**Official Clevo P151SM1 / Sager NP8230 Owner's Lounge**

So, since I just got my Sager NP8230 today and since there doesn't seem to be a thread for this model already, I hope the mods don't mind me starting one.
To start off, here is the configuration i bought:

15.6” Full HD 16:9 LED-Backlit MATTE Ultra Clear
GTX 770M 3GB GDDR5 Memory
i7-4700MQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.40 GHz)
IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 2 X 4GB
Crucial® M500 480GB SATA III SSD
8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive
Intel® Centrino™ Advanced-N 6235 - 802.11A/B/G/N + Bluetooth 4.0 Combo Module
8 cells smart Lithium-Ion battery pack 76.96Wh
Integrated Fingerprint Reader

First thoughts upon opening the box: The laptop's build quality seems good though its exterior material feels cheap. Clarification: The material *literally* feels cheap but is pretty solid from what I can tell. The laptop itself is black, blocky, and rather plain in appearance. Depending on your tastes this may or may not be a negative. The speakers are quite large for a laptop (13 x 1 inches). My laptop came with a power adapter, a "Concise User's Guide," a warranty notice, a coupon for GRID 2, a drivers disc, and a Cyberlink Media Suites 8 disc. I didn't order Windows with the laptop so it didn't come with a Windows disc.
As an added thought, I chose this specific model because I wanted a gaming laptop that was also highly portable, and I'm happy to say that it's fairly easy to carry around (it's listed as 6.8 lbs I think).

Windows installation took ~20 minutes and then came the long process of updating Windows, installing drivers, and installing basic applications. Unfortunately the drivers disc was tailored for Windows 8 so it wouldn't automatically install my drivers, so I had to open the disc and manually do all that. It seems Microsoft is intent on pushing Windows 8 down our throats whether we want it or not.

In addition to carrying the drivers, the drivers disc also included a more detailed user manual as well as a small pdf listing the drivers on it. At the time of this writing all of the drivers except a few of the intel ones are up to date. The disc includes a number of primary drivers as well as some optional drivers.
Be careful if you decide to install one or more of the optional drivers! I got a BSOD that I could only fix with System Restore after installing a couple of them and restarting - I'm not sure which one was the culprit, and honestly some of the drivers appear to be pretty useless, such as the one that provides support for airplane mode.

After getting all the basic stuff installed and using the laptop for 2 hours or so, here are some initial impressions:
-The speakers are good for a laptop. You'll have no problems hearing them, and with the Sound Blaster X-Fi software installed the sounds is very respectable. Of course if you're an audiophile you'll still want to use headphones, but the laptop's sound system is about as well as can be expected.
-The integrated fingerprint reader seems to be pretty useless. You have to go to a good deal of trouble just to set it up, and in my opinion it's easier just to type in your password when you want to unlock the computer.
-The speed of the machine is excellent. Everything executes very fast and I have no problems multitasking, and it only takes 15 seconds for the computer to boot to the log-in screen. However I'm using a 500GB SSD as my primary hard drive so YMMV.

Well that all I can think of for now. I think I'm going to go install some games and see how they play...for testing purposes, of course. I'll also try to post a report on battery life in the next few days if I can get around to it. Post your questions if you have any.

Oh, and I just joined this forum so I would like to say Hi to Everyone!

Update
Just played 25 minutes of Dishonored at 1920 x 1080 resolution, max settings, 100 FOV, FXAA on battery. It drained 30% of the battery and ran the game very smoothly. There was a tiny bit of choppiness here and there but overall the game ran almost as well on battery as it did with the adapter plugged in. I should note that Dishonored's maximum settings are only moderately demanding, however, so make of this what you will.

Update 2 *Fixed*
Here are the differences between the P151SM1 and the P150SM as far as I can tell from the user's guide:
P150SM: backlit keyboard, 180W adapter, can fit i7-4930XM, can fit GTX 780m
P151SM1: 120W adapter

 

^^^^^^^ Thank you for starting this thread! We appreciate it! Welcome to the forum!

When you have a chance, about how long are you getting on battery life with putting the machine on full power saving mode? Some have been asking this of users....

 

Hi and thanks for being the first to open a thread on the P151SM1. I have a few questions:

Where did you buy from?

What are your thoughts on the trackpad quality? Keyboard? Is the keyboard loud?

How is the cooling situation? Could you run something like Furmark and Prime95 while keeping up a temperature display and see what the temps are after ~10 minutes? I am especially interested in how loud it is, both at idle and under load.

Finally, I think I am most curious to see what the battery life on this guy is. If it would be possible, could you run the Battery Eater ( Battery Eater) readers test with screen brightness at medium and report back.

