*** Official Clevo P150EM / Sager NP9150 Owner's Lounge ***

Question on this new model. Is the Onkyo label on the right palmrest pretty much permanent? It's not a sticker right?

 

A HUGE improvement over the previous model, but seriously cramped!

Why couldn't they have gone with a solid, full-sized feel, like on 15" Dell workstations?



Althought neither have the top row (home/end/insert/etc) figure out...

 

Yep this is pretty much it. I have 3 friends who are looking to buy laptops and I'm telling them to wait for the Ivy/660m kepler refresh of these machines simply because the heat and noise will be MUCH less.

 

just wondering, if someone was looking around for like a gtx 660m and ivy bridge comp, what advantages would the clevo have against gigabyte p2542g, lenovo y580, and asus g55?

 

For me at least, there are a couple things going for clevo over the others:
1) Clevo always has a matte display option. This is huge for me and I will NEVER go back to a glossy display on a device that is made to be mobile (except for a phone because the gorilla glass needs to be there to protect the screen).
2) You have more customizable options such as IC Diamond thermal paste.
3) Clevo is the trusted brand of all the big name boutique shops like Falcon Northwest, Doghouse Systems and Origin, but you can get them for much cheaper through the amazing resellers on this discussion board.

 

Two questions:
1) is it possible to put momentus xt drives in raid? Seagate says those drives don't support it, but supposedly some people have made it work...
2) Because usb3 is integrated on the new chipset, it's not pci based anymore and should be able to operate at the max 5gbits per second, right?



Also, this isn't meant for 660m only, p150hm handles 100w gpu's just fine and I don't see why this one shouldn't.

 

1 - Yes, the newer chipset allows RAID, although I wouldn't recommend it. The gains are minimal with the same access time and same 4K speeds.

2 - Well we aren't sure of it yet, and I didn't get your question.. I've hardly seen a truly maxxed USB 3.0 connection due to latency issues or flash limitation. If it does work at the full speeds I would be surprised..


Sent from my iPhone with Tapatalk

 

Probably because the 670m and 675m consume more power than 570m and 580m, respectively.

 

So far those of us that have had our hands on the Sager NP9150 have not found it any louder than the Sager NP8150...only that one review makes such a claim, and we don't know why, but that is not what we have found.

 

I was set on purchasing the P150EM, but the reports of it being very loud and watching the demo video posted 2 pages back makes me think twice now.

Like some others I like the style and power clevo / sager offers, but not if it sounds like a jet turbine all the time.

Does anyone have video footage of one that is running quieter on idle and load?

 

The part numbers of heatsinks and fans are identical in HM and EM models.
On the new ones the fans may just spin a little higher at default due to different EC settings...since they have Optimus they should even a bit less noisy, while the dgpu is sleeping...

 

I'm on the verge of ordering a P150EM, but I'm torn between waiting for IB or just going with SB for now and upgrading later. How difficult is it to upgrade the CPU if I decide to upgrade down the road? I'm assuming that upgrading the GPU is a simple plug and play type deal.

 

We hope to, but no guarantees yet =)

 

I watched the video and was not to suprised by the fan noise, i mean.. i was expecting a blow-dryer but they honestly just sound like fans ;p

Two questions:

1) What are the comparable differences between the new 9130 and 9150 that justify the extra $200 if you are not planning on upgrading to the 675M for $100 more? (Which is only optional for the 9150)

2) Could choosing the 670M over the 675M cause a dramatic difference in fan noise output?

 

For 1) The external materials are a bit different. I think your $200 also gets you a rubberized finish all around (interesting, because I thought it was opposite last generation... 8130 with rubber, 8150 with plastic). You also get a backlit keyboard

2) Being that the performance difference is between 10-15% I don't think the fan noise difference would be dramatic.

 

Also, the 9150 comes with a 180w power brick as opposed to the 120w power brick

 

nope, the 8150 was the one with the rubberized finish thus same setup as in this gen

cheers

 

I'm in the same boat as you. I was going to purchase a week ago and then found out that these were getting updated. I waited to see what was changing and I like what I'm seeing. However, I can't buy now if I know that IB and the new CPUs/GPUs are coming out in about 3 weeks with better power management and faster speeds.

 

*and way more expensive...*

It's too easy to forget how good the SB processors are. SB is still ridiculously recent and up-to-date technology. I feel like waiting for IB is like paying $600 for a 150g SSD when a $150 8g SSD hybrid HD is not only 2-3 times the size but with almost negligible performance differences.

