*** Official Clevo P157SM-P150SM / Sager NP8250 Owner's Lounge ***

Well, I was wondering WTH was going on yesterday/today. Noted that it seemed like the 780m was ALWAYS running after login.

This (along with the nvidia cp seemingly sparse, but I guess not, need to compare to desktop later) got to wondering IF when I did the restore after blindly installing all 40 or so "optional" updates that my networking went wonky(i.e. kicking every other machine on WiFi off along with apparently being connected but not really, never got around to snooping the network from linux on the gt725) so I rolled back which corrected broken WiFi and didn't really check other things.

Re-installed the 311.54 nv drivers, nada, but to make longish story short it WAS the Steam client forcing 780m continuously on. Exiting that and bam back to the 4600. I've yet to check setting in the steam client, but I'm hopeful that there is a way to disable that "feature" which I am positive that they do to ensure that the discrete GPU(if there is one) is always active while gaming -> which is annoying when I'm doing something else on batt and don't really need the power sucking 780m sucking up more juice that I really need.

All of that said the 780m is pretty quick in the short bit of trying Risen and Skyrim that I did last night(on AC w/"High Performance" power plan/Windows 7 SP1 x64). Fans didn't seem to be all that loud to me, although I did notice that in re-running Windows experience "bench" that at least here the CPU/GPU fans seem to be controlled independently of each other v. the GT725 where it's a heat pipe connected HS for CPU/GPU with a single fan. (GT725 is still quieter even at max fan speed though, although not by very much.)

 

I have heard of this issue before with Steam and the discrete GPU. I have a 157sm and I do not experience this issue. I looked into the Steam settings and there is nothing I could find which forces your GPU to always be on. Interesting.

 

Does anyone know if the Intel iGPU can be overclocked yet?

 

I'm already on the 54 driver. I re-installed them when I noticed the behavior this morning only to reboot afterwards and same symptoms, so I thought to re-install the Sager/Clevo Intel drivers but had a brain fart, hey try exiting the Steam client. BINGO! As soon as I did that Optimus switched right to the 4600... (I'm presuming that the LED discrete v. IGP indicator is functioning correctly BTW, which might be a POOR assumption given the recent appearance of this hw...)

i.e. All I've got is my own experience so far. I have the Steam client auto-loading on boot, and ALL of the drivers still in their "pristine" shipped config.

The other answer is perhaps my rollback via restore point after installing ALL of the optional win7 updates that severely broke networking didn't quite truly rollback. I'm not too keen on experimenting with installing fresh ATM until I obtain a 2nd hdd, as last I checked only the "expensive" seller claims units in stock(the WD blue 1TB 7mm 5400RPM)

OOC does your nv cp show stereoscopic/video/display sections? Mine is ONLY showing "3D Settings" even after re-install and I can't recall whether or not the additional sections were there before the optional update fiasco or not... (this is with advanced mode enabled)

[EDIT]
Temps: haven't bothered to check yet, but I'll try to see about furmark/etc. tomorrow. Furmark really hammered on my GT725's 4850 when I was running around trying to figure out it would freeze in certain rendering situations(windows(watchdog timer would timeout and restart driver) and linux) running furmark, memtest, pi calculation stresser which I forget what it's called ATM all trying to see if something was hitting a thermal barrier, which appeared not to be the case for the GT725... (I suspect that they(ATI and yes they're still ATI look at any employee comments, AMD is a marketing fiction, hell they'd(AMD) probably'd be better off IF they stole some ATI hw guys for CPU design, and also cherry picked some nv driver guys(ATI drivers ruin their hw capabilities as they always have)) used failed desktop parts for the notebooks and I just got a particularly bad one now...)).
[/EDIT]

[EDIT2]
I'm hesitant to submit a bug to valve yet as robbug apparently doesn't have this problem AND since there is no "official" 780m support yet...

@robbug what driver version? I'm on 311.54 ATM. Might try the latest beta tomorrow, or might not since I'm "feeling" basically stable again and need to tackle the optional updates yet which will be tedious...