 

A quick update before I go to bed:

1. LPC-Digital
2. The trackpad is about average? I almost always use a mouse with my laptops so I can't speak for the trackpad's quality very well. As for the keyboard I think the quality is good. The buttons are responsive and pop out of the surface more than average, and they don't seem like they would smudge easily. Because of this the keyboard isn't the quietest, but it's not overly loud either.
3. Haven't tested how well it cools yet, but I can tell you that with the standard software the fans are pretty aggressive and as such can be bothersome if you're not doing anything that hogs your attention. They seem to only have three standard modes: Off, Medium, and Max, and from what I can tell spend a decent amount of time at Medium even when you're not doing anything all that demanding, so you'd probably want to download a third-party fan controller.
4. TBD

 

Cool beans! Looking at this if I'm not going to wait for Sager to make a model using the P150SM.

You mentioned that the laptop's appearance is cheap--does that apply to the tactility of the surfaces? Because I personally hold Clevo's styles as an advantage. Besides that, I'm looking forward to your results for battery life on power-saving and using Battery Eater.

 

To clarify: The laptop's appearance looks more plain than cheap, though I guess depending on one's tastes the former could imply the latter. When I said that the material felt cheap I meant it in the literal sense, as in it feeling and looking like Galaxy S4 plastic instead of HTC One aluminum, so to speak. Structurally the material feels quite sturdy and has good tactility which you might not find with a more expensive-feeling/looking material. And like you I actually prefer Clevo's simple style to something flashier.

I'm also updating my original post with some details about the differences between this model and the P150SM that are in the user's guide I got.

Update
I downloaded Battery Eater and ran a reader's test for 3 hours at 40% brightness for the entire time. It wound up draining 60% of my laptop's battery. See the gif below for a graph of the battery consumption.

 

Wow those battery numbers are quite impressive! In your second update, I think you may have mixed up the P151SM1 and the P150SM, unless the computer you're using has a backlit keyboard (which would be cool). Are there any good third party fan controllers?

 

Oops. Good catch! :thumbsup:

 

I ordered one of these from xotic, should see it here monday. Super excited! I got mine spec'ed around yours, cept the thermalpaste and SSD's (got MX-4 and 2 240gb SSD's waiting for me)

 

I´m really considering purchasing the sager np8230 from xotic as well. I´m curious though....somebody recomended to me that I should buy the 8250 version, because if I want to updgrade the GPU for example in the future they said and I quote:

¨ 8230 has its max power rating cut down on the MXM port, meaning you should not be able to use a 100W card on the NP8230, and also they have cut out some other features on the NP8230 which I cannot recall out of my head, but if you want proper power I'd go for the NP8250¨

Any comments anybody...?

 

I figure I light that its ~.5 lb lighter, and a 770m is more than enough power for me in a laptop. If i need anything more Ill just replace it.

 

Since the NVIDIA 770M is in the NEW Clevo P151SM1 / Sager NP8230 model it should prove to be a great gaming card for some time to come.

It is true that this model cannot run the 100W video cards like the 780M with this model's current power structure.

However many may not need this in a laptop, for their needs...


-

 

I'm thinking of buying this same model.

I have a couple of questions if you don't mind.

What is the quality of the bezel/lid and palm rest like? Does it feel like cheap plastic? Does it feel like it scratches easily? Does it fill up with fingerprint smudges easily? I'm asking because the P150SM supposedly features a rubberized finish and with Sager not putting out this model any time soon, I'm thinking of just pulling the trigger on this P151SM1 model if the exterior is at least decent enough.

Also, how stable are the hinges? On my previous laptops, the hinges seem to loosen up significantly after opening and closing it enough times.

Thanks in advance.

 

As I mentioned in my original post the overall build quality is good, including the lid and the palm rest, but the material has a cheap feeling that you wouldn't get from aluminum, for example. It feels like it doesn't scratch super-easy but definitely easier than average. However, it is fingerprint-resistant because the surface is somewhat grainy. As for the hinges so far they've been very stable.

 

And is there really THAT much of a difference between say the GTX 765m and the GTX 770m to justify spending another $200 for the np8230, instead of going with the say np7370....?

 

yes. Its a good 30-40% minimum difference.

 

So it´s probably well worth it then, to get the 8230...but as far as the 8250 goes....is it really worth another $100 going from the 8230...? (a backlite keyboard doesn´t really matter to me.)

 

Makes you wish you could get one of each doesnt it lol.

 

The 8250 can also fit a GTX 780m or a Radeon HD 8970M, so if you need the best GPU available or foresee yourself upgrading from a GTX 770m sometime in the future, you should probably get that model. Otherwise there's not much reason to pay an extra $100 premium. Notebookcheck.net recently benchmarked the GTX 765m, 770m, and 780m and the data shows that a 770m is sufficient to run all but the most demanding current gen games at max settings, which is why I bought the 8230. I figure with it I can probably play next-gen games at medium to high settings at the minimum.