 

Will the price difference be so high?

 

I'm not very familiar with the mSATA SSD drive slot on these laptops. Before I found out about the mSATA SSD slot, I was thinking about installing an SSD in the primary drive bay with the OS loaded on it to boot from and installing an HDD in the the optical drive bay to store my applications and data.

Now that I know about the mSATA SSD slot, is it possible to boot from the mSATA SDD and install an HDD in the primary drive bay for my applications and data?

If that isn't possible, could I go with my original thought with an SSD in the primary drive bay for booting the OS, an HDD in the optical bay for applications and data, and the mSATA SSD to cache the applications and data from the HDD that is installed in the optical bay?

I thought about price increases. I would guess that the prices would be higher, but would the performance justify the increase? I may still go with an SB setup, but I'll give it a week or so to read more reviews of the latest changes. Thanks for the input.

 

yes, you should be able to boot your OS from an mSATA SSD.

 

Yea we offer larged mSATA's just for that reason, I have one and it works GREAT as a bootable, and then you still have the main drive-bay for a storage drive.

 

Is the 650M based off the same technology of the 670M or is the newer?

Wondering if i really need the power of a 670M as the only games im really interested in playing are Diablo3 and Company of heros....?

 

Allow me to clarify. I'm hoping to get a BMI intensity shuttle (search it on amazon, I can't link from 3ds), but due to the incredible bandwidth requirements of transferring uncompressed 1080p most usb3 ports can't actually handle it because their usb3 ports are limited by the speed of the pci-based usb3 cards. I'm assuming that since usb3 is built into the new chipset, it will bypass that issue and was asking if I was correct. As for raid, I'm curious because I really want higher write speeds, but will be doing a lot of writing so ssd is not a good option. I also want 1.5tb. Fry's has a really good sale on 750gb hybrid drives today ($134) which is cheaper than mythlogic's normal 750gb hdd's and I was wondering if I can put those in raid. I already know that the p150em supports raid, my question was specifically geared to the hybrid drives. It's a one-day sale so I need to know soon.

Sorry if my posts seem disjointed, it's very difficult to see what I just wrote.

OK, this is getting rediculous. Why is everyone still acting like a) the fans are obnoxiously loud, and b) ivy will command a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge premium over current sandy prices when multiple resellers have confirmed both of these rumors to be false?

 

Awesome guys. Thanks for the answer. Now I know how I'm going to order my laptop. I'll do mSATA SSD for booting the OS with my HDD in drive bay one. That way I can still have my optical drive.

If I use the mSATA as my boot drive, can it be configured to also cache the HDD?

 

I believe you can, but you'll have to partition the mSATA drive into the boot partition and a separate one for caching. At least, that's how it worked with the desktop versions that supported caching.

AnandTech - Intel Z68 Chipset & Smart Response Technology (SSD Caching) Review

 

In what mode works mSATA in P150EM? SATA II or SATA III?

 

Good news. I'll definitely have to try it that way to see if it works when I order the laptop. Thanks for the link too. It was very informative.

 

I would love to purchase one of these laptops, but I am curious about the trackpad.

How is the trackpad on the laptop? Has it improved from previous models? Is it still covered in rubber? How does it compare to the trackpad on the p170?

 

Sadly, it's SATA II.

 

A SATA II speed mSATA will still be worth it. It will be noticeably faster than a regular HDD. Use that for your OS and main apps and keep the regular HDD for data. That way you don't have to lose the optical drive. I think that's the best way to go for now unless you have the cash for >256GB SATA III SSD.

 

But to be honest, mSATA SSD's are still more expensive $/GB, even when they are compared to the high-end Sync/Toggle NAND SATA III SSDs...

I still can't see a merit to mSATA- they lack on all fronts, speed, price...

(But I NEVER use my ODD so if you need the ODD, I'd say the mSATA is worth it for the 2nd HDD option alone. )

 

Yeah I know. That's the disadvantage with the mSATAs.

I occasionally use my ODD (only for X-plane 10 these days) but I can always get a cheap USB one for the times I need it. I was just going to take out the mSATA from my X220 and use that in my P150EM. Then hopefully in a year or so buy a high capacity SSD.

 

If that's the only program you use, why not rip the ISO from the CD, create a virtual drive using Daemon tools and mount it when you need it?

That way, you won't ever need an ODD, and running it off a ISO would be significantly decrease loading times than running it from a CD.

