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

Hmm... this might be a silly question, but will using the recovery disk included with the laptop provide me with a clean install of 7? Probably not, but... I'd like to get rid of some of this resource hogging. Might as well do it now before I get all my old applications up and running on it.

 

Do you have the correct Samsung part for this? I would like to know so that I could look online to see if they actually have this part only. That would be great since most old model S7 do have the same configuration with those new IB models, just different GPU and CPU.

The Recovery disk will recover your system as the time when you back up everything. That means if you want to get rid those bloatware after recovery, do it before backup. However, that does not mean after you recover the laptop, it would run much better than before. Because the recover is backup everything and restore it the same way that you use before anything happen, that means you will use the same state. I suggest you going for a clean Win 7 install if you have the disk. Otherwise, make sure you use some cleanner application to clean everything that related to the bloatwares, then do a backup.

 

Is there space for a second hdd?

 

The Samsung Recovery disc will give you a clean install of the OS. Just pop it in the drive, shut down your computer, then start it back up, then it will go to a screen where you press any key on your keyboard to go into setup. It will do a clean installation with windows 7 home premium on it, just tested it out yesterday.

 

Only if you remove the optical disc drive and use a HDD caddy

 

Whaaaaat really? That's awesome. I already started loading my files onto it, but I'm glad I found out early on that I can still do a clean install (I don't have a fresh copy of 7 on-hand). Thanks for your help!

 

Remember, if this is your only computer, have the wifi driver on a flash drive so you can access the internet to download the other drivers.

 

Better still, use the driver & utility disc that you should have created using Samsung Recovery Solution to selectively install what you need and want.

John

 

Windows is using alot of Ram to keep it run fast like in windows vista instead of using the harddrive for that like in Windows XP. Thats why it looks like alot of resources is being used, but as soon as you start something else like a game windows will redirect the ram to that

 

I acually orderd this laptop today, i really hope it is as good as people say here! I duno though if i've missed this, but i wonder what the temps are in load after the GPU is overclocked to a gtx660 and what clock it is running in then?

 

Still thinking about getting this laptop although I do not game. Saw it at BB today for a while and the screen to me looks every bit as good as the Sony SE but much better because no orange/red issue. Build seems fine to me. Speakers are excellent. Keyboard gets slightly warm but no real tests just played as many videos as I could in row. Really, the temps are the only thing I hesitate on but since I don't game, maybe no problems for me in that regard. However, I do plan on using my laptop in pretty warm conditions in Philippines where I will give various presentations and where sometimes there will be just fans and no AC. Don't know how it would do for a few weeks there but overall, just from looking at it a while in the store, I believe Paul nailed it as far as being a great laptop for the price. Thanks again for this thread and to all who are part of it.

Gary

 

So I have been reading about how Intel got cheap on the thermal interface material causing Ivy Bridge chips to run hotter than Sandy Bridge chips. Intel Ivy Bridge CPU's Are Proven To Suffer From Poor TIM Choice - Legit Reviews

So my question is how difficult would it be to pull off the cooling and clean it up to apply better thermal paste? Think this is part of the warmth others have reported. Thoughts?

 

Finally got my laptop.. but I'm very,very annoyed with the Touchpad. When pressing any Key other than Shift, Ctrl, or Alt, the touchpad ignores all input. I've looked and looked online to try to find a solution, but nothing I've found works.

 

Replacing thermal paste is pretty simple depending on your experience with computers. Here is a thread on how to take the laptop apart. http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...ies-7-chronos-np700z5a-disassembly-guide.html Look at it before you disassemble.

 

Anyone done a professional calibration yet?
Is so please upload/post the .icc profile.

@Paul how do you completely disable the IGP?

 

But mobile IB CPU don't have IHS. It has only the TIM Samsung uses between the die and heatsink.

 

There is a specific thread for the Elan touchpad which may contain the answer you are looking for.

In case it isn't there, then go into the registry to this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Elantech\SmartPad

and see the effect of changing DisableWhenType_Enable to 0. Thare are plenty of other values you can fiddle with in both that key and in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Elantech\OtherSetting

Note that there is also a pad configuration tool ETDAniConf.exe included in the installation package but it doesn't get installed. It includes a sensitivity control. You can extract it and run it separately.

John

 

i see alot of people complain about the temperatures on the cpu and stuff, my the old chronos 7 with the i7 that i had to return went up to almost 100c on teh cpu and around 85 on the gpu under load.
So i think the temps here looks better atleast

 

Stock 3dmark11 test of my 700Z7C:



3dmark11 with GPU memory overclocked to "2500MHz" (1250MHz). And gfx driver updated.

 

3dmark11 with core clocked +100MHz (935MHz) and memory "2600MHz" (1300MHz).



I think the lower physics score might be due to CPU throttling more this time, I think throttling is caused by too high current draw, not just too high temp.

 

not deciding whether to buy this sexy laptop or macbook pro 17'' yet...this laptop is so charming!!!

 

Maximum core overclock in MSI afterburner is +135MHz, giving an max clock of 970MHz. As for memory, going past +600MHz (actually +300MHz) gives lower scores, indicating that the limit is reached and error correcting gives lower scores.

That gives an result of 970MHz core and 1300Mhz on the GDDR5 Memory. Not too bad.

3dmark11 score:



Compared with an GTX660M (stock, sample from an asus G75):



That's not bad, of course you could overclock the GTX660M as well to beat the overclocked GT650M, but at least it's clear that the only difference between GT650M and GTX660M is the clockspeed.

 

CPU throttling and GPU throttling during stresstest:

 

If anyone have Counter Strike: Global Offensive (beta) please post your FPS and resolution.

