After receiving my 9150, I'm speechless

It's that awesome. Everything worked perfectly out of the box. No dead pixels, no messed up keys, and after installing the THX sound thing, its got decent audio (not too picky about that). The screen is beautiful. Everything is extremely crisp, but this is coming from a 2010 MBP. The trackpad is better than I expected, considering I usually hate trackpads on Windows notebooks.

Installing games as I write this but the temps on idle are in the 40s, which is lower than my Macbook. Fans are completely silent while idling as well. I pushed them to full throttle to see what it was like, and it's pretty loud, but its not a high pitched whine. In a quiet environment it would be easily noticeable, but with music/fan on it will mask it.

Runs Skyrim full ultra no problem at all. BF3 with settings on Ultra/high, AA4x,Anisotropic 8x ~40fps with dips to 30 occasionally.

The stock wireless card is working fine for me. Currently downloading Skyrim at 2 MB/s. I'll edit this after playing some online games to see if theres noticeable lag and to post some framerates.

Oh and the customer service from Xotic PC was great. Michael S and Ali helped me out so much even after I kind of messed up the payment >.< Customer for life.

Edit: found a stuck pixel in the top left corner.

Edit2: Uploaded some screens of bf3. When it looks like this ("High" preset on multiplayer) im getting around 40 normally, going up to 50-60 in low stress zones and dipping to maybe 30-35 in high stress areas.

 

What's the best way to find a stuck/dead pixel?

 

Well I found it just when the screen went black. Just pull up something fullscreen black and if you have any stuck pixels theyll be pretty obvious. Dead pixels are just little black dots, emitting no color, so try a white background for those.

 

LCD Dead Pixel Test Backgrounds

This works best. I have one on one of my LCDs, I've never noticed it other than in this test.

 

Repoman, I completely agree with you. This Sager really was every thing I hoped for and more, but in the end it should be expected with the base price tag. Every thing is perfect except utilization in some games. In Bad Company 2, when FPS go down in dense areas and during heavy firefights, zero core promptly powers up the chip to give me a stable 55FPS-60FPS. The system in an ideal state works well, powering down parts that aren't being used, and when FPS go down to the mid 40s, those parts come back alive quickly. In GTA IV, it seems to work the opposite, where when FPS goes down utilization goes down.

Stuck pixels can be pixed. Google for a method that you like, or follow 5 Ways To Fix A Stuck Pixel On Your Screen

BTW I meant "fixed" but decided to keep the error. A nice little pun that went unnoticed in my typing.

 

Just got my 9170. P6515 3DMarks, 102 degrees max in Diablo 3. It was factory overclocked but that temp seems high.

 

great news, glad your loving it. my time will be here soon.
4 years ago my m860tu was the fastest 15" on the planet and this one is going to wipe the floor with it.

@Jaug, ill refraze that, not mine personally but the model

 

Is that 102F or 102C? Hopefully not 102C because then you need to either return the laptop immediately or repaste your GPU. If 102F then that's quite cool.

 

if it was 102F i think it would of burnt his house down by now and at that temp made a dent in the earth

102c is still too high

 

102F is 38C

 

sorry im losing the plot today,my mistake. DOH!
hospital on alert for the olympics and its been manic today.

 

TrentaLocked I'm glad you kept the pun, very unintentionally clever

and gcrain, what card does your comp have? I've ran BF3 for ~45minutes-1 hour and the fans dont even ramp up to 100% and the GPU temp doesn't go over 80 C. If yours are in Farenheit thats pretty good though.

 

102F is even lower than most idle temp, but if it's 102C he seriously needs repaste or send it back to the seller for a check.

 

Either way it's definitely out of proportions lol, genius

 

Quick question. How silent is it exactly while idling? Are the fans completely off, or running at a low speed?

 

102 Celsius obviously, it is a little disconcerting. Great score in 3dmark though.

 

They are running at low speeds. I can feel cool air coming out the back vents. Just sitting here typing this i can't hear the fans at all

 

Could you run the latest version of HWinfo64? You should see a section labeled "Clevo EC" under which you'll see fan RPM for the GPU and CPU fan as well as CPU temperature. What are the fan RPMs at these "silent" levels?

 

I ran the program but I dont see any section labeled Clevo EC. Would it be right on the main screen?

 

It would be in the "Sensor Status" window (click on the yellow "Sensors" button in the main window). If you don't see it, then it's possible the 9170 model number needs to be added into the program by the author of HWinfo (maybe the full model name is NP9170 or something, and not P170EM?). (I thought I noticed someone mention HWinfo reported fan RPM just fine for EM series, but maybe that's incorrect and HWinfo can't.)

 

Ok here it is. Didn't see any fan speed sensors though, maybe it isn't supported on the 9150 :/ Even with Steam downloading stuff in the background its very quiet. I do notice a very low hum, but nothing remotely bothersome, or that anyone else would hear.

Using a (probably inaccurate) decibel monitor app, it measured ~47-49 when i held it right next to the bottom of the screen. If I turn off everything in the room (fan, tv, AC etc.) I can hear it, but if one of those things is on its inaudible.

 

In the picture you provided, if you were to move the sensor window to the right to reveal the model name writen in the title bar of the "System Summary" window:

"HWinfo64 @ CLEVO ???? - System Summary"

What is the model name ?????

I'll ask Martin @ HWinfo if that model is supported. I imagine it should at least show the "Clevo EC" section there even if there is no valid sensor data available to report. It might be the only glitch that prevents a lot a users from being able to measure fan speeds.

