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

My Sager NP9150 with the nvidia GTX680m was shipped this morning! I'm so excited to get it!

Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2

 

Hey, I am about to order the NP9150 either tomorrow or some time before the week ends. I have been contemplating what to make my configuration for quite some time now but I am still unsure about some stuff. This is the laptop I am probably going to get unless someone has some advice as to what to put in the computer...

15.6" Full HD LED-Backlit Display features 95% NTSC Color Gamut in Matte Finished Surface (1920 x 1080)
AMD ATI 7970M With 2GB DDR5
3rd Generation Intel® Ivy Bridge Core™ i7-3610QM (2.3GHz - 3.3GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache, 45W)
IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
16GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 4 X 4GB (This is a free upgrade from 8Gb for a limited time)
750GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive (This is a free upgrade fromm 500Gb)

This current configuration comes out to be CA$1,884.96 before tax (including windows 7). I am willing to spend a bit more money if there are any changes I can make that will make a noticeable difference in performance. I have been told from some people that it is worth investing the the 3720 processor while others say I should instead get a secondary SSD drive for my OS and programs in order to reduce loading times and such. Please let me know what you guys think I should add/remove or tell me your ideal configuration. Thanks so much for any help you can provide, I look forward to joining the ranks of the Sager NP9150 owners!!

 

welcome to our nation . I think you have a good build here, although I would recommend the gtx 680 over the 7970 as amd has many issues at the moment and many sager owners swapped their 7970 for nevidia and as for the ssd you can buy it later and swap it yourself if you want and it will be more cheaper if you did it your self, too. one last thing what will you use the laptop for, if its for gaming, surfing, office stuff then its not worth it to upgrade the cpu. I hope that helps

 

Thank you for your help. I am going to be using the computer for games and photoshop type stuff. I was under the impression that the 7970 was very good and most people recommended to get that GPU rather than the 680 because it is only slightly less powerful for a lot less money. Are you saying that the 7970 is no good? :/

 

Well, I am finally settled in with my new laptop. I have all the parts installed and did a fresh install of windows on the Vertex 4 and got most of my stuff installed and configured. I decided to under-provision the 2 SSD's in order to assist in keeping them performing well, and also to reduce wear to a small extent. I partitioned the Vertex 4 and m4 to 400GB and 200GB respectively. This helps a little bit more than always leaving some free space as it guarantees that the system will NEVER write to the LBA's that exist in that un-partitioned space. This makes it a little bit easier for the SSD controller to do internal garbage collection as the SSD will always have a large amount of spare area, and, even without trim, the controller would know this area is 'spare' as the system has never issued a writ command to those addresses, if that makes sense. If you are running SSD's in RAID I would *HIGHLY* suggest leaving a sizable amount of spare area. Since I have a on of space it doesn't hurt me much to leave a bunch of spare area, so I am.



I think I will leave the video card running the stock BIOS and stock voltage. I will get whatever I can out of it like that, but I'd rather spend my 'extra' power budget on the CPU

I LOVE he 95% gamut screen, it is probably the most vibrant LCD I have ever used, and I have used some nice stuff So far everything has been working perfectly, no problems with the potentially dangerous Vertex 4 (knock on wood), Optimus is workin great, computer hauls in general. Wifi works great, bluetooth has no issues, and the only thing I haven't really tested is the web cam. This computer is SOOO much better than that old crappy Dell E5520 I was using before, infact it 'feels' about as fast as my Sandy Bridge E desktop/workstation. The rubberized finish is great, it doesn't show finger prints too bad and whatnot and feels very durable. The whole computer is very sturdy ad in no way does it feel cheap. Well, except the keyboard SUCKS. Yeah, everyone whines about it, and it's true. I think I will look into getting that steel series keyboard, even if the functions keys are wrong. The spiffy backlight is more of a novelty than anything else, but it is nice that it lights up. My wife likes it to be be pink, heh.

I'm sure I will think of more stuff later, but that's all for now.

 

The little harmless scratch I mentioned in my first mini review? These things are now getting ridiculous. I've never ever had a scratch on a single computer LCD, now I have like 5 on this screen after a couple days with the last one being 3cm in length.

Does anyone else get this on the glossy regular screen? They pop out of nowhere, I just don't understand this, the screen didn't come in contact with ANYTHING... no fingers, no cleaning cloth, just the tiny dust particles that fly around touched it and there it is... another hairline scratch that's very reflective on light backgrounds.

Has anyone else experienced this? Either dust on its own or some foul magic is scratching my screen, both variants seem highly unlikely.

 

No scratches at all - gets slid in and out of my bag regularly and I use it as an in tray for documents at different times of the day so plenty of opportunity for alligator clips or whatever to touch the screen...

Sounds like foul magic!

