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

im not familiar with ati gpu's but im quite sure it could be done(however i used to overvolt and o/c my nvidia gpu).
the bigger question is why would you want to do it? you will probably get a few minutes on battery more and decrease your temps by a few c's at most.

 

If it's a stable undervolt with the same performance using stock clock speeds, those seem good enough reasons to me!

I'll be sharing this with my wife, who may not be so careful about covering the vents when it's on her legs or absent mindedly used on a table without elevating the back. She will only be using desktop applications/web browsers, but this might make all the difference overheating when being used in low activity/near idle performance modes.

 

when i o/c'ed and overvolted i gained 3-4*c only. your undervolt will get you the same at best, but would probably net you 2-3*c less. at those temp differences, it would not really matter. also you will not be experiencing any heating issues with your wife's usage.

what would matter for you however is how easy it is to clean the fans of the sager. so if your wife were to use it in bed, you could just clean those fans and vains in less than 2 minutes.

 

No not really. I'm more just hoping for a remodel of the case along w/ the new cpu to add some features that I want . Just hard spending the money knowing there's a couple more things I'd like

 

personally, if i didnt have a dire need for a laptop atm, id wait for ivyb for its ssd caching and a potential backlit keyboard.

however these things are nice to haves and not necessarily must haves

 

for a gaming notebook it would make more sense to wait for 32nm graphics rather than ivybridge

and screw backlit kb ... better hope for switchable graphics ;p

 

missed out on that- switchable graphics FTW

 

Where is port 0 on p150?

 

Yeah switchable graphics is another thing I want also. My 8400M graphics card is a little outdated though, can hardly play the games I want on decent settings these days. Hopefully I can make it till the next round

 

You're going to be waiting quite a while. AMD and Nvidia have jumped to 28nm. TSMC doesn't even have a 32nm node.

 

The point is to undervolt the lower two performance profiles not the top end. So performance in gaming will stay the same and battery life at the desktop or on the webernet will go up.

 

Whatup people i am new and i really want to get this computer except for the fact that it dosn't have a backlit keyboard.. also i have a question can you guys play music on this computer while the lid is closed?

 

I would also like to say I love this 180w power brick for its ability to charge this battery super fast. I had a dell 1420 before this and it had a tiny 75 or 90w brick and took hours to full recharge a 6 cell battery. This 8150 has the same battery life as that laptop but charges twice as fast. I love it!

though the brick is huge.

you will need to make sure that sleep is disabled when the lid is closed to do that. also it's gonna sound muffled since the lid will block the main speakers.

 

Yeah i would most likely have it closed if it was plugged in to speakers, but how is the sound in this laptop? my budget is about 1600 and ive mostly been looking at this model and MSI Gx780 and the asus G53sw. I like the asus besides the fact that its huge and bulky and i like the MSI except that im looking for a 15inch computer. I just wish this computer had a backlit keyboard and i don't know if waiting for the next P150HM model would make sense because i dont even know how old the latest sandy bridge model is haha

 

What do you mean? Clevo's next iteration is rumored to have a backlit keyboard, and it will be based on Ivy Bridge processors. Should launch sometime early next year.

 

^^^^Yes it will be quite some time before the "next P150HM model" as you called it. There is nothing on the horizon.
_

 

I will never understand this obsession with backlit keyboards. Just rice to me.

 

Honestly, I felt the same way. Until I started using a laptop that had them. I thought it was really convenient and loved it. I use a laptop 100% of the time and take it to work with me everyday and end up using it in the dark a lot. I'm not talking about all the lights like on the MSI GTX683 either. That is way too much for me. I felt the keyboard lights added a nice touch though.

 

Do any owners have documentation that would indicate the voltage input limits the laptop will allow where the power brick plugs in if you were going to use a 3rd party power source? Is it 19V +/- .5V or less?

 

lol you will get a few minutes at most.
there is a reason why mighty few people do it...

 

minutes are minutes. Not saying it is a big deal but it is tangible. Also I suspect the reason few people do it is lack of knowledge and the people who do know anything about it know they run the risk of bricking their card if it wont run at the lower voltage.

 

There are lots of reasons to undervolt. The chief amongst them being heat and part stress.

