*** Official Clevo P870DM/Sager NP9870-G Owner's Lounge - Phoenix has arisen! ***

Keep an eye out on the Marketplace , some people (including me ) will sell their GPU's once the 1080's are available. (in a month or 2, i hope)

 

Sorry, I meant to say that I'm looking for a Sager / Clevo NP9870 with a desktop 980 and GSYNC display.

 

Hi,

I'm looking to purchase a P870DM-G in the next month or so and really wanted to buy from a Prema dealer / purchase a model with Prema bios, however I'm located in Australia.

My current laptop is an Alienware M18xR2 which I had to purchase from a USA supplier (because Dell Australia did not offer some of the options that were available on international models). Not long after I my laptop arrived it developed a fault with the motherboard needing me to send it back to Dell USA (Australia would not cover the warranty of an overseas model) and when it finally came back the screen was smashed... this required me to send it back again, and upon return the replacement laptop was badly damaged. The third machine shipped back to me was fine (and still works a treat) however the almost three months I was without a laptop (plus three months gone of warranty) and the overall shipping and warranty return experience has left me wanting to purchase from a local Aussie retailer.

Does anyone know of any Australian sellers who are Prema partners? I contacted Metabox asking if they plan to and have not received a reply. I can't seem to find anyone down here who even knows what a Prema partner / Prema bios is.

Are there any Aussies out there who have had success purchasing from overseas retailers, and if so, have you had good/bad experience with warranty? I was considering HIDevolution... though once you factor in the international warranty and exchange rate, a similar config machine vs an Aussie supplier is almost AU$1000 more to buy from overseas (not including shipping)... and again I'm left worrying about postage problems should a warranty claim arise.

Would appreciate any advice or suggestions (particularly from Aussie owners out there).

 

I'm in the UK with a metabox p870 I man tell you trying to source parts is a royal pain. Mine is missing a 2nd hdd caddy and now one wants to know of help not metabox (I am not the original buyer) or uk/Euro sellers. I was in the same position was close ordering from a perma partner but noticed this metabox on eBay in the UK and cheap and it I could go back. I would go with a perma parner and take a hit on the savings I made

As for moving from m18x r2, I man its better in the way of upgrading a lot easier to open and get to the cards, cpu and hdds.

 

Metabox is the only Clevo dealer in Australia but they are not a Prema partner... Personally I don't see the big deal about Prema BIOS unless you do a CPU OC and you have SLI due to the 330W limit.. It will be available eventually anyways.. The Prema vBIOS for the 980Ms is available, that's enough for me at least

Contact CEG and they have parts etc.. They'll ship to you in the UK and they are based in Germany.. Don't waste your money to get another one..

Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk

 

Strange, we always include the brackets and such with them since the chassis comes with them.

 

I'm guessing the previous owner either forgot to send it or lost it. As a seller on ebay I'm always super careful to send all original parts in original packing. I've even ordered a USB repair drive from Razer for one I sold a year or so earlier.

 

Is the m18x r2 330w psu compatible with sager/Clevo np870?

 

No. Clevo use different connector.

 

Yes, they use a barrel with center pin and ID resistor on it where we use a 4 pin plug.

 

Any info on when gtx 1080 will make its way to this chassis, price and eta?

 

Most likely Q4 2016 , Q3 2016 at the earliest.

 

Yup, but ive managed it with sugru and an some alu bent to fit. Like i say cant complain too much really ad the price was good

 

For a shooter... you normally have Mouse Acceleration off. That said, G502 doesn't look bad. Not sure if its plastic build or not though. That tends to be a deal breaker for me due to my handling of mice.

 

Even with acceleration off in game settings most laser mice have a natural pointer acceleration that is inherent. I personally had a horrible time with the m65 and this issue. I out mice through a lot of hours and never have broken one. Remind me to never buy any of your used equipment if your that rough on stuff.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2586671/laser-mice-horrible-acceleration-issues.html

 

Characteristics are going to vary by sensor really.

 

I am definitely looking at one of these to replace my alienware 17 and the fact that it has a desktop CPU and GPU is enough to get the money!

can you put in a 3rd 2.5" SSD or is it only 2 x M.2 and 2 x 2.5"?

 

2 and 2. Max of 6 terabyte currently

 

OK cool, that means i'll have a spare 2.5 that i'll be keeping. will have to see how much a 512gb M.2 ssd costs.

