Official Clevo X170KM-G Thread

[Clamibot]

8 hours ago, giltheone said:

@1610ftw well, the computer by itself, without the power bricks, weighs a lot more than my old MSI GT72, which I know for a fact weighs about 3.8kg. I was expecting them to be about equal in that aspect, but the EON17-X I got (the model from 2021, in case someone in the future references this thread) feels a substantial amount heavier than the GT72. It definitely feels it's more than 4.5 kilos; the laptop feels dense, lots of mass in a low volume.

As for the CPU, it came with the i9-11900K, so I'm "stuck" with Rocket Lake for now --- I'm not really complaining, I'm more or less fine if I can get "only" 64 GB on two slots, but if I decide to use the four slots for 128 GB, I'm satisfied with them running at 2933 MHz. Other than gaming, for what I intend to use it (some number crunching with parallelized code using several cores), the difference between 2933 and 3200 MHz should not be that much (at least not with the specific codes I intend to run). Like you, stability is more important than overclocking: I need to trust the numerical results I get, and I need to make sure the code runs to completion and not have the system flake out midway through a calculation. I am curious, however, since I am seeing 64 GB (2x32) of Kingston Fury 3200 MHz RAM on Amazon, to know if that memory may work with the notebook, even if it downclocks to 2933 MHz.

Of course, some Comet Lakes with 10 cores sound appealing, but if I'm not mistaken I cannot use the four M.2 slots with Comet Lake, and I do need a lot of storage: I have a LOT of games and other software. Granted, I don't play all the games I have, but I just don't want to be installing and uninstalling them if I feel I want to play a specific one I've backed up and erased, and I do have other stuff, which does take a bit of space. Well, who am I kidding? Most of my storage is games. The thing is that I have about 6 TB of drive space in my GT72, and I'm using a large portion of that, so I want something of the same size plus the operating system on my new notebook, so I am pretty certain I want to use the four SSD slots.

Thank you very much for your reply, and the useful info you've shared. I do appreciate it.

 Whaaa? That's possible? I didn't know that. I thought the motherboard would cap out at 2933 MHz on the RAM when all 4 slots are populated. Nice to know we can technically fit 5 drives into the laptop as well if we want to. Is the Wi-Fi slot compatible with SATA or NVME drives?

 

 

5 hours ago, giltheone said:

That's a relief to know: the GT72 required that I remove the motherboard to get to the other side. And at this moment I don't have the screws on the bottom cover -- much easiear to do maintenance that way: it's firmly in place without the screws. And yes, I've made the most of it. The original motherboard had some problems: it appears that some chips (but not the CPU) had heat damage, so I replaced the motherboard. I've extracted every bit of performance I could from it, but it hasn't always been easy.

I'll be careful with X170's cover. Right now I'm letting the battery charge, and later I'm doing some Windows update, and then I'll open the laptop. Two SODIMMs in single channel is not acceptable.

 

UPDATE: I removed the bottom cover, and sure enough only one SODIMM slot is populated. The other 8GB of the RAM it has are under the keyboard side. Go figure what the guys that assembled the model were thinking. But I don't know where the screws to remove the keyboard are located...

The keyboard screws are by the fans, denoted by a keyboard icon.

[giltheone]

2 hours ago, Clamibot said:

 Whaaa? That's possible? I didn't know that. I thought the motherboard would cap out at 2933 MHz on the RAM when all 4 slots are populated. Nice to know we can technically fit 5 drives into the laptop as well if we want to. Is the Wi-Fi slot compatible with SATA or NVME drives?

 

 

The keyboard screws are by the fans, denoted by a keyboard icon.

D'oh! Thank you very much 🙂

EDIT: As I expected, they had the other SODIMM under the keyboard. Removed it and put underneath to pair it with the other one, and RAM is now running in dual channel mode. I guess some poor schmo thought while assembling the parts "First stick goes in slot 1, second stick in slot 2... oh, no, it says it's slot 3, so it must go on the other side", or something to that effect. But it's now corrected, and to top it off I have verification that the slots under the keyboard work, which is a bit of a silver lining 😉

Edited May 27 by giltheone
Updated news

[1610ftw]

13 hours ago, Clamibot said:

 Whaaa? That's possible? I didn't know that. I thought the motherboard would cap out at 2933 MHz on the RAM when all 4 slots are populated. Nice to know we can technically fit 5 drives into the laptop as well if we want to. Is the Wi-Fi slot compatible with SATA or NVME drives?

