Completely Stuck - Series 7 Gamer or Clevo or Alienware

sansnom

sansnom

sansnom

Associate
Joined
14 Feb 2004
Posts
1,103
Location
London
Ok basically I've been going nuts trying to find out every single detail about these machines, noise, heat levels, problems with cooling, compatability issues, etc

I've narrowed it down to these 3 but I still can't decide which one to get. This will be for Gaming, surfing, and general use.

Series 7 Gamer
-Nice keyboard
-Good CPU/Ram
-120hz screen but only in gloss
-Lots of nice little elegant touches
-Outdated GFX (675m) with no sign of 7970/680 version in sight and custom mxm slot
-horrible SSD/HDD setup, instead of just one or two SSD
-Can purchase without VAT directly (international shipping)
-Total Price: GBP1218 incl. Shipping

Clevo P150EM/P170EM
-72% / 95% matte screen options
-7970m/680m capable, though problems seem to be reported left, right and centre with the 7970m/enduro and possibly some heatsink issues too
-Loud/Noisy apparently
-Can be configured exactly as wanted, so only pay for what you want
-Crap keyboard, both in looks and function apparently, can be upgraded to a steelseries keyboard though
-SSD's
-Total price: GBP 1600 incl. Shipping

Alienware M17x r4
-Looks awful, like a child's toy or something
-Great keyboard
-Enduro can be switched off so no issues with 7970m
-Not as customisable as the Clevo but still much more flexible than the Samsung
-No Bloatware
-Fans can be really noisy apparently
-Total price: GBP 1500 incl. Shipping

So I'm completely stuck, I just dont know what to do. I keep going back and forth between them.

Do I go for the Samsung and get a nice, elegant laptop, with a great keyboard and screen but sacrifice on the GFX which is specific to samsung so it can't be sold or traded really. And also potentially have another 200-400 cost to put in SSD's instead.

Or do I go for the Clevo, customize everything and then deal with the 7970m not working as intended, or 680m and pay an extra 200 or so and upgrade the the keyboard with a steelseries one

Or do I go for the Alienware which has better build quality than the Clevo, and no issues with the 7970m thanks to being able to switch off Enduro, customize it with SSD's and all but then have a system which is potentially very very loud and looks like some sad teenager's toy?
 
sansnom said:
Ok basically I've been going nuts trying to find out every single detail about these machines, noise, heat levels, problems with cooling, compatability issues, etc

I've narrowed it down to these 3 but I still can't decide which one to get. This will be for Gaming, surfing, and general use.

Series 7 Gamer
-Nice keyboard
-Good CPU/Ram
-120hz screen but only in gloss
-Lots of nice little elegant touches
-Outdated GFX (675m) with no sign of 7970/680 version in sight and custom mxm slot
-horrible SSD/HDD setup, instead of just one or two SSD
-Can purchase without VAT directly (international shipping)
-Total Price: GBP1218 incl. Shipping

Clevo P150EM/P170EM
-72% / 95% matte screen options
-7970m/680m capable, though problems seem to be reported left, right and centre with the 7970m/enduro and possibly some heatsink issues too
-Loud/Noisy apparently
-Can be configured exactly as wanted, so only pay for what you want
-Crap keyboard, both in looks and function apparently, can be upgraded to a steelseries keyboard though
-SSD's
-Total price: GBP 1600 incl. Shipping

Alienware M17x r4
-Looks awful, like a child's toy or something
-Great keyboard
-Enduro can be switched off so no issues with 7970m
-Not as customisable as the Clevo but still much more flexible than the Samsung
-No Bloatware
-Fans can be really noisy apparently
-Total price: GBP 1500 incl. Shipping

So I'm completely stuck, I just dont know what to do. I keep going back and forth between them.

Do I go for the Samsung and get a nice, elegant laptop, with a great keyboard and screen but sacrifice on the GFX which is specific to samsung so it can't be sold or traded really. And also potentially have another 200-400 cost to put in SSD's instead.

Or do I go for the Clevo, customize everything and then deal with the 7970m not working as intended, or 680m and pay an extra 200 or so and upgrade the the keyboard with a steelseries one

Or do I go for the Alienware which has better build quality than the Clevo, and no issues with the 7970m thanks to being able to switch off Enduro, customize it with SSD's and all but then have a system which is potentially very very loud and looks like some sad teenager's toy?
Click to expand...

I am awaiting my Clevo, if you head over to Laptop Forums and Notebook Computer Discussion you will find discussions on all three laptops above with reviews etc.

Some mighty fine bargains have been had recently from the guys discussing the M17x r4 here on this forum.

Some reviews have shown the noise levels of both the M17 r4 and Clevo to be similar, however l know for a fact my little M11x r3 can make a little bit of a racket under load, and l love how it looks, however l am keen on the plain understated looks of the Clevo.

