*** Official Clevo P151EM1 / Sager NP9130 Owner's Lounge ***

Rhanks for all the answers! Also I believe you can get it now with the gtx 670mx, wich is kepler based. if you look at the benchmarks on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670MX - Notebookcheck.net Tech you can see that it has a noticeable performance boost over the 670m. Also if you check at the games benchmarks, you can see that it handles far cry pretty good on high settings, wich already good, and if you overclock your cpu, gpu and lower some of the settings, im almost sure you can play it at ultra settings resonably fine. Also these benchmarks are a bit under what I'm reading on forums (although I think they are pretty accurate). anyways, I know I could get this 9130 with the gtx 670mx for undet 1300$ before taxes in canada, so I believe you get the same, or even cheaper in the sates, since there is more manifacturers available...

 

Currently running my NP9130 with a 256GB mSATA SSD, 750GB HDD, and stock DVD drive so its definitely possible. You just need to make sure to confirm any SSD you're buying is mSATA.

 

Hi All,

I received my Sager NP9130 on Friday and have been using it since then constantly. I figured I'd do a mini review.

Let's start with my build:

I ordered this laptop from Reflex Notebook (AET Solutions). The ordering process was great and I spoke to mark on the phone for about 30 minutes discussing the laptop and him giving me his opinions. Excellent customer support. I will CERTAINLY order again from Reflex Notebook. No questions asked.

Display: 15.6" Full HD LED-Backlit Display features Matte Surface (1920 x 1080)
Video: Nvidia GeForce GTX 670MX GPU with 3GB GDDR5 Video Memory (with Optimus Intel 4000).
CPU: 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM Processor (6MB L3 Cache, 2.40GHz)
Thermal: Stock Standard Thermal Compound
RAM: 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - (2 X 8GB)
HDD: 1TB 5400rpm SATA2 Hard Drive (although I already had a Crucial M4 128GB in my other system that this is replacing).
Optical: 8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
WiFi: Killer™ Wireless-N 1202 802.11 A/B/G/N Wireless LAN + Bluetooth 4.0 Combo Module

After ordering, the laptop was shipped out from California, directly to myself via UPS Standard. I live in Nova Scotia, Canada. Reflex Notebook takes care of the brokerage fees. I owed NOTHING at the door. Excellent.

The laptop came double boxed. Packed great and even came with a free laptop bag that I did not even know was included! The laptop was protected by the typical plastic film. I opened it all right away and began tearing into the hard drive bay. Removed the 1TB Toshiba 5400rpm drive and put in my Crucial 128GB SSD. After that, and knowing this laptop was coming today, I put in my USB flash drive which I had created for my Windows 7 installation and began installing Windows.

Right away I knew I had good hardware. The laptop was quiet. Compared to my old G73JH, this laptop is silent.

Once Windows 7 was installed I knew I had to get the latest drivers. I decided to check out the Sager Notebook site and skip the CDs that were included. I cannot stand using out dated drivers.

The following is a list of drivers I used for reference:

Video: Latest Intel Video Driver From Intel's Site for the 4000: win64_15288

Video: Latest Nvidia Video Driver From Nvidia's Site for the 670mx: 306.97-notebook-win8-win7-winvista-64bit-international-whql

TouchPad: Lastest from Synaptics' site: Synaptics_v16_2_21_C_XP32_Vista32_Win7-32_XP64_Vista64_Win7-64_Win8

Killer Wireless: Lastest from their site: Killer_Wireless_E220x_6_1_0_395_Win7_64bit

Intel Storage Driver: Intel_storage_11_7_iata_enu

Intel USB 3.0 Driver: Intel(R)_USB_3.0_eXtensible_Host_Controller_Driver

Intel ChipSet Driver for Intel(R) 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family Version: 9.3.0.1026: infinst_autol

Audio: Lastest audio driver from RealTek: Audio_64bit_Vista_Win7_Win8_R270

Ethernet/LAN: 03Lan_91X0 (Sager Notebook Site) May be a newer one out there but I rarely have this plugged into ethernet.

