**Official Sager NP9270 / Clevo P270WM Owners Lounge**

The beauty of going mobile CPU is that there are some eBay sellers specializing in ES/QS mobile processors and shortly after launch you can get an XM CPU for 300-500$. So, if you look carefully at all the available options, you might get a different impression on the price difference. Especially if you disregard the RAM/HDD stuff which can always be upgraded down the road.
I'm still waiting to see if Clevo did any magic on the CPU cooling for the sake OC'ing. If not, - not gonna bother. A stock 3960X will lose to an OC'ed 39x0XM (4.5-5ghz) in 95% cases and in some scenarios by a huge margin. Dell only needs an extra 20W to let us unleash the monstosity while Clevo would need an extra 80-100W for any serious OC'.
There's also matte and high gamut screen options for the Clevo which is very important to me.... Decisions....

 

Any news about the P270WM yet?

 

I want to see a video of that 90% glossy gamut screen. Does anyone have a link?

 

Medium-term lurker, first-time poster.

I'm in about the same situation as the above person. Though I will use this monster for [non-CPU intensive, non-GPU intensive] work, gaming will be its primary function. I understand that it will crush anything I would want to play in the short- and medium-term (SC2, Diablo III, probably some FPSs) if I just stuck with an i7-3820 and a single GTX 675.

If my budget is about $3K, though, am I better off puting the extra several hundred toward: a) an i7-3930; b) dual GTX 675s; c) an SSD; or d) something else?

Sorry for the ignorance; I can play around with configurators all day, but that just tells me what's possible, not whether it's a good idea. (E.g., my gut says go with the dual cards since it's for gaming, but I'm not really savvy enough to know whether that will provide benefits in the longer term, or whether I'll just be bottlenecked by the un-upgraded CPU at the point I would begin seeing a benefit from having a second graphics card.)

Thanks in advance.

 

Yeah you want dual cards. Funny thing about the high-end mobile card market is that the secondary market is fairly stable. On look on ebay for an 8800m from four years ago, and you'll see they are about $400. If nothing else, SLI means you have a spare card in case the primary dies. On the clevos of this size it's fairly easy to remove the primary card, and put the secondary card in the primary slot.

 

a) If you're not planing to encode videos and play games at the same time then you're good with the quad core (since the 4c is @3,6Ghz and the 6c 'only' @3,2)
b) if you just want to play Diablo III and Starcraft (which are not really GPU-Intense) you can stick with one 675m. In reality only a few games will need a SLI or CF solution to get maxed out. (And Crysis on High stills looks awesome hehe)
c) mhm yeah - SSD's are quite nice, but since you don't play hardeware intense Games or run applications that need them you'll be fine with a 7.200rpm HDD.
(altough a SSD would give you 10sec faster bootup and may 1~5sec faster app-start, which is a nice thing to have - but the downside is the limited space on a SSD)
d) If you really want to spend a a few hundred bucks .. may be something like:

• a external Monitor or the Upgrade for the 3D one if you watch 3d films/play 3d games
• a Controller (360-pad...)
• more RAM(?)
• a new carpet?!
• or just something else..

a 2nd GPU would get you more FPS in Games (or as Notabrawd said: a spare one) i personally would wait for the 7970m - it may arrives before the p270wm is available!
a better CPU would get you better render times in certain (Hyperthreading and Multi-CPU compatible) apps and in the next few years, the bottleneck will be at the GPU side all the time (so don't worry )
the SSD advantages have already been mentioned.
and yeah - thats what my recommendation

 

2 cards for sure but wait till the 7970M CF is available. Almost 2x the performance for less $$$. You can even grab a single 7970m and pair it with a faster CPU for fun, lol.

 

Thanks Notabrawd, Sunseitbaua, and Aikimox - you're all fantastic human beings. SLI (or CF, assuming it becomes available soon, as it appears it will) it shall be!

