**D900F (Sager 9280) Owners Lounge**

You be welcome, and I guarantee that you won't get any problems with this thing especially if you purchase from Xotic. They are a dream to work with and they really do care about us quite a bit. They received my payment on Monday of one week, and I received my machine on Thursday of THAT SAME WEEK.

Did I mention it was an international order?

By the way what are the specs you want to get this machine with? I'm just curious

 

I'll probably just go with the base configuration:

-gtx280m
-i7 920 2.66
-3gb
-single 250gb 5400rpm, will probably upgrade later to the 3 500gb 5400rpm hdds for the grand total of 1.5 tb
-And w/e the cheapest os is.

One thing I was unsure of, I heard the 920 produces more heat than the other processors, or is that just bs? Should I possibly encounter more problems with the 920 than if I upgraded to the 950 or 975?

 

Basic configuration is still one heck of a powerful computer, so that's ok - but I think you should consider 6 Gb RAM. It's cheap.

I have a i7 920, and temperatures both idle and under load is quite ok.
Remember, that for gaming, the i7 processor is overkill in combination with a single GTX 280M card. Meaning the gpu will be the bottleneck. So a 920 will be plenty.

 

I suggest the 6GB of RAM as well. Also, I don't know about it but my 950 never goes above about 75 deg on any core. I do suggest taking the 7200 RPM in any planned hard drives later on however, it makes a HUGE difference in loading times for programs and applications. If you want to take a 5400 RPM version, look toward the 640GB ones for the extra size

 

Well I just wanted the 5400 drives for the less heat and possibly less fan noise, which I may reconsider.

Also, 640gb drives? Que awesome! =D

 

Yah I got 3gb, which I now regret ( well I was spending way too much anyway ) so eventually I'm going to have to get more RAM. Crappy thing is though, I'll have to just throw the 3 in there out, because there are only 3 ram slots, so I'll have to get 3x2gb sticks and basically be stuck with 3x1gb sticks. =/

 

I've had my 9280 for about 3 weeks now. I'm completely satisfied with the performance and the fit & finish.

I also purchased it from XoticPC and highly recommend them.

Can't wait to remove the RTM version of Windows later this week and install the new released version!

 

the 640GB drives are only in 5400 RPM for now... and dude trust me when I tell you. Heat and fan noise? FORGET ABOUT IT. If you are thinking about anything to reduce heat, the only thing you should think about to reduce heat would be something like not using it on a stove... or something.

This machine is quiet. Buy the best for it, get it, open the box, charge the machine, use it, be happy, then in a week come back here and tell us you think they shipped you a bad machine because it runs so quiet that the fans must be missing.

 

sell them on ebay, they would go for a decent bit I'd think

 

Yah tomorrow I get this beast finally, it's coming via UPS, so hopefully it's not banged up or anything. I got it through PcTorque, tried XoticPC but had to keep hearing this stuff about my card, and through luck I guess it went through with PcTorque. The bank blocked the charge at first ( due to anti theft stuff, but Xotic was blocking it themselves over the address too, yet we had just made a purchase that day and the address matched so, I dunno they tried our patience ) Xotic was closed and PcTorque was not that night, so heh I don't like to wait extra days, especially when Xotic lists a 3-7 build time. I think PcTorque got it out in 2 days, so pretty happy with that.

 

Xotic says 3-7 to be safe. Payment was received 2pm my time on Monday, and it was shipped at 11 am my time on tuesday of that same week. Got it as an international order on the Thursday of that same week they got paid.

 

I got it! Amazing, simply amazing...it's so much better in person, I don't regret getting it at all. Only thing I was confused about is the battery... 3 screws? Not something I can just take out with a slide lock, but should I be taking this battery out when I'm on A/C power? I don't want to fry my battery by overcharging it.

 

You wanna post some pics for some of us less fortunate? =D

I decided to build a tower pc for now, money is pretty tight, I'll buy one of these in the very near future though. =)

 

Congrats.

