*** Official Sager NP8170/Clevo P170HM Owners Lounge ***

Will the battery inside the system prevent under-voltage aka a brown out? Or should the system be on a UPS?

The reason I ask: recently we had a customer with 3 of 4 bad HyperX DIMMS. We test these before they go out. He said he's on a surge protector, so my only thought is an under-voltage.

 

I'm not sure. It should, but I bet it depends on the voltage. There has to be a cutoff somewhere where the battery detects that the AC is not sufficient. You'd have to test to find out where that point is- a minor drop in voltage may not kick the machine over to battery power. (A UPS works the same way and you can usually set the upper and lower voltage bounds where it will step in to regulate power).

 

I'm relatively new to the laptop world so I'm going to ask a series of dumb questions here:

How does the PC tell the computer to switch to battery power? Is it a switch in the MB? Is it a software switch or a hardware switch? What tells windows when this occurs?

If the MB detects this with its voltage regulator, is it possible that a power draw can occur before the switch activates? AKA a brownout before the MB has time to react?

Rare I'm sure, but what if?

 

Every laptop these days has whats called a Smart Battery (ACPI) controller. Its a small chip that sits on the I2C bus which then talks to the SMBus. Basically what this controller does is its the traffic light. It talks to the battery to see what the charge level is, temps, so on and so forth. Its also the switch, for when AC is applied or not. Basically its a resistive circuit with the AC adapter (Think your steering wheel controls on your car), that detects the voltage, current load, etc of the AC adapter. When you plug it in, the Controller detects the AC adapter, does a quick communication with it to basically make sure it reports something (its not smart like the lenovo or Dell where is queries the voltage to then complain if its not big enough) and once it detects a AC adapter at that point it switches the PC to AC, and also talks to the battery to charge if it necessary, and if not just power the PC with the AC adapter. This controller has a switching rate fast enough that you really can't fool it (phantom ac adapter), however, because it doesn't have too much smarts it could be browned out, but in a voltage sag condition it will automatically make up the voltage from the battery, so thats not a worry unless there is no battery/dead-battery.

Any other questions on how the battery's / ac adapters work on a laptop? =)

 

well a surge protector only protects from electrical spikes and will not protect from undervolting.

a UPS would protect from undervolting, however since he has a laptop and the battery typically is the same technology sa a UPS he should not have any problems if a brown out occurs.

If I were to take a guess the surge protector specially if it was the cheap kind did not properly protect the laptop from spikes and could have possibly affected the adapter as well.

 

I have not purchased a new PC for close to 7 years... My current laptop is a Sony VGN-SZ230P/B that has been upgraded with a T7600 cpu, max ram, 7200 rpm hard drive, new screen, etc. It's time to move on...

After much deliberation I decided to order a Sager 8170 from XoticPC. I did a TON of research, part of which was done using these forums (thank you!). I was dead set on buying one with part of my tax return last year but decided to wait for the 2nd gen Sandy Bridge to come out. I looked at every manufacturer I could think of, Dell, HP, IBM, you name it... In the end it all came down to the hardware I was getting for the money and the Sager just killed them all in that respect. As well, the configuration options I had just weren't cutting it anywhere else. The only thing I won't be getting, that I wanted, is a backlit keyboard. I chatted with a Dell rep about an Alienware laptop, tried everything I could think of to get them to get it into the right ballpark and it just wasn't possible. (we go through Dell for work and even the discount for that wasn't enough)

The following is scheduled to arrive this coming Wednesday and I am truly excited:

Sager NP8170 / Clevo P170HM
- Primary Hard Drive: 500GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache)
- Ram: 8GB - DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (4 SODIMMS)
- Graphics Video Card: ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 6990M
- Processor: 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2860QM
- Display: 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen w/ 90% NTSC Color Gamut
- Optical Drive Bay: Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW
- Wireless Network: Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1103
- Operating System: No Operating System Standard - Drivers & Utility Software Only

The ram will immediately be replaced with the following:
- 16GB - ADATA XPG Gaming Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

As well, the hard drive will immediately be replaced with the following:

- Samsung 830 Series 256GB SSD (network backups will be done on a regular basis) Later I may get another and put them in RAID 0, undecided on that one... Also, keep an eye on www.bhphotovideo.com if you want to purchase one of these. They keep dropping their price and are currently down to $339 with free shipping.