I'll probably cheat and try all non-net related updates all at once and hope for the best, then move onto anything vaguely network related one-at-a-time...
[/EDIT2]

 

I'm thinking of getting an np8230 this weekend, but still not sure if I should go with Y500 instead
Is the sound on np8230 as bad as everyone says?
how hot does it get if playing games for 2-3 hours?

thanks

 

NVIDIA cp shows 3D settings and video

My drivers are at 311.27. Again I am on a Sager P8250. I received it 2 days ago and have been running it through its paces. Today I ran guild wars 2 for about 3 hours at ultra and high settings (high settings for world vs world). I played crysis 2 for about an hour. All the while with steam and origin running in the back ground. After the heavy usage the fans came off full throttle after a few mins. I have not updated any drivers as of yet as there are not any official drivers avail. Interestingly enough I appear in the minority with fans not coming down off the full speed stop.

Have you tried shutting down steam and then starting it again to see if the fans kick right back up?

Funny enough the issues I am dealing with so far is primarily with Skyrim - green tint screen when running ENB and no dynamic DOF (or any DOF for that matter).

 

Hmmm... those are missing on mine now and I'm kind of thinking that they WERE there when I got the system OOB.

Steam: Yep Discrete GPU LED thingy pops on right as Steam completes loading and starts running. I'm going to try turning off the direct video setting and see IF maybe that's whats doing it. [EDIT] Well that didn't fix it, trying turning off steam community ingame option now... BTW it wasn't direct video, but DirectWrite option under UI tab... [/EDIT]

[EDIT2]
Nope. That didn't help either... I'm just going to give up on it for now and only have Steam run when I'm actually playing one of my steam games...

I'm getting the idea that when I buy the 2nd drive that I should start all over again, as in installing win7 and all the drivers and see what I get.

BTW: IIRC my 8250-S came with 311.54 installed originally, but I note that the Sager download for the 8250s had both 311.27 and .54

I'm still kind of suspecting that rollback doesn't understand the concept of 2 GPUs potetially running with two different drivers, so maybe it only left bits intact but enough to allow it to still work... also I just let the nv driver do the express install rather than the let-you-pick-and-choose-kinda install.

I'll monkey with it later, as everything seems to be working fine minus missing "menus" from the nv cp, which I guess that I really don't need.

(I've got optimus set to pick between GPUs as "needed" or whatever it's called as most of the time the 780m really isn't necessary...)
[/EDIT2]

 

alright, my barebones sagernp8290 is gonna arrive wednasday, what am i in for?

never owned a gaming PC of any kind before, always gamed on my PS3 and surfed internet on my 2008 netbook.

Is the 770m ok?
Will this thing be a monster to carry around and heats up all the time?
is it gonna be a big step up from gaming on a ps3? and from a 5.5 year old laptop?

 

Ordered the WD10SPCX (WD Blue 7mm 1TB 5400RPM) drive. Ended up being c. $122 + shipping. I was going for 2d and theirs was cheapest base cost + shipping that had unit available, other sites have slightly higher base cost but many of those have free pokey shipping if you can wait, costcentral basic shipping is $8 IIRC so it's be $130 min. from them, 2d was c. $15 v. $28+ elsewhere.

With luck I'll have it sometime on Tuesday. It's being shipped by FedEx though, and it's been so long since I've had anything shipped through FedEx that I have no clue as to what time they usually stop by as opposed to USPS late afternoon, and USPS early afternoon. (Too bad that they didn't offer plain USPS as it'd've been cheaper and still should've only taken 2d to get to me from where the seller is located...)

i.e. Wed or possibly next weekend I will hopefully have time to pop it in and try it out... and then facing the joys of attempting to install a fresh OS on a notebook which always fills me with dread. (Dunno why though as I ALWAYS build my own desktops from parts...)

[EDIT]
Not related(to this post), but browsing the geforce.com forums shows me that someone who had a similar problem(missing cp elements) was instructed to do the custom install(d'oh knew that I should've done that) which apparently has a clean install option... I'll have to try this later on...
[/EDIT]

[EDIT2]
Heh... got a resp from a guy who mentioned that in Win8 Steam was ALWAYS using the IGP, so I was "lucky"...
[/EDIT2]

[EDIT3]
OK. It would seem this "discovery" about steam client and forcing discrete GPU on isn't really big news or a bug even. It's as I suspected an INTENDED occurence, but I WISH that they could modify the client to be able to run on IGP and THEN IF a game is run switch to forcing the discrete GPU. It'd be even BETTER IF they could do that on a game-by-game basis.

