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

@Decayedmatter, I think that for an ideal performance, you better choose 2x4Gb ram this because you have dual channel.

 

Check has cleared, copy sent! We are getting close. I cant wait to play this thing and see what it can do.

 

Sup guys,

Just registered on the forum here to ask a quick question. Planning on getting the 8170 soon, but unfortunetely due to lack of funds I won't be able to get the blu-ray burner, and I'll have to stick with the base cpu. Just wondering if I'll be able to swap these items out in the future. I'm pretty sure the cpu can be easily upgraded on these units to one of the higher models without too much fuss; after all one of the main selling points with these notebooks is the ability to upgrade parts (correct me if I'm wrong though, because if not I'll just probably wait until I can afford the 8mb cache model). I also want the blu-ray burner but I am not sure if I can just purchase the drive seperately from someone at a later date. I've changed cd/dvd drives on other laptops in the past but of course you have to be able to buy the part from somewhere first.

 

Not really true these days. It can run a pseudo-dual channel. Even so, it's been shown that dual channel only really garners ~ 5% performance improvement in real life applications.

Everything is easy to change. CPU, GPU, RAM (well two RAM slots under the keyboard requires a little extra effort, but still no big deal), HDD, as well as optical drive. The optical drive just remove the bottom panel covering it, and one screw holding the optical drive in place. Could swap it in less than ten minutes. It's a standard 12.7mm height SATA optical drive for DVD or Blu-Ray, pretty standard so shouldn't have much issue. I'm sure many of the Sager or Clevo resellers could provide you with one no issue down the road.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. From what I've been gathering from the thread most of the resellers are very helpful and pleasant to deal with, and I kind of figured that I wouldn't have any problem getting parts from them, just wanted to be sure. This is a pretty big purchase for me and don't want to end up with any buyer's remorse.

But anyways, looks like I'm clear for purchase. Just one more question for you guys... How long does it normally take to receive the notebook after ordering? I've noticed a lot of people here posting about 'phases', so I'm assuming the reseller you choose gives you constant updates on your order status. It seems like the entire process may take a few weeks or so though.

 

After they clear your bill, they send your order to Sager to be built. From there it should take about 6-12 days to actually build your laptop (though its usually 6 days in my experience). After that, its shipping!

However, keep in mind- there is a ton of ppl waiting to get their sandybridge laptops, so the build time for this cycle might be a wee longer

 

Mine is still on back order and I know a lot of others are experiencing the same thing. The SB recall pushed it back. But if you are patient a Sager NP8170 is a great machine (or so I have read).

 

BTW the phases are only with Xoticpc. I'm sure that if you call your reseller they could give you an update, but its not like "phase 1" or phase 3"

 

I don't know how you guys do it. I only ordered my Sager on Feb. 28 and I am dying to get this computer. I don't think I'm going to make it.

 

Oh ok guys. Thanks for the input. The wait time doesn't seem as bad as I thought it was. Well worth the wait for that 485m!

 

I ordered mine from xotic pc the same day as you so we can suffer together!

 

Glad to see that you guys placed order right at my birthday! Well, it doesn't make sense at all, but looks funny to me.

 

WOW!! I can't believe I am ready to order as soon as Brett from Xotic tells me how to do a wire transfer. Here are the highlights:

Sager NP8170
- 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Anti-Glare Screen
- Core™ i7-2820QM
- IC Diamond Thermal Compound
- nVidia GeForce GTX 485M
- 16,384MB DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory
- Combo 8x8x6x4x Dual Layer DVD
- 750GB 7200RPM Hard Drive 1
- 750GB 7200RPM Hard Drive 2
- Intel® Advanced-N 6230
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit

Won't get it for awhile, but I can wait ...

 

I think one should look at the new ASUS G73. That is a screamer for the money also. I have a G73JH and this bad boy will NEVER over heat. It is also very comfortable to work on. very ergonomic.

 

I considered it but the CPU upgrade cost was astronomical (+$399 for i7-2720QM) and no option other than GTX 460m made going with Sager a no-brainer. Plus I know the ease of updating with Sager / Clevo notebooks.

Not to mention the sleek classic style of the Clevo chassis compared with the stealth faceted design of the G73.

 

The 8170 also has better connectivity options - not a deal-breaker, but important to many users. It was one of the reasons why I stopped looking at the G73.

On Xotic, a customized 8170 that is comparable to the base G73sw only comes up to ~$50 more in cost. I wouldn't say that a lot of pay for better upgradeability, and (a lot) less bloatware.

 

Not sure the bloatware matters since you can always do a clean install.

