*** Official Clevo P150EM / Sager NP9150 Owner's Lounge ***

Granted there are still some issues hanging around, it really comes down to the games you'll be playing. In your example, definitely not a good situation. For other games where the issue doesn't exist though there is nothing wrong with the 7970. I'd base that decision solely on what you intend to do with it, if it plays the games you're wanting to play I say stick with it because for the cost it can't be beat. Nvidia would be my personal preference though because the last thing I want to do when I find time to play a game is sort through some troubleshooting and fixes to be able to do so.

 

Hm I've done thorough research on the enduro issue and hopefully the games i play will work well with the 7970m. I mostly play Battlefield 3, Diablo 3, and LoL. From what i researched BF3 and Diablo 3 have no problems, but I'm not too sure about LoL. Then again it is not a demanding game, even my old 2009 macbook pro can play LoL.

 

Hey guys I'm looking to overclock my 7970m but I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to overclocking so wanted to get a few things clear first:

1. Is 950 on the core and 1400 on the memory safe for every day gaming clocks?
2. Is it a good idea to adjust the fan speeds at all, I know people do it on desktops all the time but I'm not sure if it's as easy on a laptop?
3. Does simply turning the clock speeds up take more juice from the power supply or is that only when you start over-volting? I currently have a 3720qm overclocked to 3.8Ghz and I believe it has a tdp of 60w and I'm wondering how much headroom I've got

Thanks for any help in advance

 

Hey folks!

Just finished reading through a majority of this thread, and any issues people have pointed out either won't bother me or have been taken care of.

I ordered mine from Xotic PC on the 8th. Two items were back-ordered but my order is now in stage 3. I'm really hammering their servers refreshing the order screen every 5 minutes. Hate this waiting game! Hopefully it will be shipping out this week.

Specs:

i7 3630QM
16GB 1600MHz RAM
4GB GTX 675MX (I used to be a die-hard AMD/ATI fanboi but they just seem so irrelevant now-a-days; and my current GTX 260M still runs most games I throw at it without issue, so I'm of the assumption this GTX 675MX will be MORE than sufficient, especially considering I don't rightly care if I can't play on ultra settings)
Ordered with ODD caddy, main bay will be occupied by my Intel SSD with caddy being occupied by the 750GB HDD that ships with the laptop
I plan to immediately dual boot Windows 8 with Arch Linux, utilizing the 750GB as a storage drive, primarily to be utilized by my "Windows gaming partition" (SSD will only have a few games I play most often / aren't super large).

It'll be replacing an older (4 years now), bigger ASUS G51VX laptop and a slightly older custom-built desktop.

I'd like to give props to Xotic PC - so far they've been amazing to deal with, especially when they answer my inane questions without seeming annoyed. If things continue the way they have been I'll definitely be using and recommending them in the future. You may naturally feel free to rush my order... just sayin'...

 

Rush your order after making our Pandora skip with your refreshes? I'm slowing ya down! Jk, if you PM me your order info I'll see what we can do.

 

Sadly my forum powers are still young and I can't PM. Will email you directly at the address in your sig.

 

They will grow in time...

Just sent you a reply. Thanks for getting a hold of me.

 

tried to update drivers. catalyst control center crashes every time i try to open it.. i literally cannot open it at all. i have no idea what to do at this point. ive tried to install 13.1 mobile 13.1 desktop 13.2 beta 7 i've even deleted every trace of amd/ati out of my computer and registry. and still NOTHING works. i should NOT have to reformat to get drivers to work. grrr cant wait until friday when I get paid..this babys going back to prostar to get the switch to team green (and edward. never liked the fact amd was team jacob)

 

sorry i had to. =D

 

Below I included two pictures of the keyboard. Keep in mind it originally came in the standard blue backlight but I changed it to white-teal-blue.

Overall, it feels really solid and is really responsive. This is the first non-chiclet I've used in a while but its really not too different. My only complaint is that the keys are spaced a little far (like an extra millimeter or two) and I constantly hit numlock instead of backspace.

In my opinion this is me getting used to the keyboard more than anything. It's really a nice keyboard and the backlights are a very nice touch.

