Sager NP7879PQ-S (Clevo NH77HPQ)

I was looking at this laptop for a mid-range upgrade to my 6 year old P770DM-G but was kind of surprised to only see 1 mention of it in any of the forums. Is this because it's pretty new, or just not "powerful" enough for the enthusiasts? Just wondering if anyone out there has any views on the machine, it would be within my realistic budget after selling my current rig either all together or piecing it out.

https://www.sagernotebook.com/customize.php?productid=2050

 

It's probably the newness since it's 11th gen. First thing I would do is upgrade the WIFI to AX210 for stability and 6E future proofing. $25-$30 / 10 minutes to install.

 

Funny you said that, I already ordered the AX210 for my current laptop prior to looking at new ones. I see the AX201 uses proprietary CnVio interface. That shouldn't be a problem as far as upgrading to the AX210 right, since it just uses PCI-E?

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The CNVio is a lightweight interface option that passes most of the processing to the MOBO vs the card itself. If the port it's plugging into handles both options it shouldn't be an issue using the 210. Some OEM's cheaped out and didn't' configure the port to support both options to save some $. If you have one for your other laptop just swap it in and make sure it works and then just order another 210 for the laptop.

 

I don't have another laptop, just my P770DM, I'm looking to upgrade to the one in my first post but haven't done that yet. I sent an email to Sager to ask them if the ax210 will work in place of the ax201. Sad to think there's a possibility that it would work perfect in my 5 year old laptop but may not in a brand new one.

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It "could" work in the new one. It depends on how they wired the socket it plugs into.

Most sockets though support both if they offer CNVio however the ones that don't offer CNVio don't support the 201's. With 6E you see Intel didn't bother releasing a CNVio option as it's led to too much confusion with users buying new systems. I haven't seen any 11th gen laptops / desktops mentioned as not supporting the 210 though. OEM lists of options for upgrades usually don't offer it in their listings because they buy in bulk for production runs and if the 210 wasn't available during design / build phase or wasn't in the budget they don't mention it.

On the flip side I have a clevo/sager that didn't offer a 4K option for the screen that I dove into the HW specs / manual and found a 4K cable as an option w/o any 4K panels being offered and upgraded to a 4K panel w/o issue. It took some digging and a couple of buy/return issues for different models being shipped but in the end ordered from CN both the cable / panel in one transaction to complete the upgrade. Sourcing pieces for these machines can be a PITA sometimes but, they're rock solid when it comes to performance. There's a lot less issues with compatibility such as while listing restrictions placed upon systems by other OEM's.

If the system meets your CPU / GPU requirements I would just order it but, also look for a better price on ebay. I picked up a 9750H CPU based system there for ~$740 w/ shipping / tax vs new being $1K+ shipping / tax. When I got it and ran the SN on it found out the original purchaser added a 3-year warranty to the system as well. Tracking down support through Sager led to a reseller in UT that covers any repairs. I dug into it a bit with them on a couple of things that are simple swap and they were a bit obtuse but, the piece of mind is there for the warranty if needed. I can source parts though on my own which is easier than shipping the system off somewhere for a couple of weeks to replace something. If the MOBO was the issue though then the time makes up for the cost since the MOBO's in these things aren't cheap like a desktop. Just browsing around they typically hit $500-$700

 

Thank you for the excellent feedback. Sager just replied and said the AX210 will work so that's great. I also asked them what the TGP is for the RTX 3060 as I know that can vary wildly. Are all these new laptops BGA without the possibility of upgrading the graphics cards? That will factor into my decision obviously knowing I may/may not be able to upgrade that in the future. I hear there is a way to alter the TGP on your own (of course with the risk of high temps). I also hear you can overclock the Intel i7-11800H using software like theottlestop even though it's not an unlocked processor. Thoughts?

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https://repo.palkeo.com/clevo-mirror/ UN/PW: repo

I would go over here and look at the manual though it's not 100% clear which option it would be under though with the Clvo naming. If I had to ponder a guess I would go with the last option as it's closest to the naming. The issue may be it's so new it they haven't scraped the newest info for the chassis yet.

 

No, but, with the pace of everything changing and the costs of an upgrade it's easier to just buy a whole new unit and move the NVME over to the new one.

The whole power consumption of the GPU plays into such a small % of increased performance from what I've been seeing it's not worth paying more for a 5-10% gain. If you're sinking money into these it's better spent on the network drive, and RAM.

