**OFFICIAL M860TU/ETU Owners Lounge**

Sweet cant wait to see how your custom skin came out....did you order through XoticPC? Ive heard good things about their skins.

 

Just ordered my NP8662 from PC Torque, who did a great job accommodating some special needs that I had, including a 4 year warranty and a neat trick to avoid California state sales tax. I'm kind of a turtle when it comes to technology as I usually get a new computer once every 4-5 years, but the time has come for an upgrade so I'm happy to finally be replacing my old Compaq R4000 (which has been rock solid for me these past 5 years).

The specs in my sig and the 4 year warranty cost my almost $2100.00.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to receiving my new Sager and getting back into gaming!

 

Yeah, mine is from XoticPC ~ I'm so excited. xD

 

Congrats!

Congrats!
Everyone that gets one loves it.
The best 15" notebook out for gaming ...period!

 

We've almost reached the M860TU's one year anniversary. It's been a great run so far.

Much love to everyone who's been here from the start, as well as those who have joined along the way.

 

It sounds like you're paying a bit much for that spec? I have the same spec except the OS, but it was 1500 dollars for that. 1620 ish should be max for that spec... unless you added some other stuff....

 

hello everyone. i just got myself an 8660 off ebay for what i think was a steal. it is a 2.8 w/4gb ram and the 9800m GTS.

i loaded up windows 7x64 RC (build 7100) and the nvidia mobile drivers. everything looks great.

i had 2 questions though.

1) the temperatures running hardware monitor (program that comes with cpu-z) show the cpu cores hitting 90c under load during benchmarking.

A sager tech told me this was fine, and the intel website actually said the thermal limitation was ~100c, but still, this is new to me. I am used to my desktop running nice and cool Anyone else see these sort of temps?

2) the battery seems to last barely 1.5 hrs on the balanced plan, running only a movie. Is this normal?

Anyway, thanks everyone for a great forum. I look forward to enjoying my Sager immensely.

 

CPU at 90C is quite high. Make sure to clean the fans and see if it helps.

1.5 hours with the movie sounds about right... although if the battery was well used, it could last 2 hours no problem.

 

90C is fine as long as it does not float higher than that.

like said, definitely:
- clean out the fans/vents (the dust clogs are a menace)
- re-applying thermal compound could help as well.
- and make sure to always use the notebook on a clean, hard, flat surface at all times (NEVER blocking the bottom vents)

 

could have swore I read someone blocking some vents and got cooler temps which is extremely unusual and goes against any logical reasoning.
But do like Gophn says and never block the bottom vents, he is always right

 

By bottom vents he means the fan intakes.

 

opened the case, replaced the hdd with an ssd, and used compressed air to clean out the vents and fan.

i am seeing 15-20 degrees lower in games now.

that is crazy considering it didn't even look like much dust was in there.

thanks.

 

There seems to be a need for a reapplication of thermal paste. Also, check the fan and vents for dust build up.

 

I've been able to get 12,362 in 3DMark06. But for some reason Vantage gives my QX9300 a much lower CPU score than it did my P9500 (same clock, less cores).

Is there a patch I need to install or something?

 

Anyone offering the QX9300 in the M860TU yet?

 

a few vendors are... but most will not since they are following Clevo's recommendations.

you can just install it yourself... its a simple task.

 

After an FSB increase and some mild GPU overclocking (overvolted), I get 12,545 in 3DMark06, and 6411 in Vantage.

Max temps 90°

 

you may want to turn down the firepower in the CPU to a q9100 if you want it to be more day-to-day useable. What amazes me is that you managed to get a 280m into a 260m heatsink. Was that a homebrew, or did you find a company who was willing to take the risk? (I'm happy stock, as I need this rig to be useable on battery more than ultimate performance)

Jason

 

My FSB is overclocked; meaning my CPU is overclocked, my GPU is also overclocked and overvolted on top of my FSB overclock.


When running at stock settings, I'm in the 40's.

 

who made for you the custom GPU setup?

 

I forgot to answer this, I purchased and installed the GPU and CPU myself.

 

I`m just wondering what you guys are experiencing, but when my TU is in normal mode, and the fan goes completetly off (happens when the temps are 37-39 for gpu/acpi and cpu at 21-24 it looks like), it is more silent when you use the silent mode. Because when I enable the silent mode after the fans stops in normal mode, I can hear the fans kick in a little bit.

What else does the silent mode do other than slowing down the fans (assuming the fans are at normal speed)? Does it lower the GPU clocks (not idle) and CPU speed?

 

Silent mode on your M860TU. The fan will turn on at 42*C and turn off at 38*C. In silent mode, it will always keep the fan running at it's lowest speed and also cap the CPU. However, the GPU is not capped. Only on battery will the GPU be limited to 3D desktop speeds.

Silent mode is intended to prevent the fan from spinning faster. This is ideal for places like libraries where you want the fan to be quiet, but not off that the components don't receive any active cooling.

 

Alright so silent mode on M860TUs won't cause any overheatage like stealth mode on M15x's?

Also, sorry for the noob question but I didn't find anything coherent about this: Looking on Wikipedia there is listed a "GTS 260M" GPU in addition to GTX 260M. Are the GTS's the GPUs slated for next year that won't be compatible with M860TUs?

Edit: Nevermind. Other than GDDR5 [what it really means is beyond me] it seems an inferior chip to the GTX version anyways.

 

I don't know about the M15x's, but the M860TU still has a great potential of overheating if you use it during heavy work or gaming while on silent mode. It is also on the part of the user to have responsibility when using silent mode only during idle or light work or light gaming such as Counter Strike 1.6. As long as you are aware of the level of demand that you are putting on your machine and the current fan state it is operating in, you should be just fine.

The GTS 260M is the successor to the GTS 160M. It is still weaker than the GTX 260M, albeit new architecture and smaller fabrication, and will be released in MXM 3.0, which is not compatible with the M860TU's MXM 2.1 slot.

 

Oh alright. I was just so scared by the horror stories about stealth mode M15x's left to idle but ending up cooked that I'm wary of anything similar. Good to know M860TU's quiet mode isn't self sabotaging.

 

The Silent Mode is still automated to spin up the fans if any temps go to a certain point.

... no so, it wont overheat.

 

The DVD drive is not annoying but I'm entertaining the possibility of maybe swapping the optical for the quieter DVD drive on my JHL90. There shouldn't be any problem with it right?

 

you can do that... I think they are both using the same SATA connectors.

 

How do i tell the difference between the TU and ETU models?

 

By Videocard, CPU support, revision of MB.

 

I was told both the TU and ETU version stock Nvidia 260's so that is a bad indicator. What do you mean by cpu support and revision mb?

 

It's likely that reps at companies haven't been specific on the differences between the ETU and TU. the ETU is still called a M860TU by most.

I don't know why people keeping saying that the older version doesn't support the 260M. It's a crock of carp. A really silly unproven urban myth that came out of no-where. They just require a BIOS update. The heatsinks et al. are exactly the same etc. Maybe it's because TU's come standard with the older 9800M series cards. They CAN be upgraded though.

There are two ways to tell - MB serial number and or (if you're the shot first type/very reckless) plugging in a quad into the notebook. If it doesn't power up then you'll have an older version.

All OEM sellers these days tend to sell the ETU (QUad-supported) version.

 

Noone will sell stock M860TU with 260GTX onboard.

- M860TU (9800 VC, c2d CPU, MB revision < V3.1A-1);
- M860ETU/M862TU (260GTX, quad cpu support, MB revision is V3.1A-1).

Companies didn't change name from M860TU. So most of all selling M860ETU as M860TU.

 

Who would want one without the option of quad-support now anyway? Even if you plan to just use dual-cores it's nice to have that option open. Hell, I'd be tempted to take my TU back now if we weren't more than a few months away from a supposed W860CU release, making it all pointless.

 

M862TU doesn't exist, you are referring to sagers naming convention where they are the NP8660/NP8662 respectively.

 

I saw on kobalt forum the meaning of this model as M862TU.
http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=5508
I was curious what is this and why not M865TU it's named. I found out that this is M860ETU after.

 

afaik that is a misnomer, The only places that the M862TU is referenced is here, that kobalt thread, and a thread on neowin.

Besides, according to the clevo naming convention, the last digit is a cosmetic change code (d900/901c - different colour, m860/865tu - different looking chassis, but same innards)

 

I am aware that Xotic started stocking new chipsets in it's base package for the NP8662's about 2 months ago (moving from packaging P8600's to P8700). However, even since then the option of upgrading P8600 -> Quad core options (notably the Q9000) were available.

Is it safe to assume that a 2 month NP8662 from Xotic is the ETU version? Does anyone know roughly when Xotic made the switch from TU to ETU?

The reason I ask is because I bought a used NP8662, and didn't get a chance to check the serial yet.

 

If it is definitely an NP8662, then yes it is an ETU (NP8660=M860TU, NP8662=M860ETU)

 

I feel like an idiot... After reading pages and pages about the M860TU's for the past two weeks I didn't come across this simple comment.

Thanks, that clears things up for me!

 

when will the w860cu be out and how will it compare to the m860etu?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=387411

This thread has about everything that we know about the W860CU so far. No one has confirmed dates for its release, most everyone can agree on speculation that it will come out in a few months (highly likely Q1 of 2010 or later).

It may have the I7 core's from Intel, roughly 40% faster then the quad core options available to the current M860ETU (QX9300, one of the best quad options for the current M860ETU).

Again, give that thread a good read but most everything is left unconfirmed.

 

Hum...thanks.
I'm not going to wait that long for it.
And I'm assuming that there's absolutely no way that i can upgrade to an i7 in a m860etu?

 

You'll have to switch out your mobo...

Not worth it, even if possible. A better option would be to sell your Sager Np8662 (if the w860cu does release within the next half year) and use the cash to upgrade to a brand new w860cu. Prices for the sager NP8662 probably wont drop more below $1000 within the next half year, its a solid machine with quad support, which is what a lot of people are looking for (not everyone needs the best possible maxed out settings) and I'm certain there are going to be people extremely happy to buy a NP8662 in half a year for ~$1000. Not to mention it has plenty of upgradability to lengthen its lifespan as a gaming machine to at least 2 years+.

I'm in the same boat, but realized I didn't want to wait half a year. So I plan on selling the NP8662 if I feel the need to upgrade when w860cu comes out.

 

Okay, thanks.

I don't think I need an i7 anyways. Ill probably just buy a np8662 and stick with it.

 

Just curious what nvidia drivers everyone is using and which ones you have found deliver best performance increase.
When i first got my machine a ran 3dmark06 and scored 10524 using stock drivers, i ran the benchmark again yesterday using 186.03 drivers and the score went down to 10156. Which is quite a big drop...and probably alittle low for my setup...any driver/drivermod suggestions would be welcomed thanks.

 

does anyone feel like they really have to bang on the keyboard hard to get it to respond?

when i type, i am finding i have to go back and mash some keys that were missed. some keys seems to be more problematic than others.

is there any remedy for this (e.g. setting in the bios?)

thanks,
tf

 

I just purchased a used Sager NP8662. I plan on running all the standard benchmarks and testing that people run when buying a new Sager, but are there any other tests that i should specifically do?

 

Check the HDD temp. It could be the reason why he/she sold it. lol