Samsung Series 7 Lovers - Here's The NP700Z5C Ivy Bridge!

I double checked the model number before i ordered, the bestbuy version is the s01ub which has the 512mb 630m, so i actually got the s01us for less because of tax.

EDIT: it gets delivered Wednesday.

 

cool, if u did check that, than u're good!
keep posted the review and pics when u get that.

 

Not sure, but I have been getting this over random periods of time lately as well...

 

can any 15.6 series 7 S01US owners confirm/deny that a 9.5mm drive will fit in the notebook?

EDIT: called samsung and a rep said that drive measurement in the s01us is 9.5mm.

 

George, thanks for clarifying. When I saw your price tag I also thought you were looking at a different model, maybe the NP700Z5A...I guess not. Keep us posted. (FWIW I have pricespider monitoring the price -- which includes Amazon Marketplace vendors -- I wonder why I didn't get an alert...or wait, I did get an alert at $999 on July 4...)

Who was the vendor, btw? I'll post an update if they offer any more units!

-Matt

 

Well, in your case more than 12GB might be necessary. But advice I give is generally... general

Like I said earlier, the vast majority of people won't have more than a few applications open at once, and as such won't come near 6GB RAM usage. If you do niche things like running VMes, you might use more ram. But I doubt the normal user does that.

 

It was a new seller on marketplace. I went to see the feedback/reviews and found none.

yes, i got ur point and agrees with it

 

hey, one question. anybody knows what type of controller it has that communicates with the optical drive? is it SATA II or III [6Gbit/s]?

I read that MBP with SATA-III has issues if u replace it with Sata-III SSD drive.

 

I have got W7 running stable with 1GB RAM in a Pentium 4 single-core PC and it runs fine. Slow but fine, very stable.

4GB in W7 is enough to be comfortable having multi-tabbed browser open, MSN\Skype, listening to music and playing a game.

W8 which is coming in like 3 months is lighter than W7, from my experience it doesn't even use 512MB RAM on startup.

That said, while 6GB is more than enough for comfortable use nowadays, in a couple years it may change to maybe 8\12GB, and tbh since the cost for migration from 6GB to 8GB is so low I'd advise to do so, or even 12GB if you find a cheap stick. (think you might get ones at around 50$, which is marginal considering the laptop's cost anyway).

If someone does really need a huge amount of RAM though I'd advise them to get some Clevo with 4 RAM slots (or similar), because what they need is some sort of desktop replacement and not a light laptop like this one.

Finally, take this with a grain of salt, it's based on my experiences with desktops \ laptops over the last few years (W7 mainly since it's the most relevant).

 

You know, now I remember the July 4 seller -- I think it was someone with just a single unit. Private seller I assume, not a storefront.

And forgive the random comment, but: I installed my first SSD tonight in my daughter's Asus UL20FT. I can't believe how amazingly easy it was -- checked afterward and TRIM was enabled and 6GB/s transfer speed, with no additional settings or changes. I hope it doesn't get habit-forming, I really can't afford a 512GB in the Samsung!

-Matt

 

I purchased mine from "Wallet Pleasers" - this is his marketplace page -
Amazon.com At a Glance: Wallet Pleasers

Another persons "Tae-Sells-goods" says he will have more stock of the s01us soon, same price, same shipping costs.

tae-sells-goods provided photo evidence that the laptop in question is the s01us. Besides, it's the amazon marketplace, if a 3rd party seller gives you the wrong item, you will have absolutely 0 problems getting a full refund, that's something amazon just does not tolerate.

 

Cool, sounds legit. Sorry we're so skeptical -- we're just looking out for you, bro!

-Matt

 

Can anyone who owns this help me out?

If you had to choose between this, and the ASUS N56VZ, what would you choose?

I was almost going to get the ASUS but was reluctant due to the Graphics Card. Samsung's NP700Z5C-SO4US version gets me a 2GD DDR5 one. Plus the Samsung one looks better and has slot loading DVD Drive

 

First, LOVE the screenname -- is that homage to Hutch?

