Clevo/Sager First Timer!

Hi

New to the forums, and completely new to Clevo/Sager. Never heard of them until about a week ago.

Anyway i'm in the market for a new gaming laptop and have been considering Clevo/Sager as I've heard a lot of good things about them. I've been playing with some specs and wanted opinions on the below one, just incase something doesnt look right or could be swapped out for a much better option. Please have a look and let me know your thoughts.

Sager NP9170 / Clevo P170EM
- 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Anti-Glare Screen w/ 72% NTSC Color Gamut (1920x1080)
- Professional Monitor Color Calibration w/ Spyder 3 Elite (Will add to Production Time)(Operating System is required)
- Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- Sager - 3rd Generation Intel® Ivy Bridge Core™ i7-3610QM (2.3GHz - 3.3GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache, 45W Max TDP)
- IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- AMD Radeon HD 7970M (2048MB) GDDR5 DX11
- 16GB DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (4 SODIMMS) -
- Remove All Branding
- Standard Finish
- No mSATA SSD
- 256gb Crucial M4 Series Solid State Drive (SSD2 Serial-ATA III)
- 256gb Crucial M4 Series Solid State Drive (SSD2 Serial-ATA III)
- Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive w/ Software
- Internal 9-in-1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD/Mini SD/SDHC/SDXC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo)
- Intel® Advanced-N 6235 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module + Bluetooth
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- Standard Sager/Clevo Non Chiclet Backlit Keyboard
- No Thanks, Please do not Overclock my system (Overclocking will add 3-6 business days to build time)

I'm contemplating a 2x 256GB SSD setup as I don't need or use alot of storage. The first SSD will be used for Windows, MS Office, and any other general applications. The second SSD will be used for Games / Music / Videos / Backup. I saw in the Storage Drives sticky that the M4 is highly rated and recommended, it's also bang/buck one of the best ratio's at about USD0.8 per MB.

Any comments/ideas/suggestions?

Oh and also does anyone own one of these machines? Is it rock solid / good built quality / how's the keyboard / noise levels under load etc? This is very important as I will be ordering it overseas so I can't have something unreliable or poor quality. Too expensive to ship it back and forth between here and the US.

Thank you

 

Actually, I don't have my Sager yet but thanks to the video review, unboxing, benchmarks on Youtube. I can tell you that this brand is really durable, well built from solid components. The stock keyboard (backlit) is awesome, WASD gaming keys, good feeling on press, etc.. Just a thing I think it's a bit noisy when on load, but I don't know any other laptop with such perfomances to do less noise when on load... (Yes even Alienware)!

 

I would personally go with 8 GB RAM and a better wireless card (preferably without Bluetooth, but that's a personal opinion because I won't use it and I don't like having extras I don't use ). I don't think you will need all that RAM for gaming, as it doesn't make a difference until you run out of it and at that point your machine slows down a lot (I used to run out of RAM while playing WoW years ago and the FPS dropped to below 1 ). Keep in mind also that Windows uses the hard drive for RAM when you run out of it and you are having a SSD which is much faster than a typical HDD and thus the slowing down won't be that significant.

Also everyone seems to be talking about the delays caused by the 7970M so you need to decide whether you want to wait a few more weeks for it.

Lastly I'm also getting a Clevo from overseas and I decided to go with the perfect pixel warranty as I've read somewhere that the displays used if you purchase it are better (this might be completely wrong though so don't take my word for it). On the other hand I have someone to test my display in the US so I can easily claim the warranty if needed without the extra shipping costs.

I guess I wrote a bit too much...

 

^ I feel like 16GB may be a bit overkill. As Duk40 said, you probably won't use that much for normal purposes, even for gaming... It is pretty annoying to use virtual memory from the HD though. If, after buying 8GB and realizing that it's not enough, you can always add more later, as the 8GB still leaves 2 slots open. The price will be pretty comparable or even a bit cheaper. It's quite easy to add (they told me that the memory if you buy 8GB would be installed under the keyboard leaving the 2 slots in the back of the machine which are more easily accessible open).

The M4 is definitely a very good price, but I can't personally vouch for how it is other than the specs... Crucial is a known brand name though xD 512GB seems like it should be enough for most standard uses, especially if you get a decent external drive for multimedia or anything that you don't actually need on your laptop.

Overall looks like a great build! Have fun with it!

 

I remember when people told me 32MB of RAM was overkill. Even if you are only planning to game with it now you may eventually use it for something that would benefit from the extra RAM. IMO it's better to get it now since hopefully you will be using this laptop for a long time. Since SSD RAID is apparently problematic right now you may want to go with just 1 SSD and get a larger HD for the 2nd slot. Also it's better to calibrate the monitor in your personal setting so you may want to consider buying a Spyder or comparable unit. The upside is you could do your other computers or family and friends computers.

 

I do agree that 16GB is more then you'll need for now for gaming but it also doenst really hurt to get it now. 12-16GB is becoming pretty much standard now and you might actually use it down the road as others have mentioned.
One of the more popular upgrades now is also the Steelseries keyboard. It's a chiclet style which is very comfortable to type on. The standard one isnt bad but the Steelseries is a little nicer.
For your use 2x SSD would be great, just dont RAID them and you'll be set.

 

The good thing about the memory though is that it is extremely easy to add memory and in many cases cheaper to get it after the effect. It does not void warranty. Tends to be what I do.

The second thing is if you want to stick with 2 SSD drives you may want to look at the prices on Amazon as you can find them cheaper there.

 

If you for for RAID0 with thoses 2 SSD's, you'll have 512 Go of usable space with Extreme Performance ! (no Fault tolerance thought :/)

 

Looks Good...I just ordered a very similar unit.
I have had many laptops including Dell's, HP's, Asus,and Sager/Clevo.
Never had a issue with the Sager....can't say the same for the others.

 

Were I you, I would RAID 0 those 2 SSDs and then partition them for your drive management. That way you double the speed of those drives, and you're getting the most potential out of your system.

If you're worried about backup, get Acronis and create regular images of your storage Partition.

In time you might be able to get TRIM support as well, once Intel gets their IRST software working.

 

Your wifi card should be just fine, unless you plan on doing massive data transfers over your local wireless connection or serious gaming over the local wifi as opposed to internet downloading, I would not see any reasons to upgrade it beyond what you already have. Unless you have internet speeds that are greater than 150Mbps, upgrading your wifi card would be like buying a Ferrari to drive around a parking lot.

Depending on what you are doing with the videos and music (listening to and watching or editing and doing your own, you didn't specify) but if you are just watching videos and listening to music, 8GB of memory is generally sufficient enough and you can always upgrade it yourself later, unless you are in a country where you can't get parts easily.

The stock Sager/Clevo keyboard is more than sufficient and is going to be just the same as the SteelSeries except the keys are a slightly different feel (non-chiclet Sager vs. chiclet SteelSeries). It's more of a preference thing, but they should both be made by the same company. Please also keep in mind the Fn key mappings are different between the two, so some Fn hot key reconfiguration work will be required and it can be time consuming.

I would recommend getting an external backup drive to anyone though, just as a precaution regardless of what your system configuration is. Another great idea is offsite backup as your data will be protected from theft and acts of mother nature and they generally are programmed to back up your data every 15 minutes automatically.

I can't really answer the questions you have asked otherwise as you are asking for actual owners. They are very solid and durable, just don't try kicking a field goal with it or something like that.

Some have complained of the noise, I really haven't had any issues with them under a load; when we run them on Furmark and BurnInTest which are about the hardest stress test you can do on a computer so they are pushed harder than most users push them.