Sager 9261 Updated

the scores looks great, the wprime score would be taking first and second place in the NBR hall of fame.

the 3dmark scores seem to be on par on what the cards should do.

 

Excellent scores for sure, thanks for the benchmarks Justin. I'm amazed by the CPU score in 3DMark06. I am currently building my own quad-core desktop.

If you were only getting a single card then I would definitely get the Go7950GTX. It's a beast. However dual 8700M-GTs is too tempting and with their combined power they should be faster than a single Go7950GTX. I have nothing concrete to base this on but considering that the 8700M-GT is more than half as powerful as the Go7950GTX, two of them together should be faster.

 

Thanks for that data, Justin. Keep us posted on new developments.

 

Hall of fame... huh?! Well Its obvious that they will mainly because they both have the fastest processors available (is the 3ghz oc'ed?)

And if I want a future proof lappie, whats the point of the 7950gtx? I am going to wait for any new gpu and by end of november... ill go ahead and purchase either single 8700gt or dual (way more likely)

 

What about the heat of those comp...
GPU + CPU + RAM + HD temp would have been a nice add to the bench... Looking on those monster, i'm pretty sure you can cook eggs on it

 

Interesting how the Vista Index for memory is different form system to system. What memory was used in the first one (the one where the index was 2.9)?

Nice scores, although the systems are so different that we can't actually compare configuration with 8700GT in SLI and 7950GTX in SLI. Neither we can compare the 3DMark with a Quad Core and a DUO Core.

Also if possible can you show us scores with a Q6600? that would be nice if possible as we could compare both Q6700 and Q6600 and make an informed decision regarding what to get.

Thx once again Justin,

Trance

 

It’s the same memory, it is most likely enhanced by the 1333FSB of the E6850. (Or just vista randomness that everyone loves at this time. )

The scores provided is to show the systems capability and cross comparison of the available options.

We will try to get some more information together with the Q6600 and some more uniformed results.

 

so is the 9261 always running at 1333 fsb or does the bios overclock the bus if it only detects the e6850 chip?. i guess i do not understand the wording that "it supports the e6850 1333 fsb" but is not advertised as the motherboard running at 1333 fsb on clevo's site.

 

What we show is it fully supports 1333MHz FSB CPU's and is backward compatible with slower (1066MHz FSB) CPU's as well. I will double check to confirm and report back.

 

Hi Justin so is there driver for the 8700 GT SLI under Vista 32-bit?

 

There are a few posts showing temperatures of the various Sager models in these forums. The 9260/1 is a cooling freak with the 4-fans and easy air-flow path. To see what I mean, download the D901C users manual from clevo.com. They're the first notebook manufacturer I've seen to put "assembly" instructions in their users manual .

(... try getting that from Dell lordvader -- you won't get assembly instructions from them!...)

The components of the 9260/1 all have simple geometries -- i.e. rectangles -- and allow for easy air flow. It's not packed tight like a dell (lol, for you again lordvader you dell slappy).

Further more the 8700's are more power efficient than the 7950's -- 29W vs 45W. So two in SLI save 32W. However the G0 stepping Quads are 95W vs. 65W for the dual cores -- so the savings is negated.

Keep in mind that those are "full bore" power consumptions. When sitting idle the Quads shut down 2 of the 4 cores completely. Also the nVidia drivers will shut down one of the two GPUs in SLI. Lastly the CPU will speed step dropping power by an additional 40%. So in idle the 9261 is a very cool machine -- depending upon ambient temps of course.

The seagate momentus SATA-II drives are very power efficient as well. I made a post about them a month or two ago.

 

Anyway i'm waiting that you guys receive it and write a review before i'm gonna buy it .
Right now, i'm in france but i'll be in toronto soon (this week end maybe). so if the feedback are well i'll order it once i'm over there

 

the older d900 series did not support speedstep technology on the intel chips so i am not sure the 9261 does either.