 

I have the 7970M and it's fine. I've played a lot of games from Sins of a Solar Empire to Starcraft 2, Diablo3, Farcry 2, Fallout 3 and a few others as well as benchmarks like Heaven and 3DMark11. The switchable graphics software works automagically for many games but not all and it pops up a little dialogue the first time you run a game to ask whether it should be run in High Performance (7970M) or Power Saving (Intel 4000).

I've read some people say they aren't getting as good performance in Battlefield 3 as people with the same card in Alienware laptops but I don't play that.

In all honesty I would say from everything I've read that it's just early days teething with the Enduro software (AMD/Ati's version of Nvidia's Optimus) and things will get better in time.

I would say if you are an Nvidia fanboi or a serious BF3 player spend the extra $300ish on the Nvidia or just have the money to spend...otherwise just go the 7970M as it's fine after all is said and done.

The biggest thing that Enduro lacks in my opinion is a simple software indicator to tell you when the 7970M is running or the Intel 4000 is running.

It would be VERY nice if the 7970M could be switched on or off separate to the Intel 4000 however I think by the very nature of the hardware the 7970M signal passes through the Intel 4000 always. I think.

 

Received my 9150/680 tonight. First sager and so far pretty impressed.

Only had time to fire up bf3 but I have to say wow, lovin the 680m. Ultra/1080 and getting avg 35-45fps depending on map. After 1.5 hrs gpu never went above 74c and mostly stayed right at 71c. Cpu running cooler.

Question guys, red light in the phono jack. Anyone figure out what that was? I had it initially and after playing around with config it is no longer on. Not sure what turned it off, maybe activating thx?

 

You are correct. And there are many games plagued by the 7970m only running partial performance and drops framerates periodically. Even the 680m though doesn't have an indicator which GPU is running. It would be a nice thing to have though.

 

Pretty sure that red light is your optical output for audio.

 

Really no idea how else they would get there.
If there atleast was a way of removing them.

Here is a low quality pic of what it looks like, quite annoying to look at.

 

Looky here....

 

It's a fibre optic LED for the S/PDIF connection.

 

I can't see the scratches? Is the smudgy/burnished bits running vertically?

 

What the? Is that little device on the right 512GB of sexy Crucial M4?????

How much????

I WANT! Not the price tag though.

 

I am getting a sager 9150 with an AMD 7970M within the week. After I have it I will be using it for the next 3-4 years. Is the problem bad enough that I need to send it back for a 680M or are the frame rate drops small enough (E.G 5-6 FPS) or infrequent enough where this is just an annoyance not a glaring flaw? My main concern is checking to see how future proof this card is going to be for the next few years. Thanks for the help

 

My phone camera is horrible, but the colorful line of the vertical scratch is still clearly visible.

 

The red light is for a (SPDIF) TOS link fibre optic cable to your surround decoder/amp. Plugs in instead of the headphone connector.

 

It is optical out for SPDIF.

 

Hello, first post on this forum after lurking for a few weeks.

I've heard about the headphone jack audio problems in the 9130, does this problem affect the 9150 as well? And if so, is it just user setting errors (5.1 vs 2.1 etc.)? Also, the only reason I would get the 9150 over the 9130 would be future upgradability. Where would I buy a mobile version of a GPU? I've tried searching ncix, tigerdirect.ca and newegg.ca for the 7970m and 680m (just to try the seach) and I couldn't find them by themselves.
Basically, in 3 years or so when I want to upgrade my GPU, will I be able to find one that is compatible with the 9150?

I love the low key look of these sagers. I was contemplating the Y580 or MSI GE60 but am glad I waited and read reviews. They are hot! So, I've bumped up my $1200 inclusive budget a little and am thinking of sager. I will probably order from reflexnotebook. The big decision now is 9130 or 9150. I will just get lowest possible video card for now, the 670 and a few modest upgrades.

Also, I'm thinking about the wireless upgrade. I want the 6300 ultimate but I think I'd probably kick myself in a little while for not getting bluetooth. It's always handy to have for transferring pictures or using other periphrials.

BTW: I'm coming from a dell inspiron 6400 w/ ATI X1400 (OOOOOOOOOO shiny) so whatever I get will be a HUGE upgrade. I spent $1200 back then so I figured I could make $1200 last another 5 years

Edit 2: Also, I want to get a laptop before Windows 8 becomes standard but I'd hope that these specialty vendors would give the option of win7 after 8 is out. Perhaps I can get the $15 upgrade to win8 and sell it? Does that sound like a plan?

 

Sounds like your screen has been impacted... are your sure they are scratches and not "cracks"? If you flex the LCD a little by grabbing the two top corners and pushing gently in one hand and pulling with the other, do you notice anything? Do the scratches or cracks change appearance?

