*** OFFICIAL Sager NP8760 / Clevo W870CU Owners Lounge ***

Whoops. My bad.

 

All that means is it is dual voltage (which almost any modern laptop PSU is anyway).

On another note, RJtech sent my UPS tracking info yet it is still showing as "billing info received". The notify email was sent to me at 2:50 EST so it's been all day now.

Seems like UPS hasn't picked it up or RJ never sent it. Is this the norm?

 

It has always said that. It only changed once and that was a few weeks after this notebook came out. The option said standard.

 

Well, I know I'm late to the party but I just ordered. Had the G73 on pre-order but I changed to this - got tired of waiting and I'm such a newb, didn't wanna deal with bloatware and turbo buttons and check if all 8 RAM is working etc.

I'll read this entire thread Monday at work...

Thanks to Soviet and Sleey for all your info over PM's

 

No problem

I'll let you know my impressions when I get mine up and running on Thursday.

 

Hi , I know I'm late to the party like KLAG.
Two things I would like to know.
Is the NP8760 reall that LOUD regarding fans?
Are the speakers good enough to hear nice music?
Finally, does anyone know about cost of shipping and cost of duty taxes for shipping in Canada?
Thanks

 

I just finished reading this entire thread, and it sounds like a few people did have systems with loud fans but most of the people say it's not that noisy. So, it seems to vary from system to system.

It seems that everyone can agree the speakers are not the greatest, you'd probably want headphones or external speakers for listening to music.

Can't help ya on shipping to Canada I'm wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy south.

Good luck!

 

Fans are pretty basic things. I strongly doubt they vary that much from system to system. It's peoples' perceptions and opinions that vary.

One thing that doesn't vary is that they run 24/7.

 

I never really felt the fans were too loud for the month that I had the machine. I do, however, agree that the speakers could be better.

I'm in Atlanta too man !

 

-Fans are a too loud for my personal taste. I didnt think it would be that loud but I must admit its my first gaming laptop so I have to take the blame a bit on that one I guess... I replaced a comppetely silent Compaq laptop for this so it makes a world of difference.

-Speakers are pretty cheap and sound bad... but you dont buy a laptop for its sound system, you must have headphones or external speakers if you want anything near good quality. However, I dont have the extra speakers option thing so I dont know how it sound with that extra but I believe its not much better from what Ive heard..

I got mine shipped to Canada (quebec) from PC Torques and I paid approximately 500-600$CAN for shipping and taxes. I paid the computer 1999$US before shipping and taxes.

 

i think they do vary significantly on some units.
a couple of guys posted youtube videos of their fan sound and many owners, including myself dont have fans that sound anywhere as loud as those people who posted vids.

 

One guy even reported that one of his two fans was much louder then the other one.

 

After flashing the new 1.00.10 BIOS and 1.00.10 keyboard firmware set from RJTech, I have conducted an array of test for any changes in fan operation as hinted from kevindd992002's run on his W860CU. I'd say that a lot of changes have been made towards our benefit.

Both the CPU and GPU fan thresholds have been raised. The GPU fan off/on threshold is now set to 40*C and 50*C, the same as the CPU fan thresholds, from 34*C and 45*C. This raise in temperature limits means that the GPU will be idling slightly warmer, but it also means that the fan won't turn on as often anymore as it takes longer for idle temperatures to hit 50*C as opposed to 45*C, and when it does, it only needs a short amount of time to bring the temperature back to 40*C, which is an easier task than bringing the temperature down to 34*C. The CPU fan still kicks on at 50*C and turns off at 40*C. On IntelBurnTest, the CPU will downclock from 2.26GHz to 2.13GHz when it passes 60*C, but it will now downclock another bin to 2GHz at 70*C. However, the 75*C barrier has been removed. I was able to take my CPU up to 80*C with a tshirt and remain stable before I got bored and terminated the stress test. I'm pretty sure that the CPU can continue to get hotter without downclocking to LFM. I'd say this is a good improvement by Clevo.

What I have noticed is that the temperatures and downclock points are observed from IntelBurnTest. I ran a large FFT test on Prime95 and the CPU continued to roll along at 2.13GHz as it passed 60*C and remained at 2.13GHz as it passed 70*C and all the way up to 75*C where I cut the test. On a small FFT test, the clocks did not drop to 2.13GHz until 62-63*C.

Intel Turbo Boost is smarter than I thought. IntelBurnTest is by far the most strenuous test for a CPU and Prime95 is fairly close, but not quite as rigorous. From my observations, the CPU will adjust it's clocks in correlation to how heavy the CPU load is on all four cores. Even though Prime95 and all other CPU stress test applications report the CPU as being 100% utilized via external clock speed, the internal clock speed (actual executions) are less. IBT processes the most executions using up the most resources the CPU has available and in account explains why the CPU is cutting back as opposed to slightly less stressful programs. Because IBT and P95 unrealistically stress the CPU harder than benchmark applications, games, or general applications as a whole, I believe that the CPU clocks will not drop until a higher temperature in relation to the amount of executions being put through the cores. To put it bluntly, the less "work" going through the CPU when operating at 2.26GHz or whatever the maximum operating clocks are, the higher temperature it can operate at until downclocking a bin.

 

Would love to get my hands on that new BIOS.

 

I just checked the Clevo BIOS thread. pkhetan put it up. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5962348&postcount=430

 

Doh! I only bothered to check the first post. THanks

 

Blacky will update the first post when he gets on later tonight. For now, the BIOS set is publically available for download for users, by users, and is highly recommended. This is the first major BIOS release Clevo has made since the original 1.00.01.

