*** Official Clevo P65xSA/SE/SG / Sager NP8650/51/52 Owner´s Lounge ***

Thanks for the input Cakefish, hopefully I'll be on the 4k bandwagon later this month once some cash flow comes down to me from my college


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Are the 3K screens listed above ones that we can swap out to ourselves on the Sager NP8651's? I wound up getting the 1080p IPS option XoticPC, and I like it just fine. I'd love to have a 3K option as a sweet spot for gaming, if I could find one compatible and it's relatively easy for us endusers to swap out...

 

Crucial MX100 WITH the laptop or separate? If ordered with the laptop it should come pre-assembled on the bracket. Otherwise there should be a baggie in your box with the DVD's, etc that have screws.

 

Does any know what this is for on the control center?

 

Volume control.

 

I have lots of issues with Chrome on all sorts of platforms. Flash crashes, etc... It happens. Again, I wouldn't use it as a "clean test" option.

I'm not saying you're also tripping something in Chrome too. I'm just saying I would find a better "test" than Chrome. It is not remotely a "good" and "clean" type of application to test things. It crashes often on its own, including taking the OS with it (even the Linux kernel at times -- yes, it does some stuff it shouldn't there too, firing off something as root).

 

That's why I post it, largely for the OP and those interested, even if the majority scoff at the "review" of "fundamentals." Just had a few cases in the past that I didn't say something, and then someone did something (that broke their system), and then the same people said, "oh, you're an idiot." No, there's just a first time for everything, and it's best to give people as much info as possible to avoid the rare chance.

 

@ Cakefish (or anyone else who got a high-DPI screen and would be so kind to answer):

• What Windows scaling do you typically use?
  
• If you have had time to do any gaming yet, are you experiencing many difficulties with games switching automatically to full-screen 1920X1080 resolution?
  
• Have you run into many games that don't work well with windows scaling? (i.e. UI all screwed up unless you switch your scaling back to 100%)
  
• You had mentioned on your Gigabyte P35 how well its 3k screen interpolated FHD resolution. Do you feel the Sharp does as well?
  
• Have you connected it to any external monitors, and has that proven to be the pain that I've read it is if you have Windows scaling cranked up?
  
• Have you spent any time on the battery, and do you feel the high-DPI screen is as big a battery hog as Notebookcheck makes it out to be?

And, most importantly: I have decided I am going to order either the Gigabyte P35X or the 650SG (I swear this is not a troll! ) this weekend. I don't play a lot of 1st person shooters, and probably don't need the coolest-running 980M laptop going, but I want something that will be capable of running most anything that comes out for at least several years without turning off all of the eye candy. And that I can still pick up and toss in a carry-on. Therefore, the choice between those two.

Since you are the only one around that I know of who has had both, if you could go back and choose again knowing that whichever one you picked would have no driver/hardware problems, which would you pick? Especially if this was to be your only computer, and therefore portability was a serious consideration? It appears the considerable overheating issues on the Gigabyte have been addressed with a good repaste, and that operation does not scare me in the least. I know you had a lot of frustration with the P35, and a little out of your Clevo, but if neither one was going to give you any trouble at all, which would you take on a purely "as designed/intended to be/perfect world" basis?

As I see it, the Gigabyte takes the portability/battery crowns, and the Clevo the temperature/build quality/value crowns. But I have to drop about two grand on one of them without ever holding either of them. Help?!

Any time you or anyone else put into a response would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You.

 

What. I feel ripped off! I didn't get anything like that. Just a piece of paper for some software and a 9mm adapter.
Should I return it?

 

Your product isn't faulty and is just missing some screws, I would shoot an email to your reseller to see if they can send you the screws. If not or if they ask for you to pay the shipping, I would just go to a hardware store or get the screws from amazon. I mean if you want to return it and want to purchase from another reseller it is up to you, but I personally would do the above.

 

Concerning your questions, I have the 3k display.
I use the 1.66x windows scaling I think, one step lower than 2x. That works fine, seems about as big as full-HD for most applications.
I have some mixed results with auto switching of games to 1080p. For example:

• 3DMark and Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor tend to crash while loading if I don't first manually switch the laptop to 1080p
• Trials Fusion and Assassins Creed Unity don't scale when set to fullscreen, so there are black borders around the 1080p window.
• Crysis 3, Trackmania 2 and SimCity appear to work fine with the scaling

The windows scaling options don't seem to effect the games at all, at least in my experience.

