HTWingNut's Sager NP6110 / Clevo W110ER First Look & Review

Are the products from Fanless Laptop Coolers and Sleeves | ThermaPAK genuinely useful for cooling a small laptop like this without the bulk when on the go?

 

Im still very impressed with the performance and I wouldnt have any concerns about that sort of heat.CPU <= 90 is not bad at all.At home Ill probably attach it to my notebook cooler anyway. (Thermaltake Massive 23LX) But at college,3.5 hours of usage is pretty less than what I had in mind which is +/- 5 hours.

Heck even the advertised battery life was 410 minutes (Approx 7 hours.)We should consider that HTWingNut also has an SSD mounted in.That probably gives him some extra juice than most of the stock HDD included ones some of us are going to have.So the average user will have even a more inferior battery life.

(Oh,and this laptop can actually greatly benefit from a notebook cooler as it has vents underneath aswell)

 

Maybe it's not switching the the IGP properly.

 

Sorry, should have noted that, edited the post, but ambient ~ 75F ~ 24C.

I am using BatteryBar, BatteryCare and HWInfo64 to measure battery drain. The odd thing was it wasn't detecting or even estimating battery drain with any program. After two full drains it finally started detecting. Kinda odd. I am doing a power draw from the wall test too just to check peak power draw.

I checked whether or not the dedicate GPU was running, because I thought that too, but using GPU-z and HWInfo64 GT 650m showed 0% use, and HD 4000 had load applied.

If the battery life can't be improved, I'd like to see how well the NP9130/9150 does with battery life and may go with one of those instead. I was hoping for better battery life, which is one of my biggest disappointments. Granted I haven't checked it with the "Power Saver" setting yet, so I will do that next.

Likely the 410 minutes was minimum brightness, no wi-fi, power saver mode, hdd off and completely idle.

Also, here's 3DMark11 on AC, high perf:

 

That's a decent 3DMark11 score, especially in an 11.6" frame. This makes me want one of these so bad, see if I can OC it to 3k.

Any plans on overclocking?

 

Still,wi-fi,minimum brightness and idle mode is enough to just cut battery life in half? I will most likely wont be getting the bigger models as I reckon that their battery life wont exceed an hour maximum.I love to game on notebooks,but honestly a machine that large thats only supposed to sit on a desk is simply a desktop replacement to me.And I'd get a desktop instead of that.(Granted Im not a LAN party guy.Actually I havent seen anyone around doing LAN parties anymore.)

Id love to see the performance on battery saver mode,and maybe at a dimmer brightness,that is if the screen still allows comfortable surfing experience brightness-wise.

(Edit: As a side note,I changed my notebook cooler.I think this one will fare well with Zalman NC-1500 (7"-12") that is probably more suited for a machine of this size)

 

Overclocking might not be the best thing to do with this model,no? We are barely in the comfortable heat zone.I think it would fare better as it is,but maybe still worth a go

 

You are not a true computer nut if your not overclocking for MOAR POWER!

All kidding aside, the GPU is still in a very confortable heat range, and should be good to overclock a bit.

 

That.. Is a higher score than the 650m gddr5. And about the same as the 660m. Looks like memory bandwidth isn't much of a bottleneck at 720p.

 

Yeah and it probably also has to do with the fact that the DDR3 version is clocked higher than the GDDR5 version stock so I'm sure with a slight overclock of the GDDR5 GT 650m it will reach and exceed those scores.

 

The 660m is pretty much a gddr5 650m clocked at 650m gddr3 speeds. So you're right. At 835mhz the 660m outscores a 850mhz 650m gddr3 by 20 points.

But the difference isn't nearly as big as id expected, which is awesome.

 

How about 3dmark06 and 3dmark vantage scores on this laptop?

 

HTWingNut did Vantage already here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...o-w110er-first-look-review-4.html#post8494784

 

In BF3, no, but a few games would be affected by going with a dual core.

Overall, just because we're in 2012 now, with games advancing, it's just wiser for all gamers to go quad core.

 

We really need a way to undervolt the 3610QM, or at the least have the ability to disable a couple cores if we see fit. Clevo/Sager should really start doing more with their bios to support these kinds of things.