Card Reader: 04CReader_91X0 (Sager Notebook Site).

Keyboard/Hotkeys: 06Hotkey_91X0 (Sager NoteBook Site).

I do not use the fingerprint reader so I didn't bother installing it.

Also, you can install the Intel Management Interface if you wish but I did not bother either.

After a couple of Windows 7 installs, I had everything setup the way I wanted. I decided to take the jump to Windows 8 (since I already had a legit key for $40 when the deal was on). Pretty much did the same install, proper drivers etc.

After everything was installed I ran WinSat.exe:

Processor: 7.9
RAM: 7.9
Graphics (Desktop): 5.9
Graphics (Gaming) 6.9
HDD: 8.1

I know the Windows Experience Index does not mean a bunch but it was a great improvement over my previous machine.

This is also with auto switching enabled in the Nvidia Control Panel.


Games I have played thus far:

Far Cry 3: Amazing. Runs on Ultra with 8x MSAA perfectly, VSync Buffer 1 Frames. HBAO. It's pretty to say the least.

Hawken: Choppy on full graphics. Haven't played with it since, I didn't really like it. Might give it another chance.

Torchlight 2: Excellent. To note, the Intel 4000 graphics will play this as well. I tried at 1080p, full details. Worked fine. Laptop has to be run in Performance Mode in Windows for it to be smooth.

Let's move on to the actual hardware:

Keyboard: Best laptop keyboard I have ever used. Great feedback, almost feels like a mechanical keyboard. A+. I do wish the 9130 came with the backlit keyboard though. I miss that from my G73JH machine.

Screen: No complaints, no dead or stuck pixels and I did not even pay extra for them to check it out. I prefer the matte screen over the glossy screen. So much easier to see, no glare at all.

Ports: Excellent, USB 3.0, card reader, etc. HDMI works great with my Sony PS3 3D Display.

Touchpad supports two finger scroll. THANK YOU SYNAPTICS.

I'll be using it over the next few weeks a lot and post anything I find.


Edit: Can play Hawken at full settings with the Physx enabled. Apparently on battery power (even though High Performance and the 670MX are set it stil throttles. When plugged in it's totally fine!

 

Hey everyone, I was wondering how to properly utilize the S/PDIF port on the np9130. I always thought that S/PDIF outs were always either coaxial or toslink (I can utilize both with my audio system), but the output on the 9130 seems to be 3.5mm?

I'm a little confused so any help would be appreciated, thanks.

 

Just need a 3.5 -> TOSLINK adapter, they are pretty common on Amazon etc. 3.5 -> COAX is a bit harder because its more like 3.5->TOSLINK->COAX

 

Oh alright, thanks, I'll pick one up.

 

Well I got the cable, but now there's another issue. So I have the toslink running out of the laptop into this device that translates dolby digital signals to a speaker system that's only connected by 3 3.5mm jacks ( one for center/sub, one for FL/FR and the last for RL/RR) but the signal seems to be messing up somewhere. There's no proper channel separation, sounds tend to come out of the center speaker. I know the decoder isn't faulty because my 360 and PS3 are outputting 5.1 properly through the device. Is there something I missed on the laptop?

 

They only had the gtx 670m option when i bought it

 

Wow I just discovered the Mic in and line in ports could be used as sub/center and rear speaker outputs respectively, with the regular headphone port acting as FL/FR, thus no need for me to use the digital output, wish I had known this earlier.

 

Please use the multi-quote option snakeofsolid, you've posted 4 times in a row

 

Can you P151EM owners do me a favor whenever at your convenience to try out the keyboard for ghosting issues. P150EM unfortunately has it and i'm thinking about picking up the P151EM Pollux from mythlogic or Np9130 from xoticpc.

