Official Clevo X170SM-G Thread

[Snowleopard]

20 hours ago, jaybee83 said:

 

dayum nice! what kinda storage setup are u running? performance or redundancy first? also, whatcha using that space for? not judging here, im also sporting a 24TB SSD setup 😄 

At 4TB per drive, I did not put them in any raid configuration, but that is an option. I use each drive for different things so raid wasn't that important in my case.

I really wanted 8TB drives, but I am not going to pay $800-$1000 each for them....lol Since the 4TB 990 drives are single sided, I can't see why they don't release a dual sided 8TB version of them.

Its sort of sad in a way because 3.5 in hard drives are over 20TB pushing closer to 30TB per drive now. I would love to see 16TB M.2 nvme drives, that....... maxing an x170sm-g out with 16TB drives would mean 43TB in nvme's and 2TB in the SATA M.2 slot, which It would be nice also if there were some 4TB or 8TB SATA M.2 drives......

 

 

[jaybee83]

5 hours ago, Snowleopard said:

At 4TB per drive, I did not put them in any raid configuration, but that is an option. I use each drive for different things so raid wasn't that important in my case.

I really wanted 8TB drives, but I am not going to pay $800-$1000 each for them....lol Since the 4TB 990 drives are single sided, I can't see why they don't release a dual sided 8TB version of them.

Its sort of sad in a way because 3.5 in hard drives are over 20TB pushing closer to 30TB per drive now. I would love to see 16TB M.2 nvme drives, that....... maxing an x170sm-g out with 16TB drives would mean 43TB in nvme's and 2TB in the SATA M.2 slot, which It would be nice also if there were some 4TB or 8TB SATA M.2 drives......

 

 

 

duude preaching to the choir, agreed on all points! ive also been eyeing 8TB SSDs, but as you said, their pricing is ridonkulous. 4TB drives are the highest cap that still makes sense from a value standpoint. i guess well have to be a bit more patient and make the most out of what we have today 🙂 

 

currently at 60% capacity of my 24 TB setup so still have a bit of room and thus time until the next storage upgrade becomes necessary....

[Snowleopard]

The search for an updated version of the X170sm-g that takes 14th gen processors it like trying to talk to an empty room.

Maybe something will happen with 15th/ 16th gen, PCIe 6.x and DDR6 ram..... I really don't want to build a full tower and put it on casters to travel with it. Right now I think Intel has a problem with not enough PCIe lanes also , at least compared to AMD...... if you want multiple SSD's.

[Snowleopard]

Now I am wondering how much money it would take to buy X170sm-g cases and parts from Clevo, but spend the R&D to design my own 14th gen motherboard and cooling solution with the number of M.2 slots I want and update the MXM standard to the next version and release updated cards.......

Part of the problem is sure people want their light weight tab-tops, but when people see what you can do with a DTR laptop....... things change...... and it wasn't at long ago that all laptops were between 8 and 12 lbs......people have gotten weak....

And there is a company that makes solid state cooling solutions without fans and it is scalable ..... might be a thought.

 

 

 

[jaybee83]

8 hours ago, Snowleopard said:

The search for an updated version of the X170sm-g that takes 14th gen processors it like trying to talk to an empty room.

Maybe something will happen with 15th/ 16th gen, PCIe 6.x and DDR6 ram..... I really don't want to build a full tower and put it on casters to travel with it. Right now I think Intel has a problem with not enough PCIe lanes also , at least compared to AMD...... if you want multiple SSD's.

 

8 hours ago, Snowleopard said:

Now I am wondering how much money it would take to buy X170sm-g cases and parts from Clevo, but spend the R&D to design my own 14th gen motherboard and cooling solution with the number of M.2 slots I want and update the MXM standard to the next version and release updated cards.......

Part of the problem is sure people want their light weight tab-tops, but when people see what you can do with a DTR laptop....... things change...... and it wasn't at long ago that all laptops were between 8 and 12 lbs......people have gotten weak....

And there is a company that makes solid state cooling solutions without fans and it is scalable ..... might be a thought.

