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

The student discount at Xotic is for accessories, not the computer itself (free 4GB pen drive, 50% off the notebook cooler or blue-tooth mouse, and 25% off of external hard-drives). I never thought to ask for a price match, but PC Torque is offering a 1 percent student discount (and is otherwise priced a few cents cheaper on identical configurations).

 

Looks like a great machine.

Really nice to see a good quality screen resolution offering. So tired of manufacturers pushing 1366x768.

Curious if the 5125 will eventually use Sandy Bridge and Direct X 11 or if those specs will be reserved for higher end laptops.

Good Xoticpc youtube review too. Thanks!

-Karnaugh

 

Will the 5125 eventually have options for the 640m/560m when they come out or even the Huron River 32nm architecture in the beginning of 2011? And will I be able to upgrade my cpu my self?

 

I agree completely. I wonder if they don't understand the fact people do like some screen space to do things with on a laptop. It is criminal to me to even think of using less than 1920x1080 on a 15.6.

I don't think it will happen. These technologies I don't think are going to be wide spread until next year. That leaves this model out there for almost a year. Doesn't Sandy take a new socket and whole new architecture? I am near positive that gpu replacement isn't going to be an option either. Unfortunately buy now can be troublesome. But in a few years you would want to upgrade probably anyways. You likely could get a fair price if you resold this too.
If something monumentally better came out. Unmarked Clevos would make a very interesting spectacle on Craigslist.

Probably not, No this would require a new board afaik.. I doubt it will fit but I don't have for sure no, yes.

Darkpcs.com has it the cheapest I have seen. They also throw in free Diamonds Thermal Paste. Haven't got mine from them yet but these guys seem to be very good.

I don't have hard facts or anything on it but from what I understand it is not snake oil, it really does it's job. Laptop's have huge heat concerns due to such weak ventilation and such a tight package. So if you can't get it from some place then do it yourself... But if you are nervous to break into a laptop just get it done from who you order it from.
Darkpcs.com is doing it by default on all of their machines at no extra cost.

 

Well, the 640/560 are both the PGA988 socket so they would fit, and from what I've seen, this laptop gives access to upgrade almost all the components, so I'm assuming I'll be able to do it myself when they do come out. As for the Huron River, it probably will be on a different chipset so I suppose you're right in that case.

 

Is the D15 the same as the NP5125?

Also, when customizing the D15, the secondary battery drop-down menu has a 62.16Wh battery option, but I can't tell whether it's a secondary battery or a replacement (the other option in the drop-down specifies "secondary" and is a lower Wh for a higher price, which leads me to believe the 62.16Wh replaces the original battery. Xoticpc.com, however, has the 62.16Wh secondary battery for the same price as Darkpcs.com's 62.16Wh, so MAYBE it is a secondary battery. Just want to make sure.

 

It's the same thing. The unit comes with the 48Wh battery right now but there will be the 62.16Wh one available in September. They're both giving you 50% off the battery if you buy prior to the new one becoming available. Then you can use the older 48Wh one as a backup!

 

The cooling on this notebook is excellent!, I've gamed for about 5 hours straight and it was never warmer than the sun on my skin. Great cooling on this computer.(I have the I5 540m processor and ic diamond thermal paste. So my account is for that configuration. Any of the quad cores or i7s can create more heat as well

 

That is good to know. What game did you play and at what settings?

 

As Neuntoter stated, the D15 is built on the same platform as the NP5125 and the 62.16Wh battery is a secondary battery that would come in addition the the standard 48.84Wh battery.

 

Ok, this seems like a pretty good machine, I have to buy something for my wifey's brother who goes to college in europe this fall but I have few questions for XoticPc

1. How is this 330 video card, I had a 3yr old 8800gts which I just overheated no long ago, but it played everything fine, would this card be considered a bit better or a step down ?
2. 3 Year Labor 1 Year Parts what exactly does that cover, if a mobo will crap out for example it's only covered for 1yr right ? what is the labor then ?
3. forgot what else I was about to ask

 

I'm looking to place an order on this laptop, my main question is the screen size.

