Just ordered my NP9377-S from XOTIC

Well I had placed an order with Dell for an Alienware 18 and then I started reading about the issues with that machine and ultimately just decided to shop around so I called and canceled it this morning and went to check out the XOTIC site.

This is the build I came up with, what do you guys think?

1x Sager NP9377-S (Clevo P377SM-A)
- ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE: None
- Antivirus Software: No Antivirus Essentials Software Bundle
- Back Up Software: No Back Up Software
- Battery: Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth Included *With select wireless cards only* (See “Wireless Network” Section Below)
- Branding: Sager Branding
- Build Time: Standard Production Time
- Camera: Integrated Digital Video Camera
- Car Adapter: No Car Adapter
- Case: No Carrying Case
- Cloud Backup - Unlimited GB Storage: No Unlimited GB Cloud Backup
- Copper Cooling Upgrade: COPPER COOLING UPGRADE - Extra Cooling Copper Heatsinks Applied to the Heatsink/Heatpipes (XPC Service - requires shipment to XOTIC PC: will add to build time)
- Dead Pixel Warranty: FREE! - 30 Day No Dead Pixel Warranty
- Display: 17.3" FHD 16:9 120Hz "MatteType" 72% NTSC Color Gamut Sager Screen (1920x1080) [*NVIDIA® GTX 880M purchase required] (SKU - SSC014)
- Exterior Finish - Graphic & Textured Wraps: Standard Laptop Finish
- Exterior Finish - XOTIC PC Custom Painting (A Panel Only): No Custom Laptop Painting
- Exterior Finish - XOTIC PC Custom Painting (Full Chassis): No Custom Laptop Painting
- Exterior Finish - XOTIC PC Laser-Sketch™: No Laptop Laser-Sketch™
- External Display Video Adapters: No Video Adapter
- External Hard Drive (Back Up): No Back Up Hard Drive
- External Mobile Display: No External Mobile Display
- External USB Optical Drive: NO External USB Optical Drive
- Fingerprint Reader: Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- Free Shipping: FREE!!! – U.S. UPS GROUND SHIPPING (Use Coupon Code "FREESHIP" in Checkout) [U.S. Lower 48 ONLY / Restrictions Apply]
- Graphics Video Card: SLI (2x) - NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 880M (16.0GB total) GDDR5 PCI-Express DX11 [User Upgradeable] (SKU – GPU05X)
- Headsets: No Headset
- Keyboard (External): No External Keyboard
- Memory Card Reader: Internal 9-in-1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD/Mini SD/SDHC/SDXC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo)
- Microsoft Office Software: - No Microsoft OFFICE Software
- Monitor Calibration: NO Professional Monitor Color Calibration
- Mouse Accessories: No External Mouse
- mSATA SSD Drive ( Slot 1 ): 240GB Crucial M5 mSATA SSD - Preconfigured as an OS Drive ( Operating System – Drive C: )
- mSATA SSD Drive ( Slot 2 ): 240GB Crucial M5 mSATA SSD - Preconfigured as an OS Drive ( Operating System – Drive C: )
- mSATA SSD Drive - Configuration Option: RAID-0 Storage - (Stripe) Combines mSATAs for performance. (Requires identical mSATA SSDs)
- Notebook Cooler: No Notebook Cooler
- Operating System: ~Windows 8.1 Professional - 64-Bit (64-Bit CD Included) + MS Office 2013 Trial
- Optical Drive Bay: 6X Blu-Ray Burner + 8X DVDRW/CDRW Super Multi Combo Drive (Sager) (SKU - ODD083)
- Optical Drive Bay Hard Drive Caddy: No Extra Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy
- OS Redline Boost: No Operating System Redline Boost
- Outside of U.S. Shipping Coverage: No Outside of US Shipping Coverage
- Port Replicators / Docks / Adapters: No Dock/Hub/Adapter
- Primary Hard Drive: 1TB 7200RPM [SATA II - 3GB/s] (SKU - HDD097)
- Processor: Sager - 4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4940MX (3.1GHz - 4.0GHz, 8MB Intel® Smart Cache) (SKU – SPU403)
- Raid: HDD Raid Settings - OFF
- Ram: 32GB DDR3 1600MHz [4x8GB] Dual Channel Memory (Windows 7 Home Premium not supported) (SKU - RAM06S)
- Second Hard Drive: 1TB 7200RPM [SATA II - 3GB/s] (SKU - HDD094)
- Software Bundle (Not Installed): No Software Bundle
- Sound Card: Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Spare AC Adapter: Spare 330W Sager AC Adapter
- The XOTIC PC Difference: * 24/7 LIFETIME U.S. based technical support
* Extreme QA testing by dedicated technicians
* 24-72 Hour stress testing and benchmarking to ensure top performance and stability
- Thermal Compound: FREE! - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- TV Tuner: No TV Tuner
- Warranty: 3 Year Parts & LIFETIME Ltd Labor Warranty 24/7 Tech Support w/ LCD Accidental Damage Protection for Sager Machines (SKU - WTY013)
- White Glove Premium Packaging: Yes, I would like XOTIC PC’s White Glove Premium Packaging (XPC Service - requires shipment to XOTIC PC: will add to build time)
- Wireless Network: Sager - Intel® Dual Band AC 7260 802.11 A/AC/B/G/N 2.4/5.0GHz + Bluetooth™ 4.0 (SKU - WIFI94)
- Wireless Network Accessories: No Network Accessory
- XOTIC Gear: NEW! - XOTIC PC Black T-Shirt (Specify Size in Checkout)
- XOTIC PC Global Anti-Theft Protection: No Global Anti-Theft Protection (Options below require an operating system)
- XOTIC PC Redline Boost™ Extreme Performance: No Thanks, Please do not Overclock my system (Overclocking will add 3-6 business days to build time)

Its just under 5k but its a beastly machine.

I bought a second power supply but from the looks of it, this machine doesn't need it and can't use it. Oh well, its a spare I guess.

I have to say the AW18 didn't have near the power and was going to be 4200. And throttles. And fan tables are broken. And they just locked the BIOS for the extreme chip. And other Dell things that turned me off (although really the final straw was dealing with the outsourced CS).

 

Thats about as sexy as they come. Only thing I can comment on is Windows Pro, if you dont need the features Pro adds Home would be good.

 

I figured I might as well go Pro while I was doing everything else lol.

The machine specs I was going to get:

4810MQ
16GB DDR3L
2x M290X
1TB 5400RPM
256GB single SSD

My total with tax was 4127 for that machine with Dell.

This one is 4800. Its kind of a no-brainer. Just adding the MX chip to the Dell build would have put me well at the 5k mark...

So it looks good otherwise? I've never had an SSD before so 2 of them in RAID is going to be crazy nice for me anyway and with 2TB for storage, I think 480GB will be plenty for OS and games that need the boost otherwise I'd have gone up more.

If I actually left the house, I would have done the custom paint job because it looks sick but at least I'll be reppin the shirt

I actually read the review on here AFTER ordering it and found to my surprise that there aren't power adapter constraints unlike the AW18 so I'm already thrilled.

 

Welp you've gone and outdone my machine, I hope you enjoy the moo out of that thing XD

 

Its your fault! You planted the seed of doubt in my mind XD

 

What seed of doubt? XD

 

That big honking one about whether the Alienware was worth the cash premium lol

 

At least you found your way to the truth

 

Indeed - and the more I read about XOTIC, the happier I become. You guys have some seriously incredible service policies. I don't think I'm going to be unhappy one bit and it seems like a no-compromise machine which is the first in a laptop for me.

 

Glad to hear you're enjoying it! Hutsady and I both are here if you need anything on your order, always glad to help out.

 

Thank you, just waiting for Megan to let me know that the bank transfer went okay. Never done one before. I'm assuming you guys are just getting started for the day and I'm being paranoid lol.

 

Yeah, just about 90 minutes in at the moment. For bank transfers we have to wait for it to arrive to our bank, have our bank process into our account, and then they email us when its ready. Once we get that notification we'll update your order and get you moved into production.

 

As I said, I think I'm just paranoid. I've never done a transfer before and I tend to have terrible luck when I try new things. Hoping everything goes okay, my bank was very thorough since we did it over the phone so as long as the information on the paper was right, it was entered right as she had to call me a second time to confirm all of the information again per phone transfer policy so unless the rep entered it in wrong twice, which I highly doubt, it will all be fine. Gotta love anxiety. Its funny I'm worried about payment when I probably won't even get to see and unbox the machine til June since I didn't put a rush on it haha

 

You and me both will probably be waiting till June.

Ordered mine on Monday, similar to yours. One step lower processor and one HD instead of two. Otherwise, we're the same order.

Enjoy!

 

My current estimated date is 5-16 business days but at least I got the order the payment was processed so the stress is gone now.

I'm beyond excited. I have been living off an Inspiron 17R N7110 with just an Intel HD 3000 because my Alienware needs new fans so this is going to be an insane upgrade. Even just the processor. I'm going from a Core i5-2450M LOL!

 

Standard is actually typically 7-12 business days based on what we normally see. The ETA for the machines themselves is tomorrow so should be a pretty quick process.

 

Wow that would be fantastic. I was expecting a month but even from the estimate Megan sent me, the machine would get here before the Alienware I was ordering would have. Awesome!

 

that's a monster build you wont regret it, i was contemplating on aw 18 and np9377-s at the same time, a huge price difference with both specs and the 18 doesn't have the 120hz screen, on the top of that, its bulkier and heavier than the 9377.

 

Yeah once I found XOTIC, it was an easy decision. My M17x really annoyed me with its DPC latency issues and the stability issues with nVidia's drivers were never truly fixed, just worked around, because Dell took shortcuts on the motherboard. Seeing them completely nerf the ability to O/C the MX in their latest BIOS release and then dealing with their non-native speakers... Nope, done.

The 18" screen would have been nice but since I'm using a 17" now, it won't be a loss.

 

just ordered my aw 18 from xotic yesterday. I really like the fact that I can call them and get through to people I can communicate with.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

 

Glad to hear it! Let us know if any questions come up.

 

(Phase 2 (Sager Assembly, Build, Technical Analysis, Stress Testing & QA)) update this morning.

Man I'm getting antsy lol!

 

Ordered mine like forever ago... It's supposed to finally arrive in about 12 hours! Can't wait!

My first sager.

Derek is cool, he is my rep and is very helpful and punctual.

 

Congrats! Let us know what you think of it. I won't have mine for a bit yet, it went to XOTIC for customization yesterday so it will be a few days yet but I'd rather wait than have them rush it and risk something being missed.

The only thing that concerns me is the report from one person that the lid has crazy flex and he was able to easily get the LCD to warp with slight pressure. Definitely check yours and see how it is, he said it was worse than any other laptop he had and I'm hoping it was just an isolated incident as Clevo/Sager are known for being rugged - not to the point of an Alienware or a Panasonic Toughbook but far better than average. This person said he wouldn't have felt comfortable even putting it in a back pack so he traded it for an Alienware :\

 

I have the 8258-S.

The lid has flex in it, I won't lie to you.

However, to say 'slight pressure' is a bit of a misdenomer. You actually have to use two hands to give it any real flex. Opening and closing the laptop case, even with one hand, isn't going to flex the screen on you much if at all.

You don't have to treat the lid with kid gloves, but I also wouldn't just crank it open or closed either.

So not delicate, but don't be abusive.

 

See, I've had a few different machines (Alienware M17x, Dell Inspiron 17R that I'm using now, MacBook Pro 17" (original unibody), and a Toshiba Qosmio) and I've never really noticed flex being an issue. My Dell definitely flexes but not to the point where I've ever been concerned about it. I regularly set things on top of its lid (something I need to break myself of anyway - eating a bowl of soup on top of a laptop is definitely not good practice lol) and I've never thought twice about it. Grabbing it with both hands and pulling in opposite directions caused me to easily see the flex (I'm assuming that's how its tested for) but I don't see any reason why I would be doing that under normal circumstances.

This is the review that I'm talking about by the way: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...vo-p377sm-review-htwingnut-6.html#post9651911

I don't know, maybe it was just reading that the very day I had ordered my machine but yeah... has me a bit concerned.

 

I don't have the exact model, so it is possible the lid is thinner than normal. However, on my 8258, I can push in the middle of the back fairly hard and I see no distortions.

I wouldn't feel uncomfortable putting a bowl of soup (albet, padded so the heat wouldn't damage it over time) on the lid.

Or a more reasonable comment:

Our cat likes to lay on the laptops when they're closed, because he knows as long as he does that, we give him the attention and not the laptop in question.

