Pulling the trigger Monday, seeking advice NP8150

Howdy guys.


Monday, I will be placing my order to join the Clevo/Sager family. I am going to be ordering an 8150 and have come down to two configurations that I am completely torn on.


Both price out about the same, so thats not a real issue. I am trying to spend exactly to the limits of my budget, because anything I don't, my wife will spend on crafting stuff (boo!)


Either config I go with will have a 120g ssd in the main hd bay, and a 500g 7200 rpm in the optical. The only real difference is listed below in the 2 specs I am considering:

Spec A:

2720 processor
Nvidia 485 GTX
8 gigs ram

Spec B:

2820 processor
ATI 6970 HD
12 gigs of ram.


Again, they both spec out to be about the exact same price, so I am not sure what to do. I have read every thread here comparing the two GPUs and still can not decide where to put the money. More SSD space will be wasted since I simply do not keep that many programs on my machine at once.


I do quite a bit of gaming (Rift, CoD, and a few other new titles) and a bit of graphics and web design (I got to school at devry for this). Thats pretty much it. Again, I have been reading quite a bit on these forums for the past few weeks trying to come up with the right way to spend my cash, however I am torn. I am simply looking for some fellow Sager/Clevo owners to pitch in with their opinions and ideas. I am not a fan boy of either GPU company, so please keep that in mind when selling your point. Thanks guys and I can't wait to be a part of the Sager/Clevo family!

 

may as well get spec b. you don't seem to be concerned about battery life either way, because you didn't even mention it. and from what i've read from people on the clevo forums, the 6970 seems to be more desirable because of the bang for buck. and because of that you get better cpu and more ram. and if i remember correctly, you don't get optimus with 8150/70 so there is no extra incentive to get the 485.

 

Just cuz you said you did graphic and web design, I'd suggest budgeting a screen upgrade.. Not that the stock is bad, but you may want to consider the 95% gamut matte one

If you do that, I'd suggest going with spec B and but get the 2720 instead of the 2820, then add on that screen. Should be about the same $

 

I'd go with Spec B 99/100 times.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Thanks fellas for your post.


For the battery concern, you would be correct sir. Battery life is of no matter. As for the screen upgrade, I will definitely take that under consideration. Everyone seems to agree that the 6970 is more than sufficient for gaming, so I see no real reason to go against the flow here.

 

for the screen upgrade, refence this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...-between-different-screen-options-photos.html
has pics of the different screens. kinda hard to tell exactly from the pics, but you can tell the upgrade makes a difference

 

Are you looking at the Sager NP8150-S1? If not, then you might have a little more room to play with it. I would agree with Hizzaah about the screen as an option to look at (Mythlogic or XoticPC). Also, make sure that the programs you use for graphics and web design work well with either GPU (for example: Autocad seems to perform better with Nvidia GPUs).

I don't know if this fits your budget, but if the S1 saves you money enough, I would do this spec:

Matte 95% NTSC Color Gamut LED
2720 processor
Nvidia 485 GTX
8 gigs ram (ram is an easy upgrade later)

 

a bit of graphics design?
be aware that adobe premiere pro cs5 and up will only support cuda. adobe seems to be in partnership with nvidia and im thinking future iterations of after effects will go this route.
so if adobe programs are important to you, you may want to think twice. otherwise option b is the best

 

spec A

because 2720 is cheap and you'll update to 2920xm(ES) someday
485 is the NO.1 gpu , you should degrade the other parts , focus your money to 485 ,
when you have enough time and money you can upgrade ram/disk/cpu

6970/spec B is suitble for us —— less money men

so , choose 485 , and upgrade your machine at the right time .
I suggest you'd better buy 2630 , it's enough for you .

untill you buy the 2920xm(ES) , that time you'll be very far ahead of 2820 .

in P150HM , 2630/2720/2820 is the same performance , even 2920 is the same performance
Intell exaggerate the power of SB —— and CLEVO machine has no ability on CPU cooling .

your P150HM maybe struggle with [email protected]

so just 2630 , please use 1600-ddr3 ready for 2920xm(ES/q1ce/$580)
in China we use 2720ES(ES/8M/1066/Q0XB) only $150
we know in 2012 people will buy 2920 at a fair price , and the machine will FINALLY be ultimate powerful !!!