I know for a fact that the graphics card runs a lot better on the 1366 x 768; however, the led on the 1920x1080 increase battery life, but by how much?

This is my main question, i've alreadydecided on the other components.

 

Hahaha okay never mind me on that.. For some reason I refused to drop the notion of people wanting better gfx in it, and just figured it was the newest models of mobile nividia chips.

In that case yes. You can check out the manual for this laptop on Sagers website that shows access to the ram/cpu area. Sounds like you may have already looked at it but for anyone else that might be interested.

 

I played starcraft 2 for approx 5 hours with custom visual settings i know i tuned down some of the more intensive stuff such as terrain, so that i could game at a higher resolution with same performance. If you would like i can get back to you with the settings since im about to go play. But i can first had vouch the video card on this computer runs fine. Ive played starcraft 2 with no hiccups withmy settings blend on the 1080p screen and 540m cpu.

 

Definitely a stepdown from 8800 GTS. 8800 GTS is a high-end card, while GT 330m is a mid-range card. But given the fact that any gaming laptop can heat their GPU to mid-high 80C under load and that mid range card like GT 330m can have less than 70C under load, I think you can overclock your GPU when playing games to the performance of 8800 GTS.

 

Thanks bbuccola. I'm not familiar with SC2 but do you play Left 4 Dead 2 or Aion?
Also, how did you install nVidia's drivers? I think we need two. The other for Optimus.

 

i just installed all the drivers off of the driver cd that xotic mailed out with my computer. And no i dont unfortunately im an RTS guy since i quit WoW. I know there are indeed two seperate drivers for the intel graphics and Nvidia graphics they shoudl both be on the driver cd if you build your computer

 

and what kind of life expectency are we looking at for overclocking the graphics card? or could it have minimal effect because of the optimus switching and it not being in use all the time?

 

Though D15 is based on same platform as NP5125, the same configuration (including IC diamond paste) costs more for D15 ($1028.20) than NP5125 ($978.23) except 1333MHz Vs 1066MHz RAM.

 

I know my ASUS A8Js have been going for close-to-90C or not over 90C with mid-range card (GeForce 7700 Go). I even had my laptop shutdown once it passed 96C. Now I got the overheating problem resolved, but it doesn't gonna die anytime soon.

I've been using it since January 2007.

If you look at ASUS G73JH temperature, it can go up to 85-90C gaming (even passing 100C in an abnormal case), so , I guess, as long as you don't go pass that temperature when OCing your card, it should be fine.

 

I considered mentioning this earlier; PCTorque is the cheapest (by some 50 cents or a full percent if you are a student) than Xotic, which is the same price as Powernotebooks but with a three year rather than one year warranty, which is cheaper than Dark.

That having been said, Dark /builds/ the D15 themselves, using barebones NP5125 (hence using a few different components from the rest) and are thus personally accountable for their three year warranty, whereas the others are all resellers (e.g. they order it and have it sent to you directly from Sager). This probably means you'll get it faster from the resellers than Dark, but I don't believe they ever lay hands/eyes on your particular machine (Donald/Justin, please correct me if I'm mistaken).

On the price issue, I'm fairly confident Dark would be willing to pricematch, but you'd have to discuss that with them personally.

 

I'd rather XoticPC assemble my order but because it is Sager's brand, I have doubts.

 

What are the brand/make of internal components of NP5125 like .....

1. 500 GB 7200 rpm HDD
2. 4GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM
3. 15.6" LED Full HD screen ( most important)
4. 8x DVD/CD writer
5. 1.3 MP webcam
6. Stock wireless a/b/g/n card
7. Speakers

(hope Sager has choosen BEST brands for these components)

 

I believe you are wrong on this topic. I have this laptop on order from xoticpc.com and I am almost 100% that they assembly it in house. They get the bare-bone NP5125 (from Sager/Clevo ?) and then add in all of the available parts themselves. For example, quite a few places are saying the 1080P setups are on backorder because they ran out of bare-bones with those screens at their own assembly shops.

