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

I just reintalled win7, but I kinda miss the original series 7 theme, anyone know how to get it back?

 

have any of you guys encountered heat issues with this model?

 

I had a pretty detailed post a while back. Throttling to about 2 ghz with furmark and prime 95 running, no throttling with just Prime 95. No throttling noticed in game. In all cases, CPU temperature maxes out at 91 degrees celsius on one, maybe two of the cores.

 

I guess I interpret your question not as "what happens under stress" but rather "under ordinary usage." In that case, I'd say it's a very cool machine! I'd also note that under stress, the cooling system does an excellent job getting back to normal temps after the CPU slows down (for more details see kDrum's post).

Another observation is that you probably can't game with it on your lap. Also, keep in mind that primary venting appears to be at the back edge of the keyboard, directed in part toward the bottom of the screen.

I'm giving another laptop (Sony S15) a spin right now, and just mentioned in the corresponding thread that I'm having trouble with the right wristpad/palmrest area on the Sony -- just a touch too warm for my hands. The Samsung (which I owned for a week) was totally cool as I recall. Much better job keeping the heat away from the palmrest and keyboard.

-Matt

 

Just back from Microcenter and Frys. MC had the samsung series 7 on display but something says it was older machine as it had a Radeon red sticker on it. I believe it was not Ivy Bridge. But overall i liked the machine. I am not geek when it comes to checking things like temps, benchmarks, flex, trackpad sensitivity etc but from a layman's perspective what i feel is..

1. Machine feels solid and the silver grey top feels good.
2. It is heavier than the S15 for sure.
3. Keyboard was good and backlight was also good but could not see much because there was lot of external light in the show room.
4. 1600 x 900 resolution is adequate at least for me.
5. Could not do sound test but since i do not see any speaker grills on top i am not sure how well those JBL speakers sound. May be grills on all laptops are just for show. Not sure.
6. Laptop was not hot / warm but that is probably because they don't run anything on the laptop, just the desktop is shown full time.
7. I saw some vents / fan / speaker ?? (not sure) at the place where the screen of laptop meets the keyboard. I am not sure what it is and if it has any negative effect. If someone can explain it would be great.
8. Screen was good for me at higher brightness and since i am not qualified to do proper screen testing, i at least feel it is adequate.

I too am more or less in similar situation as gadgetrants (right ???) as am not sure which i want to buy, the S15 silver or this samsung one.

 

I just can't do anything with it over my lap, can't stand it for 2 mins, maybe it's just me!

and so is the palmrest, feels so hot for my hand

 

Palmrest to me is borderline cool, if not perfect

Lap is definitely warm but certainly not uncomfortable, at least in my opinion. Check your temps when you're browsing on your lap - they shouldn't go over 55. Mine doesn't, even if I'm streaming video with the laptop on a bed (vents covered).

 

Sounds like maybe you played with the NP700Z5A -- probably the same screen, though, as the Z5C. On the Z5C, there is now a grating completely across the back/top edge of the keyboard. I don't think the speakers on the 15" are JBL -- maybe just the 17" model. But the Z5C does have a subwoofer underneath like it's larger sibling.

Yeah, we two are in the same boat! Today the scales are tilted for me toward the Samsung! I'm feeling OK with the 1600x900 display, though I'm tempted to wait a few weeks and desperately hope that they switch in a higher-quality screen -- the one in the 17" is awesome!

Those slots you saw (on the keyboard hinge) are the cooling vents for the body. Some speculation here that it's not good for the screen. I guess only time will tell.

-Matt

 

@Matt

I know that HEAVY is subjective but any idea as to how HEAVY does the 17" one feels ? I mean, i would love a bigger screen. I guess it is 1080p but if is decent in weight department i might consider that. But the chances of that happening are less than 5% at least for now. Also wife likes sony S15 more (girl's perspective: Color silver and looks....does not care about screen and all lol).

