My 5-month Sager NP9170 review (7970M) *Warning: Wall of Text*

First of all I'd like to thank all fellow forum members for making this forum indispensable to me the past few months. There's always rich hands-on information on latest products/issues that arise with latest products. I first learned of Sager and found my reseller (Powernotebooks) here.

I've had the laptop since August, and when it first came (from overseas, I live in the Middle East) the power brick fried after 10 hours, which was immensely annoying since I had to order and pay for a new one and wait for 2-3 weeks for delivery. Then the magnitude of the 7970M throttling issue became painfully evident. In what is considered an ancient game like WoW I was getting 20-25 fps on high presets in undemanding surroundings, with GPU util at ~40%. I decided to weather it through because ordering an Nvidia 680M and shipping it was out of the question. I'm glad to report that with the latest 13.1 drivers I've been getting consistent and stable 99% utilization across the board and enjoying what I always thought would be flagship performance. Framerates have doubled to tripled in DX9-10-11 settings. I hadn't tried any of the drivers after the stock Sager ones because of the stability issues I heard, so I upgraded from stock to 13.1 immediately.

Anyway, none of the above is a review of Sager's product because lets face it, the components are the same everywhere and even across brands, performance rates remain tightly grouped. This is why I wanted to wait for 5 months before reviewing the laptop to see how it will age with regular use and what niggles will arise. I'm not interested in a "my Crucial M4 256GB did 3% less on sequential 4k writing than a Crucial M4 in an AW mx17!" kind of review because it doesn't really review Sager as a brand or Clevo as an ODM.

I would say my technical background pertaining to computers (comparative to this forum at least) is intermediate. I game sometimes, nothing intense, I would dabble in OCing and some DIY when a computer is new for bragging rights.

Design and Aesthetics
Very subjective of course but I, like many can't be seen with laptops that look like they belong to a 14 year old, so at the time of purchase Sager stood alone as a brand that marketed high end components in a timid shell. It is much more compact looking (and feeling) than I thought it would be, which was welcome. I like its angular design and in a strange probably unintended way it's a throwback to the premium futuristic industrial designs of the late 80s era.

The shiny reflective bezel around the screen was a major disappointment because it cheapened the look of the whole appliance and contrasted with everything else that was matte. A lot could have been done to make the looks less boring and formulaic yet maintaining the "Seriousness" of the design, but alas that's what you're "supposedly" saving money on when not buying an AW.

Grade : 6.5/10


Build quality and sturdiness
The bottom side is made of black grainy hard plastic which feels nice and premium to the touch and makes the laptop feel sturdy when carried from one side or placed on a surface. The up-side where the keyboard is covered with a metallic surface that is smooth and fingerprint resistant (in comparison to sleek metal/plastic). Where the laptop falls short is the screen compartment, the two hinges feel flimsy and you certainly wouldn't risk carrying the laptop by a corner of the screen one time too many. When the lid is closed, I soon found that if I wish to carry it with one hand, I must clasp it at the trackpad side and not the screen hinges side, because the plastic between them cracks ominously as if something came out of place when you squeeze lightly, and snaps back into position when you relax your grip. I have a CoolerMaster U3 pad and the punched-out metal surface has caused some of the balance plastic feet to chip slightly.

The shiny bezel below the screen started showing weird plastic rot spots after a few months. They can't be wiped away but they're not that easy to notice. The grainy black plastic parts get dirty easy and are hard to wipe on the dry, which is a niggle.

Grade : 5/10


Ergonomics, engineering, and port lay-out
*The placement of the DVD drive on the -right- side closer to your hand rest, rather than to the far side like most other laptops means that on most times I want to pick it up from the sides when its on, I accidentally press the eject button, which is pretty annoying. They should have chosen a slit-design.
*The placement of the sound output port in the middle of the right side (instead of at a corner like most laptops) restricts your movement relative to the laptop without yanking it inadvertently.
*The USB 3.0 ports on the left side are right next to the LAN port which is the same width as a USB port, sometimes you end up jamming the USB end of a wire into the LAN port.
*A power cable that plugs sideways into a corner of the laptop would be far more ergonomic. The power cable plugs into the middle of the back, which makes it very easy for it to get unplugged, and restricts movement if on lap. To make matters worse, the cable supplied has plug that is no deeper than 8 mm, which means that it does unplug very very often. It's impossible to lay down with the laptop on you and work on it unless you remain perfectly still.
*The wires from/to the supplied power brick are VERY short. You better have a low desk and an electrical outlet within 1 meter of the desk or else some wire is going to be awkwardly yanked with the power brick placed on the desk.
*The laptop's battery has one of the rubber "feet" of the laptop attached to it, so if you work on your desk hooked to the outlet most of the time, you'll either have to save the battery's longevity by pulling it out and devising some awkward "filler" to balance the laptop, or just leave the battery in and kill it after a few months.

Grade : 3.5/10


Keyboard and tracking pad
I don't know how to put this any more delicately, but I believe the biggest proof prayer doesn't work is that the engineer in charge of quality control at Clevo/Sager doesn't frequently drop victim to unexplainable bouts of excruciating physical pain. I have started using computers in 1988 and have personally used no less than 20 different keyboards from the very cheap to the flagship premium, I've never seen anything this bad neither mobile nor desktop. Where to start?

*I never knew of the concept of "keyboard lag" before, but this laptop introduced me to it. There is a discernible keystroke lag, and to make matters worse it's inconsistent, so some stroke are fine, some strokes are very laggy, and some somewhere in between, your typing speed becomes a very counter-intuitive thing to manage and you end up pressing many keys twice. The issue persisted through 4 OSes including linux and driver/tweak combinations, and disappears when an external keyboard is hooked. Obviously very bad hardware.

*Some keys just become severely insensitive after a while. Many have reported this issue and the lag issue. For me it's the H and T, that almost never get typed unless you purposefully stomp them, followed by the I, P, V, Z which get typed most of the time. For others it's other keys. I got so desperate I tried a suggestion by someone that the keyboard needs to be "broken in" by using it heavily for a few weeks, again a concept about keyboards I had never heard before. I tried that and I never want to go through it again and it didn't work. The keys don't feel any less "springy" to others and there is no discernible difference in the way they feel. There is no possible replacement keyboard except a steelseries keyboard meant for MSI gaming laptops, but it needs reasonably complex tweaking and re-mapping to get the FN keys to work, and I'm not sure anyone managed to get all of them working in a stable fashion.

*The actual build of the keyboard is extremely cheap. On my laptop it ever so slightly bulges upwards near the space bar and C,V,B,N,D,F,G,H keys. The keys themselves are not very well aligned with eachother. There is no satisfying click to the key so coupled with the lag and unresponsive keys, this keyboard is a major nightmare and you can't change it easily (or cheaply) at all.

This is a defective product, pure and simple, and there are many threads about it here. Sometimes I come back home tired and feel like laying on the couch instead of sitting at the desk to check the news ..etc, and the notion of having to type on the native keyboard makes me just do everything on the iPhone.

*The tracking pad has no easily discernible edges to touch, which means that unless you're looking you often slip onto the "normal" surface. Very annoying and impossible to get used to without consciously focusing and re-orientating.

*The tracking speed seems to be frilly, certain speed strokes on certain areas elicit different cursor speeds on screen. Might have to do with the uneven matte surface of the pad.

*The tracking pad buttons don't easily click but sort of squeak into a click.

These issues above have made the laptop a mandatory desktop replacement because it is always hooked to an external keyboard and mouse. Any adventure that involves using the native peripherals will end in much cursing.

Grade : 1/10


Sound card and speakers

Many have complained about the on-board sound chip, and what I have to say as a normal gamer/music listener is that whereas it's certainly not among the top on-board solution, it's not terrible either. I have hooked it to an expensive 7.1 surround system and the sound was crisp and clear. There are some simultaneous tweaks in the Realtek and THX TruStudio resident programs to be done first. I have nothing to complain nor rave about, it's a mediocre sound card but it does the job for the average user.

The Onkyo speakers/subwoofer are a different story. The closest thing I can approximate them to are the speakers in gimmicky made in China toys. There is no clarity nor uniform strength. The speakers can be satisfyingly loud, but the sound is simply monotone and very lacking. Probably the second worst laptop speakers I've seen.

*I suffer from an additional problem because I believe my speakers are a lemon. With some frequencies in music/speech there is a loud buzzing sound that comes from the right speaker. It's a buzzing sound that usually happens when the speaker drum is torn, or if there's some grain/dirt/wire contacting the drum surface. I decided to open up the speakers compartment. That led me to discover another design/finishing flaw. The speaker compartment can only be opened from the top/out, so the metal grill turned out to be fixed in place by small manila-type pins and an adhesive surface on the underside. Once you pull out the grill, the manila clips straighten out, and there is no way to tighten them in place again. Worse still, they are so flimsy that once you give it a couple of tries of bending and straightening, they break off completely. I haven't found a physical reason for the buzz, and so now I'm left with buzzing speakers and a semi-attached grill over them.

Grade : 1/10




Cooling and noise levels

People were alarmed at first at what seemed like high temperatures of the 7970M and devised all sorts of DIYs to bring down the temps further for no reason that I can see. I did everything I can to overheat the GPU (and to cool it while stressed) and I could never bring it to throttling/BSOD/artifacts/shutdown ..etc. The highest temp I've seen was 94 celsius after 24 hours of Kombustor the laptop just laying there flat on a hard surface, there was no instability and I gamed on it continuously for 6 hours afterwards. After the foil mod, the Cooler Master U3 with the fans on full, Arctic MX-4 TIM, widened air intake grills the temp dropped to about 83 celsius full stress, but even before all the modding and tweaking I could never feel a particularly hot spot on the laptop or underneath it, it remained very cool most of the time. Some AW users report temperatures in the early 80s on full stress which is either a testament to AW's superior cooling, or different brand of the card (AW uses Dell 7970M and Sager uses AMD in-house 7970M I think). I'm pretty satisfied with mine.

There is plenty of space to tweak and mod and the lay-out of the motherboard and back-cover make working on the laptop easy and fun.

The fans are naturally loud, but when on full power (which is most of the time when you're gaming) the sound gets higher pitched towards the whistling range. Can sometimes be distracting but I doubt any other laptop of the same class is much quieter.

Grade : 8/10


Screen

The screen is Chi Mei N173HGE-L11 which I had read really good things about. It is reviewed here and I'm using the same color profile the page recommends. It is just beautiful and everyone who has seen it including MacBook users have been impressed. It is crisp and clear with punchy lively colors and high contrast. There are no discernible ghosting in movies/games and the matte surface is priceless living in an area as sunny as the Middle East. Highly recommended screen (MSI ships its line with it as well). There was a 2mm bluish smudge under the surface on the far right side of the that couldn't be wiped away, and a few smudges like it that appeared in the months that followed. Not sure what it is but it's not that big of a deal, you'd have to look hard to see them.

Grade : 9/10


Final Thoughts

Overall I'm not satisfied with the laptop, and would not recommend it unless you 1-Have some powerful reason not to buy AW, and 2-Will use it as a full DTR that very rarely has to be used standalone with no surround system, external keyboard and mouse. The many faults and niggles indicate bad quality control. If you try to isolate anything that is Clevo/Sager and just use the Intel/AMD/Corsair/Crucial ..etc components inside then you get an average experience, and once you add the Clevo factor of peripherals and the actual laptop construction then it becomes a successively worse experience. My 15 year old brother will order an MSI GX60 with the 7970M and he'll get the same performance in a far better package for 500 dollars less, but such is the IT world

None of the above reflects on my reseller Powernotebooks which was helpful and informative and I reviewed them in August. I intend on ordering my brother's MSI GX60 from them.

Finally I skipped a lot of things but the laptop was comprehensively reviewed elsewhere on specs and benchmarks/battery life ..etc, my aim was to show what it's like to "live" with the laptop.

EDIT1: It seems that the EM series laptops have no way of manipulating the voltage of the GPU. It's minor thing, since most of the OCing first takes place at the core and memory level, before you stretch your GPU to the voltage level and it requires more "juice". Still, it's worth mentioning specially that the preceding HM series never had that problem and the BIOS was voltage-tolerant.

 

Good to know mate, I was condsidering maybe getting that clevo/sager, as the reviews on the net weren't too bad, but i learned a while ago that one has to use the device for a prolonged period of time to really work out the kinks in it.
I also think I'll be trying to upgrade to a GX60 in the future, since (excepting a few driver issues), my experience with MSI has been hell-a-good.

 

You have to understand that most laptop companies are marketing and Public Relations firms at this point, since only less than a handful actually produce their laptops in-house. As a consequence, the only difference between brands nowadays is the shell the same components come in, with the perks and premium/durability parameters set by each company. Some companies are overpriced for what they offer, like Sony. You'd be surprised how much more premium a long considered flimsy brand like Acer, is over Sager/Clevo, but that's how they make their profit margins and maintain an aggressive pricing policy at the same time.

 

Except the MSI GX60 with the 7970M has an AMD Trinity A10 (the most powerful mobile A10 is less than half as powerful as any mobile Ivy Bridge i7). There is a reason why that laptop is cheap as hell for a gaming laptop. I'll take my i7-3610QM/7970M combo over that setup any day.

I think Clevo is the only one that sells Intel i7/7970M at such a low price. You get what you pay for, I guess. I personally like the NP9150. The keyboard is never laggy, and it feels pretty nice too. The laptop is built pretty well but there are some issues, like the movable plastic cover at the bottom of the screen that shouldn't be movable. I agree that this is hard to work with in bed, but it is a gaming laptop, not a Macbook.

 

Yes indeed, I invite you to read: Review MSI GX60 Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

Having a CPU bottleneck the 7970M in today's games is not very future-proof and explains the price difference (which is much less than 500 USD if you know where to look).

Also I would like to contribute and give my opinion to even out yours that I deem unfair. Everything about the laptop is 10/10 for me except: fingerprints on the surface, Single-Link DVI, having to mod the cooling to make it efficient, sound (0/10), tracking pad (not very reactive and needs some config), a rubber foot on the battery (now that's stupid), and bulky power brick. And of course Enduro, but I hope to be able to replace the 7970M in a couple of years.

"Grades" are subjective and people need to make their own opinion depending on the use they intend to make. No laptop is perfect, but absolutely none of the issues I mentioned is a trouble to me at the moment since I use the laptop as a desktop computer most of the time (I move around a little bit and I like to carry it on LAN).

 

Yes naturally grades are subjective hence it's my review and not yours, which I stated from the beginning I will stand firm by every letter I typed and arguments like "you get what you pay for" or "it's a gaming laptop not a macbook" are not arguments at all but more like "suck it up". I've always used DTRs and this is the first one I really don't want to use anywhere but on a desk for aformentioned reasons. It's simply bad according to my experience with it and other laptops. My gf's college years 9 year old Celeron with 512 MB RAM Compaq laptop has speakers that are right out Bose in comparison to this 2012 Sager gaming laptop. It's simply indefensible and I can't justify buying it unless people really want to save the ~150 difference to AW when it comes to a base model configuration. For me personally never again.

As for the GX60 the difference between it and my laptop as far as both me and my brother won't be noticeable. Neither of us decode or unzip thousands of large files daily, or render complex imagery ..etc. Everybody knows that the first bottleneck in a computer is the HDD (or SSD) and ends with the CPU/RAM. My 7 year old Core 2 Duo T7200 worked flawlessly till 2012 and I'm yet to see it max its two cores. In other words the AMD APU for all intents and purposes will do everything I would care it to do like an i7. Once every blue moon when I decide to unzip some large file or whatever, I'll wait those extra 12.7 seconds while I admire the steelseries keyboard and the nice premium finish with the nice unbuzzing speakers Also don't forget that the iGPU on the AMD APU is roughly more than double the performance of the Intel HD4000, but the latter more than does the job for normal desktop applications just like the former does the job for normal CPU applications Let it go.

 

I'm amazed with all your issues with the keyboard you didn't get it replaced. It's obviously a dud. Next time I review something, I'll make sure I review something that is obviously broken, that way the review will be truly awesome. Makes sense to me.

And for other parts, you seem to be extremely abusive towards your laptop. Who in their right mind even attempts to pick up a laptop by the hinges or grip their laptop so hard they warp the plastic? And why are you slamming your notebook on a cooler, which is completely unneeded, so hard that you are chipping the plastic? And stop jamming the USB into the ethernet port, good grief. Whatever, I think you really need to learn that your laptop is not a Nokia, it's a laptop that is supposed to be cared for. I have no idea why your plastic is rotting. I don't want to know what you are doing to it.

That's the gist I got from your wall of text, you are very abusive towards your machine.

I am not saying that Sager/Clevo notebooks are the best built, they aren't. I've said it many times, that Asus G75 current generation destroys Sager in build quality. I have no issues with the hinges, mostly because the LCD is really nice and I don't want to do anything to damage it. I also know my laptop has some of the most high performing and expensive parts in any laptop, so I handle it with care. I had an issue with my keyboard, some keys were not responding well, had to slam my finger on it. Logically, I sent an email and asked for a replacement. Here I am with a keyboard that works fantastic, never have lag or ghosting problems, even while gaming and I think I game a lot, few hours each day. I have a rubberized surface, and guess what, not a scratch on it still. That's cause I don't abuse my machine. The shiny bezel, I have no rot at all, it still looks new to me. As for speakers, I don't use em like anyone who cares about audio, even if I had a MSI I wouldn't. I use quality headphones or output to a real audio system with speakers. Now the audio quality is where Clevo is very lacking, but is it 1/10 and worst I've heard? Yeah right, far from it. And I wouldn't be surprised considering the abuse your laptop takes and your need to grip is so hard by the hinges maybe you damaged your speakers too. I agree Clevo should rethink their ports. Having my audio ports on the right side far in the back is annoying, I'd prefer it on the left side to the front. I personally like my power cord in the back, and yes I'm using it on my lap right now. And yes when I'm using it on my lap, I'm not jumping up and down, I'm still. I prefer to use my laptops being still and stable, I find jiggling the laptop with movement distracting. The DVD drive can be annoying I agree, but it's not something I'm going to cry about, especially since I really should just get a caddy for it and get another drive instead. As for battery, not worried. The battery is far from the CPU and GPU, so far enough away from heat source and these are smart batteries, once it's fully charged, it stops charging.

As for my next notebook, I'll go with whatever has the best value. But if MSI continues with their ridiculous designs, it's off the table. I look forward to see if Asus wants to return to gaming laptops again, and read how their customer service is. My previous experience with G73JH was not stellar. Alienware is still a toy for me, so I'll be keeping an eye on Samsung. Maybe Lenovo will return to producing high end laptops. My 9 month assessment of my notebook is that it does what I paid for it. But I'm satisified with it as it is, if something better that is a reasonable cost/performance, then yeah I'll change. But I'm not interested in MSI for the time being, their design is just too weird for me and their rear is just too massive and I'm not interested in a single fan design, even if it is as good as MSI's, still not interested.

 

You have some good points. The audio is inexcusable, but in all honesty I don't understand the very low ratings for everything else. I would give the laptop a 7.5/10 overall.

You mentioned the difference between the MSI and your laptop won't be noticeable, but if you look at the comparisons at the bottom of the GX60 review you will realize that in many games the GX60 hits only half the frame rate the 7970M and the i7 achieve. Many people underestimate how important the CPU is for gaming, and those comparisons prove the point.

 

After 6 months usage, I'm seriously thinking about getting MSI for my next laptop.

 

Well, i admit, this is certainly not what I wanted to see a few days after ordering my 9170...

That said, looking through it, the only genuine issue seems to be the keyboard (which does have me worried). I will admit though, after seeing a quid vid.. why not try to get it replaced? It looks like a 30 second job, and if you have warranty, they should cover it. Yes, i have read that the issue reported is not unique, but why not try?

 

There are still a lot of people who are completely satisfied with their laptops (considering the 7970M issues aren't actually Clevo specific). Sound quality with headphones sucks, but an USB soundcard would be a must-buy for any laptop anyway. Have had 0 problems with the standard keyboard.

 

An honest, thoughtful, and well written review. Good read.

 

Oh, i don't care about the 7970 (Opted for the 680M.. after dealing with my crappy 5870 in my G73, i wanted to go back to nVidia), and sound isn't an issue (again, thanks to incompatibilities with my G73, i have an X-FI go that i use with my headphones). For me, my concern is 100% the keyboard; I may not do alot of report typing, but getting my message out correctly is a huge issue still.

Good to know you haven't had issues though. I hope I am as lucky...

 

P150EM's stock keyboard makes me rage sometime though. In some games dashing is usually assigned to Shift key, on mine it needs to be pressed like at the dead center to have it well executed. A lot of time the dashing doesn't actually activate or is interrupted easily during a long dash.

 

I suggest considering that you may want a new keyboard. I can definitely say, that my current keyboard is not the same keyboard as the one I orginally had. It physically feels different to type on it, it definitely feels cushioned and it's incredibly much quieter. My previous was very loud tapping when I typed, this one is muffled. And of course, the keys are just very responsive and I don't have issues with my shift key. I too play games and I always have shift for run/walk.

That's my feeling as well. I don't care if you have the world's most amazing, breakthrough sound in your laptop, I still will use a dedicated DAC/Headphone amp when I'm on the go and if I'm at home, then again I'll use a dedicated DAC+Amp for my speakers. This would be a definite for any laptop I buy.

 

Is the current one you are using the new matrix keyboard with windows 8 logo on the key?

 

Will read later and good to know since im buying a notebook this month, sager actually.

 

Yes it is.

 

Wow...I carry mine to work every day and haven't had any of these complaints.
Is that chei mei the standard LCD?

 

So you're mostly unimpressed by the professional look of the laptop and underwhelmed by the sound output of the machine? o_o

Why is it that everyone expects to get a crazy, desktop-level sound output when it comes to these laptops. The best sound I heard from a laptop was still put to shame by a set of cheap $25 Logitech speakers. Back then, I really enjoyed the Qosmio for that reason, it even made this R2 sound like crap, despite the R2's capabilities to get even LOUDER than that one could fathom.

But the look and feel you're going for is the super flashy, wildly colored models that generally have the same impact on most people as you stating, " HEY YOU! I'M VALUABLE! STEAL ME!!!"

It's the one thing I resent the most with this R2. I would much prefer a subtle-looking machine. Also... in regards to your FPS issues, as they say, pics or it didn't happen. :3

 

The MSI GX60 is much slower as well due to the weak processor.

 

I agree with the OP on the sound - this laptop had by far the worst soundcard I have come across out of maybe 30-odd laptops that I have owned in the past. Weak speakers were disappointing, but bad sound output on the headphones really annoyed me a lot.
RE: keyboard - it was a little wonky sometimes, but the thing that irritated me the most was the awkward keyboard layout, -P150EM had by far the stupidest UK key layout I had seen on any machine.

 

+rep, Im loving your review here. Honest, thorough and detailed.

Thanks for that!

 

I understand your keyboard woes OP, but every since I got a replacement (newer Windows 8 model) all the issues were solved. Like others have said, I suggest you try to get a new one under warranty. You'll be a lot happier with it, I promise.

Thanks for the write-up!

 

Perhaps some details got lost in the big wall of text for those that skimmed, so a few points bear repeating:

*I've been more generous than most about the NP9170. I have declared two things to be perfectly satisfactory that others don't, namely the 7970M and the on-board sound.

*I can't rush to replace or work-around every native interface/peripheral Sager has supplied -sometimes by necessity- and immediately invest in 3rd party keyboards, mice, external sound cards in a ~1800 dollar high-end specced machine, then declare in the same breath that it's not a company too loose with its standards, which was my conclusion.

*Had I lived in the States I would have sent the laptop back and forth to get fixed until it's to my liking, but that wouldn't ultimately change my opinion about the industrial standards of the Clevo/Sager supplied components, and the ultimately shoddy quality of the experience as a whole. Because I live in the Middle East anything that needs to be replaced needs to get sent to the US and back via courier which costs more than just purchasing a spare part.

*For those that said I got a dud machine, it was exactly my point that getting one duds too many indicates poor quality control because I refuse to believe that I'm the 0.000000001 exception. On this forum alone I counted 19 threads in the past 3 months about the native keyboard. This is not exactly IBM we're talking about, that's a big tip of an iceberg for a company that is marginal in market share. Same story with the sound whether it's speakers or on-board controller issues. There are many many people that reported consistently occuring issues that I personally never suffered from.

*The reason the overall impression is so bleak is because these issues are very basic, and very hard to get used to. I can live with a gaming laptop that could ..say .. only be OCed to 70% of what most other comparable laptops could be OCed to, because of badly engineered circulation. That's fine and might only be a niggle to a hardcore benchmarker. On the other hand a laptop that I avoid using without peripherals at all costs is a thing that inconveniences me on a daily basis. I know it's a DTR and like I said I've only used DTRs since 2003 but I don't like to be forced to usei t as a DTR when I happen to be mobile. There should be no reason for me not to use the native full-sized keyboard and it should be more premium than the cheap mass-produced keyboards I'm likely to pick up at the store, that's not asking much. There seems to be a new keyboard for Win8 or something so I'll look into it but that still means ordering, paying, shipping ..etc.

I really hope Sager works on these issues and maybe rely less on Clevo and maybe choose the peripherals themselves for a fee, at least present more options when configurating the original setup so we'd make an informed decision about how much those laptops really cost on the long run.

 

Thanks for your review. It's your review so you can say how you feel. I know when you spend a bunch of money it hurts when things aren't what you expected. And it is rare to find people on these forums that can own up to issues instead of try to justify it since they spent a lot of money.

Personally I love the look of the laptop. My keyboard works no problems there. Speakers are weak but I expected that from laptops in general. But I hate my video card. I finally was able to get it working with the new drivers but that should have never been an issue since I bought a gaming laptop.

Good luck with it and any future purchases.

 

Guess I have been luckier than you. So far I have had a keyboard issue, they shipped me a new one and I replaced it myself, now it works great.

My current problem is the nvlddmkm.sys issue that blue screens the notebook constantly and randomly when the Nvidia card is working. From my investigation it's a problem with Nvidia and not Sager as its been happening to multiple Nvidia cards for years now.

The one thing I am not happy with is the level of service options provided by the resellers and Sager. To get my issue fixed I have to ship the notebook back to Sager (3day shipping is provided) give them time to replace parts and test (4-5 days) then or them to ship is back (3days). So if things go 100% correctly I will be without my computer for 10-12 days. To me this is utterly unacceptable. I wish I had of given this more thought when I was preparing to buy.

Its amazingly powerful and I have had no performance complaints. The warranty solution though irritates, the hell out of me and I will be shopping Alienware in the next couple of months, at least they provide onsite support options. Get gold support and there there next day to fix not this BS about shipping it to California.

 

BSOD was spamming non-stop with my first GTX 680M, it was then died 5 days after. So I sent it back and a month later I received a new one using 1st card's warranty. Strangely, the 2nd GTX 680M I received hasn't had any single BSOD and it's just entered the 4th month of usage few days ago.

Before I switched from GTX 675M to the 1st GTX 680M, there was also 0 BSOD, during the period switched back to GTX 675M while waiting for the 2nd GTX 680M, there was no BSOD too.

What I wanted to say is that, it could also be that the card might have some problems itself? Just a suggestion...

 

Soooo TC, how many high end laptops have you owned? Can you compare your Sager to another one?

lolwut. The 5870m was awesome. G73 also has/had better sound than my 9170.

 

Sure, aside from crappy drivers, and quickly falling behind nVidia counterparts.

As for sound.. Battlefield 3 has/had known issues with the realtek sound card on the g73.. so, pretty much from day one I was using an external card and disabling onboard sound..

 

Crappy drivers? What? Falling behind quickly? What? The G73jh outperformed the refreshed G73 model with the nvidia card and was almost equal to the G74. I can't help but think you're just talking out of your .

 

Good observation I should find out they would upgrade it while its there.

 

You have definitely underrated this laptop. I have had this laptop since July, and I think it is great. I have noticed the keyboard-woes, but it doesn't happen that often for me, - I write a lot of assignments on this thing and it has not gotten worse at any time. The speakers suck, - I agree on that one. It is simply not acceptable. I had an Acer Aspire 6930ZG before this one, and the speakers were amazing. The speakers in this one just sound awful, but I can easily live with it since I have connected it to my desktop-speakers.

But I think the design is great, the background-lid keyboard looks cool, and the computer looks very professional and not childish like most AW's do. At the moment I would rate this laptop 8.0.

 

Those childish AW laptops were pumping out awesome performance while our Sagers were crippled by Enduro and high temps.

AW could hang Christmas lights and disco balls from their laptops and I'd still take an M17x with a 7970m over a Sager NP9170 with the same specs any day.

 

If they weren't so ugly I would have gotten one as well. I just can't bring something like that to work. It's like bringing GI joes to work

 

There's something wrong with bringing GI Joes to work?

 

lol I don't understand the analogy, but ok. It's all personal preference I suppose. Have you seen one in person? They're not as tacky as you might think. You can shut off all the lights individually, and the materials, build quality, and fit and finish are miles ahead of Clevo. I used to feel the same way about AW in general, but that changed the second I saw one in person.

I don't buy notebooks for the styling though. If I did, I never would have spent all that money on a Sager

 

i would have gotten one too, just that they're are crazily overpriced. well in Australia anyway. an extra 800 bucks over my clevo nowww. so it's quite a difference.

Other than that, i really do like my clevo, im really glad i bought it. well maybe not the 7970m, cause that died on me ahahha ):

 

lol yeah, they can get pricey, but if you can order froma representative instead of the website you can get insane deals. I priced out a Sager NP9170 with the same setup as mine from Xoticpc, and it was only $100 less than what I paid for my M17x (after taxes too.) I upgraded the ram myself though, since AW overcharges for ram and hard drive upgrades. As long as you arder from a rep and don't pay the ridiculous ram and hdd upgrades, AW laptops are always within a hundred or two dollars of comparable Sagers, and AW laptops have better warranties and cooling. I'm sure it is different in other countries though.

 

weird, i dont have any of the keyboard issues you mentioned. what keyboard lag? when i first started using the keyboard i wasnt used to it, but now i love it

 

I never noticed any lag either, but there were a few keys that didn't respond well. Let to a bunch of missed keystrokes. The Windows 8 keyboard cleared that issue right up though.

 

my only complaint with keyboard is that the number pad. sometimes if you press one key and hasnt let go before pressing another, the second stroke won't show up. but this doesnt happen with the rest of the keyboard, just the num pad

 

I have an occasional skipped key, but it's rare. Don't have the win8 keyboard. But the skipped key is nowhere as bad as on my G73jh.

 

Drivers and keyboard are my two biggest gripes. But then I realized I didn't need a desktop replacement when I could have a desktop. My 9170 is up for sale now, my 6110 does all I need in a much more portable package on the go and my desktop smokes the 9170.

 

By "keyboard lag" the OP means a nasty lag that sometimes lasts 1-3 sec and the typing appears after that.
I had this phenomenon on my old Acer Aspire 5742G.
When I typed in Word, sometimes whole words appeared with 3 secs latency.
Not pleasant at all.
Seems to be in some laptops, not all of them.
My clevos never had this issue, however. Maybe I was lucky

 

I had 170Em and I had problems with keyboard.I must press very hard when typing.The worse keyboard I ever had.
Gap betwen fan and gpu radiator is another quality issue.I must apply tape to cover that gap which help a bit to lover gpu temperature.
Problem with 7970 and enduro,gpu utilization etc.

I sold my 170EM and I bought Asus G75 which is cool and silent.Very good keyboard on G75.

 

Do you regret it now that Enduro has been fixed? I'm not bashing your decision, I'm just curious. I got rid of my Sager too.

 

No,because there are still problems with enduro plus loud fans,high temps and cheap keyboard.
Iam happy with my laptop and I wait for next model with stronger gpu.
I would love to have clevo internals in G75 but gtx670 is enoughtf or today gaming.
The most demanding games at medium setting in full HD1920x1080 looks good.

 

You should hear the fans on my M17x if you thought the NP9150 was loud Cooling system rocks though, my 7970m would be in the 80s during heavy gaming even after a repaste and foil mod, while my 680m never gets above 70C.

13.1 fixed pretty much all noticeable Enduro issues for me, though the 12.11 wasn't bad either (I didn't suffer from any BSODs or crashing with the later betas.) Windows 8 keyboard is also way better than the original. I understand selling it when you did, but they really improved the product afterwards.

 

anyone have new keyboard picture?