Simple review + a few questions on the np8170

I received my np8170 a 2 days ago.

Appearance:
Pros: Simple design
Cons: Fairly huge size as expected

Keyboard:
Pros: Full size keyboard, good function keys
Cons: the bracket that holds the keys would be better if it is smoother

Touchpad:
Pros:
Cons: too much friction.

Screen:
Anyone who intends to purchase a np8170 should get the screen upgrade. I find that the regular 1080 LED screen is no where close compared to my 3 years old Sony vgn-fw clear bright LCD rich color screen.

GPU performance: 6990m(IC diamond)(Stock Clock)
I played Starcraft 2 (Hero Arena) under Ultra 1080p for two hours. The temperature is around 69-73 degrees based on CPU-Z 0.5.8.

The build quality was great. I'm really satisfied with my purchase except that i should of upgraded the screen.

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Questions:

1. After my battery is fully charged, does the laptop run on the power supply or through the batteries? Should i remove it from the laptop to reduce fading?

2. When i set to performance mode the system state remains in power conservation modes(through hot keys 3.3028). Whenever I change power conservation modes it resets some of my window power plans. When i changed to performance from windows power plan, the system state in hot keys remains in power conservation mode. Should i use windows power plan or hot keys? How do i go into performance mode?

3. How do you change fan speed?

4. I have the Intel Centrino 6230 wireless bluetooth combo card. When i enable bluetooth(fn+F12) does it enables the integrated bluetooth device or the centrino 6230 while wireless is turned off?

Thanks~

 

To answer some of your questions:

1. If you're plugged in, the machine will be using the power from the wall and not the battery. You can run it without the battery, but there's a lot of debate over whether that makes a difference. I'd say it doesn't matter as long as it's not getting really hot, as heat shortens battery life.

2. Power conservation modes work through the bios. They can override the Windows settings. I believe if you just leave them at balanced, Windows power settings can be used for all of your changes without having any issues.

3. You can't, other than using FN+1 to go to full speed. Other than that, it's automatic only.

4. I believe it can be used independently of the wireless, but you can always check and find out. Also of note, bluetooth is disabled in the bios to start automatically. If you want it on as soon as you boot the laptop, you can change that setting there.

 

Thank you for your reply.

I got the fans working now. As for the bluetooth, I enabled to start automatically when i installed the system. I checked device manager, it said both are functioning properly. It didn't say which thou. Did i look at the wrong place? ^^