 

Actually that's not a bad idea! I never thought of doing that. The only reason I need the DVD is because the game runs a DVD check at boot up but with a virtual drive I can eliminate that. Thank you!

 

Quoted for truth. Both of these rumors have made me realize why news stations mostly cover negative news events. People would rather listen to negative speculation (notice how these are both spreading like wildfire?) rather than listening to the numerous people who are actually in the know who say otherwise.

This is completely untrue. Ivy Bridge is near as makes no difference the exact same price.

 

Let's put this "sound levels" issue to rest once and for all.

First, for perspective, let's look at the Table of sound levels at Table chart sound pressure levels SPL level sound pressure and sound intensity ratio calculation comparison loudness decibel dB scale ratio factor unit examples - sengpielaudio Sengpiel Berlin

Note that:
Quiet bedroom at night = 30 dB
Quiet library = 40 dB
Average home = 50 dB
Conversational speech = 60 dB
Vacuum cleaner = 70 dB

Picture #1 - Sager NP9150 using WordPad = 30 dB.
So, no worries in the library or class.

Picture #2 - Sager NP9150 running Furmark full bore - one foot away from keyboard = 53 dB.
Barely above the ambient sound level in a quiet home. At 3 feet away it is barely audible.

Picture #3 - Sager NP9150 running Furmark full bore - right at the keyboard = 57 dB.
Less than conversational speech...more like a whisper, and nowhere near a vacuum cleaner or hair dryer...much less the aforementioned jet airplane.

 

Awesome, paladin, thanks!

And to provide sources about the IVB pricing, I went scouring for the previous posts by mythlogic I had read that indicate it will be pretty much the same price. Unlike others who just say they have an "unnamed source" (that sounds so much cooler, doesn't it?) I feel obligated to name mine:

 

HAH! I knew it! Take that, bogus rumors! Now that those are (hopefully) settled for good, let's talk about something else. Like how schweet the backlit keyboard looks.

Hey, what's going on? My browser is freezing when I try to edit my posts! Oh well, I meant backlit, hopefully I can fix that later.
Hey Ryan, could you edit the OP to link to the pre-release thread for the EM models? Something like that is sure to get buried as soon as ivy comes out, and it would be very interesting to have on hand for people who want to go back one year later and re-read the whole thread (like me).

 

Thanks for the thorough rundown Paladin.
Certainly squashed any doubts in my mind.

 

Near no difference? I would stand to make a difference. It does make a difference, maybe not in the gaming world or in your dimension, but in my world it surely does. I do a lot of converting back and forth, wouldn't mind more power

 

I said "near as makes no difference the same PRICE."

 

Thank you paladin for the sound levels of the p150em. Unfortunately it seems that the 53db that was mentioned in numerous reviews is accurate..

 

There is nothing unfortunate about 53 dB 1 foot away when running full tilt.

Find how many high powered laptops have lower noise levels when running FURMARK at full bore.

What is unfortunate about a high powered laptop that is 10 dB quieter than a quiet library when taking notes or writing a paper, or working on a spreadsheet, and when running full bore it is about the same as a quiet home, and quieter than Normal conversation? It is barely audible!

You people that continue to harp about a sound level that is outstanding is really getting boring to those of us who understand perspective...

 

Thanks Man.

One more question.
What is the SATA mode for ODD?

 

True that and thanks for clearing off the noise level crap.

 

I'm not sure what he cleared up. It's appreciated that he went out of his way to test the machine for us, but he confirmed the information we already had was correct and is now trying to spin a different "correct" perspective on how to think of it while is doing so in an increasingly condescending manner. Noise issues aren't going to escape my mind becaue everyone else is so eager to sweep it under the rug. If you don't care about these issues, then ignore the discussion just like you ignore any other topic thats irrelevant to you. I'm not trying to start an argument, but I'm upset that everyone is brushing my concerns off because they have different perspectives and different needs than me. I'm here trying to evaluate whether or not this product is right for me, not be talked down to because of my preferences.

Useful information might include how often the sound levels actually reach 50+ dB. We know that at maximum load it will hit 50+ dB and at minimum load it will be at comfortable 30 dB levels, but what about normal usage? Is there a lot of fan fluctuation during normal usage? What about during bootup, gaming, or hard drive access? These seem like fair questions to me.

 

I say wait for Ivy Bridge. I just saw they are 22nm compared to 32nm on Sandy Bridge. Should really reduce power consumption and heat.

Any ETA on Ivy Bridge?

 

April 29th