 

4 slots @3200 I believe are only possible with Comet Lake, works perfectly with a 10850K.

 

I got a small transposer board for something like 3$ and the keyboard is a tight fit after that and it still works but it may still be half a mm higher where the SSD is (NVME SSD 2TB TLC).

 

I used all the SSD slots I could use with the 10850K in the KM-G so the three normal ones and the one in the WiFi slot. Also got an external WiFi dongle for about 35$ that is faster than the Intel card in the KM-G 😄

[Clamibot]

8 hours ago, 1610ftw said:

 

4 slots @3200 I believe are only possible with Comet Lake, works perfectly with a 10850K.

 

I got a small transposer board for something like 3$ and the keyboard is a tight fit after that and it still works but it may still be half a mm higher where the SSD is (NVME SSD 2TB TLC).

 

I used all the SSD slots I could use with the 10850K in the KM-G so the three normal ones and the one in the WiFi slot. Also got an external WiFi dongle for about 35$ that is faster than the Intel card in the KM-G 😄

 

I have my own wireless AC dongle that I got for my desktop before doing my upgrade from a 7700K to my current 10900K. I can reuse that for my laptop as my desktop no longer needs it (built in wi-fi on my current motherboard).

 

Do you know if 4 RAM slots @3200 MHz is possible with the SM-G as well? I have the SM-G model.

[1610ftw]

7 hours ago, Clamibot said:

 

I have my own wireless AC dongle that I got for my desktop before doing my upgrade from a 7700K to my current 10900K. I can reuse that for my laptop as my desktop no longer needs it (built in wi-fi on my current motherboard).

 

Do you know if 4 RAM slots @3200 MHz is possible with the SM-G as well? I have the SM-G model.

 

Nice, so you are sorted out for the dongle!

 

I use this on the SM-G, no special solution needed with 4 regular drives:

 

1x 8TB NVME TLC

2x 4TB NVME TLC

1x 2TB SATA TLC 

 

I paid way too much for the 8TB drive and cannot really recommend that but I like to be able to have a bit of extra space just in case and also the ability to make do with three drives in these times where manufacturers cannot be assed to even have three full sized M.2 slots for 99.9% of all laptops out there.

 

I am currently typing this on the SM-G with 128GB @ 3200 - those caps above were from the SM-G as the look identical to the KM-G 🙂

[MaxxD]

On 5/28/2024 at 1:26 PM, 1610ftw said:

 

Nice, so you are sorted out for the dongle!

 

I use this on the SM-G, no special solution needed with 4 regular drives:

 

1x 8TB NVME TLC

2x 4TB NVME TLC

1x 2TB SATA TLC 

 

I paid way too much for the 8TB drive and cannot really recommend that but I like to be able to have a bit of extra space just in case and also the ability to make do with three drives in these times where manufacturers cannot be assed to even have three full sized M.2 slots for 99.9% of all laptops out there.

 

I am currently typing this on the SM-G with 128GB @ 3200 - those caps above were from the SM-G as the look identical to the KM-G 🙂

 

I have a total of 8TB (4x2TB) and what you have in the machine is a lot! What do you store on it? 🤗😆

[1610ftw]

2 hours ago, MaxxD said:

 

I have a total of 8TB (4x2TB) and what you have in the machine is a lot! What do you store on it? 🤗😆

 

😄

 

I have some files that I need for professional use that I like to have with me, some virtual machines that are not so small and also local backups so whenever a drive goes dead I can replace it even when I am on the road. That goes for all the stuff that I want to be able to use when on the road and if one drive fails it should be about 15 minutes to an hours to be up and running again.

 

As I said the 8TB drive is overkill in this laptop but I wanted to have a bit of overhead and the ability to still cover all my bases even when I have only three drive slots with one limited to 2TB.

 

8TB is already a lot imo and the 2TB SSDs are the sweet spot from a price / performance point of view - good choice!

[crz]

@giltheone It was very exciting to read your purchase way. What are your impressions of the device now as a whole and have you encountered any of the problems associated with sudden shutdowns or reboots while the laptop is running under medium and high load, or is everything working stably in this regard ?

