Carbon Edge - Wraven's brief review of a NP9380-S

This is a brief look at Carbon Edge - my new NP9380-S from XoticPC



What's in box???

Highlighted the more important bits.
Sager NP9380-S (Clevo P370SM3)
- Display: 17.3" FHD 16:9 120Hz "MatteType" 72% NTSC Color Gamut Sager Screen (1920x1080) + 1 x NVIDIA® 3D Glasses (*NVIDIA® GTX 780M required) (SKU - S1R555)
- Dead Pixel Warranty: FREE! - 30 Day No Dead Pixel Warranty
- Monitor Calibration: XOTIC PC Professional Monitor Color Calibration (Operating System is required) (XPC Service - requires shipment to XOTIC PC: will add to build time)
- Processor: Sager - 4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4900MQ (2.8GHz - 3.8GHz, 8MB Intel® Smart Cache) (SKU – SPU203)
- Thermal Compound: - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- Graphics Video Card: SLI (2x) - NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 780M (8.0GB total) GDDR5 PCI-Express DX11 [User Upgradeable] (SKU – GPU011)
- Copper Cooling Upgrade: COPPER COOLING UPGRADE - Extra Cooling Copper Heatsinks Applied to the Heatsink/Heatpipes (XPC Service - requires shipment to XOTIC PC: will add to build time)
- Ram: 32GB - DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (4 SODIMMS)
- Branding: Remove All Branding
- Exterior Finish - Skins & Wraps: CARBON FIBER WRAP – [Surfaces A,B,C] (Color: Traditional)
- mSATA SSD Drive - Configuration Option: Non-RAID Storage
- mSATA SSD Drive ( Slot 1 ): 240GB Intel 525 Series mSATA SSD - Preconfigured as an OS Drive ( Operating System – Drive C: )
- mSATA SSD Drive ( Slot 2 ): 240GB Intel 525 Series mSATA SSD - ( Storage Drive )
- Primary Hard Drive: 750GB 7200RPM [SATA II - 16MB Cache] - Default (SKU - HDD099)
- Second Hard Drive: None Standard
- Raid: HDD Raid Settings - OFF
- Optical Drive Bay: 6X Blu-Ray Burner + 8X DVDRW/CDRW Super Multi Combo Drive (SKU - ODD083)
- Wireless Network: Sager - Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 (3x3) (SKU - WIFI93)
- Sound Card: Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Keyboard (Internal - Laptop): Standard Sager/Clevo Non Chiclet Backlit Keyboard
- Operating System: ~ Windows 7 Professional Premium 64-Bit (64&32-Bit CD Included) + MS Office 2013 Trial
- Warranty: 3 Year Parts & LIFETIME Ltd Labor Warranty 24/7 Tech Support w/ LCD Accidental Damage Protection for Sager Machines (SKU - WTY013)
- The XOTIC PC Difference: * 24/7 LIFETIME U.S. based technical support
- Build Time: Rush Build & Skinning (Reduces Build Time + Skinning Time Order Approval) (Subject to Parts Availability + Notebook Skin Required) (XPC Service)



Order Through Delivery Tracking:
Rush Build Selected from XoticPC

XoticPC Phase Log by dates with Rush Build/Skinning

09/27/2013 - Talked To Hos at XoticPC to make sure everything was in stock for the Rush Build/Skinning - Got Green Lighted by Hos
09/30/2013 - Phase 0 - Order Received & Processing (I paid in full)
10/01/2013 - Pending Parts or Item Arrival - I receive an email stating the Bigfoot Killer Wireless card is out of stock...I attempt to call in and get dumped to voice mail.
10/02/2013 - Pending Parts or Item Arrival - I call in again and talk to a staff member and ask why was I told everything was in stock and then it wasn't? It turns out it was a mistake on the processor and while Bigfoot Killers are on backorder for XoticPC branded Laptops, there is no wait on Sager Laptops. I'm told my order will be pushed into the next phase. (So far 1 day lost due to XoticPC)
10/02/2013 - Phase 1 - Payment Processed & Inventory Gathering
10/04/2013 - Phase 2- Sager Assembly, Build, Technical Analysis, Stress Testing & QA
10/08/2013 - Phase 3 - Custom Modifications - Heat Sink, Thermal Paste, Carbon Fiber Wrap, Screen Calibration 8 days and counting
10/09/2013 - Phase 3 - Free Promotion Code Emailed to me (Nvidia 75 dollar in-game credit)
10/11/2013 - Phase 3 - Email received from Seth that he is my XoticPC tech and will be performing my custom modifications.
10/14/2013 - Phase 3 - This line item shows up in my XoticPC account/order tracking but has no corresponding email or information on what this date/line item means. ***Internal Update, no information exposed to customer***
14th Calendar Days and counting (Customer realized time frame)
11th Business Days and counting (Per XoticPC's Business Day Quotes)
10/15/2013 - Phase 4 - (Assembly & Build), Received an email from Zach that he is my new XoticPC Tech and will be working on my custom build.
10/15/2013 - Phase 5 - (Stress Testing, Burn In & Technical Analysis)
10/15/2013 - Phase 6 - Phase 6 (Final Testing & Quality Assurance)
14th Calendar Days and counting (Customer realized time frame)
11th Business Days and counting (Per XoticPC's Business Day Quotes)

