I got my NP9170! Initial impressions and more within!

Finally got my NP9170! I'm nowhere near fully set up, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time here just yet. But, I feel some initial impressions are warrented. I decided to post a new thread rather than clutter up the owners' lounge, as I'm going to be posting more updates as I go along. Note: I am aware I'm far from the first person to post some of this, but hey, I wanted my own scratch space.

• The P170EM seems to be thoughtfully designed. The internals are very easy to access. The second drive bay came with everything needed, including the screws (WHICH I DIDN'T SEE FOR ALMOST THREE HOURS! WASTED TIME! RAGE!). The looks are understated; as I got the Sager branding removed, mine looks like any other barebones P170EM. It's almost minimalist in its simplicity and lack of markings. The two metallic stickers with THX and HDMI on them were removed without too much trouble.
• The extras - cleaning cloth and bag - are appreciated.
• The PSU indeed has a short adapter-to-PC cable.
• Despite the extra weight and thickness, I don't think the P170EM to be significantly larger than my previous MSI. It's actually fairly pleasant.
• I got the IC Diamond upgrade, and one of the first things I did was inspect my heatsinks. My GPU heatsink is a perfect lock to the fan! No gap at all. The CPU does have a gap, and while mid-40s is such a nice drop from my MSI, I'll still be copper-taping that gap just to maximize idle temperatures.
• The machine is very fast with my Samsung 830 (256gb).
• The keyboard is not uncomfortable to type on, however... I do get the skipping keys. Very annoying. Luckily, it doesn't seem to be too often.
• I'm still getting used to the touchpad placement (and my palm hitting it at times).
• The multitouch gestures on the touchpad work well, when I can get them to work. The texture on the pad seems to be a detriment to the scrolling working as expected. Hopefully this changes as I get used to it/put wear on it.
• I'm already enjoying the extra speed from the fingerprint reader, but enrollment was NOT FUN, and the software is a bit crap. I don't want the "KeepSafe" and while TrueSuite detects passwords in Chrome and offers to save them, I can't find any way to get it to spit them back. I'm considering dumping the suite and sticking with Windows' built-in biometrics and third-party utilities. (UPDATE: While creating this post, I saved and then logged into Dropbox. It worked perfectly! That was cool. I'll be keeping this. UPDATE 2: It also works on the vB "you need to login to do that" screen. I'm happy now.)
• The sound is every bit as awful as described. Hilariously lacking in anything resembling a low end, and the speakers are a JOKE. Onkyo should be embarassed to have put their name on such a thing. It's a travesty. My MSI was worlds better. Hell, the old Dell Studio 1555 I have at my office has better sound. Luckily, I won't be using either one much at all, as my E10 is worlds better than any integrated audio to begin with. I'll still post some RMAA tests of the integrated audio, just to show, concretely, the problem.
• The LEDs for HD and wireless activity are stylish, and network activity for wireless actually showing is cool. Never had that on a notebook before.
• The webcam kinda sucks. I haven't tried it with Skype, but with the built-in utility, I'm not too impressed. The HP Envy I was considering probably slaughters it. It also needs an "I'm watching you" LED.
• The screen is very nice, clear, bright.
• Everything seems to be working properly with Optimus, however, WinSAT is giving me a 6.8 for desktop and gaming graphics. Huh? That's far too low. I'll be running 3DMark 11 soon to test.
• Is the keyboard supposed to have a wave in it? If not, mine's... warped.

Pictures! Click to enlarge:


Meet Erebos (also spelled Erebus, I prefer the 'o'). Erebos, in Greek mythology, was a primordial, immortal deity; the personification of darkness. Fitting of an all-black notebook. Also, he had relations with Nyx.


GPU heatsink and fan nice and tight.


CPU heatsink and fan not so much.


Sparse right now during install and testing. Major non-system software installed: Chrome, WinRAR, CCleaner, CDM, and NOD32 AV 6 RC. Soft7 2.0 theme. Wallpaper via Interfacelift.com.


This SSD. Just look at it!


Right in line with what I should be getting. Wouldn't mind breaking 3000.

More coming soon. Of course, none of this would be possible without the great Xotic staff - thanks to Hutsady, Sharon, Josh, and the rest who handled my order and dealt with me. I'm not an easy customer.

Sound
Being the investigator that I am, I decided to run RMAA tonight. I grabbed the frequency response graph from all three modes - WinSound, MME, and DirectSound - and they looked the same, about like this:



There's that rolloff we're all hearing. It's bad - and it's not software. I do not have the THX suite installed, and equalization on that range does nothing but muffle the mids. There's absolutely no gain in output. Ordinary integrated audio with ordinary drivers and zero effects turned on, on Windows 7, does not behave like this. Period. It's as if someone stuck a high-pass filter on it. Now, these aren't scientific tests - I'm not NwAvGuy - but it certainly shows the issue. My 4:30am speculation is that someone intended for there to be a subwoofer output, and somewhere along the line, it got nixed, and... well, you see the results. The filter's (or whatever is attenuating the signal) still there.

For comparison, here's the frequency response of an average Realtek card on an average Gigabyte motherboard.



