The Sager NP 8130/8150 (Clevo P151HM1/P150HM) Owner-Answered Frequently Asked Questions **READ BEFORE POSTING**

Basically the whole thing. The lid (inside and out), and the whole palm rest/track pad area. The bottom of the laptop is not rubberized though.

It's a pretty standard input for home theater systems. I hook the S/PDIF out to my home theater system when I'm watching Blu-Ray from the laptop. I think it's better sound than just HDMI, but then I'm a little picky with audio/video most of the time

 

I'm confused.notebook check said it's whole plastic...
Ahh
Is it worth $100 for the case?

 

Notebookcheck was probably talking about the P151HM1 (8130) and not the P150HM (8150). The P150HM is the model with the rubberized finish. Also, if you are only getting the 560M, and don't plan on upgrading to the 485M+ - then get the P151HM1.

 

^^Agreed, the finish on the NP8130 is quite nice.

 

Hey guys, just want to say quickly i love coming here for a read, its so helpful!

But anyway I read the FAQ but just wanna confirm it in here if thats ok, can I purchase a "certified" 180 watt power supply for my Clevo P151HM1 from a retailer (on here?) ..... EVEN though im using a GTX560m (currently have the 120 watt power supply that came with the P151HM1) as I intend to one day purchase a GTX 580m and fit it...

So in other words, can I use a "certified" 180 watt power supply, day in and day out on my P151HM1 which is still using the 560m, and it be ok? (after all the P151HM1 IS infact the P150HM right?)

I know it will not add any better performance, but it just gives me the future proof attribute....thats all.

Thanks guys

 

It'll be just fine if you do this; it would be like having a P150HM with the stock 560m card.

 

Thanks for that

 

I forgot to ask the fan noise about this system.
I was assuming it shouldn't be loud because it has dual fans which same as G53.
But I also read some reviews and posts, they said the video card's fan is very loud. However, those are gtx485.

#1 Is it quieter if it only has gtx 560m?
#2 How many noise level doest it have?
#3 is that possible to control fan noise by software?

I owned MBP 15 before, fans sound like hair dryer which couldn't be annoyed by myself, when both fans run over 5000 RPM.
I don't use headphone, so noise level is very important to me.


(I was originally considering M14x but they said M14x is a hair dryer machine when u play games)

 

1) Overall, yes. The 560m is a lower wattage card than the 580m or 485m, so it produces less heat and needs less cooling from the fans.

2) On my P150HM, when the fans are cranked, it's about the same noise level as a whisper. It pretty quickly falls into background noise (my central air conditioning is louder)

3) Not at the moment, no. The fan speed controller is not currently controllable via software. The only two controls now are auto speed and full blast with fn+1

 

Awesome thread!

 

Hi, where can i download the latest SAGER bios for NP8150 model? i only see clevo bios thread, and it says there that once i go clevo bios i cannot go back to sager bios. I would like to stick at sager bios. Is there anything i would miss if i go with sager bios? this is my first sager laptop so i'm currently at lost on where to go for latest bios.

Thanks.

 

You need to contact Sager directly and ask them for their latest BIOS. They don't post them on their site.

 

oh ok. but there is not direct link about the bios request, unlike in clevo website. I hope there will be a thread for Sager bios here like the clevo. I wonder why sager/clevo is not posting their bios publicly like asus...

 

Do the new Sager BIOS fix the max speed fan "hiccuping"? Also, do the Clevo BIOS' fix this problem better? Thanks!

 

Unfortunatly not, the fan hiccup issue is still apparent.

 

This is not something that needs fixing as it is not a problem or an issue or bug or flaw or malfunction. It's by design and is normal for everyone. It's because of how the pulse width modulation fans pulse with the CPU and GPU fans.

 

Sager bioses are in the Clevo bios thread on this forum. Also, the fans are not controlled by the bios but by the EC. You need to flash the embedded controller, not the bios.

 

Why would the duty cycle of the PWM suddenly decrease for an instant? Its hard to believe that the hiccup is an intentional design...

 

So why would this affect ONLY this laptop? You say "It's because of how the pulse width modulation fans pulse with the CPU and GPU fans". There are only two fans, one for CPU and one for GPU. PWM has nothing to do actually with how these fans are pulsing, it's like a constant drop in voltage, and can't imagine it would be good for the fan in the long term either. I have NEVER heard anything like this before.

Right!

 

I didn't engineer this laptop but whoever did implemented it this way and the QC department signed off on it. Someone must have stress tested this design. Do any other Clevo models do this? It has to do with however they implemented the Fn + 1 function into the EC to override the automatic mode, I suspect it may be a some kind of workaround. I suspect it does no harm to your fans. The fans would pulse in this manner if the PWM signal wasn't consistent across the duty cycle. I don't know why it is the way that it is but why do you think it's harmful to your fans? PWM afterall is just turning on and off the supply and load in rapid succession anyway. Mechanically a sudden drop in voltage should make no difference to the motor. There are different types of PWM and I'm not familiar with them, this may just be a strange implementation or workaround to force the fans to goto max duty cycle.

 

When I originally got my laptop it had Sager EC 1.00.02 and Bios 1.01.06 and the fans didn't seem to pulse at all with Fn + 1, I only remember noticing it after updating away from that EC.

I don't suggest anyone downgrade the EC but if my memory serves me right then it's just a firmware issue that can hopefully be fixed is what I'm driving at.

 

plz remove..wrong section

 

I've had the same behavior from my fans despite all the EC's I have tried but you have probably gone through a few more than I have as I haven't tried any ECs dating before March 2011.

 

Wikipedia says that "Clevo sells the same designs to dozens of "re-branders" including Sager, XoticPC, Eurocom, RJtech, RKC notebooks, Pro-Star, PowerNotebooks, Origin PC, AVAdirect, V3 Gaming PC, Falcon Northwest, CyberPower, iBuyPower, System 76, PC Torque, Puget systems, Vigor Gaming, M-Tech, XTreme Notebooks, Smooth-Creations, Malibal, WIdow PC, Hypersonic PC systems, Micro Express Computers, Jinco Computers, DevilTech, ChiliGreen, and many many more"

If you don't have some of these in your list of resellers, perhaps they could be added. There are many more options out there than people realize much of th time.

 

Well I think for here, we should just stick with the resellers that support this forum. It's hard to recommend a reseller that we don't know much about.

 

Of lot of those resellers are in Europe etc. and they don't post on an English forum like this. We often get European posters who are interested in getting Clevo's locally so it's just a list to offer some options aside from those who post regularily of which there are only a handful.

 

Probably should add these screen reviews I found to the FAQ. Can help users pick one. Very common question. These were reviewed near the same time and in the same way. I think it's the best data we could have for fair comparison.


Matte 95%:
Review Lenovo ThinkPad W520 Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

Maximum: 236 cd/m²
Average: 217.9 cd/m²
Brightness Distribution: 87 %
Center on Battery: 236 cd/m²
Black: 0.36 cd/m²
Contrast: 656:1


Glossy 95%:
Review Dell XPS 15 Notebook (i5-2410M & GT 540M) - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

Maximum: 284 cd/m²
Average: 262.2 cd/m²
Brightness Distribution: 87 %
Center on Battery: 265 cd/m²
Black: 0.41 cd/m²
Contrast: 646:1


Some things I take away & interpret:
-Choose either screen, both are great.
-The Matte is (obviously) less subject to reflections and more appropriate if you're going to be near windows/outside
-The Glossy Display is noticeably brighter, and this probably helps mitigate those reflections some
-The Glossy Display will be more appropriate for those using AdobeRGB colorspace, or image editing
-For sRGB, the Matte screen may appear more over saturated than the glossy
-The viewing angles seem better by my reading on the Matte, not the glossy.

 

maybe add Nexoc (German, shipping euro-wide) to the list of resellers?

 

I've heard some notorious things about noise and Clevo laptops. How are these laptops when it comes to noise? I have trouble envisioning them with decibel measurements.

Are they quiet enough at idle/light loads to bring to class or a library? I remember having a laptop who's sound I barely noticed in my own room, but I'd feel real self-conscious having it out in class or the library because of its noise, especially compared to everyone else's silent netbooks.

 

At idle it's nearly silent. There's a very low whoosh from the fans running low.

 

I just got mine the other day with the 560m installed.

