**OFFICIAL W860CU/NP8690 Owners Lounge**

just got my 9.5mm HDD caddy, first looks seems to me that it won't fit into the DVD drive perfectly, though the height is the same, just that if I put it in the front where the DVD used to be will have a small hole it seems. I guess it won't be so bad if I just seal it up with a tape, anyways it's a HDD caddy so no need to be opened like a DVD anyways.

 

^ fzhfzh, where and how much?

 

THIS look like a good score to you guys

 

hey where did you download that mac bar at? your desktop looks really clean

 

Any standard optical bay drive holder should work as long as you get one with the right external connector on the back.

http://www.newmodeus.com/pics/OBHD/OBHD-Matrix-6.html

 

Hey guys if you were wondering about the cooler thing, I've been watching my heat monitoring program for a while now and, aside from the strange sudden jumps in heat (where a little flame icon pops up because its "so hot"... must be a problem with the program I guess) my Sager's CPU is running at 39-43 across the board and "Temp1" is at around ~46 on average. GPU is 42-43 but can run cooler and HDD is at something crazy like 23 all the way up to 29.

Oh and all these strange numbers I just threw out there are degrees Celsius. And I've removed the sticker blocking the CPU intake vent underneath (which I'd recommend to anyone who hasn't already done so; will create a massive decrease in CPU temperatures).

As far as sound goes the Zalman NC2000 is incredibly quiet. And it's a much smoother sound than my Sager when it's at "max" (please note that "max" fan speed cannot be heard unless you actually listen for it... you may even have to put your ear to the thing if you don't have perfect hearing). Also it kills any sound the Sager was making with the fans since it really doesn't need them anymore.

And all of this is casual computer use btw. About twenty tabs in Firefox, Chrome is open, uTorrent is open, Media Player Classic is open, and so is VLC media player. Gameplay never affected me because I have my crazy awesome speakers turned up when playing so games like TF2 won't let me hear anything else with all the demo bombs and soldier rockets and whatnot.

So is the Zalman NC2000 cooler worth it even with Sager's kickass cooling and the removal of the CPU sticker? Yes, if you have roughly forty or fifty dollars you don't need. The decrease in temperature is enough to shut off the Sager's fans so that only the Zalman's can be heard (barely), which is a much nicer, quieter, smoother sound (and can be adjusted to where you'd have to know beforehand the fans were on or you'd think the device was turned off).

If you're scared of removing the CPU sticker? OH HELL YES. (See last paragraph).

If you're strapped for cash? No. The Sager's fans are not noisy once the CPU sticker is removed though they are still there and can be dealt with if you really don't want to spend the extra money.

Ummm, no conclusion paragraph. I need to go. But for those of you who've thought "does the Sager really NEED a cooler?" No, it doesn't. But boy does it make the experience that much better.

If any of you want to know how it performs under pressure from a game I can try that later. If no one speaks up though I won't bother since, like I said, fan noise/internal temperatures don't bother me while gaming since I can't hear the fans and the internal temperature, while it can get high, will never get to the fatal point in a Sager.

That is all.

PS: I actually can't tell if the Sager's Fans are on or off. My room is quiet except for the computer its so damn quiet even there that I don't really know if the little bit of noise is more from the Zalman or the Sager.

 

HEHEHE wouldnt you like to know!!! Nah j/k as a music producer and sound tech my desktop will eventually be cluttered with acid and soundforge files so I like to keep applications off of my desktop and save that space for soundfiles. Anyway if your like me and like clean desktops. I personally choose objectdock. It is freeware. There are many others, ydock, rocketdock, and some other low names on the list that I cannot stand. Anyway, just type objectdock in google you will get it. It is beautiful, and has many customizations. Happy docking!!

 

Agreed noise is no issue to me. I mean if you had the Asus G51 it sounded like a rocket ship when fans kicked in. And the zalman cooler is also a very great cooler. Best imo.

 

got it from ebay, it's around $18, can just search for "9.5MM caddy", the delivery took almost a month though, they ship by the snail mail of ship delivery.

 

Ordered a NP8690 from Maingear today!
SKU: laptop-eXL15-NP8690
PRODUCT: MAINGEAR eX-L 15

Features:
Display: 15.6" HD+ 16:9 LED Display (1920x1080) with Super Clear Screen
Processor: Intel Core i7-720QM 1.60GHz (Quad-core with Hyperthreading, 45nm, 6MB L3 Cache)
Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5
Memory: 4GB Kingston DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM (Dual Channel)
Hard Drive: 320GB Western Digital 7200 RPM SATA 2.5"
Optical Drive: 2x Blu-ray Reader/8x Super Multi Combo
Wireless Network Adapter: Integrated 802.11b/g/n
Audio: Integrated High Definition Audio
Bluetooth: Integrated Bluetooth Technology Module
Web Cam: Integrated 2.0MP Webcam
Primary Battery: Removeable Li-Polymer battery pack 3800mAh, 42.18Wh
Subtotal: $2,043.00

Damn decent imo after shopping through Dell all day and having Newegg decide they weren't going to ship an Asus G73JH-X1 to me.

