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

To anyone who replaced the ODD drive with a hard drive caddy to put the 1TB drive in after upgrading to a SSD...

I ordered one of these: SATA 2nd HDD Hard Drive Caddy for 9 5mm Universal CD DVD ROM Optical Bay | eBay as suggested, but the unit I received didn't seem to have the screw holes threaded where the screws go for the clamps/mounts go. I tried my best to just force one of the screws in as I have a proper toolkit and the exact screw bit required, however ... I ended up just messing up that screw and literally snapping my bit (a little disappointing as it's not the easiest screwdriver bit to get).

Anyhow, I was wondering if any others out there experienced the same problem, or if I just got a defective unit that missed going through the threading machine properly.

.. and yes, it took me 3 years to make my first post .. had to make sure it was important

 

Hi everyone,

I hear this ambient venting noise coming from inside the laptop.

It's hard to describe, but it sounds like "psss psss psssss psss" and it occurs non-stop in a pulsitile manner even when the laptop is idle.

I was wondering if anyone knows what is causing this noise? Is it the harddrive? The sound is not very loud, but it is annoying when I am trying to work / read in a quiet environment.

Thanks!

 

I believe I may have been the person that linked that ebay caddy. I do remember bending one of the ODD guide rod things to get the screw hole to align properly, and even then the piece of aluminum seemed to be under a great bit of stress. However it did work... If you are really having problems and are concerned about messing something up severely. I would recommend another caddy discussed on this forum, I believe it was like $40 and the person that brought it up said no modification was required to install it.
It is also possible that they may have modified the ebay caddy mounting hardware from the revision that I purchased. Your best bet may to dig through this forum for one that is 100% guaranteed compatibility.

 

Has anyone tried installing Windows as UEFI on this? Does it have any benefits?

 

So what is the color gamut of the screen and the SRGB coverage?

 

Review Samsung Series 7 Chronos 700Z7C Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

So is the wireless issue resolved on the S03 models and the newer bestbuy models with windows 8?

 

I had the exact problem...turns out it was one of the cooling fan. Try pressing against the vent hole at the bottom...if you press it hard enough it would stop the fan and if the noise go away, bingo. You could also turn on the quiet mode and the PC but that does not really solve the root of the problem. What I ended up doing instead of returning the PC cause I got a really good deal, was end up opening up the laptop, got the part number of the fan, and order a replacement.

 

I have a WD usb 3 HDD, and I installed windows 8 on my 17' chronos. If I cold boot it the device is connected as USB 3.0 device, but whenever I wake it up from sleep it is stuck at usb 2.0 speed. Anyone has any solution to this? Thanks

 

Hi guys,
So I am deciding between the 700z7c or the asus n56vz. It will not be used mainly for gaming but gaming is something I would like to do on occasions and during some periods maybe more but I dont need the best of the best graphic card so the 650m is enough for me. It should last me a few years atleast.

I also read many places that this laptop has problems with the heat and throttling (due to the power adapter only going up to max 90 W).

Now I just had some questions.

I dont really care much if the laptop gets a little bit warm on the outside when gamin, but more interested in the internal temps. I dont know what is max temps for this particular process and gpu but maybe u guys know more. I jsut want to know that it doesnt go to high to decrese the life of the laptop? Does it ever throttle because the temperatures go high or not? Would the high temp decrese the life of the laptop or is it within normal at all times when gaming?

Does the 90 W limit of the adapter ever cause any problems when gaming. I understand that 90 watts is a little to little for this laptop but would u see noticable in game fram drops because of this?

Also anyone know if the samsung has good support for warranty on their laptops. I know asus sucks and maybe samsung is better.

Awsome thread although I have been reading and reading and would appreciate the answer to these questions as this thread is massive .

Appreciate the help!

 

Thanks for your reply! Do you use "fn key + F11" go to on silent mode? That doesnt seem to help for me. Or is there another way to turn off the fan?

I'm afraid of opening up the laptop to replacement the fan because I'm a tech newbie x_x I'll probably damage something.

 

I will ask again, is the wireless issue resolved on the S03 models?

 

I have the BB version, and don't have any wifi issues.

