Official Sager NP8130/Clevo P151HM1 Owners Lounge

Great thanks for that! Will rep tomorrow when I have more rep to give! Funny thing is my NP8170 with GTX 485m will get about 3500 on battery lol.

 

Yeah, I would be too, but then, don't feel bad, because here I sit on the other "side" with that "greener grass" and was thinking this morning:

-The color washout / grey / blue hue makes the screen a little bit of a compromise I think, compared to your laptop. (Check out the images in that notebookreview you sent me, then check out the G53SW).

-The Power pin on the side of my laptop with a plug coming straight out (have purchased the a right angle adapter at least) is a little bit of a compromise.

-And the fact that mine is less portable with its additional dimension and ~1lb of weight, make it a compromise.


We probably have very similar tastes in what we expect out of our systems and what we want to use them for. Right now, it looks like they are just about damn near the same price.

What it comes down to really, are just minor nit-picks, and deciding which of these faults are most annoying to you.

To be fair, and admit it, I'm probably a bit unreasonable when it comes to my tolerance of notebook noise. Even though I wish this laptop was smaller, the screen was a little nicer, and that I was able to score a GTX560m with 192bit 1.5GB DDR (instead I settled for the GTX460m since our GTX560m is 128bit), I think I had my head on straight. This sucker is quiet, even maxed out game settings.




EDIT: For clarity anyone reading this after a while... "My Notebook" is the G53SW and was comparing it with Mr. Mysterious's NP8130.

 

I was faced with the choice between and G53 and an 8130 and the 8130 was the clear winner for me. I tried out the G53 for awhile before returning it and the design and the dimensions were simply a lot greater than the 8130. The G53 was almost two inches wider and I did not like the angled and beveled edges and design or the rubbery feel of the Asus. The ASUS does have a quieter cooling system but the new bios on the 8130 solves that problem for me by having quieter fan control. The keys on the G53 also felt weaker and mushy although the backlit feature is something I really wish I had on my 8130 at times. The screen on the 8130 was much, much better than the screen on the G53 in every respect, even the default non 95% gamut screen. The power plug issue was also an annoyance. The power plug on the back of the 8130 is perfect and always out of the way.

 

I'm finding the speakers are pretty weak, at least in the default configuration. From reading through this thread, it seems some have recommended uninstalling the THX software as a means to enhance the sound. Doesn't that sound a bit backwards? Haha.

Can anyone comment before I try it?

Speakers are VERY tinny and "shrill."

I could be spoiled from both the XPS 15 and Alienware m14x I briefly had. The speakers on both units were astounding.

 

I think mine sounds fine with the THX, just screw around with the settings.

 

I officially just ordered my P151HM1 !

I ordered it through e-Check but from what I've read Malibal generally has it ready to go by the time the e-Check is processed, so I may be getting it late next week or the week after that.

I just wanted to thank everyone here for their help and information; I appreciate it and look forward to being part of this community.

Oh, and thanks go out to Malibal for such friendly and helpful service, which made the whole process absolutely great.

 

Glad we could help out! Please send us a PM if you need anything.

P.S. Nice Sig! It looks really clean and well laid out.

 

Which display did you go with? I was liking the idea of the clear 95% one for +$30. Looked like a way to REALLY be pleased with the display.

Also, about the fan sound-- is it at least consistent while gaming? Another Sager laptop I tried a while back would whir up to max, then go back down, then whir back up... and... you get the idea... annoy me.

And, so, since you had the G53 and this new Bios on the NP8130... you're just the person I want to talk to. Do you ever miss the G53?

You know, both fans ARE on the back of your Sager.
Since you and I don't have the proper hardware to evaluate the sound.... would you say:

50% volume on your speakers while gaming, you don't notice them? Don't bother you?

Sorry, I know this is a subjective subject, but I just wanna be sure before I potentially get crazy here, buy another notebook, take the two home, and commit to selling one myself. Hope you understand my inquisitiveness

 

hey guys,
Im about to pull the trigger on the 8130. Before i do, is there anything i should be concerned about? im basically getting this because it is the most powerful laptop you can get under 7 pounds. Also, does anyone know when the new series will come out and if it will have optimus technology or some type of switchable graphics with the discrete graphics like the gtx series? This laptop caught my eye because it has the power with the portability. The next step would be to get a better battery life. Anyone know if a new laptop is coming out with high end graphics with the ability to switch?

