**Official Clevo W150ERQ / Sager NP6165 Owner's Lounge**

This Thread Will Open at 12:01AM.

 

Here are some NEW Official pictures for the NEW Clevo W150EQR / Sager NP6165 model that will be shipping soon....
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http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/7427/frontangleview1920x1080.jpg

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/9364/keyboardview1920x1080.jpg

http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/1395/bottomview1920x1080.jpg

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/7572/rightportview1920x1080.jpg

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/3623/leftportview1920x1080.jpg

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/1785/rearportview1920x1080.jpg

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Thanks for the photos babyhemi, I've been anxiously awaiting those.

Well, it looks like Clevo did more than just put a new motherboard in the old chassis. Good to know. Some changes from the W150HM that jump out at me right away:
- The exhaust vent on the left side has been moved farther back and most of the ports have been moved away from it. That's an improvement over the old design with USB ports directly above the vent. It means the cooling system has changed though, hopefully it's for the better.
- It's a little chunkier at the front end.
- The power port is on the side rather than the rear.
- The only thing that worries me: it looks like we lost the USB 2.0 port on the left side. I'm not sure if the eSATA was a USB/eSATA combo port on the older model, so maybe they just got combined.

 

So I preordered this from prostar a while back. It finally arrived today. This is my first sager/clevo. If anybody is curious about anything I'll be opening it soon to change the thermal compound.

I'm currently transferring my programs to it. I had a bit of trouble installing an HDD in the HDD caddy I got, but finally got it working. I was left over with a few tiny screws which I don't know what theyre for and a piece of plastic that doesn't seem to go anywhere. Any ideas what they are. There weren't any instructions concerning it.

Also, since I needed the laptop quickly I couldn't wait until Ivy Bridge. Would the processor (i5 2450m) be upgradable later?

 

I have a few minor concerns before I order one of these if you could give your opinion on them.
Is the keyboard abnormally loud while typing on it?
How is the fan noise while idle and while playing a game? (if you play anything and whatever you can compare it to)

Also to answer your question yes the processor can be upgrade to Ivy Bridge if you choose to in the future.

 

I'm curious about the battery life, how long it'd last at about 25% screen brightness with power savings mode on.

Also the temperature it reaches when gaming. (I'm interested in what the 45W 650M is capable of as well!)

 

Also how much does it weigh? Is it slim, bulky?

 

I've had it mostly plugged in because I'm installing a bunch of stuff, but I'll test the battery tomorrow on 25% Power Saving + Web Surfing Only and 50% Power Saving + Movie, because that's what I need to know. Any other configuration you'd like tested?

While not gaming and installing 5 things at a time and copying insane amounts of files it got a bit warm (I don't have a temp reading software installed yet) and the fan turned on here and there. It's dead quite when it's "off" (it's on though because I feel air coming out), but it felt noisy to me the few times it turned on. Maybe it's because I'm not used to such loud fans? I'll see how distracting it is when I game.

I'm not much of a gamer, but I am going to get the Sims 3 on it, Portal 2, Kingdoms of Alamur, and possibly Skyrim sometime this week, and I could test anything else that has a Steam Demo, but I hear Skyrim is pretty intense. Before I measure temps though, since I've never done it, or gamed for longer than an hour. Should I game for more time? Or will temp readings after half an hour or so be okay? And I'm assuming I should put the game on max settings as long as it runs.

I was really worried about the weight, but it feels fine to me. It's not super bulky, but it's not slim. It looks slim though from certain angles, because as you might be able to tell from photos, the sides sort of go inwards at the bottom. I have a scale somewhere for exact readings...*goes to dig it up*

The keyboard... here's a link to a recording I made on my ipod from hearing distance, the computer's speaker was too close to the keyboard. Link It sounds like that, minus the scratching sounds (stupid ipod and shirt sleeve...), skip to the middle for less scratching sounds. Some keys seem to be more muted, while others near the spacebar click more. The spacebar was the loudest key you hear in the recording. Hope that helps.

 

^ thanks for your input, last thing that bugs me is the weight, I think by removing the ODD I may save some grams. Just to be clear, this doesn't have backlight kb right guys ? And is the exterior's fi ish the same as the inside (keyboard, palm rest) ?

