Official Sager NP8130/Clevo P151HM1 Owners Lounge

I tht so too, but it works if you copy paste the link to the address bar. atleast it did for me!

Edit: my bad, overlooked a part of your post!

 

All this talk about the fragility of the chassis worries me.
I mean, I'm not exactly planning to use my laptop as a football, but it's pretty likely that at some point during my intended four years with it, I'll accidentally drop it.
I never expected a Clevo to have worse durability than, say, an Asus.

 

All right, that's it. Everyone....please understand that ALL laptops are carefully manufactured. These are expensive electronics and they have to be treated as such. Would you drop an iPhone on purpose? NO. But that doesn't make it fragile.

The same applies for laptops, including Clevo and this brand. What has become a runaway snowball effect of some people's comments about the minor nitpicking of the chassis is now causing people to think that they are holding a glass laptop. This is NOT the case.

The laptop is fine. Just treat it right, and you'll be happy with it.

Mr. Mysterious

 

You get something like 4mm when you just lift the right corner up off the table, without touching the other side. Lifting the left side gives you ~1.5mm of flex. If the idea that this laptop isn't rigid bothers you then you should not buy it.

Also, I tried fixing the stuck pixel again and it seems permanent. I got it to change from green to blue and green to red but it just turns green again.

And flex does not imply a lack of durability, infact it is less likely to crack than something that is built more rigidly. The funny noises from the track-pad mouse buttons still irritates me, even though I always use a mouse.

Although if the motherboard is flexing along with the chassis then thats a huge issue.

 

Fixed the link, sorry, I meant to do that right away but forgot...
Battery life is comparable if not better. Plus, that's with a 6 cell, I think you can get bigger ones if you look around. As long as I have 3 hours minimum I'm happy, since that's what I've had on every notebook I've owned. As long as I don't buy a netbook or anything and get spoiled with 8hrs I should be perfectly happy.

The thing is that in the future, I won't be having much time to be using my gaming rig, so I would like something at least half capable of playing modern games for times when I'll be away.

Thank you for some clarification on the flex - that does seem acceptable. I'm more worried about it feeling cheap due to plastic flexing etc than the durability side of it, since plastic is plastic and there's not a whole lot you can do about that. If it feels like a $700 system, then that's really not right, but as far as I can tell it seems like the laptop does indeed as a whole feel its worth. Sorry for scaring anyone with my concern, I'm just making sure I get the purchase right the first time being in Canada with all the hassles of shipping and taxes etc. Paying $100+ in shipping fees if I get it and am not happy isn't what I'd like to be doing.

For now, I'll pick up that other one and if it's no good I'll keep my 8130 order (which wouldn't ship for another two weeks anyways). I'd imagine there's always the possibility that thegdbatman's 8130 is simply a bad one for flex, hopefully others with new machines can add their thoughts as people get theirs delivered. I have no doubts that this machine is everything people claim it is and more, and considering what we'd be getting from Dell etc, small amounts of flex and loud buttons are really nothing when we could be paying up to $1k more for the same system.

Either way, thank you for the information, it is greatly appreciated. I hope everyone gets theirs in soon and is happy!

 

Honestly I don't think that is the case. The materials and the design seem to suggest that this amount of flex is usual and acceptable.

So if you ignore the flex, the only thing bad about this laptop that I can think of is a lot harder to describe... the general physical feeling when holding it or picking it up just rubs me the wrong way.

I think the reason for this is that Clevo made an economic and practically durable design in order to save money for good parts. It looks and feels a little cheap for a 1300 dollar computer, but it is probably just as resilient as any other laptop.

And of course there is the matter of the poor quality control for their screens, and/or their susceptibility to damage during shipping. But you probably have a good chance of getting a perfect screen.

Although I did nitpick about the keyboard before, I should say that it is very easy to type on.

For this price I would rather have the laptop made of magnesium... although it is still cheaper than other plastic laptops with worse specs (like the G53JW).

So I'd really have to agree with mysterious and admit that I probably was nitpicking. A lot.

 

Out for Delivery!

Figures, a FedEx truck just went cruising by.

 

Lol, you see? You're getting your laptop on the same day that I'm getting mine

Mr. Mysterious

 

This is true BUT if I hadn't upgraded from ground to 2nd day air I wouldn't be getting it until probably Wednesday next week, which might just be long enough to kill me.

 

Very true, I doubt if I'll be able to survive the tuesday delivery date. The anxiety attacks are getting pretty severe now and the whole weekend remains to get through!
To top it off, UPS have not updated the shipping status in the past 36 hours!!

 

Knowing that UPS could show up here any minute is killing me. I work from home and my office looks out at the road. Everytime I hear a car or truck coming I'm glued to the window hoping to see a big brown truck.

The anxiety is really starting to get to me!

 

Alot of the complaints have to do with "xxxx could have been better", but overall the laptop is well build.

