*** Official Clevo P157SM-P150SM / Sager NP8250 Owner's Lounge ***

If you want reliability and ease of use, definitely go with Nvidia. AMD has driver and overheating issues, much more so than Nvidia.

 

If you can save money in other areas of the build, such as RAM, HDD and SSD, it would be very worthwhile getting the 780m. It is far easier and cheaper to upgrade your storage and memory than it is to upgrade the graphics card and, realistically, the graphics card is the most important component when it comes to gaming.

I had originally been planning getting the P170SM with 16gb RAM, 256gb mSATA SSD and GTX770m, but dropping it to 8gb RAM & 128gb mSATA SSD allowed the GTX780m to be in budget. Once I've got the laptop, if I want to upgrade, it costs under £100 for another 8gb of memory and a little over £100 for a 256gb mSATA SSD, compared to the over £700 it would cost to upgrade from a GTX770m to a GTX780m.

 

I am getting already 8gb RAM and no hard drive as I have already one. Maybe I can wait a bit for christmas offers or New Year offer, maybe they will come soon and then 780 will be in my budget but I do not think so...

 

While nvidia keep products under the main driver the driver paths for the older hardware is not actually updated.

 

Just received my P150SM yesterday Loving it right now! Ran most of my games flawlessly.
However, are there problems with the wifi (AC7260)? Sometimes it runs fast, sometimes it just slows down. Might be my router, I don't know.
Also, the power key isn't responsive (minor, i know).
Either way, with the performance of this thing, I ain't gonna complain much.
Game on!

 

which graphic card do you have?

 

Have you tried updating the drivers for the wireless card https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Se...oductProduct=Intel®+Dual+Band+Wireless-N+7260

For the power button check your System Settings in control panel and see what "When I press the power button:" is set to, maybe is set to "do nothing"

 

Power key taking longer than usual to start the machine? That's a deliberate design to reduce the chance of accidental power-on's. Not sure if it's the case on the P150SM, on some Clevo models it takes a longer press (about 3 seconds) to power on if you're not connected to AC.


Edit: This thread is broken as well. What's happening to NBR's server?

 

I don't know but their main search database is still stuck on the 18th of September so your guess is as good as mine.

Yes that power feature is still used.

 

Radeon 8970m. First time going AMD. So far so good!

 

Yep, I just updated. It was hard to download it as the internet keeps dropping but I finally managed to do it So far no more drops!

 

How does it play BF3/4? steady FPS?

 

Have yet to acquire BF4
Hopefully I'll get it soon enough and post my results
Peace.

 

I seem to have a problem with the keyboard backlight. I have blue, pink and red available. Other colours aren't available. Take note that I have updated to latest Hotkey.exe.
If I'm not wrong, before updating the Hotkey.exe the green and yellow worked, so it's definitely not a hardware problem.
Anybody else experiencing this?
Peace.

 

I'm getting a decent fps with my 780M and 4700MQ on ultra playing Battlefield 4. If you want to play 120fps or something you'll have to sacrifice some quality for better performance.

Also I'm running hotkey version 8.0132 and EC (bios) version 1.03.something, (the most recent) and my keyboard backlight is functioning just fine, all the colors are working.

The only "issue" I'm having is that the airplane mode driver isn't working for me at windows 8.1, so the device shows up as unrecognized. The wierd thing is, I can still turn my pc into airplane mode. So it's not really an issue, I'm expecting a fix soon (I hope?).

 

I'm consider about want Sager gaming notebook to replace my 2011 MacBook Pro with ATI 6750m.

Does Sager notebook chassis (NP8255, NP8265) use aluminum or plastic?

GeForce 780m GTX is enough to run Simcity at ultra setting.

 

I think the 780m is overkill for Simcity. I don't think Simcity is that GPU intensive (?)
And yes, it does use plastic, which isn't bad as it still looks premium and you won't feel the heat on the palm rest like you do on macbooks
Peace.

 

That's nice, it looks like GeForce 780m GTX will be enough for long time, also it looks ready when PS4 and Xbox One released, as GeForce 750 GT will become outdated with one year.

 

My hotkey is 8.0134 and my bios is 4.65? My bios is american megatrends or something. Is there a better bios I could use?
Peace.

 

Simcity is CPU + GPU intensive if you want to run this game at ultra setting and GeForce 780m GTX is one of fewest mobile graphic that capable to run this game smoothly at ultra setting, but most mobile graphics on market usually run low to medium. My MacBook Pro with 6750m run Simcity at all low setting, so can't go high or ultra without severe lags.