 

I'm terribly sorry if this has already been documented somewhere or if I'm not supposed to be posting here. I'm dirt-horrible at searching for stuff on forums and I see a lot of questions from other people who apparently don't have an NP9870-S, but still. x.x

TL;DR: Could someone please plug a CV1 Oculus Rift into this laptop and see if it works? No theoretical stuff or "It has a desktop 980 so it'll work!" -- Has anyone /actually/ plugged one in?


Long content, so I'll stick it in a spoiler to keep my post from making people's windows resize funny.

Spoiler

There's more to being compatible with a CV1 than just having an i7-6700K and GTX 980. Some USB 3.0 controllers don't actually work with it (primarily those made by AsMedia and VIA), and there's some *weird* requirements on the HDMI port. The main issue with laptops in particular, however, is that even if they don't have Optimus, the nVidia GPU is only directly connected to the laptop's integrated display; the HDMI port is still connected through the CPU for some reason, and that breaks all compatibility.

There's truly no way to check for this through software that I'm aware of, and the only real solution seems to be just getting a Rift and plugging it in and seeing if it works.

I know some laptops work with CV1, but I haven't been able to get in contact with the people who've made these claims. Furthermore, they tend to be running GTX 800m-series cards, so I'd be surprised if the performance was actually respectable. At the very least it gives me hope that laptops /can/ run a CV1.


In related news, I was looking at an RoG GX700VO before. Problem is, despite having a liquid cooling system and a desktop 980, people just get a black screen on their CV1. Thank goodness I didn't spend $5,000 to figure that out! x.x...

Besides, I think the NP9870-S looks better. <.<

 

I have 4 of these 512GB Sandisk X400 M.2 SSD... two in the P870DM and two in the P750ZM. They are really affordable and work nicely. I have no complaints with them for the price.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0D9-0006-000G4

 

+1 on @Mr. Fox recommendation. I have the 1TB versions, they are affordable and perform as expected without issue.

Someday I plan to use PCIe drives when they get larger and cheaper. Maybe when they get to 2TB and the 2.5" are at 4TB.

 

I know that HTC used the P870DM for their Vive Roadshow, so that one works for sure.
Here is a Rift owner that had a problem with it:

https://m.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/4ij2ke/cv1_hdmi_test_passes_but_no_video/

I feel that he may just not have set the internal and external outputs properly...maybe you can get an answer from him!

 

Direct connection of the HDMI to the dedicated gpu is the main requirement.

 

Glad to know the P870DM-G can do VR. Maybe I should get an HTC vive though i don't have the floor space.

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

 

It's a commitment. But worth it if you can get a plan to move your furniture around.

 

If you have the space definitely go for it, right now i do not as i live in Hawaii in a 510sqft apartment...saving our bah for a house lol but even without i strongly recommend you try it . Only VR games i really play are cockpit style (Project Cars, Warthunder, Flyinside - Prepar3d) but just for that i feel the immersion factor is worth every-cent, got my cv1 in march and have easily sunk 200hrs into flying DFW - LAX in prepar3d. I am also looking forward to this P870 refresh so i can have a semi-mobile / smaller space setup and maybe better power consumption (electric here is 35/c KWH)...also the wife is a fan of getting rid of my "ugly box" in favor of a laptop since it is a shared space.

here is a pic of the wife trying out the CV1...she hates technology, hates computer etc..but i couldn't get her out of VR she loved it.

Spoiler

 

Same with my wife, cept on the vive she spends eons on the damn ikea app. She has finished a couple of games for the first time in her life which is quite surprising.

Thing with vr is the headsets and cables etc make it look complicated. But once you talk/force the doubters to put it on and try some thing simple they "click" with the experiance. Its the same with my parents both enjoyed the experiance as well once i made them try it.

 

should i still order the P870DM-G even though there's new GPUs coming? damn i really want to get a 1080.

 

Only you can decide that, dont let anyone else make your mind up for you.

 

that's fair though i wouldn't mind upgrading to a skylake i7.

 

I 2nd that, only you can decide. I just got mine a month ago and I bet most would have said to wait, but I never asked for any opinions

 

If we actually see 1080's next month and they are pretty available for order I would wait. No official announcement though so time will tell. Plus I'm sure there will be a slight delay for Prema Magic etc.

 

@thegh0sts - I would say get it now with 200W GTX 980, enjoy the crap out of having a wicked beast laptop. Once 1080M is out, check the prices and decide if an upgrade makes sense. If the benchmark and gaming results are not head and shoulders better than 200W GTX 980, skip it and wait for something better. If all you want is an amazing machine that does fantastic with VR, look no further than 200W GTX 980. You don't need 1080M for that.

