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

There's definitely none of that. I'm currently sitting with the notebook on my lap, so my 6'5" frame probably has me looking down onto it at a 70 degree angle. Even if I push the screen back, as far as it goes, there's no distortion.

Everyone in my household stopped as they were walking by, and commented on how vibrant the screen is. My mother was standing over my shoulder, seeing no distortion. I'm about 4'10" sitting, and she's 5'9".

 

ok, I tried searching but . . I have failed . . Im planning to get the Sager 8170-S1 for a desktop replacement but would want to know what brand of ram (make, timeing etc ) comes stock ? is the 180+ USD worth for 16 gig or should i just get 8gig (4gig X 2) and get 8 more from newegg ? (i dont like mixing different bands of rams together )

 

Hynix is the RAM used most of the time with Sager Branded machines. It is always major brand chips used certified for the machine.

 

thanks for the quick reply justin . . .appreciate it

btw any info on ram timing/speeds ? can i get the laptop without the Hynix ram by any chance ? ?(highly doubt it)

 

If it's that much of an issue for you, just order your machine with no RAM installed, then buy whatever you want for yourself.

 

I just upgraded from the default to the V.4 today and the difference in viewing angles is pretty huge. It's actually a bigger difference then I expected. The top down distortion you are talking about is pretty much a non issue now, I no longer have to constantly move my screen to get a clear picture.

 

Yeah, I haven't adjusted my screen once, since the machine was activated.

That's a huge change, coming from my M860TU, where I had to adjust the screen each time I shifted position.

I'm loving this keyboard too. It's so easy to type.

 

Hi Justin - before placing my order I asked my sales agent about getting the 8170-S1 without any HDD, but she said that wasn't possible on the S1 models - is that true? I should be at the very end of Phase 2 and I'd love to get the HDDs stripped if possible. Thanks!

 

So V.4 is the glossy 90% then right?

Hearing this though is good. I may have to make the investment because the view angles are driving me nuts and is exactly as you described Kevin Jack2.0 with your M860TU. Plus I ask my kids to look at something real quick and from their angle all they see is a darkened screen and some funky coloration of what they should see. I can always throw on another matte screen protector too, this one is very nice and don't even know it's a protector (well, except where I scraped it with a razor blade )

 

Pretty sure you can't order the -S1 without a second hard drive. When I did the math, it turned out it was cheaper to order the -S1 with a 500GB HD I didn't want, than order a non-S1 without it by like $10.

So they paid me $10 to take a 500GB HD. Fine by me.

 

Yeah. S1 is good only if the config they offer works for you. But now you can sell the 500GB for $40 on fleabay... even better yet!

 

Yeah - I tried configuring the non-S1 without the hard drive but with everything else as I wanted it and compared it with the S1 configured as I wanted it but with 2 500GB hard drives, and it came out to almost the same price; so I decided to graciously accept the free hard drives.

 

My 6970M is running more slowly than it should, and I don't know why. I was getting like 18fps in Crysis, even at medium settings. So I decided to run Vantage, and the GPU score is over 8k, when it should be around 11,500. In fact, when I received the notebook, there was a screenshot on the desktop which showed a Vantage run of 11.4k. I haven't seen that level of performance yet.

This is so frustrating. Is there something simple I've overlooked? I updated to the latest driver, but it didn't help.

 

Shouldn't be, I've been running Crysis on highest setting without any problems, even in GPU intensive areas with absolutely zero stutter. I'm using the leaked/modded 11.4 Catalyst drivers however, there was a link posted somewhere on these forums a while back. Highly recommend them... sorry to hear you're having issues, hope you can sort it out.

 

Look at AMD "Powerplay"- maybe it runs not at full speed and is downclocked because of energy saving settings...
Was a problem with my 6970m at the first day I got it, too and I didn´t know what´s going on since used ATI last time in 2006...

 

To anyone who has the HD6870M, what sort of temps do you get idle and under load?

