Official Sager NP5165 / Clevo W150HR Owner's Lounge

So I am thinking about the NP5165 a little more now that the graphics switching on the HP dv6t is not fixed yet.

However, reading through the many posts, the following problems seem more than rare.

1. Heat sink still the same old. Thus, getting too hot.
2. Optimus creates problem with not always being on when the user wants it on.
3. Keyboard stinks

Also, at $1300 bucks for similar specs to an HP, it seems ridiculous. $250 more really for what? There any type of coupons out there? Any reseller better than another? And any other major iffys about this laptop from the owners?

 

Don't bet on coupons. You're paying more for the quality customer service and stellar support than anything when you buy from a Sager reseller. Besides, an HP dv6tqe has the HD 6770m card, which is only comparable, not better than the GT 555m.

 

6770m is faster than the 555m in the M14x which is a higher end 555m than in the NP5165. That being said, the 6770m in the DV6t so far can not overclock and reverts to the IGP for OpenGL stuff. So those are the tradeoffs.

But what is average overclock for the 555m in the NP5165 and Vantage and / or 3DMark 11 scores? Thanks.

 

So no heat problem? Any other quirks that been showing up with this laptop? And do they have a different lid designs? The generic Sager one is well, ehh.

 

Well, I have two questions for the other W150HR owner:

1st: I think I may have some overheating problems with my W150HR:



The room temperature was at 27 celcius. The max temp were obtained while playing Modern Warfare 2. Are theses normal?


2nd: I saw 4 pages back that a new bios was out, has anyone flashed it successfully ? What are the major charges ?
EDIT 09/07/2011 : I successfully flashed my bios following this guide: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/416916-clevo-bios-thread.html

I will give the other users some feedback on it ASAP.

 

How does the gt555 fare with games at 1080p (particularly witcher 2)? Is it likely most new games would have to played on low?

Also anyone got experience with Kobalt in the UK? I've read some dubious things about their delivery times.

 

I'm thinking of buying a barebones version of this comp and putting in an ES version of an i5. How hard do you guys think it is to open up the comp and out in a new processor? I've never done it before.

 

I'd just like to say, again, I absolutely love this machine.

thank you for your time.

 

Spend the extra $100 or whatever it is for a real i5 rather than stealing from Intel.

 

Honestly, at barebone specs, I've had no problem with any games I tried at 60FPS. Of course, I tend to turn anti aliasing off, but all other settings are pretty much maxed. I haven't tested much so far, and I guess the games I've used aren't all that demanding..

I've tried Dead Rising 2, NFS Hot Pursuit (newer one) and UT3. None have even caused this unit to break a sweat.

As said before, I practically had no upgrades whatsoever.

Now, I suppose if you're the type that absolutely needs 16x FSAA in their games and the highest shadow quality and post processing in every game imaginable, you might have some slowdowns. But as far as most things go, I'd say 90% of the games out there right now are more than playable, especially considering the majority are coded towards the specs of the PS3 and XB360 anyway.

Edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaYGmnJnBfs Witcher 2 footage on np5165

 

Is XoticPC the only place that sells this?

 

No, all of the Sager Resellers have it. Here is a list of recommended resellers: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...ler-info-read-before-posting.html#post7677633

We don't list this model on our site, but we can special order it for customers.

 

After reading through all the posts, I think I'm ready to buy the NP5165. I've had my Inspiron 9300 for 6 years fullspec'd and I'm really gonna miss some of the features (sub, front media keys, rear ports), but for my price range the 5165 is the best I'm gonna get.
Having said that, I'm a lefty mouser, and someone earlier said there's alot of hot air blowing from that side. Granted my mouse wont be right against the edge of the laptop, but will it really be a huge discomfort?

 

I would say the discomfort zone is about 2-3 inches from the point of the fan.

Considering you'll probably have stuff plugged into the USB on this side anyway, you probably wont be close enough for it to matter.

That being said, if you ARE close enough it will be pretty bad.

Edit: scratch 2 to 3, probably more like 1 to 2.

 

That's a relief. I was also wondering about the audio card/interface. Currently on my Inspiron 9300 I have an Audigy 2 ZS pc card which is interfaced to the Orange/Green/Black lines that run to my z5500 sound system.

The 5165 only has a SPDIF out port, and no pc/express slot, so am I gonna be stuck having to use the SPDIF to utilize the z5500s?

 

Anyone replaced thermal paste on a W150HRM? I wanna do both the cpu and gpu, assuming they are not too deeply burried.

I'd love to see anyone's results/disassembly instructions. (Search finds no result for thermal in this thread, which I find highly dubius, but I did try to search before posting!).

 

You have options, but none are what I'd call 'ideal'

There are many external USB Sound cards out there, nice fancy ones but they take up extra space.

Considering you probably don't take your surround sound system with you, I don't see how having one extra brick would be too much of an issue.

Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 - Google Search

And this is a subjective thing, so don't mind me if I'm being redundant, but in my opinion, a nice pair of sennheisers will offer a superior audio experience for personal listening. If you plan to use your surround sound for entertainment for a party or something on the other hand, my point is invalid.

http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD555-Professional-Headphones-Channeling/dp/B0001FTVDQ

 

What's the heat like on these machines?
How hot does it get-does it reach scorching temps like 100+ on the 8xxx series?