 

As you can see, even with my Alienkiller reigns pulled back to a cute little baby-girl 4.5GHz CPU overclock (piece of cake for 6700K... I generally run mine at 4.7GHz all day) and GTX 980 running stock clocks with @Prema vBIOS the Steam VR test is maxed out all the way. RTSS showed an average of 120 FPS. To get a basic entry-level VR score of 7 (compared to 9 here) with a single 980M you have to overclock and overvolt it by a pretty hefty amount... single 980M doesn't make the cut running stock. Also notice that Steam thinks I have a 1080M GPU because 200W GTX 980 isn't different enough for it to tell it's not... clock for clock, pretty much the same GPU, just bigger.

 

Actually pascal performs worse clock for clock, shader for shader but has far more of each.

 

So long as I get a decent improvement over the 980m I think it's good enough.

Also, there's a prema vbios for the gtx 980?

 

Yes, definitely. But, it's available to Prema partners, so not everyone is rocking a @Prema vBIOS or sBIOS. If you are looking for a recommendation, go with HIDevolution and get their EVOC branded P870DM and it will be ready to rock on day one. @Ted@HIDevolution will do you right. (I think Eurocom stopped provided the vBIOS for some reason. If not, they are a good option as well. Just clarify that the system will ship definitely with both firmware mods before ordering to avoid disappointment.)

All NVIDIA GPUs need a modded vBIOS to be all they can be. Stock NVIDIA vBIOS has always sucked for a very long time. This applies to NVIDIA desktop GPUs as well as mobile. They have stupid behavior and artificial performance limits by default as well.

 

Thanks for the clarification. Running a 200W 980 at the same clocks as 1080M should produce very similar results unless or until the higher shader count comes into play on certain things. On some things it may provide no benefit.

 

I emailed the Australian clevo reseller called Metabox and they do prema's bios for the P870DM-G but I have not asked about the vbios. Is it possible to flash it myself via nvflash?

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

 

More shaders would always help Unless you were not GPU bound.

 

You could also bump up the clock speed a bit on 980


@Mr. Fox Or NGREEDIA start to cripple 980 Maxwell as they normally do!!! So the 1080m can look better!

 

What's the deal with all these steam vr benchmarks now? Is it like the new standard??

 

It's a handy, short, repeatable GPU benchmark.

 

I've emailed the Australian clevo reseller about the vbios for the gtx 980.

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

 

Some people are really into the VR thing, so it is also a popularity deal. It's only a standard to those that are really excited about it. Some of us don't care, but it's still a valid benchmark and produces results that can be used for comparison even if you don't care.

Oh, you moved from Canada to Australia? I recommended HIDevolution and Eurocom because I did not know you were no longer in North America.

Yes, you could flash it yourself and @Prema would give it to you if you buy from a Prema partner shop. But, some of them get upset about firmware changes without their approval and may go as far as voiding your warranty, so it's just easier if it comes from the seller with the firmware already flashed and part of your warranty. If you are like me and no longer care that much about having a warranty, then by all mean find the cheapest one you can and flash your heart out. I'm not sending my expensive Clevos off to get fixed, lose control of what they do it, and wait a long time to get them back, so I got in at the best price I could and plan to take care of myself. Now that I can no longer enjoy the benefit of an excellent Alienware warranty with parts-only service or NBD in-home repair I don't care about warranty much any more.

 

I was only in Canada on a working holiday permit. I know eurocom does ship to Australia but the import tax in Australia is terrible. Looking to apply for permanent residency.

The local reseller has confirmed support for prema's bios but will confirm if they do the vbios for the 980.


Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

 

Good for VR means good for 1440p gaming which is an excellent target I think

 

Fair enough Fox! Isn't VR limited to desktop cards at the moment?

 

No, if you overclock 980M enough it will handle VR just fine. And, 980M SLI is way more than enough power for VR. I think some of the VR ready test utilities may not recognize mobile GPUs and they dismiss them as 'not supported' based on naming convention regardless of performance capabilities (I believe that is a glitch with Occulus Rift's VR ready testing tool). The Steam test goes by performance rather than what name is assigned to the GPU. I'm not an expert on this because I am in the camp that doesn't care much about VR, so maybe those that are more deeply interested and invloved with it may have a better answer for you.