I'll take some readings from my own HTPC, with equally-ordinary Realtek audio, tomorrow. I don't have any resistors or particularly high-resistance loads, so I can't say if the issue with this card is, like some cheaper chipsets, limited to low-impedance headphones. However, I suspect it's not, purely because, like I said, ordinary integrated audio does not behave like this.

 

Thanks for posting this k0nane! Looks like the computer is doing pretty good for you.
I cant really see a whole lot about the keyboard being warped in the picture but it should not be. Because of that and if its missing the occasional keystokes we can see if we can get a replacement for you.

 

• 
  
  Nice preview konane,
  
  As quoted i fully agree with you on the sound i have mine muted just for the embarassment of people hearing the rough noises, its a like a moaning dog is dying somewhere...
  They really should not use these speaker system, its not adequate at all for a high end machine.
  
  I did activate THX hoping for improvements as i read somewhere, but didnt do much actually. The only way to minimize the distortions is to turn almost everything (surround, and such) off
  
  If someone has a fix or help on this it would be nice.
  
  regards
  Voz

 

I have no issues with distortion. The sound is clear, just severely rolled off at the low end. Start by ditching the "THX" software; if you want your low end back, get an external sound card or USB DAC like the X-Fi Go! Pro or Fiio E10.

The bend is very, very slight (I only noticed it because it's not completely straight and level with the trim) and doesn't affect typing; it's not much of a issue, just an oddity. I'm not concerned about it. The missed keystrokes seem to be fairly far in between when they do show up; if they grow to be a problem I'll let you guys know. I may not have spotted them if I didn't know other users had that problem ahead of time.

 

If you're comfortable doing so you can remove the keyboard to see if a cable or something isn't laying flat as it should. Remove the speaker grill, undo the 5 screws which holds the keyboard down the move the keyboard up and out to clear the tabs on the bottom which holds it down. You should then be able to see the cables and make sure thats not causing the keyboard to raise up.

 

I'm not too eager to disassemble the thing right now. I'll pop the top and check for out of place cables some time soon.

 

Well actually my machine had severe issues after all... i will make a new post about it, can advance that after an OS reload sounds are decent now and distortion is gone.

cheers

Voz

 

Hey Clevo, some just proved with SCIENCE how horrible the audio is in your laptops. Such a failure.

 

Just one question, I thought the thx is imprinted on the laptop not just a sticker (if its imprinted can you tell me how did you remove it as I want mine plain as well and thanks)

 

i never found out what is wrong with these speakers, since i am not crazy about audio. as long as they spew out sound that i can understand, then i am fine with it

 

It's a silver sticker. Only the Onkyo logo is silkscreened (?). Just gently peel, and if there's any adhesive left over, rub it off with something soft.

They just vastly under-deliver compared to promises, and compared to OLDER MODELS from competing manufacturers. They're not the worst ever, but they're poor, and nothing Onkyo should be associating themselves with. It cheapens their brand.

--

Now some updates. I'm fully set up. I haven't noticed any more missed keystrokes, and the bulging/warped portion still hasn't bugged me enough to bother pulling the thing apart. I'm fully customized, as should be expected. Here's a shot of my lock screen:



Wallpaper via someone on Deviantart. I had some serious software problems with my Killer, but through a combination of everything I did, they're resolved. And did I mention there's no way this webcam is HD?

 

oh yea my mistake, thanks dude

 

After an initial problem with the hardware that somehow affected the speakers... i dont complain about the sound as well,. it aint very loud but to me it sound very good..

The cam was supposed to be HD? i think its 720p the most.

How did you manage to get the fingerprint reader to work? I bet i am doing something wrong because if i dont push it to the click point it doesnt read at all, is there a way to configure it or maybe mine is broken?

Voz

 

720p is HD. We're not talking 1080p.

Did you install the software for the fingerprint reader?

 

Oh ok, not sure if the cam is 720p anyway, think not, that was MSI's cam.
ehmmm were is that exactly? i installed the icons that came with the win 7, then again i reinstalled OS. I do recall installing the drivers and there is a software popping up asking for use of fingerprints when i type any password, but i disabled it because i got tired of trying.
I also tried a configuration or calibration of the damn thing with no better luck.
what software are you talking about exactly?

cheers

Voz

 

drivers should be on the cd that came with your laptop, fingerprint reader is in the "optional" tab, though ymmv

 

yeah i installed those, my problem is that it doesnt work easily enough, i have to actually click on the thing to get it to read my fingerprint, is that normal?

 

Not at all. Grab the drivers from Sager, then the latest update of TrueSuite here (install in that order; that installer is the full version when installed over the full version). If you continue to have issues, re-enroll your fingerprints. If it's still having issues, contact your reseller about warranty support.

 

Click on the thing? Physically press down on the fingerprint reader until it goes click? If so, that's not right...

 

You dont push down on it, you drag your finger print from top to bottom like you were wiping something on it.

 

mine can be very temperamental also. works for days and then other times no matter how many times i try it just doesnt recognise my fingers.
sometimes its just the normal message please retry using longer finger strokes and a few times ive also had a red cross and a message that windows does not recognise.
its a pain but youve always got the other option of clicking the button below for user and then just type the password in.