Repeated high temperatures can lead to the eventual breakdown of the manufacturing that went into your product. It's not likely that you will see heat related failure on your part, but if you don't mind tweaking it and it's fairly easy to do, why not?

Second, higher voltage leads to higher electric potential, which means your electrons are moving faster. Higher voltage leads to electromigration happening quicker. Again, your part isn't likely to fail quickly due to electromigration, but if you like to tweak, why not undervolt?

 

been there, done that.
contrary to what religion says, most people in these sager forums are very knowledgeable or they wont be getting a sager actually.
the reason why most people dont do it is because the potential gains of 3-4 minutes or 3-4 degrees lower is so miniscule that is doesnt warrant much attention.
also as much as anexanhume likes to expound, the best settings are those already specified by the gpu tech engineers of which we are not. underclocking will get you much farther than undervolting, but most modern gpus already do that quite well.

 

The settings they come at are a catch-all so that the maximum amount of good parts can pass the requirements needed to be sold at that part. Logic dictates that those settings catch the bottom of the bell curve in terms of part capabilities. Most users are sitting at the top of that bell curve and can afford to undervolt a bit. It's the same reason most users can also overclock about the same amount. I've never heard of a user damaging a part undervolting it (it certainly wouldn't harm an individual transistor), so if a user wants to do it, let them do it.

 

I don't know about you guys but when I undervolt, I get close to 30+ minutes on battery life while surfing. .77v on idle clocks makes a huge difference on power draw. As for temps, at 800/1000 1.0v has lower temps for me than stock 680/900 1.1v. Of course everybody's results will differ but still.

 

Undervolting is a high-risk high-reward deal. If you're looking for more information on it, I'd suggest taking a look at the official NBR guide on it.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...arket-upgrades/235824-undervolting-guide.html

 

if youre getting that much then it is great. maybe the amd's do much better with an undervolt then. if you look at the first portions of this thread and the 8690 thread many users tried to undervolt their (nvidia) gpu's with very minimal gains in both temps and battery.

for reference can you just put down how much battery time you now have while surfing?

 

i think they are referring to undervolting the gpu

 

well its really the users personal choice whether he want to do it or not. i am just sharing my experience and observations ive seen from these threads.

so when you get your machine undervolt it and tell us how it goes.

 

hi guys, new here. thinking of getting the np8150 with 485m or 6990m graphics. i just dont know which one to get...

also on another note, im concerned that the ivy bridge will e coming out early next year. does this mean i should not buy this right now? new processor = new design right? not only the aesthetics but i'll always be "outdated", no?

 

if you need it or want it now, get it. chasing technology is a useless endeavor. there will always be something around the corner whether you get it now or later.
with regards to the gpu's, if prices are equal, get the 6990 since it is a generation newer ( and should perform better), unless nvidia technologies like cuda and physix are important to you.

 

Yes how true it is that every few months there is something around the corner. Some major and even more often for minor changes. It does not end. Sorry.
_

 

Just got my machine last night. I ordered it on 9/10, so that's amazing turn around time. This is my first Sager, and I'm impressed so far. I've barely had time to initialize my windows profile between going somewhere last night, working extra, and moving this weekend. It will be a bit before I can put it through the paces.

 

Anyone familiar with running any audio producing/mixing software on this computer such as Ableton live or any others? This is a powerful machine so im sure it would work great just looking for opinions

 

That is really fast! I ordered mine a week before you and don't expect it until late next week.

 

Guys, i can't help but wonder,

Is the $100 special being offered due to Sager's intention to clear their current stocks and introduce a newer version of the laptop? Maybe one with backlit keyboard?

 

Nope, it is just a reflection of a weak economy. All of the major brands are doing the same thing, and Sager wants to stay competitive.

 

Pretty good deal, prices are better now even over the Labor day deal! I'd love to jump on it but def decided to wait until the next round. My laptop and desktop will do till then

 

Great when you have time maybe you can do a full review

 

Having an odd issue. Tried to download .net last night so I could run the heaven benchmark and the download hung. Since then I cannot download any Windows updates, MSE updates, etc. Persists through restarts. Ideas?