I'm beginning to wonder if the guy from the geforce forums may have changed steam to force IGP all of the time somewhere now that I've found this.

Also along the way found that Optimus support in linux is a bit weak ATM, i.e. doesn't completely turn off the discrete GPU and that there are some other options which involve a bit more pain...

Now I can't wait for that hdd to show... hopefully fedex comes by early in the day... and still need to wade through the 40 optional updates to find which one(s) ended up borking WiFi(didn't try ether... well actually one of those ether to wall plug -> piggbacked on house powerruns -> wall plug -> ether -> router... actually works fairly well for me. Picked up a pair to try out(0.5G) when I got my raspberry pi, and subsequently tried it out on my desktop as well... Does well over 100M w very low latencies(to router) pretty good for $50)

[/EDIT3]

 

Hello everyone. I am looking into a new laptop and up until today was almost completely sold on the MSi GT60 but it seems to be turning up that it has serious networking issues and that is a deal breaker for me; so I have a few questions about this notebook.

1.) Does anyone know the model of sound codec used in this laptop? I'm guessing an ALC892 or 898 but I can't seem to find a confirmation anywhere. (I am interested in the P157SM specifically in case there is a difference in sound chip)

2.) Does anyone know the brand/model of Ethernet chip used?

3.) Can anybody that has used this laptop comment on how comfortable the keyboard is for extended typing sessions?

Thanks!

 

1.) Realtek ALC892
2.) Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller (10/100/1000MBit) - Don't know which model.
3.) Don't know. My laptop hasn't shipped yet.

Source: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-One-K56-3N2-Clevo-P157SM-Notebook.93275.0.html

 

Quick question for those in the know; the 95% color gamut screen being offered in the 8250-S models; what freq does that run at? 60hz? or is it a 120hz?

I'm not to worried about it, more curious than anything. I do a bit of photo editing as well as gaming and my crapplebook not-pro has finally died on me. I probably going to pick up an 8250-S with a 4900QM fairly soon but want to get all the info I can prior to actualy sending money out the door.

 

I'm looking at both these laptops as well but in the MSI's case what exactly are you talking "networking issues"?
I've read the whole GT60 owners lounge and reviews and I don't remember anyone having "networking issues"
Only thing I can remember is One guy had issues playing youtube videos but found out it was a small problem with his blutooth headphones but that was easily fixed.
Only thing preventing me from ordering the CLEVO is the loud fans reprted in some outside reviews and also mentioned by some members during gaming and under full load.
Man how I wish someone can build a quiet powerful laptop that's not named ASUS.

 

60Hz for any of them.

 

Thanks for the quick reply! I completely missed that on the right side when I read that review.

If you google something like "killer networking issues" or "killer 1202 networking issues" or even look at killers facebook page, there is a whole slew of people with complaints about BSODs and connection issues, so it isn't strictly limited to MSi, just Killer cards it seems, especially the E2200. I asked but it doesn't seems anyone on this forum is having issues with it, but I'm weary.

I also agree about the fans! If only we could control the fans in the Sager with something like speedfan, then I'd pick one up in a heart beat. Speaking of which, just for clarity, the fans can't be controlled by speedfan or some other program can they?

EDIT: Does anyone know if the headphone jack on this notebook is amplified like on the MSi GT60? I can't seem to find that anywhere either though I will keep looking.

 

I'm considering the P157SM from XMG aka P503.

If I opt for the "optical bay caddy", will I be able to install a 2.5 inch HDD into this? I'd like to -re-use the drive from my failed Dell M1530 for extra storage.

Also, does anyone know if this model will boot from SD card, and allow me to reinstall Windows 7 Pro 64-bit using an ISO??

Thanks

 

I left mine @ default Killer 1103 and it's been great for me so far. Blows the Intel card in my GT725 out of the water admittedly just the 6100 IIRC, but I had another nb w/6300 before and really it performed no better than the 6100 while the 1103 is just nuts at least for large transfers. Be a PITA if it acts up as I wouldn't look forward to the kb/etc. disassembly to get to it for replacement which is why I was happy to hear that Sager fills the hard(er) to get to mem slots under kb first...)