 

 

 

 

hate to burst your thought bubble but at this point ur best bet would a mini ITX ish desktop build with min/maxxed size/volume vs. performance. look at how many of us OG NBR Clevo gang folks hopped over to desktop land....its not cuz we lost interest in highend DTR hardware. its cuz there isnt any anymore 😅

i got my lady the very last hurray of Clevo "DTRs" and even that sports a soldered gpu, but at least everything else incl the CPU is still socketed. but thats it!

[Snowleopard]

13 hours ago, jaybee83 said:

 

 

hate to burst your thought bubble but at this point ur best bet would a mini ITX ish desktop build with min/maxxed size/volume vs. performance. look at how many of us OG NBR Clevo gang folks hopped over to desktop land....its not cuz we lost interest in highend DTR hardware. its cuz there isnt any anymore 😅

i got my lady the very last hurray of Clevo "DTRs" and even that sports a soldered gpu, but at least everything else incl the CPU is still socketed. but thats it!

If I am going to go Mini ITX with limited PCIe slots, sure it is somewhat portable, still would need a screen and keyboard, I might as well build a full or dual full tower and get all 6 or 8 PCI express slots for any cards I want....... I cannot get ITX with MXM graphics cards that fit flat on the back of the ITX motherboard..... 😕

 

[jaybee83]

10 hours ago, Snowleopard said:

If I am going to go Mini ITX with limited PCIe slots, sure it is somewhat portable, still would need a screen and keyboard, I might as well build a full or dual full tower and get all 6 or 8 PCI express slots for any cards I want....... I cannot get ITX with MXM graphics cards that fit flat on the back of the ITX motherboard..... 😕

 

 

totally understandable, i mean....thats basically what i ended up doing: bigass tower with E-ATX mobo 😄 

[1610ftw]

On 11/20/2023 at 10:49 PM, Snowleopard said:

The search for an updated version of the X170sm-g that takes 14th gen processors it like trying to talk to an empty room.

 

Nobody has been in that room for some time now., everybody left. 

MSI and Alienware after 10th gen und Clevo after 12th gen.

 

 

 

 

On 11/20/2023 at 10:49 PM, Snowleopard said:

Maybe something will happen with 15th/ 16th gen, PCIe 6.x and DDR6 ram..... I really don't want to build a full tower and put it on casters to travel with it. Right now I think Intel has a problem with not enough PCIe lanes also , at least compared to AMD...... if you want multiple SSD's.

 

An AMD machine with 16 P cores would be quite cool (pun intended) and it would take care of the needed PCIe-lanes.

 

 

 

[1610ftw]

On 11/20/2023 at 10:32 PM, jaybee83 said:

 

duude preaching to the choir, agreed on all points! ive also been eyeing 8TB SSDs, but as you said, their pricing is ridonkulous. 4TB drives are the highest cap that still makes sense from a value standpoint. i guess well have to be a bit more patient and make the most out of what we have today 🙂 

 

currently at 60% capacity of my 24 TB setup so still have a bit of room and thus time until the next storage upgrade becomes necessary....

 

One of my MSI laptops (WT75) has a total of 26TB now, all TLC:

 

2 x 8TB Samsung Sata in RAID 0 with sustained ca. 900 write and 1000 Read, they quite often pop up on ebay

2 x 4TB NVME

1 x 2TB NVME

 

In the M.2 form factor and as of today one could get 4 x 4TB TLC drives for the price of the cheapest 8TB TLC drive over here! Those 8TB TLC prices are ridiculous and I expect them to go down when more manufacturers enter the marketplace and until then I won't buy.  Or to put it the other way round: With what I have saved on the drives compared to getting even 24TB with 3 x 8TB drives the laptop was free 😄

 

Oh and my X170SM-G has a total of 14TB with 1 x 2TB and 3x 4TB.

[jaybee83]

44 minutes ago, 1610ftw said:

 

One of my MSI laptops (WT75) has a total of 26TB now, all TLC:

 

2 x 8TB Samsung Sata in RAID 0 with sustained ca. 900 write and 1000 Read, they quite often pop up on ebay

2 x 4TB NVME

1 x 2TB NVME

 

In the M.2 form factor and as of today one could get 4 x 4TB TLC drives for the price of the cheapest 8TB TLC drive over here! Those 8TB TLC prices are ridiculous and I expect them to go down when more manufacturers enter the marketplace and until then I won't buy.  Or to put it the other way round: With what I have saved on the drives compared to getting even 24TB with 3 x 8TB drives the laptop was free 😄

 

Oh and my X170SM-G has a total of 14TB with 1 x 2TB and 3x 4TB.

 

ah a fellow man of culture @data hoarder 😄 

[1610ftw]

15 minutes ago, jaybee83 said:

 

ah a fellow man of culture @data hoarder 😄 

 

Always have been, always will be.

When I tell people that I have a laptop that can act as a 48TB mobile server they look rather puzzled 😄

[1610ftw]

On 11/20/2023 at 5:24 PM, Snowleopard said:

(...)which It would be nice also if there were some 4TB or 8TB SATA M.2 drives......

 

 

 

Guess what I have in my X170:

 

 

Is it still nowhere to be found in the US?

[Snowleopard]

9 hours ago, 1610ftw said:

 

Guess what I have in my X170:

 

 

Is it still nowhere to be found in the US?

Googled it and apparently its not. The Amazon ASIN is B0BPYP2PRF and if Amazon UK would ship it to the US , that would be cool.

 

[jaybee83]

14 hours ago, 1610ftw said:

 

Guess what I have in my X170:

 

 

Is it still nowhere to be found in the US?

 

huh! i had no idea 4TB capacity for M.2 SATA even existed! nice find 🙂 

 

edit: DUDE! u totally gave me an idea how to upgrade to 8TB drives in a cost effective manner: install 2 M.2 4TB SATA drives into a 2.5" SATA adapter! sure ill lose the extra performance but itll be super cheap and functional, nice!

[1610ftw]

3 hours ago, jaybee83 said:

 

huh! i had no idea 4TB capacity for M.2 SATA even existed! nice find 🙂 

 

edit: DUDE! u totally gave me an idea how to upgrade to 8TB drives in a cost effective manner: install 2 M.2 4TB SATA drives into a 2.5" SATA adapter! sure ill lose the extra performance but itll be super cheap and functional, nice!

 

If you have that kind of adapter it is indeed possible but in that case I would rather get with an 8TB 2.5" TLC Samsung - these drives are really nice and often pop up on ebay and they are faster and cooler than the Transcend drives that get quite hot. They are also relatively slow in sustained writes, around 370MB/s iirc. So unless you want to max out a single Sata M.2 slot I would stay away 🙂

 

Although on a desktop I would probably be a snob and always go for U.2 drives - they go even higher in capacity and can be had relatively cheap at the 7.68TB size:

https://www.ebay.com/p/28044523625

 

You will need some adapter though to make them work but if you get it to work it is a lot of fast storage for little money 🙂

[jaybee83]

35 minutes ago, 1610ftw said:

 

If you have that kind of adapter it is indeed possible but in that case I would rather get with an 8TB 2.5" MLC Samsung - these drives are really nice and often pop up on ebay and they are faster and cooler than the Transcend drives that get quite hot. They are also relatively slow in sustained writes, around 370MB/s iirc. So unless you want to max out a single Sata M.2 slot I would stay away 🙂

 

Although on a desktop I would probably be a snob and always go for U.2 drives - they go even higher in capacity and can be had relatively cheap at the 7.68TB size:

https://www.ebay.com/p/28044523625

 

You will need some adapter though to make them work but if you get it to work it is a lot of fast storage for little money 🙂

 

hm what kinda Samsung models are you referring to? arent those usually capped in capacity to 7.68TB?

 

here is the adapter i was referring to: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B018AOZ9QM?linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&smid=A3JWKAKR8XB7XF&creativeASIN=B018AOZ9QM&tag=geizhalspre03-21&th=1

 

[1610ftw]

I am talking about other drives than the rgular 2.5" Sata drives that indeed max out at 8TB.

 

I have two of these that I have used in my DTRs:

 

Nice and reasonably fast.