 

Hi that 1TB hard drive is 5400 or 7200 HD? Everywhere its advertised as 7200 but I suspect it is 5400. Thank you

 

5400rpm samsug HDD. And for some reason it feels A LOT slower than the 750Gb 5400rpm seagate disk in my asus N55SF, noisier too.

 

Ya it is a 5400 rpm, not so sure about it being slower but it is definitely loud, louder than the fan.

 

Just replaced the HD w/ a 256GB M4. The laptop is silent now.

Tip for getting the bottom case off - use a plastic kitchen spatula. Worked great for popping it off.

 

Just picked up from BB. Still doing initial setup (slowwwww), but first impressions are good. Definitely can hear some fan noise in a quiet room, but nothing excessive yet. Construction feels nice and solid. Screen is decent, but I wouldn't call it super.

 

Was playing Starcraft 2 on this laptop, fan gets really loud and the middle-left part of the gets pretty hot for the touch. I might consider putting on new thermal paste and getting a laptop cooler for gaming.

 

Based on disk noise and heat, would you guys recommend replacing the HDD with an SSD? I was planning on replacing the optical with the SSD and leaving in the 1TB. Are the noise and heat too cumbersome? Cause then I'll just make do with the 256GB SSD and use an external or something if I need more space.

 

The heat isn't really coming from the hard disk though, it is from something right underneath where the middle of the keyboard is. I haven't opened up the laptop yet to look inside.

 

The middle is the RAM. Bottom left is the HD, back left and middle are the CPU/GPU.

 

Most of the noise when just using the desktop is the HD. You hear it spinning and it sounds like the fan.

 

Well...after reading this thread and reviews for about 2 days I took the plunge. I love this thing! Thank you Paul and all the others for a nice review
Ordered it off of Newegg with an OCZ Vertex3 256gb. Almost got some extra Ram but decided to wait a bit since I wasn't sure about timing and dual channel problems. I thought the Samsung website said somewhere the BIOS will only detect 8gigs but we will see.
The best part about this thing was my girlfriends face when I booted up.. shut it down after 5 minutes and started to take the screws out of the $1500 bottom to install the SSD.
Installed Windows and it boots in literally 10secs cold.
As mentioned the only thing bothering me is the Track pad. kinda touchy but I haven't messed with the setting much or ran the config.exe

Thanks again Paul

P.S: I was just on newegg to check another order.. they are sold out!

 

For all of you guys that have done some gaming on this laptop, does your fan get really loud and keyboard becomes really hot for the touch? I bought this laptop for some casual gaming but the noise/heat make me think about returning it.

 

Remove the white paper under the ram should help with heat off the ram sticks. Are you guys gaming with the laptop on your lap?

 

How hot does this laptop get?

How loud is the fan?

How is the screen? Where would you rank it?

I just run ArcGIS, AutoCAD, & other engineering programs on laptops. I'm not planning to overclock.

I was planning to purchase this + a 512GB Samsung 830, but, some of the comments here have me concerned.

 

White paper under ram? That an be done by just opening the ram slot right? or do I need to take the whole back cover off? I am gaming on a table, currently playing starcraft 2 on 1920x1080, high settings. Paul do you get any heat or excessive fan noise?

 

I have been saying this for a while, keyboard gets hot while gaming. table or not, really unfortunate. paper on ram is off when i installed ssd, cant really see that make a diff anyway

 

Well, I just ordered a laptop cooler, the Cool Master NotePal U3. If this doesn't solve my heat and fan problem, I am probably going to return the laptop.

 

The screen is a very good 8-9, I am in GIS as well, this laptop would be great to suite your needs in my opinion. Just not a great gaming laptop due to heat. its very quiet, just keyboard gets warm-hot depending on stress

 

At the moment, who knows what Samsung does.
And for some the heath is not an issue, sweaty hands is not a good thing though.

Sweat > fluid > broken laptop ? < design fault > new laptop?

 

Awesome.


Thank You.

 

Been looking around and it seems like this forum could be the place to ask?

I'm completely stuck between the Samsung series 7 and the new ASUS G55VW-RS71

In terms of specs, both offer the same CPU, but the ASUS has a GTX 660m 2gb GDDR5, I have no idea what the sounds like but its 2.1 channel with a sub so it should at least half decent i guess. The ASUS is a 15:6", so is smaller than the Samsung. The things that would depict a winner for me are the quality of the screen such as the colour depth, viewing angles etc. and also the key thing would be which is better at handling editing as I use editing programs such as after effects, photoshop, cinema 4d etc. I also game, so which one is better at handling gaming would also be nice to know. I know obvious choice gaming would be the ASUS but it was noted earlier on in this topic that the GT 650m can be overclocked to almost equal the GTX 660m.

Please help and give me input as to the better choice for me ?

THANKS

 

Which games do you wish to play?
Notebookcheck.net gives you a good idea what you can expect for X game and Z GPU.

 

I have an slight issue with my screen, when sitting centered it's perfect, but just a slight move to the sides and it looks like it has darker and lighter areas. Never seen that before on any LCD I've owned. Almost like "small clouds" that is darker than the rest of the screen, very annoying. easiest to spot on dark or light single colours. Tried to take some pics, but it's hard too see.

Anyone alse noticed this? Or did I just get an bad screen?

 

Uneven backlight on your screen. Or possibly polariser layer "dent".

 

Just picked this laptop up at BestBuy yesterday to replace my Dell XPS 16 1st gen i7 laptop. I wanted to provide everyone my color profile. I just calibrated my screen with my screen calibrator. I know all screens are not created equal, but at least it will provide better color accuracy than what you have now.

Just change .txt to .icc

- Garrett

 

Does this laptop support SATA III? 6GB interface?