What sort of temps do you get while playing intensive games because I notice temps vary a lot between different game types.

 

I know it's your GPU, but check your CPU temps at load and also its speed at peak (Prime95 - large FFT's). Perhaps your CPU is throttling back because of a bad paste job and affecting the GPU.

 

What kind of DVI port does this laptop have? Is it dual link DVI-I port? I need to know, because monitors with 120 hertz have to be plugged in to dual link DVI-I port, not single link.

 

ATI does not support Dual Link (i.e. 30" Display at 2560x1600), the nVIDIA does though.

 

I just wanted to thank everyone for their help when I was deciding on a Sager. I have returned it and received my money. I just purchased a desktop today as I no longer need to have a laptop. I wanted to thank Xotic as well for being helpful throughout the process of the order and also the RMA.

Desktop:
GTX580SC
i5 2500k
8GB GSkill Ripjaw X
1.5 TB HDD
CM Storm Sniper Case

 

I don't mean to be argumentative, however, this link to the AMD 6900M series graphics chip does state that it supports dual link DVI: AMD Radeon? HD 6900M Series Graphics

Ira

 

Oh man, that's unexpectedly. Does this mean I should go for 485 instead of 6970M to have proper dual link DVI-I?

 

I never got a chance to figure out what what wrong. I tried fixing it with CCleaner (a program I swore to never use again), and it messed things up so badly that I couldn't boot Windows.

Anyway, that gave me the excuse I needed, so I reinstalled Windows. The end result, is that my 6970M is now running at the proper level. With that bit sorted, I can get down to some gaming. I'm not sure what games to install, to put it through the paces.

Coming from a lowly GTX 260M, this nearly 2.5x jump in graphics power is simply mind blowing.

I also really love the keyboard. My one gripe, is that the speakers could be a little bit louder.

Have any of you found any settings that you like, to maximize the sound system?

 

We have previously inquired for confirmation on this from Sager to which they confirmed it is not supported. Obviously somebodies information is incorrect..

 

If you go into the realtek audio manager and turn the center channel off it should make it louder.

 

Hi Kevin.

I also have 6970M and I tried StarCraft II. i know its not a demanding game like crysis but i was averaging 68 fps on all ultra settings.

If i wanted to find out the score for the gpu is it like 7 bucks? do you have a link for that site?

BTW is your screen free of any dead pixels? The upgraded screen is truely wonderful i got the 90% color gamut too so i recommend to other buyers.
i do have a stuck pixel on the lower right corner.

it really doesn't bug me though since i knew i will end up with one given the time period and stock.

Overall i am happy with the laptop.

 

one dead pixel, otherwise so happy with it. In a hotel now with my LG Ally tethered and getting 500kps

 

Oh nice, that does make a pretty big difference. How do you have the THX audio set?

No matter what, I can't manage to get any bass out of the subwoofer, but I didn't expect much from a notebook anyway. I'll be doing the vast majority of my listening with a FiiO E7 and AIAIAI TMA-1 headphones anyway.

If you've never run 3DMark Vantage, you can run it once, for free. Otherwise, it's 4.95. It's worth buying, just for the times you are suspecting a situation like I was experiencing. I had a feeling, and Vantage proved I was right.

The 6970M should score no less than 11,000. Fixed, I'm getting 11,400.

I guess I got lucky, because my screen has no bleed and zero dead/stuck pixels. When I first powered it on, there was a red flickering pixel, but it blinked off and never came back. I never saw it again, until I had reinstalled the OS. There it was again, flickering on the black screen, so I tapped it with my index fingernail, and it disappeared.

 

I haven't messed with it much besides turning Smart Volume off and Dialog Plus up to 100%. I don't hear much from the subwoofer either. I think it's there for looks

 

Origin EON17-S gaming laptop overclocked to 4.5GHz, up for order -- Engadget

Just saw this. Gotta love some of the comments

Perhaps one of you 8170 owners could build one to spec and see how much cheaper it should really cost

 

Typical engadget Steve jobs worshippers comments. Although this one made me laugh:


I'm going to get this for my girlfriend. She deserves it!

