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

Well duh, but to say that the 980M is useless or easily replaceable by an overclocked 970M (which shows that the dude wants performance) is wrong, if that's actually the case i advice you to change your signature from 980m 8gb -> 970m 6gb ^^

 

WOOOHOO
P650SG built

 

Very nice and the release date for the 980 version is not that far away. I eagerly await the reviews because I am very ready for a new laptop.

 

Because in order for me to have 32GB of ram with my setup, I'd need 4x8GB sticks. 8+8+8+8 = 32 (my math teacher taught me well!)
I could've went 4+4+12+12, but the place I was buying from (Xotic PC) only offered 1x8GB stick as the minimum. Also I got a great deal from this dude on ebay who was selling 2x8GB SAMSUNG sticks for $107! It was the exact stick that was in my laptop mind you . So for $70-$80 DDR3L cards, it was a steal and he only had one sale left, so I had to grab it. Glooorious!

Also just to clarify, out of the 4 of these that I need. I already had an 8GB SAMSUNG DDR3L stick already placed in the laptop when I unboxed it. So it started out with 8GB. It was located inside a panel under the keyboard. I also purchased and placed the Kingston ram stick under the keyboard with it and it paired successfully.

So...
Under Keyboard slots: 1X8GB SAMSUNG + 1X8GB KINGSTON = 16GB RAM \__________________ 32 GB RAM
Bottom lid ports: 1X8GB SAMSUNG + 1X8GB SAMSUNG = 16GB RAM _____/

Hope this helps!

 

8GB is the maximum supported stick size anyway so the max you can get with 2x 4GB sticks is 24GB.

 

can u test 144hz monitor through different ports? thank you

 

Can't see any reason why it wouldn't work through the 2x Mini DisplayPorts.

 

i guess it depends on the resolution of that 144hz display. 4K is max 60Hz, lower resolutions would support higher refresh rates

 

Well, obviously nobody will actually use that 4K resolution as you wouldn't be able to see anything on a 15.6" screen, so it will be halved to 1080 anyway.

Unless there are some scaling problems with windows I think that is the way to go, not because you can brag about having a 4K screen, but simply because ( unless I'm missing something ) you get a far better screen, much higher color gamut, more accurate colors and better viewing angles. sharper and brighter screen too, It's a win, win, win, all the way around.

Asus NX500 already has one of these Sharp 4K screens and it's been getting pretty good reviews. I believe this is the exact same screen that Clevo/Sager will offer as an option.

 

i think we were talking about an external display, so its very likely to be larger than 15.6"

 

This notebook has 2 sata port. 9,5mm 7200rpm hdd + SSD (7mm SSD but without case or with half case for expamle SanDisk Ultra II 240 GB) is it possible? Because inside the ssd box almost empty. Just small board.

 

could be that the 9.5mm drive would partially block the second sata port, so wouldnt matter how thin u could make the ssd, even if its thinner than 7mm it wouldnt fit...

 

12GB chips don't exist. 2,4,8 (eventually 16GB) are all there are.

That is exactly the case. The 9.5mm drive will go down far enough that it will block the other drive from seating in the holes properly.

 

I said without case. I measured sata ports. Just 4,5mm. Case limitation 14mm. 14-9,5=4,5mm. Two sata connector is 4,5+4,5= 9,mm.

That means it will be fit in there, I think. I dont care holes. I will use double sided tape.

 

haha thats so ghetto! but nice, seems like we have our first real mod here

 

M.2 drives expensive in my country and just a few brand(kingston and crucial). I need to moded solutions

 

M.2 drives are pretty expensive everywhere.

 

I missed that. Sure might not even need tape, just fix a cardboard standoff to the chassis, and one in between the SSD PCB and the drive above it.

Just make sure it's secured, because you don't want it at an angle with a preload or wobbling up and down eventually breaking or loosening the connector on the mainboard. I did something similar in a netbook I had. Removed the SSD out of the case because it wouldn't fit otherwise.

 

I have done this also... I removed my ssd from its 9.5mm case to fit in a 7mm netbook bay. It worked fine I was able to secure it with double sided tape

 

Well for the truly ghetto experience you could use blutak and electrical tape to help keep it secure lol.

 

Just for reference, here's two 7mm drives together on the bracket:

 

You are the best, thank you

 

Cutting out the casing looks to save you around 1mm.

 

Here is my small contribution to the thread. first thank all of you for the replacement screen recommendations and HTWingNut for the the replacement tutorial. replacing the screen was very straight forward and so far i dont notice any dead pixels. I did end up going with the Samsung LTN156HL01-102 from 15 6"LCD Screen Samsung LTN156HL01 for Asus Q501LA LED EDP 30pin WUXGA1920X1080 | eBay. The seller answered my inquiries with in a few hours and once I placed the order the item was shipped the next day. Order was placed on dec 1 and I received the order yesterday dec 9th.

I used Blur Busters UFO Motion Tests and took some pics of the old and new screen. I used my phone camera so I dont know how accurate the pic ares but the multiple shots I took seem to show the same thing. There is a little more ghosting on the new screen compared to the old on but that is to be expected. In real world gaming It is probably not noticeable to most people.

The new screen is in the top frame

 

I apologize if this has already been answered but I would ask if any of external monitor ports are driven by the 970m?

 

I don't believe so. I asked it a bit ago in the owner's lounge thread. Both display ports were driven by the iGPU. I'm not sure about the HDMI port.

 

All the outputs are via iGPU.

 

Yes they are but the internal being eDP makes 3 monitor setups easier

 

True--you can have two external DVI / HDMI.....but you really should just go buy a third DP monitor to have a real 3 monitor setup

 

I'm just about to pop down to the Australian reseller (Metabox) and listen to the P650SE fans during benchmarks.

Will post impressions when back (currently own a P157SM 780m).

 

If you can, pay attention to the difference between auto and max (fn+1)...

When mine is in automatic, it never goes to maximum on GPU, and only goes max on cpu when benchmarking with something crazy like prime. It's very interesting behavior... I almost wonder if some reviewers are running tests with it on max and getting great temps where others like notebookcheck are running it on auto and getting worse temps.

 

Unfortunately, Metabox disables fn+1 function on their machines.

They were, however, nice enough to set up a P650SG and a P650SE next to each other, both running heaven, so I could hear them both. We left them running for about 15 minutes.

I've never benchmarked a machine before, so perhaps you can explain what I heard/saw.

The P650SE was only getting 11 - 13 fps, but was literally making no sound. I mean, I needed to put my ear very close to the vent to hear the damn thing. The fans were blowing out very little air too. Meanwhile, the P650SG was getting about 50-70 fps and was blowing out quite a lot of air, resulting in a fairly audible experience. Nothing like my P157SM, but enough to turn me off the machine for now (it will be more than fine for most users - I'm just currently prioritising fan noise over power).

The girl assured me that the heaven test was normal on the P650SE, and what I was hearing was normal sound levels - but I just find it very difficult to believe. I get that heaven runs different tests, but surely if it's taxing the machine enough to drop to <15 fps, then that should be enough to heat the GPU up significantly? Or am I understanding the process incorrectly?

I will note that coming from the bigger plastic P157SM chassis, both machines were quite warm to the touch. Not really off-putting - just something worth noting.

 

Here's a couple of pics of the machines side by side for those who are interested in the dimensions.
Note there is a loose-ish plastic sheath over the top of both machines.





*edit* Urg. Filthy iPhone and it's upside-down craziness.

 

It's likely the SM was in power saver mode or similar, that's not normal.

 

Of course. I didn't think of that.

From your experience Meaker, would you consider sound levels on the SG and SE to be very similar? I don't see why they wouldn't be.

 

Vegetaeater thanks for the pics! I was curious how they would compare side by side like that... 980m is only a hair bigger so I'm not stressing the form factor anymore. Between the two. For some reason I thought the se was noticeably thinner

 

My guess would be they sound the same... Its the same cooling system between the two. SG might kick on more often tho

 

shouldnt be that much of a difference, probably one fan level more than the SE at most.

 

The SG would likely be a touch quieter due to the larger size but other than that similar.

 

Look at this review Clevo P651SE (Schenker XMG P505) Barebones Notebook Review - NotebookCheck.net Reviews
it doesnt look nice cpu 100c

 

That's an anomaly and not the norm and those temps were reached during a torture test with Prime and furmark running at the same time.
It has been proven time and time again the CPU does not get that hot during gaming by owners themselves .
Not sure why people bring it up all the time, that review is old news.
Just look at HT's review if you want "normal" usage temps, plus the review is so done so much better.

 

There is a new NotebookCheck review up - of Schenker XMG P505 Pro model with GTX 980M with 1080p screen and i7-4710HQ CPU (Clevo P651SG):

Test Schenker XMG P505 PRO (Clevo P651SG) Notebook - Notebookcheck.com Tests

Temperatures are much better than the ones in their older review of a XMG P505 Pro model with GTX 970M, 4K screen and i7-4870HQ CPU (tested with the same methodology, which may or may not be realistic, but at least it's useful to compare one notebook vs another).

Seems this new review confirms our suspicions - combination of higher-end CPU with Iris Pro and high-DPI screen is particularly bad for thermals. BTW Gigabyte P35X v3 seems to have the same troubles as Clevo P650/P651 when equipped with higher-end CPU and screen.

So stay away from i7-4870HQ and 3K / 4K screens and you should be fine (please note also HTWingNut's review unit had just i7-4710HQ and 1080p screen).

 

NP8652/P650SG with 4k screen in my hands right now... will post some findings here soon enough!

 

Looking forward to this one. Kindly post some high quality pics if possible.

Been following this thread for quite a while which made me order Sager NP8651 but too bad it's delayed 'til next year due to screen availability on sager.

 

It doesn't. It confirms that a thicker chassis aids cooling. Potentially nothing more. You can't directly and objectively compare the two without them both being inside the exact same chassis. It's not a fair comparison otherwise.

Sharp or Samsung?

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

Samsung. Device ID: SDC424B

It should be the one that has been referenced before: SAMSUNG LTN156FL02-L01 Overview - Panelook.com

But I can't find a cross reference from that Device ID to that panel. But I'm just assuming that's it, unless I remove the LCD to actually check.

In any case what do people want checked on this? So far I don't see any concern with the LCD. There is a little backlight bleed but nothing else wrong that I can tell from my limited time with it so far.

 

Since optimus is muxed toward the iris pro that heats +20W and 4K needs a big pixel fillrate (and more vRAM), it heats definitely more, period. This is just physic , Don't forget that the SE had an aluminum "backplate" which works like a giant heatsink...


But since you ordered 4710HQ+4K, that will work just fine, and heat slightly more, even slightly less since the screen consumes WATTS that should be used for the CPU/GPU.

 

Cool. So we will have people with both displays on this forum. We can compare them

Heat slightly more? Ha! I think not. It'll be as cool running and as powerful as the FHD versions, you'll all see soon enough. I'll provide temperature information and game benchmarks. I have faith they will be no different to those already provided by everyone else in this thread

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

Nice HT! Good to hear initial impressions of the Samsung 4K screen is pretty good.
1) is the screen bright?
2) viewing angles OK?
3) how do things look when scaled to 1080p? Web browsing and gaming?
4) how is the fan or profile compared to the 970M ?
5) temps under load/gaming?
Can't wait for the full HT review

 

All my initial impressions will be posted here, followed up by a full review when I get the time: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...80m-initial-impressions-review-htwingnut.html