The lid seems to handle our 16 lb cat just fine

 

Good to hear. I figured it was being blown out of proportion. I guess I will see for myself when I get it. I don't think it will be problematic for me as my laptop hardly ever goes with me. Plus if I need something I can take on the go, I likely wouldn't be gaming, so the Inspiron 17R can go and be just fine. I think the 17R would have quite noticeable flex if it didn't have swappable covers. There is a LOT of space between the cover and the actual lid (that part flexes down) so Dell's gimmick actually helps protect the machine too.

 

It will take normal use just fine, even a fair amount of weight on the lid though if people try it on mine they get the death stare lol. It's drops and throwing it about that will damage it.

 

You have the 9377?

I don't plan on beating it up... it will sit on a dinner tray table in front of my futon like my Inspiron 17R does now. Nothing fancy. But its placement is why things end up being put on the lid of the Inspiron because I run HDMI out to my TV and I'm usually watching something so unhooking everything isn't really possible and setting it on the floor is obviously a stupid idea.

 

i honestly think its an isolated case of 9377-S and honestly i don't see any danger if you handle it correctly or lift it by the lid or apply average pressure on it (which i never do)

seriously guys? you place something on the lid like bowl etc? hmmmm even my daughter cant even put her toys in my laptop lid, that ground is sacred, and no foods allowed nearby the laptop or in the gaming room per se, i experienced a horrible motherboard murdered by ants bcoz of some little crumbs beneath my gaming table so i have this nothing except gaming cd policy in my game room

back on topic, Ethrem, i have 9377-S right now, and i don't find the lid an issue, for me cautious and proper handling is to be focused here, its a laptop, its meant to be more sensitive since its parts are more delicate and smaller than a desktop, if you receive your laptop just treat it with amor, and just like any laptops for that matter, one of the main enemies of laptops are heat and improper handling

 

You have a death stare?

Yeah bowl of soup on laptop lid holy hell

I'll admit to eating crummy food while streaming videos/movies on my laptop, but I've never put anything on the lid, certainly not a bowl of soup lol

 

holy crap. thats a big cat. let some mice out so he gets some cardio or something and quit letting him sit on your lid. hair getting all in everything too.

unless hes like that cat that pwned that dog ..that cat sits on my laptop i think ill just let him relax.

 

*laugh*

He's nearly 20 years old now as well. Grandpa kitty for sure. 47" long from nose to tail. So little fat on the boy, he's mostly muscle.

He's a Bombay Black cat. Insanely smart, and very very jealous of our laptops. It's kinda cute.

He's smart enough to know the wifi controls our 'enjoyment' so if he wants attention he'll bat at the wifi unit until he disconnects the internet cable.

I'm thinking a dumb cat may have been better :b

 

Hey I never said it was ideal, its just what has happened. Now that the roommate got an iMac, I got my desktop back so if I can find somewhere to put it that it won't overheat between the Q6600 and Radeon 5830, I will hook the HDMI cable up to it and set up some sort of remote control through my tablet and cell phone that lets me use it as a media server. I may even set it up with DLNA through UMS depending on what my new TV ends up having in DLNA options or if Sony adds it to the PS4.

Good to hear that it isn't that flimsy though.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

Have had several hours with my 9377-S, Quick facts:

Thing is big and a lot of matte black plastic... but quality is plenty good and solid. The screen is great, but it is true that if you open or close it from one corner it will twist enough to distort the colors.. so what! open it from the middle or both corners.

Thing is lightning fast. Only issue is cant find a driver that will load for the "airplane mode button" The one on Sager website and included disk say not compatible. so what!

The keyboard is awesome, the trackpad is great, but the trackpad buttons are a bit poor... don't click uniformly.

Oveclocked and undervolted CPU a little and thing is solid. GPUs stay under 80c after rounds and rounds of maxxed out Unigine Heaven.

The thunderbolt port isn't hotplug. You must power off the machine, plug in your drive, and then turn it back on.

Overall im very satisfied.

 

Sounds awesome, I will definitely consider a Sager for my next system.

 

Wow, sounds very impressive! 80c under load on the GPU? Is that with the IC Diamond upgrade or just the stock paste? 80c isn't terrible but its not wonderful either. I'm sure that can be improved upon. Have you done any gaming with it yet? I've never had a GPU that could actually run the full Heaven benchmark before (GTX 260M isn't DX-11) but I seem to remember that the base benchmark kicked my GPUs into overdrive anyway. I got IC Diamond and ordered custom heat pipes so hopefully my temps will be a bit lower although that's not terrible as I said. My 260M's easily hit the 90s and throttled.