(And actually, Sunseitbaua - we were _this_ close to redoing the floors a few weeks back ^^)

 

lol - What an amazing coincidence, just picking something random from reallife™
So.. to continue the discussion of the 7970m ...

i read that the power of this beast is somewhere around the Desktop 7850/7870 - so this is a hell of a card!
what i also got was the release date - which is the 24.4 .. so next Tuesday ^^

i wanted to ask if someone has an idea of the pricetag that comes with it - will it be as "low" as the 675m is currently? (considering that the 580m was about 700€ [800$] at the beginning.)

 

Can the mPCIE slot be repurposed for something other than the msata drive?

 

I wouldn't think so, but then again I have never messed with this before - I'm deff interested to here a solid answer on this subject!

 

I have a huge favor to ask from anyone who owns this laptop. I just returned a MSI laptop with the steelseries keyboard. I returned the laptop specifically because of the keyboard. If you press the lower corner of any key it would not register. I was told that this laptop's keyboard was produced by the same manufacturer. Can someone test to see if there are any issues? Just press the lower corner of the A (or any really) key and let me know if it doesn't register. If not I'll be buying this laptop when ivory bridge comes out.

 

Umm, from what I understand, this laptop is not out yet officially.

 

Oh, I meant to post this in the Np9170. My bad.

 

this laptop will probably not have ivy, from as far as i know, they only come out with the best processors (desktop). in this case its Ivy E, or something similar in power and same socket which is lga2011. this laptop will not have ivy mobile so you got at least a year to wait.

 

Does anybody know if there are any advantages to picking the i7 3820 processor over the 3930k? I read somewhere that it has better support for SLI? Is this true? Sorry... noob.

 

i doubt that. where u get such info? CPU is central processing unit so it takes all the info in and work with it. the faster ur cpu is, the more it can holds. so heres an easy example.

say if 3820 can support dual graphics gtx680 and DRAM at speed 2133mhz, and supports 3 SSD in raid 0 without bottlenecking the computer, then 3930k or 3960x can support quad GPU, DRAM at 2400mhz and up to 4 SSD in raid0 without bottlenecking the computer.

imo all these cpu are over kill, especially for dual mobile graphics, they can easily support quad desktop graphics cards. they all do just fine for crossfire/Sli

 

In tests of a german computer magazine, the 3820 was better in games. The reason is, most likely, that games dont support 6 cores yet. Probably, it's somehow optimized, I don't know.

But yeah, every CPU is an overkill.

 

as unityole mentioned - in terms of GPU bottlenecking you won't have any problems.

but since your question was about the advantages ov the 3930k over the 3820:
The intel pages here host some rarw information *click*

but basically:
3820:

• cheaper
• only 4cores - but higher clocks (means in some applications better performance)

3930k:

• more cores (better performance in most render programms and also in 'good coded' games/applications)
• a bit more Cache, means a bit more/faster data access

just the good coded ones do.. haha [Crysis 2 .... fanboy to the max!]

no but seriously, most games are happy enough with 4cores
i heard that "COD: Black Ops" does support up to 8! also Flight Simulator X, blablabla -> more information on games which support hexcores .. and here's a list - unfortunaly on german - but that doesn't matter since the games are called the same

 

A nice review of AVADirect's p270WM from right here from NBR - AVADirect Clevo P270WM Review: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M Powerhouse.

Seems like it has lost a bit of functionality (when compared to the x7200). I noticed the x7200's PC Express card in the front has been replaced with the SD Card on the P270WM, which has been moved from the side.


In relation to this thread (as there's no other laptop to discuss running a desktop CPU)... I'll be the first to admit, I'm not an OC expert. But a bit earlier in this thread we had a discussion regarding the SNB-E vs. the SNB-M and possibly the IVB-E vs. IVB-M and OC'ing. What does this quote mean in that comparison:

 

I'm being told by multiple resellers and it's still on the spec sheets that the express card is still present. I was skeptical after that review as well but I'm told it's still there

 

Anything new about the P270WM? The only thing I found was: Sager NP9270 delayed - XOTICPC Forums

 

Sager did officially announce today it was delayed until mid-May. An exact date hasn't been mentioned.