Let the waiting begin!

 

Thanks, but im still not sure if i want holes in my laptop.
its really cheap though. wow, 1 month.

 

Well if you want it to fit perfectly then you might as well build the bracket yourself. Shouldn't be too hard?

 

damn, just noticed that the caddy's labeling wrote SATA 1.5Gb/s, meaning SATA 1, if I put my SSD in it would be wasted. If I put my current 7200 HDD in though, and place my SSD in orginal HDD space, there's no anti-shock protection in the caddy for a HDD and will be too dangerous.

 

^ dont most people put their HDD into the caddy and the SSD into the original space? is there a anti-shock protected caddy?

 

To those with the 5870, are you guys seeing the PowerPlay feature in Catalyst? It apparently appears on the G73JH, but for some reason, I can't see it. Just checking if it's just me or it's a Sager thing.

 

It will be very hard for me, and i actually do not have much time on hand to do something like that, ill probably look into shaping the purchased bracket to make it look more natural.

 

Slightly off the current topic, but I got my machine back today.

Seems for the most part fixed, not quite as good as it used to be but improved. GPU idles at 55C, max recorded after about 15 minutes (all I had time to check) gaming was 78C.

My gpu fan seems to be exceptionally loud though, much more than what you all seem to be describing, I wonder if something is wrong with it. I know I read something about someone getting a replacement fan that was a little different and a lot quieter (I think it was this thread, can't find it for the life of me, help?). I wonder if I have one of the ones this person originally had.

Edit, I'm not going crazy, he edited it out...

Unrelated question: is there any way to get sound out through the HDMI on this? I just got a new monitor that has pretty good internal speakers and I'd like to get the sound to them without having to use the baseless headphone jack.

 

YEA!!!! Mine came in the mail today!
Only 5 business days after I placed the order. Ordered through XOTIC and I expected the wait to be longer.
I've only had time to put Bioshock 1 on it, WOW 1080 is amazing. I think this laptop might be over kill for that game though.
Up next is buying a cooler and finding the courage to remove the `sticker`.
But I LOVE it after day one!!!!


Sorry this post added nothing to the current discussion.

 

you don't need a cooler by the way. I have stuck the sticker on the spot where the drive sits, won't get lost that way.

 

I still have 10 days to wait for mine.

 

hey i got your message. Look at ur fan, is the cover silver or blueish plastic? Lemme take a pic real quick and show u

Here old fan:



Here new fan:



Here both fan side by side:

 

The current video bios does not use any of the powerplay features. I am hoping that they come out with a newer bios that does. Maybe one of these companies reselling this notebook like maingear will get one made we can all use.

 

I got a maingear on the way. Got a link or explanation what this powerplay is? I will look into it when the lappy arrives.

 

there is an hdmi connector on the laptop for hd sound, all you need is a hdmi cable and then connect it to whatever sound system (i.e. your monitor as long as it has an hdmi connector as well) then just go to control panel/ sound and turn the ati hdmi output on

 

ive heard that the 10.4 ati update is going to solve a lot of issues (though i havent had any myself)

 

When you say "video bios", does that have anything to do with whatever ATI releases via Catalyst, or the actual bios that Sager puts out?
EDIT: In other words, should I find and install previous versions of Catalyst, such as 9.11 or 9.12, would I be able to enable PowerPlay; OR is this an update from Sager itself that I need to wait for?

PowerPlay is a feature in Catalyst that lets you downclock your GPU in catalyst to save power on battery.

 

http://www.amd.com/us/products/technologies/ati-power-play/Pages/ati-power-play.aspx

Powerplay, afaik is an automated feature that downclocks your gpu, not something that's done manually by you, the user. That's how it's always been on desktop atleast.
In CCC when doing normal surfing my 5870 sits at gpu clock @ 157mhz, memory clock @ 300mhz for example, but clocks up when running gpu intense material.

Last i checked, the "issue" with watching flash based movies that resulted in choppy video was because of it not triggering (and thus clocking the card up to handle it).
I discussed this in another thread when someone mentioned something about "bad video playback with ati cards".
It doesn't seem to be a driver issue per se, rather an issue with adobe's flash player, as updating it to a beta release works perfectly.

 

The power states are set in the video bios on the card. The current bios they are using sets all of them to 700/1000/1.15. Currently many of us are manually using amd gpu clock tool to set lower frequencies when not gaming.

 

Well some of the hardware monitoring utilities will record your current frequencies and you can see if it ever down clocks while on the desktop etc. The best would be if you could just pull your bios when you get it and check it out in RBE or put it up so others can download it and check it out

 

So what would it take to change the video bios so it enables PowerPlay? Would it be something that ATI has to release, or is it something by Sager? Is this change even possible?

Secondly, using the AMD GPU clock tool, do you just direct adjust the clocks to 300/1000, or do you need to undervolt as well?

 

Scratch everything I said.

 

I use 250/300 for my clocks you can not adjust the voltage.

 

The modes are not driver dependent. RBE does not seem to really work that well with these bioses. Problem is all the power states point to the same entry in the table so changing it would just result in constant underclocking of the gpu.

 

Hi there,

When both NP8690 and NP8760 are configured with similar hardware, there is about $200 difference between them. Why is the NP8760 worth $200 more? better cooling? just because it's a 17" instead of 15"? Why did you guys pick the NP8690 over the other?

Thank you

 

Better cooling, possibly.
Bigger screen (supposed to be very good quality, as well)
Extra bay for a 2nd HDD (RAID possible as well)
Probably some other features I can't think of right now...

I picked the 8690 because this size is way more than big enough for me - definitely didn't need the bigger screen for my purposes. It's also already as bulky and heavy as I'd want a laptop to be.

 

Thanks, that's what I did when I tried it yesterday and it didn't work. Started the computer up plugged into the monitor today and lo and behold it works. Problem is, still seems to lack bass. No matter, I was planning on getting the creative expresscard at some point (the old one so I can get 5.1 connectivity)...

 

Hi guys, At the moment I am about to get a 3g card to use the minipcie slot, but there are also minipcie ssd cards. Has anyone tried a ssd card in that slot?

Would be great if this thing would work;
http://www.runcorestore.com/ProductDetail.jsp?LISTID=8000001E-1234904508

 

i wouldnt think the poor bass would be effected through hdmi..
thats strange

 

Just wondering: PowerPlay seems to work for the G73 owners (who are also using 5870), so was this feature disabled by Sager for whatever reason, or something ATI did specifically for the Sager-bound batch of 5870s?

 

you could also try checking your hdmi cable ver. i know earlier cables only carried stereo sound. also you could try using the optical toslink cable out if you have one.
tell us how it goes , im interested to find out...

 

Do you know what version this changed with? My cable says "HDMI 1.3 Cat.2" on it (it's just one of the cheap ones from Newegg)

I don't think the 8690 has an optical audio out, at least I don't see it...

I think I will have to do more rigorous testing comparing the two, it's possible that my monitor just doesn't output bass very well. What I really need is a good sound system with an HDMI-in that I can test it on (was planning on buying one eventually, but not soon).

 

i think ver 1.2 so your cable should be ok.
the spdif out next to the audio out is an optical toslink output.
the realtek soundcard should be able to touput 5.1.
past posts have mentioned that the wiring of the internal speakers prevents the bass output thru them but this should not affect other output modes. a few posters have also commented on getting excllent results vis b/t headphones.
so it could very well be your monitors speakers not giving ample bass.

 

The early bios worked with different powerplay states but for some reason the updated one that works with the normal mobility drivers does not. I would assume it was just an oversight in the new bios but who knows.

 

From what I have read the 3g card slot is only usb not pcie so you would have to get a usb ssd card for it to work.

 

I can reduce clocks to 300/500, but when I drop memory to 400, I get big time screen corruption and a crash unless I can hit the restore default clocks button before the crash occurs. What am I missing in this underclocking process? I'm seeing a drop of about 3-4 degrees C at the lower clocks. Should I expect more or is that about what can be expected?

 

Have you tried a battery test with the lower clocks?

 

What kind of battery test?

 

I was wondering if you happened to notice or even documented extended battery usage (from our current 1hr) after you downclocked the GPU?


Also, according to this person in the Asus sections, drastically switching from high clocks to low is not good. He recommended going from High>Medium>Low clock speeds. But he was talking about the G73, so I don't know how much of a bearing that has on the Sager, even with the same GPU. And here's the thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=477215

 

thi could probably extend batt time by a few minutes, but normal tasks hardly use gpu power so im thinking gains would be minimal at best.
underclocking the cpu, (which we unfortuntely cant do now), would be more efficeint if it could be done.

 

No. I just started playing with the lower clocks a little to see what effect it had on temps and how it affected performance at basic levels (email, internet, office apps). For me, the battery is just a small UPS; I'm on wall power almost 24/7.