**OFFICIAL Sager NP5125/Sager NP5135/Clevo B5130M Owner's Lounge**

i remember it being said earlier in this thread that the bus speeds on the 450m being higher make it have higher performance or something along those lines, but the 5xx ones seem to have some extra features. im sure if u go thru this thread ull find the info

 

does the i5-450m run cooler than its 520m and 540m brothers? also, they take up the same energy?

 

I have been. And mcfaddeator is the first person ever mentioned about QPI ITT.

 

Just go to the NVIDIA control panel (right click desktop or search for it) and change the Global Settings to use High-Performance NVIDIA processor for everything. After installing the updated driver that shows exactly what your NVIDIA GPU is doing, you'll notice that the videocard only turns on for videogames anyway, in which case you'll probably want NVIDIA graphics. Alternatively, you could always add settings for individual exes. Steam stores these in

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\<game_folder>

 

We should have a poll of what everyone ordered like here is what i have

Core i5 540m
4 GB DDR3 RAM
FHD Screen
500 GB 7200RPM
Intel® Ultimate-N 6300

It would be kinda cool to get an overall tally of what everyone ordered to see what is bought the most... [:
1st Place: i5 540m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HDD | N6300 | DVD - 3 | Flip4Life, Juano11, Stryker412(don't know wireless)
2nd Place: i7 620m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HDD | ?????? | DVD - 1 | brunotacca
2nd Place: i7 620m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HYB | N6300 | DVD - 1 | washogren
2nd Place: i5 520m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HYB | 802.11 | DVD - 1 | VZX
2nd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 320GB HDD | N6300 | BLU - 1 | mcfaddenator
2nd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | _HD | 500GB HDD | N6300 | DVD - 1 | Firzen771
2nd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | _90GB SSD | N6300 | DVD - 1 | Daryl Z

Muahaha looks as if the only one with more then 1 is the same that i bought Please post your specs so I can update this.. It will be kinda fun and actually maybe pretty helpful to future buyers wondering what everyone else bought [:

 

Hey do you think you could test out either Fallout 3, Puzzle Quest 2, or (I think?) any of the new Sam & Max games? Not benchmarking so much as whether you can turn off vsync and frame queuing. I'm getting a pretty dramatic latency (about quarter of a second, but still very noticeable) between mouse movements/clicks and game response.

The normal solution, as I understand, is to go into the NVIDIA Control Panel and change Max Pre-rendered Frames to 0 or 1 and Vertical Sync to Force Off, but this doesn't seem to work for me. Have you experienced any lag issues, and/or found the control panel to be able to fix them?

I'm not asking you to fix my issues, just wondering if this is a universal problem, or if I screwed something up and I need to debug it. Hoping it's the latter, really. Thanks

 

From what I can tell, the big two are:

1)No Windows OS standard (no problem for me, since I got mine for free from Oregon State)
2)Cash discount (didn't use it)

results in about $100 cheaper.

 

I can do that. I'll download the demos and update you guys.

 

I actually got mine with the 320GB HDD. Just sayin' Am I the only one with a BD-ROM?

Also, washogren's is the same as mine but with DVD and i7-620.

Upon further inspection, i have made a slight mistake. In Core i7-9xx models, QPI (Quickpath Interconnect) is the direct 25.6GB/s link between processor and northbridge (which in turn connects to RAM and PCIe bus). This means HUGE speed increases between the processor and the memory/PCIe.

However, this takes up a LOT of power. Desktop Core i7 power TDP actually increased compared to Core 2 Quad, even at lower frequencies, mostly because of this.

In every other Core i model, DMI (Direct Media Interface) is used instead, and the GT 330m is on the southbridge. This is a direct link between the northbridge (used for RAM) and the southbridge (used for SATA and graphics). This means you will see improvements in the time taken to write from hard drive to RAM, the time it takes for the GPU's power to be allocated properly, and the time it takes to read from PCIe to memory. If you double the speed, the performance here increases accordingly.

As far as I can see, they all run at 35 watts and are rated for a maximum of 105 degrees Celsius before they stop working.

