**Official Sager NP5160 / Clevo W150HNQ Owners' Lounge**

4GB RAM (2x2GB) [Dual Channel] or 6GB RAM (2+4GB) [Single Channel]

Which one of them will provide NP5160 with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit a better performance?

 

augh, I know, is hard to buy a notebook in the dark. Look for this review of a similar notebook.

soap: definitely 6GB RAM.
I had the same doubt and found out that, since a while ago, Intel chipsets are able to handle asymmetric sodimm slots. It actually will use 2 GB from each slot as Dual Channel and the remaining 2 GB from one channel will be used as Single Channel.
Using Windows 7 superfetch, 6 GB should be of greater performance

Just make sure both 4 and 2 GB RAM are of same speed, latency, brand,... (as you would with regular old school Dual Channel)

 

I spoke with Mythlogic yesterday and my 5160 is supposed to ship today. I upgraded to overnight so I will let you know tomorrow

 

if the 5170 is any guide, then the case is a textured black plasticy substance that does not accummulate fingerprints or dust -- I like it
the hinge feels solid
it is a chicklet keyboard. takes some getting used to.
touchpad feels normal
frame seems rigid
lid doesn't latch, but rather has tension holding it down -- seems like just the right amount of tension holding it down too, not too much, not too little
one thing I am noticing is this thing is tending to stay cleaner than most laptops. fewer crevices, fingerprings, and less dust, crumbs, etc. accummulation

 

You can look in this forum on the 5125/5135. It uses the same chassis as the 5160. This is a good source of information till we get more people in here with actual machines in hand.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...-sager-np5135-clevo-b5130m-owners-lounge.html

 

Nice! Yeah I'm hoping for my tracking number today... too bad I didn't pick overnight shipping. That truck will take awhile to get from Michigan to California lol.

 

Hm, everything sounds good so far.
Before I pull the trigger and buy this, does anyone have any thoughts on comparable laptops?

From my searches, it seems like this is the best Sandy Bridge laptop that is under 6lbs. Are there any laptops that I should consider? Gaming isn't a big priority: I just want something relatively light (< 6lbs) with decent battery life (>4hrs), but with strong performance/future proof (Sandy Bridge). Anything between 14" and 15.6" is fine.

Also, do you think I'd hit any heat issues with the work I'm doing? A typical high load for me would be: Visual Studio open and compiling something, Photoshop running in the background, 4-12 Chrome tabs open, and a music player going.

Lastly, with that workload in mind, would you recommend: 4GB of 1600mhz RAM, or 8GB of 1333mhz? Unfortunately it appears that this laptop can't do 8GB of 1600.

 

I can't tell how its gonna be when you'll try to compile a huge project on Visual Studio, but every SB notebook I've seen (maybe the Sager NP8*** are exceptions) on this forum seems to be overheating by intensive multi-core processing

As of the RAM, go for 8GB 1333 MHz! No real gains with 1600MHz... check out

 

I ordered March 8 or somewhere around there. Just checked in, I'm expecting it around the end of the month (so shipping in another week - week and a half). So that's just about three weeks from order to ship. Pretty good! Obviously, wait time might be a little less now and continue to decrease. Some Resellers on this board have said they are pretty close to being caught up with pre orders.

 

Just an update on mine, I got a "confirm your order" email today which I responded to. I reckon this means it will hit phase 2 soon .

edit: ordered Mar 3

 

In terms of comparable laptops, I'm definitely liking the new Sony Vaio CB series. Its roughly the same price as the 5160 BUT the processor is an i5 instead of the i7... and you'll HAVE to buy win 7 pro for $50 bucks more if you want Sony to not install all their freakin' bloatware.

 

So, if you dont NEED the i7, get an i5 and your laptop will runn cooler.

 

I'm not sure if that's the case all the time. For a system under load, yes I would agree with you. However, at idle the improvement of the power management and thermal output due to the SBridge architecture would make the thermals at everyday usage pretty comparable across the board.

If someone gets the computer with an i5 maybe they can post temps to verify this.

 

Yeah, I'm eager for some numbers to compare those

 

Is there any software out there that'll control the performance of the laptop based on my current preferences? Like could I set a max temperature or max power usage, and it'll throttle the components to meet those requirements?

 

If you read through this thread I think it suggests that the heat is caused mostly by TurboBoost being too aggressive along with inadequate laptop cooling. The i5s can run pretty dang high with TurboBoost, so I think the temps might be a wash. At least, thats what I gleaned from that thread.

 

Makes sense. No different than running your car at full throttle, then backing off to maintain speed, but cooling it down too.

 

Is the 2.0 megapixel camera a HD camera, for skypeing for example

 

Just hit phase 2 with xotic! Must be burning the midnight oil over there!

 

^ Same here. 6-12 workdays

So close

Yet so far away

 

I was at Best Buy today, and Samsung has their new model out this very comparable to the 5160. Found Here

 

what a rip off!
heauhauehaue

It has a lame 1366 screen

 

Yeah, I stopped looking at that Samsung when I read:
With 1366 x 768 resolution

Any 15" or bigger laptop that is over 800 bucks should, by default, be at least 1600 x 900. Not just for the increased real estate, but also just because a higher resolution screen tends to be higher quality in general.

