New to the whole clevo/saber/origin realm, coming from alienware.

Hey guys, with the recent disappointment with dell's CES press conference in regards to the m15x, I started searching for alternate decent 15 inch gaming notebooks. Well I stumbled upon origin and then after further research I found out they are rebranded clevo's, same goes for sager I guess.

Now I am new to this area as my main gaming rigs have always been and always will be desktops, the reason I am looking into a laptop is because I sold my m11x and were buying a summer home in France so I want a sort of desktop replacement that I can take with me whenever I go there.

Basically what I am looking for is anything with a new sandy bridge processor and a 485m. Reading around on the forums, I found out that sager will be releasing their clevo offering around January 9th if I am not mistaken. So am I am ready to go, I just have a few questions.

I have never bought a laptop like this so what sort of battery life should I be expecting if any?

With the new sandy bridge processors, I am sure many if not all of you may know already, they have included intel integrated graphics on the CPU chips themseleves, will sager, origin, etc be using this to their advantage in any way? Like somehow disable the main gpu to preserve battery life?

If I were to get a 15 incher with the above said specs, what would the average weight be? Would it be too bulky to put on my lap?

Finally what should I be looking out for in terms of build quality, we all know how iffy alienware systems are, should I be worried about anything being faulty with companies like sager?

Ignore my sig regarding the m11x and I recently sold that on hopes of a new m15x. Right now though I am glad Dell didn't come through as if they did I would have never stumbled upon you guys

 

congrats on escaping the mother ship and join the long list (including me) of x AW owners.
clevo are the way to go. their lappys are built like tanks with the power to match.
my nexus/m860tu is 28 months old now and is still going strong with no problems yet. my m15x lasted 19 days
you can find a full list (sadly not updated lately) of resellers in the clevo guide http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...-0-faq-reseller-info-read-before-posting.html

we are all keeping an eye out for new tech to be announced anytime now.

 

check out the clevo P150 thread, it looks very promising.

 

I'll be joining you once Clevo refreshes the x7200 with SB and backlit keyboard.

 

feel free to check this thread here in sager/clevo, the future of clevo laptops looks promising, 460,470 and 480ms with sli already came out in clevo months ago and AW still has nothing...yet, but now panther 2.0 in eurocom now implies with 485 sli upgrade of x7200. so in the coming weeks hopefully we can have an update from clevo resellers about sb.

 

Malibal site already has the x7200 up with sli 485M ......in a word fast and some bench's have been posted here

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/517824-gtx-485m-16.html

 

Haha no one answered his questions yet

With SBridge, the 15.6" Clevo or NP8690 will of course make use of the multi GPU system, supposedly increasing battery life.

Currently the NP8690 stands at about 1 hour of battery life, abysmal isn't it? But that's a desktop replacement laptop for ya. With SB being released, that might change...might even reconsider selling my 1 year old N8690 even for the new revision (and I don't have the USB3.0 revision laptops!!)

Bulky, well I can say it isn't meant for lap use; the fans are directed downwards and the backside as well. It's quite heavy at times, but partly due to the huge power brick you'll be receiving.

If you're wondering, the temps for Sager machines are amazing.

Faulty problems, I have yet to encounter a serious problem...but common general laptop problems may occur like dead pixels. Generally, if not most of the time, the quality and build is top notch. Many here take care of their Sagers well, so much as to reseat/repaste heatsinks to achieve a slightly better temperature etc.

Oh, if i get my facts wrong correct me

 

alienware's appearance kill clevo in a second
but clevo's desktop cpu kill alienware in a second too LOL

 

I find mine is fine to use on my lap - as long as I use a lap tray...

 

Thanks everyone for the great replies, I am really anxious to get my new lappy. I think I am going to go with sager instead of origin.

Special thanks to thisisalamp for specifically answering my questions!

Edit: actually malibal looks great as well so it's probably going to be a toss up between them and sager.

