[Review] Sager NP8652 / Clevo P650SG with 980m Initial Impressions and Review by HTWingNut

Hi, your website p670SG configurator states like " M.2 SATA Solid State Drive - Slot 2 - Only available if M.2 SATA selected in Slot 1"
Does it mean if I select pci-e m.2 drive in the first slot, I can't select a m.2 SATA drive in slot 2? Or it will not be functioning?

Thanks.

 

Ah I believe that needs editing, the initial advise was that it would render the other one non functional but it should work.

 

Is there any way you could swap the plastic bottom cover from the 980m version with the metal bottom panel of the 970m version? That's the only thing holding me back from getting the 980m version :/

 

Doubtfull. What I find interesting is why the material is of such concern to you? It won't cool any better because it's metal, even though you'd think so.

In fact, the plastic bottom has conducting copper lining so that compensates quite well for the material, but more importantly the raised/lowered bottom on the 980m ensures that fresh air will always be taken into the fans, even if you'd completely cover the bottom plate. Air is either drawn in through the bottom vents or from inside the case where it is drawn in from other areas and vents than directly under the bottom plate.

All in all, I greatly favor this setup as I can rest it on my lap and never have to worry about overheating.
You have nothing to worry about and nothing should hold you back from loving the 980m as I do (and I OC the swizzle out of it too).

 

I just don't like the extra thickness of it is all. But I do really want that sweet 980m

 

Then the sweet 980M needs that fresh air it's not hugely thicker.

 

Those few extra mm won't make your experience that much different but it'll ensure cool air at all times to that expensive piece of hardware... I'd accept it and enjoy the 24/7 full detail HD gaming, I'm still SO happy with it...

 

Plus the extra gig of vram will help keep you in the game as long as possible.

 

If you're thinking about this laptop, buy one, it's awesome

 

hey wingnut, I want to purchase this laptop but I am worried about its temperatures.
My old sager np6110 overheated so bad due to the graphic card performance. The thermal throttling was too much for the computer to handle and it wouldn't run any game smoothly.
Will the P650 do the same or have they sorted out the thermals for this laptop now?
I need a laptop I can do some powerful photoshop and video editing work with, and play the occasional GTA4 without it throttling.
Please advise.

Much thanks!

 

While it will run them fine have you had a look at the p750zm/np97xx systems with desktop cpus. If you need to do lots of hard cpu work they are even better.

 

What kind of battery life are you guys getting? My P650SG only gets maybe 2 hours with screen brightness really low while web browsing. I'm running windows 10 with very few programs running in the background.

 

5 hours roughly on battery saver mode, with an fhd screen

 

Make sure your GPU is not turning on by mistake.

 

You could check the advanced power settings to make sure it is on power saving mode, and tweak the settings in there. Maybe turn off bluetooth and keyboard backlight, if you aren't really needing them, for a little boost. Also if you have a 4k screen, I believe that is going to use more power than a 1080 one.

 

Anybody found any way to control fan speeds under Linux?
E.g. In Windows i can use the Clevo HotKey utility to set fan speed to max, and it stays that way until the computer is turned off. But under Linux (Ubuntu 14.04) I don't have anyway to control the fans (they automatically increase with temperature).

 

I have the same problem and I don't know what to do. The nvidia icon turns on and off all the time. I guess there are some weird things going one. I will format my Laptop this weekend and I will see how things are. The whole icon thing started after flashing to PREMA bios. :/.

I guess it is a driver issue or something is wrong and i am too lazy to check will i finish homework (but they are never finished) .

 

Do you have a gpu monitoring tool? Sounds like something is waking the gpu which can cause a huge reduction in battery life.

 

The only thing I use as a monitoring tool is GPU-Z and MSI Afterburner for OSD. Maybe MSI is keeping the GPU active.

Yes as soon as i shut down MSI Afterburner the dGPU icon is off. I will do more trials and see how it works.

 

Manually set msi after burner to be igp only.

 

I just turned it off. That didnt work very well. :/

 

What do you mean?

 

Even if i set MSI to iGPU it still wakes up dGPU. I just closed the app and everything is fine now. I have about 4 hours of battery life

 

Interesting, well no need to monitor it when it's off anyway

 

Hey guys, do you know if its okay to go with QS i7 chip? The reseller I have found in China only has QS chips to with the P650SG.