 

Great stuff guys. You are really making my decision easier with all this wonderful info. As for design, I do use a lot of adobe and never considered CUDA. Thanks for that reminder.

 

Matte screen FTW~~

Too bad, some of us are stuck with the 60% gamut Matte screen option only. Bleh~

 

Get the screen - it's most important for your line of work, and you'll use it everyday to boot

FYI CUDA isn't supported for every card for every Adobe product... the Quadro cards are for sure supported, but not every desktop card, much less every mobile card. Check what programs you use

 

2720QM
6970M

Both the 2820 and 485 are quite a bit more cost for little improvement.

Either save your money or invest it into something else (I say this as a 485 owner as well)

 

Spec B - Either go down to 8gb or up it to 16gb so you don't lose Dual channel memory.

 

yeah definitely downgrade to the 2720 and go 8gigs or 16gigs of ram. then weigh your options on the 485/6970 and screen. the 2820 is not worth the cost and that can easily offset the price of the screen.

 

Can you explain the benefit of dual channel?

 

Second gen i7 are dual channel memory. If you "break" the dual channel then it will run slower. Will anyone notice the difference? Maybe sticklers will. But at this point there's no reason to break it. There won't be much performance difference between 8 and 12 even if both were dual channel options.

 

Oh, Mkay. So I have 3x4gb. Not gonna be the end of the world if I don't run out an buy a fourth stick?

 

Nope, I'd say go for it

Mr. Mysterious

 

2630QM
6970M
8GB RAM
95% Matte LCD

Wins.

 

Alrighty, sounds good mine is finally getting here tomorrow!

Screen options for the 8150 are now the matte from the 8130 (like 60% gamut I believe) or the 95% matte one (I'll let you know how sweet it is tomorrow!)

 

I just pulled the trigger. Grand total came out to $1903. This is going to be my first Sager. Great price for this kind of performance.

i7-2720QM
6970m
8GB Ram
750GB HDD
Blu-Ray Reader Drive
Intel 6300 Wireless

I am a long-time Nvidia fan, but I just had to give it to AMD/ATI on this one, that performance/cost ratio is hard to argue with. Hopefully no regrets!

 

Very nice. Great price to boot. Hope you enjoy it! You'll have to let us know how the 6970M turns out for you.

Btw welcome to the forums!

 

screen upgrade?

 

Solid Choices, Hope you enjoy your machine!

 

FYI you can get CUDA to work with any card that meets the minimum requirements with ppro cs5 using this:

How to make Premiere CS5 work with GTX 295 and possibly all 200 GPUs at DVinfo.net

also as a semipro video editor (u/w and weddings only) and an amateur photog, i wouldnt rate the default screen of the 8150 as bad as the others have, just my ho

 

Thanks, I'm sure I will

Thanks for the welcome . I was a part of the forum a few years ago. Had a gaming laptop in college (modded Inspiron 9300 w/7800GTX), then built a custom desktop rig, and now I'm getting back to laptops (my desktop just died and I travel now). I'm really excited to try Sager out, and glad to be joining you guys.

 

Nope. I could've afforded the 95% NTSC color gamut screen, but I don't like Matte screens. Unlike most people (it seems) I like Glossy (Matte looks dull to me).

Don't get me wrong, the colors on the 95% NTSC look brilliant, so it was a hard choice, but because of the fact that at home I'm going to be hooking the laptop up to an external monitor, my choice was pretty clear.

 

Alright. Order submitted!

Specs:

Upgraded 95% screen
2720
Ati 6970
128g ssd
500g 7200 rpm 2nd bay
8 gigs ram
N6300
W7 home premium


Glad it's done but damn was it hard to not go with the 485. Thankfully you guys have eased my worries about the 6970s gaming performance vs the 485. So woot! Now the wait begins.