Correct me if I am wrong.

 

Anywhere that sells laptops branded as 'Sager' (ie XoticPC/PowerNoteBooks/etc) are resellers that send your order on to sager and sager ships it out (they never see your notebook). The reseller then deals with any tech support (and yes, resellers are usually better than sager itself). Dark is not a reseller as such - they assemble in house from the barebones - hence not selling sager branded machines.

 

so like in the Sager notebooks where they put the Sager logo on the back of the monitor, does Dark have any sort of branding on their laptops?

 

btw how is Sager quality compared to others like Asus and HP (won't mention the devill dell).

 

I see, then Dark deserve a special place , just like Kobalt and MySn.

 

Theriko is exactly right here. All Sager-branded machines are built in-house by Sager.

All our laptops are actually unbranded and don't have any logo on them, except for our serial number sticker on the bottom of the laptop.

 

Question for DARK...
I see you are selling your D15 with 1333MHz RAM, vs the NP5125 offered with 1066? Can you explain? I thought the Arrandales and by inference their mobos only support 1066. I may be oversimplifying...Cheers.

 

Just so that you are aware, the chassis for many Asus and HP machines are made by the same company that makes chassis for "devil dell" and other big box retailers. From what I've read, Sager is a step above the big box guys and Clevo seems reputable as well.

 

No, ASUS makes their own laptops but not HP or Dell.

 

There is no benefit going with 1333MHz and a i5 in the Sager NP5125. It will always downclock to 1066MHz.

 

You are correct in that the memory will always downclock. However, due to some weird pricing structure the 1333MHz Kingston sticks are the same price as the 1066MHz sticks from my distributor, and in fact the 4GB so-dimm is actually cheaper at 1333MHz than at 1066MHz. So you get higher clocked memory at the same/cheaper price - we saw no reason not to do it, even if you don't take full advantage of it.

 

XoticPC got q's

-is np7110 sold out aswell ?
-can you explain 3yr labor and 1yr parts warranty

 

Thanks for the reply Shane

 

Hey, no problem lado22. It's what I'm here for!

 

Both the 1366x768 and 1920x1080 screens use LED backlighting; there won't be any battery life difference between the two.

While gaming at a lower resolution will result in better performance, I highly suggest getting the 1920x1080 screen. If you are worried about things being too small, Windows 7 has very good font scaling.

I have always found a higher resolution = higher productivity.

 

Not to mention most if not all games will let you change resolution. So you can always game at lower resolutions/higher graphics. But I mean depending on what you look for you can creAte custom settings to get optimal performance at full hd. Go with the full hd screen.

 

@bbuccola You have one of these correct? Mine's coming in a bit, so I'm wondering what you think as an average (maybe not) user. Does it multitask well? Hows the portability? Anything else you can tell me about it?

Thanks

 

Hello! NP7110 is starting shipment this week. The warranty cover labor (the technicians time) for 3 Years and Parts are covered for 1 Year. Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions I can help you with.

 

Are you sure that is true in all cases? You may be right as I think I read somewhere that Asus resells chassis to other retailers. Perhaps some of their budget line laptops use third party chassis though? I have seen them listed as purchasers of oem chassis in the table I posted and elsewhere, but maybe that info is outdated. I will say that I have been happy with all the Asus products I have ever used or owned. Still, with the exception of perhaps Asus, I see no reason to choose one big box retailer over the other, and I see even less reason to buy a big box laptop over a unit like the NP5125. Simply can't be beat in its price range.

 

I hope I'm not the only one who's 15.6" screen has a blue tint and color temperature to it. Aside from the included Intel graphics app, is there any other way that I definitively can change the color temperature to 6500K? I ordered from Xotic.

 

Which display do you have?

