NP9150 first impressions

I know there are a lot of people looking for reviews of these popular models. Here are how my first few hours went:

Opening the box. Damn, this laptop is really well built. I had some doubts, but seriously, this laptop is constructed better than any PC laptop I have ever laid my hands on (Macbooks are still the king in build quality though). Super smooth and simple. The size, well, it seemed bigger and heavier than I expected at first hold, but not by much. This is a thick notebook for sure, but it needs to be to contain the components it uses. No matter the size or weight though, the design and quality makes up for all of it. One thing though; when you see the power brick, you will realize why they are called power bricks.

Before turning on I tried out the keyboard. It seems fine, with good spring to each key. I can confirm that pressing space from the side with little pressure works, and no key is dysfunctional. One thing I noticed is the key sounds are higher pitched than I predicted, but it is barely noticeable. The touch pad has a perfect smoothness to it once you wear it in for a couple hours. Oh, and the backlight is of course awesome and functional. Fn+1 does indeed turn on both fans at high speed.

Windows 7, finally upgrading from Vista! The OS loaded in first boot mode, allowing you to have a little pre-setup and such. Every thing seemed clean, with some extra multimedia software installed on top which could help some folks. All needed drivers were installed with Windows 7, but I found my self reinstalling all of them from the disc in order just to be safe.

The sound was the first thing that annoyed me. I knew the speakers would be "Ok," but people are right when they say the amp cannot drive full size headphones very well. When I registered THX, changing settings wouldn't do any thing. I reinstalled THX from the disc, and then settings worked, but after every restart I often found it not working again. Seems like THX has trouble enabling some times. It does really makes a difference for the built in speakers, and allows you to boost the bass and mess with some other settings to make the sound fuller through headphones. Compared to my HP desktop, the sound quality is just a bit below, and the bass not quite there, but all in all with THX hopefully enabled, it is more than bearable.

After getting passed my OCD with the sound, I took the time to take in the breathtaking LCD stock matte screen. Yes, the stock one. The pixel density makes objects look sharp as knives, and the colors are beyond what I expected. I am very glad I went with my instinct in believing the stock would still look good. This matte screen is extremely vibrant and sharp looking, and I didn't expect it to compete so well against my Samsung SyncMaster 24", except for the lack of size.

I decided to load GTA IV first, it being one of my favorite games, even still. I downloaded it quickly through Steam, and was surprised, and then remembered I got the Intel Centrino 6300 upgrade. It gives me 3-4 bars, better than my older dedicated PCI WiFi tower and close to my newer beast USB 1W tower for my desktop. No matter the bars though, the speed is indeed incredible. The Intel 6300 wireless card likes to maintain data streams and likes to shoot them fast at long range in a reliable fashion. (*Mini update*: lately I have been having some connection dropping issues, possibly due to interference. I am very far away from my router with multiple walls in between, but the connection speed I get is really good for how low powered the chip is, which is about 30mW. It seems either the router is malfunctioning or I changed some thing in my own configuration. I often click "Diagnose" and I get my connection back right away, but the fix always relates to fixing the gateway. I connected my 1W WiFi tower and it seems to be working for me. I hope to solve the issue with the Intel chip soon though). Back to GTA IV; I set it to high performance in CCC, set most 3D settings to use application except for AA to max (which some say helps utilization?), made sure every thing every where in windows was high performance, and just gave it a go (with the stock CD 7970M driver, btw). No FPS recordings at the moment, but I guarantee you based off of experience my FPS never went below 30FPS, and my average seemed damn near 50FPS. Even in the most dense areas, it was smooth as butter. Every in game setting was at max, except for 4x AA which I just left alone as default, and the slider bars all set to 50%. I am so happy I can play this game without getting head aches from pre-30FPS. I have yet to even start The Ballad of Tony, and I am really excited now.

For temps, no GPU recordings yet, but my CPU (i7-3610QM) ranges from 45C to the high 60's, and that is just from browsing and stuff. No recordings during gaming, but GTA IV is known to heat things up. I haven't done any of the laptop mods yet. I plan on repasting with Gelid GC Extreme, doing the tape mod, and the washer add on mod. I will get my temperatures and FPS in eventually.

So far, all else is good. No BSODs, 4K videos on youtube finally play smoothly, every thing opens and loads so damn fast. I feel no buyers remorse; the laptop seems to perform very well, and I know there will be improvements specifically in the video driver department in the coming months. Besides the slight sound issue, this laptop is a very well constructed beast and so far worth my money. I hope to be welcomed by more good news in future testing and modding, and I will post what I have when I have it!

-TrantaLocked

 

Thanks!

 

thanks for sharing i feel almost the same thing when i got mine last week but i wanted to improve my temp so i bought a cooler master x3. will let u know how much that decreases the temp after i get it. and u said u were gona use Gelid GC Extreme, i have ic diamond do u think there is alot of difference between them? also whats the tap mod and washer add on mod?

 

great review.thanks for posting +rep

should be getting mine on friday. ive got the 680 and a ssd so this beast is going to fly.

 

Not great sound is a small price to
pay for these beast machines.

Thanks for the review!

 

I haven't done any cooling mods yet either, but those you listed are also on mine. I plan to repaste, but with some IC Diamond, and then do the tape and washer mods. Although I have a 3720QM, it does seem to run rather toasty, as I'm writing this the cores range from 45C-53C. The CPU though does have a lower max temp than my GPU, the 680M, which is supposedly cooler than the 7970M, still tops out at 90C and them promptly lowers back down as the GPU core throttles and the turbo fans kick in.

On a separate note, how do you view youtube videos at 4k resolutions? I've only ever seen 1080p listed... Am I missing something in my youtube settings, or what's going on here? I'd be intrigued to see how that looks.

Lastly, the sound really doesn't bother me. I have only tried it out of the laptop's speakers, which are the best I've ever owned, and my USB headset (Logitech G930), which THX does not support. I guess I'm not one to judge though, because I've never used a full desktop setup with a big sub-woofer or anything like that.

 

I have seen a max of 93C in Kombustor with my 7970m. During gaming I usually see something in the 70s to low 80s on the default fan setting. The max fan setting helps a lot though, it is just to loud and annoys me even with headphones on.

Search "4K" in YouTube. There are a small amount of videos uploaded in the resolution. The setting should be called "Original," right above 1080p.

BTW, USB headphones are great because they have their own sound processor.