That said I've had it not reconnect after coming out of sleep one time(had to manual disconnect/reconnect) but it's been fine other times(5GHz multiband N I'm talking, haven't even bothered trying 2.4GHz(I have both up because I have some legacy devices that only ever will support G max, and several that won't work at all with anything other than WEP, I really probably should get an AP and set it up as WEP).

It's survived re-connecting from several other sleep cycles plus a hibernate today, but that was because I forgot to increase the hibernate delay from 6h to 1d.

Decided to try an ssd for the helluvait and ordered a crucial m4 128GB after a bit of reading and debate. Figured c. $100 if it dies in a few months or a year no big deal which is why I chickened out of the 256GB version even though benchs showed it to be a slightly better performer... i.e. guinea pigging the new notebook which might get expensive if I like and want a larger cap SLC NAND(don't like low MLC write cycles but no choice with msata at a reasonable price point) for the desktop boot drive...

@ironminded Is the 4900MQ REALLY worth the prem to you? I went through checking when I ordered mine and IIRC it boils down to a 200MHz increase over the 4800MQ base for a significant premium or at least it was when I specced and ordered mine... (8250-S, I get the feeling that Sager option prices fluctuate a bit...)

 

Does anyone know where or when I can get my hands on a sager clevo p150sm?

 

I've got two P150SM's with Killer 1103 WiFi adapters and have no problems what so ever within Windows 8 Pro 64-bit.

 

What country are you from? Will help us find a vendor for you

 

Is there any reseller offering 4*50HQ CPUs on the P150/151SM ?

 

The HQ CPU's haven't been released yet. They are pegged for Q3 of this year. The only options currently available for Haswell in the laptop space, other than the lv and ulv chips, are the 4700-4930 offerings you see with all of the Sager/Clevo resellers.

Actually, from a gamming/raw-compute performance standpoint the HQ parts won't offer any increases over what is currently available. The draw to the HQ parts is that they feature the Iris and Irispro graphics cores rather than the Intel 4600 graphics available on the currunt chips. The HQ parts will generally run 400mhz slower than thier non-HQ parts; 4750HQ runs at 2ghz while the 4700MQ runs at 2.4, etc.

For the 157/150SM laptops the only real performance metric increase might come from a battery-life standpoint, as the increased capability of the Iris and Irispro might allow you to run for longer when on battery, rather than running a discrete gpu.

 

Thanks for post.

I'm fully aware of the config difference between HQ and MQ/MX chips, and I understand for most people who game on Clevos there isn't much benefit. In my use case, however, the dGPU will be doing headless compute while the iGPU handles graphics rendering for some visualization. It's possible to push CPU, iGPU and dGPU all to the max at the same time.

It's a bit unfortunate for me that there's no extreme version with GT3e. Having more TDP headroom for CPU+iGPU would be cool.

 

AHHHHH ... this makes a lot more sense. Sorry for the assumptions I made in my reply - I think this forum is generally so focused on gaming performance that many of us [myself obviously included] forget that many people purchase these machines for uses other than gaming.

I know I'm picking up an 8250-S for photo editing, as well as some gaming. But your explanation of use makes perfect sense as to why the HQ chips would be of value to you.

 

im from the united states

 

Mythlogic the only ones I know that currently have them. Very active here, shoot them a PM.

 

Hello.
is it OK for my sager 8250-s motherboard (Notebook P15SM) to reach 76c. !!? thanks. this is kinda strange for me.

 

I'm stuck going between a p150em and a p150sm the p150em is $1384 with i7 3720qm and 7970m. The p150sm at myth is $1750 with i7 4700mq and 8970m. Is it worth that much of a price difference? Will the p150sm ever come to other retailers like Amazon and be cheaper?

 

The 7970 and the 8970 are basically the same card, the 8970 will be about 20-30% OC off the 7970 clocks. So it does give a little better performance, but essentially the same card and you can do the same overclock to the 7970 pretty easily. The SM will have a little better temps with the newer design and Haswell chip.

If it were me and sticking for sure with the AMD GPU, I'd go with the p150em version as you'll get virtually the same machine for less money with just slightly higher temps.

 

Is that the south bridge? In some previous models Clevo didn't bother to cool the south bridge in any way, and the poor chips ended up quite hot.

As far as I can tell, there should be very little (if any) difference.