 

Bit of a letdown for me. My usual working environment is complete silence. Also using a db monitor app, it reads from my current laptop 32db while idling, and 36 in full load. Idling is perfect, but even when gaming it already bothers me.

 

LOLWUT? Have you ever owned a gaming laptop before? If you want the performance the price is loud fans, and these aren't that loud compared with most gaming laptops.

 

Heckuva long post for someone that is speechless.... Jk, glad your happy. Good machine. Enjoy.

 

@ Clevo P15xEMx

Also note it was not completely idle when I did the measurement. I had Steam and a few other programs running in the background so the fans may have ramped up slightly.

This is the price you pay for a notebook powerhouse.

 

Too many people complain about the size and noise of gaming laptops. If you don't want to deal with it, don't buy a gaming laptop.

 

Razer or apple will be glad to sell you your $2500 silent notebook

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

Lolwut again. I have had 2 Mac book pros in my time. Unibody and what ever you wanna call the one before that. The older one ran INCREDIBLY hot and both were insanely loud when the fans kicked in. Cant compare it to clevo yet, im sure not quite THAT loud, but yes idle they were quiet, but they were far from silent systems when in use (even watching a flash video).

Just figured id throw that in that. My applehate had to leak somewhere.

 

P150EM only gets loud when it reaches 91C on the GPU, the loudest kicks in at 93C, and you won't see such temperature with a GTX680M unless extremely OV and OC'd. This is from a gaming laptop's perspective. Apple hasn't made any high end gaming laptops, so they have nothing that can compare to Clevo at high end level (cards above 6970M/570M).

 

When I'm playing games I don't even notice the fans.

 

Noise while gaming is the least of my worries. What I care about is while doing office work. The W150 would be the perfect choice here, if it wasn't for the far from stellar battery life.

 

The highest fan speeds don't kick in until ~91 C (as someone else posted). Prior to this, the fans are noticeable but not as bad as I thought they would be as they're in the "ramping up" stages. So far, I've never gone above 80 C in a gaming session (BF3 usually) at stock clocks. Trying to OC and see what happens.

 

Actually there's another tier at 93C but it's very hard to reach it if your laptop's cooling is properly done.

 

This. I loved my Apples, but don't tell me they were as quiet as they were beautiful. Also, my PBs were way better than the MBPs IMO, but now this post is becoming inappropriate for this forum.

 

Ah I stand corrected, thanks

And speaking from experience, MBPs were loud when under load as well. Sure when idling they're quiet, but a youtube video kicks the fans up to almost max.

 

Is this still the case with the 2012 MBPRs? Or have they actually showed signs of innovation and progress w.r.t. fan noise reduction over the years?

 

Can't say for sure but considering they have a very similar form factor to the previous generation (they're a bit thinner) probably not.

 

The new fans are just as loud as the previous. It's just the sound frequencies are spread out a bit, so it doesn't seem as loud, but that's just an illusion, just as bad, if not worse.

 

I really don't understand the obsession for silence, when as you said, these are high powered, gaming machines.

I agree with others, if you want a silent PC, then sell your P150EM.

 

Can you try the latest "Beta" of HWiNFO (v4.03-1705)? Martin may have added your model to the list. So you may be able to see the "Clevo EC" and fan RPMs.

LightningPL did a nice test to compare a P170HM and P170EM and they clearly have very different temperature and fan speed tables, so it's believable that the P1x0EM are much more silent than the P1x0HMs:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/652388-high-fanspeed-noise-clevo-p170hm.html#post8770228

What is your average idle temperatures and Fan RPMs?

 

In the process of finding the right amount of thermal paste to apply to the GPU, but currently its idling at 40 C @ ~1800rpm. The CPU cores (using stock paste still) are idling around the mid 40s @ ~2100rpm

 

this is what my fans are reading.
since yesterday its only kicked in once on high speed for around 3 seconds.
there is no difference in my idle fans compared to my m860tu so im very impressed so far. i havnt gamed yet.

 

Thanks for those results. Those are very reasonable idle fan speeds given temps. This makes the EM series definitely more silent at idle/moderate load levels than the HM series.

LightningPL posted a nice comparison between the HM and EM fan rpm behavior here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/652388-high-fanspeed-noise-clevo-p170hm.html#post8770228

If you ever notice the CPU fan stop completely (e.g. while your on an external cooler), please try and take note of the temperature where the fan seems to turn off. I wonder if the CPU fan turn-off threshold has been raised? (seems to be ~37°C for a P170HM)

It's good to see evidence that Clevo has made some effort to address the fan noise issues. However is kind of of a slap in the face that they declared HM series EOL right before addressing the issue with such a simple tweak to the fan tables...

Another unfortunate concern however, is that some report that their CPUs don't turbo boost as much as a consequence of higher idle temperatures. This makes sense, but this means that Clevo does not understand the difference between "Passive cooling" and "Active Cooling" in Windows advanced power settings. When active cooling is selected, it would make sense to run the fans a little higher to recharge the CPU thermal budget faster.

 

After re-applying the thermal paste (again) I got the idle GPU tems to hover around 37-38 C. The fans lowered about 50-70 RPM and are holding steady around 1750 RPM. Maybe I'll try repasting the CPU today and see if I can lower those fans as well.


EDIT: How do you read the logs from HWInfo?
Answer: Use a spreadsheet program