If you don't have any idea what keyboard ghosting is, click the link below and it has the info you need and you can also test your keyboard out. It's basically pressing 3 keys simultaneously and if one of the 3 keys that are pressed at the same time does not work or register then it has ghosting issue. I'm mainly interested in Q+W+SpaceBar or W+E+SpaceBar or Q+W+D or W+D+SpaceBar. On the link below you can test out the keyboard and all 3 keys should light up green.

Microsoft Applied Sciences Group


Thanks guys and Merry Xmas

 

No ghosting on any of the key combinations you mentioned, though Q+E+T, Q+W+T, D+F+G, and S+D+K do ghost. It's not noticeable at all during normal usage.

 

Cheers Mate!

 

I bought my 9130 back in June and it's been a fantastic computer. Just recently though I've had this weird issue that really concerns me if I should get something done about it.

A few days ago I went to go plug the computer back in to power. As I plug the adapter into the computer (which was already plugged into the wall), the screen went blank and started flickering. I turned the computer off by holding the power button down and turned it back on again. The computer booted normally without issue.

Just again today, I go to plug in a USB drive. Same thing. Screen goes blank, starts flickering (the color of the screen is white during this, flickers between white and shades of white with pink).

So both times it happened when I was trying to plug something in. I'm a bit concerned because normally when problems like this start happening its generally a bad video card... but the fact that it happens only when I plug something in is more concerning. I haven't even had this thing for a year yet though :/ Specs in signature.

 

Try unplugging the battery and see plugging the charger in a see if it does anything.

Sound either like a GPU burn or SSD fail.

 

I should clarify that, it does it at random. I've plugged in my adapter over a dozen times now and it doesn't do it. Same with things into USB, its only happened once.

 

Hi guys,

Hope you all had a great Christmas Day.

So, I've been looking into getting some sort of Blu-Ray player, and between the options of getting a Blu-Ray player, 3.5" Blu-Ray drive for my desktop or a Blu-Ray drive for my Sager, i think getting one for my Sager is the best option (Since I can connect it to both my 1440p Achieva Shimian and TV while being portable).

I just have a few questions:
1) Anyone know what blu-ray drives work with this laptop? (I don't plan on burning, so a read-only drive is good).
2)<s> Anyone got a disassembly guide, the ODD doesn't seem easy to remove? (I should probably just go look for that)</s> nvm, read the 9130/9150 FAQ and found the disassembly video

So I just need to know which drive i can use in the Sager

Thanks guys!

 

Hey folks, I've owned this fine computer for about 8 months now, and I'd like to swap the hdd for an ssd. I've searched the forum and I can't seem to find the information I need...

So my general plan is to take out the optical drive, replace it with a caddy and the original hard disk, and then put a ssd in the primary port. My problems with this are, however,

1) I don't know what to get for a hard drive caddy, and,
2) A 2.5" ssd will fit in the primary slot, right?

Also, if I want to install the windows 8 upgrade version on the ssd, will I have to first install windows 7 on it and then upgrade? That would be somewhat of a hassle.
Would I need to format the original hdd, or can I just leave windows 7 sitting there? I don't really look forward to transferring all my files to an external drive and then back again.

Thanks!

 

Hard drive caddy, I'm not too sure about (I might've known, but it's been a while since I've been on the forums, you can prob ask Sager or Xotic, or LPCDigital, or another reseller)

Yes, a 2.5" SSD will fit in the primary slot (it's same size as your HDD in there), but if it's a smaller drive a 7mm vs a 9mm (my Samsung 830, is a 7mm drive and to mount it, I just bought some double sided tape, but only used it as a space filler).

Not sure about requiring Win 7 to upgrade, a quick google search should answer that question though.

And no, you don't need to format the original HDD.

 

You just need a 12.7mm SATA caddy, you then take the existing bezel off your drive and put it on there.

To "upgrade" you do need Windows installed, but to do a clean install you dont need it.

 

Thanks for the help! One more question, if you don't mind...