 

I just ordered mine.
How long does it take to get to my house?
And will they just drop it on my door, or do I have to sign something before they give it to me?

And what do people think of the weight / portability?
And the Seagate Hybrid SSD?

 

Hasn't gone above 80 for me yet.

 

so, which crippled 555m is better?

the 128-bit gddr5 96sp one in the lenovo y570 or the 128-bit ddr3 144sp one in the np5165?

 

It's 128-bit with 144 pipelines. It's better than the one in the Y570.

But don't get the Y570 anyway, the screen resolution is terrible.

 

I wouldn't get the hybrid; in practical use, a WD Scorpio Black will do the job fine, and reliably I must say. The speed difference between the two is negligible, and unless you are booting up your computer every time you come back to it, there's really no point in showing off low boot time.

 

do you think i can get away with an i5-2410m, standard screen, and standard wireless or are there a bunch of must-have upgrades?

 

The standard screen is still really good compared to most laptop screens, and the i5 is plenty unless you have a specific need for one of the upgraded processors.

Just make sure you select an OS unless you have a copy or are buying from a reseller that includes the OS by default.

 

Better yet, if you're upgrading from another laptop, simply swap your old one into this one, and save money by telling them to omit the hard drive. Then uninstall/install the respective drivers (you should easily find instructions on how to do this online). Nobody has blammed me yet for suggesting such a thing.

I would also suggest upgrading to Advanced N-6230. Dual band, 300Mbps will adequately cover future needs without sacrificing Bluetooth. And it's cheap.

 

I've had both in the same machine. The hybrid is noticeably better, though part of that may also be the 32 MB cache versus the Scorpio's 16 MB. Of course, for about the price of the 500 GB Momentus XT hybrid you can get a 750 gig Scorpio Black...

 

Looking at the layout of the laptop I really wish I was right-handed, darn it. The left side is full of vents and ports while the right side is clear with the cd drive . I'll grow to love very soon I'm sure. Plus I'll mainly be doing 3dsmax/modeling work on an external monitor so I guess it wont be much of an issue.

 

Screw that, I use Linux.

 

Then I hope you don't have any intention of using the discreet GPU because Optimus isn't, nor will likely ever be, officially supported by NVIDIA. Someone's working on a hack, but it's pretty much alpha-grade software.

 

bah nevermind

 

this is so frustrating

not sure how much money i should put into the np5165

 

As I've said earlier in this thread. I went with base specs aside from the hard drive and it performs every bit as much as I need it to. I rarely see it ever skip on high to max settings on any game thats pretty much 2010 or before.

Considering most games still are ported towards the same hardware as they did 3 years ago, due to xbox 360, you won't have any problem with the i5.

I strongly doubt you'll be disappointed. The 'cheap' screen aint half bad either, I assure you. It's still better than any laptop screen I've had thus far.

Basically, I'm pretty sure it'll run any game aside from Witcher 2, metro, or Crysis 2 more than adequately, and even those are perfectly playable.

 

would the 2630qm improve gaming performance in non-cpu intensive games?

how about machine longevity?

 

Wouldn't really know. It's all speculative on my part, but I've noticed very little CPU bottlenecking on the stock processor when gaming. I also run XP mode virtualization with no problems

Additionally, I think the lower rating of the base processor may help in regards to heat and battery life.

Basically, you're not getting this machine for power. It's pretty powerful on it's own but if you upgrade the crap out of it you're going to building it into something it wasn't meant to be. The cooling system probably wasn't built with i7 quads in mind.

As far as longevity is concerned, getting a higher processor may allow it to run maybe a small things of amount later on, but I doubt the difference is going to be that noticable. A lower rated processor however, should put out less heat like mentioned above and therefore should last longer before crapping out.

 

IMHO, quad core is the way to go. You will get a little better battery life and less heat from the quad core, but it has been shown (will try to dig up link) that the quads don't burn much more power while idle or light loads than the dual cores. Most apps and games now are being written to be multi-threaded and take advantage of multiple cores. Heck this time next year there will be quad core low voltage CPU's. It's just the way CPU's are heading. If you don't play very intense games or have basic computing needs then dual core will be fine. But I would go for the quad core if it were me.

 

All truth, however, I would think that if someone's going for a quad core, it'd be a better idea to get something like the 8130 where you had a full system designed around that threshold.

The problem is still that the 5165 and 5160 are designed with only one heatsink/fan. I see a lot of posts regarding this laptop from people with an i7 and they're a whole lot of complaints about the heat. Yet, I see almost no complaints from people who got an np5165 with the dual core i5.

After going through the purchase myself and having the same debate whether I wanted to go with the more powerful one, I chose the base specs, as I was running short on money at the time.

After seeing the nature of the posts regarding the heat, and the CPU's of the people who had those complaints, it really leaves me wondering if there was any QA done whatsoever with this case with the i7 set ups, it could have been that they just tested it with the i5's, said heat is no issue and called it a day.