 

However let me introduce you to the wonderful world of faster and higher capacity 2.5" drives 😉

 

You can get drives with 15.36:

 

 

and even with 31.72TB:

 

 

Last I looked Intel U.2 drives with 15.36 can actually be found at reasonable prices and at 7.68 even at really low prices, look for P5520 or P4326.

[jaybee83]

1 hour ago, 1610ftw said:

I am talking about other drives than the rgular 2.5" Sata drives that indeed max out at 8TB.

 

I have two of these that I have used in my DTRs:

 

Nice and reasonably fast.

 

However let me introduce you to the wonderful world of faster and higher capacity 2.5" drives 😉

 

You can get drives with 15.36:

 

 

and even with 31.72TB:

 

 

Last I looked Intel U.2 drives with 15.36 can actually be found at reasonable prices and at 7.68 even at really low prices, look for P5520 or P4326.

 

yeah ive looked into U.2 drives but the connectivity and power consumption are a bit finicky to handle, hmmm.... plus the "lower" capacity kinda bums me out @ 7.68 vs. 8 / 15.36 vs. 16 etc.

[1610ftw]

4 hours ago, jaybee83 said:

 

yeah ive looked into U.2 drives but the connectivity and power consumption are a bit finicky to handle, hmmm.... plus the "lower" capacity kinda bums me out @ 7.68 vs. 8 / 15.36 vs. 16 etc.

 

As I do not currently have a desktop in need of massive amounts of SSD storage I have not looked into the U.2 drives that much but they pop up all the time in searches due to their quite low per TB prices. I think they consume a bit of power compared to other drives but then they come from environments where that does not count that much. The 7.68TB Sata do not though, they are quite well-behaved.

 

I moved to strictly disregarding absolute numbers and see things on a per TB basis so I can live with 7.68 instead of 8. It is a bit depressing as with added overprovisioning my RAID 0 ends up at "only" a usable 13.2TB but that is still pretty big and would have been hideously expensive not too long ago.

[Snowleopard]

These are great ideas, but how do you fit 2.5 inch drives in an x170sm-g? Can the space the battery is in be converted? I mean 45 minutes of run time is nice, but it really needs a wall outlet to run 🙂

[1610ftw]

16 hours ago, Snowleopard said:

These are great ideas, but how do you fit 2.5 inch drives in an x170sm-g? Can the space the battery is in be converted? I mean 45 minutes of run time is nice, but it really needs a wall outlet to run 🙂

 

I just checked and no, a U.2 drive sadly does not fit in the battery compartment 😄

 

I did a test however, here are some sustained writes for the 4TB Transcend:

 

 

It is an OK drive from what I can say but it is about 50% more now on Amazon UK than I paid a few months ago - crazy!

 

[jaybee83]

9 hours ago, 1610ftw said:

 

I just checked and no, a U.2 drive sadly does not fit in the battery compartment 😄

 

I did a test however, here are some sustained writes for the 4TB Transcend:

 

 

It is an OK drive from what I can say but it is about 50% more now on Amazon UK than I paid a few months ago - crazy!

 

oooh that looks familiar, FreeFileSync by any chance? 🙂 

[1610ftw]

34 minutes ago, jaybee83 said:

oooh that looks familiar, FreeFileSync by any chance? 🙂 

 

Indeed - excellent program if you ask me 🙂

[Snowleopard]

Well, they are finally starting to show up...... Wi-Fi 7 nics for laptops...... Hello full speed wi-fi over a 2GB fiber connection....

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CLV9C8TZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[1610ftw]

20 hours ago, Snowleopard said:

Well, they are finally starting to show up...... Wi-Fi 7 nics for laptops...... Hello full speed wi-fi over a 2GB fiber connection....

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CLV9C8TZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

The challenge will be to find a capable router for it that does not cost an arm and a leg. 2.5G would be the minimum but I would prefer to have a 10G connection and those routers will probably cost 400$ or more.

 

As I have kind of a hotspot in my house where there is a lot of WiFi usage with up to 4 laptops running at once I have been looking at this monstrosity but it is not exactly a steal:

 

 

https://rog.asus.com/networking/rog-rapture-gt-be98-pro/

 

Still it would be a worthy router for the X170 - not afraid to be big and powerful, same as the X170!