 

We'll see if anyone else knows something for sure, but let me share what I've found out, I have been concerned about this very thing.

The card in this machine is POTENTIALLY switchable if a manufacturer chooses to do it. It is done in the latest Toshiba laptop.

Asus, MSI and Clevo laptops all do NOT switch.

Clevo is generally at the forefront of ingenuity when it comes to integrating the latest and greatest.

So why didn't they? Well, there's some ho-hum (thats bad) among gamers in the know about Optimus technology at it's current level. Having a driver control the switch, the incurred latency, and whatever else MAY be the reason these 3 manufacturers left it out.

OR, it could be around the corner, right?

I decided recently, after this latest series of notebooks came out, that they must be intentionally not integrating Optimus support into the respective notebooks and went ahead and made a purchase.

Keep in mind too, the GTX560m does have additional intelligence vs. the GTX460m it is replacing with power efficiency, so it's not as bad as you and I probably thought it used to be to not have Optimus.

 

I had another thought too Jaydaman... maybe the Optimus being integrated didn't save a whole lot of battery.

It isn't QUITE apples to apples, but out of curiosity, I checked Toshiba's site for their battery life approximation for the X770 with optimus 560m.

Toshiba Qosmio® X775-Q7270 17.3" widescreen Laptop (Red) | Laptops | Computers | us.toshiba.com

It claims only 4.13hrs. It is a 17" screen, but man, it isn't 8hrs or something nuts compared to the 2.5hrs of the NP8130 or 3hrs you get with the Asus G53.

I say, spend some money and do some work.

 

It's not even close. It's Apples to Watermelons. Not only is the Toshiba a desktop replacement 17" notebook that draws up to 180W, but the most important part is the battery. The battery on the Toshiba is a pathetic 47Wh. The 8130 draws under 120W and has a 77Wh battery. The battery in our notebooks has 40% more capacity.

If the Toshiba had a larger battery, it would probably do about 7 hours. A reasonable estimate of Optimus on a P151HM is probably closer to 5 hours versus the current 3 hours.

 

I have the AU Optronics non-95% gamut matte display and it was already heads and shoulders better than the one on the G53. I would imagine the 95% gamut matte display to be even better. Another reason why I avoided ASUS - glossy screens are a death sentence for me on laptops that have to be in different lighting conditions.

You're exactly right on the fan start/stop issues of Clevos. I hated the whir up and down when I first got my 8130 and was checking every few weeks for a new bios on these forums. The new bios addressed that exactly. The fans now spin at a low steady speed.

I don't notice fans at all during gaming. That's my honest assessment. I only notice the fans when it's in idling in 2D but with the new bios, it's quiet. The fans really bothered me on the stock bios. With the new bios, my brain doesn't even detect that the fans are doing anything when I am gaming at 50% volume. I am completely oblivious to them. On this notebook, if you press Fn + 1, the fans will turbo to maximum 100% speed and you can tell that when gaming, the notebook will never get to that speed. The highest it's ever been is probably only 40%, even after an hour of gaming.

I don't miss the ASUS at all. I really disliked the feel of the rubbery surface and the glossy screen. I really hated the angular shape of the ASUS. It made it hard to fit it into the laptop slots of many backpacks I tried.

I also really hated this:

Power, ethernet, USB, sound, and video-out all coming out of the right side where you usually mouse? Terrible design. The 8130 is guilty of that also but it's only the 3.5mm audio jacks, of which many headphones have tiny L connectors so it's no problem. I usually use Bluetooth sound also. The video out, e-SATA/USB, and power (L connector) are on the back of the Sager in between the fan exhausts where they are out of the way.

The ASUS's pluses are the backlit keys, a few more media controls built into the Fn keys, and the audio quality is probably a little better but the 8130 isn't bad when you turn on THX and activate the built in subwoofer in the sound settings.

I understand how you feel you are taking a gamble. The ASUS is widely available at retail so I was able to test it out. The 8130 however, you don't get to really get to know until you buy one online.