After the spare RAM and hard drive are sold to a buddy, my cost all together will be $2,200... Putting me exactly where I wanted to be.

Hutsady from XoticPC did an excellent job answering all of my questions through chat prior to my purchase. He then did the same over the phone when I placed my order.

If anyone reads this and is interested in the timeline from order to receipt, here you go: (obviously this varies, plus I ordered the screen upgrade)

02/13/2012 Phase 1 (Order Confirmation) Sales Advisor - Hutsady
02/14/2012 Phase 1 (Order Confirmation) Wire info sent to me for payment
02/15/2012 Phase 2 (Sent for Custom Building / Testing / Burn In & Final QA) Confirmed Wire Payment
02/17/2012 Phase 3 (Sent for Additional Customization / Custom Painting / Skinning Department)
02/23/2012 Phase 4 (Order Shipped) Your order with Xotic PC is scheduled to ship today!

Order is scheduled to arrive on 02/28/2012 using ground shipping from XoticPC to Seattle.

Not bad at all if you ask me... To clarify something... Phase 3 as I understand it means it was shipped from Sager to XoticPC. The laptop actually arrived at XoticPC on the 23rd, at which point they installed the new screen and shipped it off to me the same day. Excellent!

I might provide a review, we'll see. I'm not a great reviewer. I know what I'm looking for, but that might not be what other people are looking for.

 

I shortened your quote to make it easier to assist without taking much room. Before you install your own components, it is a good idea to run your laptop with the components it came with first to make sure everything is in proper working condition. This will also help you determine if the components you are installing will be defective or installed improperly if you do have a problem.

A good anecdotal story was a person that had ordered a laptop without RAM or HDDs installed. This person received their laptop and installed their components and the laptop did not boot up. It powered on, but there was nothing on screen. This person immediately wants to blame the laptop, but after watching a few videos on the laptop, realized he had not seated the RAM properly. Once he reseated the RAM, the computer booted up fine and he was able to install his software and drivers without any further issues.

So, just be sure everything works before you dig in and swap in your own components.

 

Not a bad idea, thanks for the advice. My friend will appreciate me having tested the stuff anyhow. I'm not terribly worried about putting things in correctly or figuring out what went wrong if something does. However, it certainly can't hurt.

I didn't order it with an OS, so I'll need to install first... No biggie, good practice I suppose on this laptop. I've done it hundreds of times at work

PS. I would never blame the laptop until I had exhausted every resource on my own.

 

mrbasher
Excellent summary of your order and experience. We see reviews of computers a lot but after a while they all end up being pretty similary. The ordering experience is unique to each person so it nice to see something different.

Happy I could help you out with the process, after you get it let me know if any questions comes up.

You're exactly right on Phase 3. The screen you selected is one we offer, Sager doesnt offer the same one.

Regarding your possible plans on adding a second SSD for RAID 0. You dont want to do that just yet. If you do you'll lose TRIM support which is a Windows feature that's there to help your SSD last longer. TRIM is not support in RAID so your SSD could prematurely fail. You'll have crazy fast speeds with the Samsung 830 anyway.

 

Thanks Hutsady.

I'm dying to see the thing in person... I really haven't been able to find any good pictures of one. Decent, but nothing taken at high resolution. Maybe I'll take some.

As for raid, yes... That's a bit down the road if ever. My original plan was to go with two 120GB drives in raid 0 but then I found the Samsung 256 on sale, and for quite a bit less than the two 120's. That sort of killed two birds with one stone. Maybe Samsung will release a firmware that can handle TRIM in raid for the drives some day. You never know. Until then, if I start running out of space, I'll throw decent data drive in there for all the "crap."

 

this is prob wrong place or a daft question but i have single 6990m, 1 ssd, 1 hdd can i install a 2nd 6990m in this laptop
apologies if it is a daft question

 

I'm fairly certain there is only one graphics card slot on the laptop, so no. The bigger 7280 can do that though.

 

ok thanks for reply. perfectly happy with single 6990m its a beast was just curious.

 

Yes, with the NP8170 there is only one graphics card slot. The NP8180 has two graphic card slots, or can be configured as such.

 

The Sager NP9270 also supports dual GPUs.

 

I am having a hard time locating an antenna to fit the CATV jack. Does anyone know of any sources? Thanks.

 

Do you have a TV Tuner card in there? Otherwise it would be quite useless...