 

No, it's the 256GB version mSATA. It can run at SATA III speeds but the P150EM only has SATA II on the eSATA port. Cost is $215

 

That thing needs 2 amps. That's not very good that its still dependent on wall power. My enclosure runs off of bus power so I can use it anywhere. Plus, USB 2.0 can fully saturate the speed of the DVDrom since laptop optical drivers are slower so it doesn't matter which interface you get, really.


I have an older metal enclosure that requires 2 USB plugs, but there are others that just need 1:

Super External USB enclosure caddy case for MacBook 9.5mm 12.7mm SATA superdrive | eBay

External USB Slot Load Enclosure Case For CA10N CA21N Blu-ray Combo BD-ROM Drive | eBay

 

Yes, you need either this:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?p_id=2671



Or this:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?p_id=1557

 

Thankfully not, and none of them run all the way to the edge of the screen. All they do is change color with different view angles, as the light passing through gets distorted (I guess). No idea what this is, no new appearing though now.

I never worked screens, is there some kind of a layer in front of the actual screen?

 

I think tonight is the night....I am finally going to order my NP9150. I am so excited!!!

 

I was wondering if it is possible for me to remove my optical drive later on and replace it with a secondary SSD without voiding my warrenty. I don't want to do that now because I don't want to spend all that cash right now but if I want to down the road can I do that and just keep my optical drive in some sort of case which can be used through USB?

 

Yeah as long as you don't explode anything with a hammer it doesn't affect your warranty. And I've been looking into enclosures for the optical drive-- honestly, it's about the same price for an external one save maybe $5, and no hassle of setting it up. I'm getting one of these Amazon.com: LG GP10NB20 Portable 8X Slim DVD+/-RW External Drive (Black): Electronics and most enclosures for optical drives that I can find seem to be around $22~

 

I still have no problem with this laptop. I mean sure, some people are going to have a bad one, but many others dont! Personally, my BF3 works absolutely wonderful, and I dont really have any FPS issues, even at highest settings.

 

WiDi (Intel's Wireless HD Display between notebook and HD TV)- After reading a few reviews I bit the bullet and bought a Belkin ScreenCast WiDi device to work with the Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6235 in my Clevo P150em.

Belkin ScreenCast - 1080p c/w 5.1 digital audio stream (I believe it looks for the clearest chanel on either 2.4GHz or 5GHz but I couldnt find an option to manually switch or control this).

Setup was pretty easy.
1) Connect power to the WiDi unit and connect to the HDMI on the T.V.
2) Instal the Intel WiDi interface on the notebook (there was no software to install from Belkin)
3) Let the firmware update in the Belkin unit after connection to the Intel WiDi software
4) Connect
5) Test from 5 meters from screen

Firstly I noticed that there was lag of about .5 to 1 second between the notebook and the Sony TV. however sound seemed to be synced with the TV not the notebook display which I was happy with.

Day to day applications (Word, AutoCAD, Rendering room/building scenes, calculation software) - WiDi seemed to work pretty well while using day to day applications like web browsing and work applications with some minor lag noticable between the notebooks display and my Sony 40" HD screen. I also found that you could use extend the notebook display to the TV which worked just fine and then you were unable to notice the lag issue.

Video playback (VLC, PowerDVD 12, Windows Media Player) - Widi seemed to do OK here, but I say OK... at 1080 the image was very slightly jumpy and every now and again there was a stutter as frames were dropped and the the picture/sound caught up. I have to say at this point that I live in an appartment block so I'm not sure if that was caused by wireless being extensively used in the appartment block, but I am only aware that myself and one other router is wireless N opperating at 5GHz. As I had no control over frequency of the Widi or transmission chanel I can't really say more on this.

Games - Will try when I have time

I liked the Widi for general browsing and day to day work on a large display without the anoyance of cables limiting my positioning to the screen or getting in the way. Video playback was not 100% smooth but was workable, that said at this point in WiDi developement I'd not swap hard wiring via HDMI or simular if you are looking for best video playback.

 

Which GPU do you have?

 

Hello guys, long time lurker here and I have a question.

I'm going to be buying (possibly) the np9150 with gtx 680 once I save up enough money. This will be in about another 2 weeks. Then I have to wait a month for xoticpc to ship it to me. My question though, is should I wait for the next set of mobile graphics cards to be released? I'm a complete noob to buying high end electronics and I'm not sure what the usual time between graphics cards is. I've had my current pc for 8 years, so another couple months of waiting shouldn't be too bad.

 

I'm looking into sager too. I think this generation of video cards is pretty new. The 680M came out around the beginning of June. Two months is a short time in tech generations I think.
I've been caught up in "wait for the next one" after waiting for new tech and then realizing it's too expensive when it first comes out and then by the time it's reasonably priced, the next new thing is 'a couple months away.' I'd say go for it.