Second, you'll drive yourself crazy. You're looking at two very similar machines and they match up very well. Overall, the things that stick out to me is the Asus wins with the FHD display and the Bluray drive, neither of which I would really use, and the Samsung wins on weight. Otherwise it's almost a wash. The dealbreaker for me is the 6lbs on the Asus. I'm coming from a 3.75 thin-and-light, so the 5.3lbs on the Samsung is as far as I'm willing to go.

You could also pick some nits over the differences in the video cards, but I doubt you could tell the difference with a naked eye.

If the weight isn't a concern for you, I'm sure either one will work out!

-Matt

 

Thanks but no, its not a homage

BluRay seems a bit unnecessary for me and the case with Full HD. Of course, better screen is always preferred but it's not the main concern

I'm joining a Uni soon and I want my lap to be lightweight and durable enough to not become outdated soon. I think that the 2GB DDR5 will be much much better against the DDR3 in terms of gaming

I still got a month left to decide; leaning towards the Samsung atm

 

The reasons why i chosed Asus instead were:
- much better screen +FHD for photoshoping,
- cheaper than Samsung. ( 200eur difference)
- more durable case.

What i liked on Samsung
- a bit better graphics power when overclocking.(ddr5 vs ddr3 on asus)
- a bit slimmer and lighter. ( 2.4kg vs 2.7kg on asus)


What i noticed is that Samsung 640M seems to have so much lower GPU clock that it actually scores less in 3DM11 vs Asus 650M. If you are not in to overclocking then Asus with its 650M DDR3 version is as good as Samsung or even a bit better.

 

I came late to this thread and have tried to read through it.

From what I've read, the screen would be ok with me, this is about the upper weight limit that I would like, but there were some concerns over the WIFI. I did see a post that said a driver update improved the WIFI.

Should I be concerned about the WIFI? It doesn't make sense to get a really nice portable laptop that doesn't do as well connecting to a WIFI.

The new Sony Vaio SVS 15" looks nice on the spec sheet, but I haven't seen many reviews or comments about it. Which makes me wonder.

 

4 hours battery on the Asus turned me away.

 

Doubt it. 3dmark doesn't care much about the memory type but in games the performance of the GT 650M DDR3 will take a beating at 900/1080p because it has a ridiculously narrow bandwidth. Sure the core is considerably faster but I still think the GT 640M GDDR5 is better balanced.

The previous generation of notebook GPUs was already hampered by DDR3 performance-wise so the DDR3 versions of current gen, more powerful chips must be really hungry for more bandwidth.

 

Does anyone know how these screens compare to the new Dell XPS 14?

That's not a great screen either but I'm wondering how it compares. Glossy to matte comparison I know but overall.

 

My english is not very good but i will try to explain my point of view. The problem is that we only taken advantage of gddr5 in better grafic cards(maybe gtx660 and superior). When 640m and 650m will use more bandwidth than offer by ddr3 the gpu is already suffering because it is just not powerful enough. That's why the difference between 2gb 650m ddr3 and 1gb 650m gddr5 in real life isn't big, in fact there are several games where the ddr3 version runs faster than gddr5 version because has more clock and memory. The only version of gt650m/gt640m that maybe is really better than the others in all games( especially if you overclock the gpu, is the 2gb gt650m gddr5! But i do not believe that 2gb gt640m gddr5 is better than 2gb gt650m ddr3. If the 1gb gt650m ddr5 is only better than 2gb gt650m ddr3 in some games because it cannot use all the bandwidth offer by gddr5, i think that there is no way that 2gb gt640m gddr5 will be better than 2gb gt650m ddr3, maybe similar in some games, but not better.

EDIT: For example, in notebookcheck, Anno 2070 in high...(from xps15)2GB gt640m gddr5:31,8 fps and (from asus n76vz)2gb gt650m ddr3:40,2 fps.
I don't look all the games, this is the first one i found in the page to compare the two versions but maybe there are more examples to confirm/deny my teory. And i am sure that the performance of two versions changes from game to game(and even laptop for laptop).

 

Hi all,

I've seen on samsung website that there 3 different version of the NP700Z5C: S01UB, S01US, S04US. I don't really see what are the differences between them except for the hard drive.

Thanks !