 

Hi guys. I was upgrading the ram to crossfire. I thought it was possible to upgrade to 16gb because this Motherf... said so while disassembling the device Samsung 7 Intel i7 3615QM Nvidia 650M 17" Laptop SSD & Memory Install by Paul Nelson - YouTube
And because of him I unscrewed everything and flipped the motherboard and surprised to not to find any other ram slot. While cursing the guy I put the 8gb new ram and reassembled the device and hoped that it would work but it didnt. Device turns on every thing starts working including the hdd but screen doesnt come on. I tried 2 more times to disassemble and reassemble but with the same result. I have removed 8gb and put back the stock ram and ended up with the same problem.Is anyone experienced enough to guide me through . I have checked all the connections on the motherboard and verified that everything is in it's place by the pictures I took before unscrewing the motherboard. I dont wanna take it to the service and say I screwed up because then they would charge me
And I have one more question if any of you guys would be kind to answer. Since that we can only upgrade up to 12 gb maximum currently,does it matter what kind of ram you upgrade to regarding the speed like 1600mhz and the latency ... did any of you guys upgraded this little monster to its maximum ???
Thx in advanced for both of my questions and just to be clear with my previous problem, My screen doesnt come on and keyboard backlight doesnt come up and I cant even tell if it is capable of booting to the windows r not because I left my Backtrack 5 bootable DVD inside and Fn+Del doesnt do anything. And since there is no other way to eject a dvd from this Dvd-rom I dont know what to do. I have already tried vga and hdmi port with no success Any help would be greatly appreciated ...

 

Holy cow 330,000 views! Thanks for keeping the thread alive So since this laptop Ive owned the Lenovo Y580, MSI GX60 so far I love the MSI lol

 

Sorry about that

 

Hey , man sorry nothing personal . I know that it is you who made that video and it is my mistake to not to research enough before doing such a complicated process... But I am sure you would understand how frustrated I am
So can you tell me what type of ram have you used to upgrade to 12gb . Is it 1333mhz or 1600mhz or lower and the latency of the ram...
thx

 

I'm still wondering, if I should upgrade to Windows 8 for this laptop. As I seem to gather, the main downside to doing that is you lose 3.0 USB. Is this still a problem?

 

So I bought one of these this past August off of Cowboom, very well my first mistake. I had been following this thread and it really looked like a lot of bang for the buck.

I upgraded to the SSD and 12GB of ram like most people seem to do.

I have recently been playing World of Warcraft on it...yeah I know, nerdy, but it kills time. The game has been running superb for the past 6 weeks or so on Ultra graphics. Occasionally it seemed like the graphics engine or whatever in the game would reset during play. I really never thought anything of it. Last night I was playing and I started getting these weird black triangles all over the screen and weird trippy looking lines. Since then I've done basically everything the WOW forums suggest as a remedy. This morning I tried to see what it looked like in Diablo 3 and Guild Wars 2. Both had the same weird graphics issue. When I delete the Nvidia drivers and only run the Intel stuff WOW looks fine, but obviously choppy as hell at that graphics level. I've also tried a few different Nvidia revs to see if it was the latest update, no help at all.

Everything else seems fine.

Does this sound like a dying video card? If so has anyone else had similar issues?

Has anyone ever replaced a video card in these? I'm not sure its even possible...

TIA

 

What was the mistake you made with Cowboom?

Would you mind running the PCMark7 benchmark and let me know the score?

Free Download: Download PCMark 7 - Complete PC test for Windows 7 | PCMark

 

I meant spending $800 on a used laptop with no warranty was probably not a good idea.

I'll try to do the PCMark thing tonight.

 

The used laptops from cowboom come with full manufacturer's warranty. It's the refurbished ones that have limited warranty.

 

Interesting....

When I first bought it I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't boot. Come to find out there was no OS installed on it. But the disk was included... Anyway, the woman I talked to said there was no manufacturer warranty because them selling it used was like some sort of 3rd party. Maybe she was lying to me. But I'm sure I've voided the mfg warranty because I've popped it open to put in the SSD.

 

If you put back the original HDD and haven't done any damage then I would expect Samsung to honor the warranty on the hardware they provided.

John

 

Hey bro I think yours is the graphics card issue and your motherboard needs to be changed. I had a similar problem with the device that I bought from ebay. My graphics card caused blue screen of death as soon as it was active and the motherboard was needed to be changed which took 3 months because I live in Turkey and my device was this Particular US model Just give them back and the company you bought if they provide warranty they should be able to replace your motherboard with no charge... I hope
p.s : could you tell me what type of ram you have used to upgrade regarding speed and latency ... thx

 

It's like if I bought one new at BestBuy then sold it on eBay. The Mfg Warranty would still be intact but I guess the year warranty could be considered to have started at the original purchase and not the 2nd time. Anyway I had a weird problem with the first laptop I got from Cowboom. I contacted Samsung first to do a warranty and they never said I didn't have a warranty, however I ended up sending it back to Cowboom for a replacement (I was within the 30days still).

