*** Official Clevo P37xSM-A/Sager NP9377 owner's lounge ***

Reviving an old question that I still need a straight answer too.

What external monitor should I pair with this? Can a ROG Swift or the upcoming XB270HU be used with this laptop and take advantage of both gsync and either 120hz/144hz or should I just abandon gsync because the TB port isn't good enough?

Was kind of hoping this was an easy question but keep seeing conflicting reports.

Thanks.

 

OK this issue was bugging the hell out of me so I did some digging.

The service manual lists the chip as redwood ridge.

I'll quote Anandtech talking about the chipset:

Intel is announcing two this week: the DSL4510 and DSL4410. These two are replacements for Intel's current DSL3510 and DSL3310, with 4/2 and 2/1 (channels/ports) respectively. There are no performance changes other than official support for DisplayPort 1.2 (and thus 4K displays). If you connect either of these parts to a Thunderbolt display you still only get DP 1.1a support. There's still a PCIe gen 2 x4 interface on the other end of these controllers.

So it will act as DP1.2 with 4k and high refresh rate. They are still the original thunderbolt speed (so no native 4k thunderbolt displays supported) but when running in displayport mode they route the full 1.2 through it.

 

EDIT: 344.75 seems to have the same files... I'm narrowing down changed files and exploring right now. I'll report back with my findings.

Desktop drivers are a dead end. Compared the two and they are identical, not a single change between them.

 

Have you ever tried http://www.ztree.com/html/ztreewin.htm
I believe it has a similar feature.

Congrats man, you will love it. It runs cool and is super powerful, my fans almost never kick on no matter what game I play. (Note I use a cooling pad though) enjoy your new monster!

 

Which driver version are you using Ethrem? Ive found the only driver that allows HDMI to work flawlessly is 344.60 so if you have found a latter version that also works flawlessly I'd be interested to know which.

 

Thanks. I'm really loving it. I cut all vents out the bottom like SnowDrifter did. I used a dremmel and then used a razer blade to clean it up and make it look good. I didn't notice any difference at idle.bearly did it last night so haven't had chance to play game or push system to see if it makes difference. Will test this evening when I get off work. It does run cool no matter what I've done so far but more airflow can't hurt right. I'm extremely happy with my purchase so far.
Before I cut vents in bottom of laptop it did seem like it was restricted a lot the way it was. I think they would of been better to put wire screens on bottom instead tiny little slits.

 

Thanks for the response on what you used to cut out the bottom Player2. Yeah I agree it would have been a much better idea. Currently my temps don't warrant such a mod but its nice to know in case I ever do

Let me ask you something man, Which Bios, EC and ME FW version's are installed in your laptop? You can see this info on the Bios setup page. (Sure you knew that but JIC)

EDIT: Also which Hotkey version are you using?

 

Bios is - 1.03.07LS1
Me fw is - 9.1.1.1000
Kbc/ec is - 1.03.07

I'm not sure what hot key is or where to find it or what is does. Maybe you can enlighten me on that.

 

Thanks for the info man, I'm trying to get my keyboard lights working again after I fooked around with Bios's and EC's So I'm trying to find the winning combo of versions to get them back
Hotkey is the program that runs your keyboard lights, controls fans, adjusts volume etc.. Its the program that allows you to hit the fn key along with f1 to turn on/off the mouse pad. fn +f2 for the screen, fn +f3 for mute.. etc.

You should see the icon on your task bar (looks like an arrow head hitting a target, or a really high pac man...). If you hover your mouse over it, it will show the version.

 

My hot key version is 1.03.03

 

Thanks man, I really appreciate it!
Ive never seen that version before, I'll have to hunt around for that one

 

Mine is 2.34.49

I had the same issues as you now when I flash primamod bios. The hotkey app stopped working and couldn't find any solution for it until I flash back stock bios then everything went back to normal. I really loved his mod it was perfect but the hotkey app is important because the brightness stuck on max and keep telling me that it will damage the battery if I don't lower it so I went back to the stock bios.

 

Hey guys maybe some can help me out. I have been using msi afterburner and hwinfo to monitor on screen my hardware for a long time now with 0 issues. When I switched laptops to the np9377 I first installed msi afterburner and hwinfo and set it up to monitor on screen as before. I than began installing my games one at a time and I'm running into games that just crash when it starts to load like assasins creed unity and farcry 4 . I disable msi afturburner and games then load fine. I can't stand playing a game without knowing what my hardware is doing and temps. My questions is there a simple fix to this or are there alternative on screen monitoring software I can use to achieve the same goal. I don't use msi afterburner to overclock just yet. Only use it for monitoring and on screen display. Msi afterburner worked flawlessly in my last laptop with all 45 games and benchmark utilities. Call me ocd but I have to have my onscreen display monitoring.
Thanks

 

Ok I've narrowed it down to the rivatuner statistic server. I Uninstalled it and left msi afterburner running and hwinfo and games load and work fine but I have no on screen display. What version of rivatuner statistic are you guys using.

 

I fixed it. I rolled back to the older version of msi afterburner I was using with my old laptop and no more problems.
Sorry to waist space in this thread guys.

 

How good is the screen on this laptop? I know its a crappy TN with bad contrast ratio, bad viewing angles. What about colorspace? Can anyone measure it with i1Display Pro or ColorMunki Display or at least with SPYDER series colorimeter? Is it at least 72% NTSC? It says that it uses Anti-Glare Hard Matte, which is horrific AFAIK. O n pictures, it looks as if it was glossy and not matte... So which is it? How bad are the colors when compared against a good IPS panel? Do these screens often come with dead pixels? Could someone take some good photos of the screen in dark environment and close up to see the matte distortion? Some more pattern photos would be good, in dark environment with a lot of dark and black details in the picture, but also some with only brighter stuff.

I would appreciate ANY response to ANY items above! I know I ask a lot of questions, but I don't expect anyone to answer them all! I just want to know whether the screen is gaming-worthy... Is it 60Hz? 120Hz?


Also, how do people like GTX 980M SLi on this laptop? Does it deliver 60fps+ without micro-stutters in demanding games like Assassin's Creed: Unity, Watch Dogs, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Far Cry 4 and whichever demanding games that aren't coded all the well. Those are the games I am afraid will result in micro-stutters when framerate fluctuates during SLi usage.

 

@MonarchX Take a look at this for a quick overview: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...rs-lounge-thread.669251/page-275#post-9931079

I went 120hz glossy as I don't move it around, I did a side-by-side glossy v matte on my AW and the glossy was far superior for indoor (low light) gaming . No decent camera though for pics .

ACU runs around the 50~70 fps mark with everything maxed. Watch dogs is similar. I don't have FC4. I have only seen a tiny microstutter (if that is what it was) early on in AC:U. Seems like it is caching initially but may be the driver, and I'm not changing that until a decent fix comes along. Or NV back down which seems unlikely .

Good luck

 

Nice work. How did u cut it off?

 

Whatever way it was it has been done very cleanly.

 

Should have been that way from the factory... Or at least like the P570WM.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

The problem with vent holes that large is the risk of objects and more dust getting into the machine, like most things in a notebook it comes down to balance.

 

Of course, I'd have a mesh screen there to minimize that risk, I just don't see why Clevo doesn't give proper airflow for their high end machines unless they use a desktop chip.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

A mesh would reduce the airflow back to the previous state and not look as good or impact its ability to withstand abuse (the plastic left there will be rather weak).

 

There are various sizes of mesh screens. I wouldn't use a tiny one. I'd cut the whole bottom out over each fan... They should have taken a design cue from Alienware - my M17xR1 had more than ample airflow thanks to about 70% of the bottom being a steel mesh. That was back in 2009 that I bought that machine.