 

Based on the screenshots of CPU-Z that Justin@XoticPC posted about the new 9261's...it looks like speedstep is enabled as the idle clockspeeds are on the low side.

 

I just want to point out in case someone missed it. According to the pictures posted by Justin the difference in 3DMark06 between a Q6700 paired with a 8700GT in SLI and the same paired with a Go 7950GTX is about a 1000 in favor of the later!!!.

I understand that the these are sintetic benchmarks and most probably the 06 version of 3DMark is yet not prepared to to fully test the DX10 cards (better shaders). But a 1000 is still relevant and drivers alone cannot make up for such a difference of power ability!

Trance

 

~UPDATE~
Currently there is pending software issue with the Sager NP9261 (Clevo D901C) that when the system is installed with 4069MB of system memory and 2x nVIDIA GeForce 8700M w/512MB the SLi function cannot be enabled under windows Vista. While this bug has already been filed and is on the to be fixed list at both Clevo and nVIDIA, neither of them can provide a ETA when the fix would be available.
Sager has found a temp workaround to this issue, and that is to turn off the Windows Vista Aero interface.
Customers willing to accept their order with this issue still open should inform Sager or their point of purchase and we will release the order to be shipped. Unless we hear from the customer, we will hold the orders until nVIDIA can provide a fix.

Bug Detail:
Black Screen after user login
If SLi is enabled with 4096MB system memory under Windows Vista Aero interface enabled. The system will remain a black screen once the boot process has completed and the user reaches the desktop.
Workaround solution is to press Ctrl+Alt+Del, select to restart the system, pressing F8 during booting to log into Safe Mode and uninstall the nVIDIA Display Driver.
Once uninstalled reboot back into windows Vista normally, reinstall nVIDIA video driver. And to disable the windows Vista Aero interface before enabling SLi function.

 

so does 4gb ram with vista and dual 7950gtx in sli have the same problem?

 

No, 2 x 7950GTX works fine

 

great ill be ordering my NP9261 this week from you guys over at Xoticpc.com. Ill be in contact with you soon then

 

If I only ordered 2 gigs of ram, will my order still be held?

 

Not at all Only 4GB + 2x8700 SLI Orders.

 

Awesome. Thanks.

I think I'll stick with my 2 GB until I hear about a fix for this... and it's not like I even need more than 2 gigs right now.

 

whats the weight of one of these. im seriously considering one to replace fully my desktop at home... but id want to be able to move it around at times. the 5791 wil be my normal "travel" system though these 9261 look massive

 

They are fairly massive, yes.

Here are the dimensions and weight.

397(W) x 298(D) x 51~60(H)mm
5.4Kg with 12 cells Battery

Bear in mind that this is without the AC-adapter. I am not sure what that weighs.

 

Do you already got yours Johnelbek?

Trance

 

Just to add, the brick wieghs just a hair over 8 pounds [3.6 kg]. Amazing that the brick weighs almost as much as the entire laptop.

 

Well if you want a true desktop replacement Zfactor, then look no further. Regardless of how much it weighs, it is still far more easily portable than an actual desktop system.

The power brick is rather massive, weighing about a pound more than my current lappy with power brick....

 

Not yet, DFTrance. Hopefully it will be here early next week. I see the money has already been drawn from my account so it will not take longer than 3-4 days.

I ought to get myself a notebook bag before it arrives. What to choose, what to choose, hm...

 

^ I think they will ship our notebooks together...

 

quote:"I ought to get myself a notebook bag before it arrives. What to choose, what to choose, hm.."
haven't you seen that deviltech will ship you a bag gratis?

 

6edo, please post pictures of your laptop when you get it! I want to see how that orange color looks! I'm either going with a dark red, orange, or a deep blue, and I want it to be painted on the LCD back and front, and the palm rest.

 

Ok I will do it as soon I will get it (next week I hope)...

