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

Ordered my Sager 9150 from Xotic this weekend. A buddy of mine had ordered two laptops from them prior, and I really liked their work. Got in touch with Derek, and asked him all these questions and things, and let me tell you, Derek is a really great guy. Very helpful. I still shopped around while making my decision, and I always came back to the one at Xotic knowing how good their support is from my buddy.

Wound up getting these specs:

Code:

Graphics Video Card: nVidia GeForce GTX 675MX 4,096MB PCI-Express GDDR5
Processor: Sager - 3rd Generation Intel® Ivy Bridge Core™ i7-3630QM
Wireless Network: Sager - Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1202
Display: 15.6” FHD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1920x1080) Super Clear Matte Type Sager Screen
Ram: 8GB - DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS)
Primary Hard Drive: 750GB 7200RPM
Optical Drive Bay: 6x Blu-Ray Read/8X DVDRW 

I'll be getting an mSATA and another 8gb ram at a later date.
Probably going to install Win8Pro, since i grabbed a few licenses before the upgrade went up in price.

 

Yeah! Glad to help out

 

Hi lads. I'm very keen on a P150EM, but I have a few queries. I've done a lot of reading, and this thread seems to be the ideal place to ask my questions, but if I'm in the wrong section; please direct me to the appropriate thread.

I've never seen one of these laptops (or even heard of them until a week ago), so I'm being somewhat cautious. I'd like to know about the laptops weaknesses. Most people seem to rate the following characteristics of the laptop as bad:

- Bad Audio quality (speakers and headphones)
- Bad microphone placement
- Touchpad material not ideal
- Fan sound
- Keyboard layout (FN key layout)
- Fingerprint scanner position (identical to my current laptop, actually an advantage to me)

I've bolded the issues which would most affect me. Can you owners give me your honest opinions on these issues? Are they significant and ruin the appeal of the laptop? Are they untrue?

I understand that the touchpad material is a rubber finish. I can imagine that it might inhibit the user since the rubber would produce unwanted friction. I have not seen/felt one in person, and I use my touchpad a lot, so I would appreciate any comments on it's feel.

I originally thought that only the speakers were bad, but apparently I'm reading that certain Clevo models have terrible audio even with headphones plugged in. Is this an issue with the P150EM?

Finally; the fan sound is allegedly very loud and changes in speed spontaneously. Is this an issue with the P150EM?

I appreciate any other comments you have on the laptop. It's extremely expensive to me, and well out of my original price range, so I need to ensure that it's worth it.

Thanks in advance.

 

IMHO the P150em is a great laptop for the price. It's a bit chunky and not the sleekest of laptops out there but the power under the hood is amazing.

It's well reported the sound card is not great. But for me it's fine...if you really are fussed about sound quality then invest in a usb sound card. I hear the u3 is good.

The touch pad material also doesn't bother me, to be honest I use a mouse most of the time.

Keyboard layout takes a bit of getting use to and to be honest its not of the highest quality. Sometimes I really have to hit a few of the keys hard to get the input recognised. But again considering the price and the power under the hood out doesn't rely bother me.

The fans can get loud but you can always just turn the music up our put headphones on. I'm kinda of use to just tuning the sound of fans out. Again doesn't really bother me. People have reported the fans doing funny things especially with the 7970m and older drivers but think the new 13.1 drivers have mostly fixed this

Don't really use the finger print scanner and the Mic also hasn't proved a problem.

I think it is a great laptop, I love the price and power under the hood and also the upgradeability of it. But the low price means in some places the build quality isn't as good eg keyboard and sournd people have issues with the heat sinks.

I'd say go for it considering you are on a budget. Pretty sure you won't be disappointed.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

I just got the laptop today and I came from a gaming laptop background (G73jw)

The audio quality is a mega big issue for me. The speakers are fine actually, it's by no mean horrible but not as good as my G73 has. It can pushed to be quite loud without too much distorting sound etc.
The headphone however is extremely disappointing. the bass basically disappeared, the highs and lows are all middled out while the mid range sound are basically really weak. I am not sure how to explain but it's really bad, even worse than my phone, psvita etc.

The fan sound at it's normal speed isn't too loud. You can actually feel the fan working when you rest your palm on the laptop. But I can't really hear it when I am listening to music (it's really not that loud). (I feel it's dead quiet when I am not web browsing, the fan might actually be off lol)
I guess if you went to library study area, maybe you can hear it but it isn't that annoying to say the least. My g73 after 3 years is much louder.
The fan CAN get loud when you game, but honestly when I game, I don't care much about the fan noise. But if you game without earphone or sound, then it will be noticable for sure.