Like John said you would need to revert the hardware to original configuration. The OS shouldn't be a big deal, I always completely wipe my data (including any kind of OS) before doing any returns or warranty work and have never run into any problems.

 

Sorry, but you got me confused with somebody else's problem. I'm still wondering if I should upgrade this laptop to Windows 8. Apparently, it would be a bad idea to do this, since no one has responded, probably due to the fact that Windows 8, or Samsung, still doesn't have a driver upgrade required to keep USB 3.0, along with other issues..

 

Win 8 has its own usb 3 drivers

They work on mine.

 

Does usb 3 work on yours after waking up standby? I have to reboot my laptop everytime if I want USB 3 on windows 8.

 

Yea, just tried it with my usb 3 removable.

 

So is the wireless issue been fixed yet?

 

Ive been using my laptop for a couple months now. Its absolutely ridiculous value for money. I switched the hdd out for an ssd and put the hdd in an external enclosure so now have a portable hard drive.
I highly recommend the SSD switch. Boot times are under 20 seconds from off to idle. I dont usually bother with sleeping the laptop anymore.
Im lucky i guess and havent had wireless problems yet.

I also tried overclocking the gpu with some success. The laptop doesnt seem to get as hot as some others have suggested. I used NvidiaInspector to overclock the the gpu and am currently running 310.90 driver. These are the settings I used: Note you overclock your own laptop at your own risk. Im merely putting these guidelines in here because I couldnt find this info posted anywhere else for this laptop. These settings are for the 2gb gddr5 model not ddr3.
Once you have downloaded nvidiaInspector take some time to get used to it. Check out some other posts on using it before you try this.
create 3 .bat files in the same folder you have nvidiainspector (this is not required but makes pathing easier). These 3 bat files are for under clock, mid clock, over clock.
in the 3 bat files paste these inputs:
over clock:
nvidiaInspector.exe -setBaseClockOffset:0,0,165 -setMemoryClockOffset:0,0,800 -setGpuClock:0,1,1120 -setMemoryClock:0,1,2680 -forcepstate:0,5

mid clock:
nvidiaInspector.exe -forcepstate:0,5 -setGpuClock:0,1,800 -setMemoryClock:0,1,1600

under clock:
nvidiaInspector.exe -forcepstate:0,8 -setGpuClock:0,0,135 -setMemoryClock:0,0,250

Change the last value of the setmemoryclock and setgpuclock to what you require. These overclock settings will oc your gpu from 745/835 to 1120mHz and memory from 2000 to 2680mHz. With these settings I was hitting 85 degrees C max for gaming. I wouldnt recommend going over 90 degrees C.
If you are going to try this then start at 900mHz for the gpu and 2200mHz for the memory and work your way up until you get BSOD under stress then back it off 50-100mHz and stress test for 24 hours for stability. Overclock each gpu and memory seperately, find the stable point for both then OC both at the same time. Most likely you will get instability when you do this so you will have to back it off another 50-100mHz.

I put a shortcut for the under clock bat into my startup folder so it underclocks the nvidia gpu when i start up. Not required but it helps the battery life slightly.

Only 2 issues Ive had with this laptop are that:
1) the microphone is located at a weird position if you are gaming your left palm covers the mic and gives poor voice quality. Most use and external mic for gaming anyway so this shouldnt be such a problem.
2) the edges of the computer are a bit sharp, this is especially noticeable when you have been gaming/resting your hand on the palm rests for a long period of time. Just wear a sweat band around your wrists and you are good to go!

Hope this helps some.

 

To me, if it was really such a ridiculous value, Samsung would have put a SSD in it to start with.

 

There are still a lot of potential customers who don't appreciate the benefits of an SSD and who work on "bigger is better" so would select a 1TB HDD option even if more expensive than a 256GB SSD.

John

 

I used NvidiaInspector to set my 3D P0 clock to my overclock setting and made a shortcut and placed that in my startup. The 660m is not in use sitting at the desktop, my make all the .bat files?

 

Its just personal preference whether you overclock in the p5 state or p0 state.
As far as I am aware, overclocking in the p0 state will still cause the clocks to jump around between a certain range where as if you force p5 the clocks will be steady. Other bat files are only to force other p states because once you force a certain p state the card wont underclock itself.