 

Alright, thanks for answering. I'll probably get it replaced with a quad core after a bit. I can't afford to pay an eighth of the price right now for a better processor. Does XoticPC replace parts if you send it in?

 

loving this review. I can't wait to get mine. I ordered in the day after you, hopefully I'll get it soon.

I wonder how long the battery would last playing movies (using the lowest possible power consumption profile).

 

Already on my list to do!

This stuff just takes so much time to bench, especially battery life because I have to set it up the night before on battery, get it to log times, etc.

I was a bit excited to see Futuremark came out with a battery life benchmark, at least it would be a somewhat regular standard. But then I saw "Professional Edition" with only 10 activations for $200. No personal edition, so us unpaid freelancers get no love?

 

Nice find + rep.
And people were worried that there would be a big difference between the two versions, seems pretty close to me
@ HTWingNut
Great work so far
Not that it really needs it but I was looking to get a laptop cooler too mainly these:
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-CoolSpot-Anywhere-Laptop-Cooling/dp/B005OU6D3Y/ref=pd_rhf_ee_p_t_4

Has good reviews, runs virtually silent and can be used on both hard and soft surfaces, mainly my bed and actual lap!

Or

http://t.staples.com/skava/static/p...gus-Lap-Chill-Mat-Jr/product_375717"]}#375717

It's cheaper but still has good reviews.

 

Someone asked about 3DMark06. Here they are both 1280x768 (which fits on stock screen res) and 1280x1024 which is default run on an external monitor:

1280x768


1280x1024

 

I'm trusting the Zalman brand. Using the Zalman 2000 currently and they are really good, it even makes my room colder if the air is already cold
So I might buy either the Zalman 1500 Mini or the Zalman NS-1000 for this laptop

 

^^^^ Great suggestion. I think I am going to try it out...

ZM-NC1500 mini - YouTube

-

 

Hey HT, maybe use throttlestop to limit the CPU at minimum multi of 12 to see how it effects battery life. It will still be more than enough to watch movies...not sure how it effects the HD4000 though...maybe it keeps it at 650mhz...

 

Zalman does make excellent laptop coolers, I have the NC2000 and it's great but I'm looking fot more of a cooler that you can use while on a bed/rug or can use it on your lap.

 

Actually I created a power profile setting min/max cpu performance at 0% limiting it to 1200MHz on battery. Ran the battery test and got same result. The thing is on battery, with just a browser test, whether you limit the CPU or not, it barely breaks the 1200MHz speed.

I still have yet to do a power saver test. I'll have to check out the HD 4000 speeds though on battery, hoping GPU-z / HWinfo64 are accurate.

EDIT: One thing I just noticed is just by propping the back end up with a bottle cap peak temps dropped by a few deg C. So even if you don't want to use a cooler, a simple stand or propping it may help matters a bit.

 

What were those things called? Cool Balls? Those could work.

I still swear by the Xpad Slim, though.

 

hmm, anyone knows how this little beast will run the Witcher 2? High settings at standard resolution = at least 30fps?

And is it safe to assume that Gt650 ddr3 is faster by x2 as compared to the GTX260m?

 

I'll add Witcher 2 to my list. I just wish more games would include a benchmark so we could get repeatable standardized results.

 

Why not crysis 1, batman arkham asylum or just cause 2 then?

 

Already have those... tested 2 of the three so far.

 

Yes, Crysis 1/Warhead would be very interesting tests.

 

How did it go?! Awaiting your tests...

 

Please have patience. Between benchmarking, reviewing, working, having kids to manage, and other commitments, it will take a little while. But it's moving.

 

We ALL should appreciate this...As exciting it is to have and play on this new model, life doesn't stop.

Priority's come into the picture as mentioned. I am sure most ALL of us truly appreciate your work in this, your thread.

You have done SO MUCH already, much more than I could have done!!!

_

 

Babyhemi said it perfectly. Thank you HT for all your work!

 

No complaints here. I think you're putting stuff out at a good clip already.

Regarding the hard-running 3610QM, would the more expensive and relatively slower 3612QM offer better battery and less heat? It runs at 35w, the same as the i5 I think. It's not available everywhere but it won't be long before it is, I imagine. And the price might come down, too.