I posted a couple questions of my own on the last page (350) which haven't been answered. Could someone be so kind to give them a gander and reply here or by PM or whatever?

 

No, the 680M just came out last month. I'm not sure a 690M will ever be released, and I don't see a 700-series mobile card coming out for some time. It's not worth waiting.

 

What products/ techniques do you all use and recommend for cleaning your screens? Got some minor smudging from fingers touching a corner of the screen. It's nothing major but I have been bad about keeping my laptop screens clean in the past so I am trying to be better about this one. I have read up and seen various products mentioned as well as simply a damp microfiber cloth. What works for you all?

Thanks!

 

There is a good read on how to make your own screen cleaner for a fraction of the cost HERE

 

Just got my NP9150 with GTX680m from brown santa! so happy!

 

To answer you questions:
1) What few people have reported issues with the headphone jacks with the 9130, may likely carry over to other models as well. I have found others noting some issues with the 9150 and 9170 as well. It may have just been bad luck with their issues though.

2) Mobile graphics cards are not sold through the general vendors like newegg.com or tigerdirect.com. You would have to contact a Sager/Clevo vendor to purchase a mobile graphics card. The builders would be able to get you the mobile graphics card. It is not likely you would be able to get a mobile GPU from a reseller.
Please also keep in mind, it is ill-advised to purchase the lowest end mobile card currently available as there is ZERO guarantee that you can upgrade your laptop to the best graphics card a year from now, much less 3 years from now.

3) It would be up to you to decide what wifi adapter you should go with. I don't see much of a reason to upgrade to the 6300 unless your internet speeds exceed 150Mbps. At the same point, Bluetooth transfer speeds are painfully slow for massive data transfer, you would be better off using USB 2.0, 3.0 or eSATA for transferring your data.

4) For the Windows 8 upgrade, you do not get a code with the laptop or a form of voucher that can be sold. Microsoft will ask you for your product key and when you registered your laptop and then they will be able to determine if you can get the upgrade to Windows 8. Sorry to burst your bubble on that, but it's just the way Microsoft works.

Whether or not you can still get Windows 7 when Microsoft releases Windows 8 is yet to be determined on how successful the Windows 8 launch is.

 

I've been using my Logitech G930 headphones, but I am just now taking my laptop on the road, and my G930s are too bulky to carry around, so I'm just now getting around to using the normal headphone port. The audio quality is terrible. I've never been much of an audio snob, but the audio quality, especially through iTunes, is just unbearable. It seems to be better when the audio is coming from a source that's not iTunes, such as VLC, but the quality still leaves quite a bit to be desired. Is there a good external sound card I could use?

As a clarification, I am almost 100% sure it isn't my headphones. I get better sound out of these headphones from my 3DS than from my laptop. They're Sennheiser headphones, but I don't know the model.

 

Ugh, the scratches stopped "appearing", so me and my girlfriend were probably blind the first time around checking for dead pixels. I tried to get used to the giant scratch on the bottom of my screen, but I realized that I just can't live with it. Even when I try to ignore the scratches, the scratched up area with the giant one dominating it is burning my eyes. So I decided to try all kinds of strange tricks that people found useful on the internet... eraser, cardboard, toothpaste and vaseline (that one 10 times). So I guess it's deeper than I thought and now I'm considering a new screen. These scratches are completely killing any joy that I should be getting from this laptop.

So my question is, is there some kind of a top layer on the screen that I can remove and replace? I don't have a single penny left now with all the investments into and around this machine, but I'm sort of desperate. I didn't pay for a high end graphics card just to have the image distorted by scratches on the screen.

 

Replace under warranty. The factory would struggle to repair an lcd let alone yourself.

 

You really think they would take a bunch of scratches after having the laptop for a week? Sager will just say that I did it myself.

 

Someone in another thread apparently said that their headphone jack was being distorted by interference from their 7970m... no idea if the same thing happens with 680m, but I can tell you once I get home in two to three days.

 

I believe there's a 30-day "no questions asked" warranty with all sager's. I may be wrong.

 

The audio on these laptops, sadly, is the worst sounding I have ever heard out of ANY device. I do consider myself somewhat of an audiophile, and the onboard sound with headphones is basically un-useable. If you want any sort of decent audio out, I would suggest looking into a USB DAC/Headphone amp.

 

Do you have any suggestions for one?

 

ASUS Xonar U3. It throws out some awesome sound and has some great features too.

 

And that works well for music also? I'm not a huge audio snob, like I said earlier, but I will be using this laptop to listen to my music as well as to game.

 

What do you guys think about this: AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3820QM Processor,CLEVO P15xEMx score: P6389 3DMarks

Check out my review for more !