Official Sager NP5165 / Clevo W150HR Owner's Lounge

I just got mine today!

So far I have one complaint. Im installing Starcraft 2 right now, and the CD drive is obnoxiously loud. Hearing it spin is forgivable but when the laptop is on a desk it rattles causing an annoying noise. It wont do it if my hands are off the machine and the screen is in the perfect position, but if I try to rest my hands on the laptop/type it rattles again. This is annoying. Luckily I don't use the CD drive that much but if I'm playing a game that requires the disc in.. well I guess ill crank up the volume.

 

Hey guys, was planning on getting this laptop and was just wondering on how the battery life was? With out gaming could you run this laptop to 6 hours? or is that not possible. I was planning on taking this laptop across campus and everything, mostly will game when im in the dorm and have my charger plugged in.

 

Has anyone tried installing Linux on this laptop? I heard that Optimus has problems with Linux. Will I be able to switch between the Intel HD and the 555m while using it?

 

No. As of right now, Nvidia has announced that they have no plans to support Optimus under linux. There is an unofficial workaround to enable it, but it is much harder on the battery than optimus would be under Windows. You'll be limited to the IGP only when using linux without the 3rd party drivers. Because they aren't official, there's no support in case the current creator stops updating, so linux support may not be a dependable option either way

 

any 3dmark06 would be appreciated. also how is the fan noise from this baby? does it ever oscillate between different fan speeds when idle? thank you

 

people were asking about gpu temps during gaming, my card is heating up to 77C running world of tanks.

 

Can anyone confirm for me please that this unit has a multitouch trackpad?

Thanks.

 

Its a synaptics multi-touch pad.

 

And it's pretty awful, IMO. Not as bad as my MSI GX740, but when you've previously used a MacBook Pro for 3 years, you tend to get a bit jaded.

It's hardly enough to be a deal breaker. The machine is pretty awesome otherwise.

 

ran it once, got 10534 score. fans turn up during prolonged heavy graphics, otherwise you hardly notice them when pc is idle. in most cases when pc is idle you're running on integrated graphics so no fans are even on.

 

Just joined your ranks as of yesterday!

XoticPC is a pleasure to deal with, very happy I went with them.

I originally had an m14x, but the system just wasn't satisfactory for my needs with the 42% gamut screen it has (yuck). It's funny because I'm usually a strong Alienware fanboy, but this time around Sager and XoticPC have put together a better package. The matte 1080p screen is like the icing on the cake.

Anyway, I look forward to receiving this thing.

How is the fit and finish? Does it "feel good" in the hands/to type on?

 

what cpu are u using?

 

Having used an Alienware M11x prior to this machine, I'd say the Sager/Clevo is a half step behind it in terms of overall solidity and build quality. Also not as good as a ThinkPad or MacBook Pro, but certainly better than the HP dv6, Lenovo IdeaPad Y460p, and my wife's Toshiba.

 

That's more or less what I'm expecting. Alienware is kind of in its own league when it comes to GAMING build quality.

However, I couldn't overlook the terrible display they slapped on that system. And at a $75 upgrade no less. Just not worth it for me to spend $2000 on a laptop with a bad display.

I'm also intrigued by the Optimus switch on this laptop. I've been looking for a way to disable Optimus completely, so when i need battery life I know there is nothing that will accidentally trip the card. Awesome feature, IMO.

 

Just press the VGA button (so that it's green). All your Optimus woes will go away. Sometimes you wish there was a 'discrete-only' option, but you find quickly that it's not necessary.

 

That's how it used to be and how I wish it remained. Now AMD has started to release its own automatic switching graphics driver, and lots of folks over in the HP Pavilion forum are having a whale of a time trying to get it to work. Though I suppose that's going to be the case with any "new" technology. NVIDIA at least has had a bit more time and experience in the matter.

I've only had a couple minor Optimus-related issues and even then they're with older games (think 1998-2001 era). They're not enough to break/ruin the experience, but it's stuff I wish NVIDIA would fix. It's actually been something of a pleasant surprise thus far.

 

Hi,

I'm coming from an M11X R1. I was wondering what kind of performance hit I'd be dealing with sticking with the default i5 over say, the i7-2630QM.

I don't mind sticking things on medium settings, but I'd like to know I can still get good framerates at 1920 x 1080.

I'm pretty set on getting one of these models, I'm just not sure whether it'd be worth it for the processor.

 

Welcome to the family!

Stay away from our crazy uncle Fred, and if you touch the turkey drumstick, we will have words.

But on topic: It's really rare to see someone change sides from AW over onto our humble Sager.

The processor is not going to affect your gaming all that much. What is much more important is going to be your GPU. Moving from your M11x to a Sager NP5165 is going to be quite a big jump, but you may not be able to play some of the latest games at 1080p, sorry.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Thanks for the welcome.

