Dabeer

he said "desktop like" not "desktop" They'll still be SODIMMs (small-format, laptop).

Yeah, I'd seen that thread... I'm not finding a similar list for the US? Also, when I'm searching for "Clevo P650SE" I don't get hits for whatever Mythlogic or Eurocom or even Sager might have named their version of it (unless someone posted it on a forum like this).

i guess that makes sense, but for those customers like me who are new to the world of Clevo/Sager, it might help increase business at some of the lesser-known sellers - we can't buy from them if we don't know they exist, after all...

Would creating a list of known vendors (and model names) of these beautiful systems be beneficial?

That's understandable. So there would have to be differences to the chassis to allow the thicker cable? Is that something that couldn't be cut away at a later date? Then again, I could always just get the 4k glossy and go the ViewGuard route... Ok, so I know that pretty much any RAM will work, but will run only at the 1600MHz rate. I guess what I'm wondering is whether any actual performance differences are possible (I'm including both practical differences like FPS increases and synthetic differences like benchmarks) and whether the higher CAS latency on the higher speed RAM would actually result in lower performance when running at only 1600MHz? Cool, good to know. Thanks so much!

That's definitely an option, if I can fit it into my budget... although I don't think I will, because of the glossy screen. I usually sit with a window behind my head, and the reflections would kill me. I guess I was hoping that in the future a matte 4k screen would be available. The question about putting an SG mobo into an SE chassis, and thoughts of upgrading to a 4k screen, these are all just hypothetical questions for my future with this machine. I'm almost 100% locked into getting the 970m with the 1920x1080 matte screen. The M.2 question was important, though - if I order it with no SSDs and end up with a motherboard that has a single PCIe M.2 slot, then putting 2 M.2 SATA drives in RAID 0 won't be an option, and that would be bad. Since I'm flooding this thread already, is there any point to putting in DDR3-1866 CAS 10 RAM instead of DDR3-1600 CAS 9? As I understand it, the CPU won't do more than 1600 anyway... but there's only a $5 price difference between the Crucial Ballistix Sport 1600 and the G.Skill Ripjaw 1866 RAM, so I'm really tempted.

Problem is, portability is one of my main considerations. The SE is already pushing the limits of the thickness and weight I'm willing to consider. Unfortunately, thinner and lighter models (looking at you, GS60) are too expensive. What I want is the 980m in the SE chassis But seriously - the 4k screen has a different connector than the FHD? They're not both eDP? Not sure if I ever would actually do it, but it would have been nice to have the flexibility to upgrade that screen later. Oh well.

Another question that Prema might be able to answer - if we buy the P650SE today, and in the future want to upgrade the CPU and/or GPU by replacing the entire motherboard, would the motherboard from the P650SG fit into the SE case? Is the added thickness only due to a heavier heatsink and/or thicker heat pipes, or is there something else leading to that extra thickness? It seems to me that if the GS60 can cope with either a 970m or a 980m, then the already beefier cooling in the P650SE should be able to handle the 980m, too... Edit: seems I was mistaken - the GS60 doesn't have a 980m option. Still wondering about an SG mobo in the SE chassis, though.

LOL my bad I'll have to take a look at prices and speeds for those, although my 750GB mechanical is still a factor. Edit: looks like for the Crucial M550, the speeds for the M.2 are identical to the 2.5".

I'd be using it for the OS and game installs, so the only thing I'd be risking is having to reinstall, or losing any game config or state, and I'm not really worried about that. I will have a mechanical drive for actual data, plus external backups. I get that, I'm just trying to figure out if the M.2 configuration is one of those changes that requires a different motherboard. I get the key gaps on the M.2 card, I'm more worried about the motherboard supporting both kinds in the same slot - which it sounds like it will, for the first slot, at least. I'll have to look up the real-world tested rates for M.2 SATA, I guess. I was looking at the advertised speeds of 550/350 MB/s read/write for the Crucial M550. According to Tom's Hardware, the mechanical drives I'd be getting do under 100 MB/s (unless, of course, I'm reading these charts (read, write, drives under $100) wrong), and aren't that much cheaper than the M.2s anyway. Also, I'm going with 1920x1080, not 4k, although DSR still renders 4k I think? Other factors include power use, heat generation, weight, cost of getting 2x 7mm mechanical drives while losing the ability to use the 9.5mm 750GB drive I already have, not fully utilizing the storage capabilities of the platform...

I'm a bit confused about the M.2 options. Does this mean there are two different motherboards? One with a single PCIe M.2 slot, and one with 2 SATA III M.2 slots? Or does it mean that there are always 2 slots, and the first slot supports either PCIe or SATA III (Is that even something that's possible with M.2? Sorry, I'm a bit new to SSDs), but if a PCIe card is present the 2nd slot is inactive? Edit: After reading up on M.2, it seems likely that there's only one motherboard and that if you use a PCIe card in the first slot, the second slot will be disabled, but this raises an additional question - if the port also supports SATA, doesn't that mean it's connected to the SATA controller and that the PCIe device would be limited to SATA speeds? The reason for asking is so I can know which kind of card to order separately (Newegg is about $50 cheaper than the system builder). Edit: It seems that ordering 2 128gb SATA drives and putting them in RAID 0 will give faster performance and be less expensive than 1 256gb PCIe board, so I guess that's the way I'll go.

Cool, I thought we were out of luck with the HQs. And they're not shared? No connected heat pipe? Boo. Kinda annoying that different sites give different info - at least one has said they were MXM. Oh, well.

Nice! Cheaper than GS60, too... I'm almost sold, just want reviews, especially of the keyboard, before I commit. Can't buy until Friday, though. How do you OC an HQ? Or is it the 970m that you're talking about OCing? If I do get this system, I'll probably be annoying the heck out of you (prema) - this will be my first Clevo/Sager, and first MXM.

There's an -064 config that has 6gb.

They're listed as glossy at mythlogic. If that's wrong... good! Maybe the P650SE is an option after all.