 

It would be kinda cool to get an overall tally of what everyone ordered to see what is bought the most... [:
1st Place: i5 540m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HDD | N6300 | DVD - 3 | Flip4Life, Juano11, Stryker412(don't know wireless)
2nd Place: i7 620m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HDD | ?????? | DVD - 1 | brunotacca
2nd Place: i7 620m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HYB | N6300 | DVD - 1 | washogren
2nd Place: i5 520m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HYB | 802.11 | DVD - 1 | VZX
2nd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 320GB HDD | N6300 | BLU - 1 | mcfaddenator
2nd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | _HD | 500GB HDD | N6300 | DVD - 1 | Firzen771
2nd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | _90GB SSD | N6300 | DVD - 1 | Daryl Z

 

Thanks.

So actually all mobile i5 doesn't have QPI link, but they have DMI instead
(still doesn't understand how a 450 scores higher in 3DMark06 )

Note that my HD is the hybrid one. There's an option of 500GB normal one (though I doubt anyone opt to get that instead of the hybrid). Also my wireless card is in-built Realtek one since I don't get further benefit from getting better wireless card, given the wireless environment I'm working with.

 

Having the SATA and PCIe writing to RAM directly means less stress on the CPU. Before this innovation, SATA/PCIe transfers had to go through the CPU for processing. It means less overhead, which trickles down and means the CPU can use more of its power towards processing 3DMark and less towards processing the PCIe requests.

 

I don't think the problem is volume for me, it's mostly just that there's no audible bass. I can make my equalizer a downward slope to deal with that to some extent.

 

I also have the Hybrid Drive

As for the optimus thing. It detects steam, but I don't think it'd detecting the games that steam then runs. Gunna create a custom one for those games and see how it does then

 

So that's why an i5-450 with 4.8 GT/s DMI bandwidth could score a little bit further to i5-520's 2.5 GT/s ?

But supposedly, you run 3DMark06 with the least background processing HD I/O; Wouldn't the extra speed on DMI bandwidth become irrelevant for it is not fully used given that scenario?

 

Awesome! After making the control panel recognize Portal it works perfectly! Sweet! I love this laptop!

 

Just bought this laptop, but I dont want to read this 100+ page thread in its entirety. Any one who has been following it from beginning willing to post a summary about what issues I should look out for with the laptop?

from a few random pages I found there's some things to do with the fanspeed, the webcam and the sound

 

Why do you do you doubt anyone opt to get the normal one instead of the hybrid? you realize that they charge $100 extra for that hard drive.. pretty much how much it costs on newegg so why not get technically a free 500gb hd then just buy the other one on newegg if you really want one because if you ordered it from them they are just making maddddd money off you its not even funny... its like buying the 8gb memory from them.. reallly bad idea

NOT TO MENTION.. if you bought the 500GB or 320GB laptop hard drive from them.. you can just sell it on craigslist or ebay or something for $60 and in return just have to pay $60 for the hybrid one apposed to paying $160 when you buy it from them (you lose $100 for no reason whatsoever) not to mention how easy hard drives are to install.. hopefully someone realizes how ridiculous it is to buy the hybrid from them and uses me idea because if you dont.. then you just wasted $100 that could have been spent on upgrading them processor or ram.. [:

 

1st Place: i5 540m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HDD | N6300 | DVD - 3 | Flip4Life, Juano11, Stryker412(don't know wireless)
2nd Place: i7 620m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HDD | ?????? | DVD - 1 | brunotacca
2nd Place: i7 620m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HYB | N6300 | DVD - 1 | washogren
2nd Place: i5 520m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HYB | 802.11 | DVD - 1 | VZX
2nd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 320GB HDD | N6300 | BLU - 1 | mcfaddenator
2nd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | _HD | 500GB HDD | N6300 | DVD - 1 | Firzen771
2nd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | _90GB SSD | N6300 | DVD - 1 | Daryl Z

 

I'm making some progress on the issue of the fan being constantly on. My PCH (southbridge) temperature is listed as 73C. This seems abnormal to me, but I would like to know what other people's temps are. I used the free HWiNFO HWiNFO32 Download . I need a few people to please run this, click the "Sensor" button, and report you PCH temperature.

 

Just problems with fan speed that can most likely be fixed.. (just a crooked fan that can be bent back and replacement fan sent from seller so no problem)

Webcam sucks, yea but people are claiming to be able to make it better by changing settings (so check out the settings they say to have a semi decent webcam)

Regarding the pitiful speaker volume, you can substantially increase the maximum volume by creating a custom equalizer effect that has all the frequencies maxed out.(copied post from someone else.. speakers aren't terrible for a laptop)

there is a little bit of flex in the top of the laptop but no big deal.