I would add to that: 5400 RPM hard drive? Seriously, is it THAT much more expensive to put in a 7200RPM drive since I think Samsung actually manufactures hard drives to begin with.
Also, a 525m video card is not the same thing as a 540m.

 

Not only is a 525M not the same as a 540M, it doesn't even have optimus as far as I'm concerned.

Case closed.

Mr. Mysterious

 

I'm not sure about the quality of plastic used in Sager 5160 but many users @ NBR say it has traditional plastic and Dell XPS15 has aluminum. Need your comments

 

This means sager np5160 has more heating problem than dellxps15?

 

Agreed. You won't find a res higher than 1366 in a store. Especially not a 7200 RPM drive. I don't really understand why 5400 RPM haven't been phased out by now *shrug*

It has Optimus. Not sure why it doesnt say so on the website. And performance wise I don't think there's any real difference between the 525 and 540


For a store sold laptop, I think its pretty good.

 

I won't say that the amount of aluminum on XPS 15 would impact on the cooling efficiency...
It's more a matter of fan, vents size/location and interior design.

As I've seen the XPS (across my pc screen) it seems to have quite similar cooling capacity as the Sager 5160. Actually, any difference would depend on the fan quality and that I don't have a clue.

 

Actually, I've been hearing rumors that the new XPSes are running quite hot even on idle. It was enough for me to turn away from them and towards the legendary cooling abilities of Clevo machines.

Mr. Mysterious

 

It's all plastic.

The back of the screen and around the screen is glossy. It does have a tendency to pick up fingerprints. I'm still waiting for my shipment from DecalGirl
Around the keyboard is textured matte plastic.

It has a moderate feel to it. Strong enough to hold the screen at most angles, but not terribly strong.

I think it feels pretty good. I've seen people complain in reviews, but I don't know what their comparison is. This feels better than non-chicklet style keyboards I've used on other laptops, a Dell and an Asus.

The touchpad is textured, not smooth as I'm used to, but it works fine. The buttons don't have a lot of travel, but they seem fairly responsive.

There is a little bit of give to the frame, but only a little bit. It is plastic, after all.

There's no latch; it feels likes the hinge is designed to keep it closed when it's closed.

There are small crevices, but for what it's worth, my old lappy (Inspiron 9400) was much worse.

 

@tim sloane

pics would be nice

 

Man I can't wait for my laptop, it will smoke my desktop! I won't be able to have time to post on this forum while waiting for photoshop to do something with a 500MB+ file once I finally get it

 

The back of the screen (top of laptop when closed) is not glossy on the 5170. I would be surprised if the 5160 has the glossy (fingerprint magnet) type exterior. I prefer the matte finish on the 5170.

 

Man, how many layers do you work with? That's a crazy big file. Usually I don't exceed 200MB with some smart objects and a bunch of layers. No wonder you need an upgrade . I look forward to seeing your real world benchmarks.

 

I just got my 5160 yesterday
im so stoked
im sooo tired of my 4+ year old black macbook
I mean I still love it, but I can't handle 80 C when playing a youtube video

so here is temps at idle (kinda, since sc2 was updating as well)

I'll see about getting temps during gameplay later (hopefully today)

 

Below 50 ºC!
Not bad!

Do you have special thermal paste on it? What's your processor?

Thanks!

 

Its the 2630qm
and yeah, i shelled out an extra 20 for the IC diamond

I'm recording the temps during a normal work day (word, excel, remote desktop, et al.) to get a better understanding of how hot i gets under a light load

I'll see how it performs while gaming (sc2, 12?? x 720, mediam res) after work

 

Nice.
A brief qualitative review will be much appreciated!
Thanks!

 

I don't know the number, but the file is also 20"x8" 300dpi. Biggest Photoshop file I have from working on this picture book is 730MB. Needless to say, its a bit unruly with an Athlon X2 6000, though the real bottleneck is the 4GB of ram

 

aww crap is it really a big deal if i have the 1366 x 768, because i didn't think to upgrade that and my order just got moved into phase 2 for xoticpc. will the difference be extremely noticable? My current desktop has 1680x1050 resolution. Will i be able to play sc2 on high with 1366 x 768

 

Ok, so my 5160 finally has arrived and I have it booted.

First off, specs:

Purchased from Mythlogic the following

Pollux 1411
Full HD 1080P Glossy
2720QM
8gigs pc3-10600 2x sodimms
128 gig corsair performance 3 ssd
centrino advanced 6230 N wireless
win 7 professional

Boot time was incredibly fast. I have totally fallen in love with SSD's after just 10 minutes with this machine.

Installed MS office professional. Installed some of the apps for my firm.

Have not been able to tax the cpu. Machine is whisper quiet. When the fan is on, its not very noticeable at this time under light load, you can hear it but its totally not obnoxious at all.

Glossy screen is gorgeous. Very bright, and in my office under office lighting, I have not noticed glare problems. Since I won't be using this outside, the glossy is ok so far for me.

