New Samsung Series 7 NP700Z7C-S01US Laptop i7 3615QM 650m Review!

Glad to hear that the 8GB stick worked. I have one (DDR3 1600) on the way as well as a 128GB Samsung 830 SSD. I also ordered the 2nd HDD caddy to put the stock drive in where the dvd drive is.

- Garrett

 

For those playing Diablo 3, please post your FPS with everything maxed.

 

Where would one find these new gt 650m drivers? i am stuck with the ones samsung provides and the nvidia site isnt showing the 650 at all in the driver download section

thanks in advance!

 

Samsung easy software manager should give you the latest nvidia drivers.

 

Picked up the latest nvidia driver + modded inf file from laptopvideo2go.com

Had no issues so far! And performance is improved.

 

Diablo played flawlessly, with all settings on high and minimal heat from the keyboards. Got damn i love this machine! high quality screen and awesome sound w/o the "look at me!" style of the series 7 gamer.. next stop? guild wars 2, then next year: aliens colonial marines!

 

So, anyone tried Battlefield 3 on it? Just wonder what to expect if playing at native resolution.

 

Damn it gets choppy for me with max shadows in diablo 3......and the fps jumps.....maybe its my driver, not sure whats up

 

I get the occasional lag every once in a while, though I think it is the servers because if you turn on the FPS, it jumps around like crazy from like 50-100.

 

Just tried diablo 3 with everything maxxed, and it runs fine, but not perfect, fps is in 40-60fps area with a few dips below 40fps. But HDD working is causing lagspikes when I play, that is very annoying - doesn't happen on my asus N55SF. Both got 5400rpm HDD's, so the samsung disk in the 700Z7C must be really crappy since I have no issues with my Asus N55SF with an seagate HDD.

 

what u doing with that crappy disk in that beautiful laptop anyway.... get rid of it. Get a modern SSD and go flying. You will love it!

 

Yeah I know, but according to my understanding that will not make that much of a difference. For me I think the amount has more inpact on performance than the speed. I could not find any single 8GD 1600 sticks on my prefered retailers here in Sweden. And hey it was only 50$

Just wanted to share my experience. I guess if you can find one go for a 1600.

 

Two questions for the people who own this laptop. Have any of you owned a Clevo in the past, and how would you rate it vs something like a W170? Similar specs to a W170, but that one comes out a little bit cheaper so I'm a bit torn.

Second, touchpad placement. It looks like it's off to the left a bit more than it is on other laptops (or maybe just a bigger touchpad). Do you notice that your palms are striking the touchpad and making your cursor jump around?

 

If anyone finds a 8GB 1600 module on US retailers, please post a link.

Found this (with CAS 10 and others with CAS 11):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233264

 

You can disable the touchpad with the Fn key + something (see manual).
So that shouldn't be much of a concern, and your palms are placed a bit around the pad not really on it.

 

Oh I know you can disable the touchpad, but that's really inconvenient. Especially when working with documents that need a lot of image adjustment etc. You just can't keep typing, then reenabling the touchpad everytime you need to do something slightly. I had a HPDV9000 at one point and I basically had to can it because my palms kept hitting the trackpad, despite turning down sensitivity to nearly nothing.

Oh, also does this trackpad allow scrolling using the right side of the trackpad or does it REQUIRE the multigesture scrolling only?

 

Edge scrolling works. But needs to be enabled specifically.

 

There's a lot of settings in the registry. For example, you may want to look at the DisableWhenType options at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Elantech\SmartPad.

John

 

Hi community,

I got my Chronos yesterday! Great hardware! There is only one issue, which is quite annoying. When using the "Fn"-key to change the volume or brightness, it takes a few seconds to respond (the volume/brightness image in the middle of the screen doesn't appear instantly). I think this has something to do with the "Easy Settings" tool, which activates those "fn" shortcuts...

Anybody having the same issue?

Best regards,
Dominik (Munich, Germany)

 

Any issue with WIFI, as in previous version of Chronos 7 ?
Also, any issue on watching HD youtube video ?

 

Different model (17'3 didn't exist before), it uses completely different components.

From the screen to WiFi card, hope that helps.

 

To specifically answer your questions: no issues with wifi under Windows 7. None.

If you are planning to run Linux on this laptop, get the latest linux firmware for the wifi card and upgrade to latest kernel. You will still be limited to 54Mbps speeds on Linux. The fixes are under way.

No issues watching youtube videos on Windows or Linux.

 

Any of the current owners own/owned a Alienware M17x before?
If yes how does the screen compare to AW?

Samsung and their shi.. launch/supply issues with all their products.
Supplier only had 4 for sale, and the damn price jumped up by 200 euro (300 USD ish).

Which is pissing me off because I was going to get one next week.
Now I ''might'' have to wait till June 6th until they restock.