 

Ah, thanks for the info! Well I guess, I'll wait 'till Mid-May and if it's still not available, I'll go for the P170EM

 

Laptop is so badly needed. Have started my first 2 Comp Sci classes and not having one is causing me all kinds of problems.

 

Do you not have the ability to rent / borrow something from your college until your new laptop is delivered?

 

Sadly, no. It's an online school. I have a desktop so I've been able to get some stuff done. But being active duty military, and being enrolled in 3 classes at the same time (1 unrelated to my BSCS), without a laptop makes life challenging.

 

Nice read about Ivy Bridge processors:

HARDOCP

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/04/23/intel-launches-ivy-bridge-amid-crushing-marketing-buzzwords/

 

I see... sorry about your situation. If I had a loaner to pass on I would.

On a side note, thanks for your service. I'm a Marine who served during the first gulf war, but I never actually had to go over to Saudi because the war was over with so fast.

Good luck and be careful.

 

Tigrewolfe, you n I are in the same damn boat...school starts in 2 weeks for me as well, active duty military as well, going for my bs in comp sci and inf tech....I'm not sure if I can hold out that long

 

My dad was Army Mobile Infantry at that time. He had the same thing happen. Big spin up, You're going to deploy, oh wait nevermind, war's over.

 

I know what you mean. I had transferred to the reserves after 4 years AD and the war started during the transfer. Since I was sort of in limbo I didn't have to go, although the unit I left at Camp Pendleton was one of the first units deployed.

Good luck to you too, taliesen. Keep us old timers proud.

And before I get jumped on for getting off topic, my vendor is also reporting a mid May release. I hope they can keep this date this time.

 

rofl dell not putting 7970m cfx into m18x R2, and looks like ivybridge cpu isnt as good as i thought it would be and perhaps averaging out to around 5-10% max performance which is too little for me to spend another 4 grand on R2.

now i'll be waiting for sagers/clevos..

 

Did the Gulf early 90. A little action but nothing compared to my brothers who came back with gulf war syndrome or what those serving now are going through. Used up all my GI bill in undergrad. Also, college and universities were much cheaper back then. I remember there were some scams where these places would take your GI bill money, give you a "free computer," etc. (Would have been a nice 286 at the time.) Some Web sites give military discounts and I wouldn't mind being in the back of the line behind active duty personnel. I feel there are two factions in this thread. One group is talking themselves out of the P270 for this or that reason; the rest of us have the cash set aside and can patiently wait a little longer. Great info in the thread… "Hold out, it'll be worth it."

 

I have been paid in full since the end of February... the only thing that will cause me to cancel my order is if the laptop keeps getting delayed.

Here in Texas veterans can apply for a grant that will pay their college tuition in full. To qualify, you had to live in Texas before you joined the service, and then return to Texas after separation. You also have to have exhausted your GI bill entirely. Its called "Hazlewood" and will pay your tuition for any Texas university or junior college. You still have to pay for books and other fees (labs, etc), but tuition is paid in full. I'm sure other states have something similar, so it may be worth looking into.

 

I talked myself out of this laptop do to the delay about a week ago. Couldn't find anything else that I wanted or liked so I am back on the P270 bandwagon. I wish there was something I could find that would compare. Especially for the upgradablity of this beast. Waiting another month so I will not have to buy another computer for a few years seems worth it.

 

Was following the NP9170 thread and learnt that OC is allowed and a stable oc of 4.7 has been achieved on this model ( correct me if I am wrong ). If what this link--- STATUS UPDATE 27 MARCH: XTU BIOS, CLEVO P170HM3 & SAGER NP8170 3D (+Aptio Tools) says is true then I just might drop the Idea of NP9270 and go for this coz it will beat the NP9270 in lots of things and games too!! What does everyone say?