Also the speakers on 15" are not JBL ? Does that mean no good quality sound (like sony ?)

 

afaik mac has been using that kind of design for a while, I don't think you get too huge issues from it, otherwise I feel like some review site would have pointed that out before.

 

Oh DARN I was at Best Buy today and forgot to try and unplug/pick up the 17" Samsung! Maybe I can go back tomorrow! Well Samsung specs list the 17" weight at 6.26lbs. I'm not sure about other folks, but for me 5.5 is really the limit (actually I prefer 5lbs but will bend the rules for the 15" Z5C). I need a machine that's easy to carry roundtrip 5-6 times a week. At 6+lbs I'd call it a "desktop replacement" rather than a laptop!

I may need to chat with your wife: the Samsung IS silver, and I think it has a nicer keyboard than the Sony. Of course I haven't seen the silver S15 in person, so maybe I should wait. But I'm surprised she didn't love the brushed metal look of the Samsung. Sure the Sony is lighter, but if you decide on the Samsung, just: (a) show her how lightweight and "tweaky" the Sony screen mount is. how it's loose in places and makes noises when you tap on it, and (b) run her finger over the edge of the assembly, where random bits of plastic are hanging off. To me the Sony feels lighter while the Samsung feels solid! Or maybe "solid" is too much a guys' word? LOL

-Matt

 

What is the difference between the Samsung NP700Z3A S06US AND NP700Z3A S07US? I saw a online article that states the display brightness of the s07us to be 340 nits, thats really cool if they have changed the panel in it. Any idea guys? I have the S06US.

 

There is another strange thing i am noticing, when you click on start cmd and "Run as Administrator" the UAC pops up asking you to click Yes which shades your screen, after you click yes, the screen warmth changes and it goes back to the original warmthness within @ seconds, have anyone noticed this?

 

The first thing you're ever supposed to do is turn UAC off. Problem solved.

 

Oh wow I beg your pardon. I didn't see any mention of JBL on the Samsung page, but the Amazon description clearly says: "Enjoy high quality surround sound with your 15.6-inch Series 7 Notebook. The built-in JBL speakers with sub-woofer provide the perfect entertainment experience with clearer, richer sound, deeper bass and greater tone articulation."

-Matt

 

I am guessing that someone here who owns the laptop can confirm on this.

 

Hey, for what it's worth, I've started the Sony vs. Samsung smackdown: http://forum.notebookreview.com/wha...30-impressions-sony-s15-samsung-np700z5c.html

Currently working on the second post, "detailed comments".

-Matt

 

Usually, I take out my battery because I use my laptop around an outlet. I have battery max charged at 80% with the Samsung Easy Settings software. When I look at my battery icon, it says like 78%-80% plugged in, not charging. Does this mean that I'm solely running off the outlet power instead of battery? I'm just curious because I don't want my battery to be constantly charging.

 

As I understand, it's a trickle-charge so while plugged in: far below 80%, you're charging up to that level, and then once you hit it, the battery stops charging and then sloooowly discharges. And then, when say it's around 75%, it starts to charge again. So you're "never" using the battery when plugged in, but you are charging/discharging it in the background.

I haven't made up my mind yet whether the "80% trick" is legitimate. It just smells too much to me like a marketing team made it up and sold it to the hardware development team. Also, I've had excellent luck with my last few laptops, just leaving the battery in and always plugged in when I'm near an outlet. Of course, one bad battery experience and you may feel otherwise!

-Matt

 

There's no JBL branding on the laptop itself so I'm not sure if they're really JBL but I can say that the speakers sounds VERY good and LOUD at max volume. You wouldn't need separate PC speakers for this laptop.

 

JBL speakers are only in 17" Chronos. There is no JBL in 15" ones

 

AHHHHHH! My SO1US is coming tomorrow!!!!!! I'm so excited!

