Few questions to you NP8130 owners

Before we begin, yes I know most of these have already been answered in previous threads, but some answers were incomplete and I did not understand them fully. Also, some threads were outdated or in broken English, or had really mixed answers.

1. What do you think of the build quality of your NP8130? I have seen extremely mixed answers for this, ranging from "It was a cheap piece of garbage" to "best laptop build quality ever". I take extremely good care of my stuff so it will not get any water damage or anything, but I just want to know that the laptop won't start to fall apart after a year when the warranty runs out (will be buying from XoticPC).

2. What do you think of the default screen on the NP8130? On XoticPC it comes with a Matte screen. Is it worth upgrading to the 95% Color Gamut Glossy display for $30 more?

3. Did you have any dead pixels when your NP8130 arrived?

4. What problems have you experienced so far with your NP8130?

Thanks in advance for the help. I will be constantly checking this thread and I will try my best to reply and rep helpful posts.

Edit: This doesn't really pertain to my post, but should I purchase the laptop from Malibal, XoticPC, or PowerNotebooks? From Xotic and Power it is the same price, but Malibal is like $50 cheaper, but I haven't really heard of them before.

 

1) Build quality is good and I can attest to this. It's a solid, good piece of hardware that has obviously been designed well and worked on.

2) The default screen is great on the 8130. It's probably better than about 80% of laptop screens out there. But at only a $30 upgrade, it's a steal to get the 95% gamut, no matter what you're doing. I never do photography or video work, but I wouldn't even think about it at that price.

3) No. But your experience may vary. Dead pixels occur in every laptop brand screen, not only Clevos/Sagers. At least this company is honest about it.

4) For me? So far nothing. There have been a few issues that others have reported, such as problems with activating the THX Software, problems with the quality of the headphone jack, with waking up from hibernation, and with USB 3.0 speeds. Compared to other laptop brands, these issues are few and far between and most are easily remedied.

5?) It sometimes doesn't matter where you get the laptop from, because all of those resellers are good. That's probably my favorite thing about Sager, you get high-quality, personalized customer service. You're going to have to take a close look at all of those companies and make a decision, that's what I did.

Hopefully, the rest of your questions can be answered here: FAQ

Mr. Mysterious

 

Malibal's customer service was incredible. I definitely recommend them

 

1. Build quality is among the best I've seen short of business-grade laptops.

2. I love my default screen. Unless you're doing a lot of photo/video editing, I'd say that the upgrade isn't worth it (and, you definitely want to keep the matte finish)

3. No dead pixels...first thing I tested

4. I can't seem to get the trackpad to stop recognizing my hand as a finer while I'm typing. I've learned just to turn it off (FN+F1) when I'm using an external mouse. It's not that bad, though.

Oh, and I ordered from XoticPC, and they're fantastic!

 

If you play games on your NP8130, what kind of framerates are you getting and on what games? I am getting mixed reviews on the GTX 560m vs the GTX460m, some people say that the 560M is only just a bit better than the 460m while others are saying that the 560m is a lower Bit so it doesnt amount to the 460m... Also how hot does your Laptop get when your playing GPU/CPU intensive games/Software? i really want a cool laptop that wont overheat and that has nice cooling.

I am currently looking at an Asus G53SW-XN1 mainly because i like the cooling in it and the 460m, but ive seen reviews on Newegg saying that the power button on it is flimsy and that it breaks, so i dont know if i want that happening to me. thx

 

The 560m is about a 15% improvement over the 460m. It's the same bit, so that's not true. And, I have been playing games (Halfway through The Witcher 2), but I haven't been keeping track of FPS. It's been doing really well on high settings, though.

The cooling is really good, but I also keep my fans on max (FN+1) while gaming. I don't really notice the noise when I'm focused on the game.

 

how loud does it get though on high fan settings?

like this loud you would say?

YouTube - ‪WoW Gaming test Sager 5160/Clevo W150HNQ: Fan Noise‬‏

 

Yeah, it'll get that loud while you're gaming. But, the only fans that are this efficient and not loud are the ASUS G series fans, and I don't think it's worth carrying around a much bulkier laptop for quieter fans.

 

I don't have any numbers for you off hand, but while playing sc2 with just about everything on ultra settings, I almost never get noticeable loss in frames. As far as temps, I can comfortably have it on my lap(while being careful not to block the gpu air intake) while gaming for several hours. I would do the fn+1 in between matches and let it go back to auto during games, it never got close to max fan speed while in use.

So yeah, it's good

 

Build quality is good for a consumer level laptop but is not in the same league as a business class laptop like a Thinkpad IMHO. It's a reasonably solid plastic chassis but at the end of the day it's still plastic.

I'm not a fan of glossy displays because they are far too reflective unless you have absolute control over lighting. I wouldn't upgrade the stock Matte screen to a Glossy screen because the reflections in an office environment would drive me bananas. I upgraded to the 95% gamut Matte screen and it was worth the money to me for the wider viewing angles.

No dead pixels

No major problems, I have an issue with the GPU fan constantly cycling when the computer is at idle that has been reported by many other folks, just waiting for a BIOS update from Mythlogic to fix it. Other then that I've been quite happy with the laptop so far.

 

If by that "cycling" you mean every now and then the fans spin up to max then back to normal every now and then, then that is normal across all Clevo machines and will not be fixed by any BIOS updates. Don't wait for it. If this is a different issue than what I have described, then disregard the above.

 

No this is when the computer is at idle and the fan spins up to a low level for 30 seconds, shuts off for 20, spins up to a low level for 30 seconds, shuts off for 20 and repeats ad-nauseum. The fan never goes to max, it's just constantly going on and off rather then simply continuously running at a low level.

While the noise itself of the fan when it runs isn't overly loud the constant on/off cycle is quite annoying when working in a quiet room.

 

Here is the thread covering the original fan issue I am talking about:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...turns-off-short-bursts-even-while-idling.html

 

I've never been in a quiet room to work unless there was a power outage... Oh well. Does forcing full speed (Fn + 1) work? Or does it still do that cycle?

 

It only helps as long as you leave it there and since it's incredibly loud I prefer not to. I just got the BIOS update from Mythlogic and it seems to be helping with the cycling.

 

will other resellers provide the update too

thanks

 

My 8130 doesn't seem to have the idling fan issues, but I do notice it a bit when hitting fn+1. It goes to full speed and every 30 seconds - 1 minute it kind of hiccups for a brief second. Kind of weird..

I'm sure if you contact your reseller they will provide you with the bios update

 

All of the Sager models will fluctuate a pit at full fan speed...I don't remember the reasoning behind it, but it happens.

 

It's doesn't seem like a normal fluctuation to me. It's seriously like a hiccup, which is the only reason it's noticeable. It's going at full speed then seems to slow way down or stop for a brief second, then back to full. Not a big deal, but still a bit annoying

 

It's a normal function...everyone's does it.

 

As others have said, it's expected behavior. If it suddenly stopped running or sounded like it was hitting something, those would be worrying issues. It's usually described as a "pulsing" type sound at full blast. The newest bios should really cut down on it compared to the original stock bios though. It's almost unnoticeable for most.

 

Bios does fix that. The new bioses are much better for constant fan speed which is easily much less annoying than the fan stopping and starting like it did on the older bioses.

 

We seriously get at least 2 posts or even entire threads about this every week. It's normal and the same for everyone.

 

I've noticed the other threads about it, but mine sounded a bit different than what others described. Mine doesn't throttle up for 30 seconds, then down for 20. And this only happens when I manually hit fn+1 to go full speed. I just find it odd that it would have this behavior when it's being told to provide max cooling. I'm not worried about it though