Just my humble opinion that if you're gonna go for a super powerful system, you will probably want to buy a decent cooling system to go with it.

 

Well systems are designed with a specific TDP, and if it can manage both the GPU and CPU within the TDP design limit, then it should be fine. That being said, it can also mean that CPU and GPU can run near max temps within that design threshold. So if they're running at 85-90C it's still ok, albeit not acceptable in my book.

I am surprised by this though since Sager is known for their awesome cooling systems.

 

Exactly. It was tested and it SHOULDNT go over 90 under normal use with the higher processors, but it's hardly ideal. I do know the i5 I'm using Tj Max is 100.

Still, if you read throughout this thread you'll find the biggest complaint is with the heat, and all those who are complaining about it that I've seen at least, are using the quad cores rather than the base config.

Lastly, I just want to say whatever config you get with this unit, it's still going to outperform your average mid-range laptop, especially because most of them are using integrated chips or lower end midrange gfx chips anyway. At least this should be true when it comes to games. There's also the far more obvious issue of the majority of laptops in the 15.6 range going with 1366x768 resolutions. Unacceptable.

 

Does this laptop have UEFI booting support?

 

A little question about the heat, a lot of people are saying that it gets too warm ,but is that jus the internal temps or does it also get uncomfortably hot, to the touch? And if so, in what areas?

 

My machine was never uncomfortably hot, but it did get warm on the palm rest to the left of the touchpad. I wasn't crazy for the way the cooling design had all the hot air leaving the chassis from the left side, right below the USB ports. Since all the air from the P151HM1 (NP8130) gets exhausted out the back, there's no problem with any of the above.

 

Well, the problem with the high temp is mostly due to the fan speed being always set to "medium" until the cpu core temp goes near 90 celcius (the common heat-sink for the CPU+GPU make the GPU temp low while giving all the heat to the cpu)...

The Sager model shouldn't have this problem because they seem to be able to force max fan speed with Fn +1 key.

With a notebook cooler, my cpu idles arout 50 celcius while browsing the internet.

 

Excuse me has anybody considered overclocking the GT 555m GPU?

I saw a gt 555m overclocking thread on Dell XPS laptop and I wonder if we can overclock it on NP5165?

 

50C is high just for web browsing, of course depending on ambient temperature. If you're outside in the 100F heat like we've had lately, well it'd be understandable. But inside that's 75F or lower, you should be idling 40C.

 

just placed my order to join the sager family from xoticpc! first time i've gone away from a major brand. sooo looking forward to my new system:

Sager NP5165 = $1,353.00
-15.6" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Anti-Glare Screen w/ 95% NTSC Color Gamut (1920x1080)
-2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM, 2.0-2.8GHz
-Thermal Compound IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
-nVidia GT 555M 2048MB PCI-Express GDDR3 DX11 with Optimus™ Technology
-8,192MB DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS)-
-500GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache)
-6X Blu-Ray Read/8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive
-Memory Card Reader Internal 4-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO)
-Wireless Network Intel® Advanced-N 6230 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module + Bluetooth
-Camera Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
-Sound Card Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
-Fingerprint Reader Integrated Fingerprint Reader
-Warranty 3 Year Labor 1 Year Parts, Lifetime XOTIC PC 24/7 Toll Free Telephone Tech Support

 

I am considering purchasing this laptop. I was wondering how its size compares to other 15.6" laptops I would find in Best Buy. Do many of you carry it in a backpack? Can several books and this laptop all fit together? I may go with the the NP5160, but figure the dimensions are all the same when comparing to the NP5165.

Also, I thought I read on these forums if you PM a certain person who represents Sager, they may offer discounts to people on these forums. Is this true?

Sigh, I miss the 15.4" laptops. I know .2 is not that much bigger, but the small difference just makes these laptops seem a tad to big for carrying around. Unfortunately with HP not releasing a quality refresh to the Envy 14, I can't find any well built 14" laptops with some graphics power.

 

I just got my NP5165 and it is great, very light, but also sturdy. I got it with the i7 2720qm, my only complaint is that it runs how. Idle with step speed enabled sits at about 48c. Prime 95 got upto 90 but then I used the fn+1 trick and that helped a lot. I asked the rep at XoticPC about it and he said it was average because of the power or a gaming laptop crammed into a mobile form factor. I haven't tried fur mark on it yet, but my EVGA overclock utility does overclock the gt 555.

 

While I love the idea of crazy powerful laptops, the amount of heat the generate concerns me. I want my laptop to last a long time, and heat is like the plague for laptops. I would consider gt540m for this reason alone.

Then again, for portability and durability I am highly considering a T420. Just wish at least the screen was better.

But that is good to hear it feels light. Would it be fair to say that it is much better built than a normal consumer laptop. I have never handled a Sager, so I am trying to get as good a feel for what they are like as I can.

 

Well, the GT555 and the GT540 are built differently; the GT555 has 144 cores, each at slower clocks, while the GT540 has 96 cores with fast clocks. So heat mileage may vary.

By the way, you guys might want to hold off on the rather expensive 2720QM upgrade, the 2760QM (2.4 Ghz) is coming up the end of this year.