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

I just got my hands on it today. The guy selling works for Sager here in SoCal. Problem is, my friend that got it for me only works for me on Thursdays and Fridays, so I haven't seen him since he picked it up. Now I have it, but I am working, so I can only stare at the box every so often. Now just counting the hours til I can take it home and check it out..... Long day since time is now standing still!

 

When did you place your order?

I called 'em a few hours ago to upgrade my order to the i7-2720 processor. There was no mention of the above. Hoping for the best. Otherwise, delivery would be somewhere around the first to second week of May. By then, I'll have about 2 weeks of classes left.

If this is the case, maybe I should just cancel and wait till Aug or Sept and see what's available then. Start the fall semester with whatever is in store. Any recommendations?

 

Got my laptop today. Im from the UK and went with PC Specialists. Received it in 3 days upon ordering (fast track FTW)! Kudos to PCS for delivering on time.

Well the machine is fantastic. I've not owned a top spec machine for years now, but this thing is phenominal. Yet to try out any gaming, just been setting her up.

As far as the build is concerned its fine. I was worried about all sorts from reading this forum (trackpad, chassis quality, chiclet keyboard, default screen quality etc.), but i can tell you its all overplayed. The default screen is fantastic, with excellent all round viewing angles. I have no qualms with the keyboard either (netbook user myself so used to the chic). Trackpad does the job, i have no problems with it. It wouldn't have crossed my mind to doubt its quality unless i read this forum (same applies for all parts of the chassis ).

BUT...

Major niggle. There is a black dead pixel right in the middle of my screen. PCS dead pixel policy is UK ISO class 2 (ie 5 or more needed for warranting a replacement). They didnt offer any dead pixel insurance either. I will be phoning support tomorrow to see where i stand. Darn right sucks when you get your new machine, its all perfect apart from a 0.1mm black dot in the middle of the screen you can take your eyes off.

 

For a fact, we have shipped many with the AMD 6970M in this model, the Sager NP8150/Clevo P150HM already. This is true...
_

 

I originally ordered it towards the end of March, but last week when the new 500GB drives came out I called to see about downgrading to that from the 750 that was the smallest available the first time, since I'm just going to rip it out anyway and put in a Vertex 3 when they come out. They had me enter a whole new order and canceled the old one for some odd reason, so I'm sure that sent me to the back of the line (that'll teach me to try and save a few bucks...). So after a week and a half (from the second order) I was hoping it'd be shipping out early next week, but not so much. Sager's page shows them backordered too. Their page says early April, but I think Xotic's answer is the more honest one. My worry now is that the screen upgrade will be out of stock by then. It's been discontinued by the mfr. so Xotic can't get any more after they run out, so I'd just cancel my whole order rather than take that stock screen. I think somewhere in here someone mentioned that a high quality IPS panel "may" be coming out in May or June, so if you end up putting it off you might be able to get a better screen then, but other than that the models and chipsets are new so I don't imagine there will be any major changes by Aug or Sep.

 

Eek! I haven't gotten that, but I did order the 485 card (placed my order on 4.7.2011). Crossing my fingers and hoping, although the original phase 2 e-mail I got said 10 - 15 business days, so that puts me at expected shipping 4/21 - 4/28 anyway (no custom skinning/paint so there will be no phase 3; we're going to do that here... got a friend with a garage that does custom car painting... going to "practice" by touching up some chips/scratches on the m17x first).

 

Why don't you just get your friend to do it for you?

 

nice. post some pics when you have it done

 

lol i was thinkin the same thing

 

His friends expertise is in cars and not laptops >_<

 

I just hooked my laptop to my hdtv and everything went well until i got a weird static sound from it. The video is perfect but sometimes my audio goes from a normal sound to a distorted sound out of no where. I have it hooked via hdmi cable....what do you think the problem is?

any help will be appreciated. thank you!

 

bad hdmi cable?

 

Hi Matt

Did you puchase Sager 30 day no dead pixel guarantee ?

 

Read his entire post, one more time...

 

it shouldnt be. i use it on my ps3 and 360 with no problems all the time.

 

Hi as Kev pointed out, i stated that PCS don't offer any dead pixel guarantee. (They buy direct from Clevo i think, and don't resell Sagers).

Tbh, its not an issue, its a tiny spec and you only see it if you go looking for it. Hurts early on because its a new purchase and you want things to be perfect. Been using the machine today and it doesn't bother me at all.

I plan on doing a screen upgrade in the future if these rumoured IPS FHD screens arise. If not even the 95% gamut screen looks appealing. The default looks great, so i cant imagine what the AOU V4 upgrade looks like.

 

how does the 6970 overclock? have you tried anything on that part?

 

Sticky Mousepad Solution?:
TEFLON COOKWARE REPAIR SPRAY

 

Sticky Mousepad Solution (2): SUCCESS!

Business Card + Scotch Tape --> Less Friction! + Custom Branded Laptop!

(btw -- this doesn't bug too much, just a little bit. At first the keyboard bugged a bunch, but now it's just fine).

 

Anybody know how to make the Mousepad Buttons Click Easier?

Try 1 --I pushed down really hard on the LMB, and deformed it a bit, but this didn't really improve the ease of clicking. Since doing this, the plastic seems to have un-deformed. --> DEAD END

Try 2 -- It seems like after 1 month's of usage, the mouse button is a little easier to click. --> http://blondezilla.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/drinkingbird_1.jpg (Virtual Keyboard Repeater, where can I find one of these?)

Idea 3 -- Tape a Tic-Tac to the mouse button so it presses down easier. --> SUCCESS!