 

You are right, 6edo. I completely forgot about it. Couldn't find any pictures of it though.

 

I think it is a normal bag. Sorry that I didn't ask them today when I talked at the phone.

 

What did you talk about today?

 

About the Intel Pro and the drives... there is a problem with the Hitachi... they are hard to find all over Europe, so probably they will get the seagate in the future. I also asked when they will send my notebook, but it couldn't give a precise date because it depends on the external painting job...

 

NP9261 4GB / nV8700M GT SLi Issue Fixed


Driver version 1.56.75 will be made available on www.sagernotebook.com support driver download page shortly.

 

To be more precise: http://64.208.175.44/pages/notebooks/download.cfm?ProductType=9260

It is a beta though, who dares?

 

Already downloading it. Since mine should be here in a few hours.

 

The driver seems stable, but I can't test the 4gb of ram. The other stick came defective. But on the upside I got my system in time for my departure. So overall I am happy and it is very fast. Hope this helps.

 

I tried the new driver. I can definitely run Aero with 4GB RAM and go SLI.

However I still get a driver stops responding error. I played GuildWars for 3 hours and received 2 failures. Here's the entry straight from the event log:

"Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered."

The driver is just a beta so maybe there's hope that the next release will fix things completely.

 

Hi Kozi. I am about to order a 2nd 8700 when a good driver soms through. Did you feedback Sager or your reseller, so that they may learn from your experience?

 

Does anyone else have this problem...

Clevo D901C, Q6700, 4GB RAM, GeForce 8700M GT SLI

Running WinXP Pro w/ SP2, using the latest certified driver 163.71, with modded inf from laptopvideo2go, I enable SLI, ran UT2004 @ 1900x1200 (not full screen), runs very well, but when I try to run the game @ ANY resolution in FULL SCREEN, it locks the system up completely.

I thought, OK, it's just UT2004, so I tried Battlefield 2142, Quake 4, Half-Life 1 & 2, Portal, same problem, locks up at ANY resolution when running in FULL SCREEN.

The system isn't overheating, just locking up anytime I use SLI in FULL SCREEN mode.

I can run in single card mode, in FULL SCREEN no prob.

HELP!!!

 

Just tried the Sager WINXP driver "6.14.11.5655" from

http://64.208.175.44/pages/notebooks/download.cfm?ProductType=9260

Uninstalled my current drivers, used DriveCleaner in SAFE MODE, rebooted, installed "6.14.11.5655 drivers" And now the screen just goes black when I play ANY game in FULL SCREEN mode.

NON-SLI works perfectly.

Someone, please help!

 

I sent an email to Sager and XoticPC this morning with a copy from the Windows Event Log and a description of the problem.

It's the same stability problem from version 5666 of the driver (previous driver).

This new driver version (5675) seems to have fixed the compatibility issue with 8700's in SLI + 4GB RAM + Vista Aero interface -- but it's still unstable and stops responding while gaming.

 

I just ran 3DMark06 and it's still reporting a score of 5043 which is a single 8700GT configuration score -- it looks like SLI is not working.

Furthermore the nVidia monitor shows only one GPU temperature rising during the execution of 3DMark06.

I'm thinking this new driver is not good.

 

Tried the "7.15.11.5666 (WHQL)" drivers from Sagers webpage & the Nvidia Forceware 169.01 from laptopvideo2go, I can't get SLI to work, but this time it's because of a "Code 12" Error (Not enough resources).

So, not only does SLI lock up my OS under WinXP Pro w/ SP2, but I can't even get SLI to enable under Vista (32-bit).

Does anyone know how to fix a "Code 12" error under Vista?

And does anyone have trouble running SLI with the 7950GTX in WinXP &/or Vista?

This is really frustrating to say the least.

 

This installed? KB940105

 

Nope, didn't know about it, thank you, I'll re-install Vista & give it a shot.

 

Comes up as "not required" for my Vista 64 install.