 

Spoiler

Does anyone seem to have a "Sinking key" problem? My right shift key, left arrow, 'k', and space bar seem to be "sinking" to the left. This doesn't affect their function, but it looks weird having slanted chiclet keys.

 

the new Model S04 have SSD and HDD:
Samsung Notebook Serie 7 CHRONOS 700Z7C S04
NP700Z7CH
HDD: 64 GB Flash Speicher (m SATA SSD) + 750 GB HDD (7.200 UPM)
ODD: DVD Brenner (Slot-In)

Samsung Notebook Serie 7 CHRONOS 700Z7C S04 - TECHNISCHE DATEN | SAMSUNG

 

But nowhere do I see that the main drive is an SSD. That what I meant in the first place.

 

If that 64GB is mSATA (as suggested in the post) then Samsung would consider that to be the primary boot drive. However, 64GB isn't generous but could be swapped for something bigger while keeping the HDD for bulk storage.

John

 

Do not you think that 64Gb is sufficient for the installation of the operating system? for Windows 8?

 

64GB will hold Windows but, sensibly, you want to have any programs on the SSD as well, plus frequently accessed data. In fact, even if you consciously install programs on the HDD, most installers will add to the files in C:. Hibernation and virtual memory will also want a slice of the SSD but I hope Samsung have had the wisdom to put the recovery partition on the HDD.

John

 

hi John.
thanks for the explanation. that makes sense. maybe it's possible to outsource hibernation and virtual memory to the HDD?

 

You could, but you will lose the SSD speed benefits whenever they are used.

John

 

i just got this baby and i must say im dissapointed with the performanse,display is great but overall speed of laptop is funny,intel 3rd gen i7 quad core with 8gb ram 1600 this slow im shocked,i sold my hp envy 17 i5 2.5ghz 3gen because of this laptop and im suffering right now because envy was so so faster,i have intel ssd 330 series which i will probably install soon but so expensive mashine so top of the line specs and its need 3 seconds to open a settings and it takes 1 second to open a menu on the right click on the desktop please anyone tell me that your sam is acting the same with regular hd? i work alsmost 7 days a week and i really dont have time to read all 195 pages,my sister lenovo i3 perform faster then this,what if i install window 8 from the scratch with just basic drivers which are neded for normal functioning for laptop? even samsung top line android smarphones are slow unless you root them and install custom rom i guess the store is for laptop please advice i dont want to see everyday 3rd gen i7 quad core perform so slow

one edit: mine model is not us its s01ub

 

is anyone is active on this forum? after reading all isues about installing ssd to this laptop im scared to do this,is there any safe procedure for this step by step without booting problems with windows 8? and how i can find a product key for window 8 its not under cover?

 

Wait for the USA evening for more activity. You are correct that Windows 8 + UEFI have made what used to be a relatively simple task much more complicated and I will leave others to explain what works and what doesn't. From what I've read there is no physical Windows 8 -it's coded into the BIOS or UEFI data area.

John

 

john thanks for your reply,im ready to sacrifice 1tb hard drive,im ready to sacrifice windows 8 and product key,im ready to sacrifice everything in order to instal intel ssd into bay,can i do like this:

one NOTE before installing ssd: intel ssd have allready win 8 os from previsious hp laptop

before everything i start i will download only wi fi driver and samsung softvare manager

1/i allready disable fast boot and secure boot
2/ i will make bootable usb drive with win 8 and 2 bootable cds without licence win 8 and win 7 in case
3/ i will switch old hdd with intel ssd (for now ill keep 1 tb hard drive outside of laptop ill figureout later solution for more storage
4/ power on laptop and hit f2 and change boot order to cd or usb hdd drive
5/install win 8

I eill not have problem with partitioning the express cash since only ssd will be present in the lap top right?

can i do today in this order without having any problems to boot and install windows 8 i have version of samsung S01UB not S01US

 

Don't rush until you have had input from those who have beaten this path (I haven't) or you may end up with a problem such as this.

I would suggest that you make sure that the BIOS is up-to-date (I hope that Samsung have addressed some of the recent problems). See this thread for potential BIOS update issues.

You don't need to change the boot order in the BIOS. Press F10 to get a one-time boot menu (note that you may need to use the USB 2.0 port).

John

 

i will go with the bootable cd not usb drive,i just update bios to latest,ok john so you think i cant just take out old hdd and insert ssd and install normaly win 8? im ok and with win 7 too if its possible,in worst case scenario i can always put it back old hdd and everything will be normal right?