 

Call me crazy but I ordered a P150HM with GTX 460M instead of 6970. I would pay the prize for the upgrade but after a long decision process I decided that the additional 30 min battery life with the 460M is more important to me than more gaming power.

 

Congrats and welcome to the 8150 club!

You ordered what's right for you - that's what counts.

 

A single 6970M can compete with 2x GTX460M's in SLI but if gaming performance is not your main priority then going with the GTX460M may well be right for you. Where did you get the 30 extra minutes of battery time figure from?

 

From different posts in this forum and from this P150HM/6970M review:
Eurocom Racer: Why the Radeon HD 6970M Rocks - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

they didnt compared with a p150hm/GTX460M there but other laptops with this card and and the same cpu I ordered. I like gaming but I'm not sure whether i'll have much time for it in the future. and i want to be able to do some office work on battery as well as watching a full length bluray

Thanks!

 

Just realize that there's no guarantee this specific notebook will mirror those which were tested, even with the GTX 460M.

There's a slew of variables in place.

 

From what I saw, since his comparing it to a 17".... it could very well possibly be more then 30 minutes his saving.. Or I could just very well be wrong and he could be saving less then 15 minutes all depending on what he does.

 

seems like a decent enough comparison. 30-60minutes more on internet is indeed significant. but like others said, the only way to know for sure is to compare both cards on a similar machine; but i think anand's numbers will hold up even on a comparison of the 6970/460 8150 models.
also, the 460m is no slouch and is a great overclocker.

 

From what I heard, 485M has more aggressive downclocking. Are we able to modify 6970M's downclocking values?

 

iirc amd/ati cards have had some issues with downclocking in the past. the 5870mr for one, had to be manually downclocked on the sager 8690.

 

When I use the internal mic, the other guy hear a lot of noise coming from the fan (noise increases when the gaming starts). Is there a way to reduce it without using a external mic?

 

Apart from setting your graphic settings a bit lower(so the fans can spin slower), I don't know how to fix it!

By the way, have you guys seen this new model?: CLEVO - Products I know it's the 17" model but 15" shouldnt take too long to be released I think. Still don't like 3D tho...

 

i noticed that the hdd space for the 8150 is very confined. i get idle temps of 36-37*c on the 500gb seagate 7200 that came with the laptop. ive seen this number go up to 48-49*c while defragmenting the drive.
i live in the philippines which is a tropical country and ambient temps are 26-30 although i always have a fan or a/c on.
are these temps normal?

 

now this is a issue i have not heard of before. and it would bother me as well. hmm, what about locating the mic, and puting noice isolation on the inside of the machine on that loccation?

 

Ah! A question just hit me but could anyone elaborate on the battery system on sager notebooks? I know that you have to take the battery out when your using AC to prolong battery life, but is there an automated feature or an option in the BIOS to do this without taking out the battery?

Also would these function properly on the 8150? http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220577 and is there an increase in performance between 1333 vs 1600 on these models?

 

in general, theres just a 1-2% performance increase by using faster RAM, if at all. not really worth the extra money, if u ask me! id always go for size instead of speed

cheers

 

1600MHz RAM is worthless, for 99% of us, right along with timings, CAS Latency, and all of the other crap that makes zero difference.

Buy the cheapest sticks possible.

 

i noticed this as well when playing SC2. i had it set to auto-detect when i was speaking so i wouldn't have to use the "press a button" to talk feature.

i turned down mic sensitivity in the game options. still pics my voice up perfectly fine, but no fan noise/ static

Me either.. i think this is going to tick the alienware guys off lol. posted it in their thread about trying to get the 485 to work with 3D. i bet some of em jump ship to clevo.. finally clevo's got a leg up on alienware, for now. if only they'd implement gpu switching *sigh*

 

I would say it is normal and quite good considering the climate. The danger level of those drives are usually around 60C or so but I don't know whether that has changed or not. Defragmenting will always increase temps quite a lot after a while because it is very intensive but you are within safe ranges so I wouldn't be concerned.

 

thanks for the headsup. i thought the redline was 51*c. good that im operating well under it.

 

AND they should include HDMI-in, backlit keyboard and Thunderbolt, then there would be no purpose left to buy alienware ^^

 

heres hoping for clevo's 13-14" answer to the upcoming m14x

same speccs, as the p150 just without the optical would be awesome. also switchable graphics would be a must.

yeah, things like back lit keyboards, dedicated media keys and thunderbolt ports should be there as well, but if i know clevo right, they wont come to that in quite a while

 

afaik true gpu swtiching between a discrete/integated gpu can only happen with a z68 board.
would be interesting to see if they actually made this work without any hitches.

 

485m owners, what settings are you using for Crysis 1?

I'm using 1080p with everything on high, get a steady 35 to 50fps.

Just wondering if i can pump some of the eye candy up to Very High (at the expense of resolution of course) to get a nicer looking playthrough. I can't be bothered going through the permutations.

 

couldn't tell you fps, but all of my settings were set to very high with 4x AA, and i didnt notice any lag or mess ups.. i mean i'm not too far into the game though, just to the part where i'm at the top of a hill, and there's a compound at the bottom, with a gas station (boom!).. this is with no OC to the gpu

 

I have received my unit today. Will play with new toy after install everything.

 

is it true that Sager have limited stock for np8150 now?

 

Has anyone gotten their NP5180 with ATI card yet?

 

Where did you hear this?

 

I've been hearing that these laptops have pretty bad battery life.
Isn't it possible to manually switch to the integrated GPU for longer battery life? Just to clarify, I'm looking into buying a P150Hm with 2630QM and HD 6970M.

 

I've been told that the 485M cards are out of stock until next week, but I haven't heard that they're short on the 8150's in general.