Concerning scaling to 1080p, text obviously isn't sharp, but it is hard to notice scaling in games during gameplay.

At the full 3k resolution everything just looks beautiful and text is so clear, I really love that when programming in for example Visual Studio or Sublime Text, so I'm happy with my choice of the 3k display over 1080p.

I haven't connected the laptop to any external monitors yet.

For me the battery works about 2.5 to 3 hours with word/web browsing etc, and 1 hour with heavy gaming (playing Middle-Earth while on the train for example )

 

So just got the laptop! And these screws came with it. Are these the same that I would use to screw in the Ssd? Also I've got windows up and running at the moment. I tried connecting to the WiFi but it doesn't detect any networking hardware. I assume since there is no drivers installed. But then I have to download them, and I current don't have an Ethernet cable! Haha,
Cheers,

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...18-prema-bios-mod-review-159.html#post9880360

 

I also use the 3k. As for Windows, I use something around the 125%, but with Chrome zoomed in to 125% too I think 150% is the sweet spot, but I like the extra space my setting allows. As for external monitors, more than a pain, is just ugly. On my 24'' 1080p, everything's huge. With games/video obviously isn't an issue, but if you want to use some window side by side, there's a lot of wasted space.

I still need to seriously play something with mine, except for the new Metal Gear Solid, but I haven't found any issue with game UI not scaling well. The only issues for now were Sonic Generations not liking Optimus setups, and Toybox Turbo crashing when the game resolution and the desktop resolution were different. Far Cry 4 runs with no problem. Almost everything is running fullHD without any noticeable loss in sharpness. Everyone is saying that the 4k display is the one who scales better to fullHD, however.

 

you rock prema, thanks for the hard work



EDIT : people who installed the prema bios/ec would be great to send feedbacks here if you ever encounter stutter in games, fan control problems, freeze, bsod etc.. i will install it anyway the minute i'm in front of my clevo, been waiting for a bios undervolt for the CPU

 

The beta's tested just fine. I'll try the finals when I get home. An unlocked 980m is sweet though

 

Hi Everyone

How long does it normally take to arrive, when you order a sager laptop from xoticpc?

 

hey guys, I just received my p650 and very excited. now I purchased one without the OS and I was wondering should I install intel graphics and nvidia driver from the CD that came with the laptop our can I just use the latested driver from intel and nvidia website? also I have the intel 7265 ac and I had lots of lag spike and disconnects in game. is this normal? I installed the intel wifi driver from the cd that came with my laptop. should I uninstall it?

thanks in advance

 

Yes, those are the screws you use to secure your drives. And I think HTWingnut was referring to those and not that you should have gotten screws with the mx100 that you purchased separately. My mx100 retail package did not have screws with it but did have the 9mm adapter and a trueimage key paper - so you were not ripped off .

Hope that helps..

 

Please refer to this post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...g-sager-np8651-np8652-owner-s-lounge-244.html

It hasn't fixed it entirely but it has improved it greatly.

 

wow XD



@Prema: donation incoming

can you tell me what changes u made to the Bios file? in ur .rar archive is the vbios and a Bios file and i just want to know what advantage with ur Bios file we have

 

Donation incoming too , just wanted to know is there a way to undervolt the CPU via the bios or XTU is the only option (can't stnad background softwares like XTU, nvidia inspector...)

 

I did what is written here in the intel 7260 section before even trying to test my card: http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/761608-msi-gs60-ghost-tweak-information.html

Works like a charm download speed and games work perfectly.
Make sure you do NOT have intel wifi software installed, just the 17.13 drivers

 

Really impressive score... Thanks prema !

 

THX!

You get A TON of extra options with the Mod BIOS:

- Overclocking for dGPU, iGPU, RAM & CPU
- Controls to regulate CPU TDP, HT, Turbo etc
- Options for OSX compatibility
- Options for external GPU support
- Enhanced SATA and USB control
- UEFI support for OS other than Win8+
- Latest RAID, iGPU, CPU codes, LAN modules and ME firmware
- HDD/SSD password options
- lots of other stuff

There are simply too many changes to maintain a changelog, I let the Mods speak for themselves.