10/15/2013 - Phase 7 - (Packaged & Shipped)
Final Time to Ship: 11 business Days
***Delivered Oct 18th 2013***


Packaging

Now I assume the packaging is pretty standard from Sager, and XoticPC just passes it along, I do know that XoticPC offers and upgraded packing, but I decided the factory packing was good enough in this case. Either way, I was please with the condition of the boxes as I opened it up. Mileage may vary of course.



Death Rattle?
As I pulled Carbon Edge out and gasped in awe of it's size and sheer cool factor, I heard something mechanic sounding rattle inside of the system. My heart sank very quick and I immediately went into diagnose mode.... As the picture below shows, I had ordered the heatsink upgrade and unfortunately some of the little extra blocks they add on decided to rattle around inside the case.

Not the best first impression, but easily recoverable.



First Impressions...Beyond the Death Rattle.

Once I got the Death Rattle squared away, the sheer size of this thing hit me. The brick is almost as big as an older netbook I have for example. (Most certainly thicker at least) This thing is a true desktop replacement with a side of portable. The XoticPC carbon fiber wrap is the reason for Carbon's Edge name and it truly is sexy. My motivation was that I didn't want the LED lights, Brake Lights bling bling of the NP9390 and I was interested in what a 120hz screen had to offer in a "portable" system. The Carbon Fiber wrap allows a rather "sleeper" looking case to show a little personality and "THAT" is exactly what I was looking for.



The 120hz display is the topic of much discussion at the time of writing this article. I have to admit, I'm one of those guys that says "3d is a niche gimmick". I got my 120hz screen for the smoothing of games above 60 frames per second in 2D. When I tried out the 3d to at least say I "Experienced it"....I spent the next two days of my life gaming in 3D from Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Civ V, Fallout 3 New Vegas, Skyrim...it's all pretty damn cool. The thing that I was really surprised about was how this system simply eats up the requirements for 3d and still gives me a stellar gaming performance. Not once did I downgrade any of my settings and I was still hitting 45-55 FPS. Simply amazing and I'm very glad to have made the selection for the 120hz screen paired with two 780M's in SLI.


A few simple hardware benchmarks!
Now for the record, I'm not a "Balls deep overclocking fiend". Some simple tweaks to boost performance is all I personally desire. This system did not let me down...

The latest 3dmark against Carbon Edge?
24007 on Cloud
4955 on Fire Strike Extreme



Now I didn't forget to give the processor some love too with XTU and I decided to use XTU benchmark to capture some data.
At the time of posting this, I'm #2 for bench marking with a 4900mq (I suspect because many people don't have one!)



That's all folks - A big thank you to the notebookreview.com community for all the information out there helping each one us make more informed decisions.

 

So for 3D, is it something you would want in your next system? Is it a gimic? I saw you said it was pretty damn cool, just trying to get a more in depth review of the 3D on this system.

 

3d added a new depth (no pun intended) to games I have played. It's executed pretty well in the games I have tried it in (listed in the OP). Would I go for it again? The combination of the silky smooth 2d frames above 60 FPS and the added functionality of some damn fine 3d gaming. I would absolutely buy it again, and would select it again in a future system. Is it a gimmick? It might still be to some, but it's one that I personally find worth spending a little more cash on.

 

Glad to hear you're liking the computer for the most part!
For the 3D, when you get chance watch a 3D movie on blu ray then watch it again in 2D. Beyond the added depth you'll see the picture quality is also much better. You may also be noticing that in games too.
Congrats again on your beast!

 

Nice revview mate.

 

I'm mostly out for the increased refresh rate too, i'll go 3d when I get occulas rift.

 

I know what your talking about. Abe from powernotebooks.com told me to go check out occulas rift and I have to admit that it looks really impressive. can't wait to see how it hits the market for 3D.

 

I just ordered this system, but with only one 780M. I hope that I have as good an experience as you did. Thank you for the review.

I do have a question though. Are there any software hiccups you ran into?, for example any bios downloads or driver problems? I am trying to get an idea of what I might need to download before it gets here.

Thanks again.

 

I'm running the most current Nvidia WHQL based drivers and the BIOS the system came with. Honestly the machine is a power house as is, the extreme overclocking crowd is going to have a field day with this thing. For me, those numbers it put up is A-OK with me. Also real-world performance, I just don't think I would notice anything improving since all the games already maxed out and silky smooth.

 

Your machine is a beast. Congrats and thanks for the review.