fejerm
Active member
Here are my initial thoughts on the new Clevo X170SM-G laptop (named the 17,3" RECOIL IV at PC Specialist).
My config:
CPU: 10700K
RAM: 4Gb
SSD: 256 Gb PCS
VGA: RTX 2080 Super
Screen: 240 Hz FHD G-Sync
Build time
From processing time to dispatch it took 8 working days.
Packaging
The packaging is the same as for earlier Clevo laptops shipped by PCS. A standard "Notebook" box in a bigger box for better protection.
Inside the box besides the laptop and adapters you will find the PCS welcome package with the manual and some extra screws in case you wish to install your own SSD inside:
The package also includes some thermal paste however unless you need it for an emergency, I do not recommend using this since the paste included is the one used by PCS for building, which is a generic paste with avarage thermal conductivity. For best performance you need better paste, like Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, or if you are well experienced with liquid metal then using Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut is the best solution in case a repaste is needed.
Warning! Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut is electically conductive, if you are not experienced with this paste and you spill it on the motherboard, then cleaning is mandatory before you turn the laptop on because in can, and will cause a short circuit!
BIOS
Compared to the previous flash ship Clevo laptop offered by PCS (The Clevo P775TM1-G or Octane VI with PCS naming) the BIOS is kinda disappointing.
The P775TM used AMI BIOS with old gen interface, while the X170SM is using Insyde BIOS with graphical userinterface. However the main problem is that the P775TM had 2 options available in the BIOS:
- memory settings (including XMP settings)
- cpu settings (overclocking and voltage settings).
These 2 options were a very good thing because not many other laptop manufacturers offered these inside the bios and users had to use 3rd party software to tweak voltage and cpu, not to mention xmp settings which made it possible to use high speed rams in the machine.
Clevo sent out X170SM laptops to testers with these options which made Clevo a fan favorite for many users, however in the final production units Clevo installed a BIOS which for some reason has hidden all of these options.
Here are the available options in the X170SM BIOS (.02 version):
As you can see Clevo has disable all options in the final BIOS which involves performance tweaking. No undervolting in the BIOS? no core ratio settings in the BIOS and expesially no XMP settings in the BIOS like there was with previous Clevo laptops. These options were all available in an earlier, engineering BIOS, however Clevo decided to disable these.
What this mean is:
1) if you need to overclock the cpu or change voltage you need to use the Clevo Control Center which can cause bugs. This setting is not available until you enable overclocking feature in the bios but even after that CCC must be reinstalled because the option does become visible
2) supported RAMs are limited because the hidden XMP option. Currently the fastest laptop ram is a Crucial ram with 3200 Mhz frequency and CL16 timing, however XMP profile is needed to enable this which for reasons unknown CLevo hid. Because of this these ram moduls will only run at 2666 Mhz.
If you want the full 3200 Mhz RAM frequency, then you need a JEDEC ram. Currently the best one is made by Crucial which is 3200 Mhz CL22. The part number for 2x16 Gb KIT is CT32G4SFD832A.
Not many games but some can show really big difference in FPS between CL16 and CL22, however 3200 Mhz CL16 is not available due to an unknown reason made by Clevo and only 3200 Mhz CL22 is supported.
VGA
The VGA used in my X170 is the RTX 2080 Super which is a slight upgrade compared to the RTX 2080 used in the P775.
Here are the GPU-Z info side by side with the differences between the 2 cards:
As you can see there are 2 physical and 1 software difference between the 2 cards. The physical difference is that the Super variant has slightly more Shaders and Texture Mapping Units than the RTX 2080 which in practical usage means about an extra 5-10 FPS in games.
The software difference is in the GPU/BOOST clock. The Super has slightly higher clocks due to the fact that Clevo has set the Thermal Power Limit to 150W in the RTX 2080, however the limit in the Super variant is 200W. Due to the extra headroom Clevo was able to set slightls higher clock. These extra clock speeds mean about 2-3 FPS extra in games.
So in a total due to the more Shaders, TMUs and higher clock speeds users can expect about +10 FPS with the Super variant. Not a big deal for P775TM1-G users to sell their laptops, however for new customers this is a good reason to go with the Super variant instead of the non Super one.
Power adapters
The P775TM1-G used 1 single power brick, 1 huge 330W Delta adapter which in some scnearios was barely able to provide enough juice for the laptop, expesially if one configured the system with an RTX 2080 and 9900K.
With the X170SM-G Clevo stepped up the game and now include 2 adapters instead of 1. Each adapter is a Chicony made 280W brick which totals up to 560W.
Layed out on the table they can take up quite a space:
However Clevo include a little holder in the box which allows you to stack the adapters on each other to save some space:
This holder shoudl be included with every order made at PCS.
But the question, is 560W really needed? Well maybe with a 10900K and overclocking yes, however running a 10700K and RTX 2080 Super at stock settings the system pulls around 330W from the wall.
The above was measured while Time Spy was running.
Screen
The fastest screen available for gaming for the P775TM was the AU Optronics B173HAN03.1 panel which is a 144 Hz panel. It supportst G-Sync and has a response time of around 16 ms. This is the gray to gray response time which is comminly used to market response time by monitor manufacturers. There is also the black to white response which is about 9 ms, however Clevo marketed this panel as a 9ms panel, however if we whish to measure the panel the same way as a desktop monitor then we can say that the 144 Hz G-Sync panel used for the P775TM is an IPS panel with 16 ms response time. Not the best expesially since there are already IPS panel for laptops with 6 ms gray to gray response time, however do not worry. There is a slight blurriness because of the 16 ms time however it is perfectly acceptable and will not bother you unless you put it side by side to a 1 ms TN panel or unless you are looking something to pick on.
The very minimal motion blur will not affect your gameplay experience.
But why did I mention this in so detail ?
Well the fastest panel for the X170 is a 240 hz panel. The 240 hz panel is a AU Optronics B173HAN05.0 240 Hz IPS G-Sync panel.
The "problem" is however is response time. Despite much higher refresh rate, the B173HAN05.1 has around the same response time as the B173HAN03.1 meaning the 240 Hz panel has around 16 ms response time.
However there are 2 things why I would prefer to go with the 240 Hz panel (and did) over the 144 Hz one used in the P775:
1) response time: there are games that can reach 144 FPS and G-Sync only works until 144 FPS, above that you will see screen tearing. To avoid this you need to enable V-Sync besides G-Sync. Until 144 FPS G-Sync will work however if the game reaches that V-Sync will lock the framerate to avoid screen tearing. However when V-Sync kicks in some people who have really good eyes might experience some extra lag and microstuttering (the amount depends on game and game engine). With the 240 Hz panel much less game will reach the V-Sync limit and G-Sync has more headroom to make games smoother.
2) Better color space. The B173HAN03.1 144 Hz panel can display around 88% sRGB, while the B173HAN05.0 240 Hz panel can display around 98% sRGB, so the faster panel has slightly better colors. Not OLED quality, but still it looks pretty good.
Oh and not to mention that I tested several 144 Hz panels and all had noticable backlight bleeding, however maybe I am juct lucky but the 240 Hz panel that came with my order also has some minimal bleeding but significatly better than the 144 Hz panels had. No, it is not possible to buy a laptop with currently used IPS panels that absolutely backlight bleeding free, all IPS panels have this, it comes with the tech used, however the amount of backlight bleeding can vary between panels.
TO BE CONTINUED (reached character limit)
My config:
CPU: 10700K
RAM: 4Gb
SSD: 256 Gb PCS
VGA: RTX 2080 Super
Screen: 240 Hz FHD G-Sync
Build time
From processing time to dispatch it took 8 working days.
Packaging
The packaging is the same as for earlier Clevo laptops shipped by PCS. A standard "Notebook" box in a bigger box for better protection.
Inside the box besides the laptop and adapters you will find the PCS welcome package with the manual and some extra screws in case you wish to install your own SSD inside:
The package also includes some thermal paste however unless you need it for an emergency, I do not recommend using this since the paste included is the one used by PCS for building, which is a generic paste with avarage thermal conductivity. For best performance you need better paste, like Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, or if you are well experienced with liquid metal then using Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut is the best solution in case a repaste is needed.
Warning! Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut is electically conductive, if you are not experienced with this paste and you spill it on the motherboard, then cleaning is mandatory before you turn the laptop on because in can, and will cause a short circuit!
BIOS
Compared to the previous flash ship Clevo laptop offered by PCS (The Clevo P775TM1-G or Octane VI with PCS naming) the BIOS is kinda disappointing.
The P775TM used AMI BIOS with old gen interface, while the X170SM is using Insyde BIOS with graphical userinterface. However the main problem is that the P775TM had 2 options available in the BIOS:
- memory settings (including XMP settings)
- cpu settings (overclocking and voltage settings).
These 2 options were a very good thing because not many other laptop manufacturers offered these inside the bios and users had to use 3rd party software to tweak voltage and cpu, not to mention xmp settings which made it possible to use high speed rams in the machine.
Clevo sent out X170SM laptops to testers with these options which made Clevo a fan favorite for many users, however in the final production units Clevo installed a BIOS which for some reason has hidden all of these options.
Here are the available options in the X170SM BIOS (.02 version):
As you can see Clevo has disable all options in the final BIOS which involves performance tweaking. No undervolting in the BIOS? no core ratio settings in the BIOS and expesially no XMP settings in the BIOS like there was with previous Clevo laptops. These options were all available in an earlier, engineering BIOS, however Clevo decided to disable these.
What this mean is:
1) if you need to overclock the cpu or change voltage you need to use the Clevo Control Center which can cause bugs. This setting is not available until you enable overclocking feature in the bios but even after that CCC must be reinstalled because the option does become visible
2) supported RAMs are limited because the hidden XMP option. Currently the fastest laptop ram is a Crucial ram with 3200 Mhz frequency and CL16 timing, however XMP profile is needed to enable this which for reasons unknown CLevo hid. Because of this these ram moduls will only run at 2666 Mhz.