 

Hmmm.. on first glance I'm not sure how beneficial this will be for me. My idle temps hover right above 40*C (42-44), so the fans aren't ever turning off.

Update: And my GPU temp hit 38*C and the fan is still running. *shrugs*

 

Strange. Perhaps the temperature values in this BIOS address the GTX 285M instead of the GTX 280M. When I had my M570TU with the 9800M GTX and GTX 280M, the fan thresholds between the two cards were different when I changed them.

 

My prior answer was in error, sorry for any confusion. (I admit that in addition to upgrading my linux kernel, I also updated the BIOS at the same time, so I was mistaken in thinking that it was the kernel upgrade, rather than the BIOS upgrade that fixed this problem.)

The Clevo engineers did in fact fix this problem with the latest BIOS release for this laptop, (although there's no setting for it in the BIOS, and there's no mention of the bluetooth fix with the BIOS). Now, in order to be able to turn on the bluetooth radio under Linux, the BIOS needs to be upgraded to least the 1.00.10 02/10 release. (You can get it from Blacky's Clevo BIOS thread). Then once booted into Linux, pressing Fn and F12 will turn on the bluetooth radio, complete with turning on the laptop bluetooth LED.

Good Luck..

 

thanks for the Info.

 

My favorite driver based from the 196.21/196.34 build has gone WHQL. 196.75 WHQL is up for grabs and comes with various bug fixes and improvements. Nvidia has given me hope again as this latest release is solid as a rock. It's fast, it's stable, it's magic.

 

lawl /.... no more green team for Clevo !! Its all red baby

 

It's been a while for me, but can you install those on the 285M? I only see the 196.75 for the desktop.

 

Download the one from LV2G and swap the .inf.

 

Ahh. That is what I thought

Thanks.

 

I know the ATI 5870 is still new but does anyone have an opinion as to which card is going to perform better (5870 or GTX 285M), DX11 aside of course? I ask because I noticed that both cards are now available with the NP8760 and yet the 285M is the more expensive of the two options.

 

The 5870 will smoke the 285.

Very good card.

Nvidia always prices their cards higher.

 

Thanks SleeyO......I'm growing weary of waiting on the G73. This and what appears to be the ease to upgrade this one down the road may have just pushed me over the edge.

 

That's another thing, captgus.

The G73 was a major PITA to open and work on. You had to break down the entire system and remove the mobo.

Not. Fun.

 

Will give them a whirl. Good timing as I'm wiping my machine tonight and starting fresh all over again.

 

corious. that driver is giving me a bsod when i restart the computer. and for a lot of people is happening the same.

 

I restarted my notebook dozens of time since installing the driver and nothing has happened to me. Are you referring to waking the computer from sleep mode?

 

Posting this from a PC other than my Clevo. Did a clean install of Windows. Installed the chipset driver, installed the video driver talked about above, did a reboot. And... cycle of BSOD's. Going back to the original driver...

Don't know if it's the actual driver or maybe the modded inf is a possible culprit. I don't know how they work really.

 

when the instalation finish and ask for restart my computer in windows login screen gives bsod. this have happened to other members of lv2go forums.

 

This is interesting. I'll try and see what I can do to get a workaround for this. Before I proceed, did you guys install the driver manually or through Nvidia's setup launcher?

 

Setup launcher.

 

That's probably the kicker then. Try installing it manually through device manager. 196.75 WHQL installed just fine on my W870CU and 1201N.

Use LV2G's installer and .inf.

 

no need to compile any thing any more, just flash to the last Bios and th FN Key for BT will work fine in linuux and SL as well

 

it is install fine for me too, but i have problem with FN Keys for brightness, they do not work with this method of insatll

 

Hi. Been reading this forum for awhile and finally pulled the trigger on a Sager NP8760. Can't wait to get it and talk to you all more.

I have a couple questions though, if anyone can help

1. I only got a 320 gig hard drive, but I want to stick an SSD in myself. Is this pretty easy? And this might sound like a total noob question (but I am a noob, so...): I am getting my HDD with Windows on it, but if I get the SSD do I have to buy Windows again?

2. I have 4 gigs of RAM now, do I really need more if my main purpose will be gaming? I will do some Photoshop too, but not right away. And, if I were to upgrade RAM, any suggestions on what to use?

Thank you very much for any help and I look forward to posting and reading more!

 

If your buying the machine with Windows already preinstalled it should come with the OS disk so no you will not have to buy Windows again ...

4gigs of RAM is enough for what your looking to do and the SSD will be more helpful with your Photoshop work then the extra RAM will...

 

Great. Thanks for the quick replay, Quad.

 

Also, this comes with a 120W power supply. Anyone recommend something bigger/better? Or is this fine?

 

It'll be ok as long as you aren't getting the 920XM.

 

Cool, thanks Sleey.

 

In case I missed something in this thread what's the problem with the PSU and a 920?

 

From what i have read it seems that under extreme circumstances the PSU will shut off when your doing something that is taxing both the GPU and the CPU at the same time... Like Furmark and Prime95 together...120wPSU is not much for all that hardware... Im not sure if it happens when doing things like gaming though ?.. Soviet Sunrise would know the most about it...

 

In ALL the benching I have done and gaming although not much gaming, my system has NEVER shut down or the like even with an OC of CPU and GPU. I'm sure if the 920XM is SUPER maxed out in some extreme situations a shut down might occur, but for the vast majority of us here that game and such you will not find issues with the stock PSU, IMO.

 

We've never seen any problems with the PSU which was why I asked and we burn them in pretty thoroughly, strange.