A little flex? Yes. But the chassis is well assembled, clean and tight, to "edges" or misalligned seams, very acceptable keyboard and touchpad, GREAT screen, GREAT cooling, GREAT performance, good speakers, excellent port locations & very decent battery life.

I'd say it's a very good 1300$ laptop.. But it's not a 2000$ laptop (and is without doubt better than any sub-1000$ laptop i've used).

Still a great deal.

 

the laptop is very good.i got 14397 points in 3dmark06 and with a little overclock at gpu 810 core 1360 memory and 1620 shaders i got 16405 points

 

Have you noticed that the seam between the top palm rest and the main body on the right side is loose?

 

Same here... it's miserable.

 

Did not notice that on mine... everything is really snug.

 

I cannot believe UPS has not come yet. They are doing this on purpose to torture me!!!

 

All right, boys...He's figured out the conspiracy. Might as well come clean, eh?

Mr. Mysterious

 

Temps on that overclock ? D:

 

the temps are the same like stock!!60-65 while gaming.

 

I'm about to lose it...6:30 and no UPS yet. This coming right down to the wire, they have up till 7:00 to deliver.

 

OMG...my package couldn't be delivered due to emergency conditions?!?!?! It snowed here today but I saw FedEx drive by and the roads are fine.

It took them all day to figure this out? I'm driving there right now to get it.

Unreal, UPS is the worst.

 

Lol. Poor guy, you must live up North, its been warm here for quite a while.

I'm still waiting for my laptop to exit Phase 3, which is spose to last 4-6 days I think. However since it went in for overclocking on Monday, it seems like I'm going to get the later of the two.

 

Finally I have my 8130 after driving to UPS to get it!!!

So far everything is great, no glaring issues. I see what people mean about the chassis flex but I don't think it's a major thing. I can pick up the laptop with two hands and it feels fine. I think as long as you use common sense with this and treat it the way a laptop should be treated you will be fine.

Has anyone installed AVG anti virus on their's? I installed it and it is telling me that there are two malware infected files in my Bluetooth folder. The files are obexsrv.exe and mediasrv.exe. It wasnt me to move these two files to the virus vault. Anyone else experience this?

 

Avg? Quad, I am disapointed.

It is a false positive.

Get this instead:

avast! Free Antivirus - Download Software for Virus Protection

 

Got my PC...took a bunch of pictures of everything....screens and stuff, installed drivers. I'll get started on my review tomorrow...so far am quite happy with it.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Haha Batman, sorry to disappoint!

I have two questions so far:

1. I saw talk about removing the Personal Safe icon and can't find where to remove it or the post about it. How do you remove it?

2. How can I get the Web Cam installer icon in the the start menu so I can delete it off my desktop? I know this is a newb question but if I delete the icon I can't use the start menu shortcut. Any thoughts?

 

drag it there? who knows.

 

That is what I did but then when I delete the shortcut off the desktop and click the shortcut in the start menu it says the program is unavailable.

Got it, I realized I was creating a shortcut to a shortcut. I went directly to the Webcam directory and pined the shortcut from there.

Now if I can just get this personal safe off my desktop I'll be in good shape!

 

Ok, then navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\WebCam\WebCam.exe

then drag that exe to the start menu.

 

right click, pin to start menu, I also believe there is a way to add folders to the start menu, which I think is a directory with a list of shortcuts, checking.

EDIT: Here we go! http://www.softwaretipspalace.com/M...Add_file_or_directory_icon_in_Start_Menu.html

Just drag the icon over the start menu, wait for it to pop up, and put it in the place you want.

 

This didn't work for him because he doesn't want to keep the original shortcut.

 

Guys,

I apologize for the newb questions but do I need to install the drivers that are on the drivers disc? I had Win7 pre-installed and it seems like all the drivers were already installed.

I saw that Mysterious said he installed the drivers from the disc so I'm not sure if I need to or not.

Thanks for the help.

 

I don't think so. It comes with non-generic drivers pre-installed.

http://www2.sagernotebook.com/pages/notebooks/download.cfm?ProductType=8130 < Here are some shiny new drivers though.

Edit: forgot to mention that xotic says that the video driver will improve the performance significantly.

 

My order went to Phase 2 on last Wednesday.

The wait begins.

 

I just picked up my 8130 from Mythlogic today (thanks Josh!) and overall I am quite happy with my purchase. One question for other owners before I move on to some general comments, what CPU temps are you guys seeing when just surfing the web? Mine vary between 42 and 55 but never seem to go below 40 whereas I vaguely recollect some people stating they were in the 30s at idle? Does it take some time for thermal compound to cure and thus you might have higher temps for a few days? My GPU is fine at between 38 to 40 degrees.

Now onto some general comments about the laptop.

- I opted to upgrade the screen to the 95% wide gamut matte and am very happy with it, great viewing angles, bright picture and gorgeous to look at

- I opted for the N-6230 wireless card, may have been a mistake since I primarly run Linux and it doesn't look like support for this card exists until kernel .38, I believe Ubuntu 11.04 which is released at the end of April will have support for it but I may be stuck until then.

