[Review] Sager NP8651 / Clevo P650SE with GTX 970m HTWingNut's REVIEW

My current favorite game is "Hello Kitty Checkers". I don't need a high response time for that one.

 

thinking of really taxing my gpu with some prison architect

 

Well my guess would have to be on marketing, because think about it. You could argue that 4k right now is basically a marketing gimmick..

Essentially, you don't NEED a 4k screen right? But most people want them to say that they can have the latest and greatest, despite its obvious shortcomings. Also from the 4k company's standpoint, a 4k screen would cost double or even triple the amount of the IPS screen, so if they can somehow market them successfully, that's more profit to be made.

Not saying that 4k screens are bad, right now it does have its niche if you are willing to be paying top dollar to edit or create photos/graphics. Other than that it? Meh... 1080p screens are just fine.

 

I have already seen how 1080p in games scales very sharply on a 3K screen. I don't see why 4K would be any different, but I'll be finding out soon!

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

Sorry i wasn't convinced at all by the 3K upscaling personnally

 

I just bought an Samsung 840 EVO 500gb SSD. It says it's "bulk" and doesn't come with any power/data cables. Do I need to order them aswell, or is it not necessary? Fast answer would be great.. In case I have to change my order.

I will replace this with the HD that's already inside the laptop, so maybe I can use those cables?

 

Nice review, thnx a alot

I have a question, may be u can answer it,

I will buy this notebook soon. If I want to use 3 storage device, 2 WD7500LPCX slim(7mm) in Raid 0, and Kingston SM2280S3/120G M.2 Sata is it possible run? Because in this senario sata mod will be Raid (All hard disks/solid state drives in a RAID should be identical (the same size and brand) says manuel) and M.2 ssd will not work I think?

 

There's no cables involved, you should be fine. The drives attach directly to a header on the mainboard.

 

they will all work, just not all in RAID. ull have three physical drives making up two virtual drives: namely ur two 7mm drives in RAID = first virtual drive and ur m.2 drive making up the second virtual drive

 

The P650 on xotic says 4k Samsung screen 60hz... i wish they included model numbers for those screens.. would really like to know the metrics for the lg ips as well.

 

I'm not sure. Because I saw this in manuel

Two Changeable 2.5" 7mm (h) Hard Disk Drives (HDD) / Solid State Drives (SSD) with SATA Interface (RAID 0/1)
OR
One Changeable 2.5" 9.5mm/7mm (h) Hard Disk Drive (HDD) / Solid State Drive (SSD) with SATA Interface Two M.2 2280 SSDs with SATA (Serial) Interface (RAID 0/1) (Factory Option)
OR
One M.2 2280 SSD with PCIe Gen2 x2/x4 Interface (Factory Option)

 

Wait what is this upscaling thing with 3k/4k screens? I don't really understand...

 

Playing in 1080P on a 3K/4K screen = Upscaling.

BTW, in your signature i don't think the P771ZM will be IPS. , the P670Sx won't be IPS.

 

Here you go: LTN156FL02-L01 Datasheet download - Panelook.com

 

Great review! The MX100 would work well for video editing i assume?

 

The MX100 is not the fatest SSD but still very good bang for your buck and I don't see why it wouldn't .

 

high-res screens will be unlikely (= higher than FHD), but IPS/LPS at FHD might be available

that just covers the restriction of not being able to install more than one 9.5 mm drive OR two 7mm drives at the 2.5" factor. i dont see a reason why one shouldnt be able to run 2 7mm drives in raid and also add a M.2 sata drive though...

 

Upscaling is the process of displaying an output created on older resolutions under a higher resolution. This is the opposite of downscaling, see it this way:

Downscaling:
You have a picture that is 1080x720p, but you want to display it on a screen that only outputs 720x480p. Your graphic is a HIGHER resolution than the screen, so in order for it to display on that older screen properly, it is downscalled. You theoretically do this when you shrink the image to fit the smaller frame.

Upscalling:
You have a picture that is 720x480p, but you want to display it on a screen that only outputs 1080x720p. Your graphic is a LOWER resolution than the screen, so in order for it to display on that newer screen properly, it is upscalled. You theoretically do this when you enlarge the image to fit the larger frame.