If you want the full 3200 Mhz RAM frequency, then you need a JEDEC ram. Currently the best one is made by Crucial which is 3200 Mhz CL22. The part number for 2x16 Gb KIT is CT32G4SFD832A.
Not many games but some can show really big difference in FPS between CL16 and CL22, however 3200 Mhz CL16 is not available due to an unknown reason made by Clevo and only 3200 Mhz CL22 is supported.
VGA
The VGA used in my X170 is the RTX 2080 Super which is a slight upgrade compared to the RTX 2080 used in the P775.
Here are the GPU-Z info side by side with the differences between the 2 cards:
As you can see there are 2 physical and 1 software difference between the 2 cards. The physical difference is that the Super variant has slightly more Shaders and Texture Mapping Units than the RTX 2080 which in practical usage means about an extra 5-10 FPS in games.
The software difference is in the GPU/BOOST clock. The Super has slightly higher clocks due to the fact that Clevo has set the Thermal Power Limit to 150W in the RTX 2080, however the limit in the Super variant is 200W. Due to the extra headroom Clevo was able to set slightls higher clock. These extra clock speeds mean about 2-3 FPS extra in games.
So in a total due to the more Shaders, TMUs and higher clock speeds users can expect about +10 FPS with the Super variant. Not a big deal for P775TM1-G users to sell their laptops, however for new customers this is a good reason to go with the Super variant instead of the non Super one.
Power adapters
The P775TM1-G used 1 single power brick, 1 huge 330W Delta adapter which in some scnearios was barely able to provide enough juice for the laptop, expesially if one configured the system with an RTX 2080 and 9900K.
With the X170SM-G Clevo stepped up the game and now include 2 adapters instead of 1. Each adapter is a Chicony made 280W brick which totals up to 560W.
Layed out on the table they can take up quite a space:
However Clevo include a little holder in the box which allows you to stack the adapters on each other to save some space:
This holder shoudl be included with every order made at PCS.
But the question, is 560W really needed? Well maybe with a 10900K and overclocking yes, however running a 10700K and RTX 2080 Super at stock settings the system pulls around 330W from the wall.
The above was measured while Time Spy was running.
Screen
The fastest screen available for gaming for the P775TM was the AU Optronics B173HAN03.1 panel which is a 144 Hz panel. It supportst G-Sync and has a response time of around 16 ms. This is the gray to gray response time which is comminly used to market response time by monitor manufacturers. There is also the black to white response which is about 9 ms, however Clevo marketed this panel as a 9ms panel, however if we whish to measure the panel the same way as a desktop monitor then we can say that the 144 Hz G-Sync panel used for the P775TM is an IPS panel with 16 ms response time. Not the best expesially since there are already IPS panel for laptops with 6 ms gray to gray response time, however do not worry. There is a slight blurriness because of the 16 ms time however it is perfectly acceptable and will not bother you unless you put it side by side to a 1 ms TN panel or unless you are looking something to pick on.
The very minimal motion blur will not affect your gameplay experience.
But why did I mention this in so detail ?
Well the fastest panel for the X170 is a 240 hz panel. The 240 hz panel is a AU Optronics B173HAN05.0 240 Hz IPS G-Sync panel.
The "problem" is however is response time. Despite much higher refresh rate, the B173HAN05.1 has around the same response time as the B173HAN03.1 meaning the 240 Hz panel has around 16 ms response time.
However there are 2 things why I would prefer to go with the 240 Hz panel (and did) over the 144 Hz one used in the P775:
1) response time: there are games that can reach 144 FPS and G-Sync only works until 144 FPS, above that you will see screen tearing. To avoid this you need to enable V-Sync besides G-Sync. Until 144 FPS G-Sync will work however if the game reaches that V-Sync will lock the framerate to avoid screen tearing. However when V-Sync kicks in some people who have really good eyes might experience some extra lag and microstuttering (the amount depends on game and game engine). With the 240 Hz panel much less game will reach the V-Sync limit and G-Sync has more headroom to make games smoother.
2) Better color space. The B173HAN03.1 144 Hz panel can display around 88% sRGB, while the B173HAN05.0 240 Hz panel can display around 98% sRGB, so the faster panel has slightly better colors. Not OLED quality, but still it looks pretty good.
Oh and not to mention that I tested several 144 Hz panels and all had noticable backlight bleeding, however maybe I am juct lucky but the 240 Hz panel that came with my order also has some minimal bleeding but significatly better than the 144 Hz panels had. No, it is not possible to buy a laptop with currently used IPS panels that absolutely backlight bleeding free, all IPS panels have this, it comes with the tech used, however the amount of backlight bleeding can vary between panels.
TO BE CONTINUED (reached character limit)
Last edited:
