*** Official Sager NP8150/Clevo P150HM Owners Lounge ***

Yeah, I had that long hours of playing Lost Planet 2 till 9am in the morning next day, when the finals were up.

 

Mine shipped last night and with next day air is set to arrive this morning. I am at work all day though and my girlfriend will hopefully take the delivery. I well try to get impressions up tonight or tomorrow after I install my parts.

 

Has anyone tested the headphone jack yet? Still wanting to know if there's hissing/static on it.

For that matter, anyone installed Nvidia's reference drivers from their site successfully?

 

Meraki1990 replied in the his review thread:

 

anyone knows how soon can i get it if i were to order directly from Sager on today ?

 

Firstly, you probably don't want to order directly from Sager if you want a better customer service. You should order from resellers.

If you order today, you will probably get it end of March or early April. Contact Babyhemi(Larry) from LPC-Digital, then contact other resellers and see who you like best.

 

well im not sure if the guy im buying from is a reseller or not, but he's kinda like the middleman where i pay him and he orders for me, hes getting it directly from sager thou so i wonder how soon can i actually get it

 

Oh wool, thanks! Hopefully that's all of them. I couldn't believe the M15x's static on that jack...$2000+ notebooks should not have static/crackling!

Now I'm just trying to figure out if Nvidia's normal drivers work without issue on the Sager GTX 460/485 and I'm not sure I'll have any other excuses not to buy it...

 

Sounds fishy, to be safe look at trusted resellers, like myth, xotic, lpc, etc....they are cheaper then buying directly from sager (I did tons of research on pricing, before buying mine)....and like stated earlier you get superior customer support.

 

i live in a country where shipping from the likes of xoticPC will probably cost me an extra of 150+/- USD, by getting through the middleman i will have to pay him an extra 200+/- USD by it saves me the hassle of ordering/paying through bank cheques and warranty too. I will have to say it is a 50 USD well spent, im a lazy bugger

 

Sounds like you did your homework, so I think you should be fine.

Probably off topic some, but if you don't mind sharing, where and what does this middleman specialize in? Clevo/Sager, other boutique laptop brands, or is he simply some kind of sales broker? If he is decent, then sharing might help, as there are usually people from various regions asking for help/suggestions, as they cannot easily get their hands on a Clevo/Sager without at least some hassle.

 

Apparently mine's set to be shipped next Tuesday. Ordered Feb 8th.

 

For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, this is one of the most detailed reviews of the Kobalt G150 (NP8150) that I have seen so far. It was done by Henry Butt from the Kobalt forums.

 

Thanks for posting it!

 

hes from the same country as i am, Malaysia. Probably has some contacts with Sager to get lower prices so he does it for a side income thinggy, dont think he does it as a full time job though.

 

Haha hey pewufod, Lowyat right?

Anyway, I think that middle man you were talking about buys bulk orders from Sager/Clevo as a small business. Should be fine if there are people who receive it before.

 

I'm so jealous. I ordered Jan 29, and haven't received a tracking number yet. Maybe I'll get one tomorrow :crosses fingers:

 

no idea dude, anyway am not questioning the credibility of the seller, just wondering how soon can i get my laptop. been waiting since forever
anyway nice to read from someone familiar here

 

Well I've installed my C300 and my RAM, installed Windows 7 and the drivers and this laptop is great.

So far though I've already run into a few issues.

1. Keyboard is rather noisy and has a lot of vibration when typing, but I don't notice any flex.

2. THX TruStudio Pro will not work. It tells me I do not have a compatible device, I will try uninstalling/reinstalling.
EDIT: I got this working, it seems that it was my fault, after you install the application there is an icon it creates on the desktop, I instictively deleted this before, but this time I looked at it. It is to activate the software, so after running that he audio is MUCH better, before it was working the audio was completely unbalanced.

3. Wifi did not play well with my router. I had to force my card to only use 20 Hz, I don't know if this was a problem with my router or with the card but when set to auto it must have been trying to use 40 Hz but all that happened was that there was a severe lag for all network interaction. Since forcing 20Hz it seems fine, but that means I can't get 300 mbps or more. Seems to stay below 150 mpbs (actually averaging around 90 to 100 mpbs, dropping as low as 65 mbps)

Still loading a lot of stuff and the network issues made my downloads incredibly slow so I will be posting more in the morning.

But so far here are some benchmark scores: (Stock speeds)

3DMark Vantage Trial P14889 3DMarks
3DMark06 Free 19750 3DMarks

EDIT: I am currently installing StarCraft 2 from a DVD and will then have to download the updates. The disc drive has a HUGE amount of vibration and if you do not rest your palm on the laptop or hold the disc drive it is very loud and I wonder if all the vibration could be causing damage to the disc. This is very disappointing coming from a stable slot loading drive in my Dell SXPS 1645. This could have been handled better in many ways. I will have to try to find some kind of thing strip of cloth/foam that I can adhere between the disc tray and it's housing as I believe that should help.

EDIT 2010-03-17: I finally tried OCing the GPU just doing safe tests, temps are the same as stock clock speed maxing at 69C. OC only on the Core Clock from 575 to 650 Mhz.
3DMark Vantage Trial P16499 3DMarks
3DMark06 Free 20279 3DMarks

EDIT 2010-03-19: I tried a higher clock now, GPU temp still stayed at 69C or lower, however this is on a cooling pad, the pad's fans seem to have no impact but it does mean the bottem is on an open surface.
Core Clock 700 Mhz
3D Mark Vantage Trial P17415 3DMarks
3DMark06 Free 20668 3DMarks

 

I find that from previous laptops I have owned, certain DVD's always vibrate loudly while others do not. Try other disks to see, assuming you haven't already. I think it could be partly due to the individual disks rather than only the design of the drive.

 

It has done it with every disc I've used so far. It seems to be more because of how the drive closes loosely. There is a tiny gap between the tray and the drive housing, I can see this and see that the vibrations from the drive cause this to make a ton of a noise when it vibrates against it's housing. Simply putting something on the wrist rest above the drive (such as the StarCraft 2 box) or holding the side of the drive greatly dampens the noise. But some kind of fabric or foam put around it would deffinately help, the problem would be finding something thin enough. I don't plan to use discs too often but when I do use blurays in the drive (the reason I upgraded) I don't think I want to hear the jackhammer sound it creates.

Now mind you, this laptop is powerful, and I wouldn't change my mind about this purchase. This is an amazingly powerful 15" laptop. I did run StarCraft 2 on Extreme Settings last night and it was runnin well, but SC2 has so much variation, how do you guys track it's frames?

I started a game with 8 AI on Insane and myself as spectator, and until you start getting a lot of action on the screen it was running at about 59 - 79 FPS. However I like to keep VSYNC on as there is a lot of screen tearing so then it was sitting at 59-60 FPS. Today I'm changing the game profile to turn on Anti Alaising as SC2 benefits quite a bit from it. I really don't understand why there isn't an option in the game for it.

But this laptop does seem to stay cool, which is awesome. On SC2 my Dell SXPS 1645 would get very very hot especially on the palm rest, which led to the purchase of the cooler I had. I notice zero heat in the palm rest on this Sager, but I'm sure a lot of that has to do with the positioning of the GPU and CPU at the rear with a direct exhaust which is awesome. The fans do get loud under load, but it is bearable.

 

Hey Tyresian maybe the optical drive was not installed properly? I don't think anyone else has reported this issue yet.

 

I installed MS office and Norton Internet security and the only time I heard any noises was when I moved the laptop. Other than that it was pretty much silent.

 

The one on my Dell was really noisy as well.. Got it replaced and it was silent again..

When I was going to get the 8170, I was toying with having myth put a slot loading blu-ray drive in just because I didn't want to worry about messing with the tray.

 

Yeah slots are nicer but it woudn't fit with the shape very well on this laptop.

Perhaps it is installed incorrectly or a bad drive... But it will be a while before I find out. I do not plan on having it serviced anytime soon, would be nice if I could just have them ship me the part and do it myself. If I get ambitious I can take a look at it, but seriously it really seems to be the drive and not how it is installed, It just doesn't shut tightly.

 

Consider it done!

 

best sunday support. ever ^

 

Damn, babyhemi you are quick

 

Yes, very very good support I'm not used to that being an option. But Larry and LPC are great!

 

This is the reason it's so hard to find a reseller. They're all this awesome from what I've seen so far...

 

Service Manual now available in my sig

Linky

 

Thank you theriko!