Great job, man. Keep it up.

 

Oh no no, I did not mean to be so rude. And all the work is appreciated!

Whoo, waiting is just too hard..

 

I'm cranking away at it. Once I get the benchmarks done and compiled then it will be all downhill. Then I can actually play some games for fun, but will do some real-world evals too. Of course by then many other users will have started to get theirs trickling in and hopefully can provide more detailed info on specific games or features that I'm not quite doing yet.

I'm doing more of a general overview with general performance, battery life, heat, and power consumption first followed by more detail game by game followed by overclocking, undervolting, and tuning.

 

Yeah thanks so much for your work! Let's hope one of us can find a way to get that battery life up before i get one. Otherwise, I might just get a dv6-7000 with a 9-cell battery. The dv6z I used to have with a 9-cell lasted for far longer than I'd ever wanted to use a laptop for in one sitting it was great (7-10 hr non-gaming).

 

Thanks for the in-depth review HT! I am using this as my deciding factor for finding a traveling/gaming laptop. I am split between a beefy 9150 and the slimmer 6110. I travel every week and already have 1 laptop to lug around (can't game on it whatsoever).

Biggest games would be Diablo 3, WoW, SC II, Skyrim, ME3 and BF3. Not sure if it would be better to get that 9150 with the 7970m or just do some gaming at a lower resolution with the 650M in the 6110.

Thanks again HTWingNut!

 

6110 + Desktop imo.

I'm like you. I travel a LOT.

I've vacillated between a dozen laptops in the last two years to find that perfect one. I should have just kept my Sony Z1 series notebook.

There is just something to be said about a notebook that you can just toss in your bag and run out the door without thinking.

When I'm in a hotel room, do I really need to play at 1080P @ 60fps/max AA/ultra etc etc?

I'd dumb down the IQ a bit if it meant a form factor that I can just toss around.

NP6110 is what the M11X was meant to be. I'm sooo close to ordering, just waiting for all the Ivy Bridge notebooks to come out before making yet another decision.

 

Thanks kevhuynh. I was thinking I would go down that path. I don't care about maxing details/1080p or whatever. I just want a fairly smooth gameplay experience. If I can play d3 at 720p (or the resolution of the laptop) smoothly, I'll be a happy camper. I'm assuming the 650M should be more than capable of that (especially at the resolution). Plus it won't break my bag!

I have a desktop at home (i5 2500k, 560 ti 448 classified) that is great so I think a smaller little gaming machine would greatly complement it while on the road.

 

Thanks for all the info so far HTWingNut, it's all really helpful. I've ordered mine from Lpc-digital already, so it's too late for me to change/regret anything. I'm planning to get a notebook cooler, but I can't wait to see your real life reviews! If you need any help, my laptop should be coming sometime this week or next, specs in my sig

 

I swear to god this made my cry as hell haha oh man!!

Can't wait for the review

 

I agree completely. Get a desktop for use at home because it's much cheaper and you can upgrade anything. Besides, you can keep chassis, screen, keyboard etc. and upgrade the inside of it in ten years lol. Sustainable. Use the desktop for truly high-end performance.

For portable use, get a REALLY portable 11,6-incher instead so you can use it anywhere and very discretely have it in your bag, one your knee on the train or whatever.

Unless you move between places where you live for a couple of days or weeks - that's when a more powerful G74SX or something comes in handy.

Also, +rep to HTWingnut, since he's been tremendously helpful.

 

Heya !

HTWingNut,do you think it's viable to add copper heat spreaders on the CPU heatsink, and add a copper shim in the GPU, replacing thermal pad, if yes what would be the thickness of the GPU copper shim?
Thank you

 

What do you make of the battery life comment on NBR's review?

Eurocom Monster 1.0/Clevo W110ERF Battery Life and Conclusion

 

Bah! i have another question, does this lappy really needs the 120w PSU for cpu above 3610QM ?

 

If you want it to charge under load, yes.

 

It will run everything at 100% load with the 90w PSU but it can't charge the battery at the same time. If you're doing lighter work then the battery will still charge while internet browsing/word processesing/etc.