I haven't got any issue with the fan speed problem. It seems to auto adjust quite well.


Keyboard is not bad. I won't be using it very much since I have an external keyboard.
this is what I think:
I actually like this keyboard a lot. It's rare to feel any feedback on a laptop keyboard nowadays. I use a mechanical keyboard and so when I say it feels nice, it really isn't bad at all
The keyboard backlit is actually not that bright, which is a shame
The keyboard layout has the same problem with G73, the arrow keys are kinda molded together with the numpad, but the 0 is at a ok size.
The overall layout I quite like it. There is only one window key, one fn.
The two problems for me are:
The space bar being a bit too big to the left.
The \ key is at the bottom.

I actually think this is where all the finger print reader should be. It helps to isolate the two mouse clicks and don't get in the way if you rest your palm. I had a hp that had it on the side and it kept on bugging me because I touched the side....

All in all, my overall experience is:
My hardware is quite good, so the laptop is lighting fast as expected.
The weight is not bad, still a bit heavy but no where close to my g73. The charger however is BIG and I kinda hate how short the cable is
Screen is awesome. Not sure if it's because of the colour calibration done by mythlogic (I use the standard glare type)
Quite thick. The design made it look slimmer than it is. It won't look bulky.
Temperature is great as expected. The best part about clove is how easy it is to clean. If my G73 was able to be opened up easier, it would have lasted several more years. But now it is suffering from overheating and I can't clean it without asking some professional help. I went on streaming and playing starcraft 2, which is pretty stressing and it didn't even go upto 80 degree in CPU and GPU lol
Keyboard is great imo. The layout is weird but the feedback is more important imo.
The speaker is ok, the headphone problem is big problem.
Webcam is ok-ish. Better than my g73 but not that much different.
a very clean design, I like it a lot.

 

Thanks for the great responses radmarsh and etismyname.

I was actually hoping that my research was wrong - and that you owners would dispel any issues I mentioned. It looks like they are prevalent, though.

Radmarsh - you mention that it's great value for money, and that its faults can be ignored because it's relatively cheap. My budget was $800-$1000 AUD, and this laptop will cost me a whopping $1800 AUD. I consider all gaming laptops expensive, and so I want a premium product (even though it's cheaper than other gaming laptops).

I don't play games, but I want a laptop with exceptional cooling ability, and a backlit keyboard. Unfortunately, it seems like gaming laptops are the only type that come with both of these features, and they all look very childish. The P150EM looks very professional and subdued, which is something I really admire about it. I would take it to work without hesitation.

If I end up buying the P150EM and I'm not satisfied with it's sound, I'll check out the U3 you mentioned. Thanks for that suggestion.

Etismyname - you confirmed my worst fears about the sound quality. I never got to experience the stereotypical "bad" laptop sound quality because my first (and only) laptop is a Toshiba with exceptional speakers/sound. I would really be disappointed if I splashed out $1.8k on a premium laptop and it performed worse than my 4/5 year old laptop.

Also you touched on the keyboard layout. I hear that the lack of "island" for the arrow keys is annoying, and the FN key layout in which the sleep button is located between the volume and mute buttons. Also, in my search for a laptop, I see that most modern ones come with "chiclet" style keyboard, and the P150EM doesn't. That seems strange, but they are probably minor issues. I've never used a "chiclet" keyboard, so I doubt I'll be disappointed. Also - I never noticed the space bar being so far to the left until you mentioned it.

I like that you touched on the great thermal ability. My current Toshiba is still going strong, but is overheating badly due to dust build up. It is the only reason I'm upgrading, so I'm not sure if I should spend big on a P150EM, or just pay a professional to clean my fan.

Thanks again for the replies. I hope to get more opinions as well, and I will do some more research before committing to buying one. If there is any feature you really like, or dislike, about your P150EM, please let me know. I really don't need the amount of "power" that a P150EM is packing, so I might have to look for alternatives that offer better overall build quality at the expense of worse hardware capabilities.

 

I need someone's help.
I can't turn off the red light dot for the digital sound output jack. I have set the external speaker as default already.
Not a huge issue but it is kinda annoying

 

1. Its a laptop, speakers almost always suck on laptops, on board sound card isnt the best but it sounds ok, a little blown out of proportion imo.
2. Maybe? But I used it a few times in Team Speak/Skype without issue
3. Touch pad is perfectly fine, yes its rubber but dont let that fool you its not sticky, so your finger glides over it without issue. Not to mention it isn't textured so its a plesure to use for hours.
4. Fans even on loudest setting isnt really that loud, and is actually kinda quiet. It also does not fluctuate too much. It never changes speed rapidly its better than my old laptop in that respect.
5. Once you get used to it, it works just fine. Its just different
5. The position is great, same as my old laptop but its execution is quite poor. Its just a tad bit too deep to make it very easy to use. Once you get used to it it works better but far from good.