 

s01ub = 15.6 - 3rd gen i7 - 512mb 630m - 1tb 5400rpm
s01us - 15.6 - 3rd gen i7 - 1gb 640m - 750gb 7200 rpm
s04us - 15.6 - 2nd gen i7 - 6750m 1gb - 750gb 7200rpm


s01us will be the "best" model, followed by the s04us or s01ub depending on what you need, ub will have more cpu power and the 4us will have more gpu power.

 

So i was afraid my 9.5mm crucial m4 wouldn't fit, so i called them and they are replacing it with a 7mm drive, free shipping both ways and no extra fees. can't recommend crucial enough.

 

No clue where you got the numbers for the S04US from. The S01UB and S01US numbers are right, though.

Bold indicates specs that don't match the other two.

S01UB: 15.6" 1600x900 - i7-3615QM 2.3GHz - 512MB GDDR5 GT 630M - 1TB 5400rpm - 8GB RAM
S01US: 15.6" 1600x900 - i7-3615QM 2.3GHz - 1GB GDDR5 GT 640M - 750GB 7200rpm - 6GB RAM
S04US: 15.6" 1600x900 - i7-3615QM 2.3GHz - 1GB GDDR5 GT 640M - 750GB 7200rpm - 8GB RAM

Edit: I think I figured it out. You pulled the specs of the Z5 A-S04US, rather than of the Z5C-S04US.

 

woops, yeah you're right. thanks!

 

Thanks for the answers! Where can I get the S04US in that case? Price range?

 

Per the retailer, this is actually an S04US and not an S03US. In any event, the specs are identical to the S04US specs listed on Samsung's website.

Amazon.com - Samsung NP700Z5C-S03US - 15.6" Laptop

You're looking at close to $1,300.

 

Ok, I'm gonna quote myself here:

If you feel comfortable with replacing your own memory, go for the S01US (currently listed for $1,100 on Amazon).

You can pick up a 4GB stick of memory for around $25 from Newegg and save $175 by upgrading the part yourself. Then you can put that savings toward upgrading to an SSD!

 

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model MV-3T4G3/US

this should work for the S01US? I think it should because it's 1600/DDR3, right?

thanks

 

The problem is the resolution. A graphics card gets more bandwidth hungry/bottlenecked at higher resolutions. The "high" settings on notebookcheck are done in 1366x768 resolution, and that's not very bandwidth hungry at all.

Can you source that by the way? I couldn't find the XPS 15 on notebookcheck. I know that Anandtech has shown the GT640M suffering at DDR3 1080P compared to the DDR5 version of the same card.

The GT650M ddr3 is easily going to outdo the ddr5 640m at low resolutions because it isn't bandwidth hungry, but DDR5 gives so much more bandwidth that it prevents the game from being bandwidth starved at higher resolutions. The ddr3 650M is bandwidth starved before being core/shader starved at 1080P, so it loses out. Below 1080P though, they can perform similar or better than a DDR5 640M.

I know that I saw a comparison somewhere that showed the DDR5 640M ahead compared to the DDR3 650M anyways.

 

I see the game results of gt640m and gt650m and the specific versions of we were talking about(and i put the models of laptops too,and both models has FHD(1080p)) on the notebookcheck, just open gt640m and gt650m and compare. I understand what are you saying. One/two months ago i thought and i was saying the same as you because it makes sense in theory, but when i(and other people) saw the results we realize that in real life it makes almost no difference(some games win one version, some games another and its maybe because the difference of clocks) because the gt650m, and of course, gt640m are just not powerful enough to take advantage of the all of the extra bandwidth memory. And we saw the difference between 2gb gt650m ddr3 vs 1gb gt650m gddr5! not a weaker gt640m(even having gddr5 memory). So i said that the only version that really makes a noticiable difference at naked eye is the 2gb gt650m gddr5 and when overclocked at least to the values of ddr3 versions.
Do you know why it makes almost no difference having a 1Gb ou 2GB gpu?(in weaker gpu's like gt650m and gt640m) Because when they started to use more than 1GB the GPU is already suffering, the same history of ddr3 vs gddr5, especially when the gddr5 is underclocked(which is the case). That's why in some games ddr3 versions performance even better than gddr5 versions(and yes, even at 1080p of the same grafic card). So if you compare with the gpu below...

 

Thanks for the comparison Supranium

I think I can deal with the comparatively bad screen. I just love the design on the Samsung one; the N56VZ looks great too, but Sammy wins on design for me

What are your thoughts on the ExpressCache on the Samsung device? And regarding the heat, how bad is it on the Samsung one compared to latest laptops available?

 

That should work fine, although don't just buy it because it's a Samsung brand and you think it matches better with the machine. Make sure you read reviews and comparison shop.

 

@krasher134

I think that RAM isn't the only thing that's bumped up the price for the S04US on Amazon.

I couldnt understand why just a better RAM can increase the price by $200 so I researched. I remember reading that it has a better graphics card as well..don't remember where though

 

There were rumors that the S04US would feature either a GT 640M with 2GB of DDR5 memory instead of 1GB or a GT 650M with 1GB of DDR5, but there has been no solid evidence to point in either of those directions.

As far as I can tell from the specs on both Samsung's website and Amazon.com, the only bump from the S01US to the S04US is the 2GB of RAM. Plus, Samsung quotes the S04US at $1,199 (although where that price can be found beats me) and the S01US at $1,099, so it's really only a $100 jump for the memory bump rather than $200.

I'd love to be proven wrong about the spec differences, though!

 

I remember reading some bad feedbacks regarding screen from sandy bridge version, did they update LCD panel? or did they keep the same panel

 

1GB or 2GB VRAM won't make a difference in any game you'll play with the 640M at 1600x900, so I wouldn't worry the least bit about that "upgrade".

 

I too am a victim of this bait and switch tactic that Samsung has employed. Please see below for the transcript of my live chat with them. I have still not received a response from Frank in the PR group despite 2 emails but feel free to email him as well.

