[Review] HTWingNut Review of Sager NP8268 / Clevo P150SM-A

Firestrike doesn't really do much to CPU, my temps in it stay below 60c except for the last 'combined' benchmark (that actually uses CPU) when they go to 67c but it is way too short to observe where they would stabilize. Primes maxes out CPU and is the worst case scenario, thus anything that runs Primes with room too spare is ok in my book.

No, no, I have nothing to do with graphics design, the colors are off even to untrained eye. There are differences between same screen models so I'm not surprised it doesn't bother you. Actually I miss that added brightness so much (compared to the 95% gamut screen) that I'm contemplating going back to the stock one.

10% difference in performance between 980m and 970m. Imho not worth the added heat. In desktop I'd go with 980 no question asked, but in laptop you need to compromise. Unless it is your actual desktop replacement then go for 980, sure.

You will be able to use your Targus adapter, just don't game on it. I have a ton of Asus, Gigabyte and Kensington (super slim 90W) power adapters and they all work (and actually the same plug is shared between all of my laptops). As long as it produces 19-19.5V and has proper polarity you'll be fine.

On a side note - I've cut a piece of smartphone screen protector and put it on the touchpad - much better. I couldn't stand that rubberized surface and now it has been already couple of hours without mouse and still don't feel a need to hook it up.

 

I really appreciate your feedback pal, and im happy to see that your able to use your slim adapters for light usage. I really was deciding if the 970m would be enough or if the 980m would be overkill. I still have to think about it but saving 300 bucks with the 970m is a internal debate lol, thankfully im in no hurry and I plan on making the purchase either later this year or early nextyear tops.

What you said about the touchpad was real creative you reminded me of my 10yrs old son because he did something similar to one of my old laptops with a really rough textured touchpad he used duct tape thats pretty clever thinking. I told my son I would have never have thought about doing that. You and him would probably get along then. I use external controls so it makes no difference and I dont mind the keypad the way it is but nice advice brother.

edit:
Xotic pc took away all my fun today I went and I checked on the np8268 ready to pull the trigger and guess what all of a sudden the option for the i7 4810mq cpu option just got bumped up a extra 100 bucks instead of $35 its now $135. I tell you I cant win pal. I watched the price on that thing for almost a year and now its a extra 100 for the option I wanted. I thought prices were supposed to go down for the holidays not up. Then I checked all the other websites and they all raised the prices. Sick of this holiday madness crap Really disappointed here pal but maybe its for a reason because im not wasting money and dont plan on paying more for something especially rehashed intel chips that are 2 years old.

 

Same here. Now i'm awaiting to see how the P751ZM turns out.

 

Yeah pal I want to see how those turn out too since they use desktop chips im hoping the prices are better than the p`150's.

 

It likely will be if you are currently looking at 4930mx based systems.

 

Just returned my Asus G751 and am thinking the NP8268 is what I should have grabbed in the first place lol. Screen is very important to me, so is having a 980m, mostly for a tad bit more longevity. How's the screen on the NP8268? Not really interested in buying a laptop that needs a screen change. This. Would be hooked up from time to time to a Dell U2410.

Or is the 72% gamit screen offered by Xotic on the NP9278-S that much better?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for your feed back bud I wish I bought the 8268 when the 4810mq option was only $35 when those 970/980m were just released. This is a great pc anybody that has one even the earlier models have a great pc. I'm waiting to see how the 750zm turns up but i'm kinda upset I didnt get this when the 4810mq cpu's were only 35 bucks extra. Anyway I would have bought it with the 980m and 16gb of ram. I Hope the cpu upgrades go on sale again if so ill jump on it. The 970m with 6gb of vram is more than enough too especially if OC'd might settle on that to keep the prices reasonable.