Regards.

C.
 
I would go for a clevo in your position. As you say pay more and get the 680, or get the 7970 and hope they fix the problem soon. Definitely stay away from the Alienware if that is how you perceive it. lol :)
 
Forget the Samsung all together

My choice as youve specced a 680M is the Clevo

Check the Dell outlet however, m17X R4 have been going for under a grand!
 
roughavoc said:
Forget the Samsung all together

My choice as youve specced a 680M is the Clevo

Check the Dell outlet however, m17X R4 have been going for under a grand!
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what a Dell outlet is, I had a quick google of it.

Is it like refurbished systems or buy-as-is?
 
Any particular reason to go for a 7970m with the AW instead of a 680?

Only reason I ask is because Dell is doing some pretty unbelievable offers at the moment so If i hit the $2699 mark on the order, a 15% discount is applied to the entire order.

In other words, it works out $100 more expensive for me to have the 680m than the 7970m.

Now a couple of things I need to ask:

As I do more research on the AW I am beginning to get particularly concerned with two points

1. Apparently the fans are atrociously loud with load. Can anyone confirm this? And can anyone provide decibel ratings on idle/load? i.e. is it in the 50's? 60's? more?

2. Apparently the LCD display is terrible, using 2 lamps to light instead of one, and doesnt produce rich or vivid colours. I got this from a review on the M17x, but not the M17x r4. Can anyone confirm if the screen has been upgraded/still suffers from this issue?

3. Dell has an "anti-glare" screen guard as one of the accessory options at $35. Is this worth it? Does it effectively turn the display into a Matte screen?

4. Is the 120hz screen a higher quality panel with better colour reproduction?

Thank you!
 
Last edited:
I checked out the alienware in a shop. Awful in every possible way.

Thinking im gonna go with the p150 with a 680m.

Meaker - any issues/regrets with yours?
 
Heard of quite a few problems with the 7970m, I'd probably say the clevo with 680m would be the best choice, nvidias mobile drivers are generally pretty good to. (Tho the Samsung with SSD and a 680m would be way better than any of those choices :( ) the screen is really nice, its not loud and the core performance is great.

The Samsung is pretty decent, the 675m isn't near as fast as the 7970m/680m but its still pretty fast and overall its very capable, not having an SSD is a bit of a let down but stick it into Samsung's opptimised boot mode and along with the expresscache it boots win7 about as fast as a regular SSD setup.
 
Last edited:
Rroff said:
Heard of quite a few problems with the 7970m, I'd probably say the clevo with 680m would be the best choice, nvidias mobile drivers are generally pretty good to. (Tho the Samsung with SSD and a 680m would be way better than any of those choices :( ) the screen is really nice, its not loud and the core performance is great.

The Samsung is pretty decent, the 675m isn't near as fast as the 7970m/680m but its still pretty fast and overall its very capable, not having an SSD is a bit of a let down but stick it into Samsung's opptimised boot mode and along with the expresscache it boots win7 about as fast as a regular SSD setup.
Click to expand...

I couldnt agree more, I'm dying to get the Samsung. Love the look and the keyboard seems a very nice, slightly indented, soft touch and the screen is second to none apparently but the idea of paying the same $$$ for a video card anywhere between 50-100% slower than the alternative just seems daft. It wouldnt be half bad if it was mxm, I could just strip out the 675m and sell it and get a 7970 or 680 instead but they also made it a custom slot design so others cant use it i think. Really disappointing of Samsung.
 
sansnom said:
It wouldnt be half bad if it was mxm, I could just strip out the 675m and sell it and get a 7970 or 680 instead but they also made it a custom slot design so others cant use it i think. Really disappointing of Samsung.
Click to expand...

The Samsungs do have MXM cards in them and a MXM 3.0b Socket.

Check here and see what I mean. Also if you google you will see a few topics on forum.notebookreview.com regarding this too.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=EN&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://www.3dnews.ru/mobile/622780

KhXPY.png


Thats the image of the 6970M MXM in the Samsung gamer series 7.
 
Last edited:
Purgatory said:
The Samsungs do have MXM cards in them and a MXM 3.0b Socket.

Check here and see what I mean. Also if you google you will see a few topics on forum.notebookreview.com regarding this too.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=EN&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://www.3dnews.ru/mobile/622780

KhXPY.png


Thats the image of the 6970M MXM in the Samsung gamer series 7.
Click to expand...

This hasn't been confirmed.

I've been following the topics on NBR for months. No-one has managed to do it, infact only one person said he was attempting to do it and hasn't been seen or heard of since.
 