 

Yeah i got mine on tuesday of last week, and i can give you what i think so far and put my two cents in for everyone else. We've got all the professional reviews and such but im going to put in my two cents for the consumer from the consumer. Before starting my build is as follows built through Xotic PC's

Sager NP5125 (Built on Clevo B5100M)
- 15.6” FHD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glare Type Screen
- Intel® Core™ i5-540M, 2.53-3.06GHz, (3MB L3 cache)
- - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- nVidia GT 330M 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR3 DX10 with Optimus™ Technology
- ~ 4,096MB DDR3 1066MHz Dual Channel Memory (1 SODIMMS
- ~ 4X Blue-Ray Read/8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive
- ~ 320GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache) - Default
- Internal 4-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO)
- Internal Bluetooth + EDR
- Intel® Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module
- Built in 1.3Megapixel Camera
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- Windows 7 Home Premium

The build is very solid, sturdy with little flex in the design. Easy Access to all upgradeable parts(which are pretty much all the parts but the GPU). Great variety of ports including usb 3.0 and Esata port(great for storage if you go with a smaller ssd.

The portability of it is really all relative. I, myself, believe it is extremely portable, but then again im used to 15.6 inch size laptops. It is relatively light compared to other gaming computers and i beleive a great choice for school, or work with the Full HD screen providing plenty of work space. For anyone who complains that the text is tiny.....SHUT UP.There are several great tools that can change this.
1)change resolution on computer
2)change text size through settings
3)for desktop icons you can use touchpad zoom to make larger/smaller
4)use windows tool called magnifier to magnify areas of the screen if you need to make bigger.
so obviously no reason not to go with the Full HD screen for movie viewing, workspace, ect when if the need arises the are plenty of tools to magnify.

It depends on what your multitasking with but i opted for the i5 540m processor which is dual core and faster clock speeds. If your looking for speed and power for only a fwe multitasking task then go the faster dual core processor, if looking for more tasks such as torrenting ect you could look at the quad core I series.

The graphics card is plenty powerful for the moderate user. I'll come back and edit with FPS but i game Starcraft 2 with no complaints, excellent quality and very satisfied experience.

Ive had no complaints with the battery life not to mention the etended life battery comes out in spetember which will makes this a great hubrid performance/portable computer. The optimus switching technology is great.

So lastly im going to finish up with my few complaints on the computer and some advice id like to share with anyone considerign getting it or who has it.

Firstly, my complaints are thus...there is a dedicated mute button but i would like to see a dedicated Volume up/down button. Also it may be a personal preference but i feel that the arrow keys are a little jammed into the keyboard as im used to them being alittle spaced apart. May just take some geting used to but ive only recently switched to the new chiclet style keyboards. Thats it for complaints really, its a great machine! O, do wish the GPU was upgradeable as well thought. The GPU is NOT upgradeable on this unit.

Lastly ive done my research on extending battery life and have a few words of advice....if you want to squeeze out everyminute to extend the already decent portability of this machine.
1)Learn about advanced settings on custom power plans and tone down all the setings that arent necessary.
2) if you have the money invest in a Solid State Drive, they have a lower power consmptiona nd can add from 10-30 minutes to your battery life.
3) learn about the processors. The intel i series offers dual and quad core processors. the dual core use less energy than their quad core counterparts. and the weaker the chip the less the consumption ie. the dual core i7 640m uses more power than the i5 540m. Your cpu choice can impact your batttery life as well so look at what you actually need for what your going to be doing.

And yeah...thats pretty much my collection of my experience, what i think, how i feel ect ect blah blah blah......Hope this helped someone!

 

The 15.6" SD one. I know there were some problem with the HD screens, but as I understand it those were not shipped.

 

Ok, one more question.....I'm thinking whether to buy 2 of those puppies (one for myself one for family)

I'm a gamer and can't really know how 330m video card performs, however I will test out my wifey's laptop which has 105m video card and see how it performs, how big of an improvement would this be over hers 105m ?
I play a lot of fps, like bf2, bc2, tf2, lfd2, also ocassional mmo's

 

Notebookcheck: Mobile Graphics Cards - Benchmark List will help you
105m is far below GT 330M

 

So your resolution is 1336x768? The full HD (1920x1080) displays are being shipped now. It seems most people are ordering the full HD screen so I'm not sure if you can find anyone to compare with.

 

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