No but having the battery in is great, I mean this is a powerhungry monster and a battery always in is a good buffer for power surges when the laptop really opens up all of a sudden. More stable for the electrical components.

++ In my experience as long as the power supply is high quality it will trickle charge the battery after it is full and will make for a very strong charge when u finally need it on battery power.

Have fun with it,

 

The battery should really be considered a backup emergency power source for when the power goes out. Gives you enough time to finish what you're doing, or find a save point, and then turn it off (or watch a movie until the battery gives out).

 

Congratulations!
It is an awesome computer.
As for the battery, I choose to not keep it on the charger 24/7. When I know I won't be using the notebook for a while, I unplug the power supply.
But that's just me. I have no empirical evidence to prove this, but in my +12 years experience with notebook batteries, is for the long term they don't seem to like to have a constant connection to the charger.

Bottom line - no matter what you do all Li-Ion batteries fail (or have a huge performance drop off) after 1-2 years anyway.

 

Ok something wierd is going on when I use the F.E.A.R. benchmark utility..
I get 76fps average at 1920x1200 max settings no AA. I can run it over and over, and I get 76 average...but. When I go to single player game, FPS drops to about half, and when I leave game, then go to benchmark the system again.. I get about 43 average FPS and 50 max, and like 30 minimum. 3 different drivers have done this now, but other games dont seem to be affected from what I have seen.

 

I traveled with my D900F this past week, and MAN does my shoulder hurt! This bad boy is NOT for traveling, thats for damned sure, it's just too heavy! I might just get a netbook for travel.

Besides that here I am a month or so later and I'm extremely happy with it. The screen could be brighter but besides that it's a dream! I can game with the graphics maxed out with no issues and at some point in the next year or so I'll snag another video card to drop in and be still ahead of the laptop power curve since I have a desktop class processor!

 

Ok so I just found out something else about this F.E.A.R. dilema.
My FPS is capped at 50 when I'm in single player mode, even when I'm looking at the floor... in any resolution! yet I get up to 140 FPS max in the benchmark utility, .

 

Yah I love the screen, it's not much different than my desktop Acer 19'' LCD.
Great contrast ratio, screen isn't as bright as some, but it makes up for it with the great blacks. Plus using digital vibrance makes the colors amazing, LCD quality can be helped by that, even my Gateway P-6831FX with it's horrible colors looked pretty good with about 30% digital vibrance.

 

Do you maybe have vSync on? I don't know how the benchmark works, but if it just tests the GPU without actually outputting much to the screen, the vSync limitation might not kick in until you're actually playing.

 

Vsync wouldn't do that, because it would attempt to flat out his rates at 60 FPS plain. It wouldn't both limit and cap it to 50 fps... I couldn't say though, benchmarking tools that aren't built into games usually do not give good results. I know people like their benchmarking stuff, but I'll say no benchmark can give me results for the kind of crazy stunts people pull in these games. Like when I'm playing Crysis Warhead... I do seriously crazy shiz. FRAPS tells me that I run at 27-30 FPS unless there is some sort of fire around the place. That is outside of the ice map. I assume when I reach the ice map, things will be different. Benchmarks will tell me "you get etc etc etc" and I try it and I find it works out better than it's supposed to, or worse than it's supposed to.

In short, I say if you want to play a game, try it and see what happens.

Now, question for you... you've tried different drivers.... have you tried overclocking the card a bit and seeing if it gives you any difference? If it gives no difference with an overclock, then your problem is your copy of the game. Also if vsync causes you to lock at 50FPS, your game has a problem there as well O.O

Anyway, let us know how it goes.

 

I am about to install XP on my 900F and have a question regarding the Nvidia drivers. Should I use Nividia's native own laptop drivers for the M280, desktop drivers with a modified *.inf or maybe a driver for XP from another Sager/Clevo laptop (not sure wich would one)?