Does anyone have an idea if the 4810q or any other cpu option will be on sale again ? I would love an explanation why the prices suddenly jumped up to an extra $100

 

Here you go maytey

Notebooks :: Sager NP8268 / Clevo P150SM-A - Special Edition! - Ultimate Clevo, Sager, Gaming Laptops, 4th Generation Intel Core i7 - LPC Digital

 

delete

 

This is a great find, just what I was looking for prices that compete in my region so good job brother , Lpc digital has the prices I was looking for even for the 4810mq cpu configuration for $35 and other configurations like the branding removal and the ic diamond compound for the same price if not cheaper. Glad to know LPC is around and has some of the best prices around.

Edit:
The same thing just happened the price for the 4810mq also shot up to $135 on this website also in a matter of hours when I went to seal the deal the same thing happened lol I cant make this stuff up. I think its just not meant to be. I might have to wait until the prices go down again or cheaper newer chips are made by next year. I did not want to get a ps4 but at 400 bucks with last of us and gta bundled I might have to go for it lol. Thanks intel for jacking up the prices happy holidays to you to pal. With friends like intel who needs enemies.

 

Is it okay to install Windows 7 in this unit? any known problem?

 

Windows 7 is a factory option choice, it has no problem running W7.

 

on the task bar i right clicked the hotkey software to enter keyboard settings and chose illuminated white keyboard, clicked saved and exited. (note the white option higlighted imgur: the simple image sharer)
i noticed it does nothing.

is there something wrong with my installation of hotkey?

 

This is only a configuration window that tells hotkey what type of keyboard you have, you should select the blue keyboard (Full Color Keyboard). And then you can call the actual light settings with Fn+Num/

 

Well seeing as we are on the subject.....i got too annoyed with the hotkey program always telling me when caps or numlock was on so i uninstalled it. Most of my hotkeys work just fine with it uninstalled except the keyboard hotkeys. Never mind changing colours or what have you i can't turn it on or off. Anyone know if i can download the keyboard program separately ?

 

so it'll go back to blue everytime i shut down my laptop?

 

yep.

10characters.

 

Can someone tell me the stock ram's spec (1x8GB)? I'm assuming it's 1600Mhz CL11 1.35V.
Thanks!

 

Edit C:\Program Files (x86)\Hotkey\oem.ini (change the security on it first so you can write to it) and change ShowOSD from 1 to 0 and reboot.

[SupportStatus]
ShowOSD=0

All the hotkeys still work (keyboard back light, control center etc), the only popups are windows 8 default (brightness/volume) and airplane mode. All the others are disabled.

 

I love you. Any chance you know of any work around for the fan-cycling issue ?

 

Yes that's correct.

 

No, didn't figure out anything yet. But I will try two things:

1. Install the original Clevo bios and see if the custom fan profiles in hotkey will work.
2. Drop some resistors on the fan 5V line and see what is the minimum voltage for it to spin. It looks like right now that lowest setting set by laptop is about 2.6V and I'm pretty sure it can be lowered,

 

is good???

 

Seems solid to me

 

:hi2:
Hello everyone.

Came in to report. I had a lot of help reading as much as possible.

I just ordered a Clevo P150SM-A (or so I'm led to believe) under "Illegear RS-15" (they are a reseller in Malaysia)

The specs I've got is as the following

15.6" FHD Matte
Intel Core i7-4710MQ
Nvidia Geforce GTX 980M 8GB GDDR5
IC Diamond Thermal Compound
16GB 1600MHz DDR3L <-- I believe its supposed to be Crucial Modules, not sure what's the exact model number
1TB 7200rpm <---- I believe this one's Toshiba, at least i'm led to believe
Crucial M550 mSATA 256GB <--- would have opted for the cheaper Samsung 840 or crucial m100, but got talked out of it
DVD Combo for RS-15
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 <-- I've heard there are issues for this, but between this and Realtek, Intel's what I prefer.
Windows 8.1 64bit


and then some physical goodies (backpack, mouse, sleeve)

I got talked out of the P650 into this. I hope for at least 5 years out of this machine!