 

Fantastic! And remember: you don't have to fully charge before you use it! And a bit of advice: as long as you leave the "hidden" restore partition alone, it's very easy to restore to stock. So enjoy and have a good time.

-Matt

 

Oh okay, that's good to know.

Also, for the system recovery option, if I made partitions to the hard drive, will recovery just reinstall the stuff on just the C drive and ignore the other partitions?

 

As I recall you have 2-3 options when you run recovery: one is exactly what you describe (reinstall to C and ignore any other partitions) and another is "wipe the drive (everything but the recovery partition) and reinstall." So you can do it either way!

-Matt

 

Thanks for the quick replies! One last question if you don't mind. Is there anyway we can see which video card is in use? I'm trying to test out the switchable graphics while playing a game, but I'm not really sure how to determine which card is being used.

 

Hi,

I've seen that the GPU of the sony S15 could be oc thanks to a bios mod. Is there anything similar for the samsung laptop to oc the GPU up to 650m-like performances? If so, how is the heat? Thanks for your feedback, i'm still trying to decide between these two computers...

 

Sony has 640LE
Samsung has 640M

Samsung has better GPU

 

The easy way to tell if you're using the discrete card while gaming -- and the game is fullscreen -- is to install MSI Afterburner, which includes an onscreen display. You can have it report card processor %, and if it's more than 0% the 640M is working!

Another strategy is to start GPU-Z, play your game for a bit, then go back to GPU-Z, which includes a history window to track card usage (%, temps, clock speeds, etc.).

Not sure about a BIOS mod. I also haven't (I should say, didn't) tried overclocking, but I noticed in Afterburner that the core and memory clock speeds can be changed. Feel like being the guinea pig?

I'll try and finish my "compare" page soon, but an interesting conclusion is that the Sony stays much cooler during gaming than the Samsung. Now of course the Samsung has a "better" card but I'm still surprised at the heat difference (Sony GPU = 65C vs. Samsung GPU = 75C).

-Matt

 

Exactly. Which is why I'm surprised the difference in game quality is small, and the difference in heat is large. But there are other differences in the systems I compared (e.g., Core i7 vs Core i5).

-Matt

 

It may be because the GPU in the samsung laptop comes with GDDR5, which is supposed to get warmer than GDDR3 (found in the sony S15)...

 

So, I got the one off of Amazon that you linked to me and I love it, but there's a problem, instead of the 640m DDR5 it came with a 630m DDR5. On the page it never specified which one but a few users in here said it had the 640 and when I looked up the SO1US it always said 640m. How big a difference will this make and why wouldn't it have the 640?

 

OK, that sucks. I would recommend returning it. That's very weird. I don't know in real-world terms what the difference is but on paper it's not a fair trade-off. I would definitely complain that Amazon's product page lists the 640m.

Can you double-check RAM and HDD capacity? It sounds like maybe they sent the S01UB. That one also has 512MB GPU memory, not 1GB like the S01US.

-Matt

 

Just noticed that it also has a 1TB 5400 rpm HDD instead of the 750GB 7200rpm HDD and 8GB memory instead of 6GB. But I didn't buy it directly from Amazon, purchased it off of Amazon from Ace77 which had good reviews.

What can I do!?

EDIT: WOW, the box says Samsung Series 7 SO1UB, I specifically purchased the SO1US and even have the order to prove it...

 

Yeah, I figured it was the S01UB ($999 at Best Buy). You should have no problem contacting the seller and requesting a refund -- they should also cover return shipping. If it reassures you, maybe call Amazon first and explain it to them. They can attach a memo to your account, and if the seller resists refunding Amazon will straighten it out for you!

Matt

 

Ok, thanks for your help! Maybe I will just buy the one right from Amazon next time even though it's $1100 instead of $970 if the seller can't send me the correct one.

 

Sony S3 \ S15 come with 640M LE GDDR5 from what I've seen around.

 

Hey, you saved $30 bucks!

