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

I just hope to get it by mid April so I can use it for my capstone and final software engineering course.

 

That is why I went with the matte, It got good reviews more or less better that the glossy.

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

 

Sorry, I was sitting here at work killing time and asking questions and answering some. So do i put in a giant post?

 

No just....don't post twice in a row.

Mr. Mysterious

 

I decided on the 485 over getting the matte or upgraded glossy screen. I wasn't sure how big of a difference it was...so I hope I made the right decision.

 

If you fall under the following conditions, then I think you made the right choice:

1. Matte: If you aren't planning on using your machine outside a lot. HTWingnut had mentioned that the gloss isn't really that bad.

2. Upgraded Glossy Screen: If you have never owned an awesome display, such as the HP Radiance, or an IPS, then I don't think you will notice a significant difference staying with the standard screen.

Also, remember that you can upgrade the screen (or the gfx card) at a later time as well. However, considering something on the scale of the 485m goes for $700+ on its own, I think it is better to get it with your order, and then upgrade the screen later.

Edit: The models that are currently used for screen upgrades are also being phased out, so all the more reason to wait for possibly better ones

 

For the love of God, dealing with PayPal is an nightmare. My first payment was reversed cause payPal thought it was fraud. Then they tried again and its been 3 days and still hasnt cleared. Whats worse is they placed a "limitation" on my account so now i cant pay LPC for the SSD upgrade.

This whole purchase has been a total nightmare. Its'll be 2013 till i get a friggin machine.

 

Are you paying by eCheck? Those take about a week to clear. What limitation did they place on you?

 

Thats why you always pay for stuff with credit cards

 

The only decent screen I have owned is this macbook pro 17" but I am not sure how it compares to the sager screen. I got his back in 2009.

 

I just mailed them a check and it only took about 6 or 7 business days which isnt bad. I figured I wouldnt get it before then anyway.

 

Yeah i used an e-cheque and i will NEVER do that again. Total nonsense for something to take that long to clear. Its 2011 for cripes sakes. Clearing houses should be done away with.

Lets the delay begin...

EDIT: and the other part i love is trying to get some answers from someone. LPC says they didnt get it yet. Paypal reps are as confused as i am as to whats actually happening. And my bank tells me my money is gone. I'm left holding my nutsack hoping to christ this is over soon.

 

I personally think that using a debit card should count as a cash payment but you can call me crazy

 

Okay, you're crazy.

Nah, it makes sense. The problem is the debit cards are usually branded Visa or Mastercard, and use those companies to clear the money transfer. Both of those charge the seller a percentage of the sale as "processing fees". So, when you pay $ x by credit or debit card, the vendor (shop, retailer, whatever) actually only gets $ x-n, n being the processing fee from the card company. So, in effect, "discounts for cash" could really translate as "you aren't paying the card processing fee".

 

Unfortunately, more and more vendors (including most resellers who carry these laptops) now pass their credit card fees on to the customer. That extra 1½-3% can be significant for some buyers. The trade-off is that credit card purchases generally offer much better buyer protection than PayPal transactions.

Different question: Most here seem to be ordering from one of the resellers that frequent the Forum. What is the advantage of buying through them versus ordering directly from Sager?

 

new to the discussion here. wow! I feel somehow blessed. I ordered mine from Xotic about 2 weeks ago and was informed on Monday I was advanced to Phase 2. Somebody likes me somewhere I guess.

 

Oh there's no question it's better than my 5 year old dell matte screen. It looks a lot less dull. My old matte color shifted easily vertically too. I will point out it doesn't do this horizontally. It's not really that big of a problem. I didn't mean to make it seem like a really big problem.

 

There are a few differences, not least the kinds of upgrades offered. Sager seems pretty vanilla in what they offer, but the resellers actually have access to more options. Other differences may be less apparent; look at warranties offered, and other policies.

 

Thanks for the reply. Differences in warranties & return policies could be important...I'll be sure to check on that.

 

You are stuck with that hotkey crap.

The power config does not seem linked to the windows 7 power settings, so my vendor said, "sure - go ahead and uninstall it"...

I did, and it seems that the Fn keys continued to work though I noticed that I no longer saw that animated notification in the upper left corner of the screen if I changed the volume, etc...

Unfortunately, I was no longer able to turn wifi on and off with the Fn key, and my vendor was useless to tell me how else I could control it.

So I went ahead and reinstalled the application.