Quality wise it isnt the best either. Asus, Hp,Toshiba,Dell...all have better quality.

If you buying this computer for its backlit keyboard and not for games, id say you are making a mistake. There are plenty of laptops out there with decent specs and a backlit keyboard (ASUS zenbook)

The current backlit keyboard has known lighting issues since they switched the Win logo and FN key. (improperly lit Win logo, Different color(temperature) keys on the FN and neighboring keys)

I personally bought this laptop for gaming, and it does well in the games I play so I dont really care about these issues but you may.

 

Hi everyone! I own a Clevo P150EM and am upgrading my DVD burner to a Blu-Ray burner. I was wondering how exactly I remove the flushed front panel from the old DVD burner so that I may put it on my Blu-Ray burner. Pictures would be most helpful.

 

Pretty relieved about the touchpad, and everything you mentioned from points 2-6 sound positive (the fingerprint scanner is the same as my Toshiba as well, so I won't mind it at all).

This will be straying off topic, but my laptop checklist is as follows:

- USB 3.0
- Powerful cooling system
- 15.6 inch screen (17 inch screen exception can be made)
- Smooth surface touchpad
- Touchpad has independent mouse-click buttons
- Dedicated Graphics card
- SSD
~ Nice design (optional)
~ Portable (optional)
~ Blu ray player (optional)
~ Backlit keyboard

As you know - the P150EM checks all those boxes, and I personally like it's subdued design as I mentioned earlier. It's why I came to this thread first. I've ignored ultrabooks because I find that their cases seems to heat up very quickly, whereas the P150EM has excellent fans and will remain cool after prolonged use, which is what I need for long CAD sessions. Also, the touchpad of the Asus doesn't have dedicated buttons, which are a must for me (again, the Clevo has them). I may be wrong about the cooling of the zenbook, so I'll do some more research on that; but I really hate the 'macbook' style touchpad without buttons, and I'd be forced to buy a mouse.

I think I'm getting Win 7 and absolutely never use the windows key, so I don't think that's going to be a problem as much as the space bar might be.

I'll keep looking for the perfect laptop, but the P150EM is still the leader at the moment. Thanks again for your thoughts.

edit: It turns out I was originally looking at the Asus S56, not the Asus Zenbook U51 which you mentioned. That laptop looks incredible (besides the touchpad), but they aren't selling it in Australia (yet). I didn't know about it until you mentioned it, so obviously I have a lot more research to do.

 

^ I haven't heard of the space bar "problem" until you just mentioned it. I have no issue with the space bar and no one says anything that uses my computer.

The Keyboard issue is lighting, it does not affect usability, Just looks crappy.

 

Hey all,

The GPU on my M18x crapped out so I'm now looking at making the switch to Sager/Clevo. i've got an eye on the NP9150 -- I know it's weird coming from something as big as an m18x, but portability is definitely something I'd like to have and the 15.6" seems to fit the bill.

Only thing is, I'm not in a terrible rush to pick up a new laptop. Does Sager/Clevo release refreshes on a pretty consistent schedule? Like, should I expect something new coming out in June? I know Haswell is due sometime in June but are there any expectations for new GPUs as well? CPU power isn't that important to me for what it's worth it and from what I've heard, Haswell is more focused on efficiency anyways.

 

Sager typically refreshes their lineup when the new tech calls for it. No official words has been released yet but it's fairly safe to assume new releases right around June or so to coincide with the new tech dropping around then.

 

hey guys,
I going to tell what happened to me, just in case it happens to someone else and know what to do.

I always felt the response time of opening applications such as word, excel a little to lazy, but it was ok for me and one fine day when I boot the notebook I get the message right after the american trends boot logo "disk error, press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart" and I restart and the message shows again.

So i google it, it turns out that I somehow manage to damage my HD, but I didn't drop it, the only explanation that I could think of is that sometimes I walk with the notebook from the living room to my bedroom and vice versa, I knew that it might damage but never take it seriously, but in the end I sent to support and they confirmed that the HD was damaged, with no repair, since I had the warranty it was free of charge.

While was in the support I asked them to clean my the fans and change the termic paste, because I thought that the left side (processor side) was heating up to much, and bingo, after the cleaning up it was very cooled.

The catalyst 13.1 final made a huge difference, no more BSOD's, crazy methods to install the catalyst beta.