Resellers, you guys should have IB in this unit on the 29th right ?

 

No backlit KB on this model. Just the 150em has it.

 

^ thanks, by the way Anonymous, as you take it apart, can you take several photos for us (heatsink, component placements, etc)

And resellers, is the HDD-ODD tray universal or the one you guys have only fit that unit ?


Sent from my wholly molly new iPad using Tapatalk

 

HDD caddies are universal as long as you get a 12.7mm SATA version. The only thing that might change is the location of the mounting screw and the way the front bezel is attached, but the bay itself will fit. Buying from a reseller guarantees that everything will be the same though.

 

Thanks for the input, would it be the same as the HDD caddy you guys put infor the P150/170 models ?

By the way, is the exterior the same as interior ? And what about mSATA and mPCIe support, any ?


Sent from my wholly molly new iPad using Tapatalk

 

I've taken some pictures, but it has the following finishes....

Palm Rest + Edge near power button.: Looks like sanded metal, but is definitely plastic.
Around Keyboard: Smooth Plastic
Keyboard: It's set on some textured plastic, and the actual keys are smooth. It's not backlit unfortunately (I wish they had backlit being a night person and a writer, but I really like the feel of them and the I find the layout makes keys easy to find in the dark (the Del, Prt Sc, Numbers), although ofcourse the F keys are always a pain to differentiate.
Trackpad: All of it, buttons included, feel like really fine sandpaper. I don't like this but i use a mouse 95% of the time.
Around Screen (front): Glossy Smooth Plastic
Screen Edge, like on the sides after the glossy top ends, you can see it in the picture of the OD HDD Caddy: Textured Plastic
Outside Exterior Top: Really Glossy Plastic with tiny grey dots.
The Bottom is of course more rough textured plastic.

Pics:










As you can see below, the prostar caddy I got sort of goes in, like it doesn't fill out the side....




My scale wouldn't way it alone, so I weighed me, then me with the computer. It came out to 6.4 pounds, that's heavier than the 5.73 and 6.17 I see advertised, but it might just be my scale. And that's with an SSD, and an HDD in the Caddy. I don't have a CD drive to compare, and I'm not taking out the HDD to compare to an empty caddy, sorry. I carried it around today in a messenger bag and it felt a bit heavy (that might be because my back hurts though), but just handling it around it feels lighter than expected. I don't think you'd find anything lighter with this much power.

...I have just started battery tests...

Question: The top has a prostar logo (they didn't have an option for no branding), can I remove it? I've heard you can remove it yourself, but just checking if anybody has done it, will it leave residue?

 

Thanks for the pics and info you've provided, they've been quite helpful! I guess the keyboard noise sounds about average, it can depend on how violently you attack the keys too. For some reason I vaguely remember reading about a keyboard mod where you could add thin pieces of foam to the bottom of the keyboard to help reduce noise. Does anyone know if that was for this type of Sager/Clevo? I did a quick search but didn't see anything right away.

 

Typing softly and typing hard and fast doesn't seem to make a difference. I will say though that apart from that clicky space key, in a regular noisy environment, it feels quieter. Yesterday I was using it alone in dead silence, today there's a tv or two on and some people, and it feels much quieter compared to other noises.

I don't think that mod would work since they are thin shallow chiclet keys. I think it'd be hard to open the keys to insert the foam.

 

Thanks for the Pics man! How does the keyboard feel? Comfortable? I'll be coming from a 2008 macbook pro with a chiclet keyboard.

 

I like the keyboard much much better than my previous keyboard (regular keys on a Fujitsu computer), they were always getting stuff stuck under them, and the spacebar wouldn't press right.

I can't really compare it to an Apple, I haven't touched one in a while (if I pass by BestBuy or an Apple Store I will). I have been typing for the past month on an iPad though, and I can tell you that was hell. It actually made my fingers hurt from tapping them against the solid screen.

Except for the clicky keys (Spacebar, RCtrl, Enter, Shift) I really like the soft thud they make, it feels really nice. I also don't have to press very hard like my old computer. My only complaint is sitting on a couch, the edge digs into my wrists, but it might be the couch. I shipped my comfy ikea chair off and I won't have it for a while *sobs*. That is the only chair that doesn't make my back hurt.