I need an anti-static bracelet to do this, don't I? Is there a simple way to obtain this?

Thanks again, this is really helpful!

 

You dont need one. Just be careful and touch something metal to discharge any static electricity you may have on you.

 

Ever since i upgraded to windows 8 my webcam does not work. It doesn't show up in device manager as a device missing drivers, but doesn't show up as a device either. Worked fine before windows 8. Any suggestions?

 

I Just ordered my NP9130 on January 1st, cant wait for it to get delivered .

 

I'm using on W8 and works fine, are you on battery ? Here one day I was with battery only and my cam didn't work


@Topic Someone using the 670MX can use GPU-Z ? Here is crashing everytime with 0.6.6 and 0.6.5

 

Battery or not, it never works. Unstall the driver and re-install, when i open any program it says Webcam not present. Also, the drivers listed on the site are windows 7, not window 8. But i do not think this is the reason its not working. I've traced all the cables in the laptop, and nothing seems wrong with it. And I 100% know it was working when i had windows 7 installed, upgraded to 8 and it stopped working.

 

Hi guys,

I'm not sure if this is an overclock issue or not, but I was just playing BF3 and was overclocking my 670M (NOT MX) to 675MHz from its stock 597MHz and about an hour and a half in, the laptop simply shut itself off... I wasn't logging with Afterburner, although the times i checked the temps, they weren't high enough to thermal shutdown at all.

Background: I've been using 650MHz the past week and have put over 15 hours of gaming, so it was time to raise the overclock again, and so I did that yesterday, accruing about 5 hours of game time (3 hrs yesterday, 1.5 hrs today).

I didn't change voltages on my GPU and from my experience with desktop GPUs, if it's an unstable overclock, usually the game just crashes and when you get back to windows it says the nvidia driver has restarted.

The only thing i can come up with now is that the laptop drew too much power? But I'm gaming while plugged in (although my battery is plugged in, resting at 100%).

Any ideas? For now, I'll just do what I've been doing and unless it comes back, i'll just rule it as a freak accident. Debugging one-off bugs is a pain in the rear anyways.

 

These things happen.. hard to say right now.

Had some of these on my 6970M when OC'd it, but sometimes it didn't happen at all. And yeah, haven't happened since a driver update.

Make sure your BIOS is up to date, same with the driver and EC. Make sure you didn't suddenly turn of the power do something just a little bit out of the ordinary, but otherwise it can be something as a small bug as something big as a bad card.

OR bad PSU.

 

Which PSU are you using, i'd recommend plumping for a 180W if you are overclocking the 670M or 675M.

 

I've got a question about the scaling options. I'm trying to make the laptop not stretch the resolution when I play a game. I know in the intel graphics options I can set this, but is there anyway to have it automatically not stretch lower-than-native resolutions when playing games? For example with BF3, if I want to play in 1680x1050, I have to open the intel graphics panel, drop the desktop resolution to 1680x1050, and then use the 'center image' setting. Its a little awkward to keep doing this every time I want to play a game.

 

What is the size difference between the 9130 power brick and the 9150 power brick?

I have read* the dimensions of both but have only seen pictures of the 120W alone.


Edit: Read product dimensions but that's it...

 

Dear owners of the NP9130, I may be joining your ranks, I've got plenty of questions, I made a thread already, maybe someone can help me to ease my decition on which laptop should I buy.

my main concern with Sager/Clevo as I don't know much about them is how long is their lifespan on average? and how often can they come dead upon arrival? I know this one may be less likely since the resellers check things thoroughly, but Im still wondering, I would highly appreciate if you could drop some feedback, here's the link to my topic to not divert the current one too much

http://forum.notebookreview.com/wha...id-range-laptop-gaming-music.html#post9048072

Thanks in advance

 

The resellers on here won't be able to help on your thread due to it being in a restricted section for us, but the other users will have no problem helping out.