 

Right now my only question regarding P151SM1/Sager NP8230 would be about the keyboard.
Can I replace the non backlit keyboard with the backlit one from the P150SM/P157SM?
I just want an illuminated one.

 

I can see from those two images taken from the "Review Schenker W503 (Clevo P150SM) Notebook" where the connectors for the keyboard are:
Connector 1 : http://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/Notebooks/Schenker/W503/innen2.jpg
Connector 2 : http://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/Notebooks/Schenker/W503/innen1.jpg

Does the P151SM motherboard have those connectors to be able to make a successful back-lit upgrade?

 

People asked the same thing with the P151EM1 and the P150EM last year, but it seems Clevo has foreseen the potential for this and designed the keyboards for these two models to be different sizes and to use different data cables. As the SM series is near identical to last year's in terms of design, the same rules probably apply to these models.

 

But is it really worth getting he 8250 over the 8230, because of the possibility to upgrade the GPU in the future? Will it even be compatable with the newer GPU´s in say 2 years or so? Or only with the 780 and the 8790 radeon etc...that are already around?

Also, you guys think the 8230 would last me a solid 5 years in regars to holding up, even with travelling quite a bit. As for gaming, it should be able to run new games on medium to high for the next 2 year or so right? Say medium in 3 years...?

EDIT:

Also anybody who owns it, have you ran fairly intense games for various hours? And if so, how does it handle? Ie. noise, cooling etc...?

 

Mine is out for delivery, and I will take plenty of pictures/ run plenty of benchmarks for a 4700q-770m-16gb ram setup

 

Ah many thanks borito....quick question though, why´d you go with 16gb of ram?

 

Was only a ~$75 upgrade, not much more than doing it myself. I also sometimes have to spin up some VM's, and it help.

Poppypower- Could you by change upload the drivers for me? I had my ODD replaced with a HD bay and I dont actually have a CD drive at my house lol.

 

A $75 upgrade, but what are you going to use it for...8gb is probably more than enough for just about any gaming (correct me if I´m wrong)....

 

On my old desktop (sold it to buy this lol) I had a 3770k 16GB of ram and a GTX670. I have exclusivly SSD's in my main machines, so I cant do disk cache for extra ram (unneeded writes = bad for ssds). Plus with my 3 moniters just sitting at the desktop with chrome and skype open im idling at ~5GB used. Windows likes having tons of ram to throw at it. Only game though that I play that eats up that much ram would be Kerbal Space Program (has used ~3.7GB itself) and Supreme Commander/Civ5 during large games with huge maps.

EDIT:

Got the laptop. Everything seems to be working so far, still installing drivers etc.

Observations:
-I like the plastic they use. Feels good to the touch, and durable.
-Taking it apart is a breeze. This is my first sager/clevo but even coming from alienwares this is easy. I swapped in my 240GB msata, and added another 240GB SSD in the main bay and a 80GB ssd in the cd bay (i bought the adaptor)
-Fans, atleast while doing this typing are quite quiet for a machine this powerful. Havent replaced the thermal paste- worth it?
- Seeing ~41c idel temp on gpu, will conduct load tests using kombustor

I will add more as I play with it

 

Edit: I stand corrected, thanks Consumered!

 

Think you meant to link to In Review: Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M, GTX 770M & GTX 765M - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

Fed in the numbers for synthetic and gaming benchmarks for an approximate performance difference between the 770M and 765M, often based on framerate:

36.8% increase in 3DMark (2013)
37.5% increase in Unigine Heaven 3.0
26.4% increase in 3DMark 11
37.4% increase in 3DMark Vantage
9.5% increase in 3DMark 06
31.8% increase in Unigine Heaven 2.1

30.5% increase in BioShock Infinite
23.4% increase in SimCity
32.2% increase in Tomb Raider
35.9% increase in Crysis 3
32.1% increase in Dead Space 3
38.9% increase in Far Cry 3
33.8% increase in Assassin's Creed III
58.2% increase in Hitman: Absolution
32.2% increase in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
22.5% increase in Need for Speed: Most Wanted
45.8% increase in Medal of Honor: Warfighter
35.9% increase in Dishonored
23.0% increase in Fifa 13
34.8% increase in Borderlands 2
33.3% increase in F1 2012
31.2% increase in Guild Wars 2
41.2% increase in Counter-Strike: GO
35.9% increase in Sleeping Dogs
37.5% increase in Darksiders II
25.3% increase in Max Payne 3
29.5% increase in Dirt Showdown
35.5% increase in Diablo III
46.5% increase in Risen 2: Dark Waters
43.7% increase in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
46.1% increase in Alan Wake
38.4% increase in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
30.7% increase in Anno 2070
47.5% increase in Battlefield 3

There's a pretty consistent 30-40% performance increase. Depending on what games you're planning on running, the difference could be extraneous beyond 60 FPS or could make the difference between nonplayable and playable (30 FPS) at the high settings the gaming benchmarks were run at. I personally looked at Clevo's 765M notebooks as well and think they're great choices that can handle most games out there at solid graphics settings, but I just wanted to put that out there to serve as a basis in deciding.

