Deadsmiley's Review of the Sager NP8278 / Clevo P170SM-A

Do you see temps like that on all games and benchmarks too? Or is it just Mechwarrior Online?

 

Didn't see this until today.

It's MWO. Other games aren't that bad. I found that if I just cap the frame rate to 60 then it isn't an issue. I am not the only one that has experienced this with MWO.

 

MWO does load down the system a lot on both cpu and gpu, so it will stress it to the limit and expose any weakness in the cooling setup.

 

MWO has fixed the issue by capping the game to 60 fps while not in a match. I find this rather weird, but OK.

My laptop looks like it has been through a war. It was knocked off a folding table when someone stepped on the ethernet cable. One USB port has been unusable for a while because a USB stick tweaked the port. I dropped the power brick on the lid while it was closed and put a dent in it. I am on my third LCD panel. I installed glossy screen because I didn't like the matte. Then I dropped a screw driver on the screen and gouged it, so I got a 3rd screen to replace the damaged one. When the laptop got pulled off the table and onto the concrete floor the vents on back right got busted. I decided to just cut out that plastic since it already looked bad. My laptop looks sad, but still runs every day with no issues from an operational stand point.

 

Poor machine

 

If it runs, that is the important part still. Just need to come up with some kind of Mad Max or steam punk theme to mod it out in now. Work around the damages

 

Hahaha! Yes, I may get a new laptop when Pascal settles down a bit and I found out what people are having success with. This was the only machine in which I have been an early adopter. Overall I am very pleased with this laptop. Even with the 880M it is still faster than a lot of other machines playing the games I play, including desktops. This says a lot to me since I have had this machine for 2 1/2 years.

1) The premium for paying top dollar was worth it for the GPU.

2) I should have stuck with a 1TB 2:5" SDD. I can't really move my 1TB mSATA to a new machine without an adapter. ITB HDD for backup of my work stuff is plenty so I could have done 1TB SSD + 1TB HDD.
2a) I have never regretted getting a 1TB SSD. I have exceeded 500GB usage many times and I really like having programs installed on the SSD, especially VMs!

3) 32GB (as originally configured) was a waste of money. Even with 4 VMs, AutoCAD, RSView Studio, RSLogix 5000, Excel, many Chrome tabs and eDrawings veiwer the most memory I ever saw utilized was 21GB. At this point the
i7-4810MQ was getting tasked. I put the other 16GB in another laptop and I have never missed it.

4) Clevo/Sager was a very good move for me since I require Win 7 for some of my work. I know VMs can be used, but I have found that coms drivers for specific USB drivers often require Win 7 to work. This does me know good since the host (Win 8.1/10) often don't have drivers available.

5) I am hoping that Clevo/Sager will still offer Win 7 compatible systems when new machines with Pascal roll out. If not, I may just keep this one as long as I can, damage and all. Or perhaps I can buy the previous model used that will upgrade to Pascal. Time will tell me soon enough.

P.S.
Pat, I am not asking for you to leak anything.

 

The 2.5" to msata adapters should be pretty painless to use.

 

Honestly, I haven't heard about win 7 compatibility. Since new models aren't out yet, then there aren't drivers out either. Another to put in the "wait and see" category really.

 

*ahem*

you do realize you have the GT83 "overprice edition" up on your website right?

https://webcache.googleusercontent....-titan-sli-024.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

 

You are probably better PMing that

 

I guess ^_^

 

Looks like it was addressed already.

 

*lagged and it double-posted*

 

I've had my 8278-S for around a year now, got it from Xotic PC. I love it! Had my fair share of accidents with it too. Put it on a chair beside my bed before I slept, I think I kicked it off while I was sleeping. It seemed to have fallen backwards landing on the power cable as it's slightly bent now and made a tiny dent on the exhaust grill. My first LCD panel on it was the 72% gamut matte display. I had a little problem with it. It had this tiny white spot that appeared a couple of weeks since I bought it. It slowly increased in size over time, kinda annoying but didn't care about it too much. Around December I got the Glossy one, same as the one OP got. It had 1 tiny stuck pixel. No problem. But now just today I just noticed a white spot growing again in a different place. Don't know if I'm just really unlucky. I never really poked at my screen even accidentally. Anyone else have this problem? I hope this method of pulling the screen off with a vacuum suction cup works. Also found a weird "glitch" with the Hotkey program. It increases it's size over time when viewed at the "Programs & Features." Mine reached to more than 10 GB. Gonna observe it again now as I've installed fresh Windows 10 in it again.

I was also wondering if it could be possible to install an IPS panel in this laptop?

 

All IPS panels use eDP connections. Sounds like you got unlucky as the white spot issue is the panel itself rather than anything else.

 

When you get a white spot on the screen in my experience it's from pressure from behind the screen, like something pushes on the lid while it's closed and presses either the lid or something inside the lid into the back of the screen. Poking it from the front makes dark marks or cracks.