 

congrats! you should be perfectly happy with that set up which reseller did you end up going with? and which ssd?

 

Mythologic. Those guys have treated me like royalty and it was a great experience. Also the crucial c300 series ssd. I have those in my other rig and my wife's as well. They never let me down. Ugh, I just hope I made the right call on the screen vs the 485. Actually, I know I did, but always anxious until it arrives.

 

Oh yes, you did. The screen is a complete win!

 

Sweet music to me ears.

 

I let you guys know all about the screen tomorrow

@Pimsley, don't forget to update your sig to show off them specs!

congrats to Myth for another job well done, and another happy customer earned!

 

Ya i just got my NP8150 the other day. When i ordered from xoticpc, my only gfx upgrade path was the 485m and the 95% color gamut matte screen. If i were to order now, I would have gone with the 6970 over the 485m.

BTW, the screen was totally worth the price. It's just down right awesome sauce.

 

Done! Thanks for the reminder

 

You guys make me feel bad for not going for the better screen .

Too bad they don't have it in "Glossy", then I probably would've spent the extra for it.

 

My 8170 just shipped from xotic, should be here tomorrow. I might have upgraded the screen but I didn't want to wait the extra week. I've done some laptop maintenance before, so I'm not afraid to install a new one myself if I find the screen subpar. Though honestly I'm coming from a race-to-the-bottom Dell, so I'm betting the stock screen won't be worse than what I'm used to

 

Ya when ignoring the matte vs glossy issue, the viewing angles of the 95% screen are just great.

 

the screen is sweet guys.. and this ssd kicks a$$!

 

i'm glad to hear that there is a direct competitior to RGB LED screen form AW! i hope it is) anyways, is there any video comparison on how different FHD Matte 95% NTSC Color Gamut LED perfoms against regular one?

 

I'm interested as to why viewing angles on a screen are so important to people? Whenever I'm using my laptop, I'm usually right in front of the screen and not trying to view it at different degree angles. Maybe for designing or multiple monitors?

From the comparisons I've seen the high gamut screens look over colour saturated (like old technicolour), especially the reds. Can someone comment on this please?

 

I felt this way too, and to be honest am still wondering the gain outside of a bit deeper color saturation. I saw the glossy last night on a friends machine, and I tell ya. His stock screen looked pretty sexy. Mine is ordered with the upgraded screen, but only because I do graphics design and the added depth to the colors will help me.

 

Quiet a no brainer...Later model has Better CPU, similar GPU, more RAM...go with plan B if haven't already.

 

Thanks for your honesty I think for me display resolution is more important, which is a pity since it looks like the 1920 x 1200 screens are dying out and being replaced with 1920x1080's, but probably won't notice the difference anyway.

 

Finally getting my machine today, I'm ecstatic . I'll let you guys know how I like it.

I didn't order Win7 on it, because I'm going to try to move the Win7 license I had on my now dead desktop. It's an OEM copy, I'll prob have to call MS and work something out, wish me luck.

After I get it up and running, where's a good place to get Radeon drivers? Like I said, I'm an Nvidia fan and haven't used a Radeon in a long time.

Thanks.

 

If I had the money those are exactly what I would get in each category (well maybe the 750gb 2nd hardrive). I got a 8130 with the 6300 and 2720 upgrades on my budget.

 

If I remember right home premium still limits the amount of ram you can install which is quite annoying. As for viewing angles, I like being able to use my laptop to watch movies in bed with my wife and on crappy monitors you can't find any position where both people can see

 

This computer rocks , and I got my Win7 copy activated with no fuss.

A couple concerns:
- There's a partition already on my system (taking up 200GB). It says "System" and I have no idea what it is. Should I just delete it??
- The optical drive, when running at full speed, is ridiculously loud. Is this normal?

BTW, the stock glossy screen looks great. I'm sure the 95% color gamut screen is fabulous, but this is plenty exception for me. The Driver CD doesn't come with the Radeon driver, so once I got internet working, I downloaded it from the Sager site.

Now to get to some benchmarking

 

Is it Monday yet?