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

anyone know if that is a dual link dvi port on the side or just a single?

 

No problem, if you have any other questions, feel free to PM us.

 

The 8150 / P150HM has a DVI Dual Link on the back.

 

Does anyone have the service manual for this machine? I'd like to take a look at it.

 

I would be interested in CONFIRMATION from a Reseller or owner on the IGP/Optimus status on the latest P150HM/P170HM models. Why wouldn't Clevo implement all possible features on a top of the line model??? It's like buying the newest Corvette that has the "capability" to turn off 4 cylinders for 25% better highway fuel efficiency, but Chevrolet says "Nah, we're not going to enable that "feature"". WTH? Battery life would be awesome if you could flip that 100W 485m beast off.

Unless... (my theory here) NVIDIA is asking for another 5-15% license fee to 'enable' Optimus switching on their cards. In the mid-range graphics cards, that's an affordable $5-15 per unit, but on the 485m, it could be $50-150 per unit fee which Clevo cannot justify. I can see why Clevo wouldn't do it for their 12lb SLI rigs, but why not for the 15-17" models? I would pay extra for that feature in a heartbeat.

I cant wait for the official un-boxing/review posts so we can officially get this sorted out.

 

Ok, the definitive answer from Sager:

NP5160/NP5170 will have Optimus, using NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M.

The reason we don’t enable Optimus on the NP81x0 series is because these 3 units are defined as higher-end systems, and we firmly believed that it’s best to leave switchable graphics out of these systems for compatibility reasons. We have seen with many games plus online gaming services that switchable graphics create compatibility issues. There are also issues with the Linux communities, even though Sager does not actively support Linux OS, we do read and take in the suggestions from all communities.

 

Hello there,

on the german magazine "notebookjournal.de" there is the first test for the P150HM with some Benchmarks, photos etc.
Tests - Schenker Notebook XMG P501 - Extreme: Core i7-2920XM + Nvidia GTX 485M auf notebookjournal.de

Enjoy .

 

Thanks Paladin44, I'm utterly devastated by this news. I thought the Optimus would be smarter about switching (switch to IGP on battery only or add a MANUAL switch!). Finally, the Intel 3000HD IGP can perform decently only to get torpedoed by something else - GET CRACKING, NVIDIA and Open Source community!

If Clevo chose not to enable it, perhaps its can be re-enabled in BIOS or in a future BIOS update.

Bummer, I was looking forward to "not hunting for power plug" every time I pulled out my laptop.

 

Damn. At least offer a manual switch then. Intel designs all this great GPU stuff into the CPU and we can't even make use of it in any way. To be honest I don't care about Optimus really, as I have heard some significant issues with it. But at least implement a soft switch or BIOS switch or physical switch, or something. I'd prefer a manual switch anyhow that way you're not at the mercy of hybrid drivers, and can install drivers independently.

 

the good news about this is, optimus will in fact work with a high end gpu/igp combi. it is by choice that clevo left it out.
hopefully this can be 'corrected' thru a bios update that could give us optimus or better yet, manual switching via function keys.

 

Pictures

 

I translated the site using one of the translators online and in the review on page 3 in the second paragraph it says..

"Finally the BIOS of the Clevo P150HM does not offer over clocking possibilities, which actually differentiates the extreme CCUs from the commercial Quad and dual core processors. Fact is nevertheless, Intel core i7-2920XM is the fastest processor, which found accomodation us in a notebook."

Not sure if this is old news but if not then wow.. thats pretty big for those who are looking into OCing with the 15 inch. I never planned to OC for the fact that I dont want to risk killing my computer but thought Id point this out to those who are interested.

 

thats why those who want o/c are switching to the 8170

 

Well, I believe even if the bios allowed you to OC, you wouldn't be able to it unless you had the core i7-2920XM, which costs a fortune.

 

Oh man... this laptop is gorgeous to be so high-specced. So much better than MSI/Alienware/ASUS G-series designs that are just way too over-the-top. I'm so happy I ordered this computer now. I won't be overclocking and I'm not really too sure about all this "switchable" stuff (I'm still learning!). I'm just happy. I just hope I don't get pushed to backorder since Paypal still hasn't let my e-check go through. Why oh why does it take so long?

 

Did the article say anything about heat? I thought I saw a 90C in there.

 

Here's the part about the temperatures translated by Google:

 

coming from a tropical country that gpu temp of 94/86 worries me.

 

Same here, I hope those temps arent the same in the 17 inch.

 

Just ordered from babyhemi, the quotes he gave were pure awesome

I got a barebones order, with the upgrade to the i7-2720QM, with no RAM and no HDD.

I will upgrade to the 6970m once it hits, so I just went with the 460m for now..

 

Yeah, 94/86 temps are really alarming. For us in the tropical countries, add 5-10C to those temps

 

Yeah, the reviews were really helpful in letting me pass the nVidia and go with the potentially cooler and cheaper 6970m s...