The 8130's fans really bugged me a lot when I first got it and I had some regrets for a few weeks back in April but then a new bios (actually an embedded controller flash) came out and now everything is perfect except for the non-backlit keyboard and lack of Optimus. The biggest issues I had with the G53 were the screen (glossy, not as good as even the cheapest Sager screen), and the size and design (angular, wider, and really fat at the back - didn't fit into a lot of bags easily).

If a backlit keyboard, optimus equipped version came out, I'd sell mine right away and buy the new one!

 

Hey nice catch buddy, total derp on my part with the *thinking outloud* second post and not checking battery and draw.

Now, finish up your post to answer my question, I'm eagerly awaiting your feedback, so I can decide if I'm spending some more money tomorrow or not


NINJA EDIT: Oh posted and see some GREAT work you did, anxious to read it.... going... now...thanks!

 

You're awesome, enjoy the rep+

Will find you tomorrow and rep again, if possible

Will find you the next day and try to figure out how to deduct rep for making me spend more money!

 

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. What's the keyboard/music production setup in your avatar?

It's been a few months since I had the ASUS which I only played with for a few days so I may be remembering things a little wrong, especially since I was trying to convince myself I made the better choice. But if you have any more questions, I can just goto the store down the street and play with the G53 they have on demo to refresh my memory.

 

Hey all, I'm putting the finishing touches on my Clevo guide....Would you guys do me a favor: Please read it and make sure I haven't made any mistakes? I'd appreciate it.

Mr. Mysterious

 

A shot of an area of my studio from a while ago. Just liked the pic and use it everywhere. I do my own recording, nothing serious, just for fun. Which REMINDS me... it'll be nice to get firewire built back in to my laptop Kinda need that.... bet that was something else you weren't fond of.

I already was looking at buying the G53SW w/ the GTX460m since it's 192bit and the new one is 128bit.

Now, with your info, for about the same price, I can score a GTX560m, with the proper 1.5GB DDR, to have 192bit pipe to the memory. (Meaning it will be the actual proclaimed 13% faster Notebookcheck says it is).

EDIT: Where'd you get the BIOS update from? I will probably ship with it, but didn't see a download in the drivers section of sagernotebook.com.

 

My "studio" setup is quite pathetic compared to yours. El cheapo $200 Yamaha keyboard and a 10 year old LCD monitor plugged in via USB to Midi cable lol. I almost forgot most laptops don't have firewire anymore. I took the one on the 8130 for granted. It also has optical SPDIF out built into the dual-purpose line-out port.

The GTX 460M can actually be easily overclocked to the same performance level of the GTX 560M. Of course, the 560M can be overclocked as well and retains about a 10-15% lead.

Ninja Edit: If you get a 560M, you'll already have the new EC flashed onto your laptop. You won't have to worry about it. If you want to play with the BIOS's EC's make sure you use Sager ones and not Clevo ones. If you use a Clevo one, you can't go back or you'll brick your laptop. BIOS downloads and info are in the big bios thread. http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/416916-clevo-bios-thread.html. Sager or your reseller will provide BIOS and EC files upon request. I guess they are not easily downloadable since they don't want people bricking their laptops with a bad flash.

 

When I ran dxdiag today, I noticed that it says the system model is p150HMX , is this normal for a np8130? I thought it was built on the p151hm1?

Also, love this computer, I can play CoD4 at 1080p 4x AA and Witcher EE 1080p at 70+FPS

 

It is perfectly fine, don't worry about it.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Witcher 2 will get you 7 FPS on this laptop

 

Uh, closer to 27 FPS, ES

Mr. Mysterious

 

Depends on your settings. Can't have AA or SSAO or decent shadows or lights or anything nice

 

According to many, it's still one of the most beautiful games out there, even with a lot of the eye candy turned off

Mr. Mysterious

 

Yeah, it still looks quite nice. I would usually play it on my desktop though, but that is too busy mining bitcoins so I am finding myself on my 8130 for everything these days.

 

Yep, I have yet to beat Witcher EE, but once I do, I am hoping for at least 40ish FPS on 1080 with a lot of eyecandy stuff turned off on Witcher 2. Is this realistic?