THX!

Sorry undervolting on this model you will have to do with software. But I also unlocked extra features in the BIOS Mod for voltage, which will now show through software like XTU and Throttlestop in addition to what you had before.

 

^^^^
This sounds amazing I want to do this... like now! I have it downloaded sitting on my hdd I just am curious if there is an easy way back to stock, before I proceed? if I ever need to have warranty work done?
Otherwise thank you so much for your efforts!

 

Stock BIOS for all systems is in the "important" section of the blog.

 

perfect thanks! I am going to do this right now.

 

Hi Prema,

Are there pictures of the changes that the BIOS mods bring?

 

ZOMG, just placed an order for the P650SG from HIDevolution, with global warranty and shipping here to Saudi Arabia!


Processor
4th Generation Intel Core i7-4720HQ Processor, 2.6 GHz (Max Turbo Frequency 3.6GHz), 6MB Smart Cache
Thermal Paste
FREE IC Diamond on CPU + GPU
Advanced Copper Cooling
None - Standard Cooling
Operating System
Genuine Windows® 8.1, 64bit, English - $100.00
Operating System Reinstallation Media
Reinstallation USB Flash Drive - $25.00
Video Card
4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M GDDR5
LCD Panel
15.6" 1920 x 1080 IPS Full HD (16:9) LED Backlit Antigl ...
LCD Panel
15.6" 1920 x 1080 IPS Full HD (16:9) LED Backlit Antiglare Type Display
Display Warranty
None - up to 3 lit pixels considered OK
Memory
8GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz (2 x 4GB)
RAID Options
no RAID (1st drive as primary boot drive, 2nd drive as ...
RAID Options
no RAID (1st drive as primary boot drive, 2nd drive as storage drive)
mSATA SSD Slot 1 (supports M.2 PCIe and SATA)
Crucial M550 256GB M.2 SATA 6Gb/s SSD - $200.00
mSATA SSD Slot 2 (supports M.2 SATA only)
None
1st Hard Drive Bay
1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive
2nd Hard Drive Bay
Empty HDD bay (with caddy/adapter)
Audio
Onkyo Speakers x 2
Battery Options
4 cell battery - 60Wh
Power Adapter
1 180W AC Power Adapter (supports 100-240V)
Wireless Cards
Intel® Wireless-AC 7265 802.11 ac/a/b/g/n 2x2 NGFF
Bluetooth
Bluetooth 4.0 Included
Warranty and Service
1 Year HIDevolution Limited Global Warranty + LIFETIME ...
Warranty and Service

So very excited - but still a bit wary as this is my first CLEVO ever, and the first time I've dropped more than $1000 on a laptop - hope everything goes quick and smooth. Fingers crossed now

 

Very nice. How much was your total order ?

 

Flashed the permamod system bios without issue! THANKS!

The Vbios fails when running the update.bat file though.

"Error: No NVidia display adapters found" ?


Edit : I started up xtu and benchmark to make the dgpu light turn on and ran it again and it detected lol. Now telling me to make sure I do not have any gpu drivers installed .. So I assume I need to uninstall my nvidia driver first before running the vbios?

 

Awesome! Quick question, do we do "BIOS" folder flash 1st before the "vBIOS" folder flash?

I am already limited by slight power throttling during 3DMark Firestrike at stock, but it's always nice to have the option.
I'm gonna need larger power brick soon

 

$2044 without shipping and $2151 with FedEx International Priority.

Could have saved $150 on the Global Warranty but didn't want to risk it

 

I have the NP8651 w/ the 4K Sharp screen.

I have been running at 200% scaling, and everything is super crisp and clear at the full 4K resolution.

Newer games seem to be smarter when it comes to scaling, but some older games seem to have some issues. I play Star Wars The Old Republic, and the first time I loaded it, I left the desktop at 4K, and the game filled the screen, but the UI didn't scale, so buttons didn't line up with their icons. Selecting the option of "Use one resolution for all displays" fixed this issue. But other games can launch from a 4K desktop into a 1080p game without any issues.

I haven't had any games affected by Windows scaling, only the resolution.

1080p is crystal clear on the Sharp 4K display.

I haven't tried hooking up any external monitors.

