This is the best way and it will maintain the F4 recovery link, recovery partition and included software.

 

My knight in shining armor! Thank you!

 

ATIV Book 5 and 6 on Samsung's site!! AND YOU CAN BUY IT!

No ATIV Book 8 though...

 

Is there any big difference between the series 7 chronos and the ativ 6? price/specs are similar and only speakers have changed?

 

I posted all this a couple hours ago...

 

Oddly, it's lighter, but also thicker.

??

 

Yeah that's what I meant, looks like the chronos 7 @ bestbuy is still the better buy

 

It's still there: Samsung 15.6" TouchScreen Laptop 8GB Memory 1TB Hard Drive NP780Z5E-S01UB - Best Buy

Best Buy's site organization is terrible. Always has been, probably always will be. I've had the most success searching by model number (or partial model number) because there is no consistency with the way the products are entered into their system or categorized.

 

Well, it actually just came back. I looked at it a couple hours ago and they had only 60 Samsung's references in the laptop section. Now they have 61, and the NP780 appeared again... Some kind of glitch I guess.

 

So I'm officially starting to think the US won't be getting the 8870... I was positive when the ATIV series came out they would've been with an 8870, but it seems they've screwed us over twice now. Anyone else thinking of the Best Buy version, or should I keep waiting?

 

How big is the difference between the 8870 and the 8770? Here in Canada we have the 8870 version for $1700 vs. US bestbuy for $1200. If the 8870 version comes out soon I hope it won't cost as much as it does over here in Canada

 

The Canadian version has other advantages - 16GB RAM, and i7 (the Best Buy model is I think an i5).

 

Hello all. I've been following this thread for a while but this is my first post on the site.

I just purchased the Series 7 Chronos np770z7e 17-inch and was having some issues. In the case that it will help someone, I wanted to post my findings here.


1. AMD Radeon HD 8870 GPU didn't appear to be correctly installed.

In all of my games, the AMD Radeon 8870 GPU wasn't available to select. The AMD Catalyst software seemed to identify the Intel HD 4000 card as the only available card. After a lot of research, it turns out that the AMD graphics card is intentionally hidden. Applications will only be able to see the Intel HD 4000 card. However, the system automatically switches in the background to the AMD Radeon when using 'High Performance' settings.

I was able to verify this is true by running GPU-Z whilst playing Skyrim. That app is able to see the AMD Radeon card and you can see it's usage go up and down as I paused and un-paused the game.


2. The hard drive does not have ExpressCache

I assumed, without paying attention, that this latest model would have ExpressCache, just like its predecessor. It does not. It uses the IntelliMem software to use some of the RAM as a cache instead.


3. Extreme RAM Usage

After booting, running a few applications and then shutting them down my Memory Usage stays above 5GB! Right now all I have open is Chrome and I'm at 5.7GB (74% of physical memory). I don't know what is causing this.


Well, that's it. If anyone has any suggestions about the RAM usage, I would appreciate any info.

Cheers!

 

Its sad that Samsung still has no comment on the fact that the 8870 on series 7 might not come in the US. I means just say it or let us know what is going on Samsung!! Frustrating...

 

IS there a problem if you are going from a 1TB HD to a 512SSD as long as there is lessthe 500GB on the HD (in my case way less)

 

Any word on availability of the matte screen version with or without the 8870?

Touch capability generally adds to the price, right? The touch 780Z5E is going for $1,200 at US Bestbuy right now, and there was a sale earlier at $1,100 IIRC. If I could snag a matte, no touch version for $1-1.1K, I'd be a happy camper. Provided, of course, the image retention issue isn't a deal breaker.

BTW, I believe all variants use the same i7-3635QM processor, no? The differences are in the screen type and discrete graphics.