Few people have been complaining about the optimus not being able to work in games like steam games etc. But I think that this is a problem that was already fixed (people found out how to fix it) or it will just be fixed in future software updates so nothing to be too worried about.

Really thats about all is covered taken as a "problem" with this laptop

 

Would be great if I were living in the states.

The point is what the people use, right? Not what they ordered from the resellers. Even if you do it that way, that still count as you opt to use the hybrid drive instead the normal one.

 

Well sure that makes sense.. But I am actually just happy with my 500GB 7200RPM.. I'm not going to buy anything to do with SSD until the price of SSD's drop. I guess if enough people have good things to say about the hybrid then i might be game.. but so far, Iv just heard a few problems about it mainly so idk /: But I was merely saying that why would you buy it from them if you could just buy it $100 cheaper the other way? And Honestly I don't think the majority are buying the Hybrid.. A feww people but not not the majority

 

I don't know if it matters for you statistics or not, but I actually ordered a 320gb HDD with my machine and then swapped it for a 90gb SSD (Vertex II) from TigerDirect (~$200).

Also, I'm curious to see where people bought theres. I bought mine at SagerNotebooks. Did most of you guys go through ExoticPC?

One more thing, it seems we all have 4gb RAM. Mine are duel-channel; what about everyone else? I'm curious to see how many bought 4gb single with the plan to upgrade to 8gb later.

 

Hey guys,

Above are a few questions I still have about this laptop, can anyone shed any light?

 

I don't think those temps on the cpu are right......

 

"Transcend" is a major memory manufacturer.

http://www.transcendusa.com/

 

just order my laptop yesterday i can't wait for it to arrive. Decided to purchase at XOTIC even though i want an ssd i figure i can sell the HDD it comes with or just buy and enclosure and use it as backup..

 

I can't answer question five, because I don't own an SSD of any kind.

I can answer the others.


6) From the specs I only see "SATA hard-drive" does this imply SATA I or SATA II? And which-ever it is, can I assume my eSATA will run the same?

The internal bus is SATA 2, as is the eSATA port.

6.5) What do you guys recommend for external hard drives: USB 3.0 or eSATA? They both seem plenty fast. Is there any reason to use one over the other?

They both have their merits.

In defense of eSATA:

-faster real-world speeds (USB has the problem of not usually seeing its theoretical top speeds -- load your iPod at 480Mbps? Yeah right.)
-seen as an ATA hard drive, so you can do anything like a regular hard drive (including booting from it without any drivers)
-doesn't take up one of your USB ports (important if you don't want to use a hub)

In defense of USB 3.0:

-it DOES use a USB port. Let me explain: you need to give a 4GB file to your professor. Odds are, his desktop doesn't have eSATA, and he doesn't own an adapter. This can apply anywhere. If you use the drive to move files to and from more than one computer, compatibility is just better with USB 3.0, since it can use USB 2.0 ports.
-it has a power connection. This means you can use a 2.5" drive without having to use an AC adapter. Just makes things easier. (eSATA has no power connection, at least in the NP5125)

I bought an eSATA/USB2 drive for backup, because I don't need to share it much, but when I do I can give them the USB 2.0 cable.

7) I skipped the blu-ray player on mine with the thought that i could buy a blu-ray player later (hopefully when they are cheaper) and put that in manually. Has anyone attempted swapping the optical drive on this thing? Is it as painless as the RAM and HDD seem to be?


It won't pop out a la Thinkpad Ultrabay, but it looks like it can come off with a little disassembly.

 

I found a demo for Sam and Max, and I don't see any latency. I think it's something in your specific setup. Sorry!

 

Hesitant about what now?

I'll give the older drivers a shot. My order was made 8/14/10, and was built 8/25 or 8/26/10, delivered 9/1/10.

BTW, if you don't understand the above picture, it's my old Dell E1505 pulled apart so I could paint it.

 

Soooo, the 91c cpu temp while playing Bad Company2, is this normal temp for i5 ?
This is with the additiona cost of $20 - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU from XoticPc.
The gpu reached 85c....