R

 

Arg. New problem. Installed ie9 and played steams version of batman ark. Asylem for the first time. (with it's win live install and directx). Worked fine last night. Turned it off. Today I fire it up, neither wireless nor wired adapters show up in device manager. Rolled back as far as I could with system restore and the problem persists. Tried a complete power off via removing the battery while unplugged and holding the power button. Nogo. Any ideas? I'm very new at win 7. Sp1 is installed with all other updates.

EDIT : UPDATE

Secure erased the system disk and installed windows + driver disk. The following drivers would not detect hardware and would not install:

LAN
CARD READER
USB 3
WAN

Everything else installed properly. Ideas?

 

Hey guys, looks like I'm about to join the club. I've been talking with babyhemi and we found a good setup for me. It's been a long time coming for this gamer and I can't wait to get the system. I've always played but never had the money to get a system that could play anything that doesn't look like it could run on a 486. I finally finished my degree, and after nine months of unemployment, found an awesome job. So this is a bit of a milestone for me and I'm very excited. To give you an idea of what I've been working with for the past 4+ years...

Toshiba Satellite A205
Intel Core 2 T550 1.66 GHz
2gb RAM
Intel 950 GMA Integrated Graphics
185gb HDD

and what I'm getting...

Sager 8170-S1
17.3" Full HD LED-Backlit Display with Super Clear Glossy (1920 x 1080)
nVIDIA GeForce GTX 485M with 2GB GDDR5
Intel® Core™ i7-2720QM (6M Cache, 2.20 GHz)
8GB DDR3 1333 (2x4GB)
2x 500GB HDD (upgrade one to SSD later)
8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
Bigfoot networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1102

My main question would be on the wireless card. It seems people have had some issues with the 1102, what is the general consensus on this? Would the 6300 be a better option? Man I must have done these builds a thousand times, but I think I feel pretty good about this setup. I'd love to bump up to the 2820 for the 8mb cache but I think I may have to wait awhile on a CPU upgrade.

 

Hmm..what was your reason for picking the BF NIC?

 

Um, ignorance? Honestly it was a cheap 'upgrade', the most expensive option, and I know next to nothing about wireless cards. I started going through these threads more and noticed the flak the BF NIC was getting which is why I started questioning it.

As far as BT goes I'm only familiar with it's phone applications, is there a major advantage to having BT support on my computer?

 

Ok, then I think we can safely conclude that you do not need to pay the extra for the BF NIC

Here are the major differences:

Stock: up to 150mbps, BT

Intel 6230: dual-band, up to 300mbps, BT

Intel 6300: dual band, up to 450mbps, 3 antenna for extended range (No BT)

I am not sure if the stock card is dual-band or not. Also, note that the speeds are only achievable if you have a router and/or internet connection that support them. So, I think if you really want to spend the money for the upgrade, then the 6300 is your best bet, since it doesn't sound like you will make much use of BT. I would say that the Killer 1102 is more or less an equivalent of the Intel 6230, except without the BT, so it's not worth it imo, especially with the negative experiences people have had with Bigfoot. However, they will be releasing an 1103 in the not too distant future, which is the equivalent of the Intel 6300.

By the way, good choice going with LPC. I went through Larry as well, and he was excellent

 

Madkid, thanks for the info. It looks like the 6300 will be great for me. I don't have a router capable of supporting it but I will soon enough, might as well get the card now.

Yeah, Larry has been great. He was replying to my emails at 2am last night, can't beat that level of customer service.

 

Thank you all for your kind words...

Just a note, our main email and web server has been down for 6+ hours today, so thank you for your patience until this is resolved. This hasn't happened ever before for this long...

 

No problem, just let me know when you have everything up and we can get this order going. Thanks for all of your help.

 

anyone know how to access the CMOS battery by chance? Thinking it is my only hope of fixing my problem without finding a copy of the bios's and reflashing them. Really don't want to send this laptop back.

 

What's leading you to believe a bad CMOS battery is affecting your wireless card and NIC?

 

If anything, I would question why you aren't just going for the i7-2630QM if it is just for gaming. All of the extra cash you are paying for the i7-2720QM will not translate to any additional or even noticeable gaming performance increases. The i7-2630QM will also cope perfectly fine with the few CPU dependent gaming titles, for example GTA IV.

 

I have a Microsoft bluetooth mouse and like the fact I don't eat a USB port or have a dongle hanging out of the side. My laptop goes into and out of a travel bag a lot and no worries about breaking it off. Can also use a bluetooth earphone to listen to music with no cables when I work.

 

Really? I guess I assumed the stronger chip would increase the performance for gaming. I also record guitar/vocals/piano but it is not the primary purpose of this laptop. Actually now that I think about it I'll get a desktop for that so I can have a cheaper studio set up. Recording on the go with my laptop is nice but it's a pain in the to setup and take down.