Compared to the Asus it does feel a little more solid, and its actually more quiet. Also, my G53SW had terrible issues with missing keystrokes, the 9150 doesn't have this issue at all.

I would definitely recommend it as of now unless you're really picky about keyboards.

 

This is really starting to sound like one of those "First World Problem" Memes..

 

Hello,

I will soon be a proud owner of a NP9150. Ordered it today on XoticPC. Was going to get 9130 but the nice guys on that thread from XoticPc gave me a nice heads up that they are on back order till March 22. I definetly grateful that they told me that, need a laptop in a serious manner I went with the 12gb RAM option and the 670MX. This beast is going to run circles around my only 2 year old desktop.

Sam

 

Nice. A personal attack. Mature. Stay classy.

 

Isn't the layout the real problem though? The oddly placed space bar, the sleep button between volume controls, enter too small, directional keys crammed, etc

 

Awesome congrats on your order! We should be in touch with you today about it.

 

Thanks Hutsady!! I appreciate it!

 

Honestly I haven't noticed it yet. It feels just like any keyboard. I don't use the numpad and arrows usually though. Most games that I play use WASD. Maybe I'll notice the longer I own it though.

It's really sturdy though and looks pretty cool.

It's completely personal opinion though.

 

I ordered from xotic on tuesday and I thought I was a patient person.... Finds out I'm not... constantly checking LOL

 

Thank you! you delivered.

Well, I think I'm almost there myself, pulling back from 7970M to get a 675MX instead. All the reported issues scared me away.

 

to my understanding a 675mx is basically a 560ti desktop card. if you can i'd save for the 680m. its very similar to the desktop 670

 

I guess the only thing that I'm curios about in relation to the keyboard is: why are there two backslash/pipe keys? *boggle*

 

Big thanks to Derek! He was able to get my order rushed (free of charge!). It arrived at Xotic PC today and was shipped to me same day!

Derek should definitely get a 10% raise.

 

No problem! Glad to help out

 

boo! I just ordered a np9150 today for a co-worker and just got notice it's on back order until 3/22 Too slow I suppose!

Lucky he is not in a super hurry

 

Hey there, I had no idea you were on NBR. The last few shipments ended up coming in a little early to Sager, so hopefully it's shorter, but the 22nd is what they're telling us as an ETA. We'll definitely have you out as soon as the stock is replenished, it's going to be a busy few days for Sager for sure.

 

I was just wondering, I ordered mine on Tuesday and was told I could order that one for an upcharge, I had previously ordered the NP9130 and was told it was on back order till the 22nd, because the NP9150 was still in stock. So my question is, did I just upgrade for no reason?

 

I have a 7970m and I can tell you all the "reported issues" happened very early in the cards life. I have absolutely no probelm in any game that I play. Far Cry 3, Battlefield 3, League of Legends, Mafia 2, Saints Row 3, GTA4, hell even Crysis 3 ran pretty smooth. Now whether or not the upgrade is worth it is your opinion and choice.

 

Argh... Is probably because the people with problems post more than the people without them. So you really have had no issues? no BSODs, etc? When did you get your laptop if I may ask?

 

Yes, it seems the people who are very vocal about their issues outweigh the people who don't say a word when their machine works perfectly fine. Negativety always outweighs positives.

The only issue that I've had was updating the graphics card drivers when I got my laptop. The Catalyst Control Center for 13.1 doesn't take very kindly to Enduro and kept telling me that I did not have the hardware required..using the CCC for 13.2 worked perfectly fine, though. I received my laptop on February 12th, so I'm just over a month in. No BSODs, no hard resets, no graphical tearing, no heat problems, nothing.

On the other hand my GT683r with the 560m I've had nothing but problems with the entire time I've had it. Graphical failures, drivers that basically do not work properly, overheating.. I get the error "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" more than twice a week. There is a bad egg in everything, every now and then..