Well, I only have the 4K display, so I can't compare battery life with it to battery life with a 1080p display, but I can get 3 hours of life under light load without issue, and could probably get more if I tweaked some more settings. Considering my old Dell StudioXPS struggled to get more than 2 hours under the lightest of loads, I'll survive with this battery life.

 

Usually you don't need to do anything except to make sure the GPU is active...no need to uninstall...
(If there is a problem simply deactivate it in Windows control panel)

Either way it's fine to flash.

 

I would "prime" it by starting an app that uses the nVidia GPU. I usually just set GPU-z to use nVidia GPU, start that up, then flash. If that still gives me headaches, I run the GPU-z render test then flash.

 

Everything worked like a charm! Thanks guys!

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

As far as flashing back to stock, your local vendor graphic that is now replaced by the PremaMod logo, is there a way to get that back? Or will it magical reappear when flashing back to stock, as if it's hidden in some unflashed area?

 

Stock BIOS contains the standard "StyleNote" Logo, which is the Clevo default.

 

Yes, best to backup your BIOS first so you can go back. I would check with Prema first though before flashing back to stock because I know there were issues in the past with this without his magic.

BTW Prema, I was able to flash the stock Sager BIOS over your modded BIOS no problem on the NP7338/W230SS.

 

Edit: Nvm I see it now. Awesome setup.

 

4720HQ option is available with the 980m GPU only. It honestly makes negligible difference in performance.

 

Gotcha, thanks.

 

After reading through 350 pages of this thread I decided to pull the trigger on the P650SG. Just a few days ago I was leaning towards the Y50 but thankfully I did some further research and found this thread.

Thanks to everyone in this thread, all of my questions about this model have been answered. I guess I only have one question, what should I do with my hands until my new notebook arrives?

 

I just hope that slight bump in speed and a new untested proc doesn't result in significantly warmer temps.


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okay still awesome ^^, i just wanted to know one last thing, how can i tune my Vbios ? I usually do it uing Nibitor 6.06 but the vbios rom file is not supported (error parsing...), I'm not familiar with all that is related to vbios sorry if i sound like a newbie, i just want to undervolt a little and overclock a little like -25mv + 9% overclock, memory untouched ^^

i used to do it on my past desktop with nibitor or directly using the bios of the gaming motherboard.

Offered you a beer btw, thanks for the good work, the bios/ec is stable and very useful.

 

THX man!

I do everything in hex...I am afraid you can't achieve undervolting through other means...

 

All hail Prema! Will try your lovely modded VBIOS out!

- 150%-200% (been using the latter but may switch to the former once my new prescription glasses are ready next week, we'll see).

- Spore and older Valve games (pre-Left 4 Dead) have tiny UI elements. Very minor quibbles.

- Yes indeed.

- Not yet. I will not have a HDMI cable handy until I go back to my uni residence.

- Yes and not sure yet. 40% brightness and balanced profile gave around 3 hours a few days ago, but I wasn't quantifying it properly. I will play around with it some more over the next few days.

P35X v3 doesn't run as cool. Though, to be honest, for all the fuss we 'enthusiasts' like to make about internal temperatures on this forum, you'd never actually realise it was running hotter unless you looked at the monitoring software. No difference in daily usage, including gaming.

Tough one. Both are excellent. I think the P651SG is my personal favourite, due to better quality speakers, display (both are great but the Sharp 4K does manage to top the Panasonic 3K) and all USB ports being version 3.0 compatible. And I do care about internal temperatures, but again, you wouldn't know unless you specifically looked into it. For the record, the P35X v3 wins in the aesthetics (largely due to slimness), battery longevity and ease of driver/BIOS updates.

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

@Prema I just made an $100 USD donation. Thanks for the BIOS mod and continued support!

UPDATE:
If nvflash doesn't see your NVIDIA card, set in NVIDIA control panel for GPU-Z to run using the NVIDIA card instead of Integrated. Run GPU-Z before running nvflash to power up the NVIDIA card and keep GPU-Z running while flashing. I ran nvflash from an administrator command prompt in Windows to flash it using the command from update.bat from Prema's files. After nvflash is finished and you close GPU-Z, your screen may freeze. Just shut down and power on as normal and everything will be fine.