- In terms of build quality I'm quite happy with the chasis, feels nice and sturdy to me and I don't notice any big difference between this and my Dell E6410 from work. The plastic has a bit of a rough texture to it, some might feel it is cheap but I like it. My Dell E6410 is so smooth it is almost slippery when carrying it to meetings. Having said that I would have preferred the rubberized coating from the 8150 but not at the price point I would have had to pay when I`m not interested in the GTX 485.

- The fans run almost constantly even when web browsing albeit at a low level, in a normal work environment I won't notice them at all but sitting in my hotel right now where it is dead still they are quite noticeable though not obtrusive. My Dell E6410 was dead silent during normal tasks but that laptop has integrated graphics and a Core Duo processor so no surprise there. I imagine with the fans running all the time cleaning this puppy out on a regular basis will be quite important for the continued smooth operation of the machine.

- The keyboard isn`t awful but I`ll agree with other posters that typing on it is loud in comparison to other laptops. While chicklet keyboards tend to be louder this one is quite a bit noisier then others I have tried in stores. It`s almost like the keys are banging off of a piece of metal under the keyboard. Part of the problem for me is that I am a two finger typîst and really bang the keyboard, even so comparing this keyboard to another chicklet like the Sony F series shows this thing is loud. Again though in a normal work environment I don`t anticipate an issue.

- I wish that Clevo had jettisoned the number pad and had dedicated Home, End, Page Up and Page Down keys instead. In fairness though you can get those dedicated keys by turning numlock on.

- Love the general placement of the ports, particularly having the power supply attached at the back, well done Clevo!

- I have an SSD and a hard drive, no issues with booting from an external DVD player though I did have to use a USB 2.0 port, in the USB 3.0 port Windows complains about not finding a driver for the external DVD drive even though it just booted from it.

- The trackpad works fine as far as I can tell though not a big deal if it sucked since I always use a mouse except in an emergency.

- The Mythlogic guys have been great during the buying process, I`m in town from Toronto for the weekend so I`m planning on stopping by Josh`s store tomorrow with a few questions now that I have some hands on experience and see how the support side of the house. I`m sure it will be excellent though.

- Tried an older game I got on sale called Titans Quest, game played very well and while the fans picked up they never go in the way of enjoying the experience. Sound out of the laptop was decent, certanly better then the Dell.

Anyways I have no issues with recommending this laptop, for me the laptop will be used for both work (8 hours a day, five days a week) and some game playing at night. I am satisfied it will do well at both of these roles.

 

Hey guys,

I'm quite happy with my PC. There were some issues with the wireless earlier, but most likely that was the University wireless' fault, not my computer.

I'll have a comprehensive review up in a couple of days

Mr. Mysterious

 

Very happy here as well. The screen is amazing, the laptop itself is blazing fast, USB 3.0 is super fast and I like the texture of the chassis.

I do seem to have a problem with the THX software...it doesn't recognize the audio device. Anyone else have this issue?

 

u must update the sound drivers from the cd and the problem is gone ok?

 

Getting drivers directly from the component manufacturer's website is always an option as well as they will provide updates faster than Sager. I set up a dropbox account for people to post drivers. Login email is "[email protected]" password is "freefree". Feel free to share the account, upload, update and delete files on your own. If you already have dropbox you can login to the account and send yourself a shared folder invitation and the folder will show up in your dropbox. If you don't have dropbox you can always download and administrate files online.

 

I have all the same drivers that are listed on the Sager driver page. I'll give Xotic a call on Monday to see if they can figure it out.

 

1. Launch Protector Suite 2009
2. Applications
3. Encrypted archives
4. Personal Safe
5. Uncheck box "Show on Desktop"

 

Installing Batman Arkham Asylum to see what are the highest settings I should be able to get with decent framerates

I wasn't able to find that info for this card Will have to do it myself.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Already tried it, I got max settings out of it and black ops.

 

Ordered Mine today, Thanks for the reviews and help everyone.
What321

 

Physx included ? :B

 

Anyone know if there is a way to set bluetooth so it's always enabled? Everytime I turn on the laptop I have to enable bluetooth to use my mouse.

Not a big deal but would be nice to have it enabled when Windows starts.

 

Just ordered a P151HM1 on the 22nd of March, but am still waiting for it to ship
D;

It'll be my first laptop
I'm so very excited.
It was between the P151HM1 or a Dv6 quad...
I heard a lot of bad things about that computer...

so I bought the P151HM1

Plan on taking it with me to college and all that...
a little worried about the durability and build quality, but I'm sure I'll like the laptop.

EDIT: Just got the e-mail saying it finally shipped!!! Should be here Thursday O_O

 

There is an option in the BIOS for it under Advanced ChipSet Options if I remember correctly.

 

I guess so. Neither games have discrete settings for physx but I have it set up on the computer.