 

I would have stuck with the samsung SSD myself but it's a good spec. If you are not travelling around with it ALL the time or are mostly driving it around then it's got a bit more space for keeping things cool and it does make it more serviceable in terms of future options or replacement parts.

 

Badiyee congrats thats one hec of a rig pal, I'm pretty sure u will do the 5 years as long as everything works properly as it should. The 4910mq and the 980m should actually last the 5 years easy as it is.

I'm still waiting for either the price to drop or the new clevo zm desktop cpu notebook.

 

I had a good talk with the retailer, and personally after reading the notes here in NBR, I'm actually VERY impressed with the P150SM-A, and also the up and coming P7x0ZM.

If there's any "buyer's remorse" at the moment, its because I didn't go for the P7x0ZM, but i did felt that its a little too "experimental", with the really high power consumption and concerns with cooling. But otherwise, it'll be the next make or break in Clevo's engineering.
Though if you ASK me, the only thing I'll like my brand new ordered P150SM-A to have (borrowed from the 7x0ZM) is to have a full RGB keyboard (i heard one can fully customise the lighting on INDIVIDUAL KEYS) which makes it frickin' awesome.

But then, the P7*0ZM does cost i think about 200-300USD (as of writing, price converted into USD)more for the same config i'm having for the p150SM-A, (from another builder, actually, not with illegear since they only told me they're bringing in the machine, but haven't announced it yet, and i'm just too impatient LOL), and that's like a world of difference to me.


but, I suspect, somebody's going to have a keyboard mod coming up REAL soon for the P150SM-A owners.


As for the SSD, yeah, the Samsung DOES make a lot of sense, but then again i got talked out of it (because of speed and reliability issues, but then the SAMSUNG 850 and 840 is actually a VERY RELIABLE SSD, so i'm not sure how Crucial M550 is actually more reliable, but I do know speed wise yes), and I'm going to play some really read-demanding games like World of Warcraft (always hated the loading screens) so I think (though I probably may be dead wrong) a little more speed there helps, over the 1TB 7200rpm HDD. (i opted out of the Seagate SSHD, because I don't really believe in SSHD, either full HDD or SSD, LOL)


I'm going to post some temperature reviews later to help get an update over HTWINGNUT's review of the model with the 880M. Truth to be told since I actually did "upgraded" from P650SG (I mean like, opted this over the P650), i'll credit HTWINGNUT's review of this laptop as the KEY REASON why.

Now, on temperatures, (Malaysia is HOT, I tell you). Room temperatures used to be 27c but I think its now way much higher, and the p150SM-A is a "battle tested battle proven" veteran in the cooling sector, so i'm going to be hopeful (with no overclocking) that this beast will not throttle down in Malaysian heat. I'll let you fine folks know, but I don't have thermal guns and all, so i'm just going to probably buy a baby thermometer and do that LOL

hopefully we'll see something interesting.


and thanks again everyone for the congratulations.

 

Congrats badiyee. Please comment on the fan noise when you can.

 

Yeap, I don't have the DB calculator though, (going to check if BlackBerry and Android Play Store has one or not, going to use some reference noise as well. I don't have the professional tools. But yes, I'll do my best to check the noise level.

 

This pretty much the official thread for the Sager 8268-S? Or is there another one? I've had mine for about 6 months now.


I don't know if I just never noticed it but the fan seems to be getting pretty loud. If you're looking at it from the rear the only fan that seems to blow any hot air is the one on the right. If I go to hotkey and set the fan speed to maximum instead of automatic I can feel a tiny bit of air blow out from the left.

It goes from really loud to silent back and forth constantly and it's quite annoying. Is there any type of firmware fix for this or what? I have the newest version of hotkey.

I have core temp installed and my temp usually floats around 40s and shoots to high 50s

 

The -s is just a set of options so this is the place

left = gpu and right = cpu if you have it set the right way on a table and are looking at the rear.