As you can imagine. A graphic that is redesigned to fit a high res screen will almost always be of lower quality than a graphic that is NATIVELY created on that high res screen. This is why people avoid technologies that require heavy upscaling. Such as 3k/4k screens. Because as of the time of this post, images, video, and games are not yet optimized to display on this high of a resolution without some modifications. The end results are slower game performance, jagged edges on pictures, and lower frame-rates on non-optimized content. These set-backs do not justify the high price tag much either.

 

but on 4K yo always have the possibility to use FHD without scaling issues. the reason is, that you use linaer upscaling in that case. four pixels fof 4K result in 1 "pixel" of FHD. the same can be done for 3K, if the use 3200x1800 as resolution (but for reasons I don't understand, the 3K-panels don't use this always).. then you can game at 1600x900 without scaling issues.

on the other hand: why buy a high-res--panel in the first, if you don't use for working (Windows scaling issues for text and icons) and neither for gaming?

 

Problem is in a few games since the Nvidia graphics go through the Intel adaptor you get some serious letterboxing when running 900p on an 1800p display. This is a problem that I've had with Optimus in the past, but only with DX11 games.

 

Did someone already order one with a 3/4G module or fitted it afterwards? I'm curious if the simcardslot works...

 

I think some European resellers were offering LTE as an option in the x4 PCIe M.2 slot iirc. Can't remember which one but it means you lose out on storage for that. Frankly I'd much rather lose the whole slot altogether. Seems like it'd be way more useful on the W230SS.

 

I already have a 480GB ssd so that should be enough storage I wanted to buy the W230SS but then I saw this one...

For my work I'm using my current 3G modem (lenovo T420) a lot so I also need it in the my next laptop also without having to buy/use a usb modem.

 

It won't work in this one - the T420 supports a PCIe Mini card, whereas the P65X series supports M.2 only.

 

Thanks for the info, the plan is to upgrade directly to 4G. I will sell the Lenovo

 

Anyone have any idea yet on how this screen is:

15.6" FHD (16:9) Anti-Glare Matte-Type Sager IPS Screen (1920x1080) (LG Brand) (SKU - S2K003) - [ETA: Dec.12] ( + 45 )

Its one of the options on www.xoticpc.com. I just don't need a 4k screen and would rather not pay for it but I do want a great 1080 screen. I may have to wait until mid-december to find out once people get it.

 

Sorry, I misunderstood - it sounded like it was important to you to be able to remove the 3G card from the Lenovo and use it in your next laptop

A lot of people have said that it's a good screen, with a good picture, and despite its listed 35ms response time is very smooth for videos and gaming. Having seen the difference between the default TN screen and the Samsung PLS screen, I'd suggest that any IPS screen would probably be worth the upgrade.

 

On gentech pc website, on the specs for the 650se they have 2 different batteries listed. One is a 4 cell 60 WH which is what I thought came in all of them, the other was an 8 cell 89.21 WH battery which would be awesome. Is this a typo, or is this actually an option? The only thing I didn't like about this laptop was the mediocre battery life so if it is an option it would make this laptop more viable for me. Also, even though it seems the cooling system is very good in this model, why did they put 2 fans on the gpu and only 1 on the cpu when the 4710 runs a lot hotter than the 970m in most other models? Seems it would make more sense to put 2 fans on cpu and only 1 on cooler gpu. Perhaps im wrong tho.

 

No info or exact model yet. A lot of people asking though and we're anxious to find out too. Sager wont say until they are in stock.

 

One of these

Comparison

 

The one thing you cannot complain about this laptop is cooling, with the 3 fan set up they went with it works extremely well and probably anticipated the 980M version would need a bit more GPU cooling rather the CPU.

 

No problem, I could have explained it better also. Do you if there are antenna's in the screen for a extra module?

 

I don't - and what they just said over in the Owner's Lounge thread suggests that if you don't buy it with 3G/4G from the factory, you can't add it later because the motherboard is different. I don't know if this is true or not, and I'm not opening mine up to check right now, but looking at the pic HTWingNut posted in the OP of this thread, I don't see extra antenna wires...

 

Dear all,

I am a bit at a loss for RAM in Clevo's P6xx, they are usually offered with 4GB inclusive. The laptop has 4 slots all quite easily accessible, I would plan to start out with 8GB (first question should I go to 2x4 or 1x8 - any differences in performance), I do not imagine that I would need more that 24GB at any point in time in the future thus the usage of one extra slot is a non-issue for me, the other 2 slots I would add as needed with 8GB each (second question are the modules somehow paired or can you really mix and match? performance impacts or possible gains?)
If I was to expand later what do I need to look out for Mhz, voltage, size, CL timings on the to be bought modules.
In general my idea would be to buy as I go, so start of with 2x4 (or 1x8) then add another 1x8 and then add another 1x8 if the need ever arises - would that be an optimal approach or something should be changed?

 

I just upgraded my RAM yesterday! In case anyone wants to know. I purchased 2x8GB Samsung DDR3L 1600Mhz sticks, bringing it up to 24GB. Also my last stick comes in today from Kingston. I talked with Xotic PC and he said that even though its preferred that all the cards are the same, I should have no problem since its also a 1600Mhz 8GB DDR3L card. We'll see about that!

I don't know if this has been touched already (it probably has), but the bottom slots under the bottom plate matched perfectly for me and was detected immediately! How immediately you say? Let's just say that I mistakenly had the computer in hibernation mode instead of completely shutting it off. As I was looking into its guts I noticed that the light for battery was still on! Of course panicking I realized that I figured that out once the sticks were already in, so I quickly closed her up and nervously pressed POWER. Logged in and BAM 24gb!

DO NOT DO WHAT I DID. Shut it off completely first! But its crazy to know that it detected it while it was still on (and that I didn't die from electric shock!) :3.

UPDATE: The Kingston stick works beautifully! A complete 32GB of Ram. Now waiting on the screen before I consider buying some ssd sticks. Awesomeness!

 

Anyone have any info on when the 980 version will be out for the US?

 

They say relatively soon, maybe a couple of weeks unless anything is delayed.

 

Wing: sorry if this has been asked, any issues getting the stock 1080p panel and upgrading to a 3k or 4k panel or would it be better to go the other way and config it for a 4k and possibly replace with a 1080p IPS later on? I assume as long as the screen has a 30-pin connector anything will work? I am concerned 4k on a 15.6" is going to be flat out too small outside of gaming.

 

Thanks, for the info.
Any reason you went for 1x8 initially and not 2x4? so your additional 2x8 are from another company than the initial stick? Which slots were used from factory, the ones under the keyboard or the one under the botom lid?

 

Wasn't really complaining was just making an observation. My main concern isn't heat but the battery life, if its true that there is an option for the 89 WH battery this would probably be the perfect laptop however, I haven't seen this anywhere but on the gentech site so I think its probably a typo. And unfortunately for me good battery life is a must.

 

Now that NP8652 with GTX 980M is out, the comparison between 970M and 980M becomes particularly meaningful. Your result seems to suggest that 980M does not offer much more performance in today's games compared to overclocked 970M. Given that the power consumption of a laptop with 980M is close to 180W (the power supply of NP8652), I doubt that NP8652 will have a lot of room for overclocking. Therefore, it does not seem to me that the $250 upgrade is worthwhile.

 

Nothing has been surmised on the NP8652 with 980m because it hasn't been evaluated yet for thermals or power consumption.

 

I know, but I'm just speculating based on the comparison with GT72. I doubt NP8652 will perform much better than GT72, or consume much less power.

 

hello, I got the cover off and am trying to install a 9.5mm ssd. Do I plug it in to the top or the bottom slot of the hard drive?

 

I don't know if it matters, but mine came from the factory with a 9.5mm installed in the slot furthest from the palmrest, so that the bottom of the HDD was almost touching the bottom cover of the laptop.

 

Thanks. Thinking about it that might put less stress on the sata connector...

However, I had already installed it on the slot closest to the palm rest, as that's where htwingnut's ssd appears to have been installed in his screenshot...

Do I have to unscrew the back and re plug in the ssd?

 

Nah, if it works you're probably fine.

 

Was very surprised to see it but on the xotic pc review the benchmark tests showed the cpu hitting over 90c the gpu stayed below 70c tho. Is this higher than other people have been getting?

 

Some facts for you :

1) a 970M overclocked will die sooner than a 980M and produce more heat because of extra joule loss (+30% OC = overvolt or bsod)
2) 30% extra power is not something negligible
3) 240W delta psu are everywhere.
4 ) the 980M is not just an overclocked 970M : more shaders, more Vram

 

30% more performance at stock is surely nothing to sniff at. in the end, it really depends on your needs/wants/everyday usage