Introducing The 2013 Series 7 Chronos with AMD HD8870M!

Thanks. That let me see what was going on. The primary partition alone has 65gb of space taken up so I can't clone it to my lil 50gb drive. Looks like ill have to buy an ssd to test this out.

So, crucial m4 or samsung 840? 256/250gb or 512/500gb. ? decisions decisions.

 

Well no don't use recovery just download a disc migration program off the internet. 50gb might be too small though that could be a reason why

EDIT: Ooops, didn't see your other posts until I posted this

840 Pro all the way oh my god....

Fastest one out there that is still reasonably priced...over 500mb/s read AND write!!!

 

Agree, amazing drive. Outta my budget. I'm looking at either the 840 with its new 3 bit cells and super fast reads or crucial m4 for more tried and true.

 

Has anyone tried running Hyper-V on this - either under Windows 8 or 2012?

Also, what are the chances of it working with 16GB sodimms when they become available? The 3rd gen i5 and i7s all seem to be specced to support a max of 32GB RAM - so the Best Buy model could possibly go to 20GB...

 

Review of the Series 7 Chronos said ; " The biggest change here is the 1080p PLS touchscreen panel"


From the detailed review linked above, this might also be of interest to those interested in a matte screen " There’s also a matte non-touch display, but that’s only TN and 1366x768 and will likely not be offered in the US."

 

Compare the best buy tag "Samsung NP780Z5E-01UB "(Chronos 7 series) to the HP Spectre XT Touchsmart Ultrabook 15t-4000?????

 

These two are very different machines... The HP is running a ULV dual core CPU while the Samsung is running a quad core higher voltage i7. The HP is limited to hd4000 graphics while the samsung has an hd4000 for battery use and a dedicated 8770m card for more demanding tasks. Normally the advantage of the HP over other would be its battery life as it sips power by using low voltage parts.... but in the case of the samsung, it still gets beat on battery life due to the use of a 91000mwh battery in the chronos which gives it exceptional battery life.

 

Right now i'm leaning toward the samsung 840 250gb. Microcenter has it for the low low price of $149.

 

PLS is for the 13 inch version not the 15.6

 

I asked this in the other thread but can anyone confirm is there is an issue with this machine on dual booting linux or downgrading to windows 7? Would the touch screen still work if I were using windows 7 instead of windows 8? Also, if anyone who has one is willing to do some videos, could we see some more gameplay with games like World of Warcraft, COD, Starcraft 2, or whatever you happen to have lying around?

 

Like ALL windows 8 machines, you will need to turn off secure boot in bios if you want to install another OS or setup dual boot.

That said, I can see zero reason for backing up to windows 7. Windows 8 has the same desktop as windows 7, boots in 1/4 the time and generally runs faster. In Win7 you click the windows icon, click in the search box and start typing to find an app or file... in windows 8 you hit the windows key and start typing. I have found ZERO applications which don't behave exactly the same in win7 as Win8.

I do run Windows XP, Linux and occasionally OSX in virtual machines when I need something specific. I'm a developer on multiple platforms and find Virtual Machines much more manageable than dual booting. That way I can run multiple OSs side by side for testing things out, setting up virtual networks etc. and when I get a new machine I can easily port my VMs instead of spending lots of time reinstalling everything on a new box. Virtual Box works great for this and its free.

 

There was someone who tried installing Windows 7 but was unable to find drivers, so virtually nothing worked. Also, be careful with this: AnandTech - Samsung Laptops Bricked by Booting Linux Using UEFI

 

Pics from the inside of 770Z7E-S01, 17,3" Version
Samsung 770Z7E-S01 43,9 cm Notebook silber: Amazon.de: Computer & Zubehör

 

Can't you simply use Win8 function to restore to default?
Samsung bloat should be gone after.

Amazon.de changed 770Z5E (matte) availibility to 2-4 weeks from 1-2 months !
On Preorder it says "estimated delivery 26th march".

 

I've been thinking of this too. Probably would work!

 

Fully restoring it keeps everything. Unless you are talking about doing it another way.

 

You can choose if you want to refresh (keep apps) or completly wipe:
How to restore, refresh, or reset your PC - Microsoft Windows Help

That's new in win8. It worked to clean up a Series 9...

 

No. The review clearly says the Series 7 Chronos has a PLS touchscreen and shows a picture of the 15" Chronos. Here is the paragraph in full

"The updated Series 7 Chronos, too, was something I was pretty interested in looking at. I had my Series 7 on me when I went to the Samsung booth, so I got a pretty good feel for the hardware differences side by side. (It also had a confused Samsung engineer asking where I got the older Series 7 from, since there shouldn’t have been one anywhere on the show floor.) The biggest change here is the 1080p PLS touchscreen panel, and a slight amount of added thickness to go with that. There’s also a matte non-touch display, but that’s only TN and 1366x768 and will likely not be offered in the US. "

The 13 inch Series 7 Ultra ALSO has a PLS touchscreen

"The most interesting product at Samsung’s booth for me was the Series 7 Ultra, which is very high on my list for next-notebook-purchase. Why is that? It’s got a 13.3” 1080p PLS touchscreen,"

 

Whats the main difference between 840 and 840 PRO, I read some reviews and they recommended 840 Pro for intensive users, something like that it will last longer than 840.