Mainly, I am in the end hoping for Skyrim to be ran alright in the fall at 40-50ish FPS as well (maybe 720p and smaller textures/distance fog or something).

I guess my eyes are sorta sensitive to FPS drops below 35FPS...

 

Thanks a lot for creating the new Clevo guide, it looks great.

There was only one mistake I saw; under the P150HM it says 8GB is the max amount of RAM supported, so you may want to change that to 16GB.

 

guys just installed my 6970m!!idle temp is 54 celsious with 31 celsious room temp.at firt 3dmark06 test i runned full load temps was 95 celsious..when i rin furmark it goes 99 celsious in 20 secs........is this normal??thxx.

 

AFAIK 50-60gpu tem idle is fine, but anything beyond 90C when gaming/benchmarking might be pressing it

I think GPUs are designed to go to 125C, same with second gen i7s, but that might be desktop thermal design, not laptops.

 

Easy to install? It looks like your idle temp is right in line with other users (I doubt you get much of an opinion on this board...). I saw others getting to only 80c under load (games compared to benchmarking though).

 

I'd recommend re-pasting.

 

i repaste my card 4 times.....same temps...cant dot nothing...temps are very high....what u suggest guys??thx for the help..

 

Johnny: Are you trying to compare your 460m temps to the 6970m? I suspect this is apples to oranges.

Your idle temps seem fine. I saw a long post with countless 6970m owners stating their idle close to 60.

Have you tested the card playing intensive games? Your 99 might be high, but plenty of people were showing 80-85 as normal. I am also not even sure 99 would impact the card.

Are you using a laptop cooler? Also, I presume you used the "less is more" concept in applying the thermal paste. It looks easy to apply too much.

The following post shows a person with your exact same temps (Sager 8130 even) under stress: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=347342

 

no im not trying to compare 460m temps..i test crysis 2 and metro 2033 and in 2 or 3 mins it goes up to 100-102 celsious..room temp is 31 celsious..i re-applied paste 5 times.......

 

Hmm.

Do you use a cooler? Hopfully no?

If not, try raising the back of the laptop with a book or something to see if that shows any improvement.

 

i aslo run RE5 benchmark and the hightest temp was 100celsious average 95-96.is there a chance my card is faulty??i dodn't have any artifacts or something..i have raised the back of the laptop but no improvement..even if i press fn+1 it cant drop down my temps...whats going on???

 

Yes this is NOT normal at all. If you have done a good job in pasting and have used decent thermal paste then your card is faulty. That is what it looks like...

 

Bummer. I am more curious to see temps in the 6970 i ordered now.

 

can u saw me a guide about pasting??i used arctic silver 5....i think i done good job in pastind..

 

To check temps it's good to use Vantage. Run this checking your temps. Furmark is not realistic for temp checks. The factory uses Vantage for temp checks...
_

 

maybe if i put some paste on memory chips could help??

 

Search on youtube. There are a handful of very good videos that use laptop GPUs as an example.

Super thin layer, covering the entire thing seems to be the goal though.

 

No clue. I would wait for someone smarter to chime in. You have the weekend before you can ship it either way, so I would take your time and try things you know can only help, not hurt, damage something.

 

No do not put paste on the memory chips! Why not check with those in the NP8150-P150HM thread for what some have done with their 6970M's to help.
_

 

there is a black scare aroung the gpu core.here is a photo.its not from my gpu..



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

do i need to put paste there too?

 

^ That plastic film there is to isolate little diods and shizz from heatsink. Paste only the GPU chip. Excess of paste is always better than lack thereof.

 

That is too much paste. The paste should be paper thin and almost transparent.

Excess paste is insulting and have less heat transfer than none at all.

If temps are high, I recommend bending the spring clips or compressing the springs and screwing it down tighter to provide more pressure.

 

Did you flash your 8130 with a new bios and EC? Perhaps the fan profile is not correct for the 6970M? Then again, if you Fn + 1 and it is still hot, there is a problem somewhere else.

 

u mean the silver srings of heatsink which u tight them on card??i think my card is faulty cuz in 2 or 3 mins gaming temps are going very high 98-99 sometimes 100-102 in metro 2033..if i press fn+1 the temps are still the same..