Samsung have confirmed it is an MXM 3.0B socket and card. Pickup the phone and call them they will tell you that, I have called them and this is why I was looking for a 7970M without the Enduro enabled, but the only place I could find one was Laptop Monkey/ Upgrade Monkey on Ebay and he is selling the 7970M but wants £450 for it (currently and at the time of me looking it was priced at £750)... See why I didn't bother now ? I'm not paying £450 for a GPU and also the 680M is £650 too.. and the laptop cost me only £1400 in the first place and plays every game I throw at it at the moment without any problems.

Regarding anyone doing it i'm not aware of anyone currently replacing the GPU on these laptops.


They also couldn't promise me if the Enduro (7970m) or Optimus (680m) was disabled at that ebay store so I was not going to risk throwing away £450 or £650 for something that may not work because these power saving features are enabled, I just have a feeling the Samsung Gamer will not work with cards with these technologies enabled and if you own a Samsung gamer as I do you will know the CPU I-GPU is not usable and you can't switch gpu's or use any power saving gpu features like Enduro or Optimus.

Until people start getting rid of the 7970M or 680M or even a newer card comes out with these feaures disabled then I will take the risk, but for now the laptop does everything I need very well and I don't see any problems for a good few years.


Also the clevos to me are very poor on the build quality and the keyboards and screens are not good enough for such a laptop and I was also wanting a 17" screen with a 120hz screen and a bonus of 3D was added to the Samsung Gamer. I still think the 7970m and 680m are way overpriced for the performance and I would rather update the whole laptop to a new one later down the line rather than spend half the cost of the whole laptop for a GPU only or as I said wait till people flog their old gpus and grab one cheap to try out and see if the upgrade works as I want.
 
Last edited:
Purgatory said:
Samsung have confirmed it is an MXM 3.0B socket and card. Pickup the phone and call them they will tell you that, I have called them and this is why I was looking for a 7970M without the Enduro enabled, but the only place I could find one was Laptop Monkey/ Upgrade Monkey on Ebay and he is selling the 7970M but wants £450 for it (currently and at the time of me looking it was priced at £750)... See why I didn't bother now ? I'm not paying £450 for a GPU and also the 680M is £650 too.. and the laptop cost me only £1400 in the first place and plays every game I throw at it at the moment without any problems.

Regarding anyone doing it i'm not aware of anyone currently replacing the GPU on these laptops.


They also couldn't promise me if the Enduro (7970m) or Optimus (680m) was disabled at that ebay store so I was not going to risk throwing away £450 or £650 for something that may not work because these power saving features are enabled, I just have a feeling the Samsung Gamer will not work with cards with these technologies enabled and if you own a Samsung gamer as I do you will know the CPU I-GPU is not usable and you can't switch gpu's or use any power saving gpu features like Enduro or Optimus.

Until people start getting rid of the 7970M or 680M or even a newer card comes out with these feaures disabled then I will take the risk, but for now the laptop does everything I need very well and I don't see any problems for a good few years.


Also the clevos to me are very poor on the build quality and the keyboards and screens are not good enough for such a laptop and I was also wanting a 17" screen with a 120hz screen and a bonus of 3D was added to the Samsung Gamer. I still think the 7970m and 680m are way overpriced for the performance and I would rather update the whole laptop to a new one later down the line rather than spend half the cost of the whole laptop for a GPU only or as I said wait till people flog their old gpus and grab one cheap to try out and see if the upgrade works as I want.
Click to expand...

I talked to Samsung last Thursday, their tech team told me it's not upgradeable as the Series 7 uses Samsung specific mxm (something about a slightly different design).

Also I saw you mentioned your mate managed to get the 700G7C 3D working which is strange because I cant find anyone else that has managed to make the 3D on that model work.

My opinion is, the G7C will not run any varian of 7970m/680m currently on the market.
 
kaktus said:
Also I saw you mentioned your mate managed to get the 700G7C 3D working which is strange because I cant find anyone else that has managed to make the 3D on that model work.
Click to expand...

He had to install the Nvidia 3D drivers and also use the Tridef software too I think to make it work he also has the new Nvidia 3D Vision Kit 2 not the older one. I saw it working with movies fine, not sure what his exact setup was to make it work then (Tridef or Nvidia 3D drivers or both) but he was using PowerDVD12 and we could watch 3D movies (Also not sure if he had it set to side by side 3D). He did have lots of problems with it while setting it up from what he said and getting the software to enable the 3D but in the end it worked for movies, not sure if he tried gaming and not really sure he cares about the gaming he really isn't a gamer he just wanted a highend laptop for his work and not have to carry the desktop into work, will have to ask him what he did to get it to work and if he has tried gaming in 3D with it yet.


You may want to read this thread too.

http://www.tridef.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2006

http://www.omegadrivers.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53&Itemid=53
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom