My very first Clevo purchase

Howdy all,

After much tedious thought and research, I've decided that my next laptop purchase will be a Sager/Clevo.

Now since that part is decided, I am now faced with tons of things to consider and look into.

First, I really do not know who to purchase from. I am currently pricing out Xotic, Sager, AVADirect, and Eurocom. Of the tons of sellers, can anybody recommend anyone else? Especially those with currently active good deals.

Second, I am having a dilemma on how best to setup my storage and OS drive. I know I want at least a 750gb HDD. However, I am torn between getting the regular 750gb and supplement it with either a 120 or 180gb MSATA ssd drive configured for the OS.

-Or-

Just get a 750gb hybrid with at least 8gb ssd (better yet a 32 or 64gb ssd) and call it a day.

I am not sure if all that extra money is worth it. I'm certain it is, but I need either reassurance in either direction.

To give you guys an idea of what I want, here is how I have spec'd out a few. I absolutely know I want the Clevo P150EM.

So far, I think my best deal is found on Sagernotebook.com where I spec'd out this for $2269 shipped. This one has the GTX 680M whereas the others do not.

- Display: 15.6" Full HD LED-Backlit Display with Matte Finished Surface (1920 x 1080)
- Video & Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 680M GPU with 4GB GDDR5 Video Memory
- CPU: 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3740QM Processor ( 6MB L3 Cache, 2.70GHz) [$170.00]
- Thermal Compound: IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- OS: Genuine MS Windows® 7 Professional 32/64-Bit Edition ( 64-Bit Preloaded ) [$60.00]
- Memory: 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 2 X 8GB - Spring Savings Promotion!
- Primary HDD: 750GB 7200rpm SATA2 Hard Drive
- mSATA SSD: Intel 120GB 525 Series mSATA SSD - Preconfigured as an OS Primary Drive [$190.00]
- Optical Drive Bay: 6X BD-R Blu-ray Burner/8X DVD±R/2.4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software [$50.00]
- Wireless Network Card: Intel Advanced-N 6235
- Primary Battery: Smart Li-ION Battery Pack
- Integrated Security Device: Fingerprint Reader
- Warranty: Sager 1 Year Limited Parts and Labor Warranty

On Xotic for $2,231.01 shipped:

- 15.6" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Anti-Glare Sager Screen w/ 95% NTSC Color Gamut (1920x1080) - [ETA: 4/9] (SKU - S1X301)
- Sager - 3rd Generation Intel® Ivy Bridge Core™ i7-3740QM (2.7GHz - 3.7GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache, 45W Max TDP) (SKU - S2R202)
- - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- nVidia GeForce GTX 675MX 4,096MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 with Optimus™ Technology [User Upgradeable] - [ETA: 3/22] (SKU – S5R521)
- COPPER COOLING UPGRADE - Extra Cooling Copper Heatsinks Applied to the Heatsink/Heatpipes (XPC Service - requires shipment to XOTIC PC: will add to build time)
- 8GB - DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS) (SKU - S4S423P)
- Remove All Branding
- Standard Laptop Finish
- 128GB Crucial M4 mSATA SSD - Preconfigured as an OS Drive ( Operating System – Drive C: ) - [BACKORDER]
- 750GB 7200RPM [Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache] - Default (SKU - S5T306)
- 6x Blu-Ray Burner/Reader / 8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive (SKU - S7R556)
- Sager - Intel® Advanced-N 6235 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module + Bluetooth™ 4.0 (SKU - S8R111)
- Internal 9-in-1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD/Mini SD/SDHC/SDXC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo)
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- Sager Spare 180Watt AC Adapter
- Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- Standard Sager/Clevo Non Chiclet Backlit Keyboard
- ~Windows 7 Professional Premium 64-Bit (64&32-Bit CD Included) + MS Office Starter 2010
- LIFETIME Ltd Labor* 1 Year Parts Warranty Lifetime 24/7 DOMESTIC Toll Free Telephone Support (Labor through XPC)
Includes FREE Shipping Both Ways for Parts Warranty Repairs (SKU - X9R009)
- * 24/7 LIFETIME U.S. based telephone technical support
* Extreme QA testing by dedicated technicians
* 72 Hour stress testing and benchmarking to ensure top performance and stability

On AVADirect for 2403.06 shipped:

CLEVO P150EM Core™ i7 Notebook Barebone, Intel® HM77, 15.6" Full HD LED Matte 95% NTSC Color Gamut, FPR, PCIe x16 MXM-III Discrete Graphics
INTEL Core™ i7-3740QM Quad-Core 2.7 - 3.7GHz TB, HD Graphics 4000, 6MB L3 Cache, 22nm, 45W, EM64T EIST HT VT-d VT-x XD, Retail
ARCTIC SILVER Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound, Polysynthetic Silver, Electrically Non-Conductive
NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 675MX 4GB GDDR5 Mobile Graphics Card for P150EM
CRUCIAL 16GB (2 x 8GB) PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM SODIMM, CL9, Non-ECC
SEAGATE 750GB Momentus®, 7200 RPM, 16MB cache, 2.5-Inch, SATA 3 Gb/s, OEM
NONE No Additional SATA Hard Drive (Optical bay hard drive caddy required)
CRUCIAL 256GB SSD m4 SSD, MLC Marvell 88SS9174, 500/260 MB/s, mini-SATA, OEM
CLEVO Blu-Ray Burner and Super-Multi DVD±RW Optical Drive for Clevo P150EM
NETWORK Built-in 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet LAN Card
INTEL Centrino® Advanced-N 6230 Wireless and Bluetooh Module, IEEE 802.11a/g/n, 11/54/300 Mbps, Internal PCIe Half Mini Card
CLEVO Extra 180W AC Adapter for Clevo P150EM Series Notebook
NOTEBOOK ACCESSORY Built-in Fingerprint Reader (Included)
MICROSOFT Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Edition w/ SP1, OEM
WARRANTY Standard 1 Year Warranty for Clevo Notebooks

 

good choice

i would defo recommend xoticpc over sager and i know nothing about ava direct and run away fast from eurocom.

xotic has reps on here that are very helpful so its always good to know theres someone here to help with hiccups.

the 680 is a brill card compared to the nightmares ati has had lately.
i would defo recommend a ssd and the bigger the better. my 512 crucial boots and im on forum within 12 seconds. prices have certainly come down lately.
for example my spec below was £2006/$3055 (we are ripped of here in the uk)
i almost got a msata drive but at the time it was sataII which is slower so i didnt bother and i cant advise on these.

what is going to be the main use of the lappy. mainly gaming or heavy duty hd rendering etc
tbh the standard matte screen is ruddy amazing and blew me away with its bright vibrant colours and i cant see how the 95% can get much better.

got to rush as off to the gadget show (equivalent to cebit) so 200 mile journey ahead. hopefully you will get some more advice soon.

 

Sager has many resellers. XoticPC, GenTechPC, LPC-Digital just off top of my head. They all have different promotions, check them out.

DO NOT BUY FROM MALIBAL. I don't care who you choose, but don't choose MALIBAL, anyone but MALIBAL.

Avoid the 7970M, just go with 680M. AMD really don't care about their mobile drivers. They released the latest that didn't even work. Then they just slapped on an INF fix for it, which just makes it install. That seems to be AMD's mobile driver support. Optimize and create drivers for desktop. Half slap on some INF changes. They haven't been working with ANY of the WHQL Intel drivers since 2932 and Intel is now up to 3071 with massive improvements in DX11 and driver improvements. Just avoid it, they won't change.

They announced memory controller fix, yeah... It's been 4 months and nothing yet. They have known about CFX micro-stutter issue with GCN, they just announced that MAYBE they will have a fix in JULY... IN FREAKING JULY... Those CFX owners must feel like chumps right now.

Avoid AMD. Let AMD think they are awesome because crappy console companies were dumb enough to use inferior CPU and GPU from them. It wouldn't surprise me if in two years this company doesn't exist. They have been hemorrhaging financially really bad, they lost 2 BILLION last year and their losses are to continue this year. I have my doubts that consoles will save them. I don't think this company has made a profit since 2008?

 

There is more info on the stuttering here:

AnandTech | AMD Comments on GPU Stuttering, Offers Driver Roadmap & Perspective on Benchmarking

 

That article just shows how incompetent and useless AnandTech is. There are plenty of tools out there to measure frame latency, heck Afterburner will let you do that in real time. Just saying AnandTech aren't gamers, bunch of iPhone kiddies.

 

Which got released shortly after and they talked about in their podcast

 

If I go with Xotic, I'll have to settle for the 675MX because the 680M is a $400 upgrade. The 675MX is only $100.

I've spec'd out a model with powernotebook.com for $2394 shipped which does have the 680M:

15.6” Full HD 16:9 Wide screen (1920x1080) LED-Backlit Display with 95% NTSC Color Gamut Matte Screen
nVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M 256bit w/4.0GB GDDR5
Intel Core i7-3740QM (2.7~3.7GHz) w/6M L3 Cache - 4 Cores - 8 Threads
IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
16GB (2x8GB) DDR3/1600 Dual Channel Memory
750GB SATA II 3GB/s 7,200 RPM Hard Drive
128GB mSATA III Crucial Solid-State Drive - Boot
6x Blu-Ray Burner/Reader/8x Super Multi Combo Drive
7-in-1 Memory Card Reader (All versions of MS + SD/MMC)
Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6235 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth™ 4.0 Combo Card
8 Cell Smart Lithium-Ion Battery 76.96Wh
Windows 7 Professional - (64-Bit installed - 64 and 32-bit CD included)
Buy Office 2010 Now - Get Free Upgrade to Office 2013
Full Range 180W Auto Switching AC Adapter
Spare Full Range 180W Auto Switching AC Adapter
No Sager Logo
1-Year Parts and Shipping plus Lifetime Labor and 24/7 DOMESTIC Toll Free Support (Labor & Support paid by PNB)

 

Okay, pretty much narrowing it down.

I am still kinda torn between the 680m and the 675mx. I'm not so much a gamer, but I would like to be able to play most games without issue. I'm thinking the 675mx will suit my needs. However, I feel that the 680m would go a long way to keeping me from running into issues 3-4 years. However, I probably won't play much more than a few Star Wars games from years past through Steam. Newest I may try would be the latest The Sims or SimCity. Probably nothing newer. So, I'm probably best served with the 675mx.

Also, I'm thinking of just getting the stock 750gb Seagate SATA II drive over the 750gb + 8gb Hybrid SATA III drive and instead spend the money on a more robust 256gb Crucial mSATA for the OS boot drive. My question is that since I intend to use the HDD symlinked pretty much only for my music, pictures, videos, and documents should I need worry it's only an SATA II drive and not a SATA III drive. I haven't had much dealing with these specs, so I'm unsure if the benefits are there for the SATA III.

 

Also just thought, maybe the 1tb will be the way to go for storage. If my memory serves, the 5200 rpm and 7200 rpm difference is negligible at that capacity.

What type of 1tb HDD's do the Sager's come with? I have yet to find that out.

 

I don't know what all the hate is with amd, you guys really like to give it to them. my 7970m has never lead me astray, i just got around to benchmarking bf3 with my specs and fps hasn't dropped below 45, 77 was the average.

 

It was the very slow response to the issue and the effort to get it recognised.

 

OP, your choice at Xotic has things you did not choose at Sager's website; that's why your price is so high. If you go with the NP 9150 Special Edition and take off the Xotic cooling upgrade (which isn't all that worth it I think), you can get the 680M and 16GB 1600MHz RAM shipped for $2239 without any of the cash discount methods (and free shipping to the US). You'll even get to keep your better 95% colour gamut screen, and I even counted the OS and your Blu-Ray burner in the price. I did NOT take a spare adapter (I am not sure if you manually chose that yourself or just typed it out in your original post so I left it out on principle as your Sager setup didn't have it).

As for the 680M vs 675MX, the 675MX is a nice enough card, but if you're gonna have that for 3-4 years and wanna be able to run anything you want during that whole time, the 680M might be better a choice. Just my opinion there. Sims and SimCity can get laggy when there's a lot of things to render too, don't underestimate those games. If you still want the 675MX to save on price though, just build a regular NP9150 on Xotic and forego an extra power adapter and the Xotic cooling upgrade and take the 675MX. Should be nicely cheaper.

 

The 680M is 50% faster than the 675MX so it's certainly a nice upgrade if you can afford it.