It's pretty rare for a unit to arrive DOA, I personally haven't had a one arrive as such for the year I've been here. I'd say you're pretty safe. To answer your question on the other thread, you'll receive a drivers disk regardless of an OS being selected or not. If you do select an OS everything will be installed and ready to go when it arrives at your door.

 

Thank you Derek, I appreciate your answer, mind if I ask what do you know about these unit's lifespan? how many years of my laptop running properly can I expect with proper care? I never take my units to open outdoors to avoid dust, but I do however move on alot within indoors and do some exhaustive gaming sometimes spanning 4-5 hours but on average 2 hours per day.

and do you currently have discounts? I heard I could request a discount I'm probably pushing xotic's generosity too much by now lol sorry.

 

Any laptop, treated correctly, could feasibly last a very long time. It depends on how you personally will treat it. Cleaning it, making sure your paste doesn't need replaced by monitoring temps every so often, not throwing it around, not setting fire to it, etc... We have numerous people call and say they're still using their machines from 7-8 years ago and looking to upgrade due to the advancement of tech. Sager machines are just solid. Treat it right and it'll do the same to you.

For pricing, I'm not allowed to discuss that per forum rules, but if you want to shoot me an email with your questions, I'd be glad to assist. You can get that by clicking my name and then selecting to send email.

 

Thanks man

 

I posted this on Acessories section but until now, nobody replied

I'

 

Just as a heads up I'm overclocking up to 750mhz on my core and its very stable and barely increases the heat output from stock settings. Maybe reapply the thermal compound and check temps? Also, have you updated your drivers recently and if so did the problem start after updating?

 

I'm having this exact same problem. only difference is that I have a 670MX.. Did anyone find a solution?
I was running CS GO just fine at 60 FPS and all of a sudden 2 days ago I can't get more than 20 FPS. The net_graph shows that it's using the dedicated card, but that can't be right - not only due to the bad performance, but also the CSAA options for Nvidia cards aren't showing (it only shows MSAA). MSI Afterburner also shows 0% GPU usage.
Help? Anyone?

 

Did you tried another driver ?

 

I've had a 9130 for about half a year now. I use it alot in low light situations and i was wondering if anyone knew of a replacement backlit keyboard or a way to get LED's in it? Thanks

 

I guess you'll have to buy a external keyboard since our motherboard don't support backlit, I don't know if there is a mod but I don't know anyone who tried

 

Anyone upgrade to a HD7970m yet? I have plan on doing so soon....

Sent from my VS930 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

I've updated to 310.90 and all is well again. Except I installed GTA IV last night and it won't switch -_-

 

The motherboard just does not have the connector.

External would be your best option.

Have you tried the latest beta XYZaki?

 

Hi guys,

I need to add RAM to my P151EM (who knew I would actually need to upgrade to 16GB so soon... just took 1 VM...) and I have a question regarding the RAM.

So currently I the RAM in my system is some 2x4GB 1.5v 11-11-11-28 RAM that Sager installed (this information is according to CPU-Z). I was wondering if I bought say the Vengeances (2x4GB 1.5v 9-9-9-24) if that'll give me issues? I looked in the BIOS and there's no way to manually set timings so I'm just wondering if the motherboard/BIOS is smart enough to set all the timings to the same 11-11-11-28 and not make me return the RAM.

This shouldn't be an issue at all, but hardware's a finnicky thing, so I just wanted to check. If no one says anything, then I'll just order it tmrw.

Thanks!

 

It should set the timings to the loosest set of any of the installed sticks.

Funny mismatches can sometimes happen to make it even looser but it should run.

 

Any more development for the NP9130? Been really thinking hard on how I use this machine. Been thinking about building a mini ITX build.

 

Hi guys,

As one of the proud owners of this machine, I thought maybe I should post my thoughts & opinions about this laptop...so here it goes...