Richie: Hi, thanks for reaching out to Samsung tech support. How can I help you today?
Visitor: I am trying to send a support email regarding laptop model NP700Z5C-S01UB but it is not listed in the required drop down for model numbers so therefore I cannot send the email. Any suggestions?
Richie: I understand that you are unable to send E-mail regarding help no your laptop. Is that correct?
Visitor: yes
Richie: I’m sorry to hear that.
Richie: Could you please let me know the exact issue you are facing with the unit?
Visitor: I purchase the unit from best buy based upon the specifications your wesite lists here: 7 15.6"” Notebook (NP700Z5C-S01UB) | Samsung Notebooks
Richie: Okay, please go ahead with your query.
Visitor: I have discovered they are incoorect as your page indicates it include Nvidia GT640M gpu but it actually includes GT630M gpu
Richie: I see that you have a query regarding the graphic driver in your laptop.
Visitor: I contacted best buy about this and they pointed me to their webpage for the product as follows: Samsung - 15.6" Series 7 Laptop - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive - Silver - NP700Z5C-S01UB series 7&cp=1&lp=3
Visitor: sadly the main selling point I was seeking in this laptop was the 640m gpu and I made the purchase based upon the specifications your site lists
Richie: May I place you on hold while I look at the information?
Visitor: sure
Richie: Thank you.
Richie: Did you customize the unit from stores?
Visitor: no. the specifications listed on the box also indicate it is the GT630M gpu
Visitor: I can send email you a pic of the label if that would help
Visitor: there are no optins at best buy to customize this device
Richie: Could you please provide me with the exact model code of the unit as seen from the purchase box?
Visitor: NP700Z5C-S01UB
Richie: Thank you for the information.
Richie: What is the model number of the unit you see on the label attached to the bottom panel of the unit?
Visitor: NP700Z5C-S01UB
Richie: Thank you for confirmation.
Richie: Did you receive the unit as a closed box or open box?
Visitor: sealed box
Richie: Okay.
Richie: May I place you on hold while I look at the information?
Visitor: yes
Richie: Thank you.
Richie: Thanks for holding.
Richie: I recommend you go to Start>> Right click on Computer>> Manage>> Device manager.
Richie: Click on Display adapters.
Visitor: yes I have done that and it identified it as the Nvidia GT630M. That is how I originally discovered it was not the 640
Visitor: did you look at the best buy link I sent?
Visitor: it clearly states the gpu is the GT630m which contradicts what your site has
Visitor: sadly I relied on your site as it was the same model number without looking at the specs on the best buy site
Richie: Can you please send a screenshot of the graphic card screen on your laptop as an email attachment to the email address [email protected] in .JPEG format?
Visitor: yes, one moment
Richie: Let me know once you are done.
Visitor: i sent 2 emails from [email protected] 1 shows display adpter screenshot and the other shows the label on the box
Richie: Thank you,
Richie: Let me look at the information.
Richie: Thanks for holding.
Richie: From the picture of the bottom panel of the laptop, it is clear that the laptop comes with GT630M graphic card pre installed.
Richie: We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.
Richie: We would certainly forward your concern to the appropriate department who would update the same under the product specifications.
Visitor: my issue now is the best buy will only refund me in store credit as clearly the item is not defective and their website is accurate
Visitor: how should I reference this call and who should I follow up with if I do not hear back?
Richie: May I place you on hold while I process your request?
Visitor: yes
Richie: Thank you.
Richie: Thanks for holding.
Richie: I have filed a request in this regard. The technical advice transaction number for this request is 2113920618.
Visitor: any idea on how soon I might be contacted about this issue?
Richie: For your information, as the laptop has the specifications as mentioned on the label attached to the bottom panel of the unit, the same would be updated in the Samsung web site soon.
Richie: Thank you for bringing this to our notice.
Visitor: that will certainly help the next person however, it does not resolve my issue
Richie: I once again apologize for the inconvenience.
Visitor: it is more than an inconvenience when you pay a large sum of money for something to find out that it did not include the primary feature you were seeking and now I can only exchange it for store credit
Richie: I understand how frustrating that would be. I would have reacted the same if I were you.
Richie: But, I have tried the possible help from our end to update the issue to the appropriate department.
Visitor: who else can I direct my concerns to at Samsung?
Richie: You can contact our public relationship team by email at [email protected]
Richie: You can forward your concern in an email to the above email address.
Visitor: I will do so and I assume if I reference the transaction number you provided he can access the information including the photos that I had sent?
Richie: Yes, you can also include this transaction number in your email.
Visitor: thank you
Richie: You're welcome. Is there anything else I can assist you with?
Visitor: no
Richie: Thank you for all your patience and understanding that you have shown throughout the chat.

 

Of course, and I wasn't suggesting it would. I was just sharing some of the rumors regarding the spec difference between the two models.

In any event, Samsung has been notorious for not keeping the specs on their website up to date, so really, who knows until someone actually buys an S04US?

Thanks for posting this, although I won't hold my breath for Samsung to update the specs on the site.

 

dont u have the 30 day return policy of BB? I had exact same issue when I purchased it from best buy, and I immediately returned it next business day without any issue/tussle with BB.

yes, it was a private seller, and as mentioned by other member. but i'm glad for him that he did double check for the model number and specs. I myself was the victim of SO1UB model and did not want him to be too

I'm glad u did replace the SSD without any issue. I'm planning to do the same with my SO1US ... [soon, but not now].

do u have any idea about the question I asked earlier? or that does not really matter in case of Optical drive SATA controller?

let me put it here again.

 

Thanks for the reply. The issue is that I exchanged my 2012 MacBook Pro during the exchange period for this and they now will only offer store credit. Thinking of a Sony with 1080p ips screen for same price but I have no reviews to rely on. I would be thrilled if Samsung would take this one and sell me the next higher model for the $100 difference but no response from them.

 

Sigh.

NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

We will use notebookcheck for comparison... even though the only ddr5 640M is the XPS 15... and I can't actually find the review for that, AND they mark it with throttling.

Review Samsung Series 5 550P7C-S02DE Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews DDR3 650M.

Deus Ex Human Revolution: 650M leads by 2 FPS
Fifa 12: 650M leads by 8FPS (7%) on the DDR3 version
Anno 2070: 650M leads by 5 FPS versus XPS 15
Diablo III: DDR5 640M leads by 10 FPS versus ddr3 650M
Dirt Showdown: The 650M leads the DDR3 version by only 3 fps.