So she can cook some eggs on the back.

 

Not to beat a dead horse, but have you actually tried connecting an 8170 with a 6970 to a 30" monitor to see what happens?

I don't have anything higher resolution than 1920x1200 and I don't have my 8170 yet, so I cannot test any of this ;-)

Ira

 

Just got mine, setting up Windows 7 now. Gotta say though the stock screen isn't bad at all in my opinion.

 

When you guys use Fn+1 for max fans, do they pulsate, or just run with a continuous blow?

 

Continuous blowing, except it's like it skips on occasion

 

Yeah, that "skip" is what I was looking to hear. Mine does it approximately every 5 seconds.

I'm becoming paranoid, as to whether my machine is performing as it should.

 

Does anyone have the Slappa Kiken 18 laptop shoulder bag? I was wondering if anyone used it at an airport yet. Slappa says you can leave your laptop in the bag (since the front opens) when you put it in the airport scanner. I wonder if TSA actually lets you do this or if they freak out.

 

Hey, the 11.4 Catalyst driver is telling me that it doesn't detect any compatible hardware. Tried the 11.3 download from Sager and it installs everything but the video driver! Anyone have an idea what's going on?

 

OK this is frustrating. It's starting to look like my video card is DOA. Nothing is being detected.

 

Give me a rundown on what happened. Start from when everything was functioning properly, and list every step.

 

Well, that's the thing. I just received the laptop maybe a couple hours ago. Installed Windows 7, installed all the drivers from the included disc with no problems. Downloaded Catalyst 11.4 and it won't even launch, just gives me an error stating, "ATI Catalyst Mobility cannot be downloaded due to incompatible hardware/software on your computer. Your computer does not contain a proper graphics adapter." Tried 11.3 driver directly from Sager and it installs all the software (Control Center, etc.) but no kind of driver. Even tried Nvidia driver for grins and received basically the same message. Looks like I may have to send it back, because something has to be up hardware wise.

 

.......why would you NVIDIA Drivers on your AMD/ATI 6970M GPU?

Mr. Mysterious

 

Like I said, just for grins. Thinking MAYBE they had installed an Nvidia card by accident. You know, like maybe they grabbed a card from the wrong stack or something. Long shot I know, but hey desperate times call for desperate actions.

Update: Just tried hacked 11.4 Preview driver from Guru3D. Same result, no driver is installed. It's like I have no video card in this thing.

Update 2: Went into BIOS and video card is detected as 6970M. Any ideas are welcome at this point because I'm at a lost.

 

Ah nvm, I figured it out. I feel half stupid and half annoyed. There is a video driver that is hidden on the driver disc (I say hidden because it does not show up on the install menu, you have to browse the cd for it). For whatever reason THAT display driver installed fine. After installing that cd driver FIRST, now it seems I can upgrade to LATER versions of Catalyst, i.e. 11.4. ATI drivers are weird like that I guess.

 

This is the first mention I see of an overclocked 2920XM. If it can really sustain 4.5GHz on all cores like the 2600K, it might just justify the price..

 

So installing the AMD driver from the Sager disk didn't work either?

 

Yes, it worked. Didn't notice that driver at first because I did not browse the disc and was just installing items through the menu. I downloaded like three different driver sets and none worked, including the official 11.4. Still trying to get those to work btw.

 

Can anyone tell me if these temps are normal? The first pic was while playing Batman Arkham Asylum and the second is idle:



Seems way too hot.

 

That is not normal. Try changing thermal paste.

 

It goes through just fine. You open the section holding the laptop, laying it on the belt so that just bag is between laptop and the xray. The rest of the bag and all it holds would be "next" to the laptop section. After scanning, you jest close and zip, and away you go. Make sense?