 

first of all, how did u get BC2 running and not have punkbuster kick u out of a server within 5 minutes? or are u just playing the SinglePlayer?

 

just single player, i got kicked out as you said in multiplayer
I got the settings to medium, aa on 1x and I gotta say 's strugling to stay at 30fps, i'd say average is 25fps, when there's lots of action it drops below 10fps

 

What's your idle temperature? My i5-520m is idling around in the high 40s (Celsius).

 

My proc is running at about 40 during idle. I didn't order Arctic Silver in mine.

 

Just an update to anyone interested...from a new owner

After another week with this laptop, I think that I'm still very happy with it.

I do find the slight leftward offset of the keyboard and touchpad awkward. However, I had my old Asus z71v for a LONG time. So, I think that I just need to develop some new muscle memory to get used to this new arrangement.

The speakers SUCK! There's just no way around it. They suck. I increased all of the EQ settings as suggested earlier and it is better, but they are still pretty awful. I don't expect high quality sound from a laptop. They are just not loud enough.

I've also noticed the strange behavior of the progress bar when viewing youtube vids in full screen as mentioned before. Not a huge deal, but I hope that there is a fix for this.

The texture of the trackpad is not a big deal to me, but I think that there is a learning curve to the multi-touch functionality. Sometimes I don't realize that I am touching it with an extra finger and get some unexpected actions while trying to do some simple function (i.e. moving the cursor).

Anyway, enough with the minor complaints....Some pros....

The FHD screen is awesome. I have not noticed any bad pixels so far. Truth be told, the only reason that I got this laptop is the availability of a 1080 screen. I had a 1080 screen on my 5 yr old laptop...I'll be damned if I'm going down from there....

Performance with basic tasks has been as good as I expected.

Yes, the case is plastic, but it feels quite sturdy to me. Also, I like the black, brushed finish. Almost looks like aluminum.

It's WAAAY lighter than my old 15" laptop.

It runs very cool (as far as I'm concerned).

It's also very quiet. I've noticed the fans kick in every now and then. But, even when they're on, they're not very loud. I have the latest Sager drivers installed and have not had any fan problems.

I haven't specifically tested battery life, but I have the upgraded (now standard) battery and have gotten several hours of heavy web browsing in with no problem (still 40% or so left). 2hrs of lots of browsing, video viewing...essentially anything I want to do...still some battery left. I can't complain about that. It probably won't last you all day. But, if you have two batteries (I do) or if you can mix your use between plug & battery throughout the day, you'll probably be good.

 

Same. No AS in mine, but I'm considering ordering some from newegg and slathering it on on the processor and GPU..

 

It idles at around 40c which is low, and normal I guess.
I just did bc2 test run again and temps on cpu reached 95c

For those interested
1080p everything on medium, shadows on low, aa on 1x around 20-30fps with 25fps average
1600x900 everything on medium, shadows on low, aa on 1x around 35-50fps with 40-43 average.

 

what resolution?

 

look at my post above yours

 

I'm assuming not many people bought the 4GB in plan to upgrade later because they just want to charge such a crazy amount to get a single apposed to two 2GB's. Really I'm assuming (only one person i have seen so far to do otherwise aka buying one 4GB) that most people just went with the 2x 2GB and maybe a year or two will just spend the $150+ to get 8GB's or maybe even cheaper because a lot can happen in a year so idk.. ANYWAYS for basic needs (internet, word) and minimal gaming in addition to a few ADOBE CS5 programs (dreamweaver and photoshop) and a tiny tiny tiny bit of SonyVegas.. Is there a noticeable need/advantage to 8GB ram over 4GB of ram? Thanks and here are some updated statistics (thanks Daryl for the suggestion about where bought)

Sager NP5125:
1st Place: i5 540m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HDD | N6300 | DVD - 3 | Flip4Life, Juano11, Stryker412(don't know wireless)
2nd Place: i5 520m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HYB | 802.11 | DVD - 2 | VZX, infinite012
3rd Place: i7 620m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HDD | 802.11 | DVD - 1 | brunotacca
3rd Place: i7 620m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HYB | N6300 | DVD - 1 | washogren
3rd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HYB | N6300 | BLU - 1 | Daiei
3rd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 320GB HDD | N6300 | BLU - 1 | mcfaddenator
3rd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | _HD | 500GB HDD | N6300 | DVD - 1 | Firzen771
3rd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 320GB -> 90GB SSD | N6300 | DVD - 1 | Daryl Z

Sager NP7110:
1st Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 320GB HDD | N6200 | DVD - 1 | Sumik


XoticPC - 3 | Flip4Life, Firzen771, Sumik
SagerNotebooks.com - 1 | Daryl Z
PowerNotebooks.com - 1 | Daiei
??????? - VZX, mcfaddenator, brunotacca, washogren, Juano11, Stryker412, infinite012

 

ah i see, guess i posted before refreshing the page lol, and i guess thats why im getting better FPS since im running at the native 1366 resolution on my screen, runs quite well like that

 

Here's an update

1st Place: i5 540m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HDD | N6300 | DVD - 3 | Flip4Life, Juano11, Stryker412(don't know wireless)
2nd Place: i7 620m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HDD | ?????? | DVD - 1 | brunotacca
2nd Place: i7 620m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HYB | N6300 | DVD - 1 | washogren
2nd Place: i5 520m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HYB | 802.11 | DVD - 1 | VZX
2nd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 320GB HDD | N6300 | BLU - 1 | mcfaddenator
2nd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | _HD | 500GB HDD | N6300 | DVD - 1 | Firzen771
2nd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 320GB -> 90GB SSD | N6300 | DVD - 1 | Daryl Z
2nd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 320GB HDD | N6200 | DVD - 1| sumik

 

Sumik, I placed you in there already but under your own category of NP7110 all I had to change for you was the Wireless so here:

Sager NP5125:
1st Place: i5 540m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HDD | N6300 | DVD - 3 | Flip4Life, Juano11, Stryker412(don't know wireless)
2nd Place: i5 520m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HYB | 802.11 | DVD - 2 | VZX, infinite012
3rd Place: i7 620m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HDD | 802.11 | DVD - 1 | brunotacca
3rd Place: i7 620m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HYB | N6300 | DVD - 1 | washogren
3rd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HYB | N6300 | BLU - 1 | Daiei
3rd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 320GB HDD | N6300 | BLU - 1 | mcfaddenator
3rd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | _HD | 500GB HDD | N6300 | DVD - 1 | Firzen771
3rd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 320GB -> 90GB SSD | N6300 | DVD - 1 | Daryl Z

Sager NP7110:
1st Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 320GB HDD | N6200 | DVD - 1 | Sumik


XoticPC - 3 | Flip4Life, Firzen771, Sumik
SagerNotebooks.com - 1 | Daryl Z
PowerNotebooks.com - 1 | Daiei
??????? - VZX, mcfaddenator, brunotacca, washogren, Juano11, Stryker412, infinite012

 

just so u know i bought mine from XoticPC

 

I got mine at XoticPc

 

Add another to the list that VZX is on. I have the same specs.

 

Haven't received it yet, but to add to your statistics

i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HYB | N6300 | BLU |

from PowerNotebooks

 

Sager NP5125:
1st Place: i5 540m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HDD | N6300 | DVD - 4 | Flip4Life, Juano11, Shteren, Stryker412(don't know wireless)
2nd Place: i5 520m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HYB | 802.11 | DVD - 2 | VZX, infinite012
3rd Place: i7 620m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HDD | 802.11 | DVD - 1 | brunotacca
3rd Place: i7 620m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HYB | N6300 | DVD - 1 | washogren
3rd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 500GB HYB | N6300 | BLU - 1 | Daiei
3rd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 320GB HDD | N6300 | BLU - 1 | mcfaddenator
3rd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | _HD | 500GB HDD | N6300 | DVD - 1 | Firzen771
3rd Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 320GB -> 90GB SSD | N6300 | DVD - 1 | Daryl Z

Sager NP7110:
1st Place: i5 450m | 4GB | FHD | 320GB HDD | N6200 | DVD - 1 | Sumik


XoticPC - 4 | Flip4Life, Firzen771, Sumik, Shteren
SagerNotebooks.com - 1 | Daryl Z
PowerNotebooks.com - 1 | Daiei
??????? - VZX, mcfaddenator, brunotacca, washogren, Juano11, Stryker412, infinite012