**OFFICIAL Sager NP5125/Sager NP5135/Clevo B5130M Owner's Lounge**

Anybody successfully installed and using Ubuntu (or other flavor) on this laptop?

I do not care right now about optimus and switching graphics I just want Ubuntu to work with NVIDIA. Several posts ago I read that someone's installation failed probably b/c Ubuntu doesn't know how to handle two video cards. Does anybody else attempted the install?

Thanks

 

What do you mean by "score per parts"?

 

right click on My Computer, hit properties, then look at Windows System Rating, you have to click Windows Experience Index.
It will show you roughly how your parts score, and you will see that the hdd's get the lowest score.

 

OK. I see what you mean. Thanks. Does the 500GB (w/ 4GB SSD Memory) Seagate XT 7200RPM NCQ Hybrid (Serial-ATA II 300 - 32MB Cache) drive show a significant performance improvement over the 500GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache)? I have done a little research on the net but the reviews seem to be mixed regarding whether it is a substantial improvement or not. Any advice?

 

I've seen a few youtube videos of the different booting times between a SSD, the Seagate Hybrid, and a regular HD and the difference is impressive imo. It was enough to make me buy it.

 

I installed Mandriva 2010.1 x64 it detected the intel gpu only but worked.

I also Installed Kubuntu 10.04 x64 kubuntu detected the nvidia gpu.

So far Kubuntu seems faster ,rarely use Win7.

 

That's promising. It's also interesting - I installed Ubuntu on my sony laptop that has the same gforce GT 330M but Ubuntu did not recognize GT 330M, I had to install the driver from NVIDIA website.

Thanks for the info!

 

did you see this video ? It's most likely close to actual times on your own rig, but I guess all of those times might vary with different drives and different machines. But I guess it's pretty close for an example.

YouTube - Seagate Momentus XT

 

I recently ordered an ssd for my NC10 netbook. Really don't need the storage on that - OCZ vertex 2 should arrive today - hopefully speed up boot a bit... ;-)

 

just got the tracking number for the battery shipment now i hope the email i got from xoticpc is correct in that even tho its shipped by ground i won't have to pay brokerage.

 

It will improve speeds dramatically if you always do the same stuff. Boot, firefox, outlook express, all used daily and in a typical order: ssd-like performance.

Switching and doing new tasks: performance decrease.

that's why I stuck with the normal 7200rpm for now, and I'll get a real SSD when it's affordable.

 

Anyone else get a call from Dark?

Shane said "Sager bit more than they could chew," so my order has been refunded :[. Won't be able to order until another month or so.

Total bummer. Lost money too, wire transfer fee went to waste. That's the last time I ever do that.

Xotic PC, you got anything in stock?

 

Hello Daiei, Next week they will be back in stock for new orders. They are shipping them out nearly every day. Don't know why shane would make such a statement, they are regularly shipping. Going out nearly as soon as they are coming in.

 

Same here...there is very high demand, but the wait on new orders shouldn't be more than 7-10 business days...maybe less.

 

Odd.

But glad there's other choices out there :]

 

NP5125 was delivered today, but it was delivered to my parents' address 2 hours away

This wait is killing me.

 

@infinite012

Don't forget to write a mini review when you get it

 

Guys, could you take a look what model of harddrive 7K320 or 7K500 Sager puts into this lapppy nowadays?

Thanks!

 

const451, you may well get different answers because Sager does not use any particular brand all the time. Even if you get several answers saying it is one or another, that will not necessarily mean that is what you will get.

Do you have a particular preference of one HDD over another?

 

Yeah, you told me My guess though they don't switch models every day but they run them in batches, so if I order this lappy right now that is the HDD I will most likely receive.

I want to have Hitachi 7K500 and I really do not want Seagate but I know you guys do not swap them.

I have another question: if I replace the HDD will it void the warranty?

 

No, it won't void your warranty. It is your laptop and you can upgrade it as you like. However if you break something while doing it THAT won't be covered by your warranty, but even that doesn't void your warranty.

You are buying a Sager...not one of those national brands

No bloatware either!

 

That should be a signature of Sager owners I got Asus g71gx and I can't upgrade thermal paste for another year cuz I'll void the warrenty. One more reason I'm happy that I bought Sager for my brother in law.