[giltheone]

On 6/3/2024 at 3:46 AM, crz said:

@giltheone It was very exciting to read your purchase way. What are your impressions of the device now as a whole and have you encountered any of the problems associated with sudden shutdowns or reboots while the laptop is running under medium and high load, or is everything working stably in this regard ?

As of now, the computer has been very stable. I haven't experienced shutdowns, but I haven't done any heavy benchmarks nor really put the computer to task. For information, the BIOS version is 1.07.08, in case it's pertinent to know.

I did try a couple 3D Mark tests (Time Spy and and Fire Strike) just for kicks, and I got average scores. Good, but average, and certainly much higher than what my old MSI GT72 got --- I don't recall if 3D Mark compares the scores with other PCs with similar hardware, but I am assuming it does. I haven't done any Cinebench, nor tested the memory. But I'll say a little bit more below. For an idea as to how it has been behaving, I have played a bit of Elden Ring over the last few days, and so far I'm impressed with how it maintains a rock-steady 60 fps (the game is capped, so it won't run at a higher rate than that), but all the settings are on high, and the game has experienced zero hiccups.

 

Now, the weather here has been brutal (we reached about 42ºC. or about 108ºF today), and I don't have any good air conditioning at home, and I haven't tested the computer at work (where the air conditioning is good), so I haven't really tried to push the machine too much, but even in the rather hot ambient temperature these past few days, the PC is not running too hot. I did adjust the fan curves a little bit so the fans start to ramp up at a slightly lower temperature than the default, though.

As to the memory, again, I tested playing Elden Ring with the 16GB of 2666MTs RAM that the notebook came with, and everything was as I described, but I ordered two sticks of 32GB of 3200MTs RAM (for a total of 64GB), and it's still nice, even with the much hotter weather this week, and the notebook hasn't throttled, not that I have noticed. I had no problem with the PC adjusting the speed of the RAM automatically. For reference, this is the memory I ordered, and you can see it states that it can also run at 2666MTs, or 2933MTs:

https://www.amazon.com/-/en/Timetec-Pinnacle-PC4-25600-portátil-actualización/dp/B0CNL3CPRK?th=1

I'm so happy with it, that I ordered another set to populate the other two SODIMM slots. I know it's overkill for gaming, but I thought "might as well go for it", and be ready for when I start to do some memory intensive number crunching, which I plan on doing in the near future.

I also ordered a 4TB NVME drive, an Acer Predator GM7000 Gen 4x4 SSD. There are many games and other aplications and files I have on my GT72 (which coincidentally started having some problems these last few days; I plan on fixing it, but it would be convenient to transfer many of what I have in it to the EON17-X/X170GM-G). I can't simply use some of the SSDs from the GT72 on the newer machine, since they are all SATA, and I would rather have newer NVME drives. So far, the drive is also working fine, but I've only started putting things in it. I will order another 4TB drive, likely another GM7000 since I liked the specs it has, and it's not expensive.

Well, I'll keep everyone apprised as to what happens. But so far, I am really liking the X170GM-G, though I am still adjusting things to my liking. I fully recommend this machine.

[crz]

4 hours ago, giltheone said:

Well, I'll keep everyone apprised as to what happens. But so far, I am really liking the X170GM-G, though I am still adjusting things to my liking. I fully recommend this machine

 

First of all thank you for your answer with a significant amount of detail. It's great that you don't experience any problems related to the unstable operation of the device, I saw some messages about it from other users above and it became interesting for me to learn more.

 

As for the amount of RAM and disk space you are currently using, in any case it will not be superfluous and if there is an opportunity, then why not.

 

You probably have the currently latest 1.07.08 BIOS version installed, did you update after purchase yourself? This model was usually supplied with earlier firmware versions, maybe it was installed at the factory or the seller did it himself, which is of course less likely. By the way, what boot logo do you see after turning on the laptop?

[giltheone]

38 minutes ago, crz said:

 

You probably have the currently latest 1.07.08 BIOS version installed, did you update after purchase yourself? This model was usually supplied with earlier firmware versions, maybe it was installed at the factory or the seller did it himself, which is of course less likely. By the way, what boot logo do you see after turning on the laptop?