 

Yes, but you shouldn't have to do all that

 

Another thing to consider is buying a blu-ray drive/burner separately for less usually won't include blu-ray viewing/playing software which normally runs $100 so total cost maybe around $200? When you buy it in the system, it comes with software to play blu-rays.

I'm in the same boat to save $$ as well (buy the barebones now, upgrade later).

 

I ordered mine from Malibal on 1/14 and it shipped today (just got the email 2 hours ago) in case anyone else is playing the waiting game still and curious where the order queue is at.

Time to update my signature.

 

Wooo hooo my check just cleared also, now the REAL wait begins!

 

I am hoping my ships next week or gets sent off to be built. I know that it is a LONG shot but hey....I can barely stand myself. What websites sell the blu ray drives and what not?

 

Just to let the other owner's know ... my 8170-S1 shipped last night and is due to arrive on Tuesday next week.

I ordered it from XoticPC on January 13th. Thanks go out to JP, Justin and Heidi (who I spoke to on the phone the day Intel pulled the rug out from under Sandy Bridge for a month) and all the folks behind the scene. The folks at XoticPC were courteous, professional and ALWAYS responded to my emails. I look forward to doing business with XoticPC again in the near future.

 

Man I ordered mine 2/25 lol I have a long ways to go it seems. Grats on getting yours shipped, I am a jealous man.

 

Mine is all cleared, but says pending parts, arrrrgghh, i wonder how long this will take!

 

Hopefully in 2 weeks i will have my laptop. Maybe xotic will surprise me and send it monday next week so i can get it by the end of next week.

Lol, protoss my race as well. I hate those pesky zergs.

 

Nice rig, I will update my sig too. Ordered from Xotic because they are the only ones that have the matte finish. Very important. But I have been told end of April.

 

My pappy used to say ... anything worth having is worth waiting for. Obviously, he was not waiting for a killer laptop!

 

Yeah I was really into getting a nice matte screen since my current laptop has a matte screen, but honestly after looking at newer laptops with matte/glossy screens I honestly prefer glossy. I'm inside and from looking at laptops at stores I'm not really sure why I had a thing for matte screens. The colors seem to be more dull with matte for some reason. Maybe that's just me.

If anything I'd probably just flip the light switched off while playing. I did that with my matte screen when I was playing the Bioshock games.

 

Hmmm says my order on xotic pc is pending parts, wonder how long it's gonna take to switch to phase 2. Argghhh Crysis Maximum Edition's box is mocking me as i wait!

 

Just curious decayedmatter, did you mention if you ordered your NP8170 with the matte or gloss screen? I know XoticPC currently lists the matte screen as back-ordered, and last time I asked, they didn't know when they would get more. That, and the chance the 6970M will come out soon have been the biggest things holding me back from ordering.

 

Yeah I bought mine on jan 28th but I asked my reseller when the 6970 would come out since I am currently set to get the 460m. The rep told me they should know within the month so I am having them stall my order. Back at the beginning of February I could have killed someone for the laptop but after waiting this long what is a few more weeks for possibly twice the gpu specs.

 

I ordered the default glossy screen.

 

Good to see that you all are excited about this laptop as I am. Mine is currently being delivered to me right now and should be able to receive it by next Weds.

I have the standard screen and standard amount of ram, 4GB.
However I did opt for the 2730 and the GTX 485. I did, however, had to sacrifice the bluray drive for the cpu and gpu upgrade, too. I figured that I would upgrade the gpu and cpu now and upgrade the optical drive, ram, and hard drive later in the future.

Oh, by the way. I am new to this forum!!! I have been following this thread for awhile now.

 

Congrats. Good choice though on the CPU and GPU. Optical, RAM, and hard drive are easy to swap out later.

 

The $160 for the 2720QM is wasted though. Better spent on something else that will actually show you a tangible reward, like an SSD, a better screen, or the Blu-ray.

Ask yourself how a 10% advantage over the 2630QM will improve your life with the notebook, at all.

Protip: it doesn't and never will

 

What if people want something to unzip 10 seconds faster?

 

Yea, that's also why i went with the dvd drive, One 500 gb hdd and only 4 gb of ram.

I'm still worried about the 2630qm processor for gaming but everyone is telling me it will barely be a difference for gaming.

I will get a bluray drive down the road, an SSD drive to compliment the 500 gb 7200rpm, and install maybe 2-4 gb more of ram.

 

If anyone from Xotic PC is around, since the live chat is closed right now, do you guys have any estimate when you will get enough parts to start fulfilling late February orders?