Beside Simcity, I play Bioshock Infinite, Borderlands 2, COD Ghosts, Sleeping Dogs, COD Black Ops, Assassin Creed series, Skyrim, World of Warcraft and other many games, so I will planning to play Assassin Creed IV: Black Flags, NFS Rivals, Watch Dogs, The Crew when releases.

I'm fine with durable, solid plastic, and yes, aluminum case became too hot when you play game or video. I don't think aluminum is durable because MacBook Pro will bent and break for good if dropped - just be careful to handle any notebooks.

 

The games that I've downloaded so far are Borderlands 2 and Skyrim (both are in your list ) and they run fine. I can't give an exact fps as I can't get the Rivatuner OSD to work, but I'm completely sure it is above 30fps, no lag spikes. And I'm using a Radeon HD 8970 stock, so there's no reason the 780m can't run it with slight higher fps.
From this website: SimCity Benchmarked - NotebookCheck.net Reviews, the 780m runs ultra at 39.9 or 40 fps, which is still okay and playable for me, but I don't know what CPU they used.
Peace.

 

Euhm you should look at the version that is displayed on the first screen that is displayed when you enter the bios.
I found this repository with the latest Clevo bios updates: Clevo mirror, updating your bios is at your own risk though.

 

Just checked notebookcheck.net about Simcity and it looks like they use 4700MQ.

Simcity is more GPU intensive if you want run on ultra setting, but not sure about CPU because gave very few FPS difference by 0.3.

 

I've actually ran SimCity on a 650m with ultra settings and got around 28-34 fps give or take. Got pretty hot doing so, but it's not a super intensive game to run. The 770m shouldn't have much issue especially when paired with the 4700mq.

 

with max resolution (1920 x 1080) and anti-ailising enabled?

For me, I like to run many PC games at high-ultra setting with 1920 x 1080.

 

AA usually kills the 650M so I doubt it, but the 770M should be fine for it regardless.

 

On a 1920x1080 screen, I don't think AA is that important. I've ran skyrim and borderlands 2 without AA and they look fine, no jagged lines.
Peace.

 

Plan on buying the Sager NP8250 for gaming/web surfing and some video editing. Am literally moments away from placing order, just came here to ask ya'll if it's worth it.

Gaming won't be heavy duty but I'd like to think that if I ever wanted to go all out, I'd have the option.

 

Did you have any particular concerns?

The machine is going to handle that usage beautifully. Might want to bump up the RAM but other than that should be good to go. The video editing will be able to take advantage of the CUDA cores and definitely going to be nicer than going with a lower midrange machine.

 

For gaming laptop, Sagers are some of the best deals out there. In fact, I think for high performance, they are the best deal right now. I plan to get the np8255-S with the 780M. So, what questions or concerns do you have?

 

No concerns in particular. Just mostly looking for the go-ahead from some tech-savy people. I'm not really much of an expert when it comes to these things and I really would like to buy something that's quality and doesn't have any surprises.

I'm gonna go ahead and make the purchase thanks to all I've heard of this product from the helpful people at these forums.
Oh yea and btw, how's the fan on this thing? My current laptop is a 5 year old HP and gets so loud that I'm actually ashamed to use it in public `-`

 

If you game intensely it can be loud sometimes, but with normal use of web surfing, it is not audible for me at least. I'm even using it on my bed (i know, it's bad) and the fans rarely come on, so I'm guessing it's fine.

 

Huh. How do you manage that? My fans, like many others, cycle on and off with light-intensity work all of the time. I do get fantastic temperature readings, but I haven't repasted, so I was wondering if that would help at all with taming down the fans.

