Official Sager NP8130/Clevo P151HM1 Owners Lounge

I'll be doing a review of the 8130 next week once mine arrives with pictures!

(well, hopefully next week. I opted for overnight shipping so I wouldn't have to wait an extra 5 business days)

 

Yes!! So excited. Got the confirmation today. They're about to put mines into production once, the transfer goes. The long wait is over my friends.

 

Its HERE !!!!!

 

PICTURES!!!!!!

 

Can somebody confirm that the newer 8130's are not experiencing the "random freezing" that everybody is talking about? Or that this problem has been fixed? (Only thing keeping me from buying this rig)

 

me

Congrats on getting yours! Review! Review! Review!

Is there a reason why people don't attach the pictures on NBR instead of uploading them on imageshack or something?

I ordered my NP8130 on Feb 8, I'm hoping mine gets here for the weekend next week.

 

Congrats on your machine! Glad to see they're shipping finally!

Regarding attachments at NBR, I don't think you can post images inline using NBR attachments, they all go at the bottom of the post.

 

Downloading starcraft II could be the most annoying thing I've ever done in my entire life
As for the review, I'll finish it sometime tomorrow at the latest. Keep in mind there might or might not be pictures. It's more of a extensive impressions/opinions/quirks/minor irks, etc. I'll try to take some, but all I have is a phone and its annoying to get them on a computer. But so far everything is going smoothly.

Also, might not mean much since I've only had it for 2.5hrs, I haven't had any freezes either. I'll mention that also tomorrow. Right now, I'm still in the "new laptop" mode

Edit: For anyone worried about the screen, it is gorgeous. I admit, that I had a crappy one before, but this is very bright for my taste, even with the laptop on battery.

 

Hooray for the bright matte screen!!! I really don't want a crappy screen since I paid over a thousand for this laptop lol. And 2.5 hours without crash is a good sign too! Keep us updated with the good news buddy! Enjoy your new laptop! Hey.. btw are you gonna overclock the GTX460M and see how fast it could go and at what temps?

Fraps of SC2 on ultra 1080p overclocked GTX460M would be sweeeet. Right guys? I would like to know some real fps numbers of this beast instead of only stuff from Notebookcheck lol.

 

I'm trying to put my order in with PCTorque and Paypal's system will not let me make a payment via eCheck... Ah... the torture... :-(

 

Because you have a credit/debit card in your paypal account. Contact them and ask for an alternative.

 

Just in case some do not know...

"To do a PayPal eCheck you need to have ONLY your checking account linked to PayPal. If you have a credit card linked the PayPal eCheck method does not work, you would have to remove your cards from PayPal at least for this transaction. The PayPal eCheck option will not even appear unless just your checking account is linked."

 

Congrats on your machine!

Sounds like you're the first person (on NBR at least) to get one since they started shipping again. Can't wait for your review (even though I'm getting the 8150)

 

... Oh my goodness if this works, thank you. I wish the PCTorque support email told me that. Let me go check.

EDIT: Apparently I can't remove my credit card because I have an authorization in progress... -_- This whole jumping through hoops thing is getting to me.

 

an instant transfer works as an echeque as well.. it just uses a credit card as a backup in case the bank transfer fails. the fees are the same too.

 

An eCheck through Paypal only costs $5, while an instant bank transfer has regular Paypal transaction fees, so if he's doing an eCheck for a cash price, then an instant bank transfer will not be the same thing as an eCheck.

Also, it is true that you must remove all credt/debit cards before you can send an eCheck through Paypal.

 

Ah, didn't know that they changed that as well. They sure have made a lot of changes to the PayPal fee structure since I worked at eBay a few years ago.

 

Put a review up! Enjoy!

 

I had some trouble with eChecks, too..

unfortunately, I can't remember what exactly the reason was why I couldn't do eChecks..
at some point the option was just there.. might be I just oversaw it...

Anyway.. I only have a debit card linked to the account.. nothing else.. and was able to pay via paypal echeck..

 

Who else is in the 2720qm club for this machine? (seeing just about all 2630 in people's sigs) I can't wait to get mine, Malibal said end of this week it should be shipped out . I haven't had a computer since before Christmas, but I withheld from getting a 1st gen i7 while the recall happened.

/pats self on back.

 

Not sure how or why, but mine shipped on Friday after ordering Feb 28. Will arrive on Wednesday the 16th. Woo!