Yeah, seriously, I do prefer to deal directly with Amazon for the bigger purchases. They are so easy with exchanges/returns and other problems. The only bad experience I've had is when an item gets listed and then the never seems to show up in inventory -- they just give you vague answers. But once you own it, customer service is great.

-Matt

 

-Matt

 

Saved $130 hahaha, for only $30 there's no way I'd go with a different seller. I really hope they give me expedited shipping again this time free of charge, would be quite nice of them.

 

I think the S01UB is $1000 +tax at Best Buy:

Samsung - 15.6" Series 7 Laptop - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive - Silver - NP700Z5C-S01UB

EDIT: Wow it has a bunch of positive reviews. Silly people walk into Best Buy and buy the first beautiful laptop they see! They need to suffer like us, spending weeks agonizing over the decision.

I guess I would ask Amazon about shipping. My expectation would be since the Marketplace seller shipped the wrong product you shouldn't be liable on either end of the shipment.

-Matt

 

This is absolutely correct. Amazon has ZERO TOLERANCE for a seller shipping the wrong product. This seller can be penalized in a few different ways and he will be forced to give you a return and/or exchange for the correct item. A seller must have a credit card and bank account tied to their amazon seller's account, so it's not like anyone can really get away with that shady . Maybe they can on fleabay but not amazon.

@to the person who received the wrong item, just call amazon @ 1-866-216-1072 and tell them you received the wrong item. Alternatively, if you don't want the seller to get assraped by amazon, you could just contact him instead and see if he will do an exchange/return for you. Most marketplace sellers impose a restocking fee (15-30%) and if he tries to pin that on you, just go straight to amazon, you should not have to pay that.

Either way, you'll be fine. if i were you, i'd go straight to amazon and deal with them.

good luck

 

Whoa, I seriously thought it had GDDR5 due to its performance, especially when OC'ed, it doesn't seem to be bandwidth-limited.

Thanks for the correction though, and sorry people for the misinformation

 

That's good, thanks for the re-assurance. I really hope that it's not a problem that I opened and used it before I realized it was the wrong one...

Also, assuming they still allow me to return it, do I use the recovery disk that came with it to restore it to factory settings?

 

As long as you havn't been using it for weeks and weeks you should be fine. As far as factory settings, don't worry about it too much..just uninstall and remove anything you have added, no need to do a full restore.

 

Ok that's good, what about my user account? I'm unable to delete it... should I just remove the password and name it administrator or something?

 

George is right, but since I'm paranoid AND neurotic (George, remember when you ordered yours? LOL): the factory reset is insanely easy and fast (20 minutes or so). I'm sorry I don't remember which key it is (check your little printed user guide) but you just boot into it, and voila. I'm amazed that the Sony S15 (which I'm currently trying out) took like 4 hours (seriously) and the Samsung was 15
-20 minutes. It was so easy on the Samsung I did it like 3 times.

EDIT: here's my theory (does it make any sense?)....Samsung -> wipes the OS drive, and then simply decodes/expands the image from the recovery partition to the OS drive, while Sony -> literally scripts the entire reinstall, and uses the compressed recovery image to reinstall everything one by one.

-Matt

 

just received this ram Newegg.com - CORSAIR Vengeance 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model CMSX4GX3M1A1600C9
but it's not being recognized by the windows....could it be defective???

edit. nvm looks like i didn't slide it all the way in.

 

Just so you know, the cheap "NP700Z5C-S01US" at 955$ is back on Amazon, but it is a false one again : I contacted the seller (ACE Wholesale) and they told me it has a 630M... So I don't know if they try to fool people or they don't know what they are doing, but be careful

 

Alright thanks for the heads up, we contacted Amazon first then began emailing Ace. The guy we were speaking to said he would check his stock in the morning to see if they have the correct one but also said we can't get a refund because it's opened.... If all else fails Amazon will refund everything so it'll all work out.