 

Thanks for the analysis, Consumered. I was doing my math wrong; (v1-v2)/v2 instead of (v1-v2)/v1

I still maintain you can play anything you want on high with a 765m, though, and it's a damn solid GPU. I wouldn't get it in a Clevo simply because you can get a 770M for similar weight (this laptop, the P151SM1).

 

God the more and more I use this laptop, I like it more. Even gpu at max @ 83c the fan is more than tollerable.

770m Still isnt quite good enough for my 2560x1440, any good guides for cpu/gpu overclocking on these?

EDIT: Jeesus the newest drivers for the 770m are from febuar? is this. 770m doesnt even show up on nvidias site.

 

No new drivers.....?

 

Not that I can find. Quite Irritating.

 

Good to read satisfied reports for this model. I'm going to order mine tonight. I had considered the 7370 but I really want the 770m GPU.

 

Any new updates in regars to how it handles games? How´s the cooling? The fans....?

 

Got my 8230 last night and have been working on setting it up today.
I'll see how it does gaming at this weekends lan party and report back.

 

The Clevo 151HM1 lets you control the fan speed from whatever -> absolute max. I think it has three different fan settings, low/med/high/max.

How's the fan control on 151SM1? Can you jump the fans to max by hitting Fn+1 or something?

Still wondering about the temperatures vs load for CPU/GPU/SSD/HDD.

 

Well... Been having alot of problems with the CoH2 Beta in regards to drivers. Keeps crashing and telling me its due to outdated drivers... and the performance is meh at best. But on older games like Sins of Solar Empire and CIV5, this thing destroys.

 

Hi borito44

I only play CoH and CoH2. My old laptop with i3, gt630m can play CoH well but it cannot run CoH2 beyond 10-15 fps. So, I was planning to NP8230. How well does it score in CoH2 Beta ? How many fps do you get in Fraps at 1980x1080 native resolution with medium high settings ?

 

If your buying this just to play CoH2 I would hold off. Its barely playable on high at 1080p, and anything else lower looks like crap. All my other games have been fantastic, Sins, Civ5, KSP, and Leviathan Warships. Having a all day lan on saturday so will do more tests.

 

Yes, I play only CoH2 and CoH. I thought GTX 770M will be more than enough to play at medium@1080p. I was about to buy Asus N56VZ with GT 650M , thinking if my old i3, 630m can play it at 10-15 fps, i7 with 650m should be able to play it at 30-40 fps. So should i stay away from Asus N56VZ ?

Your's is a GTX 770m, which is a powerful chip. Maybe drivers are the culprit ? Or the game needs optimization with 7 series.

 

I've been following this thread since it started, and so far it seems as though the NP8230 is a good choice.
I've placed my order on Xotic and am paying tomorrow.
Borrito44, I just have a favor to ask of you, if you would.
Can you try running High-End games such as Battle Field 3, Crisis 3, etc?

 

Im almost 100% sure its drivers. I mean the beta came out in june and the most current drivers I could find were February.

@Leet
I do not own Crisis 3, But I do have Bf3

 

Can you try running it and then post how many frames per second you're getting?
Is there a fix for the drivers, or will it be consistently faulty?

 

Anybody try out any of the Total War games by chance on this laptop...? I`m still interested to hear how the laptop handles various games....especially more graphic intense strategies (using both the CPU and GPU).

 

Speaking of drivers, I just got this laptop today and so far am very happy with it. It took me awhile to get the drivers squared away for windows 7. It should be noted that sager posted their windows 7 drivers as of today. Software Upgrade

Thanks!

 

Wow, thank you so much tjames37!
Downloading them now so I can just install them when I get the laptop.
Can someone get a list of all the drivers that are a must, and then the optional ones? For example, I chose Intel Advanced for WiFi, but it isn't there.

 

Yes new gpu drivers?? Please?

I will do some direct CoH2, Kombustor and maybe a few other games direct FPS comparisons between the old driver and the new one.

Its only really an update from 311.27 to 311.54... still way behind current release.

 

I just put in the order for mine with Xoticpc! So excited. This is my first sager/clevo product but i've always kind of eyed them. I plan on purchasing a 128gb mSATA ssd when i get it and loading windows 7 on there. I configured mine pretty much stock with the exception of the free intel centrino 6300N upgrade. Free shipping with everything i ended up paying 1,199 out the door ( no tax, yay! )

I hope it gets here before my friend from Georgia comes out July 15th-- that's about 3ish weeks from now do you think that may be possible?