*** Official Sager NP8170/Clevo P170HM Owners Lounge ***

Yes you will need one of those little BT bud's to stick into one of your USB slots for blu-tooth with the 6300 Intel, this is what many do...

 

Why? Is it really worth it? For that matter, why are there THREE options for the wireless? If they are all N compatible, I would think they do the same thing. Common sense tells me the more expensive options = more speed, but I thought B, G, and N were simply standards that once met, are what they are...

 

Unfortunately common sense doesn't rule in this case. Please do a little research and you will see the differences in speed, range, bi-directional transmission and dual band.

Wikipedia would be a good resource for this kind of research.

 

Remember, the base wireless is B / G / N (And N has channel bonding which if your card supports it the base one doesn't you get more speed)

The upgrades are A / B / G / N dual-band cards so they can do 2.4ghz and 5ghz (The base is a single band 2.4) so if you go into a place that also has 5ghz you can get on that and get more speed as its usually less congested. The upgrades also have more antennas so they are able to channel bond and get more speed from them. So its not quite as cut and dry, there are some real differences between the options.

 

Yep, 5GHz is a must. If you don't need bluetooth, I recommend the 6300.

 

Yes, 6300 is great in terms of range.

Also you get this feeling that your card outperforms all others because of the three antennas you used instead of just the two for the other cards..

A worthy placebo effect, even though it might not be evident..

 

These posts convinced me to upgrade to the 6300. I figure $10 isn't that much of a difference from the 6230 I originally got.

 

My entire household is wireless, so the 6300 is a must. Reliability trumps the bluetooth gimmick.

 

I run 5GHz in my house too. Well I have two routers, one acts as an AP, but have one as 2.4GHz in case company wants to use it, but I use the 5GHz band on the other. No more crappy occasional dropped connections, microwave interference, etc. Solid 5 bars and steady stream all the time. I kinda wish there was a service where you could buy 768k or 1.5Mbps DSL for like $10/mo, then I'd run a separate line on the 2.4GHz line for company, basic web surfing, etc, and leave the other one for my exclusive use.

 

Are there any other performance advantages except just an amount when using different ram sets? Like 2X4GB, 3X4GB, 4X4GB? I heard that best way for DDR3's is multiples of 3 to get triple channel memory. So it seems like 3X4GB should be best installation, right?

 

These are not triple channel boards, they are dual channel so things in multiples of two are best.

 

No.

Mobile platforms support Dual-Channel, so in multiples of 2.

 

So the annoying occasional need to restart my router...is that one of the reasons to get the better stuff? Is that my router's fault or my laptops? Or a combination?

Also, if I get the upgraded wifi card, I would need a 5ghz router too to gain any benefit, right?

So does this mean for the 2 slots under the keyboard, you should have the same size sticks, then for the 2 expanded slots, you should also match? I am assuming the 2 sets of slots are paired with each other? So a 2gb and a 4gb under the keyboard, then a 2 and 4 in the other slots would yield slower results? Plus if you only had one slot of a pair filled, as opposed to it having its twin, you would have reduced performance?

 

Actually, the Sager NP7280 supports Triple Channel memory. It is a notebook using the desktop X58 chipset, which is what makes it unique when compared to other notebooks.

 

For the wireless you just need a router that can do either 2.4 or 5ghz or both but has multiple antennas to get the benefit of the better speed.

For the RAM they just need to be populated in pairs for the best results. So a 2 + 4 and a 2 + 4 are fine.

 

Forgive my questions - I am not too experienced with networking. When I look at Newegg I only see 2 routers that are capable of 450 Mbps. If most routers are only capable of 300Mbps, when would one actually receive the benefit of the 6300's speed capabilities?

 

Versus the stock clevo wireless (Which is only 150MB/sec) any of them.

 

Of course, but what about versus the 6230? Is it basically more of a future-proofing thing?

 

The 6230 is 300MB of wireless + Btooth, the 6300 is 450MB of wireless no BTooth.

 

doesnt 6300 have 3 antennas as well and the 6230 has only 2. i think the 6300 also has more range.

 

Yes, you are correct, sir!

 

Well you guys convinced me! I upgraded to a 6300 wireless card...now to wait and see the release date for the 6970m! o.o

 

Just noticed about Chipset Circuit Design Issue Identified, and it affects laptop that I want to buy because it uses HM67 chipset. Is this issue massive? I am wondering about tactics and solutions of resellers who are selling this hardware all around the world. Are they pushing out chipsets from unstable revision, or they replacing them with stable once?

What would you suggest, confirm the order or wait couple of months till this issue will be completely solved?

 

You can refer to this thread for all the details http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/551924-thread-clevo-sager-notebook-recall-news-questions.html

The gist of it is that Clevo/Sager has currently halted all shipments of affected units until further notice, ie. they are satisfied with the testing of any fix or new chipsets.

Pre-orders that have already been accepted will probably ship in the mid-Mar/early Apr timeframe, with any new orders (orders place now or after intel's announcement) likely to ship in late April or later, when production is finally stabilized. It is important to note that most of the resellers are still taking orders.