Please advise.

Thanks!

 

Is it even legal to sell QS/ES chips? One thing I am sure that they don't provide warranty on them since they are not production units.

 

If you have ES/QS chips you aren't supposed to sell them. Not sure about the full legality of it, but I believe you can get in to some trouble with Intel if your company sells one. If you buy one, I'm pretty sure there isn't warranty on it either.

 

I'm really looking forward to buy this laptop ( Sager NP8658-S (Clevo P650RG)), however I'm concerned about the matte display, I would like the 4k version, but they are not offering the glossy display anymore (I think so)... do you think the Matte one is still good for graphic editing? I really don't like how matte displays change colors depending on the viewing angle.

 

Some retailers on taobao are selling the p650 with the QS chips in em. They offer 7 day return and 1 year warranty. For some reason... Strange.
I want to buy a P650 but all the retailers in Canada are expensive.

 

Selling systems with engineering samples :/

 

So i found another seller that sells the notebook with
GTX980M 4GB and the I7-5700HQ 2.7-3.5G.
It's a retail chip also.

 

Do you guys think the laptop could support the 5700HQ chip in terms of thermal/cooling? Would it be any issues when pairing it with the 980M?

 

The 5700hq will be fine, it's a step up over the 4720hq in performance so no issues with the 980M (which is fine with any modern quad core).

 

Fellas, I need a replacement power adapter... would ADP-180NB or TPC-AA501 work?

Anyone kind enough to measure me the correct diameter / length of the plug? Long story short...I don't have access to my adapter.

(oops, i actually have a p670sg.. same adapter?)

 

Finally I received my Sager, but seems that the screen was tightened too much, is this normal? how to fix it?

 

Some backlight bleed is normal but that seems a little excessive.

 

how exactly are the steps to remove the Toucpad cable? the white latch of the connector has to be pulled - but in which direction? 90° up or in the same direction (180° like the mainboard) - i do not want to break the connector but its just not opening - i would need some force to open it and am afraid to damage it when doing so..

 

You lift it up to around 90 degrees, you the cable should really easily pull out at that point. This task should basically require no force.

 

When, if ever, do you think they will refresh this line with Thunderbolt 3 ports? hopefully 2.

 

Only time will tell on that, but we are on the first wave of it so as time goes on it will become more common.

 

My NP8652 just died one day , from a reboot it exhibited a motherboard failure.

Has anyone else seen this? ( didn't see it reported in any threads here). Very mysterious to be working one second then refuse to power-on from a reboot.

Just so you know, a replacement Motherboard (even a refurb) will cost about half of what you originally paid for the base laptop.

Anyway, my impression from 14 months I had it: I liked my NP8652, great for gaming in a 15" formfactor.
Used it as my primary (only) gaming PC while I had it.

Build quality, well the floppy lid was a bit weird. (I see the newer Sagers are being build with alloy frames maybe that fixes the problem?). I was always gentle with it, but mine mainly sat on a desk all its life.

Also , Ubuntu Linux worked good on it. Used it for games under Linux just fine.

I'm just bummed mine died.

 

Is it not still under warranty ?

 

Warranty was only 1 year, I'm a few months past.

 

How did it show it was a motherboard failure?

It still might be worth checking with your reseller also, to just find out what it might cost to replace the motherboard if that is the issue or if they think it might be something that can be fixed.

 

Explained in the other thread, here:
Sager NP8652 - died , Motherboard failure?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/index.php?threads/Sager-NP8652---died-,-Motherboard-failure?.791433/

My reseller was XoticPC, this is the repair price that was quoted to me by XoticPC via Sager.

 

Ahh, sorry about that. Didn't make that connection between the threads.

 

In some cases it can happen if solder has been thermally stressed from hot to cold a lot or a component fails during start up (which is a stressful time for parts).

 

Is there a way to fix a solder that has been stressed like you describe, by hot'n'cold?

I am asking out of curiosity, wonder if it can be fixed.

 

People have baked their boards trying to reflow the solder, there are more professional setups that can help too. Linus did a video where he visited one such place.

 

Yeah I have seen those baking video... That's crazy but a bit imprecise, I was wondering what level of skills would be needed to repair such a lifted solder (depends of the solder & component I guess)