Samsung 15" Series 9 NP900X4C with Ivy Bridge CPU

Soooo . . . no consensus on the Samsung vs Sandisk pattern? CowboyCoder stated that he believes its 128=Sandisk, 256=Samsung, but pjakesson's statement seems to contradict that (I think I've seen other mention of 128GB Sammies, but that might have been in the X4B thread - I've read a couple of hundred pages of posts in the past two days and can't keep them straight anymore x_x).

Anyone discern a more consistent pattern or have concrete info on this? So far, just going based on anecdotal evidence.

 

I got my 900X3B about 1.5 months ago, it was a Samsung 128gb SSD.

I've been following all the new 9 series threads, and it seems like early adopters of 900X3B/X4B got Sandisks 128gb SSDs (the X3B/X4B only had 128gb variants), while later buyers got Samsung PM830 SSDs. The current X3C/X4C is too new to jump to any definite conclusions, but it seems like most has gotten a Sandisk 128gb and only a few in Europe got a Samsung one. I also don't think you can just conclude that 256gb SSD is automatic Samsung, I don't even think anyone that got the i7 with 256gb even posted yet.

 

Sorry if this has already been asked, but is the SSD removable? i.e. am i able to buy a 512 SSD and replace the existing one?

 

Thanks for the input, WhiteFireDragon. I believe woodpile picked up a U.S. model X4C with i7/256GB, and it came with a Samsung SSD.

I agree that it's too early to jump to conclusions, but maybe we can piece together some sort of pattern, or maybe someone knows the method to the madness.

Maybe others don't care as much, but I'm trying to determine 1. whether or not to buy this thing, 2. whether the 128GB or 256GB might make more sense, or 3. If I need to deal with the possibility of upgrading the SSD after the fact. I guess right now I am kind of hung up on SSD performance and wish I knew what I was buying (if/when I pull the trigger).

 

SSD is removable, but you'll have to find one in mSATA form. Good luck finding a good one in 512gb. Getting one in 256gb is hard enough...

 

NCIX has the 128gb NP900X4C-AO1CA in stock now.

Samsung NP900X4C-A01CA Intel Core i5 3317UM 8GB 128GB SSD 15IN HD+ WLAN Win7 HP Notebook - Samsung - NP900X4C-A01CA

 

Thanks a lot for the prompt feedback It's great that the fan stays silent for you! Are other guys seeing the same silent behaviour? Anyone tried pushing its baby to do extremely demanding tasks and saw whether the fan gets very noisy in such situations?

I now, I am obsessed with fans, but previous machines are the ones to blame, they made me mad.

 

Hi, I've read all the Thread and I have to admit that it was very useful.
I just noticed that there are no comments regarding heating on this machine.
I have an old MBP right now and after 6 years the only problem I have is heating, that's why I'm a bit sensible about this problem...and so I was wondering if heating is was a problem or not.
Can someone tell a bit more about it?

 

Well, after using it for a couple of days, I noticed how cool,
i.e. not so warm, it is. It get slightly warm but no problem keeping it on
your lap.

My former laptop, HP HDX16, got so hot that you could not have it in your lap, while, for example watching a video.

Per

 

Thank you.

My MBP gets hot (and with hot I mean very hot) very easily, also with a normal web surfing.
The annoying thing is that all the system start lagging and I have to use synthetic ice (hope this term exists in english ) to reduce temperature or I can't use it.

 

those that haven't bought one yet, are you waiting for the D or are you going to order a C? I figure I might as well wait for the D but not seeing a release date or any info from online retailers makes me wonder if it's going to be a while before they start shipping.

 

They got this computer on sale here in Australia now. Down from 1890 AUD to 1430 AUD. i7, 8 GB ram and 128 GB SSD. I was thinking of waiting for the UX31A and compare them, but this offer is pretty good. Is this offer good enough to buy this computer now and not waiting for the UX31A? I'm not in a hurry to buy a computer, can wait a month, but this offer is pretty good.

 

Yes removable. If you live in the US you can currently buy a 256GB msata for ~$300. Crucial will release 512GB shortly, will cost $500+. By years end there will be several options and by my estimate prices fall about 30% every six months.

 

The fan in mine never gets loud. Even while benchmarking the CPU it doesn't make a sound that can be heard from 2m away. It has quite a low frequency compared to other fans and is never really speeding up.

The heat is also no problem, mine never got warmer than my hands are. I think the body distributes to warmth quite well around the case thus no particular area gets too warm. I also think that the new Ivy Bridge cores don't produce so much heat while just surfing the web than what the MBP with the old cores did.

About the SSD: I decided to keep my slow Sandisk 128GB for a little while before I replace it. I assume that 128GB will not be enough for future applications anyway, and replacing it in a year or so when the disk space runs out will be way cheaper than doing it now. Most certainly there will be at least 512GB SSDs in the market by then.

 

That's an incredible offer. I wouldn't hesitate for a long to buy it in that price. How's taxes, included?

I've considered buying NP700Z7C or this. I'm leaning towards 15" S9 despite the fact they are about the same price here (~1550 euros). My main concerns are support for 1080+ second screen, sound quality (good/bad? NP700Z7C has apparently exceptional sound) and rather small SSD. This i7 1.9GHz version should be enough for my purposes though, no gaming here.

 

Note that the micro-HDMI specification includes support up to 1080, not above. Hence a lot of people would like Samsung to replace their mini-VGA socket with a mini-DisplayPort.

John

 

@Gromity, those are similar to the issues I am looking at. If I knew for certain about the SSDs, I could consider appropriately.

For instance, if I knew 128GB was Samsung and the 256GB would be Sandisk, I would just grab the 128 and worry about mirroring/upgrading later (possibly to 512 if it is quite a while before I decide to do so). However, if the 128GB was Sandisk and the 256GB was Samsung, it would probably make sense just to fork over the extra dough and get the i7/256GB.

Hopefully as more people get their hands on their X4Cs, the picture will become more clear.

Has anyone in the U.S. run into a Sandisk SSD so far? If so, what SSD size/laptop model?

 

For what its worth, here is my 2 cents on the SSD etc. I have an X4C-A01.

Not sure what SSD I have (its 128gb, not sure of the brand). My WEI score is 7.9

My previous laptop was a Core2Duo T5800, normal HD, 4GB RAM. This is obviously a major upgrade. I am extremely impressed with the speed. I run Photoshop, Visual Studio etc so I'm a somewhat heavy user. Everything is snappy as could be if you ask me. I've never worked on a faster machine, with a faster HD as some posters have commented on. So I may not be the best judge comparatively. But I'm very happy with how quickly I can hop around. I typically work with 5-6 applications open at once (several browsers, Visual Studio, Photoshop, outlook) and I can pop around with ease never really waiting for anything. Some readers have asked about the performance for browsing and general tasks. Given how hard I'm pushing it, I can't imagine everyday use would even remotely cause any problems.

I've yet to notice the fan.

I did notice that when unplugged using the standard 'Samsung Performance' power setting that it gets a bit sluggish at times. Still barely noticeable, but a slight hit. I believe the processor gets set to 50%, and while I could adjust this, it isn't a big enough deal for me to care.

On battery it also defaults to 'detect screen brightness'. This tries to adjust the screen brightness based on ambient lighting. I found this extremely annoying. With my TV on in the room, the computer was constantly getting brighter and dimming. Every time a commercial comes on and the TV goes black for a second my computer gets darker. Then a few seconds gets brighter once the TV ambient light kicks in. I turned this feature off.

The trackpad gets used to. I keep accidentally clicking things when I'm attempting to scroll. I'm getting better already, but at first it can be frustrating.

I find the keyboard perfect. I prefer less travel, and I code all day long and consider myself an extremely typer. No issues here.

Last night I spent 2 hours or so on the couch, and I did notice it was hot on my lap. Not too bad, but noticeable.

Lastly, I got rid of the Samsung Recovery partition to get the extra 22GB back. Easy enough to do (do a Google search). My only hangup was expanding my main partition, since the hibernation partition was in between my main partition and the empty space. Following the tips of some on this forum I ended up also deleting the hibernation partition. Getting it back wasn't entirely clear. What I had to do was turn off Quickstart. Reboot. Turn on Quickstart. Reboot. When I turned it back on and rebooted it recreated the hibernation partition and I have 110GB of space on my C:

Hope that helps some people

 

If your windows index for the SSD is 7.9 then you have the Samsung SSD. Incidentally, 7.9 is the highest score you can have. As new, faster disks come out say in a years time, if you refresh your Windows score you may see it drop to 7.8 or 7.7 for example to reflect this.

Mine (SanDisk) scored 5.9 initially, until I reinstalled the chipset drivers then it jumped to 7.4. On the face of it, this looks a good rating and copying large files & booting the OS it was quick. Where it falls down is read/writes of smaller files, ie launching applications, compiling code - and on this front it was dog slow. It's gone back now anyway, so I'm bowing out of this thread.

Cheers all.

 

New poster here, thanks for all the great information on these forums. After reading most of the posts in this thread and woodpile's experiences, I've decided to pick up the A03US model from Amazon. I placed the order last night, 6/13.

A little put off by the 3-to-5 week waiting time, but happy to see that the times are being moved up for some. Has anyone else received their A03US model other than woodpile and are there any more experiences people can share? Anyone else order this week and have a time frame moved up?

Most of all, I'm interested to learn -- like a lot of others -- whether other A03US models only contain the Samsung SSD. I'm a little nervous about getting a SanDisk after reading what others have said, but after playing with a A01US last night at Best Buy (which had the SanDisk), I realized I liked everything about the machine -- and I didn't find the viewing angles to be too difficult.

Thanks for any feedback.

 

Not any more.

 

I have the NP900X4C-A03US with i7 and 256gb Samsung SSD.

Still love this thing.

What fan noise? This has a fan?

Seriously, I've heard the fan a couple of times and that's it. It's not an annoying sound, either. It shuts off quick, too - the cooling channel must be pretty effective.

Yes, do it. I dare you. I love mine. Use it every day. Don't blame me if you don't like it tho.

128 sucks. Most are finding little room when they get their own things installed. I have a ton of things installed and with my 256gb, I have only used 99gb. That includes photos and music.

Get the A03US and don't worry about it. It's fast as hell. Cold boot in 8-9 seconds.

I have no problems with heat at all. My dell latitude d630 - I had to have a cooling pad under it, increasing the bulk. This one is quiet, cool and has no problems.

The D that I've seen is NOT better spec'd than the C. It is just magnesium instead of aluminum.

 

I ordered my A03US from Amazon on 6/3 and recieved it on 6/12! I couldn't be happier with it (having coming from a Dell Lat 6400).

Fit and finish are top notch...feels very sturdy. I don't have any issues with the keyboard, except that you can hear the keys clicking (be a whole lot cooler is they were silent). I think the track pad is heaven. I've never had one like it...so big and so many efficent gestures! My only complaint is the clicking sound the right and left "buttons" make on the trackpad...feels cheap.

I have not confirmed the HD yet, but my WEI score is 7.9. I did hear my fan turn on for the first time when I reran the WEI test...not too loud (for those who are interested).

Overall, I couldn't be happier with my purchase! I'm looking forward to tuning this for entertainment with some help from the forum!

 

Seconded. Or perhaps you were seconding my posts. lol.

 

your product is getting ever closer to my dream machine.
here are the things i wish you would offer in the order of importance.

1
offer a higher resolution screen 1900x1080.
whether you will have to bump up the screen size or
the overall weight, i will gladly accept it for a screen
of this size.

2
if you want to save money on components,
look into making a version that uses the amd trinity.
maybe it will have to be called a series 5 since
it doesn't have the prestige factor of the intel brand.
i rather have this computer with a amd trinity and a samsung ssd
than one with a intel chip and an inferior ssd.

3
offer full size hdmi and ethernet ports.
get rid of the vga and replace it with display port
don't be obsessed with trying to be the thinnest and end up
with micro ports that require adapters and dongles.
i would choose a slightly thicker computer with full size ports
over a super thin computer that needs extra adapter/dongle.
remember people buying ultra-portables are people who
are very picky about things like size/weight/portability.
you just increased the hassle factor by requiring people to carry a dongle.

4
keep up the good work on the longer battery life
and low heat/noise emissions.
the reason i look to your brand first over the other brands like
dell, hp, etc is because you have more consistently designed
computers that are low on the heat/noise scale.

5
keep up your good work on improving the sound system.
its not as important as screen quality, but i have chosen
one laptop over another based upon this criteria in the past.

i owned 3 samsung notebooks/netbooks in the past.
i am currently looking at the series 9 or the soon to be released series 5
amd trinity based notebooks.

 

Grey, thanks for all the great info. If you're near your machine later and don't mind checking the hard drive and model number, would really appreciate it. I put in the order on Amazon last night for a A03US, but if it's a mix of SanDisk and Samsung, may alter my purchase strategy.

Thanks again for checking on that.

Whoa. Is this a Series 9 A03US? What SSD type for the HD?

Or if it's not a S9-A03US, then what SSD are you using regardless? That's incredible.

 

Hi - Just received a 4C-A01US today and I am having serious wifi performance issues. The connection speeds bounce all over the place from 26Mbps - 120Mbps with signal strength of Fair to Excellent. Throughput stinks on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and it doesn't really seem to matter how close or far from the AP I am. I even went as far as firing up another AP just to see if that helped but no go. It also doesn't matter if I'm on battery or plugged in. I've turned power saving to maximum performance, enabled the extra 20MHz channel for N and also no consistent change.

Anyone else having these issues? With the 6235 in there, WIFI should rock but it certainly isn't for me. Hell even my Galaxy S2 PHONE is giving better WIFI performance in the same environment! Any thoughts appreciated, I am concerned that the fancy aluminum case is killing the signal. It's going to have to be returned if this is considered acceptable by Samsung.
Thanks!
-Edit - to be clear THROUGHPUT is the issue, I'm not complaining about connection speed - speedtest.net testing won't even fill my Internet pipe to the S9, iperf gives me ~19Mbps (megaBITS) max and copying a file gets me ~2MB/s while an Atheros based laptop in the same room can pull down 5MB/s (megaBYTES)!
-Gatsby

 

Are you using WPA2?

Windows 8 Release Preview x64 UEFI mode on a ThinkPad T420 with the Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256B/WW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SSD.

All of the 2012 Series 9 machines with the Series 830 mSATA drives should be very close to that with the Windows 8 x64 RP installed.

 

Yes, it is WPA2 - Please do note that Wifi is performing appropriately on EVERY other device in the house.

-Gatsby

 

It sounds like something odd is wrong with your machine. Maybe an antenna connection is off or something.

You could take off the bottom cover and inspect it.

 

Thanks, I opened her up and the antennas were finem I even reseated the connectors with no change - For the record, easy to service and even has directions inside on changing the memory. Standard memory, msata drive and wifi card. I gave up on this thing, it's going back.
-Gatsby

 

I don't blame you, but, like I said, I think there's something wrong with your WiFi system. Mine performs flawlessly.

 

Yea, no sense in screwing around with it. I would send it back too.

 

@woodpile: Haha, yes I realize that the A03US is superior to the A01US, just not sure if I want to shell out the extra $400 for it. At $1800, I am tempted to just make the jump to the new MBP (gasp) and snag the retina display and thunderbolt. Sigh, I don't want to be an apple boy.

 

Before anyone considers the retina display on the new macbooks, they should read this: The New Retina Display MacBook Pro: A downgrade from my current MacBook Pro | Alex Obenauer

I just sold an unused MBP because I couldn't make it work the way I needed. I hate not having the CTRL key in the bottom left. Beautiful hardware, OS sucks (except unix underneath) and feels like MacOS from the 80's, but not for me.

 

Interesting read; thanks for the link. As one commentor mentioned, I would hope you could mess around with the DPI, icon/text sizing, etc.

As for they keyboard, the layout doesn't bother me as much as some. I would likely run VMWare, etc and install Windows 7. It's been too long since I've touched a Mac, and it would be beneficial to stay familiar with current Mac OS.

That said, I don't want to join the Apple masses (even though I guess deliberately avoiding such is just as trifling as joining the masses).

And, I really want that Series 9 . It's just so gorgeous and portable, and I am a strong believer in Samsung products.

Note: It took me 4 edits to figure out the appropriate smiley.

 

Does Alex actually have the RMBP? It seems from his short post he doesn't. There are a number of display settings that are available including 1680x1050 and 1920x1200 for OS X users.

Mine arrives Monday. I'll be able to test the scaling and performance first hand then.

Take a look at AnandTech - Windows 8 on the Retina Display MacBook Pro for a different perspective.

 

Wow, the comments in that AnandTech article got pretty petty pretty fast, haha.

Seems like you should be able to play around with the screen real estate a bit, and I'm sure some of the compatibility issues with Windows will get worked out. I don't see how it would be anything but beneficial for Apple to make the MBP Windows friendly. No idea how long that will take, but I am in no rush to pull the trigger on anything.