 

I noticed that as well but when I replaced the hard drive with an SSD it responds instantly now.

 

The M17x is a glossy screen so it is tough to compare.

 

1624,- euro for this Samsung vs a 1500,- euro for a M17xR4 with GT 660M.
It's because of the size of the AW that I'm holding back.
But the pricing is retarded as hell, not to mention the AW can be ''fully'' customized when it comes to it's internal parts.

A bit difficult decision, I seriously need a laptop ASAP though.

 

I just got this laptop and has finished putting in the Samsung 830 256 GB SSD.

By the way, my fingers and nails are still hurting from trying to pry the cover off to replace the hard drive.

Now I want to put in more RAM.

Would this RAM work?

Centon 8GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory - Fry's Deal

It is an 8 GB DDR3-1333Mhz memory.

 

It would but it's slower, why not go with 1600mhz?
The current RAM that's in the laptop runs at 1600mhz (2x4gb I believe).
For such a premium laptop might as well go that extra mile to make it even better.

Corsair Vengeance :3

 

Hello. I don't mind paying higher price for the RAM. I did not know what type of RAM the laptop has so it was my mistake for thinking of getting of a cheaper RAM. You are right, if the current RAM is at 1600mhz, it would be wise to get the same. Thanks for the info and the link.

 

Do you have the exact link to the driver? I could not find the specific one for this laptop (Samsung 7 NP700Z7C-S01US)

Oh, how do you modded the inf file? I have never done anything like this before?

Can you provide easy step-by-step guide to mod the file? Thanks.

 

Where did you order the 2nd HDD caddy ?

 

Where can I find the Samsung easy software manager?

 

I know you're excited but take your time to figure some basic stuff out

Under the Software tab, enjoy.

 

Mind uploading both files to some host and put up the link?
What do you mean the performance improved, in what sense?

 

Can anyone benchmark Battlefield 3 on this thing pleas?

 

I've read through this thread and didn't seem to see it, but did anyone report on the CPU/GPU temps after running something standard like Furmark or Prime95?

I'm looking to see how cooling compares to a similarly specced Clevo or MSI.

 

I picked it up from here:

2nd hard drive or SSD Caddy for Samsung Series 7 [OBHD9-SATA-SATA-NF] - $42.00 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

It is not cheap, but it give me a piece of mind to know that it works with the Series 7. I just received it today and still waiting on the ram and ssd to arrive.

- Garrett

 

Same here. Very tempted by this notebook but at the same time very rebuked by :

- Price (Amazon.fr has it listed at €1500 ) though secondary if I get a perfect notebook

- Temps
- Potential throttling

The combination of those two being the worst imaginable issue on any notebook for me.

 

Exactly. Price is a secondary concern to me if I feel like I've gotten a notebook that'll last me that I'm satisfied with.

 

Not sure about France/US but as I stated in one of my post a Alienware M17x with 660M is cheaper than this Samsung (Netherlands).

Which has a better airflow/cooling system, GPU, and can easily be upgraded.
I'm started to doubt this Samsung due to the advice price they gave and shops are asking for it 1600 Euro > 1900xx USD....complete BS.

 

Tech stuff, particularly notebooks, always have a higher price tag in Europe. So that's not a total surprise even though $1 -> €1 is pretty steep. Also I know about Alienware but they're considerably less portable and they just don't cut it in a business environment...

 

Hi I've got a couple of questions. I was all set to buy the series 7 with the gtx 675 and dual hdd's until I read laptop mag's review where they said surface temps got as high as 120' on the keyboard and 150' on the back. So my question is, now that everybody has had their series 7 from best buy, would you recommend it? Thanks!

 

Ive been doing powerpoint/photoshop stuff on it (around 4 hours non stop) and havent felt it get that hot at all

 

Doh, I didn't even notice that the trackpad didn't have any buttons, forcing you to use the 'tap to click' functions. Ugh. . . that's a total dealbreaker.

 

There is "technically" two buttons on the bottom, right click and left click. It is a little hard to explain, but it is a button that you can press, it is just flat.

 

Still, not a good solution since the buttons are also movement sensitive, so I often end up marking and clicking or moving something and clicking at same time. Which often end up in disaster.

 

How does this work? I mean I do click to tap about half the time, but clicking and dragging basically requires a real button to do properly (at least for me).

I don't really get why Samsung would just remove functionality from their laptops like that. Seems completely retarded to me.

 

Hi twodice , thanks for the info, maybe laptop mag just got a lemon. They also said it came with dual 750gb 7,200rpm drives with 8gb cache and the drive speeds were slow.

 

At the bottom of the touchpad, which is the button, you can actually press it down as if it were a button. It is hard to explain, but if there is a best buy near you or something, check out the laptop and you will see what I mean.

 

The buttons are covered by the whole trackpad layout, but underneath that there are physical buttons.

I think he was trying to explain it like that