During idle the gpu is switched off.

The cpu will change speed depending in temperatures, see if your cpu is being loaded in the background.

 

i have found solid 24/7 time for my 970m gtx with no overvolt.
















im waiting for prema mod update....

 

Hello all, I have been contemplating getting a new laptop and narrowed it down to a 8652, 8268-S or the P751ZM "Batman". I think I've settled on the 8268 due to the fact that is has an internal OD and 8gb 980m though from what I've seen on all the benchmarks that doesn't seen to matter quite yet. I do have one concern I'm tempted to get the sharp 4k display that isn't offered and was curious to see if anyone knows rather or not I could switch it myself. I've been a PC tech for four years so not worried about that process. I am worried about the glossiness though and am half tempted to get a good 1080p 95% gaumet matte IPS anyone know of one that can be switched into this model? 120hz preferred but not necessary.

I recently became a truck driver and until I own my own truck, laptop gaming is really my only option (once I own a truck I'll be converting my desktop into a smaller form factor and mounting a monitor).

All in all I think is model is a good middle ground between the 8652 ( being embedded CPU and GPU with no internal OD) and Batman which will require more power and likely have more heat/noise with the extra fans not to mention by the preorder estimates it will cost roughly $600 more then the 8268 will just for a desktop cpu and half lb of weight.

I miss anything?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks

 

This review is what sold me on this awesome laptop. I bought it in July from Xotic PC, so Ive had a good amount of of time with it, given I use it 6+ hr's a day. Its by far the best laptop I have ever bought out of the ten or so Ive owned. I dont understand the noise problem some have with it, figure that buying a powerful laptop with two fans in it isnt going to be totally silent! Its not even that bad, guess some people are more sensitive to it.

I do have one question though. Has anyone had the touchpad freeze on them? It happens a little less than once a day for me. I have to either put the computer to sleep or restart it to get it to work again. I reinstalled the driver from Sager's website, tried the Synaptics driver from their website. I went back to the Sager driver because of weird problems with the driver from Synaptic (sorry forgot what problems I had with this driver, its been a while). Problem is still there. Not a huge problem, its really a minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things. Just wondering if there is a solution to this, or does it happen to anyone else?

BTW, at first I thought I would hate the rubberized coating on the np-8268-s's body, especially since its on the touchpad as well. The reverse has been my experience though. With the previous notebooks I've owned, the touchpad area unless its glass, wears quickly from use, leaving ugly wear spots where its most used. The coating on this machine still looks brand new and its texture is perfect for touchpad use as well as a durable coating for the rest of the notebook. Hopefully this coating will still be available when I buy my next Sager/Clevo.

Thanks,
Chris

 

If the touchpad stops have you tried using the keyboard shortcut to disable it and enable it again?

 

Yes I have tried the FN + F1 shortcut with no avail. I forgot to mention that yesterday. Thanks for the suggestion.

Looking back at my post I worded it in a misleading way, sorry. What I should've said is that the touchpad buttons freeze, I can still move the cursor with the touchpad when it enters this state. I just can't click or double click anything either with the touchpad or the touchpad buttons. It seemingly happens out of the blue. Its one of those weird, cryptic problems, it may not even be hardware related. All suggestions welcome.

Thanks,Chris

 

Deleted posted twice accidently.

 

It's not something I have come across then, you could double check the seating of the touchpad cable into the motherboard I suppose (and to the touchpad) but that does require a bit of disassembly.

 

Hi,

can some one help me!!

Got NP 8268-S with 4710 and gtx 970m 6gb. Messed with settings and many unwanted installs on first day and felt the system has become slow. So, thought of formatting and bring to factory state. Came to point of installing Intel Rapid Start Driver from Optional drivers menu. So tried to create a hibernation partition according to manual. I have followed every step correctly till setting partition ID and was successful. But, when I try to check the details of created partition in disk management, it is shown as "Healthy (Primary Partition)" instead of "Healthy(Hibernation Partition)" as seen in manual and screen shots of many other users. And also when I check using "Detaill Disk" it still says "Hibernation file disk: No" and the volume which I tried to make hibernation partition is also missing from disk volume's list.

PS: my Hibernate is already turned ON from power options and I can see hiberfile.sys in C root directory.

And I can install IRST (only) after creating partition. Even though it is "Healthy (Primary Partition)" instead of "Healthy (Hibernation Partition)"
But the problem is, I don't think IRST is making any difference in hibernation shutdown and start up times. Here are the times which I got

Shutdown time for hibernation

with out IRST driver
1st-13.9 sec, 2nd - 10.1 sec, 3rd - 10.3 sec

With IRST Driver
11st-10.4 sec, 2nd - 10.7 sec, 3rd - 10.4 sec

Startup time from hibernation

with out IRST driver
1st-19.5 sec, 2nd - 18 sec, 3rd - 19 sec

With IRST Driver
1st-19.3 sec, 2nd - 19.2 sec, 3rd - 19.2 sec

And I have installed my OS in 128 gb Msata SSD and hiberfil.sis is also in same os drive and even the partition drive I created for IRST too.


So, Can some one help me why its not showing as hibernation partition and what steps to follow now.

Thank you

 

Hi frnds,
I bought my NP8268-s back in Aug when I end up getting an 870m. Can anyone please tell or guide me where I can get my laptop upgraded to 970m/980m. I am not able to find much information on where I can get this service so please help me or at least let me know where to look for this. It will be real helpful.
Thank You All.

 

If you are looking to do this upgrade yourself you can sometimes find the GPU on ebay. Just make sure its a Clevo/Sager version as other brands have been known not to work. If you're more looking to send it in to get done you should contact your original reseller and they can help you with options.

 

Thanks for the quick reply buddy.
Actually I bought mine from XoticPC itself I sent mail to service team also and at same time also checking where ever possible.

 

Sorry if there was a late reply. They usually get to them pretty quickly but with the holidays that has delayed the replies by a day or so. You can open a service ticket on our website under the "Contact" section and we can get Sager to price it out for you.

 

Hello,

I have Clevo P151SM1-A, BIOS: 1.03.08, EC 1.03.07 with Windows 8.1 64 bit.
I downloaded newest Hotkey v2.34.55 for my laptop. In this version there is possibility to fan adjustment.
Unfortunately this option doesn't work for me. I can adjust moment of fan start or stop, save etc., but it doesn't affect to fans. Is it problem with my Clevo (maybe I should change/install something?) or this is global issue?

 

I'm having the same issue, custom fan profile makes no difference. Sager 8268-S (P150SM-A). I'd love to hear from somebody who actually has it working.

 

I don't have this pc so I can't really help those looking for answers but the fan issue was brought up earlier in this thread and others. The settings dont really make a big difference and the fans act a certain way despite how you try to config it. To the person with the problem with hibernating you should perhaps do a clean install and re download all drivers and install them in the proper order. I always do a back up before trying any experiments and unless you have certain expertise getting it installed with a os is the best route.

I sure wish I jumped on this when the 4810mq upgrade was a mere 35 bucks extra with a nice 970m that would have been a solid deal. I personally will wait yet even more since the price on this remains the same and the clevo zm batman was a major disappointment price wise. I think to wait until a new intel refresh and a new windows 10 os will be the best move if you already have a functioning pc and not in a hurry.

 

HI,

Thanks for replying. DO i need to delete the EFI System partiton, Microsoft reserved partitons and recovery partitions too?

 

BACKUP all your works on there someplace else first pal. Then, do a clean windows install. Afterthat add all the drivers from the manufacturer. The recovery partition you can keep if u want but everything else should be deleted for the clean install including the efi.

 

hi guys is possible to change speaker of p150sm-a with msi gt50 ms-16f4?