 

Unfortunately I'm that page they write:

That is NOT a review, that is just a vague article written immediately after CES, it's outdated. The Samsung Rep at CES said that the 15" Chronos 7 has a MVA display, and on the Samsung websites there's no mention about any crappy 1366x768 versions, only FullHD

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The 840 Pro has well over 500mb/s read AND write speeds, while the normal 840 has around 480mb/s read and 150mb/s write.

 

The 840 Pro is somewhat the successor to the 840, it has very fast read and write speeds and like most ssds has 2 bit cells for storing data. The 840 is a new design, it has 3 bit cells for storing data, it has fast read speeds (even faster than the 840 pro) and pretty good write speeds. The thing about the 840 is its 3 bit storage cells... it has advantages and disadvantages... the disadvantage is that it can wear faster using the voltage guessing game that ssd controllers use to set or erase storage cells. The 840s answer to this is that it has a DSP (digital signal processor) that monitors voltage so it doesn't play that guessing game but instead writes with just the required voltage extending life. So in theory without the DSP it would probably last about 2/3 as long as a 2 bits per cell ssd, but with the dsp it could theoretically last 30-50 times as along as it would otherwise.

I did a bit of research this afternoon before giving it a shot... im cloning my HD now.

 

Those times are a little slow from what ive read... its benched on with over 500mb/s reads and 250mb/s writes. 340mb/s if you go with the 500mb. I think the 120mb is slower though, more in line with your quoted performance now that I think about it. I went with the 250 given the sale price at microcenter. Almost went 500mb for $279 but figured if i put that much into it i should probably wait for the 8870 model instead. lol.

 

Phase I - Completed successfully. I cloned the HD to the samsung 840 250gb ssd, adjusting partition sizes as needed to fit the smaller space. I then adjusted my boot options in bios and was able to successfully boot from the drive connected via USB 3 and it worked fine. Next step is opening the case and doing the actual swap.

 

Great
Any way you can record yourself opening the case?

 

I agree! Please do this. I would really like to see the best way to do this.

 

After that, are you going to do the "Reset" option in Windows options like we talked about?

 

The best way to do this is the big question... I have all the screws out, and know I need to start at the hinge but its just not giving.

Don't have a way to film while im doing it, and so far it would be a boring film. lol.

 

my atto benchmarks shows consistant 550 reads / and 245 writes on the 840 250gb model, this is with 40% of the drive filled as well

i originally was going for the 840pro or 840 500gb, but in the long run, i couldnt pass up the 140-150$ price tag on the recent 840's.. my needs on this laptop were more READ than anything..

840 w/ fast boot, 4-5 seconds you cant beat that, you guys wont regret it

oh also a quick tip with the top left/right hinges... you arent going to FORCEFULLY break it even if you applied a little pressure.. theres no way getting them out if you didnt

there is a SPRING <=====> horizontally on both sides, and you guys need to be able to lift OVER it.. i started off really gentle attempting not to break it, i didnt get anywhere till 25 minutes later until i decided i wasn't getting anywhere without attempting to break the damn hinge.. LOl

 

Someone a few pages back told how to do it...use a credit card to pry from the seam.

 

This sounds really complicated just by someone explaining it by text haha....we seriously need a disassembly video made and put on YouTube.

 

Eureka! After playing with it for quite a while I decided to forget what I had heard and approach it fresh... its ALOT easier that I was making it out to be. Once it clicked I had it apart, the new drive installed and it back together in all of 10 minutes.

Dis-assembly Instructions

1. User the reset button on the back to disable power before you start.
2. Remove the memory door and memory. Not strictly necessary but one less thing to worry about.
3. Remove all the screws on the back of the unit.
4. Now use a credit card (something plastic so you dont scratch) along the EDGE OF THE CASE WHERE IT OPENS... The OPPOSITE OF THE HINGE. The case will star separating fairly easy and you will here it pop at it separates, this is normal. Once you have the front separated, continue on both sides equally until you reach the back... once you reach the back it will just come off.

My problem was starting at the back... its really not designed to come off that way, I just got that idea from watching the videos and reading posts about it being difficult to get started around the hinge. If you start in the front the hinge area is never a problem it just comes off.

Once you have the new drive put in... slip the cover over the back and click it into place and then just press it along the edges and it will easily click back into place.


First Boot With A cloned Drive
On first boot it went into 'automatic repairs' then 'attempting repairs' for a couple minutes then it booted. I think it was reconfiguring windows for the new drive characteristics. I haven't done any cleanup or reset on the OS yet. just exploring a bit. Its boot speed is now under 10 seconds, but not by much at this point, unoptimized.

I ran CrystalDiskMark on the new drive:
Seq
- 510.2mb/s read (251 on the toshiba ssd in my vizio)
- 253.9mb/s write (153 ...)
512k
- 416.4mb/s read (204.1... )
- 245.4mb/s write (92.44...)
4k
- 25.29mb/s read (17.64...)
- 48.24mb/s write (10.34...)
4k qd32
- 381.5mb/s read (62.76...)
- 244.7mb/s write (9.632...)

So its about twice as fast if not more than my vizio ssd in every respect. Impressed.

The windows Experience Index is showing 8.1 for the disk now.

 

Amazing! I am going to consult this post when I eventually get my Chronos and do the same thing! Now man, do that Windows Reset!!

 

Unfortunately in that page they write:

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which SSD fit? 7mm or 9mm height?

 

17" has a complete different motherboard and cooling system.
Cooling system seems much better than what we have seen in 15" from best buy, so maybe the thermal performance on 15" mighty be slightly worse and this means that 15" (with 8870m) could have more problems to run at max power.

 

Analyzing the picture of 780Z5E with 8770m from BestBuy:


It seems the there is grill without fan (on the right just near to GPU heatsink) so looks like the 15" chassis might use the 17" motherboard, but this is a very big speculation, because the position of ram slot is incompatible with the 15" bottom that until now we have seen.

 

7mm. I used a samsung 840 250gb model.

 

I did a windows reset and that went off without a hitch. Almost everything is working great on the chronos with the new drive in place. Its booting in 8-9 seconds and I did the first 2 hours of the battery test I did before with playing video...the original test went 6:18 (and at 2 hrs was on target to go 7)... this time at 2hrs it was on target to go 8:15. So im guessing the SSD probably buys close to an hour of extra battery life.

I'm still having a problem though...

The recovery partition is present on the HD but pressing F2 will not load it, also running the samsung recovery application says that it can't find the recovery partition.

Anyone know a way to reset the restore partition so its working again?

 

Not sure, but I usually delete those recovery partitions. Don't really need them at all in my opinion.

 

17" is identical to the previous 17" 700Z7C when it comes to cooling system. The cooling system is slightly undersized making keyboard a bit hot and cause slight throttle for the 700z7c I had at least.

 

yea, i'd delete that recovery partition, and run a reset if possible

you dont want unnecessary space taken up on your SSD. Since you cloned it, you should start over fresh, eliminating samsung bloatware and when you get everything up and running turn back on FASTBOOT, this thing is amazing with fast boot on

you have a higher chance using windows recovery (when needed) and starting fresh, than you do with samsung recovery partition, could be subjective i mean.. ya know

that recovery is just going to sit there and eat up 30gb or whatever it is

 

Well, i wanted a factory restore just in case so after trying to talk samsung into sending me a disk (they don't have them to send anymore) I went the long way round. I swapped back to the HD, ran restore from it and wrote a factory restore disk to a drive I had laying around. Tested it and it boots up fine so mission accomplished there.

Now im back to the SSD... there are alot of partitions on this thing... 2 samsung and one 1 windows restore partition, etc. whats safe to kill. I know the big 20gb one is fair game but not sure about the others.

Btw... the case is easy to open/close... just gotta remember to start at the front.

 

yea i think there were 3 extra partitions that has to do with recovery/imaging, i deleted all of them, but i did the same as you, i ran a backup recovery on an external before i migrated over

so it looks like you're keeping this

 

There is also a 128mb partition thats unformatted... have no idea if its for hibernate or what.

Yea, its looking more and more like I'm keeping it. The performance and battery life are just amazing especially with the SSD installed. and only paying $149 for a 250gb ssd kinda cinched it.

 

I'm leaning towards keeping, same as Alchemist as well.

Do we have a general consensus on this IntelligentMemory thing? More useless than useful? I'm honestly not noticing anything negative with the HDD and application response, but I'm not pushing the computer as hard as others might be.

 

I've had intellimemory on and off and didn't notice a huge difference either way, except my ram in use was always much higher when using intellimemory. I tend to run Virtual Machines alot so i'm usually memory starved and will likely keep it off for that purpose but I haven't seen it as a big problem either way.

Besides boot, shutdown and launch speeds a big difference ive noticed since moving to the SSD is that when it was grabbing all the windows updates... When it did it the first time with the HD, if you looked at it in task manager the HD spent most of its time at 100% or near it utilization. When doing the same thing with the ssd, it rarely hit over 10%. Basically this shows that when doing downloads and installs that the bottleneck was the HD... since the SSD had no problem keeping up it never got bogged down performance wise. As a result you could be doing other things without taking a performance hit on the HD.

 

I put in my Seagate Momentus XT 750gb hybrid hard drive, and it's such a dramatic difference from the stock HDD. I don't have huge space concerns w/ 750gb, but it does annoy me that the recovery partitions take up 30gb.

I had some trouble booting from a USB drive to clone the existing drive to the new one (SecureBoot UEFI related), so it makes me a little nervous to completely erase the recovery partitions. But like someone else said, you're much more likely to just use Windows Restore, or nothing at all and just start from scratch.

It would be awesome if someone writes a step-by-step for starting from a clean hard drive.

Also--is there a way to completely turn off SecureBoot? I think I might have turned mine off, but I can't tell for sure. The options aren't very straight-forward.

 

Warning, because someone has bricked his Samsung notebook using a USB drive, because some software uses Linux as OS even to clone hard disk.

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Does anyone know of the 8870 version will have any significant throttling?