A few small annoyances from the top of my head, Mosteq, if you run into the same things I did:
- Significantly worse electrical noise issues with audio output and input than I've ever seen in notebooks before. Buzzing white noise while at high-intensity (drowns out amid noise, but very audible when no or quiet output or when the computer is muted). Very obstructive white noise with the internal microphone (making it useless, at least for some) and external microphones. Bypassed by purchasing a portable, general-use $15-30 external USB audio sound card (search under "audio adapter" as well for more choices).
- Annoying touch pad drivers. I haven't used Synaptics in so long (last, probably in an old Thinkpad where I likely used the nub exclusively anyways) I can't believe how clumsy it is. Installed latest drivers to get rid of innate gestures. Still doesn't allow 3-finger taps/swipes. Furthermore, the two-finger scroll requires the tips of my fingers to be about an inch apart to recognize, which I've never had to do with previous laptops where I could keep my two or three fingers right next to each other (accidental misclicks). I keep intending to try forcing an Elantech driver that I am accustomed to onto it and seeing what happens, but it seems ludicrous and I keep forgetting.
- Inconvenient audio jack placement for casual use. Being placed behind the optical drive, as you can see from pictures, is something I rarely see in laptops where they're usually at the very edge or even in the front so short cords don't tug as much, they're not so much in the way sometimes, and quicker to plug in without looking. Obviously, with a flexible USB audio adapter, you can get around it.
- Display and the casing around it is a little more flexible than I anticipated, though it may have been my high expectations. I avoid applying too much pressures on it at certain spots when carrying it. Display itself is gorgeous.

So nothing deal-breaking, but I thought I'd give you a heads-up on some problems I did not really foresee when purchasing (the audio one is actually quite inconveniencing for me as I carry around the laptop often). Everything else is mostly as-expected, either adequate or fantastic. Battery life on web browsing, word processing, light programming, and so on seems to average 4:10 hours for me, which I find great for a high-performance notebook. On that note, I love the battery placement being near the front where it's cool alongside the good cooling system. Performance is great with graphics and video design/editing as well as gaming. The matte everything is great and the construction feels very solid (except a little bit of unexpected flimsiness on the fan grates, and thus near the hinges, which I thought would be completely solid).

Really do have to agree with the others it's a great purchase.

 

Clevo loves the super aggressive fan profile for some mysterious reason. When some Ultrabook people hear my fan kicking in they're like "OMG what hell is that is your laptop broken".

The Synaptics Windows driver doesn't expose all the functions via the GUI. I'm not sure how you can switch to its CLI under Windows, but under Linux 3-finger tap does work.

Clevo onboard audio is always ... well, at least it does make some sound. On the other side you usually don't see 4 audio jacks on a notebook.

 

That is very odd. Mine is ABSOLUTELY quite when on light-intensity work. Although, after I game for a while (and the fans are loud), after I exit the game, the fan stays on for a little while (15 minutes give or take).
Also, my sound wasn't bad, the speakers were as loud as it gets, and my friends on skype hear fine through the microphone. The jack-in (is that what it's called?), the 3.5mm port doesn't make any buzz or any sound some people have said theirs did.
Aaaand finally, my touchpad 3 finger works. I was able to browse the net and go back pages by flicking with 3 fingers. However, the only annoyance I have is that I don't realize I've reached the side of the touchpad (when not looking, of course ), and accidentally open the charms bar by swiping from the right.

Also I can't change the two finger scrolling to normal rather than the 'natural' scrolling mac has.

Peace.

 

For whoever is interested, I've ran some benchmarks today in battlefield 4, and on large 64 player maps I'm getting about 39 fps average at 1080p.
This is with an 4700MQ, 8GB Kingston 1866mhz ram and a 780M.

 

That sounds pretty spot on considering I get 50-60fps after overclocking.

 

Hey guys, I got my p150sm for like 2-3months now, but I just recently noticed that my speakers are slowly staining white, especially the right.
Does any1 have an idea whats the reason for that?

 

Dirt XDDDDDD

 

I only use it as desktop replacement (with closed lid) .. so there shouldnt be 2 much dirt. Also only the area of speakers are affected while the rest is fine.

 

Looks like dust or dirt. Have you tried a vacuum or blowing it out wity compressed air? Even though it is closed there is still air flow. I presume the cpu or gpu fan might be pulling in air through there.

 

Are you using the Prema vBios? What settings are you using?

 

Sager NP8265-S bought from PowerNotebooks, update.

Having had my NP8265-S for almost 3 months, and having put Windows 8.1 on it, I really can't complain about the laptop too much. Sure, I could have bought the NP8250 and put in a second SSD, but then I'd have a garish look (the tribal mousepad) and a sentelic touchpad that would be absolutely horrifying in terms of sensitivity. (One SSD is MORE than fast enough for me... especially an 840 Pro.) The Optimus Setup works beautifully on a ton of programs, although a few games don't have profiles, and as such must be set to run off the GPU manually through the nVidia control panel. I'll be honest though, with the GPU off, I have gotten over 4 hours of battery life doing web surfing and research, and still had enough battery to save, shut down, etc., without the Windows "low battery" alert coming up. I laughed off the notion of Optimus when I bought my previous laptop (an NP8130), but it is completely legitimate, and gives this laptop a usability that's not typical of a machine that, for all intents and purposes, is about as fast as an i7-3770 / GTX 760 combination. The isolation of each component (CPU / GPU) to dedicated heatsinks and dedicated fans, is - at least to me - a much better solution than one fan and the GPU / CPU sharing heatsinks. Maybe it's my OCD, or perhaps it's just my view that things that generate heat should have as few "common" heat points as possible, but the design assuages my heat concerns.