 

:O Wonder if the demand for the 8130 was less than the demand for the 8150.

 

I'm in the 2720QM club Could not resist the bang for buck with that upgrade.
Also shipping next week.

 

What?? I ordered mine on Feb 8 and I haven't even heard anything about it going into production or something like that.

 

Lucky !!
I ordered mine on Feb 5th and haven't heard anything beyond an initial update of "it should ship in the next few weeks"...

So unfair, but good for you

 

How much battery life are you guys getting with settings at minimal?

The wait is absolute torture, ugh. Only 5-6 more days until it's in my hands

Downloading WoW, Rift, SC2, C&C4 and Battlefield is going to take 24hrs~ lol

 

I have to say for the laptop of this power, the battery life of 3hrs is great. As for the downloading, SC2 took all night. I don't know if it was my connection or something, but it took forever.

 

I don't think all resellers tell you it's going into production. They just tell you when it ships. You're should be in production since I ordered mine Feb 8th as well and my reseller told me mine should be shipped by next Tuesday.

EDIT: On second thought, can't be sure since I ordered an 8150 and you ordered an 8130. Not sure which one's more popular.

 

The stats contradict themselves

I'd say the 8150 is more popular due to the upgrade options, but thats just me.

I was disappointed that the 8130 wasn't rubberized because I absolutely love it, however a reseller on Youtube said they rubberized the entire touchpad and wasn't pleased with it at all. That right there is a turn off from the 8150 (for me at least), and reaffirms my confidence in the 8130 as well as me making the right choice.

 

The screen pretty much sold me on the NP8130.. I'd much rather have a matte screen than a glossy.

 

You can opt for the matte on the NP8150 though.

 

Sure, but at a $200 price premium on top of the 8150's already higher cost for the sake of a different finish and the ability to upgrade the graphics card at some point down the road.. it wasn't a difficult decision for me, personally.

 

Oh, my reseller offered the upgrade for AUD$99 (USD$99). Too tempting not to pass up!

 

Service Manual now available in my sig

Linky

 

I think it was already posted in this thread, but I can't find it..

Since this has a SIM slot on the motherboard, will it be possible to install a cellular modem? I see where you can plug in a mini-PCI Express card on the bottom, but the slot is marked as a factory option..

 

Thanks! +Rep

 

Mini PCIe! presumably you could plug in one of Intel's SodaCreek SSDs? If so would it be bootable? Also, if there is an empty miniPCIe SIM, where is the wireless card?

 

Hey guys, I'm thinking of getting an NP8130. Is there a specific retailer that you recommend? I'm really on a tight budget and so far XOTICPC has the lowest price I have seen at $1,172. Is there any Sager refurbished outlets that you are aware of? Thanks in advance, these systems seem to be the real deal. I would assume the BIOSes are full featured and not crippled like notebooks from Sony or entry level Dell notebooks?

 

PM all the retailers for a quote. XoticPC, LPC-Digital, Powernotebooks.com for Sager resellers. MALIBAL and mythlogic for Clevo rebrands.

Unless you live in Canada where that is another list of companies. The ones I know of are Aikimox and ReflexNotebook

As for the BIOS, its the most basic thing I'd seen in my life. A five year could use it to its full extent.

 

Unfortunately for you, the BIOS isn't so great. But Sager/Clevo constantly update their BIOS with new releases that add extra functionality, so be sure to check around later.

 

There are two mini PCIe slots. One is used for a wireless LAN modem, and the second slot is optional. The socket may or may not be present on these units.

The SIM card slot is soldered to the motherboard just underneath where the wireless LAN card plugs in.

You can see where the slots are in the service manual that theriko posted above.

 

Thanks hispeed, I really appreciate the help. Sounds like the BIOS is simple as many notebooks are. I am just used to the Dell Precision BIOS where you can do everything from disable hyper threading to individual ports on the computer if needed. I am really more interested in this screen as I see that it is a 1080P Matte screen from AU Optronics. I have heard good things from that brand in their high end parts and seeing the pictures in the previous thread posts it looks to be one awesome screen. My notebook choices are sort of limited in that I am trying to stay away from Nvidia Optimus to be honest since I have read of so many problems and incompatibilities that may or may not be fixed in the future. The complaints I have seen have been many and it seems to be a technology that needs time to mature. If anyone has any supporting evidence to offer praising Optimus, I would love to hear it. My main concern is Nvidia Verde driver support seeing as drivers are the lifeblood of a well performing GPU.