 

Yes, that is the BIOS that the system has, but when I first turned it on, there were a lot of updates the system wanted to apply, which I noticed it included the BIOS/Firmware, so System Update took care of that. I didn't check what the BIOS version was just as I launched the OS for the first time --- I honestly forgot to do so, because I wanted to know, but I was busy with several things at the same time, not just the computer. But in any case, 1.07.08 is what the system has now.

As to shutdowns, some user(s) seem to not have problems, or so I thought I read in the thread. It may be the particular configuration, BIOS, and software environment that one has that can lead to the system shutting down or not. As of now, I have installed only a few apps: MS Office software I need for work (for which I'm using an institutional license), Adobe Acrobat, Steam, GOG Galaxy 2.0, and two games (Elden Ring, and Dark Souls Remastered), and 3D Mark, plus a few other smaller things. I have a ton of other stuff to install, but that will be in the next few weeks. Oh, and I am NOT overclocking anything at the moment.

[crz]

9 hours ago, giltheone said:

As to shutdowns, some user(s) seem to not have problems, or so I thought I read in the thread. It may be the particular configuration, BIOS, and software environment that one has that can lead to the system shutting down or not.

 

After analyzing all the information that I found, including on the old forum, I came to a similar conclusion, so you are probably right.

 

If I understand correctly, you have not received additional memory modules yet, it will be interesting to know about new changes in the system configuration.

[kela-slk]

On 3/27/2024 at 6:49 PM, kela-slk said:

Ec Panic was is not connected Fans- connected, beeps issue solved. But freeze still have. I can't flash bios or unlocked options because freezes when loading Efi Shell. Only desoldered program on external tools... 

Unlocker for bios KM, how flash? No instructions there. Only one *.fd file. How flash in Efi Shell? 

Freezing trouble was CPU- clevo x170km not support core i3 10100T and other series i3 cpus. Freezing because cpu 10100t try start with 5,3Mhz all core )))) bought 11700 - everything works fine.  Unlocked Bios , set only igpu, take out rtx discreet card and laptop working excellent without discreet gpu! No longer needed dGPU if youre video card is dead, you always can use igpu! I really missed this in old laptops like p775tm, p870tm... If discreet card dies, you cannot used laptop... In x170km you can use with discreet card or without! 

[giltheone]

On 6/7/2024 at 1:40 PM, crz said:

If I understand correctly, you have not received additional memory modules yet, it will be interesting to know about new changes in the system configuration.

 

A couple of days ago I ordered another two sticks of the same memory as in this link that I posted previously. They should arrive today. I will report how the notebook behaves after I add them a little later today --- I'm hoping there's no delay in the delivery. I'm really curious to see how the computer handles 128GB of RAM.

EDIT: As I finished typing this, the memory sticks arrived. I will put them in the system a bit later today for sure.

Edited June 8 by giltheone
Updated.

[giltheone]

I've decided to make another post instead of amending the previous one.

I put the two extra RAM sticks that I received yesterday on the two remaining slots to have 128GB total. But I don't know what the system is doing: it'll turn on, but it'll just light-up the keyboard, but nothing will show up on the screen. It stayed like that for a minute or so, and then it would shut down.

I later then decided to unlock the BIOS (as described in the corresponding post by ViktorV) --- of course, I had to remove the extra RAM to be able to have access to the notebook. It all went down fine. But after tinkering with some memory settings in it (and not really knowing what I was doing), and then reinserting the extra two SODIMMs under the keyboard, the system would turn on the same way as before, but it just stayed there for many minutes with the screen all black, and doing nothing more --- but it didn't automatically turn off after a while, I had to push the power switch after waiting for quite a while.

 

I've removed the extra RAM sticks, which are working fine by themselves in the slots underneath the notebook (the other set of two I originally bought which were there are safely stored for now), so I know the two sets of pairs work fine by themselves --- I am typing this post on the X170KM-G right now.

This is what CPU-z reports about the memory (slot #3 is identical to slot #1), so if I understood correctly, it should be capable of running at 2933 MTs, and in the store page it is implied that it should automatically run at 2666, 2933, or 3200 depending on the system, and I assumed the system would try to run the memory at one of those speeds, so I am bit confused --- I admit I only have superficial knowledge about how RAM interacts with the system, so I don't know if I'm supposed to actually do something, or even if I'm able to do so.

