**Official Clevo W170ER / Sager NP6175 Owner's Lounge**

This thread will open at 12:01AM.

 

Apparently Sager still doesn't have them up on their site. Slightly odd.

 

Later this week more information will be out...

_

 

Are there even pictures available anywhere? I'm mainly interested in chassis differences between this and the P170EM, besides the lack of a backlit keyboard and presumably one fan for both CPU and GPU.

EDIT: I'd also be interested in possibilities of AMD GPUs (e.g. 7870M), do we have any information on that or not in the foreseeable future?

 

Other GPU's will be unlikely, unless Clevo chooses to offer variants on this model (like with the old 5160/5165). The 650m GPU is soldered to the motherboard and is not interchangeable on the W170.

 

I see, thank you for the information!

 

Yeah I've been researching this quite a bit as well, here are pictures: Reflexnotebook.ca is your Source for the Sager NP6175 (Clevo W170ER) in Canada

Some notable differences that I have put together

NP6175/W170ER VS NP9170/P170EM
NO RAID VS RAID
HM76 chipset VS HM77 chipset
2 DIMM 16GB max VS 4 DIMM 32GB max
45W processors (max?) VS XM Processor support (55W max?)
VS Back Lit keyboard
VS Probably cools more powerful GFX cards
VGA port VS DVI out (both have HDMI)

Actually, check these links out:
BM CLEVO W170ER - [CLEVO] - BLUEMOBILITY
BM CLEVO P170EM - [CLEVO] - BLUEMOBILITY

I'm probably getting the EM (from MALIBAL ) due to possible RAID requirement in the future, and more processor/vid card cooling range. Remember that the EM has a 220W adapter and the ER a 120W adapter. That tells you pretty much exactly what the chassis is designed for CPU+GPU wise.

 

Thanks for the comparisons. I did some google image searching as well, but there seem to be some conflicting images. For example, Reflexnotebook shows this:

http://www.reflexnotebook.ca/media/...f78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/6/1/6175_5.jpg

But when you go to Bluemobility, they show this:

http://www.bluemobility.pl/images/W170ER_3.jpg

If you look at the vent and I/O ports, they're clearly different chassis, yet they're both marketed as the W170ER. Xotic's images match Reflexnotebook's, but I think they are from the previous model, unless Bluemobility is the one with the old images.

One of the biggest thing for me is I like the chiclet keyboard on the W, and have no need for the backlit keyboards from the P, so that's actually a plus in favor of the W. But then the 7970M is about 3x more powerful than the 650M. >.<

 

Here are some high quality pics of this model...


http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/7427/frontangleview1920x1080.jpg

http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/9364/keyboardview1920x1080.jpg

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/2481/rearangleview1920x1080.jpg

http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/3623/leftportview1920x1080.jpg

http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/7572/rightportview1920x1080.jpg

http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/1395/bottomview1920x1080.jpg

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Great, thank you so much for the images. So it looks like Xotic and Reflexnotebooks' images were correct.

One question, so this is the bottom image:
http://www.xoticpc.com/laptop/6175/6175_4A.jpg

The top right has a couple slits where the fan should be, but they seem very small compared to the vent itself. Am I the only one with concerns about cooling?

 

The below is the correct quality pic of the bottom...

http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/1395/bottomview1920x1080.jpg

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Thanks for the pics

Cooling should be sufficient for ~120W. Those slits at the bottom appear to be intake vents and would be small/strategically placed to make the air pass through certain components. The sides have large exhausts. Cooling probably won't be a problem unless you try to exceed the power adapter's capacity. (by using 55W CPU or much faster GPU)


And in any case (pun intended) small intake slits can usually be modded by those extreme overclockers (though I wouldn't rush to that without installing higher flow fans, as other areas of the chassis might hold greater heat due to reduced negative pressure)

 

The only difference that i see from the NP6165 is the larger Screen (from 15.6 to 17.3") and the absence of a fingerprint reader, am i right?

 

15.6" would mean it has one 2.5" HDD slot as opposed to two in the 6175. (that's usually the case, and I checked, this applies here)

 

In that i think you're wrong since in the Xoticp customization there's a second hard drive option, or maybe im wrong

 

Yes sorry, it does have two 2.5" drive bays after all custom gaming laptops - Welcome to Sager Notebooks I was thinking of another 15" model... so my apologies.

Edit: Wow, two drives in a 15.6" sized laptop, nice.

 

Just got mine put into production at Xotic PC, can't wait to test it out. Pretty good deal 1094.00 for everything with IB i7 3610qm upgrade and windows installed. Hopefully it doesn't take 3 weeks to arrive, D3 is so soon!

 

Congratulations!

I still haven't decided on either the 6175 or the 6165 , should i pick a bigger screen or a more mobile one xD

 

I can't find the NP6165 thread but they are almost the same so I'll just ask here. Will the 650m video card that this laptop provides be able to run Diablo 3 at max settings on 1080p?

 

Is the only difference in the W150ERQ and the W170ER the screen size? Why is one ERQ and the other ER?

 

Maybe, but at lowered video settings like shadows, clutter, or AA. If my Radeon HD 6490M can run it at 1080p with all settings at low at an average of 33 FPS, then the 650M should be able to handle higher settings easily.

Sent from my VM670 using Tapatalk 2

 

The Thread for the NP6165 is this one http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...clevo-w150erq-sager-np5165-owners-lounge.html they just put NP5165 xD

 

Does anyone already have this model???

 

What a dead thread... Is no one expecting this model??

 

Mine is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I can post a review if there's interest.

 

As with all Blizzard Games the system requirements are very modest.

At ultra settings the 650M will barely run with playable performance. (35 FPS)

If this is the only game you plan on playing for the next couple years, then the 650M will serve you well. Otherwise, consider upgrading to the 670M as it's significantly more powerful.

 

I dont have the money yet

 

Borimir, a small or big review (depending on your time) would be very helpful I am seriously contemplating getting this one as I do not play games really.

 

Please do!

 

Please make sure you do post a review and some pics may also help!

A lot of the community would love to hear what you have to say about these great laptops.

 

Still hasn't arrived?

 

I have a W170ER. It's exactly the same cooling system as the W150ER 15 inch version. Don't expect the 17" version to be better cooled than the 15 inch model...Temps are the same. Gpu tops at 67°C and cpu at 81°C.

As said on the W150ER thread. Cpu turbo is bios deactivated when using the 650M GT, affecting the performances depending on the games. Even with cpu turbo deactivated, the lap is loud on load. Cpu temp rises like hell compared to gpu temp. The fan starts brutally, it lacks intermediate fans speeds if u ask me. Hope for a bios revision. Best cpu for this lap woulb be a 35W 3612qm cause as i said the lap has a hard time cooling the cpu. I had the W170ER with a dual core B960 pentium on board. It was noisy as hell on load while gaming. Quad core despite higher TDP is better, cpu die is larger and heat is overall better dissipated.

Can't overclock the 650M GT. It seems to be locked at 835 mhz. As the 650M GT is soldered, u can't extract the vBios to tweak clocks and voltages.

Nice screen. Good angles...

Sound is not bad with the THX drivers stuff installed. Don't forget to install them or u will have garbage sound.

Webcam is pure garbage.

 

Aren't those temps pretty good?

 

Yes temps are good indeed. I'm focused on how loud the lap is for my taste on load but it's clear that the cooling system is doing its job well. I know i'm expecting too much. It's not possible to have a pretty silent gaming lap with both cpu and gpu cooling pipes sharing one fan. I'm a little picky i know...it's just that i find that the fan starts brutally and is kind of erratic sometimes. If u put the lack of cpu turbo during gaming aside to achieve it, temps are very fine. My 2720qm is running at 2,2 ghz instead of permanent 2,5 ghz in my Vostro 3750. 3dmark06 cpu score is 4300 instead of 5000+. Clevo has made the right choice by cutting the cpu turbo anyway cause at 2,5 ghz temps would have been very hard to contain without sounding like a chopper.

Also, changing the cpu is easy. It took me 2 minutes to put my 2720qm ES in.

While idling the lap is perfectly silent. Fan is turned off. It's very pleasant.