 

Optimus isn't supported in these new Sager models, except the 51xx series. If NVIDIA got the concept right in the first place, then a boost in battery life is very much an interesting choice paired with a high end GPU.

 

Hey lamp,

I agree that Optimus is an extremely innovative concept and sounds like the holy grail on paper. Powerful GPU and great battery life? I'm there! Yet, the problems reported could be that Optimus is just a new concept, or it could be indicative of the complicated nature of supporting this product on tons of differing hardware. For example, there is a huge amount of lag time between when a laptop is released and when it gets proper Nvidia Verde driver support as each make and model must be added to the drivers by Nvidia. You could have a laptop released today and be stuck with the OEM drivers for up to a year from now. I know that some OEMs do update drivers occasionally, however many only do so once or twice a year. That new bug fix you were needing? You might never receive it from the OEM. Also, since only the IGP card is physically hooked up to the outputs, there have been issues with using Nview to say hook the display to an external HD TV or other output device. I've also seen issues concerning inherent lag in the system as the Nvidia GPU renders content and copies that rendered content to the frame buffer memory of the IGP for output to the display. Another thing is multiple operating system support. If you need to use the Nvidia GPU in anything other than Windows 7, such as Linux, you are SOL. Finally, there have been multiple problems with everything from the Adobe Flash player to individual games not recognizing the Nvidia GPU, or refusing to run on anything but the IGP. I really do hope that Optimus succeeds for the future as it is an amazing concept, but for now I am just glad that the NP8130 is steering clear of these issues as I am looking forward to a rock solid system.

 

According to the Xotic PC video review, the GPU in the NP8130 underclocks itself when it isn't needed in order to save battery anyways. That sounds just as good to me, and with less hassles than using two different GPUs.

 

Well said good sir! This is what most people don't know about optimus- that it's just got too many bugs in it. I for one don't want that sort of half-baked type of feature in a $2000+ laptop if it doesn't work 100% (especially if it causes game issues)

 

You would think that since this is the second-generation that they're implementing Optimus on their video cards, however, that it would have matured to a point where it was actually utilized in their high-end cards.

 

You would think, but given the complexity of Optimus I give Nvidia an A for effort. From all the diagrams and information I have read about this it seems to be so complicated because it is primarily a software based solution as the Intel IGP and not the Nvidia GPU is the only video card hard wired to the display outputs. Add to that the fact that notebooks are so customized in their hardware to begin with and you can see that adding the appropriate driver code to cover possible issues with tons of different notebook configurations would be a nightmare. Add to that the issue of some games and applications not playing nice with Optimus and you have a very difficult time as a programmer. Like I said before, I wish them the best with this new IGP/GPU strategy.

 

Griff_ga, what about AMD's Fusion? Any thoughts on that on a high end system?

 

Lamp,

From what I know about AMD's fusion that is a solution where they are combining the functions of a traditional CPU and discrete GPU into one chip they call an APU (Accelerated Processing Unit.) This would be a bit different in that it would be mostly a hardware solution unlike Optimus which is mostly a software solution. For example, to the computer without proper Nvidia Optimus support such as a computer running Linux, only the Intel IGP is able to be utilized properly as it is the card physically attached to the output circuitry leading to the screen. The Nvidia GPU is just lying dormant in such a system as the software code to enable the switching of the Nvidia card on and off is not present. However, in the AMD APU situation the graphics processing capability is built into the main processor and would be physically attached to the output circuitry as there is no "middle man." The "middle man" in Optimus is the Intel IGP because the Nvidia GPU must render the requested content then dump it into the Intel IGP memory for output. To make a long story short, it seems like at least on paper the AMD solution would be much more trouble free and not require special software or be restricted to just certain operating systems. However, I don't personally own one of these AMD Fusion systems nor have I read much about them in the high end gaming area. I know AMD has said they are coming, but the only ones I have seen surface so far are the ones optimized for low power situations like netbooks or tablets. I'm sure once the AMD Bulldozer stuff is released later this year the veil will be lifted on just how AMD plans to utilize the Fusion technology in the high end gaming space. If anyone else has more information or if I am wrong about anything, feel free to jump in.