This machine is so worth it, relative to the cash I had at the time. It has its disadvantages though, but its advantages outweighs its deficiencies. I was using a Dell Studio 1558 which has its GPU (ATI 5470) fried at the moment. So this one was a whole world of difference.
I started processing the purchase of my laptop from the 3rd week in October 2012 and I got the laptop in the 2nd week of the following month, November. I must say, the customer service at xoticpc is just outstanding. They respond on time and they’re quite honest. In addition, I’m proud to say I got this laptop while in my resident country (Nigeria) at a price between $1100-$1200 (including transportation and the likes).
Now down to the facts, the pros and cons of my Sager NP9130 (from my point of view)
PROS
• Very fast processor (i7 3630QM), mad high end graphics processor (Geforce GTX 670M) with 8GB of RAM and 32GB SSD acceleration cache. This gives the system a very fast performance overall.
• 4 USB ports (inclusive with a powered USB), 3 output display ports, digital audio out, 9 in one card reader!
• Runs ANY game at 1080p SMOOTHLY between HIGH and ULTRA HIGH SETTINGS.
• An awesome 1080p anti-glare display, allows for wide viewing angles. It can be very bright too, which allows for outdoors use.
• The laptop build is simple, maybe too simple for some, but I prefer it that way.
• A dual fan cooling system( for cpu and gpu) that keeps the laptop cool to touch even after hours of gaming.
• The innards are easy to access and clean up, no warrantee stickers.
• Very quiet while idle, just as loud as you’d expect on max load.
• The battery life is respectable even with the high end processor and graphics. Although there’s the Intel HD4000 that kicks in when you’re not gaming. It can last for over 3hrs from my experience, on minimal usage.
• Fingerprint feature is really nice and convenient.
• The laptop is fingerprint-stain proof, the keyboard area is easy to clean too.
• Good touchpad and a nice keyboard layout. I like the fact that there’s a numpad and the direction keys aren’t shrunk...BUT!...

CONS
• The keyboard of this Sager...compared to my previous Dell Studio 1558 and my mum’s HP dm4, is noticeably harder to press and it’s deeper (as in, the distance pressed). Not as hard or deep as external keyboards though...LoL
• Again on the keyboard, it ghosts! This is a con that no one mentioned in all the tons of reviews I read before purchasing the laptop. I've always played Super Street Fighter using my keyboard. But with this keyboard, I couldn't use the WASD keys for direction because if I press ‘AS’ or ‘SD’ together with a normal attack, just the directions work (the normal doesn't come out!) I’m managing ‘Tab Q W 1’ for directions and the usual ‘Y U I O, H J K L’ for normal attacks without any ghosting. I’ve tried so many combinations. This is the only one that seems to work fine. I would have gone for the contending MSI if I was aware of this.
• The plastic material of the laptop has an abrasive feedback. I would prefer something smoother or brushed metallic feel. Also, the edges of the laptop feels rather sharp and uncomfortable, although I got used to it after a while.
• It is a bit heavy, the power brick is larger than you’d expect too. You don’t want to carry this in a laptop bag hung on your shoulder for too long, trust me.
• For a laptop of this caliber, I expected more from the speakers. Forget the mention of the sub-woofer in the technical specs. The sound from the Sub is hardly noticeable. The sound from the earphone jack is very good though.
• I could use better software for the hardware provided. The fingerprint software sucks; I can’t assign programs I’ve installed to my fingerprints, that feature only works for websites and the default windows accessories. I had to download the software for the Intel rapid start technology as the software provided on the CD didn't seem to install. I could use a better camera software too. Things would have been a lot better if I got it with a pre-installed OS I believe.
• No VGA port! I needed it once to connect to a projector. Most displays now have HDMI, so it’s hardly a problem.
But you see, in my every day use, I really don’t remember any of these cons coz the pros really stand out so I’m definitely recommending this laptop as a good buy.

 

Excellent review. I was on the fence for awhile ... but I believe I am sold. Time to PM a reseller and take this a step further. Thank you for your post.