 

actually mobiousblack its the same, the raw laptop is only made in clevo.
now malibal, sager, origin etc are only reseller versions of clevo x7200, they look different (or the name is different) but the specs are clearly the same, it depends on the reseller, like in eurocom, they sell clevo x7200 by giving a different reseller name of Eurocom panther, in eon origin laptops its eon 17, but all of them are the same.

 

Ah I see, well for the 15 incher Malibal seems to be cheaper than Origin. I will wait for Sager and Malibal to offer their 15 inch laptops and see whats cheaper.

Edit: updated my sig to what hopefully will be my new laptop. man I can't wait until the 11th of this month!

 

hmmm. you are from kuwait ???
nicee i live in dubai i think its near you
anyway since you are international i would have suggested XoticPC since there international service is awesome and also the after sales, but it seems that you already made the orders, anyway congrates mate ^__^

 

Oh, just for the info mobius.

Malibal is a reseller of Sager.

Sager is kinda like the big boss, Malibal/Origin/Tesla/XoticPC/Powernotebooks/MySN/Kobalt etc. are all resellers for Sager, offering different prices to different regions of the world but essentially they are of the same Sager/Clevo base model.

While I don't suggest you get DIRECTLY from Sager itself, the resellers are a much better representation of the laptops, just as you chose Malibal.

 

Yeah I talked to one of Milbal's representatives and they said that all they guarantee is that they will be cheaper than Sager, it doesn't matter what Sager put their prices at, they promise they will find a way to be cheaper lol. But yeah I think Milbal is a safe bet for me, I looked at xotic pc aswell but since essentially they are all selling the same laptop I might aswell find the cheapest offer for my configuration

I haven't placed my order yet as the specs in my sig won't be released until the 9th I think. So there is time, I will look into XoticPC aswell, thanks for the info man.

 

Not entirely true. Malibal/Origin/Tesla/XoticPC/Powernotebooks/ are resellers of Sager. This means people order from those companies and Sager build the computers and ship them. Later they givealso support and other services. MySN/Kobalt have nothing to do with Sager, they build the computers themselves.

 

Malibal and Origin build their own laptops too, they are rebranders of Clevo themselves.
Let me make this easy, any reseller or website that sells the laptop under the name of "Sager" is supplied by Sager, otherwise they get it directly from Clevo. In Malibal's case for example, you'll find their own Logo (which is much cooler) on the back of the laptop, not Sager, and in Origin's case you'll find Origin written on the back.

 

You guys are just confusing the OP.

 

You are right.Just wanted to point out that not all clevos are built by Sager, especially in Europe.

 

Lol its fine, the more background information I get the better

 

Re battery life, the new 8150 will have a bigger 77 w battery than the 3-cell of the 8690.
So if you pair that with snb cpu plus igp support we could be getting 3-4 hrs battery life on light/low poer tasks. Hopefully more.

 

Thats assuming ofcourse they do implement some sort of way to disable the Nvidia gpu right?

 

Afaik the newer nvidia gpus have optimus support builtin.
Hopefully it should be implemented unless there is some bios issue or h/w conflict; or if the clevo engineers get lazy.
The snb cpu in itself has the power footprint of sn intel atom in idle/low power states and can downclock to 800 mhz. Igp can only make battery consumption so much better.
Snb also brings 1080p widi support.
There are some intersting discussions here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/545161-clevo-p150hm-sandy-bridge-gtx-485m.html

 

Unless they have changed things in the last year, I don't have any logo anywhere on my machine.

 

Hi, yes there will be MALIBAL electroform nameplates on the P150HM and P170HM models.

 

I dont want to disapoint you mister joker. BUt i dont think the x7200 is gonna be refreshed any time soon.

I think the next "x7200" is gonna be with the next socket sandy bridge cpus, the onew that will have integrated quad chanell memory, the kinds of cpus that will be hexa/octo core.

SO having said this the next top of the line x7200 replacement is gonna look like this
Intel sandy bridge new socket 8 core cpu, 4 sodimm with quad chanell support (4x8=32gb support), and by the time that happens, some high end 28nm gpu times 2.