 

I am looking to build one of these bad boys pretty soon and recently read about the next wave of these machines. I understand they will have the next generation of GPU's/CPU's.

Dollar for dollar, is the upgrade worth the wait? Or will the better performance come at a steeper price?

Thanks!

 

As far as I know there's a TV tuner card slot

 

Impossible to say, with no details on what's going to be offered. We will find out between March 6 and 12, so just postpone your purchase until the conference ends.

 

just about to pull the trigger on this config:
Custom Laptops, Gaming Notebooks, Custom Gaming Laptops | XOTIC PC

Can someone tell me if I should do the normal glossy or go with the matte? If i go with the matte I will go with i7 2670. If I go glossy i'll upgrade to i7 2760.

I will use this mostly for gaming honestly and enjoying the larger screen because I like to open multiple windows at once and be able to have more space to read.

Is glossy on reflective on blacks? I have a mx11 i bought in Aug 2010 and i was pretty sure it has glossy? I mean I can see myself in the screen when it's off. but for the most part when i'm browsing or if there are other colors on the screen I don't see myself.

 

Hi i have a sager np8170 with a 6990m. Is getting 30 - 45 fps in crysis two with hardcore settings ( without dx 11) normal ? Shouldnt it be higher ? If it should what can i do to fix it , im guessing either some of my settings are off or some driver / bios issue? Also the overdrive on ccc ; is putting the memory clock and gpu clock on maximum dangerous? i tried doing it didnt really make a difference in performance.

 

It looks like that's what you should be getting on average. (Assuming hardcore = ultra):

AMD Radeon HD 6990M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

It's your individual choice. Look for the reseller who fit AUO B173HW01 V.4 (glossy with 90% NTSC coverage) or AUO B173HW01 V.5 (matte with 72% NTSC coverage).

 

Hi fellas, helped one of my buds to get his first Sager laptop and it's NP8170) Pretty well-built machine i should say, liked it exterior and performance!

Anyways, i'll update this post with some OC results later on. Also, switched the stock hannstar screen to the B173HW01 V.5 Matte (purchased from screenintaipei) and it had one teal stuck pixel (really annoying)... Does anyone know if there's a way to get rid of the ? I recommend you to purchase "A+" grade screens in future rather than "A" to avoid such situations..

Calibrated B173HW01 V.5 72% with Spyder3Elite and will upload custom profile in a bit)

 

Here are some things to try to get that sub-pixel unstuck:

How to Fix a Stuck Pixel on an LCD Monitor - wikiHow How to Fix a Stuck Pixel on an LCD Monitor - wikiHow
UDPixel - udpix.free.fr UDPixel - udpix.free.fr
Dead pixel tester with display aids and illusions. Dead pixel tester with display aids and illusions.
JScreenFix - Fix stuck pixels JScreenFix - Fix stuck pixels

 

This website always got the job done for me to unstuck pixel :

LCD repair v2.0

 

paladin44 will try a few of your methods, thx!

Prema, left a PC for 5 hrs this night running this fix tool, no luck((

I remember, used a push method on my old Benq matte PC monitor and it helped right away. But this is pretty tough one...

 

Seems like it can't be removed, tried everything but will give it a shot later on again... Do u guys know where i could get another B173HW01 V.5 display with no dead pixel guaranteed and 1 week worldwide shipping? thanks

update: found this guy on ebay, dunno if he's reliable

 

I assume you left the fixing part running with monitor ON right, i know it`s a stupid question, but we had one brother here who ran it with screen off.

He later fixed it with this method:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/644547-p150hm-stuck-pixels-fixed.html

 

I was curious if at some point backlit keyboard would be available for this model seeing that the new sager just came out with one for their newest laptop. I did email xotic-PC and got this response :

"I am not sure if your system motherboard will have the BIOS settings or other board connector for the backlit keyboard or not. Were you to be eligible for the backlit keyboard you would need to pay for this upgraded board to be sent to you. Otherwise you would need to set up an RMA for your system to be sent back to Sager and have the keyboard replaced with the backlit keyboard at their facility. As for the rest of your upgrades, aside from a screen upgrade your system would need to go back to Sager for any other upgrade services. We would be able to set up the RMA for you with Sager if you wanted to have this type of work done."

 

yeah, man! had the display on for whole night - no luck! used this DPT tool few times - same result. You see, the stuck pixel has teal color, and not red/green/blue so may be that's why it's hard to get rid of it The pixel to rule them all...