There was some development yesterday where certain notebook manufacturers are able to ship products that are not affected by the chipset issue. However, since Clevo/Sager's new models are all affected by the issue, it looks like the only way this will benefit their supply chain is by smoothing out demand for the new chipsets.

 

Does anyone know if there are any taxes to be paid if I buy the NP 8170 from a US reseller and get it delivered through UPS to the UK?

By taxes I mean everything else I have to pay for except for the price of the laptop and the UPS fee. (VAT maybe?)

I am buying this laptop for myself, so not for reselling or any type of business of such kind.

 

Madkid, thank you! Now things are clear enough.

 

demonslayer2711, if I'm not wrong, you will need to pay 20% (VAT in UK) of your laptop's price. For me it's even more - 25%. That's ridiculous.

 

Joined the club. Or at least got in line. See the sig for the soon to be new rig.

 

Nice. Did you go for the screen upgrade?

 

I didn't. Josh recommended going with the better video card for now. Depending on what I read on the 6970 going forward and what the pricing is I may change to that and add the better screen.

 

I'd also like to add that Mythlogic was super helpful and got back to me very quickly on all my questions. They even told me some things they didn't think I needed which I though was pretty cool. Plus I think they gave me a great deal. I'm very happy with them.

 

We have the exact same specs, lol.

 

There are no import duties for notebooks shipping from the US to UK, however, you do have to pay the VAT. Which is around 20% I believe.

 

Alright, thank you for the reply!

 

MALIBAL, if it's possible can I get real photos of Satori P170HM? It looks nice and clear in '360 VIEW', so I'm wondering which surface materials are used and what are the differences comparing to Sager NP8170-S body.

 

but your sig looks cooler.

 

^^^The Sager NP8170/Clevo P170HM have the same body style and made of the same materials no matter who your reseller is.

 

I really like that brushed metal look and feel...

But I hate 17" now.. too big and bulky for my liking, unless they support two gfx cards for CFX or SLi..

 

I thought that a bit today too. If I'm gonna go this big then get a desktop CPU and SLI. It's not like I'm gonna be toting this thing around and using it on battery ever. If so, it'll be an emergency to get on the web for five minutes if anything, and even those desktop machines can run on battery for 30 minutes. Although you're talking an extra 4 lbs. and extra $1000 for the SLI config.

 

Click on the Image Gallery for real images of the Satori P170HM, it looks the same as the 8170. The 360 View is from the previous Satori W870CU, that part of the site is in the process of being updated.

 

Alright, now it's clear.

Thank you for photos, looks very solid.

 

Yes you would need to pay VAT, so add 20% to the price (including shipping)

 

I could be wrong but unless you max out the Sager 7280 I would think the CPU differences aren't night and day. The 2720 vs i7 950. Also it looks like the 460M's in SLI equal 1 485M card from what I can see. But you have to lug around a very heavy laptop for maybe at most a 10% increase in performance. The 7280 is also a LOT more money. If it was closer in price then I'd probably just order one over the 8150/8170. But configured like I'd like the cost is a lot more and using an older chipset.
I just found a link for the CPU's.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-2720QM+@+2.20GHz

From the look of the CPU the 2720 runs faster than the desktop i7 950. It looks like you need to go up to the 980X to beat that CPU.
This sort of thing is why I've leaned towards the SB laptops.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

They have 485m SLI available...

And if I did go that route, I'd probably wait for the SB refresh anyhow.

 

@Steve Cebu

Aside from being able to use two GTX 485M's, the Sager 7280 can also use 3 hard disk drives. Even though Sandybridge offers excellent performance increases, the potential of those two GTX 485M's as well as possibly other powerful GPU's does offer a lot of future potential. The cost is more prohibitive but you could just buy one with a single GTX 485M in the mean time.

 

That might be awesome for gaming, but for most other purposes it's overkill. Also buying a 980X is not like a world better than a 2720 when you factor the value in. For my own uses a 485 is overkill. Two 485's are just wasting money for what I'd use it for.
But yeah as a gaming laptop I'm sure it would be great to have (2) 485's in sli.

 

Another review...

Review Deviltech Fragbook DTX (Clevo P170HM) Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

Hmmm, under the "case" section, they must have recieved a not so great build. I admit the frame around the LCD is a bt flimsy on the sides, but nothing worse than anything else I've seen. My battery fits snugly but no issues. The palmrest has no squeak whatsoever, and the top trim part with the indicator lights was probably not snapped in all the way. I had a similar issue when I installed my RAM under the keyboard, but a little finagling and it snapped into place nice and flush.

The wobbly screen on a wobbly table? huh? Lol. I guess it does a bit, but when I shake my NP8662, it does too. Plus looks like that Clevo doesn't come with a fingerprint reader. Not a big deal, but I thought it was standard on all P170HM / NP8170's), guess not. Keys that make a lot of noise? Must be a different keyboard because mine is nearly silent. Only the spacebar is a little tinny and makes a little noise, but nothing that I'd consider loud. Good review overall though

 

I thought VAT refers to product price only, but shipping cost is standalone. Or I am wrong?

 

Wait, even if you ship it to someone in the US, and then make that person ship to you like a "shipping bridge" and send it as a gift with the box slightly tampered and the contents out of its original vinyl casing,

they still pay VAT?