 

There isn't anything, unless you are an extreme overclocker and feel comfortable pushing a top end Alienware to the max. And risking a major failure that probably won't be covered by your warranty.

This is why I am relunctantly going to wait a little longer before asking for a refund. I can't find another laptop any where that has the hardware I want, so I'll keep trying to be as patient as possible.

 

Does anyone have information going out to 7970m for the clevo P270?

 

As soon as it gets official support in the BIOS/EC then it should be good to go. Should be out all at the same time if I had to guess.

 

Thanks acr731, I actually joined up as an old timer lol I've been in for almost 2 I'm 37 now

 

watching the clock waiting for "mid-may".....

 

I was taken back a little when the delay news and rumors first broke, too. My vendor was quick to quench the concerns and has given me advanced, constant updates. I looked at the Dell/Alien, right away, etc. 'Couldn't touch this computer in price or power. I'm not an overclocker. Lesser chips being cranked up in comparison aren't a choice; my business depends on my PC, so no over clocking or funny business. Also, I haven't been waiting near the time as some of the people in here and can understand their frustrations. I do believe this PC will start shipping mid-May and we can all move on to conversations about the new features, tricks and benefits of our new P270s.

Arc - that's really cool to hear how Texas takes care of the Vets tuition. My schools days are long gone Bro, but I hear ya. I hope you're able to get through labs with what you got and hold out for the good stuff...

 

Mid May, I am hoping!!! I will be making my order in about a week. I am looking at the mx14 as a "portable" to accompany my p270 LOL... but Alienware does not have a competitor for the p270 for my needs of sli and 3d in one package.

 

Hehe, inb4 Aikimox (read: AW fanboy/zealot) comes up with a list of five reasons that won't be possible. =P

 

What do you mean by "inb4" above? Where does Aikimox mention these reasons for the NP9170 and its possibilities? Links plz

 

I would say that I'd still hold on to Sager Np9270 with i7-3960x without OCing it. Even though they say that the Np9170 is stable at 4.7 Ghz, it will probably wear out in a couple of years or maybe months. And you would need a very good cooling device to let it stay stable. Now imagine this, if your CPU is OC'ed at 4.7GHz and your CPU fan has been clogged with dust and debris and you forgot to clean it. You will probably get heat issues or worst fry your CPU in no time. And then you realized you just made a huge paperweight for yourself.

 

That all depends on the temps, and even without the OC it is a good idea to clean out the cpu heatsink and it does take a while to clog to the point of loosing enough thermal dissipation to make a difference (and if you leave it on your mattress it will have issues either way). Also modern cpu's have thermal safety measures to avoid catastrophic overheat and yes running at higher than stock temps will reduce lifespan more so with higher frequency's but you would have to have it overclocked to the limit of frequency and be near the limit for mostly 24/7 operation to have noticeable degradation of a cpu in a matter of months (and that is with raised voltage). the OC people are talking about would likely last years... at which point most anyone will have upgraded by that point.

Of course there is the chance that the heat could lead other components to fail sooner so there is always risk but if you are careful and do keep proper maintenance of your machine a nice oc should be fine and safe! That might be too much effort for you but for others like me I see keeping it stock (if and when possible to safely OC) to be missing out on what the machine can really do. Of course if it already meets your needs at stock then that is that.

I will still get the p270 but I recognize the value in getting a mobile chip and overclocking it! In many cases it is the better choice. Just not in my case, or in yours .

oh and unless you are absolutely sure you can use the extra cache for your specific program needs the 3960 is really , really , really not worth the upgrade over the 3930 (though if your specific programs do benefit that is that as well )

 

They let you sign up at 35?!?!? I thought the cutoff dates were earlier than that. I think the Marines stop at 32, but I don't really know for certain.

Must be tough dealing with all the young-uns sometimes.... I don't envy you!

 

Yeah try basic training with kids your own sons age and being older than your drill sgts lol.....but age does have its advantages little wiser etc don't make dumb decisions like some of the younger people...and the cutoff was raised to 40 or 42.