Here's my benchmarks at stock volts and 960mhz core/1500mhz memory. I couldn't figure out how to get MSI Afterburner to allow me to change the voltage, I'll tackle that later. As my new laptop is outperforming my desktop 2500k at stock and my 6950 that I have at home.
AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3630QM Processor,CLEVO P15xEMx score: P25215 3DMarks
AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3630QM Processor,CLEVO P15xEMx score: P7345 3DMarks

 

Did you install the stock AMD driver first then install 13.2 beta over it? And which beta you running???

 

I'm pretty sure the drivers on the install disk that I received was 12.11, then I tried to install 13.1 over it and it did not work because it gave me the error I had stated in my previous reply. After fighting with that for a day, I found out that 13.2 had been released and downloaded and installed that perfectly fine. I believe it's 13.2 beta 6. Apparently 13.3 beta is available http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst13-3WINBetaDriver.aspx

 

Since you now have 5 posts, go ahead and PM me your order info and I can take a look into it for you.

 

My 9150 arrived today! Can't wait to open it.

Thought everyone should know.

 

You'll really enjoy it

Also some quick questions,

I'm looking for an understated laptop sleeve for a NP9150, anyone have some good suggestions? Not looking for any pouches, handles, etc but want a simple sleeve that I can slide my NP9150 into for carrying around in a backpack.

Also, what kind of battery life are people getting with the 680m? I'm running about 3.5 hours which is definitely good, but I was hoping Optimus might afford me a little more.

 

The review I saw said they only got 1.5 hours out of the battery with Optimus..wow 3.5? I would love to get that sort of battery life on a laptop.

 

Ahh okay thanks for the reply and link. Just want to get all the drivers ready for when my sager arrives

 

ahh lucky... I'm still waiting on mine phase 2 atm

 

There's been some hollaring about the 13.3 beta..I can personally speak on 13.2 beta 6..it's pretty amazing if I do say so myself. Battlefield3 is so much more fluid than it was on my 13.1 hackjob lol

 

That's really surprising lol. Well, I went through my power options and made the following changes:

I usually run ThrottleStop and have it set to switch to a Battery profile that locks CPU multipliers at 8x on all cores.
I have to manually set the Windows Power Profile to Battery Saver.
In Battery Saver I have brightness turned down to 0%, min CPU usage at 5%, max CPU usage at 60%.
In the Intel Integrated iGPU menu, I set maximum battery saving when on battery power.

Maybe some other things I cannot remember lol. Honestly, it still performs without a hiccup on battery, just wondering if I can squeeze more time out.

Also I read that slower discharges prolong battery life, and to never let it fully deplete then charge as that adds significant wear.

 

Yup, rule of thumb is generally discharge to 15-20% and then plug the thing back in. I've had bad experience with leaving laptops plugged in with battery 24/7 but if you're planning on leaving it plugged in, just remove the battery and no worries about wear. Don't leave the battery with a full charge and unplugged for too long though as that also leads to wear. Best to store on a minimal charge.

 

I've heard both honestly..let it deplete for full battery health and don't let it deplete..i have no clue which one is the way to go.

 

Yeah my old Asus with a 460m only had about 3% wear after nearly 1.5 years. Somehow this 2 week old Sager is sitting 1.2%.

Maybe it's because the Asus had Power4Gear? Aside from that, both batteries were pretty identical in terms of capacity.

Also, I'm having a strange issue. My CPU and GPU temperatures are really cool, mid 30's but Intel PCH registers mid 70's and continues to increase. Does anyone else have this problem? When I force max fans it quickly cools the PCH but the temperature never triggers any fans.

What's going on?

 

So, I got mine today and am loading all the drivers in Windows 8. What apps controls the colors of the backlighting on the keyboard?

 

I believe it's the HotKey app.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. That was it, thanks!

 

Welcome! Congrats on the new purchase!

 

Mine is on the truck for delivery. I don't see how I'm going to get ANYTHING done at work today.

I plan to update here later with a review / link to a review.

 

congrats! My order status just changed to phase 4 right now so excited!

 

Congrats to both of you!

 

I'm just going to say that this thing is FAST! I haven't even had a chance to play any games yet but the photoshopping/virtual guest I can get going on this thing is ridiculous!