Oh, and I sometimes slide over the trackpad, messing things up. I'm disabling it, but I think you can adjust the click pressure if you do need the trackpad + keyboard.

And also, I'm currently approaching 3 hours of battery life. It's down to 16% percent now. I'll post the results and conditions of the first test soon. It should go to sleep at 10%.

 

That's interesting to know, I'll be ordering one of these on the 29th so I'm wanting to know as much as possible. To clarify what I meant, I read that the noise could be one of two things. Either the physical keys or the entire keyboard itself tapping against the frame inside. They said you could put foam on the underside of the entire keyboard to reduce the clatter....maybe that was for a completely different model though.

One more question I have, would you say the fan has a low pitched hum or a high pitched hum when it kicks up? Thanks again!

 

Yeah, the clicky noise is from individually keys and then the slight thud the all make feels like it's from a wider area, I don't think foam would help either way.

The fan sounded low pitched the few times it turned on.

 

Battery Life Test 1:

Conditions/Settings:
25% Brightness
Firefox Only (No Music or Other Programs)
Wireless On / Bluetooth Off
2-3 Tabs Open
New Page being opened every 2-5 seconds.
Power Settings: Adjusted to everything Max. Savings on Battery. It was not like that in the default Balanced power plan.
Set to Sleep at 10% Low Battery Level

Total Time Until Sleep (10% remaining): Exactly 3 Hours

Charge Time: ~2 Hours, I kind of lost track at some point.

Notes: Like halfway through I realized I forgot to turn off useless programs in the Notification Area and did that. Brightness at 25% was more than enough. I might reduce it to 10-15% and try again.

 

thanks! sounds good!

 

let us know what the video play time was if ya could.

 

So, I've been thinking... Since the keyboard is not backlit and I always seem to need to now where the F keys are, I thought why not make it so that when I press a key (Capslock or something else I don't use) an onscreen keys map appears. I have an Intuos5 which has a similar feature that shows the shortcuts assigned to each button when you touch one so you don't have to look down.

It wouldn't work for gaming or anything... but it should be useful for some of us. I'm thinking of using a mix of Autohotkey for the keys and Rainmeter for the transparent onscreen keys map. Or perhaps just add the map to the previous Start Menu replacement I made.

Any ideas? Suggestions?

 

Yeah, in like an hour I'll start testing that. It has to charge now And I'll post the charge time for the previous test as soon as it does.

 

what's that orange button on upper left corner above keyboard ?

 

It's the button that switched the graphics.
Orange I believe means the computer gets to choose which graphics to use. Integrated or Discrete.
Green means it's using discrete graphics (650M Geforce) no matter what.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong... I don't know much about Graphics. As long as Photoshop runs with OpenGL features on Advanced I'm good.

 

That's a neat feature. If you do play some games, we would like to hear some benchmarks

 

Nvidia should be equipped with Optimus which means it will turn our DGPU on for more graphic intensive processes and then switch back to integrated when you're doing things like browsing and such.

 

I'm installing some games now. But uh, how exactly do I take some benchmark? Is there a program? Or do I just say how well the game plays and on which settings? And somebody wanted temps, after how much time should I check the temperature?

 

FRAPS show fps, record video game movies, screen capture software

Fraps is the most popular I think.
i'd say after 20-30 minutes of playing is fine.

 

it'd be nice to see some benchmarks at 1080p, then 720p, just to see how thye compare, most people test high/ultra ettings then maybe 2x and 4x anti aliasing.

 

for temps, just do your regular gaming session and alt tab to see the temps, or actually just leave the program in the background, and by the end of the session you will see the highest temp

 

Can somebody verify this? I was under the impression that it's the other way around (i.e. the button toggles between integrated only and Optimus - there's no way to force the 650M to stay on all the time). I think they went over it in the owner's lounge for the W150HR, but I suppose that could have changed.

 

Yea if its Amber, then its in Optimus mode
If its green then its iGPU only mode

You can't force dGPU mode like that at least on these.

 

So...
Orange = Integrated Only
Green = Switches between both?

Why is this so confusing....

 

@AnonymousETfromMars: Other way around I believe...

Orange (amber) = optimus mode (switches)
Green = iGPU only (Integrated)

That's actually way better because it ensures no programs are triggering the dGPU thus maximizes battery life.