Thanks for the info

 

you need to install a new BIOS I believe... and just wondering why would you want XP on this machine? Even though I hate windows 7 I still recommend it over XP, if you don't like Vista

 

Well it's not the actual benchmark causing the problems, it's the game. The benchmark always shows good results ( what they're supposed to be ) but the actual game within a few seconds just goes down to 30-50 FPS. I haven't been able to overclock, Rivatuner shows the wrong clocks ( like 384 and 780 ) and Ntune is a POS of course. So I don't know what the heck is going on, the card shows correct clocks on Gpu-Z though.

 

Sorry I am asking... does the BIOS of the D900F allow the use of unlocked multipliers ?

 

Make sure you have the D900F BIOS 1.00.03 or later, (in order to provide proper ACPI support under XP). Links here. And then just visit the nVidia website here and download the appropriate driver for the laptop 280M chipset. GeForce -> GeForce 200M Series (Laptop) -> Operating System (pick whatever version of XP you want the driver for) -> Language (and finally whatever language you require). There's no need to get edited INF files anymore since nVidia has allowed downloading the laptop drivers directly from their website.

Good Luck..

 

I don't think so - but some desktop X-58 utility apparently allows one to increase the multiplier at the OS level.

 

Ok I figured out why Fear was all messed up.
Chipset drivers weren't all the way installed. I used the CD to install them, I remember even restarting the comp after I was done with the chipset portion. Yet just now I was checking to see which panel I had in this, and I saw like 20 devices with the exclamation point on them. So I manually reinstalled each one, and guess what they said. Intel I/O, Bus controller and etc.
So I guess the CD didn't even install them?
Just in case, all 9280 owners should confirm they have all chipset drivers installed from your device manager.
I guess I should give myself +rep! hah!
Also HID devices not having drivers installed yet not being disabled causes problems like that also I eventually found a forum discussing that. I turned the uninstalled ones off, and I get even better results now!

 

Wierd, after all that, I reinstalled my nV drivers and still cannot overclock on any 3rd party program such as RivaTuner and ATI-Tool. Also my 3dmark06 score went down from 13200ish to 12500ish, bah!

Ran it one more time and got 13021, wierd! makes me feel better though.

 

You can oc your gpu with Nvidia's own downloadable System Tools.
13300 abouts is what I got in non oc'd state.

 

Thanks a bunch man, got my clocks up to 650/1600/1000
Can't even break the 62C mark with fans on high on Furmark!
Man this card could be OC'd to the moon at this rate!

 

Hello good people of the D900F club, I have just recieved my own Clevo D900F barebone system from rjtech. And I have a few issues with stability.

[backstory]
I went the barebone route as that site was the only one who offered to sell the laptop with out parts, such as with out a cpu or OS.
My plan was to use as many existing parts I had on me, and keep the cost down, like below $2500.
I took the Core i7 965 from my desktop system and install it the D900F.
I did up upgrade to the blue-ray disc drive, and decided to also opt for the $200 dead pixel warranty, just to be safe.
I bought some g.skill DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) ram and then scrounged up what ever else I had, laptop sata disk drives/ssd disks, and then began deciding on what os I would use.

And here begins my issue:
First I tried WinXP Pro 64, this was my first choice because my cdkey seems to be unlimited in usage, but the os would not install.
First it would fail to reach the point where you select a disk/partition to use, then I found a ACHI sata driver from my X58 desktop board, I loaded it on to a floppy and worked for the first half of the install, then after the first reboot the system failed, and was not recoverable.

My next choice was a old copy of Win Vista Ultimate 64 (pre service packs)
The os installed, and actually made it to the desktop, but was very unstable.
As I was installing drivers, the thing would keep crashing, I was unable to install the first service pack, as the system would crash about half way through the installation.

I began to wonder if there was a hard ware issue, I managed to install things like CPU-Z, GPU-Z and looked to see if there were any temperature issues, I did not notice any. I also double checked the fans to make sure they were spinning good (people did say the fans are quite) they were, but to be sure everything was cooling correctly, I reseated the heatsink to make sure the ram and chipset were covered, and then put the laptop on a zalman cooling 17inch cooling pad, plugged it into a separate powered usb hub and set the fans to high.