 

Ok just ordered from Xotic PC a Sager 8150-S1. Specs are in my Sig. It was a long hard decision, but dealing with Xotic PC was fairly easy and they had the matte screen I wanted. Some of the other resellers don't offer the matte screen.

Now the long wait begins, hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.

 

@steve
Thats a grea build. Should help your video editing a lot

 

Thanks, it took a long time to decide, but portability and the matte screen won out. I have also decided to use external drives for all backups and even using one just to use on the PS3. The PS3 will play 1080p60p mts files. But those are HUGE, answer is to format a 500GB external to FAT32 and put the 60p files on that. That makes the 17" with 2 drives redundant, and external drives are pretty cheap in that size.

I hope the area you are in was spared any damage from the Tsunami?

My In-laws in Cebu said everything was ok there.

 

yup im good thanks for asking. i used a 17inch before and portability was an issue, not becasue of the weight but mainly due to the fact that most coffee tables and a few work desks were too small for the laptop and my mouse.
and theres something thats just sexy about an ultrapowerful 15incher

 

Yes, especially at Ayala Mall. Small coffee tables don't like big laptops, even Greenwich Pizza had small tables IIRC. I have a new mouse and it can even be used on my current laptop it tracks over almost anything and it's wired so no issues with the airline. I dislike using track pads, now if they made a bigger track pad that had a capacitive screen that would be very nice.

Oh off topic, but I did order the Sony CX-700V very nice 60p video on that.

I hope the Sager can handle rendering 60p video quickly.

 

YAY! just got an email from deviltech, theyre receiving the first shipment of B3 stepping Clevos this week! ordered Jan 27th, this felt like an eternity!!!

cant be long anymore....

edit: still thinking about which thermal paste to apply, got a batch of OCZ Freeze still lying around here but couldnt figure out if IC Diamond was the better choice or not! any suggestions? if push comes to shove ill just test them both myself and post the results here

 

Good to hear yours is shipping soon. Malibal told me to expect the tracking number today on mine.

As for thermal paste, I prefer Arctic Silver. I've used that stuff on all my pc builds for years and it's worked fabulously.

 

Hey, a question for owners of the NP8150. Does the rubber coating stick dust like silicone cases for cell phones?

 

I will only be able to get my hands on mine this weekend, but I think if the coating is anything like on the Asus G53/73, then it should not be as bad silicone cases.

 

Yes, but I don't think it's as bad as the silicone cases, but it does attract dust. I'd suggest keeping a good microfiber cloth in your laptop bag and just clean it every once in a while, which is good practice for the screen as well. It isn't too bad to wipe off.

As far as dust/fibers go, the worst part isn't the rubber but the glossy plastic around the screen. I actually really dislike this glossy plastic. I REALLY attracts dust and fibers and they are very obvious since it is so glossy. Also this plastic is very very glossy to the point that it may cause problems if you have very strong light reflected off of it. The glare is much worse than that of the screen. The stock screen actually isn't too bad. It's about the same as my Dell SXPS 1645 was, maybe a little better. And much better than my Buddy's Asus, his screen looks like a mirror. I don't know how he uses the thing.

 

My laptop is in a depot 20minutes away now, but Australian's are lazy to ship it out because it's 8:40am !

 

I don't think I've ever gotten a package that early and I'm in America.

 

The earliest deliveries go to the people who paid for one-day delivery through UPS/Fedex. Its guaranteed to be at your door in the morning. Generally the less you paid for shipping, the window for when you get it that day goes higher.

 

It was in the depot since yesterday...it was late for them (5pm), so they didn't go out of their way to ship it. Now, it's too early for them to drive out. The horror!

 

lol, gotta love oz, mate! :-D

 

I do if I have stuff shipped to my work. UPS truck is there at about 9am, and then again at 5.30pm. But, I always get questions about what I got when I do that, so I chose not to ship my 8150 there this time

Just go collect it yourself

Unless you want to risk waiting to 5 again, and then getting it tomorrow if you're lucky xD

 

Problem is, I don't know exactly where that depot is . And I'm a public transport user; 20 minutes from my house was an estimation I got from scaling the Google Map from my house to suspected area of the depot...it might be further with public transport haha.

 

Sounds like you're already halfway there!

At least you'll get your beast (or baby, pick your term of endearment ) in the next couple days. I had mine delivered to my sis, because I travel a lot on business, and don't want it delivered when I'm not around. So, I have to wait till the weekend before I will have time to go get it.