How's the fan noise? Rocket in the house? Lol

Kind of a bummer about Thunderbolt... I know its hot pluggable on OS X, figures that Windows would be behind yet again. Not a huge deal though, I don't have a Thunderbolt device to use on it yet.

Glad you're happy. The driver for the air plane mode makes me laugh. I don't think I'd ever use it anyway but that's a hilarious little glitch XD

 

are you talking about the hotkey? coz you can fnF11 the airplane mode button, although you have to download and install the correct hotkey version of your OS in sager website. Most of the apps i have are factory installed already, the only issue i had out of the box is the hotkey button since i need to have a net framework update and reinstall the hotkey software,

the 120hz screen brings out the best of win 8, me owning a 60hz alienware before, i could comparably see the difference on a sager 120hz.

this laptop is big, but i owned bigger and heavier.

boot up time is cake walk, i agree that the gpus in SLI stays below 80c (in my case 78C) at unigine heaven

for now still waiting for Prema bios im hoping to extend more battery life out of this beast

 

Well mine just got updated to phase 6 today... Hopefully I'll have it by next Friday. Pretty amazing speed actually since I ordered it 10 days ago total. I got 3 emails in a row updating from phase 4 to 6 today. Getting excited!

I just hope the 880M performance isn't gimped.

I ordered the custom heat pipes so hopefully I'll see some lower temps too? Glad to hear you're loving it though!

 

Congrats! I tried to sleuth your order number but wasn't able to from my records but if you wanted to PM me I can take a look into your order and see what the details are on when we expect you shipped.

 

You've got PM

 

Makes the two of us

I miss my Clevo

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The newest Geforce beta drivers fixed all my gimped 880M issues. They run steady now without any modification at 83c with full boost clocks and no throttling. Great performers!

All my benchmarks are in line with what they should be (meaning a little faster than 780M SLI)

Got my CPU set where i want it (meaning as fast as i can get it running 100% boost without throttle and no boost time limits)

I have the IC Diamond compound.

Stock Fan speed curves are great to me. Silent system while idling/light tasks, then pops up under load. Even at max it isnt as loud as i expected it would be or could be.

Interesting that the Esata port tops out at 260MBps, so must be sata2... odd since bios sees it as a sata 3 port. The thunderbolt port is hitting about 400MBps using the same external SSD.

One more glitch, some settings are missing or do not work related to the trackpad drivers. Cannot disable coasting when scrolling... i turned the setting off but it still coasts. Also no setting to turn off left and right "flick-ins" so the charm bar or app switcher pops out when swiping in the sides of the trackpad.

I LOVE THE KEYBOARD! Feels great, custom lighting is great, solid and heavy.

No dead pixels, enjoying the 120hz. would like a deeper black level... but thats just me being spoiled by AMOLED.

Airplane mode can be turned on in a couple ways... sure, but there is a device in the device manager associated with it that has no driver loaded. I just disabled it and looked the other way, but hope to find a compatible driver someday soon.

I like the new unigine VALLEY benchmark... that puts some stress when topped out and has shown me my highest heat levels so far. Amazing graphics, but adjustable LOD would really complete the options.. o well.

Impressed with Sager and Xotic as of now.

 

You just made my night with the driver comment! That's the best news I could have heard!

The trackpad sounds like a mess... Hopefully its fixable... I almost exclusively use the trackpad (my "desk" is actually an oak dinner tray - there's no room to use a mouse on it. I have another tray I can set up if I absolutely have to but its going to hurt my wrists fast if I'm having to use a mouse rather than the built in trackpad).

I couldn't help but notice 4 EVO drives. Damn. I've never had SSDs before though so I think even just 2 240GB Crucial M5s in RAID0 will be incredible. Hell I've never even had RAID before... lol

Yay for 880M's outperforming 780M's with no vbios mod! Can't wait!!!

 

LOL my desk right now is like a rickety little stand too

 

Actually when I had my old 18xr2 it fell off the stand and the back of the laptop actually got slightly dented. Other than that though it didn't take any damage from the fall. Tanks I tell you.

 

Yep with the weight to match lol.

 

Well, I guess I'm a little behind you guys, since I'm still at Phase 3. (Must have patience... )

 

I waited 4 months for the RMA of my Clevo And it will arrive to the store this week hopefully... I seem to be a little kid with all the anxiety xD

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