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Clevo Co. 
Kapok Computer Co. 
Nan Tan Computer Co. 
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Country: Taiwan Founded: 1983 (as Nan Tan Computer Co.) Chairman: Kun Tai Hsu Subsidiaries: Kapok Computer Co. (1993-1999) Websites: www.clevo.com.tw |
Welcome to the Nan Tan/Kapok/Clevo Homepage on MacDat!
Quick Links: Clevo Service Manuals | List of brands that sold Nan Tan/Kapok/Clevo laptops | Nan Tan FCC ID Cross Reference
Nan Tan, Kapok, and Clevo are all the same company. The history of when each name was used is confusing and unclear, but here's the general history:
Company History
Nan Tan Computer (NTC) was founded in 1983, and for years only manufactured keyboards. In 1989, they set up a laptop division, introducing their first products that year. Nan Tan was an Original Design Manufacturer (ODM), meaning that they would sell their laptops to other companies rather than direct-to-consumer. These companies (or distributors/resellers) would then put their own brand on the laptops and sell them under their own model number. As such, you'll basically never see a laptop branded as Nan Tan, Kapok, or Clevo. You will often see complete generics though - ones with no branding at all.
Now, for whatever reason, in 1993, Nan Tan created a sub-division of their company called Kapok Computer Co. Starting with the Kapok 8200 in 1993, and for the next several years after that, Nan Tan and Kapok produced separate lines of laptops. In 1999, the two companies gradually merged back into one, with the Kapok name being completely phased out by the end of 2000.
Also in 1993 (or maybe 92), Nan Tan began to use the name Clevo for some of their business operations. By 1996, they had a website up at clevo.com.tw, with all of their products being advertised as Clevos. In 1997, the main company itself finally changed its name from Nan Tan Computer Co. to Clevo, which it has been ever since.
Due to the fact that the Kapok merge and the Nan Tan -> Clevo name change both happened gradually, it's impossible to perfectly sort their laptops by the "correct" brand names. The Clevo 862 listed below could easily be called a Nan Tan 862, and the Kapok 2100P/2300P could also be called a Clevo 2100P/2300P, so don't take what brand name I have marked for those "transition-era" laptops as being completely correct.
Clevo has had a long-time focus in making desktop replacement and gaming laptops. They're responsible for many of the craziest, highest end brick-sized laptops made throughout the past 25 years. Perhaps their most ridiculous was the x7200, which used LGA 1366 desktop Core i7 processors, and could have two NVIDIA Fermi GPUs running in SLI, all in a massive laptop with a 17-inch screen - and that's just one of many. They do make more reasonable products, but the gaming products are what they're best known for.
Clevo has made a lot, and I mean a lot of laptops. It will probably take years for me to document them all. For now, I'm placing 2005 as my cutoff, anything newer will be documented after all models 2005 and earlier are done.
Identifying a Nan Tan/Kapok/Clevo
A Nan Tan-era laptop can easily be identified by the FCC ID on the bottom, which will start with "FMA" (their company grantee code). The same is true for Kapok-era laptops, which will have an FCC ID starting in "L4P". Note that FMA and L4P are not part of the laptops model numbers. Many people call these early "FMA"-era machines the "FMA7600" or similar, but this is not correct.
Identifying Clevo-era stuff can be trickier. Models made in the last 15 years or so (maybe earlier) have "CLEVO CO" written in small print on the bottom label, so those are easy. Earlier stuff doesn't though. These can usually still be identified by their labels, which will say "Notebook Computer" in a very distinctive font. In fact, nearly every Nan Tan/Kapok/Clevo laptop has "Notebook Computer" written on that label (some others say "Laptop Computer" or "Multimedia Notebook Computer").
Here are links to nine photos of different Clevo labels for reference: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
Thank you to Creepingnet for doing the initial research on the Nan Tan-era models!