Can you please do a battery test with just the iGPU only? (Green mode)

 

Okay, I'm confused by all the terms... I think I'm starting to get it though, but main thing is...

Green = Better Battery right?

I tested it with the default orange. I'll use green now.

I haven't posted anything though because I was going to do a battery test with movies but I realized the sound was off. I've been having some problems with the sound coming from the headphone jack and my Bluetooth headphones.

I think I fixed them... my BT headphones still sound kind of odd. Also, for some reason Windows Media Player went poof after a Windows Update...

Crap, and now it's not switching to green.

Ugh, this might take a while.

 

So, the orange light will not change and the button is not working.

I've tried restarting the computer, reinstalling drivers, getting new driver install files (from Clevo because nobody seems to have them), and now I'm making an ISO of the Drivers disc I got to try that. I think it was a Windows Update (86 of them to be exact) that might have been the problem. I did a system restore but that didn't fix it. I was going to do another one to an earlier point but it only kept one restore point...

Any ideas? I've heard about this happening, but have there been any solutions?

Edit: Apparently the manual was on the drivers disc so I read that while my ISO was being created. There's two little lights next to the VGA button that say which GPU it's running, so I tried Right Clicking Photoshop and running it with NVIDIA and the lights stayed on integrated and Photoshop only sees the Intel under Performance settings. Something is definitely wrong

Edit 2: Okay, with drivers from the driver disc it appears that while the light is still stuck on orange, it is switching to NVIDIA when I open Photoshop. Also, there's a power plan called UMA mode, that apparently uses the iGPU only, what I understand to be the equivalent of the green light. Now since I did the battery test with just surfing the web, it should have never switched to NVIDIA, therefore those results would be for the green light.

 

Interesting THanks for the update!

 

oh, how big is the power brick? the 650M only runs at about 45W. Whats the wattage on the brick?

 

The power brick looks to be about 1 1/2 x 2 x 5 (or 6) inches. I don't have a ruler around. But it's huge, bigger than anything I've ever seen. And the wattage, uh, don't know what I'm looking for but this is what it says:

Model: Pa-1131-07 Which when I Google it comes up as the same one that the previous model had and some people where looking for a smaller replacement for mobility.
Input: 100-240V ~2.15A 50-6-Hz
Output: 19V Some weird symbol. 6.3A < This number though is different than the 7.15 that I see when I google the model number, don't know if that matters...

I found a picture so you can get a feeling for the size.



Oh, and I forgot... I got a Bluescreen and I freaked out for a second, but it had something to do with the computer and sleep/hibernation, I must of closed it weird or something. Nothing major. And the light has not fixed itself. I'm going to wait for a driver update from NVIDIA, I'll report back whenever that happens, or if it magically fixes itself. If you're buying this computer I'd be careful with Windows Updates which is what I think messed it up, now that I look at it, there's Thinkpad Display driver it wants to install. Make sure to allow for more restore points (Windows only seems to keep two on my small SSD), and I'd go into green mode manually through the power options.

 

says right on there 135W yikes she's big!

 

The picture says that, my power brick does not. I found the picture after I wrote what my power brick says.

 

Since voltage x current (amps) = wattage: your power supply is 19 x 6.3 = 120W

Some of the resellers have a 90W power supply listed, others 120W. I'm a little confused by that. The 90 would be nice if it works, but it seems a little weak if the 650M is going to take up half of its capacity.

For what it's worth, I've been using a 130W power brick very similar to that for many years now. I got used to it, but then I don't travel with it a lot, other than infrequent airplane rides. I was hoping I would get something smaller with my next laptop, but it looks like that's unlikely. Oh well.

 

There's an unimportant detail that I've been curious about. The advertized thickness is 0.64"-1.63", but I suspect that doesn't include the added height of the feet on the bottom. From the pictures, it looks like it would stand almost 2 inches tall on a flat surface. Can anybody confirm that?

 

I'm going to try and find a ruler, or borrow one... but all my things are packed.

It is closer to 2 inches though.

 

Cool any word on gaming performance yet?

BTW: Thanks for answering all of our Qs!

 

Agree. I want to also see the gaming performance on this machine!

 

would ya also mind posting the full system specs? interested to see what hardware you're packing.