I guess if I end up upgrading my chip later on either way then the difference might not be too much. And if I went with the 2630 I could use the cash to put in an SSD now... hmmmm, though from what i know the SSD won't increase in game performance, but it will decrease load times.

Where would you get the most benefit when upgrading from the 2630 to the 2720?

 

I agree about not getting a faster chip. You'd only really need it if you compiled lots of code, did modeling, or, in my case, coded in the delightfully inefficient MATLAB. Or for distributed computing projects, like Folding@Home. I run StarCraft II (with a suitable graphics card) on ultra settings with a puny Core 2 Duo at 2.4 Ghz (Bought in 2006, I think).

The SSD on the other hand would be a wonderful and very noticeable upgrade. I'd go with that in a flash.

 

Well... the mouse isn't an issue for me, the logitech usb I have sticks out about 1/4 inch, not too much of a pain. The wireless headset does sound nice but is it worth trading the stronger router for? I would say no right now but I'm going to go research what all I can do with the BT.

 

Dude, I've been preaching this for months now, but no one is listening. People keep saying the i7-2720QM is the "sweet spot", as if a 10% bump going to show you anything in-game. It's a total waste of $160, for any gamer.

I've given up, though. Set fire to your money for all I care. It's the same thing as upgrading to the next CPU.

 

Nice to hear more people chime in on this, makes me feel better about making the switch to the SSD. Thanks for everyone's advice.

 

Definitely glad i went with the 2630qm, all i'm about is gaming. The GTX 485m is where it's at!

I just hope there's a 500 gb SSD for a decent price in about a year, i think i can survive with the standard 500 gb 7200 rpm one for the next year.

 

Good to hear on the gaming front. As of now I have 85 games on Steam, only 23 of which are playable on my computer. I've been stocking up since the Christmas sale and picking up whatever deals I found since then. I have about the last 2 years of PC gaming history to go through when I receive my computer. I'm not going to get any work done the week I get it.

"A 500gb SSD, wow, I wonder how much that costs...."

Damn, that's expensive as hell, what would you consider decent? I think I'm just going to go with the 80gb for my primary drive. I assume that will be enough to house my O/S and anything else which would receive a large benefit. Are you gaming with a smaller SSD right now? Does it make much of a difference beyond loading?

 

I do not think the battery is bad, its just I am thinking that if I can completely depower the motherboard, the components might just work again. Since its USB3, Cardreader, LAN and WAN, its sounding like some controller or hub on the mainboard itself is out of wack.

 

If you need BT then go with the intel, if you dont need BT then go with the intel 6300. I have used the killer NIC in a desktop before and it really doesn't make much of a difference. Its just overpriced. I would recommend staying away from it and sticking to something thats proved to be reliable.

 

Then you made the correct choice on the 2820. That extra cache is huge, it may not seem like it, but it is.

 

SSD's are great but for gaming and general system use, I can be patient enough to not worry about the extra time it will take to do something. For my gaming and movie uses, nothing can compete with the 2 TB of storage I will be getting. I also ponder how much SSD's would cost if people refused to pay such prices per GB.

 

anyone know how well the SSD's compare to two 7500 rpm HDD in raid 0. I know it has more of a fault tolerance but apeed wise how do they compare.

 

I'm afraid that won't do much. If you really want to, you can find the mini-PCI slot, disconnect the antennas and take out your wireless card.

I don't think the CMOS battery does anything outside of managing the clock on your board, with BIOS settings saved to NVRAM. And I'm pretty sure the board components don't see a lick of electricity when the motherboard powers down.

I mean, weirder things have happened, but I'm certain the poor battery isn't the cause.

 

I'm next owner of Clevo P170HM, notebook performance is superb, but there is a one big disadvantage. I experience minimum 2 random freezes per day. This is not acceptable for this price I have installed every the newest driver and it doesn't help. I wrote to Clevo and they anylazing this problem.

 

LightningPL, man I had the same issue on my current laptop since I bought Seagate Momentus XT, and I had even more random freezes, especially when playing games. So I started to search that kind of a problem and I found alot of threads where people are discussing it. What I made first was updating the stock firmware (SD23) of my HDD to latest one (SD24). Here is the thread you might need. But unforchantly freezes did not disappear at all and it still happens like twice per day.

 

Are these freezes happening with everyone that has an 8170? Or is it a certain piece of hardware that is leading to it?

 

I have the freezing issue as well, it's ridiculous and I have tried discussing it with Sager.

 

How often is the freezing happening? They really have no idea what is causing it?