 

The NP8170 doesnt support a backlit keyboard, the biggest limitation is there is no powerport on the motherboard for it. No power, no lights

 

Custom Spider3Elite color profile is in the attach.

And of course, son of all pixels:

 

hey all, just placed an order with XoticPC. I'm well aware of the coming refresh but until my unit comes in, I'm stuck with my trusty CR-48 Chromebook, a Touchpad and an android smartphone. Still pretty darn excited about the purchase though. any advice for a bag that comfortably carries the NP8170? I'm a big guy so weight is not an issue (6'7" @ 300 pounds) but having a bag that I can put my books for class in as well as occasionally carry my NP8170 would help a lot.

 

Here u go, a calibrated profile for a stock Hannstar display. Looks waaaay better than the stock profile, say no to the blue hue) Follow the steps in my sig under "calibrated" to take the best from the stock screen

 

Just a reminder... Sager has said that the NVIDIA 580M has been discontinued on this model.

-

 

Just to be renamed and come back as 675m next week...

So maybe Clevo is planning to release the new revision with Panther Point chipset but with old Sandy Bridge CPUs until the Ivy CPUs are ready in June-July...hmm?

 

Congratulations on your purchase...you are going to enjoy it!

Have you checked eBags - Largest Selection Of Handbags, Backpacks, Luggage & More - eBags.com for a good case? Do you want a backpack, or briefcase style or ???

 

Sounds like a good educated guess...I am eager to see what they plan as well.

 

First off, thanks for the ebags link. I did know about it because I purchased a bag for my dads tablet from there. I was actually interested in the timbuk2 zeitgeist bag in black (it says its medium but the laptop compartment size looks like it takes up to a 18"). I'm looking for a bookbag style so that I can safely take my rig to lan parties and occasionally to class. I'm looking for something that looks adult and that I can get away with as an IT Professional (doesn't have to come to work but if I end up at work on an off day, I don't want it to embarrass me). What do ya'all think?

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

Slappa Kiken is highly suggested, same with the everki titan.

 

And now to the "pretty wild guessing"
The more i think about the 675m, Kepler and how NVIDIA spread rumors a week before there own investors meeting about industry wide problems with the new process, the more it feels like they try to get people`s hopes down.

First we expected Kepler then at least a shrink and now they make us believe we only get renamed but identical cards...maybe just to give us a 775mhz core version of the 580m, name it 675m and suddenly people are happy with what they get, even though it`s still the same old...

Edit: I mean it´s just some crazy theorie, but wouldn´t it be even crazier to just rename all the cards from 5xx to 6xx and change like nothing...LOL

 

The laptop arrived just a little earlier...

First impressions: WOW. I can't wait to get home and put my ram and SSD in.

I'm just running through a quick install of Win 7 with the supplied hardware to be sure everything is in working order but I must say... It's very VERY nice.

The screen is beautiful. The little bit of glare that there is will not bother me. I'm in a very well lit office right now. (overhead florescent lights) After a few quick scans of the screen, ZERO dead or stuck pixels. WHEE!

I'll post more later but I'm excited about my purchase so far and absolutely zero buyer's remorse. (which is saying something because I almost always have it...)

Also, the keyboard is excellent.

 

Glad to hear it! We all look forward to your next posting with a full rundown of your thoughts on the laptop.

 

Have so much FUN!, congrats!. I'm gonna be using mine for my degree in computer animation that I will be starting in April. I have never regretted this laptop.

 

So I see that the NP8180 and NP8130 have been discontinued now. Do you guys predict the same will happen for the NP8170?

 

Hi guys, looking to purchase the NP8170 to replace my cranky old vaio.

this is the first time im looking into a gaming laptop and also one that enables me to customize.
having said that, im looking at the better/faster parts and im just worried if all these put together would result in over heating problems.

lets say a i7-2860QM + either the 6990M or 580M

would it result in overheating or previous experience says its fine.
Also, i couldnt put a finger on either the 6990M or 580M. any recommendations? i dont need any 3D functions by NVIDIA though

thanks!!


Wayne

 

Yes, there are only a few left and they will probably be sold out by sometime next week, maybe as early as Monday.

From there we wait for the new models to be introduced.

 

*groans* I just ordered an np8170 last week. Are they moving forward from mxm 3.0b or will I eventually be able to upgrade my graphics?

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk