[Review] Sager NP8651 / Clevo P650SE with GTX 970m HTWingNut's REVIEW

I use a 500gb 840 Evo and I have no complaints honestly I can't tell the difference between any of the ssds I have used. Defenitly not a power user. My data is pretty static. So I just might not be using them to the fullest. I do love how quick dropping an os on the drive is from my USB 3.0 drive litterly took 2 min. And boot times are as if the machine was only on standby. Love ssds

 

Exactly, I got my wife an evo drive as well and it has been great for her.

 

Will I be able to fit two 9.5mm 2TB hdd in the slots? Or only 7.5mm and 9.5mm hdd will fit into the slots?

 

980m version will take (9.5mm + 7mm or x2 7mm)

970m version will take (x1 9.5mm or 2x 7mm)

 

That limits you to 3tb (1tb and 2tb).

 

5 tb if u include the m.2 slots

 

wait there are 1tb m.2 ssds now? or are you including those black magic m.2 to msata bridge

 

my bad, thought that 1tb m.2 drives were already available so then its 4tb total atm...

 

Oh man, why didn't they at least made the bay at least fit 7.5mm and 9.5mm. So I'm guessing it's because they are trying to keep the NP8651 as slim as possible. Is it the stack 2 drive bays slot making the NP8651 slim @ 25mm height? So if they have gone just a single drive bay slot it would have been near 20mm only in height if ever?

How does it make total of 4tb total capacity? As far as I know M.2 drives max storage is only 512gb x 2 = 1tb and plus drive bay 2TB drive so total only of maximum 3TB storage capacity for the notebook.

 

The 8652 can fit 7.5 and 9.5, thus 1 + 2 + (.5x2) = 4 TB... And no, I don't think removing one slot would make it 20mm, there's a lot else there to fit

 

true, depending on which machine were talking about (SE or SG) its either 3tb or 4tb max

 

Just open the SSDs up...without enclosure they will fit just fine.

 

Now I somehow feel a little bit bad. I thought I could punch in my 2.5 ssd and 2tb from my current notebook into this slim Sager NP8651. I was somehow only interested on 14" notebook with mid range graphics and does not really care playing game on low, or medium but when I saw there's 15" NP8651 25mm slim which houses 2 sata drives + a wow 970m I didn't realized it cannot take a 7mm and 9.5mm until now. I guess I wasn't reading the review well(@.o) my fault!, Oh well at that time I ordered NP8651 there wasn't any NP8652 at that time. [email protected] 3mm difference on height might not be much if only NP8652 was available that time. Anyway I like slim with easy upgradeable options I guess I'll just dump my 2.5 ssd and buy a new M.2 ssd.

 

Really? Have you tried? Nice idea indeed, but I dunno if that's a good idea or bad...

 

I think you've quoted the wrong post. But yeah, it can be done to fit... Actually it was mentioned some times in other threads IIRC.

 

Opps there..

Mmmm... I dunno if I'd like to do that or not. But since my old SSD doesn't have warranty warranty anymore it might be a good choice rather than spending more $$$$ for an M.2 SSD. (well I'll just upgrade to an 512gb/1tb M.2 SSD later when I get to save more $$$$ after spending all my savings on this NP8651.) Thanks for the tip, that didn't cross my mind at all.

 

Great review thanks!!!


I got my laptop a few months ago and I running windows 8.1 pro with all the latest patches. The AC wireless doesn't work sometimes and I am suspecting a hardware issue. Has anyone else run in to any wifi issues with this laptop?


I have had only 2 occasions so far where it messed up on me (keep in mind i have the laptop for maybe 3 hours of internet use so far)

1st - Driver installed no issues. Will list networks available and connect but internet sometimes just drops completely when i have it confirmed working on another wireless laptop. Rebooted the laptop but it did not resolve the issue. Left it alone as it was new years eve and party time.

2nd - Tried again new years day. Resumed from system hibernation and wifi instantly worked. I did a restart on it and when it came back i wasnt able to connect to any networks. It was able to list available networks and when i clicked connect on one of them it just kinda froze the nic card it seemed as I couldnt even enter any software options for the device (when i clicked on open network and sharing nothing would happen). A restart resolved my issue.

I will try and dig a little deeper into event viewer the next time this happens... hopefully it doesn't but I am concerned I will have to return the laptop.

 

So i did a little more research and here is some things i have found

This issue is related to Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 AC Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Module.

A great thread about the issues with this module can be found here

I'll save you some reading as here is the apparent fix:

I am a bit skeptical about switching to TKIP as that isnt something you configure on the laptop. You configure your security settings on your wireless access point and then configure your devices accordingly. I will have play around with this some more tonight to get a more accurate solution, hopefully.

 

I have the same config as yours except I will opt for the IPS display. Is the IC Diamond paste better than stock?

 

TechPowerUp! Official IC Diamond Test | TechPowerUp Forums
http://innovationcooling.com/image/Innovationcoolingreport.pdf

 

Definitely a very very poorly handled incident and him actually checking on images to see if they're doctored borders on paranoia. I heard of this incident but never looked into it fully until after I posted a video on YouTube on how to repaste, and featured IC Diamond, and I brought up the comment about how in my experience it has scratched the surface of the die and heatsink but have not noticed any ill effects due to it. Andrew contacted me about that video and politely gave me instructions on how to effectively clean it up with minimizing scratches. However on the flip side I got some comments from users about how could I support a product from a company with a lunatic CEO, blah blah blah. I don't condone what he did, but I can say the product works great, and have a hard time finding something comparable in a laptop environment.

 

Wow I had not come across that either... Some crazy stuff going on there. You do want to be a little careful with removing it to be safe but nothing crazy.

 

Hey buddy! Manage to find a solution at all? I think I'm having the same problem.

 

Hey Omnom,

The wifi hasnt messed up on me since posting so I haven't been able to troubleshoot any further. I kind of hope it doesn't happen again to be honest lol.

If it were to screw up again on me, I would try changing my SSID settings on my wireless router, like try different security types etc and see if that does anything and I would check out the thread I posted @ intel's forum, as people there are running into the same issue. Perhaps someone will come up with an official solution there.

Intel Forum -> https://communities.intel.com/thread/48349?start=0&tstart=0

Let me know how it goes and good luck!!

 

Oh man, that's pretty lucky of you! Mines now actually able to connect to the internet, and maintain a reasonable connection. However, it still provides relatively frequent high ping spikes of which I have not been able to get rid of.

Hopefully time will fix these flaws!

Cheers,

 

@HT
do you know a way to boot into UEFI bios without restarting? with an ssd it seems like it's impossible to enter setup upon boot

 

Google "boot into UEFI bios without restarting", many hits describing procedure for Win 8/8.1. Here is one:
UEFI Firmware Settings - Boot to from inside Windows 8

 

dude, what you showed me is exactly what I'm trying to get around with, I won't be asking this if google tells me the answer that easily

 

Well, next time you may consider phrasing your question a bit more precisely, dude.

 

dude, how unclear was my question? I think I was pretty straight forward

 

Could I ask you to drop "dude"? I find it condescending (apparently you don't, but I do - could be the generation gap).

As I understood it, you asked about "way to boot into UEFI bios" which would allow to "enter setup upon boot" when conventional pressing of keyboard keys would be difficult, because it: "seems like it's impossible to enter setup upon boot, because SSD booting is fast".

The link I gave above is one of many describing how to automatically force computer into entering UEFI; it eliminates the need to intercept a short moment when pressing the right key(s) stops the booting, and enters UEFI. So now you have two ways to boot into UEFI: manual: hit the right key at the right moment (but booting happens fast), and auto booting into UEFI without manual intervention. Not sure what other way to "boot into UEFI" you seek, unless you are asking something completely different.

 

that's my question. the conventional way of F2 never worked for me without a reboot at least, and I don't want to forced to boot into windows every time to just go into BIOS, as it poses a potential problem should the OS ever be corrupted.
prema's modded bios allows me to change the waiting time for prompting to setup, but it didn't work me.
what I'm trying to know is, like I said, anyway to enter setup upon booting, rather than finishing booting into windows and then restart into UEFI.
I disabled quick boot, it didn't help, I extended the waiting time for prompt, it didn't help. that's why I'm asking

 

F2 and booting delay generally work reliably. The best way to learn why this does not work for you would be to start a separate thread with more details.

Yes, there is another method. In somewhat similar scenarios I use external bootable CDs or USBs with Linux based distribution modified for computer forensics purpose (there are many such open source and free distros). I am using commercial tools, but most free tools are sufficient. I am not giving any specific links or instructions, as this subject is broad, well documented elsewhere, and would be very much off topic here.

typically, in short: one would create a bootable USB with free standing forensics environment (Unix, Linux or Windows based). This can boot a computer regardless of what system is installed on it, even if internal installation is corrupted, incomplete, partly erased, etc. All one needs is hardware which is basically healthy.

As you know UEFI is the set of instruction for your computer hardware run when you power it on. If from whatever reason you can not interrupt normal flow of instruction using the mechanism already build into it (F2), you need to use an external operating system to gain control of the booting process.