 

Great that everything worked out for you! You're right that just walking with the drive while the drive is spinning can damage it. I'm guilty of doing it all the time and luckily no harm so far.

 

yep... I've done the same.... and have had either NO damage, or ... a catastrophic failure. i thin the worst time ever was removing a drive from one of those hot swap docks, and forgetting to turn it off 1st. :/ this is why SSD's are so nice! I keep getting more and more excited about hte advancing technologies in SSDs....

I'm patiently (trying to) wait for my laptop from Xotic... So far, I'm very pleased with the speed in the handling times! Ordered on Saturday, went into production on Monday. Updates on the website every few days.... Good stuff.
Preparing myself for the arrival, checked Station-Drivers for all the new updated drivers (after downloading and checking the sager provided ones on their site)... and organizing some files for transfer from this old laptop.
I plan on having an In-depth review of sorts of this machine once i get it... Exciting to say the least!

 

Glad to hear it! No reports from Sager on any delays so you should be within those production times no problem. I would say early to mid next week you should have some tracking info for your machine on its way to you.

 

thanks for your heads up. i also am guilty of this sometimes and will definitely be purchasing a SSD in the very near future

 

For anyone with a 680m in there NP9150, was it worth it? The only reason I am asking is that I can afford the 9150 sooner without the 680m (and with my laptop dying a slow death, I might NEED it sooner), but if the 680m is worth the extra 400, I might be able to wait a bit longer.

Thanks!

 

Soooooooooooo worth it. I max out all my games on 1080p and it runs like a dream. No regrets paying extra!

 

It was quite worth it, I got it only because I don't want it to suffer the damn 7970m issues.
All the games run smooth as expected.
But if you ain't gonna play top tier graphics games, I would recommend a bigger SSD instead.

Since I play mostly Starcraft 2, the graphic card is way over qualified but knowing that the card will be able to handle other major games makes me feel the extra bucks is worth it

 

Those of you who did not get the optical drive caddy, has anyone found a way to disable the CD-ROM drive button? I seem to constantly be hitting the button causing it to eject by mistake.

 

The button on the drive itself is a hardware switch.

 

That sucks, I guess I'll have to deal with it until it comes SSD time. Another question: I'm a bit concerned about my temps. I have the NP9150, and when running 3dMark Vantage or Prime95, my CPU temps get up to 82C-85C. The CPU idles around 45C. Does that seem high? I haven't seemed to have any throttling issues or anything. It does have IC Diamond on it, also.

 

Thanks for the responses everyone! I mostly use my computer for my art programs (Photoshop, CLIP Studio Paint PRO,etc.) which use a good chunk of my RAM, and I basically needed a NVIDIA card in the first place because of the CUDA cores. In terms of games I basically only play MMO's like Tera, and RTS games like Starcraft 2. The main reason I asked about the graphics was that I was thinking about possibly keeping the graphics at the 670MX or 675MX. Would this be good enough for what I need to do, or would you say the 680m is a must.

Thanks again!

 

Good day everyone!

Just want to ask if anybody here has success on doing a Hackintosh for their NP9150s? I just want to know... and what are their specs?

I'm thinking that the i7-3630qm will be supported and the 675mx since it is on iMacs, but i'm concerned about the Wireless adapter because i ordered the Killer 1202, will it be supported?

thanks!

 

Hello!

What drivers are people using with their 7970m? And how are they working?

My fans don't want to shut down when I exit a game or something that uses the card. I have to start another program that uses high performance to make then turn off.

Anyone found a way to solve that?

Also, I heard about people getting a steel-series chiclet keyboard and modding it to fit the 150EM, I can't seem to find a place to buy them at all, and I even need one with swedish setup :/

 

You might try updating your BIOS to fix the fan issues or manually turn it on/off full by using Fn + 1 (not F1)

The Steelseires does work however the makers of the keyboard didnt want them used on non licensed computers so they are very hard to find now.

 

How risky is flashing bios? Never done something like that before.

 

I've been having a problem where the Fn key combination to open up the keyboard backlight manager doesn't work, and the far right of the keyboard is consistently green, so when the backlight is on, the green shines with the dark blue to make light blue. Ugh. I'd include some pictures, but can't at the moment. Wanted to re-install the drivers, but the disc said that I already had a "newer" version installed and exited out.

I'd delete it to replace this, but where would I delete the hotkey drivers, and would my keyboard work? Thanks.

 

It's always something risky to do as you run the risk of bricking the system if something messes up in the process. Relatively simple to pull off though and as long as you follow all the steps shouldn't be too much hassle. You can find the instructions here. Clevo BIOS Thread

 

Would it be possible to power 3 displays (without the laptop display on) using a 675MX with this laptop or would I need a 680?