Both the CPU and the dGPU are only marginally faster, and for the 7970M you can even flash the vBIOS. Unless you need 4GB VRAM (is that 8970M 4GB?) or iGPU performance like me (both unlikely), or you plan to upgrade the CPU in the future, stick to the EM.

 

That be what hwinfo reports as the "Intel PCH"? As I've noticed elevated temps on that as well, but as far as I can determine it should be able to handle to around 100C or so, and my max temps so far were 70C on very warm(upper 80sF/70+% rel hum fun stuff) and humid days outdoors.

Radeon: catalyst is utter garbage. I gave them a 2nd shot with the GT725 and well... just phailwhale... The only piece of hw that I owned where I actually looked forward to every single monthly driver update hoping for bug fixes(which didn't happen) only ending up more often than not with even more bugs... So there's a reason why Radeons are cheaper. OTOH if you want compute and don't care about gfx(you can escape vid tearing hell by using the IGP) too much, you MIGHT be able to live with them...

Personally I'm thinking that it's time for the AMD deathwatch clock... "competing" purely on a cost basis is no way forward, and as that's ALL they've got to compete on ATM I have little faith in their recovery.

 

There not as bad as they used to be and seem to get the same fps in almost all games. I don't feel like paying 300+ extra for a card that will give me a 5 fps gain

 

Got the computer about 3 weeks ago, with the 780 video card. Lately when I've been trying to shut the computer down it hasn't worked, the screen goes black but the computer stays on (fans, lights, etc). I'm not to sure why but I've already had to do a few forced shut downs. Also i sometime get a bios error and it says that it need to restart itself but then it never actually restarts, it just stays on the windows 8 error page. Any help would be great.
er
Also is there a way for the backlit keyboard to go along with the melody of music i play on the computer? And have they released a way to turn of the touchpad rather than opening the computer?
Thanks!

 

Yes, it's the PCH.

This problem is found on multiple Clevo model which is kind of ridiculous. It even puts extra pressure on the RAM slots.

 

1. Possible in theory. But you'll need a dedicated app for that.

2. Can you check the BIOS to see if there's any option for that?

 

will this heat affect the laptop i mean i know that gpu and cpu heat can destroy both gpu and cpu but this PCH heat! what does it affect?

 

Not sure about the chip itself, but I've heard of stories about the extra heat acting on RAM and causing BSOD / kernel panic.

 

How much better is the 8970m from 7970m?

 

Not much physical difference beside optional 4GB VRAM.

You can flash the vBIOS of 7970M.

 

Sager has announced...

New backlight keyboard / volume bar / touchpad Hot Key functions: (Sager NP8250, NP8290, NP9390)

Fn+ - : Volume bar On/Off.
Fn+ pad 7 : keyboard Left Section On/Off.
Fn+ pad 8 : keyboard Middle Section On/Off.
Fn+ pad 9 : keyboard Right Section On/Off.
Fn+ pad 5 : Touchpad On/Off.



We are currently finalizing testing of updated BIOS / EC Firmware and hotkey driver to support above listed backlight on/off switches.

Customers can contact Sager Techsupport for the updated BIOS / EC Firmware and hotkey driver on Friday 7/5/2013.

 

So im not really going to see any gameplay difference? Because I can get a good deal on a p150em

 

Why would you say go Em. You seed because I can upgrade processor? Wouldn't I not be able to upgrade the processor since it is a Ivy bridge and haswell is a new socket?

 

IB and Haswell are indeed different sockets and you won't be able to upgrade the EM models to the new chips.

 

Awesome news! Would machines shipping after 7/5/2013 have the new BIOS/EC Firmware pre-installed?

 

Do you guys think I should go the p151sm with the Gtx 770m and i7 4700mq or amd 7970m and i7 3720qm

 

I had a post on here saying so, but it seems to be gone now. But yes, the new sager systems after 7/5 should have this preconfigured with the system.

 

That's not my question.

 

haha he got your question and my question mixed up.

 

Haha, woops sorry about that.

As far as your question Kole, I did voice my opinion on your other post regarding the same issue a couple pages back.

With your new caveat of the 770m, I'd still have to vote for the EM model as it'll boast more power behind it. If drivers issues scare you, that would change my vote and say just stick with the 770m SM machine for less potential headache.