 

At last I got my NP8651 after a long wait.

It's great and I like the slimness of this this notebook.

There's only one annoying thing whenever I am playing a game. Whenever I play Assassins Creed Unity on Ultra after few minutes in-game I get a windows popup sound saying "Your computer is low on memory. Save your files and close this program: ACU".
Ultra runs fine for me and okay for me, no need to be lectured of how unoptimized this game is or FPS lecture needing to play the game on 60FPS/or FPS dips as I really don't care about those. As long as the game runs fine and playable, I'll play even on 30FPS. But I love the ultra quality textures. Lol.

So what am I missing here? I got 16gb of RAMS and just about 6gb used when playing ACU. So here's what my guess is, whenever I look into the GPUZ. 970M memory usage is 2840MB already and that's already near wall limit of 3072MB so that's why I am getting this windows notices about low on memory...? Am I right?


Why did Clevo did not make this unit to have 6GB memory on 970M?

 

How much space you got left on your C: drive?
And soldered 970m's don't come in 6 gig of vram, only the MxM module ones, which need more space to implement and would have made the laptop "fatter"

EDIT: if your storage space is OK, then it actually is the VRAM, sadly enough turning down the ultra textures to high will fix the problem, since these modern titles take huge loads of VRAM for these textures

 

I have lots of space on drive C as I have 256gb ssd where win 8 is installed.
Anyway, the popup error can be ignored and just go back ingame and continue playing ACU on ultra then works okay to ignore but sometimes gets annoying message reminds me my newly purchased unit somehow lacks extra vram.
Somehow makes me wonder if I should have gone with Gigabyte P35v3 where it is also slim with 6gb vram and that's also soldered so I think it's possible even for non mxm cards. I like that one too but that thing worries me much is too much slim also have worst cooling on max loads. oh well no choice, already got NP8651 so just have to ignore the popup error or find a way to stop windows telling me low on memory thing for now

 

hi everyone i need help.

i would like to learn if i will be able to boot my pc ( clevo P650SE) with using samsung xp941 128gb Ssd ?

pls help me, if the answer is yes i'm gonna order one from amazon. I dont want to be disappointed.

Thank you

 

https://www.ramcity.com.au/blog/m.2-ngff-ssd-compatibility-list/189

i tried to learn from this site but i couldnt

 

I don't see why it would be a problem. It is found on the BIOS boot settings to 1st boot the M.2 SSD just like my Crucial M.2 SSD. It's actually that simple for NP8651.

 

i've read some articles about this ssd and they say xp941 doesnt work as bootable drive for most motherboards.

 

''The Samsung XP941 PCIe M.2 SSD, apart from being PCIe x4 based, is a '2280' drive, so it's 22mm wide, but 80mm long. Currently it's only supported natively (and bootable) in certain specific models of the Sony Vaio Pro 13, the ASRock Z97 Extreme6 motherboards (other Z97 chipset series motherboards are being tested soon), all 2006-2012 model Mac Pro towers, or you can install it in any desktop with a free PCIe slot using a PCIe M.2 to standard PCIe adapter (booting is not supported in windows desktops using the PCIe adapter currently, however, but it is in the Mac Pro).''

https://www.ramcity.com.au/blog/m.2-ngff-ssd-compatibility-list/189

 

HTWingNut can you help me?

i see you are using p941 256 gb

 

You're sure making it a big deal problem when Sager customized option @ Sager Custom Laptops also have the option for 256GB Samsung XP941 M.2 PCIe SSD - as an OS Drive (Primary Drive C) [+$105.00] so it's obviously supported and should be not a problem at all like any other M2 Sate/PCIE SSDs.

HTWingNut can surely make you at peace of mind since he have one installed on his. For quick better answer better post on the NP8652/NP8652 thread where everyone is more active than here

 

yes it can be used as an OS drive with win8.1 in UEFI mode

 

Just wanted to thank everyone who posted very useful insights in this thread. After much deliberation, I'm moving on from my troubled Razer Blade Pro. I've ordered an NP8651 with the IPS screen (backordered, so going to have to wait a bit) and really looking forward to it. Bringing my own disks and memory so it came out to just $1300. Hopefully will have it within a week or two.

 

thank you sneakablez and jaybee83

 

Correct, and I use it for that.

 

I am wondering how can I get the 3G/4G sim slot to work. If I buy a m.2 module for 3g/4g will it work? Coz the port seems to be blocked...

 

i think its a factory option, so u either order ur machine with one preinstalled or it wont be active on the mobo...

 

If I knew I would have but this is not listed on the customization option for the unit on Sager site
oh well too bad...