The "wicked loud" fan problem? I don't have a problem with it, for two reasons. First, I'd rather have a nice cool machine when gaming than a boiling hot machine. If this means I have to make a bit of noise with the fans, so be it. Ultrabooks may be thin, cute, "en vogue", etc., but they're almost relegated to using the entire bottom panel as a heatsink (ie: Macbook Pro, Razer Blade, etc.,) with only a super thin vent for cooling. It's not for me. Thin and Light is nice... but not at the expense of heat. The thickness and the overall "POWER!" of the fans then, is a necessary evil. The only way I'd begin to consider being put off was if the NP8265-S decided one day to have as many fans as the NP9570.... and for those who carry that to school and back, I admire you for it... I reviewed its predecessor, and it was MASSIVE... and redefined "loud fans" for me. If I had to then, choose a problem area, it would be the X-Fi MB3 setup. The Realtek Driver can be just about any Realtek Driver, but the X-Fi driver HAS to be the one from Clevo, or the one from your disk, otherwise when it's installed and set up, it won't recognize the "built-in" speakers and the sound will go very faint, or get very tinny. I've made that mistake more times than I care to admit, but it comes down to "proprietary behavior" I guess. Once it's set up to "Built-in Speakers", and the Realtek is set to 7.1 @ 24/192 in its settings, the sound quality, loudness, basement, etc., increases appreciably. It's much better than the NP8130 I used previously, and almost as good as the Dell XPS m1710 I used to own (which, in my opinion, had the best laptop speakers ever).

I'll keep my 3 month view on the screen as short as possible. WOW, THE PICTURE QUALITY IS JUST AWESOME!!! DEEP! RICH! VIBRANT! BRIGHT! (blindingly bright, sometimes). 95% Adobe RGB Screen really brings out the best of the laptop. As an added bonus, it also has reduced "dark splotches" when trying to differentiate between various "blacks" that can show up in elements such as car tires, or night-sky backgrounds. Potential buyers on the fence, should give this screen a look... it's a marked improvement over the standard screen both for gaming, and for color rendition. Think of it as putting a digital UV/IR filter on your lens to punch the colors up a bit, then putting in Ektar 100 into your film camera to get super punchy, and super sharp, pictures. That's what this monitor does to the computer, and I love it. From a technical standpoint, it makes me wonder if the monitor is 8-bit or 10-bit, and (don't laugh), how close it is to being an IPS monitor. I know it's not, but some of its properties are VERY close to IPS. One wondrance though: Will there ever be a 3K monitor for the Sager?

From doing research papers on International Law, to playing racing games at - or very close to - maximum graphics quality, I have no problems recommending this Sager for the student or professional who wants to do homework, research, study, or even do photowork (with the 95% Adobe screen), and then be able to play the latest games at very high fidelity settings. I'd recommend this laptop, and PowerNotebooks, without reservation.

Jason

 

Nice review. Good to see a three month prospective. Is it pretty quiet when browsing the internet?

 

The panel is 6 bit, which stops a lots of people from using this machine as a DCC workstation.

The vertical viewing angle is till noticeably weaker than IPS. Everything else is just good. The panel also has very low latency, which is big plus for a gaming notebook.

 

Yes TN panels are cheaper but they do have that lower latency which is a reasonable issue with IPS and part of the reason TN has been so popular.

 

Is there anything similar to the AUO but is at least 8bit?

 

If it was six-bit, it wouldn't be able to display millions of colors, no?

I see it like this: 24-bit color = 8-bits * 3 colors = 2^24 = 16.8 million colors.
6-bit, would then be 18-bit color or 262,144 colors.

Jason

 

If you set the computer to use the CPU only unless gaming... it's dead silent for normal browsing, and still fairly quiet even when watching 1080p on youtube. Is it "ultrabook" silent? No. Is it quieter than one would expect for a laptop with more power than most desktops? Absolutely.

 

6 bit, 262k colors, that's exactly what the spec document says.