 

I can handle bloatware but not serious hardware issues; my signature is the answer to why I am going for Sager

 

Guys, I still would like to know what model of 7K320 or 7K500 Sager puts into this lappy nowadays, please?

THX!

 

im pretty sure the 500gb model is always gunna be a Seagate one, but i see no problem, its running fine and my desktop has a seagate hard drive thats been running 4 years without issue so i dont think theres anything to worry about.

 

Random update on my 5125 which I've had for a couple weeks:

- Screen is amazing (1080p). No stuck pixels. Bright, vivid. Double rainbow all the way.
- Touchpad was initially weird due to the texture but has gotten smooth with use. The multitouch functionality is pretty on-point. Not quite as uber as a Mac but was a welcome and pleasant addition.
- Keyboard I thought was a little rattle-y at first but have grown to love the slight clicking noises and find that they've gone down with use.
- Optimus has worked pretty flawlessly for me; using the modded newer drivers. Gaming has been smooth and sexy.
- The webcam certainly does suck. It's super surprising how horrible this thing is.
- The general speed of this thing is frakkin' amazing, especially at this price point. It rivals my desktop ... which makes me think shipping my big beast out here may not be necessary.

I was hoping to do a full review when I can. I just moved to Vancouver and FINALLY found a great apartment so once orientation is over at school and things calm down (next week), I want to get a full and comprehensive take on this machine.

As I haven't fully caught up to the thread yet and am slowly going through it ... can anyone quickly tell me if Charles got his full review up yet? Thanks

 

Seagate... aghhhh

Thanks for the info

 

Over the last several months the 500GB 7200 has been Seagate.

 

-- Thanks!

What about 7K320?

 

I will shoot a email off and see if there is any info on it.

 

My son's 7200 320hd came with Hitachi.

 

Nice
Good to hear you got a perfect unit.
Did your spacebar/shift/long shaped key hard to press? I usually press the corner of the key. So most of the time it won't register because pressing the edge of the key doesn't give enough pressure to the register rubber on the center.

Are you in high school or university? I used to reside in Vancouver for quite a while.

 

Thanks to everyone for their responses regarding hard drives for the NP5125.

I have another couple of questions.

1) I noticed that not many folks are getting more than 4 GB RAM. Why is that?

2) Also I see alot more i5-540M processors than i7-620M processors. What are the comparative advantages and disadvantages of these two processors in the NP5125?

Thanks.

 

1) To be completely honest... the 4GB is what comes with it.. If I had the choice then I would get no RAM in it and go buy 8GB (2x 4GB) from Newegg or something (and I'm sure its the same for everyone else). The price they give for 6GB and 8GB is just unbelievably ridiculous and this is why noone gets the 8GB or 6GB as much as they may want it.. For the price they charge you for stock 4GB RAM.. you could spend the same amount elsewhere and just buy 8GB for that price.

2)Why are people choosing the i5-540M over the i7-620m? Well for starters, this laptop is more business based with a side of gaming and the i5-540M is more then enough power you will honestly need in this laptop for its use. Secondly, correct me if I'm wrong but i7's use different ram? like 1333 i think so thus making ram more expensive for it an reducing battery life a tiny bit (more powerful processor). The price jump between the two are just not worth it really to go for the i7 for what you are doing on this laptop.. the limiting thing on this laptop is the graphics card and hard drive (unless you get SSD course) not the processor.. Like imagine having a beastly computer with the brand spankin new i7 EXTREME etc. $1,000 processor and having a geforce 8xxxGT graphics card, 500GB Harddrive (not SSD) and 4GB of ram. WHAT IS THE POINT? the graphics card and hard drive is whats slowing the computer down and even the ram.. its just not worth the jump between the price of the processor to the i7 model over the high end i5 model.. money would be better being put into the price of a Solid State Drive or 8GB of ram (bought elsewhere of course.. BTW ram is the easiest thing to upgrade in a computer usually so yeahh) Well thats my opinion/answers iv heard a lot on here/what i believe.. hope this helped.. Now I have to go take a test in Greek History.. Yay for 3rd day of college! ughh

 