 

Since your machine is still so new you might go back in time with system restore. Something apparently got out of wack in windows. Since you do not know what did this, why not try it?
_

 

Sounds like a networking stack/config or firewall issue. Have you flushed your network adapters? (CMD prompt > "ipconfig /release", "ipconfig /renew", "ipconfig /flushdns").

If that doesn't help, try disabling your software firewalls. Worst case scenario you may need to reinstall Windows.

Feel free to contact us at the contact info below if you need any help with the machine

 

What is the approximate weight of the laptop if the specs are the following?

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM, 6MB L3 Cache, 2.0-2.9GHz
Display: 15.6" 1920 x 1080 FHD LED AUO B156HW01 V.4 95% NTSC Matte Display
Memory: (8GB) 8192MB, PC3-10660/1333MHz DDR3 - 2 SO-DIMM
Graphics Card: AMD® Radeon HD 6990M 2GB GDDR5
Hard Drive: 500GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300
Optical Drive Bay: 8X Multi DVD+/-R/RW RAM Dual-Layer Drive
Wireless: Internal 802.11B/G/N LAN and Bluetooth Card
Cooling: IC Diamond 7 Thermal Compound, CPU & GPU
Keyboard: English: US & Canada
Power Cord: US & Canada

 

6.83 Lbs, I'm pretty sure it's the same weight no matter what configuration.

 

Reinstalled windows before I saw this message. No worries. Reinstall went smoothly. Worst thing was hooking up to Ethernet to get the bigfoot driver

 

Does anyone have suggestions for neoprene sleeves for the NP8150?

 

Might be a tad bit thick for sleeves..

Why not a laptop bag if you dont mind my asking?

 

I have the laptop bag that came with my order, but I was thinking about getting an extra layer of protection just in case.

 

tl;dr: screen failed to start initially, then seemed to work with F2. installed system. blue screened and refused to boot - even from DVD. then the same screen failure. two days later, before shipping it back, it seems to work again. Ideas?

Has anyone had any problems with the screen not turning on?

I bought an 8150 and it arrived on Friday. When I first turned it on, the screen wouldn't turn on. The other LEDs and fans turned on. I played with it for 45 minutes and couldn't find anything that would turn the screen on. Then I read F2 would get you into the bios... when I tried it, the screen turned on!

Of course, it didn't make any sense... but install Windows 7 (64 bit), *all* of the drivers (it was really annoying they each needed to be done separately), various software including CS5 (this is going to be a photoshop machine). I spent hours installing stuff and then played with CS5 a bit. Sure enough, things were fast! Good computer.

I took the machine with me and stopped off some place to have dinner. I took it out and started it up to play with it while waiting for food. No problems - with the exception that it seems pretty slow coming out of sleep!

Then I took it home. When I opened it up, it immediately blue screened. I rebooted it and Windows wouldn't start. Okay... I tried entering repair and it refused to boot. I tried booting the Windows DVD and it *TOO* refused to boot! I tried booting another time thinking I'd check out the biose and I was back at the black screen. Nothing I did, F2 or otherwise, would get it to reenter bios.

I gave up. I tried it one more time over the weekend and it wouldn't boot. So, I lugged it back to work where I have all the shipping materials, planning on sending it back.

I tried it out one more time this morning... and sure enough, the screen comes up! I did a memory test using Windows Repair, and it found no failures. I rebooted it and it booted successfully into Windows.

Any thoughts on what I should do? Should I return the thing anyway since it's clearly not reliable? When they try to replicate the problem, they won't succeed... so it seems like my only real choice is to return it, get my money back, and buy something different... maybe a P150HM from Malibal since the price and design seem fairly good...

I'm at Day 7 of their 30 day return policy... figure I *must* send it by Day 21 to get it there in time...

Also: What's the deal with the *huge* power supply? I can't believe how big and heavy the thing is!

 

It sounds like you might have a loose component (display cable, RAM, or HDD most likely) and moving it around like that caused it to not boot correctly. You can try reseating some of that yourself, though the display would be tricky. You may want to contact your reseller anyway about a potential loose connection.

As for the power supply, it's big because it has to be. It's pumping out 180w which is 2-3x more than most mainstream laptops and that requires more/higher rated capacitors/rectifiers/etc.