Overall it's a very good lap for the low price i got it.

 

Thanks for your impressions

How is battery life with optimus working?

 

Optimus is totally useless as far as the W170ER is concerned. It's very disappointing. And when i say totally, it's totally. No impact on battery life at all.

Idle power consumptions :

When using the IGP my wattmeter indicates 22W.
When using the 650M GT my wattmeter indicates 23W.

When watching a movie, it indicates 25W for both.

No difference.

I would deactivate this useless switching stuff IGP if i could and always run on the 650M GT.

 

Wow, since they dedicated a button to the function, i asumed it would have a bigger impact!

 

How is it possible, i thought Enduro completely turned off the GPU. It most not be working properly yet.

 

Enduro is AMD response for Nvidia optimus right ?

Sadly it's true for the W170ER, optimus is bad implemented on it, even the W150ER 15,6" don't go below 20,7 W on the notebookcheck review...

Also thing is that actual dedicated gpus consume very little at idle state and tend to make Optimus IGP switching useless.

 

I've had my NP6175 for a bit over two weeks now. Here are some quick thoughts:

- XoticPC had great service throughout the order. I got the machine faster than I expected, which was nice. Price was right. My only upgrades were to the lowest available Ivy Bridge and from 500 to 750G HD.

- No driver issues after I walked through installing everything off the included CD. (I got no OS installed.) I know this sounds like a nothing deal, but the last 3 machines I've bought had at least one annoying damn driver issue, so this was a thrill.

- Took me about 5 seconds to notice that the keyboard seemed really noisy. In particular, the lower right area around the right-shift key. The problem here is that the keyboard does not sit solidly attached to the rest of the case, so when you use any of the arrow keys, you get a bit of a "clunk". The right shift causes this issue as well, but not as much. This is a really unacceptable assembly/testing issue and I can't believe it would pass even the most cursory QA because it's so obvious. It's also one of those issues that is probably too minor to RMA the machine over, which makes it even MORE irritating. I opened the machine to throw in a second HD and to see if I could solid-up this construction, but there was no obvious easy way .

- Playing Diablo 3 on max detail, I couldn't get the GPU to hit 70F and I couldn't get the CPUs to hit 80F. Very happy with that. A lot of this is doubtlessly due to the fan, which has two speeds, "OFF" and "HURRICANE SAGER". Max detail looked fine in D3 at around 40FPS -- I'm an old gamer so anything over 30FPS delights me as I regale the young folks with tales of Doom over LAN running 15FPS, Atari 2600 Pac-Man which seriously ran like 5FPS, etc., get me another bourbon.

- Oddly, the loud fan sound when gaming is pretty quiet unless you're sitting in front of it actively using it. My wife started derping with some game while I was on the other couch 10 feet away facing the back of the laptop. She suddenly did a startled "OH!" and I noticed the fan had come on, but it wasn't super loud. It's like 75% of the sound comes through the keyboard.

- Speaking of GPU, the Optimus seems completely retarded. There are two GPU-Optimus-indicator lights, a green "built in CPU" one and an orange "nvidia time bro!" one. These lights usually alternate back and forth about every 1.5 seconds during normal use like clockwork. It goes straight to all-nVidia during gaming, of course. And as I'm typing now I have Chrome open, Evernote, and a command prompt window for Clojure, and it's on nVidia mode. Useless, but doesn't impact my use.

- There is a minor, yet infuriating, buzz noise that comes from the inside the left side of the chassis. It doesn't happen all the time and it sounds like it's due to an unbalanced fan so I'll check that out, but holy damn is it irritating. This didn't show up until I'd had the thing a week.

- After typing this whole post, seriously this keyboard is loud and clunky. It just feels "cheap" because of the shoddy construction.

- Who thought it was a good idea to put the "volume" F-keys rights beside the "sleep" F-key? Please string this person up post-haste.

- I thought the sound is rather crap, though with a headset it's fine. The speakers just seem bleah. What are these THX drivers mentioned earlier in the thread?