Yeah, it's all about the display. I need a machine with a display that can at least cover sRGB. I wasn't sure how good or bad the m14x's display was before I bought it. It ended up being pretty bleh.

 

Thanks for the advice. I had heard that the GPU would be the bottleneck between i7 models, and that one should only get the highest end ones for non-gaming purposes, as the GPU would hold it back.

I'm just wondering if the i7 would make all that much of a difference over the i5. If it's going to mostly have mostly the same performance in games on the i7 I'd rather save my money as the i5 has a chance of having slightly better battery life at the lower wattage.

 

i have i7-2630qm

 

How is the heat on this model?

Aside from the screen, the reason I went for the 5165 is because I've heard Clevo has great cooling. My m14x got a bit too hot for comfort.

Now of course I'm reading there have been cooling issues with the 5160....

I can't seem to win here. How are temps looking?

 

Well the left side is the warmest, but I would say that it doesn't get any hotter for discrete mode than it does for integrated. I ran SCII at extreme 1366x768 and it was never 'hot' per se. Not sure how to measure exact temps other than to check speccy once in a while, and even then it doesn't measure GPU temps. I do have to warn you that the left side vents spew out alot of hot air, so if you're a heavy left handed mouse user, you might want to consider another model/brand.

 

Thanks for the input.

Didn't necessarily mean tactile temperatures though. I'm talking about CPU/GPU temps internally. My m14x with 2720QM was hitting 95+ *C which was simply too hot for me to accept.

Reading through the 5160 owner's lounge shows similar temps, which is disappointing.

Sandy Bridge chips MUST be capable of running at these temps without degrading lifespan, because it seems any of the smaller laptops with these chips are running hot. I don't think vendors would be using them in the smaller laptops if getting this hot was a major concern. Someone please tell me i'm right.

 

The reason I need this model over an 8130 (which is a beautiful machine) is simply portability. While the 8130 IS a portable machine, I need the longer battery life and higher "tossability" present with this model.

With that means I won't have the luxury of using a notebookcooler like I do on my m17x R2.

So my concerns I think really boil (haha...no pun intended) down to whether or not I have to worry about frying something because the 5165 has a nuclear reactor inside.

 

I went through the same debate, but ultimately, the more-portable nature of the W150HR won out. I also have a kid on the way, which means far less time for gaming. That was another factor that caused me to pick this machine over the Clevo equivalent of the 8130.

As long as you select the IC Diamond thermal compound upgrade, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. I've finally had some more time to play with my machine. In Prime95 stress testing, the CPU gets to about 82 degrees, which is higher than you would see in normal day-to-day use (since the program runs eight threads). In gaming with the 555M GPU activated, there is even more heat. The fan gets a bit noisy, but it's pushing a fair amount of air. The air is quite hot as well, which is a good thing. The left side of the palm rest gets a bit warm when the system is stressed, but it's far from unbearable. I use an external mouse and keyboard the vast majority of the time anyway, so this isn't a bother in the least.

In all, the cooling system is probably not as efficient as an Alienware or one of the dual-fan Acer TimelineX machines, but it's more than up to the job.

 

Thanks a lot for the reassurance. There's still a slight chance I'm going to return and switch up to the 8130, but I'm hoping everything the 5165 is every bit as good as I've heard.

I have the funds right now to make sure my computer arsenal is current and sufficient for my needs, so after having already gone through an XPS (ultimately too weak on video performance, but not by much), an m14x (horrible screen, questionable temps), and now the 5165, I hope this is the machine I keep as my portable work monster.

 

how is the battery life with the core i5 model ? and im having trouble finding how thick is actually is

 

Thickness is listed on the specifications page for pretty much all the resellers who stock this model.

Get yourself a ruler if you want to know exactly how much that is.

 

I just got my np5165 from ReflexNotebooks.ca. I'm trying to install windows 7 64 bit on it using a usb HDD. When I try to install it, it gives me an error saying that "A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing." I have my SATA set to IDE mode in the BIOS

 

Are you running the installation USB from a non USB 3.0 port? (AKA, not one of the blue ones?). USB 3.0 won't let you install Windows because they require a driver to be installed first. It'll boot the USB to the launcher, but not actually install or do anything else.

 

Yes that fixed it. Thank you. Has anyone noticed that the USB 3.0 slots are a little tight? I had a little trouble taking out my USB from the 3.0 port, but it was easy with the 2.0 port.

 

all my usb ports are tight but the 3.0 does seem a little tighter.

 

Would you rather the ports be loose?

Mr. Mysterious

 

I'm having problems installing the webcam and Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers. The first one says that the camera is not found. The second one says that my system doesn't meet the requirements for the software.

 

The NP5165 is identical to the NP5160 except for a minor discrete GPU difference, which makes me wonder why there really needs to be a separate NP5165 owner's lounge. Should there also be a separate lounge for owners of NP5165's with 4 GB of memory and those with 8 GB of memory? Fragmenting the discussions is very detrimental to the information sharing that these forums are most useful for.