Any help would be much appreciated. I mean, it's not a deal breaker if I'm "stuck" with 64GB of RAM, but it's kind of a shame to have the other two sticks just stored away, and if there is a way to have the 128GB up and running at 2933 MTs it would be rather nice.

 

[crz]

1 hour ago, giltheone said:

Any help would be much appreciated. I mean, it's not a deal breaker if I'm "stuck" with 64GB of RAM, but it's kind of a shame to have the other two sticks just stored away, and if there is a way to have the 128GB up and running at 2933 MTs it would be rather nice.

 

I think you need to use a special bios version to solve this problem, xmg has done a really lot to ensure better compatibility for 11th cpu generation when using 4 memory modules.

 

Alternatively, download the latest firmware version here, be sure to read the readme file beforehand and follow the instructions strictly. 

 

It is also necessary to understand that based on the official information from the developer, this firmware may not be fully or at all compatible with a laptop purchased from another vendor, so you perform all actions only at your own risk.

[giltheone]

14 minutes ago, crz said:

 

I think you need to use a special bios version to solve this problem, xmg has done a really lot to ensure better compatibility for 11th cpu generation when using 4 memory modules.

 

Alternatively, download the latest firmware version here, be sure to read the readme file beforehand and follow the instructions strictly. 

 

It is also necessary to understand that based on the official information from the developer, this firmware may not be fully or at all compatible with a laptop purchased from another vendor, so you perform all actions only at your own risk.

OK, thanks for the info, and for the link. I'll consider your suggestion --- and the warning. I can do a BIOS backup, and though I do have a USB EEPROM programmer if push comes to shove, at this moment I'll have to check and see if the BIOS chips the computer has are supported, just in case a need to physically reflash the BIOS becomes necessary. In any case, I will do a lot of reading before I try anything potentially dangerous --- and by "dangerous" I mean doing something I don't understand well enough.

[crz]

11 minutes ago, giltheone said:

thanks for the info, and for the link. I'll consider your suggestion --- and the warning. I can do a BIOS backup, and though I do have a USB EEPROM programmer if push comes to shove, at this moment I'll have to check and see if the BIOS chips the computer has are supported, just in case a need to physically reflash the BIOS becomes necessary. In any case, I will do a lot of reading before I try anything potentially dangerous --- and by "dangerous" I mean doing something I don't understand well enough.

 

In addition, do not change your EC version yet, just leave it as it is, later if necessary you can do it. You only need to flash the main bios.

[Pfudaniel]

About bios, i got a origin kmg. With origin bios. No issues with anything. But is the xmg bios better? What about the unlocked one

[crz]

@giltheone I also uploaded the latest X170KM-G08 version of the bios from Sager for you and everyone here, you can start with this to see if there are any changes or use it as a backup.

 

!Be sure to look at this article which concerns your specific case, it is important, filled with nuances and very interesting.

[crz]

6 minutes ago, Pfudaniel said:

No issues with anything.

In that case, it's better to leave it as it is and just enjoy!

[Pfudaniel]

2 minutes ago, crz said:

In that case, it's better to leave it as it is and just enjoy!

Alright. Clear answer

[1610ftw]

2 hours ago, giltheone said:

OK, thanks for the info, and for the link. I'll consider your suggestion --- and the warning. I can do a BIOS backup, and though I do have a USB EEPROM programmer if push comes to shove, at this moment I'll have to check and see if the BIOS chips the computer has are supported, just in case a need to physically reflash the BIOS becomes necessary. In any case, I will do a lot of reading before I try anything potentially dangerous --- and by "dangerous" I mean doing something I don't understand well enough.

 

Over here the going prices for the 11900K and the 10900K are almost identical.

 

If it is similar where you live then I suggest to just swap your 11900K for a 10900K and then you can also have 128GB with 3200. At least this is what I got with the 10900K and the latest XMG bios + EC.

 

 

[kela-slk]

Can anyone give a link or share the latest bios from origin pc X170KM-G? I flashed XMG bios, but XMG not unlocking by program that is on this site. I need to unlock the integrated graphics settings, XMG doesn't have this, but I can't find the factory BIOS for Origin PC ( preferably the last one). 

[crossshot]

Does anyone know, is there an option for turn on after power/AC loss in the unlocked bios?