The DDR3 version of the 650M is -barely- ahead of the XPS 15, in only a few of the games I can tell. 2 FPS is probably a statistically negligible number, and the 640M DDR5 leads by a significant 10 frames in Diablo III. The only equivalent I can see to this would be Anno 2070, which is a 5 frame lead but about the same percentage.

Now, this MIGHT prove your point, except the XPS 15 throttles like crazy. Personally, I'm going to wait for a computer that doesn't throttle, to see what the 640M DDR5 can actually do. And I'm going to stick with what I've read on tech sites and what makes sense to me and go with the DDR5 640M being equivalent or faster than the 650M DDR3 version. You by no means have to agree with me, and if you don't, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

The screen is significantly better than Samsung, and design depending on who you ask.

CPU could be the same, not sure what's offered. GPU is a DDR3 640M LE, which performs 20% weaker than it's equivalent 640M (ddr5 or ddr3, in this case ddr3) so it would perform a lot weaker. Depending on what games you play, it should be more than enough though.

 

ThaT sounds like minimal improvement in the gpu area considering the higher resolution. Also has less memory and smaller hdd and comes pre loaded with a lot of Sony bloatware. Thanks for the insight.

 

ok, you can try your luck with my experience, if you want.
I did confirm with the BB sales rep before making a purchase and he confirmed that the specs on Samsung's website is the correct one and I can safely buy it.

I have the snapshot of that confirmation with BB sales rep [I asked why their specs are different from the vendors website and which one is correct, and he confirmed that Samsung is correct and BB is wrong on it specs]. you can present it to BB to put your case strongly i guess. and they should consider the refund.

I'm not sure if it would work, but u can surely try if you want.

 

So i just got my S01US from wallet-pleasers on Amazon, everything is great, it was completely sealed with the samsung tape. The box and the Nvidia control panel suggest that my 640m is GDDR5, which is different than what people have said here, have i got lucky or is this just listed incorrectly at GDDR5?

 

nops, u got the right one. S01US is supposed to have 640m with 1GB GDDR5. The confusion was around S01UB version which has 630m with 512MB.

and u are certainly a lucky one as u got S01US for the price of S01UB
dont forget to post review and pics!

 

here are some pics:
Photo Album - Imgur

during setup and removing the bloatware, downloading my shiz etc.

 

I opened this exact links of GT640M and GT650M and or am i seeing really bad or you see the numbers in a wrong way(i'm not mad really, i just want to understand and learn). I saw all the values in ultra.

Deus Ex Human Revolution: we can only compare if this gpu(GeForce GT 640M (405MHz), 2048MB (900MHz) 2GB DDR2, 8.17.12.956) is the gddr5 version and they wrote it wrong(ddr2 lol). But if it is right so it appear 23 fps. VS 29,6 and 30,2 fps of the gt650m ddr3 version.
FIFA 12: We cannot compare because it is the gt640m ddr3 and not gddr5 version.
ANNO 2070: gt640gddr5 15,1 fps VS gt650m ddr3 18,8 to 23,2 fps
Diablo III:The result is invalid because of the throttling but if we compare like you did gt640gddr5 51,4 fps VS 41.1 to 60,6 fps(why did you looked only for the wrost resulte? I'm looking for all of them because i don't need and i don't want to be right, i just want to know and learn and in fact this conversation begans when a guy ask about this laptop vs asus n56vz and the 60,6 fps is in fact for the asus n76vz which has the same grafic card, so you should put all the values) but let me continue...
Dirt Showdown: We cannot compare because gt640m gddr5 doesn't have values in this game.

So far not even one(i only watched the games you mention), not even diablo III like you said so i will mantain my point of view, gddr5 doesn't mean too much in middle GPU's so dispite of having gddr5, 640m is not superior compare to ddr3 650m. In some games could be equivalent, but in general is worse. But i agree that to be certain we need more values.

 

I did some CPU stress testing by running all the cores @100%.
it turned out that temprature of one of the 4 cores reaches to 218C in no time. I find it quite weird. can somebody give me some insight?

I used CPU-Burn btw!