- Battery life is fine. I'm coming from an Asus G51 which had diabolically bad battery life, like an hour of web surfing and maybe 35 minutes of gaming, just comically bad. I wrote code outside last week for almost four hours before I was low, so I was happy there, but if 4 hours of mostly typing in a text editor sounds like crap battery life to you, then consider yourself warned.

- Love the screen. Colours are true and everything looks great. I got the glossy screen and it is quite glare-y, but that's what you get with glossy screens (nicer colours + glare vs. not as nice colours + no glare) and those who want zero glare can go for the matte option. Giant screen size and resolution is great for gaming and also for development -- I can have several windows open and visible at the same time, just a million freaking characters on screen at once, it's codeapalooza, etc.

In summary, I'm not completely happy with this machine but I'm at the spot where I don't want to RMA it because I can't spend over a week without a computer (I have a spare machine but I can't really work on it, and my old work machine is dead as a doornail). This puts Sager / XoticPC in a bad spot because now I'm just going to be moaning about my computer without actually doing anything about it. I don't know if the issues I'm having are common (not enough reviews in this thread yet) or if they're just mine. If I wasn't having these two issues with the machine I would be raving about it from the rooftops, selling them door-to-door, telling everyone what great value and quality the Sager machines are and how lovely XoticPC are but as it stands all I can tell people is "they're OK, kinda cheap feeling, sorta wish I'd plumped up a couple hundred extra for an Asus."

 

Does anyone want me to add anything? I can take pictures or do benchmarks or something if there's interest.

 

Five hours after I post this and my laptop has decided that it is angry with me for saying such mean things about it. Now the keyboard is randomly deciding to drop about every 30-40th letter as I type, meaning I have to type very slowly and constantly stop to correct it. GAH.

As an exampleof what my keyboardis doing now, I'm tping this sentence wthout stoping to corect anyof th problems. am hittingall th keys correctly to tpe thes sentences - the keyboard is ust randomly dropping charactres. (I'll start corecting aganiafter this sentence.) And occasionally transposing them as in "characters" and "again" back there.

(Edit: a Logitech wireless keyboard and a USB keyboard both work fine, so it's a (weird) hardware issue. Very discouraging and I've got an email and PM in to Justin at Xoticpc trying to get some help.)

 

I've put in an RMA to Xoticpc. Guess I'm not doing any benchmarks

 

Sorry to hear that, hope things work out.

 

Same question and completely agree with you. Sound is pure garbage. Where is the driver? Anyone know about this?

 

THX drivers :

Second one on the the list of drivers :
Software Upgrade

Direct link :
http://www2.sagernotebook.com/Sagernotebook/audio/06THX_61X5.exe

I bought my W170ER without OS and the THX drivers was listed on the optional drivers on the drivers cd. So didn't see it at first. It boosts the sound a lot. It's complete garbage without it.

 

I hope you get everything worked out, awesome impression you've done higher up

 

If any one is having sound issues, such as the sound being too quiet, please try the following:

Click on the Start Orb, select Control Panel > Sound. Double click on speakers, then click the enhancement tab and select Loudness Equalization and, if it is available, Equalizer. Click OK and exit out.

Post here if that helps your sound issues any. This is often overlooked and it can be done on any laptop with Windows 7 that I am aware of.

 

Tofino, Fantastic review. I lol'd at your two fan speeds.

Would it be possible for you to ensure that your keyboard is secured properly? It's a very quick job requiring a small Phillips Head screw driver and a little patience.

Just pop up your "Power Panel" you should be able to do this with your fingernails.

Then remove the 5 screws that are holding your keyboard down.

There should be tabs along the bottom and sides of the keyboard to make sure it doesn't move. Make sure these aren't broken.

 

I ordered my Sager NP6175, directly from the sager website and so far my experience has been pretty disappointing.

My computer arrived with my upgraded wireless card missing! And, 4 beautiful dead pixels, well one of them is stuck, but still. Pretty disappointing for a pricey custom computer that should be at the top of its line. And of course, I didn't get the dead pixel insurance. I'm almost thinking that Sager just sent me a refurbished computer.

Also, their customer support seems a little shady. They speak and type in very broken English, HP's people are miles ahead in communication.


I pretty split on returning for a full refund. What would you guys do in my situation? Is this normal?