Sager NP6165 vs NP9130

I was looking at both of these laptops on Xotic and I saw that on these forums people have posted that the NP9130 has much better graphics and cooling than the NP6165.

How much better is the cooling? Is it just that the NP9130 is superior to any laptop or is it that the NP6165 has bad cooling? Would I be able to game without a cooling pad?

And in terms of the 650M, would I be able to video edit in 1080p effectively with Sony Vegas and After Effects? Also, I would be playing some games such as COD4, Starcraft 2, CS:S and some others; I'm guessing that I would be able to play these games at least on high graphics settings.

I know that the NP9130 has superior speaker sound, but is there a difference when I am using headphones?

On the Xotic site, it lists the battery life of the NP6165 as slightly better even though it is a 6-cell as opposed to the 8-cell of the NP9130. Is this difference accurate?

Are there any other feature differences that I should be aware of before making my decision between the two?

For the difference in cost of the laptops, I would be able to get the 95% gamut screen upgrade, a 120GB SSD and some other accessories. Would the detriments of the NP6165 compared to the NP9130 justify the cost of the extra compenents?

Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for the replies.

 

I struggled with the same decision for a little while. For what it's worth, I've decided to go with the 6165. First off, I had a few requirements that any new laptop had to comply with: it had to be 15 inches, and it had to have an optical drive. One thing that I REALLY wanted was an SSD, but that has the potential of really driving the price up. The 6150 allows me to have a smaller SSD (128 Gb) plus a storage drive (750 Gb). The biggest drawback that's obvious is that the 650M is clearly less powerful than the 670M. If I could have two hard drives plus an optical on the 9130, I might be persuaded to go that route, but I sort of think the 650M will be enough for me. I do love to play computer games, but I have a powerful desktop at home for that. The laptop is meant for work and entertainment while I'm on the road, which is frequent.

I hadn't heard about cooling problems with the 6150 before. It's obviously a smaller machine which restricts airflow, but is it so restrictive as to call it a design flaw?

 

Its not that people have reported cooling problems with the NP6165, its just that when they are compared directly, people usually mention that the NP9130 has a better graphics card and that it has much better cooling; it has 2 fans instead of just 1.

 

Sort of a tough call, isn't it? I was just lead to Malibal's website from another thread in this forum, and they offer a 9130 with a 660M and a 128 Gb msata SSD for about $150 more. Slower storage and faster video? Faster storage and slower video? Now I'm doubting my earlier decision. A backlit keyboard could tip me towards the 9130, but it doesn't exist.

 

I was having your dilemma, but now that i will have the money for the 9130 i'm gonna go that way, but instead of putting an msata SSD wich will be sata II (the speeds won't go above 300 Mb's)
I instead will opt for replacing the optical drive for a caddy so i can put there myself the mechanical drive and put a normal ssd in the first bay.
And from the reseller i will buy a external dvd drive, it seems more logical, but it depends on how much you use your dvd drive.

 

Ruly: The thing is that the cost between the two laptops with the same specs except the chassis and graphics is $234. With the screen upgrade, it brings the difference down to $164, which is the cost of an SSD and some other things.

If I got the NP9130, I would not be able to afford as SSD.

So: Are the features of the NP9130 worth not having an SSD and an upgraded screen?

 

I recently purchased a np9130-- had it about a month now, and it's been a great computer. No problems so far. It runs D3 really well on high/highest settings. I don't know anything about the 6165, so I can't add much to the conversation.

Just thought I'd chime in and say I've been very pleased with the np9130-- I pretty much just use it to play games and work related stuff (word/excel/access/etc) though. I can't speak much about battery life, either, as I have only been using it plugged in (it's been more of a desktop replacement for me-- just wanted the option to be able to move it around since I travel).

But yeah, it's been a great computer the first month, super powerful and all in all a great computer with no complaints.

 

6165 doesn't have many vents. But it is a smaller laptop. Wish my fan worked on it , but with an external fan on a vent it will cool down. That's cools much better than my 2 fan hp from 2010

 

Brandons3737-

Do you have any temperature stats when the laptop is idle or under full load?

Also, what do you mean that the your fan won't work on it, but an external fan will?

 

Motherboard problems , have to send it back to get repaired. I mean USB cooling pad. Works well and u can always use one to cool down your laptop. No heat temps, haven't tried usuing user full load because without the internal fan on I don't want to burn out anything. I have tried going almost full load and it only got a little bit hot. Again no temps though, sorry

 

Jackcrab-
Have you tried any of the sound on the NP9130; the speakers or the headphone jack? How were they compared to any previous laptop's audio?

Brandons3737-
That really sucks. Hope it works out well. How was the 95% gamut screen? Did you notice any detriments and how did it look compared to any other screens you have seen. Also, how was the speaker quality compared to any others that you have tried? Was the headphone jack up to par with what it should be?