 

The most you can do at a time is two externals. To get a third running you need a USB adapter but that will run off its own graphics processor not the dGPU.

 

I ordered NP9150-S Winter Edition yesterday and received email saying its in process, just want to know how long the build time will take. From placing order to ship out with no back-order parts, will it take more than a week? Also is sound card really that bad on this laptop? This get me worried. I use headphone most of time and want enjoy blu-ray on my laptop on the go. Hope I get this before release of Simcity. Am just 30 mins drive away from Sager Company ...

 

Hey there, welcome to the forums and congrats on the order!

Sager is currently estimating about 5-10 business days for production but we've been seeing them at the lower end of that estimate.

The sound card isn't the best, most will find it adequate, but it's hard to tell if you're not going to enjoy it or you will until you actually hear it. If you're using headphones most people agree that it does just fine.

 

I didnt order the Special Edition --- but I did order another 9150 on Saturday Feb 2nd..... so... basically Mon Feb 4th.... and mine shipped today, the 12th, and I should have it by Friday! So it really didnt take THAT long in my eyes for a custom built machine....

 

（＾ω＾）nice to know that, the only thing worry me now will be the headphone jack, read lots of post saying its horrible, I got beats by dre studio headphone, wonder if any bass comes out from that or maybe external speaker will do the trick, got receiver with HDMI in and B&W speaker

 

General consensus is if you want good audio out of it, get an external audio card like the U3. I have heard that the bass is lacking when plugged into the jack, especially noticeable on nicer head phones, but if you get a USB headset it's not an issue.

 

Thats what happens when you use the internal DAC to drive the audio output, as an engineer with some experience in analogue design it makes me shiver....

 

Not to be presumptive, but could someone please answer the problem/question that I posted before?

Here it is:

I've been having a problem where the Fn key combination to open up the keyboard backlight manager doesn't work, and the far right of the keyboard is consistently green, so when the backlight is on, the green shines with the dark blue to make light blue. Ugh. I'd include some pictures, but can't at the moment. Wanted to re-install the drivers, but the disc said that I already had a "newer" version installed and exited out.

I'd delete it to replace this, but where would I delete the hotkey drivers, and would my keyboard work while that was going on? Thanks.

 

Dunno for sure but reckon you could delete the driver in the device manager. Maybe under keyboard or somewhere else. If it's not under device manager then it would be an installable program that can be uninstalled through the control panel. I could well be wrong but they are the two places to look

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

When I get my machine on FRIDAY, I'll be able to walk you through fixing this... I'm not sure how everything is represented in the Device Manager/Control Panel/Uninstall Programs.... Once I see how it works, I'll be more than glad to help...

 

Finally got my laptop today. Ordered on January 7th and arrived to me today. It was not shipped until January 23rd so it took roughly 3 weeks to get from CyberPowerPC to Iraq. Not terrible, I suppose. I must say the display is absolutely stunning! Installing Windows 7 from a flash drive took a smooth 4 1/2 minutes from start to first boot and a cold boot takes about 25 seconds on this Samsung 840. Time to install all the rest of the goodies after work

 

Congrats on the new system! Be sure to let us know how the rest of the process goes for you.

 

Tried updating to the 13.1 CCC and I'm getting an error saying that CCC is not compatible with my adapter?

I've googled around a bit and searched here but haven't been able to find a solid answer.

 

From what I've heard from other users doing this is to leave the original CCC on the system and update the drivers separately. The newest CCC seems to be causing trouble much like what you're seeing so I'd wait to update it.

 

Yeah I installed it from the disc and then downloaded it straight from AMD and tried to update. Whats the last version of CCC that didn't cause this? The CCC I have that came on the disc is from july-august i believe

 

The CCC on the disk should be perfectly fine. The new CCC doesn't have any changes beyond layout redesign. I'd do a clean install of the drivers on the disk, then install the 13.1 drivers only leaving the original CCC intact.

 

I skipped to 13.2 and got pretty impressive results. Intel HD Graphics 4000 Mobile video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3630QM Processor,CLEVO P15xEMx score: P23719 3DMarks seems my laptop just pulled 4th place in laptops that have a 3630qm and a 7970m at stock with 13.2.

Although it says the Intel HD Graphics 4000 is the first GPU. I'm guessing that's an issue with the driver..or...?

 

I think it shows up as the itegrated gfx (hd4000 in your case) in some programs. It's an issue with AMDs enduro tech, it's the thing that switches between your HD4000 and your 7970m. At least now the latest drivers fixed most of the utilisation problems (I think)