For a good contender on the NVME w/o paying $am$ung prices I tried / tested a couple out at 1TB because the MTBW is higher for warranty purposes the PNY CS3030 performs nicely w/ 1.5GB/s in throughput between moving files between 2 drives internally. I also tested out the BPX Pro and it performs well as well though it hovers more in the 1GB/s rage for some reason which is confusing because they both use the same Phison controller. The BPX runs 2 degrees cooler than the PNY but, 50% more throughput is the trade off. Comparable 1TB drives from $am$ung are multiples higher in $.

 

Yeah I noticed a massive price difference with the Samsung 980 Pro for PCIE GEN 4. Sager told me the that rtx 3060 tgp is 105W which is great and confirmed these models have the GPU soldered to the motherboard which I figured. All told I can still get everything I want on this machine within my $2k budget and it's a decent upgrade from my i7-6700k and GTX 970M, though there's nothing wrong with that setup as it runs flawlessly. I just happened to need to spend some $$ as a tax write-off, hence the upgrade.
Also, do you know if these 11th gen processors will be upgradeable down the line like my Skylake processor was?

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Most are soldered BGA. If it's not MXM then it's board based.

Most of the MXM based machines running interchangeable components are going to be beyond your budget. Flexibility costs substantially more when it comes to laptops. The sockets these newer 11th gen CPU's use isn't the same setup as prior generations and there's different sockets coming out for 12th gen as well. Hence it's easier to upgrade the whole system vs components at this point. As MFG changes to smaller dies the sockets and everything else changes as well.

In my book of technology this 11th gen / 3060 should be functional for a good 5 years as developers won't catch up for a few years to max out the performance anyway. Performance needs / deliveries of the GPU's right now are mostly taken up by buggy code writing anyway. The perk of a 3060 at this point for performance might be mining not gaming. I run a 9750H / GTX1650 on my laptop and it runs fine The biggest issue was Chrome bloating RAM usage and that's been fixed with newer releases but, bumping from 16GB to 32GB before that occurred is still a slight boost in performance overall.

I envy the thought of PCI4/5 and TB4/5 speeds but, in reality it's overkill unless you're running a data center with high I/O needs. PCIE Gen 3 / NVME still get you more speed / throughput than you'll ever use in a normal workload. The only time you max the bandwidth out is either benchmarking the drive or disk 2 disk copy locally / internal. Most of the time the disks barely register 1% running normal apps. Applying updates / upgrades flies along but, still don't take advantage of the full speed available.

GPU does hit 100% or slightly less w/ a game or transcoding video files from one format to another but, generally sit @ 10% unless invoked by a game set to use them.

CPU w/ chrome running @ ver 92 for whatever reason keeps the CPU at 20-25% but, when killed drops down to 1-5% with other apps still open.

So, overall it depends on what you'll want to use it for and primarily have running at most times. For a write off though it's a decent investment but, sinking more $ into it w/o the need doesn't make sense to me at least. You said your 6th gen flies along just fine and the 11th gen will do the same. Being a bleeding edge tech junky though I look at the benefits / resale value down the road as well. Who knows what these over priced GPU's will net when the market changes and mining drops off a cliff. I would aim for a lower GPU and sink the cash into RAM / WIFI / Panel and find a better cooling solution for longevity of the system. It's a bit harder to find cooling for these laptops though but, there's a chance for $100 or so on the secondary market. I've tried a handful of different pastes on the CPU/GPU but being a confined space and all in one heat pipes it's hard to keep things "cool".

 

Just the desktop based processor machines are MXM now.

 

Thank you for your feedback. As @Meaker@Sager mentioned, these GPUs are no longer replaceable and as you mentioned with 12th Gen Intel being a different socket that means I will carefully consider what I purchase as neither of those will be upgradeable. Do you guys know if any of the Intel processors are replaceable in the case that it died? It would affect my choice of warranty if I knew whether or not this could be done.

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Warranty replacement shouldn't be an issue as they would replace the MOBO and send you on your way.

User replaceable is a different story. Older options exist that you could tinker with like a desktop but, sort of defeat the purpose of trying to do a 3060.

 

CPUs rarely fail, GPUs and VRMs are more likely.

A good solder repair shop can do it, but usually as above the board is replaced.