1989
Nan Tan 3120 1989 |
Nan Tan 3140E 1989 |
Nan Tan 5140E 1989 |
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1991
Nan Tan 2100 ~October 1990 |
Nan Tan 6100V ~March 1990 |
Nan Tan 8100V ~July 1990 |
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1992
Nan Tan 2200 ~January 1991 |
Nan Tan 2210 ~February 1991 |
Nan Tan 3300 ~May 1991 |
Nan Tan 3500 ~December 1991 |
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1992
Nan Tan 3500C ~December 1992 |
Nan Tan 3530 ~September 1992 |
Nan Tan 5500 ~May 1992 |
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1993
Nan Tan 6500 ~May 1993 |
Nan Tan 6530 ~June 1993 |
Kapok 8200 ~May 1993 |
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1994
Nan Tan 3500A ~May 1994 |
Nan Tan 3600 May 1994 |
No Image Nan Tan 6500E ~October 1994 |
Nan Tan 7500A ~April 1994 |
Nan Tan 7500C ~December 1994 |
Nan Tan 7600 ~October 1994 |
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Kapok 9200 ~February 1994 |
Kapok 9200A 1994 |
Kapok 9400 1994 |
No Image Kapok 9420 ~August 1994 |
1995
Clevo 860 ~December 1995 |
Kapok 5200/5400 1995 |
Kapok 5210P/5410P 1995? |
Nan Tan 8500 ~March 1995 |
Nan Tan 9500 ~April 1995 |
Kapok 9600 ~March 1995 |
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1996
Clevo 820 ~November 1996 |
Clevo 822 ~September 1996 |
Clevo 862 ~September 1996 |
Clevo 863 1996? |
Kapok 2800 1996 |
Kapok 6100/6300 1996? |
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Kapok 6200A/6400A/6800A 1996 |
1997
Clevo 870 ~February 1997 |
Clevo 873 1997 |
Clevo 875 1997 |
Clevo 960 1997 |
No Image Kapok 3500 1997 |
Kapok 6200M/6400M 1997 |
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Kapok 7200/7600/7800 1997 |
1998
Clevo 660 1998 |
Clevo 665 1998 |
Clevo 980 1998 |
Kapok 1100/1300 1998 |
Kapok 1100M/1300M 1998 |
Kapok 1200/1400/1600 1998 |
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Kapok 8500/8700/8900 January 1998 |
Kapok 8500M/8700M/8900M 1998 |
1999
Clevo 260/290 1999 |
Clevo 280 1999 |
Clevo 982 1999? |
Clevo 990 1999? |
Kapok 1100P/1300P/1500P 1999 |
Kapok 2100P/2300P 1999 |
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Kapok 2100C/2300C 1999 |
Kapok 3100B/3300B 1999 |
Kapok 3100C/3300C 1999 |
Clevo 3200/3400/3600 1999 |
Kapok 5100C/5300C/5500C 1999 |
Kapok 8500C/8700C/8900C 1999 |
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Kapok 8500P/8700P/8900P 1999 |
2000
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No Image 2000 |
Clevo 2200C/2700C 2000 |
Clevo 2200S/2700S 2000 |
No Image 2000 |
Clevo 2850 2000 |
Clevo 3220/3420/3620 2000 |
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Clevo 5100S/5500S 2000 |
Clevo 8500V 2000 |
2001
Clevo 2200T/2700T October 2001 |
Clevo 4200/4600 October 2001 |
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2002
Clevo 2300T/2800T 2002 |
Clevo 5600D/5620D/5800D 2002 |
Clevo 5600N/5620N 2002 |
Clevo 5600P/5620P 2002 |
Clevo 5800P 2002 |
Clevo 8880 2002 |
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Clevo 888E 2002 |
Clevo D220S/D270S 2002 |
Clevo D400S/D410S/D420S/D430S 2002 |
Clevo D610C/D620C/D630C 2002 |
Clevo D610S/D620S/D630S 2002 |
Clevo D610SU/D620SU/D630SU 2002 |
2003
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Clevo 5600DS/5620DS/5800DS 2003 |
Clevo 888ES 2003 |
Clevo D400E/D410E/D420E/D430E April 2003 |
Clevo D22ES/D27ES 2003 |
Clevo D230S/D280S 2003 |
No Image Clevo D470V/D480V 2003 |
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Clevo D470W/D480W 2003 |
Clevo D500P/D510P/D520P 2003 |
Clevo D800P 2003 |
Clevo M22ES/M27ES 2003 |
No Image Clevo M230S/M280S 2003 |
Clevo M300N/M310N 2003 |
Clevo M350C/M360C 2003 |
Clevo M375C 2003 |
Clevo M385C 2003 |
No Image Clevo M400S/M410S 2003 |
Clevo T200C 2003 |
Clevo T210C 2003 |
2004
Clevo D400K 2004 |
Clevo D400P/D410P/D420P/D430P 2004 |
Clevo D400V/D410V/D420V/D430V 2004 |
Clevo D40EF/D41EF/D42EF/D43EF 2004 |
Clevo D40ES/D41ES/D42ES/D43ES 2004 |
Clevo D40EV/D41EV/D42EV/D43EV 2004 |
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Clevo D470K 2004 |
Clevo D47EV/D48EV 2004 |
Clevo D500E 2004 |
Clevo D870P 2004 |
More coming soon...