Unrelatedly, has anyone gotten their hands on a VGA dongle or become knowledgeable on the HD 4000? Curious if the 900X4C's can run dual external displays. Who knows, maybe even the X4Bs were capable? It's been a while since I've been computer shopping, and I am way behind on my studies.

 

Great forum and great posts.
Just adding my 2 cents.

I picked up the NP900x4c-AO1. On sunday and have been putting it though'it paces all week.

I am going to post just some data people seem to be asking for/about

128gb SanDisk u100 SSD - am down to 40gb of usable space(still have recovery partition)

I have a Dell Core i7 as my work machine and this one blows that out of the water on sheer speed.

It does show fingerprints

The screen washout is noticeable at times, but other time it looks brilliant

It doesn't get hot, but the power brick does.

I have only had the fan come on once that i have noticed and I was editing and encoding a 3.5gb HD video file.

Wireless connection - Works great 99.9% of the time, is a little wonky when just waking up from a sleep.

Not sure if the is the laptop or the Excel starter edition, but opening a 500,000 line excel document took about 3 mins.

Adobe premier pro seems to be working awesomely on this.

HDMI out at full 1080 works great no slow downs.
the Micro hdmi port seems a little fragile holding full size HDMI cable to my TV

Copying a 3.5gb HD File from my SD card to the SSD was fine. not terrifically fast, but not slow.

This thing is fast and thin and light. It also looks damn sexy. Best buy has it for only $100 more than most good 13" ultrabooks 1399.

Hope this helps in making your decision

 

Nerds gotta have passion about something.

 

Watch out samsung, you've got a competitor. With a 1080p screen, but 0.5lbs heavier.
VIZIO Thin and Light High Resolution Ultrabook - Coming Soon | VIZIO

 

Yeah, but memory- and hard drive-limited.

 

And I wonder how it can boot off a Windows disc if it only has USB 3.0 ports? Also, given Samsung's difficulties in getting their drivers and software to work properly then I wonder about this one. It might be (probably is) a rebadged OEM model but after the headaches I had with my Zepto (made by Inventec) I am keeping clear of such products. In fact, Inventec was a big factor in Zepto's demise (helped by the Nvidia GPU packaging problem).

John

 

Re: Vizio Laptops, all of the configurations on that page show 128 GB setups, but if you click the "Buy Now" button, specs for a quad-core, 256GB option pop-up. However, if you select it, it takes you to a page for a i7-3517U laptop, albeit with 256 GB of storage, but still just 4GB of RAM.

Seems like they still haven't ironed out all their specs, or at least not the presentation there of.

I'm with John (perhaps in part because he is much wiser/more knowledgeable than I ). Until they start identifying hardware and until someone gets their hands on one to evaluate, I don't think you can mention that Vizio offering (their first foray into laptops lest we forget) in the same sentence as the 900X4C, but I get it; at that price, I think we all want to believe.

EDIT: Even the STATED battery life on that thing isn't all that impressive, let alone the actual. Strikes me as a bit odd that the smaller model has a longer battery. I guess they just stuck the same battery in both.

 

All this talk of A02US and A03US is doing my head in, SAMSUNG RELEASE THESE CONFIGS IN THE UK!!!!

 

Not sure what you folks have out there, but really it's only two different models in the U.S. (that I know of):

A01US - i5 w/ 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD. I think this is the standard model everywhere

A02US - same as A01US, except with Windows 7 Pro instead of Home

A03US - 1.9 GHz Core i7-3517U w/ 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Windows 7 Pro

 

We only have A01UK, equivalent to A01US, but I want the A03US

 

I'm considering importing a US model to UK. $1800 ~£1150, + £100 courier + 20% VAT on the £1150 (£230) = £1,480. I doubt if i7 + 256GB will be offered in UK for less than that, should it show up.

John

 

It seems that, at least in my S9, the USB3 ports are compatible with USB2. When I first turned on mine, I booted from a memory stick to load my disk imaging program, and since you cannot fit the memory stick into the USB2 port with the laptop plugged in on power, I had it in the USB3 port. It worked just fine.

 

So cracked the case last night and took front and back images of the HD from my A03US. Impressive...just the way i like me cars, small and fast!

Edit: figured it out...helps to actually read the error messages.