Either way for now it's fine but I'm considering doing a case mod and buying a spare CPU cover from rjtech

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Is anyone else using the Windows 10 Technical Preview on this machine? I had initially installed it into a VHD on my RAID SSDs but it started to reboot whenever I would install an app or click the start menu. Then I tried the refresh option and it said the drive was locked... So I deleted the VHD and I'm installing to one of my 7200 RPM drives which is taking forever but I'm wondering if there is an incompatibility with this particular machine. Very weird behavior

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Ok guy's I decided to try overclocking my screen today. I figured out how to make a custom resolution and upped my refresh rate from 60 to 70 and saved and exited. I reset my computer to see if changes would be saved and they were. The question I have for you guys before I find out how far my screen can go is if something happens an I go to far and loose my screen I know no I can't simply restart my computer to reset it because is saves the refresh rate even if I restart.? If I loose my screen somehow is there a way to set refresh rate back so I can see what I am doing.?
I've overclocked all my gpus before . Is it pretty much the same concept.?

I just don't want to get stuck in a situation I can't get myself out of .
Thanks

 

I have the sagar np9377 for those that don't know.

 

I have another question. How come when I put vsync on in a game like farcry 4 . In game settings it shows refresh rate at 60 and vsync is on during game play my fps on screen are always above 60. Usually 70-85 fps. I'm not complaining I just thought vsync would lock the refresh rate to my monitor Wich was 60hz.
Just trying to understand this vsync stuff because with my last laptop I was lucky to get 30 fps so it never was a problem. Also I thought that putting vsync on would take some load of the gpus as they would only have to go to 60fps instead of 80-100 Wich would be pointless being as I only have a 60hz screen.

 

If you have an external one you can plug in you would be ok.

 

Thanks for reply Meaker I didn't even think of that . I feel retarded. Lol.
So I'm guessing my TV over hdmi would count as an external monitor right.?

 

Let me know if it ever does get working. I would have wanted to eventually move to Windows 10 in the future, but I would be particularly annoyed if I had to sit on Win 8.1 as the final update. Maybe since the SM and SM-A models are so close together most of the SM-A drivers would work? *shrugs*.
Anyway, let us know if you get it working great! I'm not about to try it >_>.

Also I like how the guy is getting problems using his overlay with Ubisoft games.
Everybody's problems seem to stem from Ubisoft titles... but everybody keeps wanting to play the Ubisoft titles. I don't get it.

yes, it would.

 

Since 10 is a free upgrade, expect Microsoft to drop support for older versions much faster not to mention that DirectX 12 is for 10 only.

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Go for the 120Hz screen it has 72% NTSC, I like it allot. Plus if you are getting duel 980's it is insane to get a 60Hz screen IMO. Of the games you mentioned I have Far Cry 4 and it runs flawless for me all maxed out.

 

SOmeone somewhere here replied that someone with NP9377 just ordered the G-Sync IPS screen and is waiting for it to arrive. I can't find that post anywhere, but I wanted to know the price of that IPS screen...

 

Not sure where that post is, but you could try contacting Eurocom as I know they have 120Hz screens for the P377SM-A. And as far as I know, they are the only reseller that still has them. The reseller I used (HIDevolution) advertises that they have them, but they ended up ordering my laptop from Eurocom to get one. I know thats not what you asked but thats the extent of my knowledge on it unfortunately.

If you ever find a 240Hz screen for this model, let me know

Hope you find what you are looking for bud. Of course you can always go external, which is what Ive been thinking about doing.

EDIT: I wonder if you can tell the difference between a 120Hz screen and a 240Hz screen?

 

240Hz screens do not exist.
You theoretically could, but we won't know for quite some time.