Screen is not latched. Feels sturdy however. Screen exterior is semi-glossy, there is some flex, but not terrible. Hinges for the screen have good tension on movement. Fingerprints are somewhat noticeable on the exterior. Other half of the shell is a matte finish. Feels very solid. Some flex to the keyboard that i could notice, but its not major if you're not banging on it. Keys feel good to me in regards to typing. spacing is ok. nice having the num pad included.

After having the machine running under light load, the exterior temp of the shell is no warmer than room temp. I will see about trying to tax the system a little more tomorrow and will let you know if I can feel any additional heat on the exterior (both top & bottom).

So far, very very happy. It really is a sexy beast.

Regards

 

Smaller resolution is actually better for gaming FPS.

It's bad for everything else...

 

I'm gonna try out sc2 in a bit
but for now here's speedfan chart under light load
don't know why the left side is all weird, but whatever

Build Quality/Overall Feel of chasis
I don't see anything wrong with the build quality. There is some flex on the screen part, but it doesn't affect the screen itself. (i have the glossy full HD screen)
on a side note, I miss 16:10 laptops. 16:9 just seems so long. Im getting used to it, but i want that real estate back.

Screen quality
I freaking love this thing.
My macbook (13 inch) is matte and was 1280 x 800. It had such a small amount of area to work on and the brightness was pretty bad.
but this baby.
Freak.
ing.
Love.
It.
the Windows text is fine (default is 125% dpi), although web browser text/images are small. Easily fixed by zooming in (I use a mouse, so I ctrl scroll, but you can pinch zoom with touchpad)
But since I'll eventually use this guy for solidworks, the extra space will be awesome.

Keyboard/touchpad
there's this weird springiness with the keys, but it makes it "feel" responsive cause it snaps back and makes a loud click. Although when typing fast, sometimes a button doesn't register, but I do that all the time on any keyboard so it may not do it for you.
layout is weird for me since i used a 13 in macbook for so long, but it's not a turn off or anything. I'm slowly getting used to it.
the touchpad has a matte finish, not unlike what my macbook USED to have (it's smooth now from so much use). Also the buttons are a little to sensitive and sometimes I don't feel a response from it (again, I'm using a mouse, so it doesn't bother me, but I had decided to use one before even placing my order for this laptop back in jan)

Temps/noise
I have speedfan results for idle (sc2 updating in background) and light load (microsoft office stuff, wifi, web browsers, remote connection). Average seems around 45 C for the most part.
When playing sc2 on medium (except physics, which is cpu dependent, on high), temps varied, but averaged around 80 C. FPS was 60 for the most part. Sometimes dropped to 45, but only briefly.
At idle/light load the fans are more quiet than the dvd-drive. But when the dGPU turns on (which it does during startup for some reason and occasionally during normal use, as indicated by the LEDs up top) the fan kicks it up to audible, but so far tolerable levels.
Even while playing sc2, fan wasn't enough to mask speakers (interfered a little) set at 14%.

Other Comments
Overall I'm loving this computer so far. Two things though, I forgot to reformat my hard drive, since i think a partition is made for windows recovery or something. It's 35 gigs, which is NOT a small amount. And now that I've gotten almost all the programs I want, I hesitate to do it now. But I do seem to remember there being some programs that can resize/add partitions without reinstalling stuff. Second, for some reason the computer wouldn't wake back up this one time. It did before, but wouldn't this one time. I had to forcibly restart the computer, then it wouldn't switch to the iGPU. So I restarted normally. Then everything came back. It was kinda strange.

I realize that I used weird a lot when typing this up

probably won't update this again anytime soon.
I'll probably get black ops soon.
I don't think it will do worse than sc2 to be honest.
I'll update this then.

edit: added idle speedfan again. Just in case.

edit 2: added speedfan for sc2

 

Just wondering, when i get this new laptop, how would i go about transferring all my programs (sc2, ventrilo, etc), files, saved pages and stuff like that?

 

Levin70 and Cocci852 (what's about with the number after the name? )

Thanks for the impressions!
So far just good news

 

Enjoy your laptops people! I'm wondering how the 540M will be able to handle Batman Arkham Asylum, under what settings...it really is an excellent game.

On that not, Batman Arkham City should be mind-blowing, if they keep it up. I've seen the trailers and it's going to be amazing! Long wait though =/

Mr. Mysterious

 

I'm looking forward to the new Duke Nukem!

Do you think 540M will handle it?

 

Mayyyyybe 720p, low at best? I dunno, I'm just guessing but it's fun to speculate!

Mr. Mysterious

 

updated my previous post a bit.
it's not definitive, but temps seem to hover around 80 C
btw, I was playing the single player campaign "In Utter Darkness" cause there are a crap load of units fighting at once.
FPS was 60 (sometimes dropped to 45)

annoyingly, windows always complains about non optimal screen resolution when I quit sc2, even though resolution didn't change in windows.
I guess it's cause sc2 is set to 1280 x 720

 

80C is kinda high, even on load. Are the fans on full blast? As in, did you hit Fn+1?

Mr. Mysterious