Thanks.

 

The screen looks awesome. Love it because it is matte also. Audio isn't bad t all, I keep it at 40 percent usually as its good. Headphone jack is really just that. It's decent but there's no real special ones. Compared to my netbook the screen looks so much better and my brothers 17 in notebook that's has 1080 looks worse. I would defiantly upgrade it. And for the sound when I downloaded thx which came with it, the sound sounded even better. Even though the speakers on the bottom it still spuds great.

 

Sounds not spunds. Trying to type this on my iPod sorry

 

I can't really attest to the ability of the 650M in Vegas and AE, but if you are playing those games, you are going to be able to play them with a 650M. Honestly, the CPU could be a bottleneck more than the GPU and the CPU is the same on both (I am considering the 9130 and will be upgrading the CPU if I get it). I can't say how the CPU will perform, but the GPU does have the ability to run your listed games on high settings with ~60 FPS. With newer games like BF3 however, you may have trouble unless you are on low-medium settings.

 

The CPU is throttled in the 6165 when the GPU is turned on, so not quite exactly the same as the same CPU on the 9130.

 

omnivor-

Are you sure this is true? Why would they do that?

 

Yes, it's well documented in several threads on the NP61- series, such as one below. Supposedly to direct more power to the GPU or something like that.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...r-np6110-clevo-w110er-first-look-review.html#

 

I have the 6165, got it less than a week ago and already testing it out. You can unlock the throttling using throttle stop when the gpu is active. My normal temps under gaming (witcher 2, crysis 2) stay around 68-70 C for the gpu and 81-83 for the cpus locked at 2.3 ghz. Max gpu temp while playing crysis 2 was 72 C.

Overclock temps for 3.0 turbo (4 cores) and 970(turbo)/1250 are 79 C max for gpu and avg around 72-73 C while gaming.
EDIT: Forgot to mention that at 3.0 turboed the max temps have reached 93 C, so no wonder they locked cpu frequency at 2.3 ghz when the 650m is active.

Lowest temps for cpu and gpu i've seen are 45 C for gpu and 51-54 C for cpus. Its really hard to pin down idle temps for the gpu because as soon as gpuz turns on the 650m clocks to 745 mhz until msi afterburner or some other 3d app is launched. Dunno how to fix this yet, but its probably because i'm using the 304.48 beta drivers with modded inf.

Screen is great. My friend has an alienware with 95% gamut and this is pretty close. I have yet to test the battery life completely but have used the laptop on battery for a little over 2 hours of browsing at full brightness and UMA mode and had about 35-40 % battery remaining.

I am using the stock thermal compound and plan to repaste IC diamond or artic silver in a few days.

 

I'm choosing between NP9130, DV6 Quad Edition and Y580. The cheapest config is the Sager with $1129 followed by Dv6 $1139 and Y580 for $1149. Is the quality of Sager on par or better than DV6 and Y580? I plan on choosing the Glare type 95% gamut screen, is this good or is the Anti-glare type better? I saw the Samsung Chronos matte screen and I don't like it since the pictures and colors look "flat." I noticed pictures and colors on glossy screens have more depth since pictures "pop" out more than matte screens.

I don't have any experience with Sager before so any feedback on build quality are welcomed.

 

feelseasy-

Would you recommend unlocking the CPU? How much more performance does it give?

Also, what do you mean by 3.0 turbo and 970/1250? Is there a guide somewhere that would explain this to me?

 

sachiel- Choose the glossy screen if you have a room with no light sources behind where you would put the laptop and you plan on keeping it there.
Personally, I hate glossy screens; I move my laptop lots and could never deal with the reflections. But if you like the colour and contrast more on the glossy then go for it.

 

To be honest, I haven't really tested the difference between the turbo and locked frequencies but yesterday I was testing some physx stuff and with cpu unlocked, and physx fps with turbo was way better. EDIT: +10 fps on medium-high using turbo in witcher 2 at 1600x900

I mean 3.0 turbo because my cpu (3610qm) is capable of 3.3 ghz turbo on one core while the others are downclocked, 3.2 with 2 and 3.1 with 3 and 3.0 with all 4 turboed. I recommend not using turbo unless you add a notebook cooler and get IC diamond. I haven't repasted my gpu & cpu so I have to see the difference it will make.

The ThrottleStop Guide. This will unlock turbo while gpu active.

I also recommend reading the sager np6110 owners thread here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...o-w110er-sager-np6110-owners-lounge-226.html#

970/1250 are the overclocked core/memory values for the gpu. Factory np6165 and np6110 650m cards are locked at 745 mhz with turbo of 835 mhz core clock. Get beta drivers from laptopvideo2go forums and you can overclock it. Make sure to watch your temps though.