I probably won't be the earliest people to get this laptop, but I will leave first impressions and will probably be the first one to get the 6970m once it is available...

 

Very glad to hear an explanation but, all of these issues would be moot if they added a hardware mux for the video output. Other manufacturers have done this in the past. The mux can be controlled via hardware switch or the BIOS. This would enable the best of both worlds, optimus for those who want it or exclusive discrete GPU for others.

 

Has anyone heard about the speaker sound quality? I remember the 8690 didnt get very good reviews on the speakers. I'm wondering if they fixed this on the 8150.

 

i was thinking along the same lines except you will probably have to pay 500-600 for an aftermarket 6970 and as others have mentioned,it is not as easy selling a mobile gpu. add to that the fact that around 6months down the road, very few people may not want the 460m already.
and chances are the 6970 will have a similar power consumption and heat profile as the 485m

well just my 2 bits.

 

Does this mean I should be looking at investing into something to keep the laptop cool? Any recommendations? I purchased the Thermal Compound sooo...

 

Good thing I chose to go with the notebook cooler from xoticpc, but I do have one question, you mention switching to the 6970 card, I thought switching the gpu would not be able to be done or is that just the 15 inch?

 

It will be allowed on the P150HM. I'm not sure how the 6970 will be priced, but based on the pricing from Eurocom, it is less than $100 dollars more than the 460m.

As the 5870's were about 370 when they were first out, I am looking at around possibly $400 for the 6970ms, and they are well worth that price. Pricewise, ATi has never disappointed me.. it was their drivers..

As for heat, I have no idea yet because no one even is sure of the power consumption of the 6970. However as ATi has always been the favorite in power consumption, I still speculate that the 6970 will run cooler.

Lets see how the cards turn out to be..

 

How much did the barebones cost you? Wireless card included too? I may do the same thing...trying to bring my overall spending down.

 

Wow those temps do seem a little high, anyone got any good recommendations for a notebook cooler? Preferably one that runs off of USB. Then again they do say that keeping the fans running on high brings them down to 75 c for the cpu and 85c for the GPU, are those still considered high for this sort of laptop?

 

for a clevo those temps are quite atrocious.

 

Apply a thin layer of artic silver 5 and you'll your temp drop by a 5 good degrees. Hopefully the access to the CPU is very easy. GPU can handle more heat than CPU, it's not so bad.

 

The pictures make me wonder about the actual color of the 8150 model. The photos on the Sager website display it as some stupid violet-blue, while the 8130 is black. On the other hand, 8150 seems black in the photos attached to this German review...

Does anyone have any information on the color of the 8150? It is kind of important to me - I doubt I would ever buy a BLUE laptop, no matter rubberised, gold-plated or diamond-studded, therefore I might be forced to prefer the 8130.

 

Very interesting benchmarks. seems like HD 6970 is about 20-25% faster compared to HD5870....

 

Also quick question, since the 2820QM and all the others have a lower TDP than the 2920XM, could we safely assume those will run cooler?

 

I was just thinking the same thing. This could be a direct effect also of using aluminum instead of copper thermal elements.
I weaker cpu could produce significantly less heat and this in itself could also have a major effect on the gpus temps.

 

Wait, wut? They use aluminum instead of copper? Why?

 

Yes, they used aluminum for the CPU heatsink probably to reduce weight. For me, this is not a good move by Clevo.

 

Only on the NP8150 or same on the NP8170? Reduce weight? These are Clevo's, not Macbooks.

Is it a shared heatsink between GPU and fan? If separate GPU is copper I hope?

 

Review Nvidia Geforce GTX 485M graphics card - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

There are images there, looks to be 2 heat syncs. GPU is not shared with the cpu, but it is shared with something else? any idea on what that is guys? HDD perhaps?

 

Are referring to the third heat pipe? That looks to be covering the GPU's memory.

 

What temperatures are normally found in Clevo/Sager laptops?

 

Oh, forgive me I have never seen a laptop gpu that big before, this is my first real gaming laptop lol.

 

Man, 485M really creamed the 6970M here.

 

Not in my opinion. When you consider how much faster the CPU is on the 485M notebook, it is closer than it seems.
When you consider heat, power, and price, I think the 6970M is looking really good.

 

Yes, I also saw the CPU difference...

I'm anxiously waiting for head-to-head reviews!

 

Darn, I ended up upgrading to the 2820QM...

Probably will let some reviews of the 6970m and 485ms trickle before I take the plunge and harvest some cash.......

 

Since the 15 inchers can't overclock from what I hear, thats what I decided to do aswell.

 

Most of those games aren't CPU bound @ 1080p.

 

darn it...do you guys have a money tree in your backyard or something? I don't sea point in getting the top of the line CPU/GPU/HDD/RAM etc if you are NOT a professional gamer...or am I just jealous of you guys?