Now to your question: I have Linux installed on an NP5160 and it is possible to do two things:

1. Turn off the discrete GPU when not using it. This is very important because having the discrete GPU on even when it's not being used at all adds a constant ~ 10 degC to the temperature readings and means that the loud and annoying fan is on all of the time. With the discrete GPU turned off, the fan stays off during light activities like idling or reading non-flash web pages. It will come on if you put even a minor amount of load on the CPU but it will go off again when idle. When the discrete GPU is on, the fan will never go off. I can confirm that turning off the discrete GPU works perfectly under Linux. One thing to note: you'll have to do this every time you turn the machine on, including after a hibernate-resume cycle. But it's easy to automate this with scripts in the right places.

2. Switch to using the discrete GPU for a given application. You manually select when you run applications whether to use the discrete GPU or the integrated GPU. I have not tried this but I have seen Youtube demos of it and there are reports that it is confirmed to work on the NP5160. It uses what I consider to be a somewhat hokey technology - running a second X server on the discrete GPU without any direct display capability, then intercepting OpenGL commands for the primary server and directing them to the secondary server, then copying the color buffer bits back from the secondary server to the primary server. This is not as good as having the secondary card rendering directly to the display due to the overhead of redirecting the OpenGL instruction stream and of copying back the color buffer on every buffer swap/flush. But it works and it doubles performance (or so). And for all I know, this hokey technique could be the same thing that the Windows Optimus driver is using as well.

Because the NP5165 is identical to the NP5160 except for a GPU that has twice the memory and a minor clock increase, I would absolutely expect any technique that works on the NP5160 to work on the NP5165 too. EDIT: This is wrong. I learned today that the discrete GPU in the NP5165 has architectural differences also and is ~30% faster than that in the NP5160. Still, the point remains that the only difference between these two laptops is the discrete GPU, everything else is identical; and the two cards, both being Nvidia and very similar in architecture and probably using identical drivers, should work the same with respect to Linux.

Here is the link to the site that has the code and instructions for doing (1) and (2) above:

Linux Hybrid Graphics: More Bumblebee updates -- automatic switching with acpi_call

 

Hi guys, just wanted to say thanks for all the help you've been. I've been looking over this thread for the last week and have pretty much decided that I'm going to get this laptop. Question is, I don't really need the laptop until I'm off to college in late August, are there any better deals around back to school time or am I going to get the same price if I just buy it now? Just wanting to know based on past history on XoticPC if they ever offered back to school specials.

 

We usually have back to school offers when it gets closer to back to school. The only downside to waiting until then is stock levels can change quickly based on how many people are ordering for the same reason you are or others. If I can help with anything please don't hesitate to send me a PM.

 

you gotta turn the camera on. cam button next to the power button. then try.

 

30%? how do you figure?

 

"The GeForce GT 540M of the earlier XMG A501 lies far behind the GeForce GT 555M (+26%)"

Review Schenker XMG A501 Notebook (Clevo W150HRM) - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

Just check the FPS numbers on that same website. You will get around 30%.

 

Received my system over the weekend and got everything setup and transferred from my old system's drive. I am extremely satisfied with my purchase so far.

Just have one question, and a rather specific one. Is anyone using the Protector Suite 2009 software that came with this thing? I would really like to use it to register my credentials for internet sites in Google Chrome but this is not supported in the 2009 version. I've read that I should be able to download the Protector Suite 2011 installer, run it and let it update the software, then use the same license key for the 2011 version, allowing it to work with Google Chrome. But, I'm not sure where to find this license key. I didn't receive the software cd with the system. Just wondering if anyone has updated this or knows where I can find that license key.

Much appreciated!

 

With PS 2009 already installed, download and install PS 2011 over PS2009. That is really all there is to it.

 

Thanks for the help Justin, I'll keep that in mind. As far as Blu-Ray drives go, I think I read somewhere that software is included for playback but I'm not sure. Is software included and if so, is it better than some of that PowerDVD basic software that requires you to pay to upgrade in order to watch Blu-Rays?

 

software is included to watch blu rays. i had to reinstall once though after i had problems.

 

does this let you use finger software for firefox?

 

In your guys' opinion, do you think blu-ray in a laptop is worth it? I'm a big movie buff so I would definitely appreciate the increased quality, plus I have Netflix so getting the blu-rays wouldn't be that big a deal. However, I'm only going to be in a dorm room with this thing, although I do plan on buying a 23-inch Asus monitor to play games on and watch movies and TV. Seventy dollars isn't a lot of money but I just want to make sure I get what I'm paying for.

 

If you think you'll use it often enough, by all means get it.

 

I've never even used a Blu-ray player before so I don't know what the quality difference is in the first place. But I'm sure I will use it if it's there, just was wanting to know if on a 23-inch screen, the difference will even be noticeable.