Just a little bit more to wait.

Time in wich im gonna enjoy mycore i7 950 and 460m sli.

PS: Typing errors are because of the lack of backlight keyboard on my x7200. Damn, thats a usefull feature.

 

I see, but as someone pointed it out earlier...we keep it simple

 

What would the ETA on this be? Q4? 2012? Thanks

EDIT: nvm.. see http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...y-bridge-ces-2011-discussion.html#post7037929

 

W00t it's out!!! Will be placing my order this week. The price is amazing. Also Malibal you have some incorrect specifications for the i7-2820. It should have 8mb of cache not 6mb. The only difference between the i7-2820 and the i7-2920 is the clock and the fact that the latter has an unlocked multiplier hence why I was so interested in the i7-2820.

Edit: they fixed it, that was fast nice job!

 

The 2920 will blow away the 2820 just like the 920xm killed all other i7s. Throttlestop will work with Sandy Bridge thus it's totally worth getting the top of the line CPU with the 485M. I configured a system with the 2920xm + 485M at $3200 so it's pretty expensive as it stands for a single GPU 17" system.

 

personally i like sager more, yes AW has backlit keyboard and all that stuff, in my first eyes i really want one, but when i owned my sig i understood that i doesn't really matter (of course the backlit keyboard is good) but there i came to a point where i got used to it, and the bottom line? its only performance. i could want more like superficiality, but if i have the raw performance of the laptop, im good to go. in life, you can't have all, yet...

 

How much is it may I ask? Will order mine after finding a potential buyer for my current one.

 

Comes out to around 2600 USD with the specs in my sig.

I am going for the 15 incher, are you sure it will be a big difference as the current benchmarks on notebookcheck seem to show that there is close to none.

 

I'm not sure how well the 15" PSU will cope with the 2920xm but as soon as the updated Throttlestop is released, a 2920xm with unlocked TDP will soar far passed all other mobile SB's.

 

But won't there be overheating issues as the CPUs are not made to be constantly running at "turbo" mode? I think I am going to stick with the 2820 as I don't plan on overcloking, plus the 2820 reaches 3.4 ghz iirc while the 2920 reaches 3.5. A .1 ghz difference won't make a world of difference in gaming, 3dmark maybe but not gaming.

 

Of course there will be. There is one thing to reach the maximum possible overclock and then run some benchmarks and there is another to do days of stability testing and modding in order to reach the best stable overclock without affecting the lifespan of your notebook.

 

That's what I thought. You see I am not new to overclocking, been doing it for years now on desktops but we have aftermarket parts for cooling so that's why the laptop scene is weird for me. I dont plan on overclocking anything on my laptop so what do you guys think would I benefit from choosing a 2920 over a 2820? In terms of pure gaming performance would the gps difference be as drastic as a 10 gps increase?

 

Put it to you this way: In an unmodded M17x-R2, you can toss in a 920xm, raise the TDP to 85-90W on stock cooling and run it 24/7. This bumps the turbo up to about 3 GHz on all 4 cores constantly without overheating. If you do a retention mod on the CPU heatsink (like I have before), you can bump the TDP further to 100W and run it 24/7 without overheating.

Clevo has some of the best cooling around so you should be able to bump the 2920xm's TDP to at least 75-80W without a hitch and that would give a very nice jump over all other mobile CPU's. If I were to go mobile SB, there's no way I'd settle for less than a 2920xm especially considering how CPU hungry the 485M is going to be.

What should worry anyone with the 15" notebook is if the PSU can cope with the added power draw. In that case, you'd probably need to buy one of the more powerful PSU's that Clevo has (e.g. use the 17" model's PSU).

If you don't plan to overclock, then just get the cheapest mobile SB you can. Even the entry level SB can put up performance equivalent to a stock 920xm which is plenty powerful. The 2820 is a waste of money.

 

Alright thanks man I think I will stick with the 2820 as from the benchmarks there is quite a difference between it and the lower i7s. Will be placing my order soon thanks for all your help guys.