Now, first i noticed that while running Furmark, the GPU hit 100C+ in under 30s. Opened it up, and noticed that the heatsink was barely pressing down on the chip, even though everything seemed in place. Repasted with AS, bent the heatsink support strips (the silver metal strips that screw onto the board) and voila, now it idles @38C and maxes out @83C.

Question 1: how tight is your heatsink sitting on the GPU chip? Also, is it just me, or do these silver supports strips seem really flimsy?

Second thing i noticed, was afterwards, while running Furmark to check if everything still works: the memory heatsink was burning hot (warmer than the gpu itself), while its copper heatpipe and radiator were barely warm. I can't see any damage on the heatpipe, but i suspect that either it's faulty or the thermal contact between it and the metal slab that sits ontop the memory is bad.

Question 2: Is it normal for the GPU memory heatsink to get that hot, or is my heatsink broken?

 

So with i7 2720qm and nVidia 485m graphics card is the fan loud? It wouldn't annoy people in the same room as me?

 

hows everyones chiclet keyboard? my "f" is slightly raised.. is this normal..?

 

How are the fan noise levels for general use?

 

Does anyone use a smaller third party power supply? The NP8130 seems like the perfect replacement for my aging laptop but I'm shying away from that huge brick.

 

They're actually quieter than i had expected, if everything is pasted right. They sometimes toggle quite often between off and lowest speed, but not nearly as bad as the Dell XPS 17. Don't let that be a turnoff if you like the system.

Short answer: no. Keyboard is ok, though it feels a bit cheap.

Seconded. I'd also be interested in a slimmer power brick.

 

Thanks for this FAQ and all the other info in this thread! I don't know how I'm going to sit still in class while waiting for my laptop...

 

Update: Added a post from Lauski regarding the screens. Thanks man, +rep

I'd add more q's and a's, but most of the ones so far have been quite personalized (that is, they vary from computer to computer) and cannot really apply to every Sager 8130 or 8150.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Thanks for the info. This thread is convincing me to order

 

You're welcome. I wouldn't have put in so much effort into helping everyone if I wasn't 100% convinced that the machines are so good, that they're worth my time and effort.

Mr. Mysterious

 

I believe you could pull the wifi adapter actually. Connect a eGPU there. Then get a USB wifi adapter.

The question undoubtedly will be asked "why would you want to do this"? Personally I don't see any need to, a GTX 560M out performs my GTX 550 Ti eGPU.

A USB wifi adapter wouldn't necessarily be to bad however. USB 2.0 is still faster than my Internet connection. Need to make sure the antenna(s) on the USB wifi adapter were good though. (This was far from the case on the last USB adapter I encountered.)

 

Actually, I remember asking in the eGPU thread about compatibility. At the time, they confirmed that no, it was not possible.



Mr. Mysterious

 

Hmm, how long ago did you ask?

Out of curiosity, I'm going to poke Nando about this one.

 

An accessible wifi mPCIe slot could host a eGPU. Though as you point out, why would you. If the 8130/8150 doesn't have an active Intel HD3000 iGPU then the Optimus tweak would not engage and performance would be subpar. If you do have an iGPU then, when the pci-e 2.0 cable is released, a eGPU will outbench a GTX460M/GTX560M. x1.2Opt does pci-e compression giving approximately x4 1.0 bandwidth.

 

So basically....you cant use an eGPU. IF you do, its not worth it.

Mr. Mysterious

 

If you don't have switchable graphics then yes, Optimus pci-e compression wouldn't engage and performance would be substantially lower than a GTX460M/GTX560M. So if want better performance either upgrade the MXM dGPU in the 8130/8150 if that's possible, update the system to one with a better dGPU, or update to one with a iGPU so can be a good eGPU candidate. See the thin-and-light link in my sig for some suitable candidates.

 

Updated with new info!

Mr. Mysterious

 

Great work sir!

 

Yes it is great work!

If you feel up to it, you might add the new processors under...



Processor Info for:

Intel Core i7 2960XM Notebook Processor - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Intel Core i7 2860QM Notebook Processor - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Intel Core i7 2760QM Notebook Processor - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Thanks
_

 

This is great, just joined the forums.
Any question about this laptop has just been answered.
Again, Great job on this.

~TK141