I ordered an NP5125 and it arrives later today. I'll be using it mostly for business on the road, and occasional gaming and photo editing. I have a Core i7 desktop at home for more serious gaming and photo/video editing though. I went with 4GB since I won't really need 8GB, and put the savings into an Intel X25-M SSD since I hate waiting for Windows to boot and then QuickBooks to load when I'm in a hurry and need to look something up. I went with a Core i5-520M for many of the same reasons as the RAM. It's fast enough for my needs and I'd rather put my money in the SSD. The only difference between the i5-520M and i7-620M that I can see is the clock speed and 1MB more of cache, they have the same thermal envelope, number of cores, hyperthreading, etc. I don't really understand why they call one an i7 in comparison, unless I'm missing something. I didn't think the i7-620M would be worth the extra $ for me. I didn't go cheaper than the i5-520M though because TrueCrypt supports the new AES instructions that both these CPUs have, and I plan on encrypting the SSD. The performance will still be good. The i7-620M is still limited to 1066MHz RAM. The chipset itself does not support 1333MHz. I've found Kingston 1333MHz to be slightly cheaper than 1066MHz though, and it downclocks and runs just fine with no performance issues. I was going for maximum battery life for the performance when I picked out my parts. I was unimpressed with the performance of NetBooks, and I wanted a really great screen to watch BluRay movies on the road, so the NP5125 with a Core i5-520M, 4GB memory, Intel SSD, 6300 wireless, and 62.16WH battery made the most sense for my application. Or so I hope anyway!

 

@aaronpriest -- where did you buy it from?

 

I dont think i made a bad buy choosing the i7 620m. I really dont think. It is a very good choice if you have money to spend on him.

 

definitely. the only trade off you made was energy efficiency for performance. A trade off that works on this machine, not like the other hot air blowers out there. You'll have the most powerful NP5125 possible (more or less), and there's nothing wrong with that!

 

Can anyone tell me anything about the temps on the NP5125? Like.. how hot after a few hours of web-browsing, and a few hours of gaming? Like whether it gets too hot to sit outside with on a warm day without worrying about it? Laptop like that seems like she'd run hot.

 

its actually quite cool, even under gaming the only place i really notice any high levels of heat is right at the vent

 

I'm actually surprised people aren't going with the stock i5-450. Shouldn't it be sufficient for most common tasks (even gaming)? From the research I've done it had better benchmarks. Am I missing something?

PassMark - CPU Benchmarks - List of Benchmarked CPUs
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-compaq-voodoo-pc/495204-i5-450-vs-i5-520-a.html

 

I grabbed the i5-450. It's more than enough for my needs (at minimum, 2.4GHz dual). The small performance jump (which only shows up in Turbo Boost) wasn't justifiable for me.

 

I went with the 520 just to not have the slowest processor

 

I also grabbed the stock 450, from what i read it's enough, it's not like you have high end gpu to need a high end cpu to accompany it.
Plus upgrade is easy and won't void warranty, so you can always change if you find your part ineficient.

 

Anybody bought NP5125 from rjtech.com?

 

Nah, Just curious though.. You are planning on buying a bare bone and putting everything in yourself for a cheaper cost so this is why you want to go with rjtech.com I take it? or... if not why not just go with XOTICPC or dark or something..?

 

My only concern is the hard drive, the cost will be about the same.

 

Using coolermaster laptop cooler with customizable fan shooting on GPU (biggest) and the 2nd biggest vent gives me 37C and 39C for my i5-520 and 39-40C for my GT 330M. Ambient temperature is probably 26-27C.

It'll probably 3-4C and 6C hotter (for CPU and GPU respectively) if you don't use this cooler.

 

Has anyone had any difficulty with the USB 3.0 port? I RMA'd it cause it was disconnecting my My Book 3.0. It recognizes fine, but if I even jiggle the USB cord a tiny bit it starts to disconnect intermittently. I also got a Vantec USB 3.0 case with a 1tb Caviar Black and it does the same thing. They are both fine in the USB 2.0 port even if I jiggle them a lot, but in the 3.0 port they are not. I sent it back to Sager and they supposedly tested it, but I need the laptop for school so I can't send it back again. And yes, I do have the latest drivers.

 

no issues with the usb 3.0 port for me, i use it to charge my ipod usually since i like that its not directly over the vent and i dont notice any disconnecting issues wen i move it around