There was technically a 240Hz screen developed and used by NASA some time ago for satellite feeds, but it only took a 120Hz input signal and doubled the frames, so it was never true 240Hz. Also, all those "240Hz" and "500Hz" and "600Hz" TVs that are sold simply use strobed backlighting features (I believe it's called) to make the image smoother. Most of them are 60Hz or 120Hz only, and have nothing very special about them at all.

 

240hz does exist, its just pointless tech.

http://www.cnet.com/news/240hz-lcd-tvs-what-you-need-to-know/

I have compared the 120 and 240hz MEMC Sony TVs and bought the 120hz both because I couldn't notice much of a difference and because my TV has virtually no input lag.

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Well that's what I said... there's no 240Hz input, so it just doubles up 120Hz frames.
Or, strobed backlighting effects. XD.

We'll never know if something actually refreshes at 240Hz unless we actually get 240Hz input to it. Even if the tech supposedly works, there's no way to check if it's capable of displaying 240 true new frames in one second. A high speed camera could likely record and the slowed down video could be checked if we could say... get a game to sit above 240fps (which I am dead certain is possible; I've had 330fps in CoD already) and we could input all 240+ frames per second to that screen.

But yeah. Until we get 240Hz input, it's more of a gimmick than anything else. I'd rather the strobed effect than a simple doubling up.

 

Strobed effect makes me dizzy. My TV has a mode where it strobes and thus produces zero motion blur... It takes all of five minutes for me to get dizzy from it. It's a miracle the passive 3D doesn't make me dizzy.

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Ok well that answered my question, I'll stick with 120Hz and same for any external I get. Thanks for the info!

 

WELP

 

You will get reducing returns the faster it gets and it will become so much harder to produce the frames to keep up with it too.

 

Hello Everyone,

I was wondering if anyone could give me some fresh new information of why to buy this over the GT80 Titan.

I am very interested in this laptop and actually like the traditional look over the Titan. That is not the main reason I am considering it though. I really like that all of the parts are replaceable and that you can get the more extreme processor and have higher TDP with two power supplies.

I have read reviews and watched Youtube videos of both laptops and still having a very hard time deciding.

Does the Sager have m.2 drive support in the NP9377-s?

Things like this I was just hoping you could point out or help me figure out. I would say this point I am 50/50 on both machines at the moment. I really like them both and could go in any direction. I like the support of the MSI and the build quality but I like the flexibility of the Sager.

Please help me with this decision so I do not waste 3K+ dollars.

Thank You.

 

To start off, as you mentioned CPU in the NP9377 which supports up to the i7-4940MX. The GT80 Titan-009 does have the i7-4980HQ but it is not upgradable.

The Sager does not support m.2 drives but it does have 2 mSATA slots and 2x HDD bays. 4x m.2 + 1x HDD in the GT80 does give the advantage there.

The mechanical keyboard in the GT80 really cant be beat unless you use an external keyboard.

For portability the Sager wins since its smaller and lighter.

Either model is a winner really. If you do plan on taking it around with you the Sager will be better.

 

The GT80 is bigger than the 9377? Jeez...

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18.4" screen.

 

Yeah reading about it now... That keyboard too... I don't usually like MSI but that machine is a beast!

Would never buy it though. No HQ soldered garbage for me.

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I love the keyboard on there, I have mechanical keyboards here at work and the same one at home so having one on a notebook is great.

Not a fan on HQ either but it looks like the notebook industry is moving that way in general
At least you can get the i7-4980HQ in there.

 

I do not see the feature on your website to add the extra power supply to the Sager NP9377-S. Do you not need 3 things for that to work? Two power supplies and 1 box to plug in the power supplies and then into the laptop?

Also could you guys put in a 120HZ screen? If not how could I get that done?

 

You only need 1 power supply with dual 980M cards. The dual power supply solution was for the P570WM which had a power hungry 4960X desktop chip and I would assume the new 5960X machines as well.

I believe they discontinued the 120hz screen but people buy their own online. I don't remember the model number at the moment. @Prema would know.

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