My next step was to try out Memtest86 from a linux install cd. That thing ran fine for hours. But then I recall some one stating Memtest86 is not a exhaustive test suite. I tried other things but those resulted in more crashes.
I then changed out my system drive and gave Linux a try, that crashed about 80% through package installation.

It just happens that I had preorded Windows 7 Ultimate months ago, and got my copy on friday, so I took all of my disk drives out of the laptop, and attached a esata desk top 500GB 7200rpm hard drive.

Windows 7 installed flawlessly (just to be sure, I still used that X58 driver, for Vista) infact the system is now almost usable. I still get crashes though. Such as the last crash I got was during the Windows Experience score building thing.

I still can not pin down exactly what is causing the crashes, I got Core Temp and GPU-Z running when I try out things, the temps seem very low, between the 50's and 60's, the GPU will drop down the 40's when not in use.

Because the CPU and GPU seem to be behaving correctly, im leaning towards the RAM or chipset. Ether the chipset is broke, or not cooled properly. Or is my ram bad?

I know I picked some pretty fast ram, I hope its not too fast, even if the desktop chipset goes with the speed the ram wants to run at, may it be too fast for a laptop environment? Or maybe I need to get better, more compatible ram? This is the ram I bought.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231215

I am sorry for the long post, I do not yet want to contact Clevo or the web store I purchased from with my issues, I am also hoping that maybe the thermal material may not have yet settled perfectly into place, and maybe stability will slowly set in.

 

I got 14064 on 3dmark06 with 650/1600/1000
Pretty happy with that! Highest temp 64C lol.

 

Hmm you're using 2 sticks of RAM or all 3? What happens when you run something like 3kmark06?

 

three pieces of ram, haven't tried 3dmark yet.

 

I tried installing 3DMark 06, crashed when asked about installing some version of DirectX, I clicked yes and it crashed. I am running the retail version of Windows 7, I am assuming the older version of DirectX is not needed... ill try running it after it is done rebooting... infact as I am typing this from another laptop.. it just crashed again after it rebooted to the login screen...

 

Well this is interesting, it just crashed twice when trying to reboot, now its at a repair screen asking if I want to restore back to a earlier point 'when things worked' I clicked yes...

 

Wow, okay this is interesting, that restore point thing reverted alot. Not only is 3dmark not installed any more, the FTP software I installed is gone, and the copies of 3Dmark I downloaded are gone too.

I am concerned now, I think I recall yesterday under Windows 7 a blue screen with a NTFS error.

Could there be some sort of corruption involved at the SATA controller?
Meaning just about all of the components in my laptop, the CPU, memory, the GPU, are all working correctly, but the SATA controller or the chipset it self is broken?

 

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ACHI+ssd&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

Are you running SSD(s) or HDD(s) in ACHI?

Old Part(s) or new.. I see the Ram is new.. but the chip has been burned in on another mobo.. http://files.aoaforums.com/D171-CPU Burn-in Stress.html

I would think you are going to spend some time trying to get all of the parts you have tweaked so that the machine will run smoothly..

The old non-SP1 or 2 which is out.. is not helping.. is it Ultimate or home premium? sorry.. I re-read.. Ultimate Vista for me in the first generation form never.. NEVER! worked out well.. that is to say it was never stable..

You have a barrel of monkey's... losts of parts.. old parts.. new parts.. and an old OS that was nothing but problems for me..

On the upside you have the best backbone for a laptop made in the world..

I would consider a newer OS.. Home Premium.. something lite.. until you can get all the parts you have playing nice together.. then after everything is working go for whatever OS you want and double or triple boot in VM..

Sorry I dont have more experience or fact to offer.. but you have the best of the best to work with.. so it can not be all bad.

Good luck, JW

As well... http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=428249

 

I am using a 3.5inch sata desk top hard drive, attached via esata, for my os right now (while I was worried heat was a issue, I thought it would be best to leave the internal drive bays empty) and I am using Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit, retail, for my OS. I am going to try changing out the drivers to see if they are making things unstable.