Mine was ordered on Feb. 28th.

 

The difference in the chips is more than the base frequency. The 2720QM has features that the 2630QM doesn't. There are scenarios (beyond gaming) where they matter.

Still, $160 is a bit steep for the upgrade. I was lucky in that Mythlogic was having a sale on that exact upgrade, so I got my 2720QM for, if I remember right, $25.

 

The 2.0 Ghz 2630qm can compete with a top of the range last gen 920xm Quad. For gaming the GPU is usually the most important factor but even in highly CPU intensive games, the 2630qm will still have no problems. It has been proven to deal with the unoptimised and extremely CPU intensive GTA IV maxed out with no problems.

Also consider that a 2.0 Ghz Core2Duo in a GPU intensive game will get around the same frame rates as a 3.0 Ghz Core2Duo. Many can't seem to accept this fact and tend to convince themselves otherwise, and in the process waste money.

 

$160? I thought I got mine for $120. I don't remember now. It's all a blur. I got mine primarily for the VT-d and AES features which I may or may not use.

Four distinct differences that 2720QM has over 2630QM:

- base speed 2.2GHz vs 2.0GHz, max speed 3.3GHz vs 2.9GHz
- Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)
- AES New Instructions
- Support for 1600MHz DDR3 RAM vs 1333MHz

Then of course integrated GPU is faster in 2720QM 1.3GHz vs 1.1GHz, but irrelevant in this machine since you can't access the Intel GPU.

Whether that matters to the buyer or not is up to them.

But if you're strapped with a budget, that $160 could be put to better use on an SSD or different screen. But I dunno. To each their own. SSD is an easy swap. LCD not so much, but also think the other screens are nice, but highly overrated as well. I got to see them first hand. I would be more impressed with a good vertical viewing angle than anything, and none of the options out there offer it.

 

Thanks for the reassurance. i just need this beast in my posession and get crysis installed for the REAL test.

I will be fine with very high at 720p but from what i researched i should be able to bump it up to 900p at least and still maintain over 30 fps.

I think i may order batman arkham asylum as well, i didn't wanna get it on consoles cause i wanted to hold out for the pc version with all the fancy physx effects.

I just wonder if i can run the physx in batman on high as i'm told this is a real fps killer unless you have a card dedicated for physx along with your main video card. So we will see.

 

Yea i will have not much use for the updated screen since i plan to game most the time plugged into my hdtv via hdmi. Only time ill use the screen is for browsing and semi portable (bedroom) gaming.

I am still wondering what order i should upgrade everything else.

SSD
Ram
Bluray drive

Bluray drive is last for sure but i dunno if i should go ssd first or more ram.

 

RAM is cheap compared to SSDs.
I got my 8GB in two 4GB SODIMMS, so they populate those pesky under-the-keyboard slots. When I can (next month?) I'll buy and drop in another 8GB.

I'm happier having my vendor put in the SSD, since I've never messed with one. Saves my lazy butt some effort and research. LOL....

 

I wonder how much ram i should actually add when i decide to do it, if i get 2x4, 12 gb total seems like a lot, i heard anything over 6-8 gb is just overkill.

 

You underestimate the 485M:



Knock off the 4x AA, and you'll get 30fps on V.High @ 1080p.

 

I'm just assuming based on this vid.

YouTube - Crysis Warhead on Sager NP8170 (Clevo P170HM) with nVidia GTX485M


how much fps on enthusiast ?
darijan001 1 month ago


@darijan001 around 25~30.
GenTechPC 1 month ago

Not to mention notebookcheck said like 22 fps at 1080p very high. So there's not much consistency with what i'm hearing till i test it for myself.

I definitely wont wanna play on 1080p if it dips down to 25 fps, definitely wanna stay around 35-40 fps. But i'll be messing around with settings a lot once i get it to find the right balance.

I definitely don't need AA on anything higher than 720p though.

 

For gaming, 6gb was just fine on my G73, however when I used Vue 9 for complex 3d scenes, 6gb would choke. That is why I ordered 16gb and would not have to "wish" for it in the future. I also expect the 485M to help with rendering much quicker.

 

What do you guys think of the price point of this SB toshiba qosmio compared to the sager? This was the one i was waiting for till i got fed up with waiting and ordered a sager. Glad i did because it's only offering a 460m

Qosmio X500-Q930X Laptop

EDIT: Just made a similar spec np8170 on xotic pc and it was $1798 after cash discount. CHEAPER! Definitely glad i went with sager, easier to upgrade more options, and NO BLOATWARE.

Though the backlit keyboard on that toshiba seems nice lol.