When you say SSD under ACHI mode, do you mean running a SSD under RAID mode would cause different results? Even if its just one SSD? I wonder if running a sata disk drive as non-raid, when the RAID option in the BIOS is enabled, would cause the disk drive to operate as ACHI.
The BIOS only gives you two options to run your SATA drives under. :/

 

Ok I am going to try testing the CPU load, but gradually, I wonder how this thing can handle heat load.

Btw, the D900F cooling fans. I am using this laptop on a 17inch wide cooling pad, that has three 120mm fans in it. I have yet to hear my D900F's internal fans rev up.

Once I run a tool that should put my cpu at full load and stress test it, I should expect to hear laptops internal fans get louder, right?

 

interesting I had a bluescreen with tcpip.sys when trying to download a app. Oh well, ill let the laptop have a short break to cool down, and then ill try another stress app.
So far one app brought the first core up to like 80% load, the temps did not go very far above 60c.

 

Ok, it ran CPU Burn-In fine.
Tried the IntelBurnTest app, crashed the first time, tried it a second time, it passed 5 tests of low intensity. Though the CPU reached 80C near the end. It hovered around 75C for most of it though.

I guess thats good for a 3.2-3.3ghz CPU in a laptop eh?

Btw, I still don't think my fans are doing much different than normal. I mean I can't hear any difference, and when I place my hands behind the laptop, I don't feel any different amount of air passing through.

Gah, I wonder if there is any software to try to change the fans speeds.
I mean why else do the fans have more than one wire going to them if their speeds dont seem to change, I have yet to find any software that says they can change the speeds, I have not seen any thing that reports how many RPM's they are doing. And whats the wire that leads from the big heatsink to the mainboard? Is that a thermal sensor? I will try to get a pic of it tomorrow. I am going to run another batch of stress tests and let the thing rest for the night.

 

Ok, go into your device manager and see if any devices are uninstalled, and dig a little if you have to. Something is bad wrong, Ive seen chipset drivers act like this before too.

 

The only thing in the device manager that looks out of place right away, is the ITECIR Infrared Receiver (EC) stating the driver's digital signature can not be verified.

I am wondering if I should go through and try making sure all of the drivers are the newest copies/made for Win7 and not for Vista.

Ran the IntelBurnTest 4 times now, 2 passes and 2 crashes.

 

Ok, I went through Device Manager, I noticed most of the drivers under System Devices were provided by Microsoft, and dated 2006.

So I checked Clevo's site for drivers, nothing specific for Win7, and did not seem to be updated any time recently..

So I went to Sagers site and checked out their downloads section, and found updated drivers for Win7. <3

Unzipped them and ran the Intel driver installation software. Nothing changed in Device Manager, so I figured Windows told the installation software 'hey! all of my stuff is already up to date!' and the install software simply finished and quit.

So, I went through driver by driver and manually updated them. I updated everything I could find that seemed to refer to ICH10, espically the driver for the ICH10 ACHI SATA device. It says 6 port sata device, but what ever, its updated.

Some of my crashes seemed to relate to the sata controller, so I hope this will help.

 

Have you downloaded and installed the updated Intel Matrix Storage Manager?

 

I havent installed that yet, to be honest I wasnt sure what that software is for. On my old Core i7 desktop I had that installed, but could never figure out why I needed it.

It might sound like a dumb question, but is it used when the RAID option is enabled and a array configured? I only have one two sata devices attached, my disk drive and the blu-ray dvd.

Aside from newer Intel ACHI sata drivers installed, could the Intel Matrix storage manager really help things out?

 

It couldn't hurt
Actually, I think it's for RAID setups, yes - but I noticed on my machine - which doesn't have RAID - that some hiccups with the HDD disappeared after I installed the new version. I had temporary hangups/dropouts and short freezes when my machine was brand new - after I installed the IMSM, all this disappeared.
Haven't read enough about it to know what it actually does - just read somewhere that I should make sure that I install it. And good thing I did.
I'm sure someone in these forums can elaborate.