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

Just understand that is only one benchmark, but others have shown SB to be pretty powerful compared to previous gen Intels.

Regarding updating GPU's it's not too difficult, just a little time consuming. If it's anything like my current sager, you just have to take off the bottom panel, remove the system fan and heatink (which connects to both GPU and CPU), unscrew the GPU card and remove it. Of course clean off all the thermal goo for both CPU and GPU and apply new stuff. Reassemble and done. If you are careful about it and take your time, probably done in less than an hour.

 

Thanks for the quick reply, where do you find your mobile GPU's? I've had a hard time finding a reliable source.

 

That's part of the problem. Mobile GPU's are difficult to find and quite expensive. Most people use eBay as there are GPU resellers on there from overseas that most likely get batches of product for cheap directly from the factory. Or if you're lucky, a used part from someone that is trying to get the most money out of selling their machines by parting it out. You obviously take a risk going using eBay though.

Places like RJTech also carry parts and are an authorized reseller. However the cost is typically quite a bit higher, but I guess you pay for the confidence of getting a genuine and working part.

 

Not to step on any toes, but with the above info, is the plan you and KevinJacks have safe? I mean when the 500 series come out wont you end up spending bootloads to get one, not considering the fact if it'll be compatible with the 8170 right? Especially since it'll be new so ebay wouldn't be really an option.

 

I dunno. That's where I'm strongly debating what to do.

Either bite the bullet and get the GTX 485m now and it will last me a solid 18-24 months. Or go with the GTX 460m and *hope* for a rather affordable MXM GPU that is better than the GTX 485m.

If I decide on the GTX 460m though, I'm tempted to go with the NP8130 then and save an extra $250-$300. As much as I'd like an internal Blu-ray drive, I'd much rather have SSD + HDD (in optical drive slot) and use my existing external slim blu-ray drive. Not worth $250 to me to be honest. For that much money I can buy a nice external 24" LCD.

Then I'll just sell the laptop in 9-12 months if/when it can't play the games I want to play on it (most likely BF3) and buy a new notebook, maybe Ivy Bridge by then.

 

I'm not adding the uncertainty of resale value to my equation. You're on your own with that one.

There isn't much for me to lose. I'm saving $500, right now, to spend it on something more worthy of that cash later. I don't hope that something better is coming, because I know it is.

What's the worst case scenario, assuming that Nvidia abandons MXM 3.0b, spins brand new stuff that requires a whole different chassis, and nukes my future wife from orbit? That I end up spending less than that $500 on the 6970M, which is still a GPU which will beat the 460M by 30% or more?

That's pretty much a win/win situation, especially since my W.C.S. isn't coming true.

I'm sticking to the plan.

 

Are you certain the 6970M is coming to Sager MXM 3.0b and for under $500?

Where do you / would you buy your GPU?

Also, I've bought and sold a lot of laptops over the years and it's not too difficult to predict the resale of a laptop within the first 12 months. Considering the 8130 with my config will be worth ~$1400 new, I think $750 is being a bit conservative in 9-12 months time to be honest.

But like I said, I use my laptop 90% of the time for gaming now anyhow for various reasons, and tend to watch movies on my laptop a lot more too, so a 17" is sounding attractive, but not sure if it's $250 attractive. My NP8662 with Q9200 and GTX 260m still serves me well with the games I play. Just the unpredictable USB ports (primarily with CD/DVD/BD drives, and/or more than two devices plugged in) and occasional issues with resuming from sleep are driving me batty. Otherwise it works great. Maybe I'm better off spending $400 to replace the mobo instead, and wait until BF3 is released before buying my next laptop. But I feel that would be a complete waste of $400 that could be put towards something newer and faster.

 

1- Very certain. Like, I'll bet a large percentage of my poker bankroll on it.

2 - Your reseller will eventually have them, or RJTech will always be the spot.

I just can deal with 15" screens anymore.

 

If your poker bankroll is like mine then that doesn't mean much

15" doesn't bother me too much though, but 17" would be nice especially for blu-ray viewing. Although for $250 can get a nice 24" 1080p monitor. Granted I don't have much room for it, and move my laptop between about three spots in my home depending on where the kids are playing.

I'm 90% on getting the 8170 with GTX 460m. If it was availble to ship now, I probably would have ordered it already. But the fact that it isn't, and that the check I deposited in my bank hasn't cleared yet is making me think too much.

I still don't understand why the 8130 comes with 8GB and only $50 charge for blu-ray player when the 8170 only comes stock with 4GB and $120 charge for blu-ray player.

 

Just order the 17" already and stop worrying about it that's what I did. You still have a week or two before the resellers get that model so if you change your mind between now and then you can always cancel.

I agree tho, I don't think we'll see a new MXM standard changing until the later part of this year at the earliest. If anything AMD will wait to implement it with the 7000 series 28 nm.

As for upgrading the card I would look on ebay before buying individual parts from rjtech. Their barebones are competitively priced but individual components seem outrageous. They are selling the GTX 470m for $730 and the GTX 480m for about $940.

 

The site that someone else suggested, mxm-upgrade.com looks decent as long as we can get some NBR users (or other certified sources) to confirm their legitimacy.

That is always my concern with upgrading a laptop GPU. It sounds great in theory, but sourcing an affordable, legitimate, reliable part can be troublesome. If it were something that was fairly common like a desktop GPU, I wouldn't be vacillating back and forth. I can buy the 8170 with 485m but can't really afford it if you know what I mean. The money spent on the GPU should really be allocated elsewhere (like house updates, kid stuff, etc), otherwise, with 460m well within my budget.

 

Because that's what Nvidia is charging for them.....

 

So I am planning on finally buying laptop, can anyone comment on the quality of these screens for the 8170(17.3 inch )
Also wondering who to buy it from, Xotic or Powernotebook.
There is literally a 2 dollar difference when it all comes down to it.
Lastly , any idea on if sager will be offering an 18.4 inch sandy bridge laptop option??? I really would like the idea of an 18.4 inch screen but will not buy the older processors.

 

At this time there is no info from Sager on a 18.4" SB Laptop. Unfortunately since the 8170 is not in yet no one can comment on the screen quality.

 

Chances are, it's still using the same LCD as the Asus G73.

 

Maybe...will have to wait and see...

 

Interesting discussion on purchase plans and upgrade paths in the future...

I'm definitely going with 17.3" and pretty much set my mind on the S1 model with a GTX470M... Found the price difference compared to a GTX460M was reasonable enough to be worth it. And even if in 1 or 1.5 years time I can only upgrade to a GTX485M and a faster processor I'll still be happy.

At this point just waiting for some feedback on screen/build quality.

 

Yea for real. Bought mine too. Can't wait for it to be shipped. Only reason i went with 17" though was to use two HDs drive. Id figure with the options i got i might as well get an SSD and a storage drive. Got my SSD in already, tested that out so now I'm really excited to get it.

 

Same here, after being educated on the subject thanks to this thread, going for a primary SSD and a regular secondary storage drive.

Interesting to hear you've bought your SSD drive separately rather than going with the Intel X25-M that is being sold with the laptop, any special reason behind the decision?

 

Here is some pics of the 485M...

 

Eh, is that SLI I see there?

 

Yes...of course...

 

I decided to go with the OCZ agility 2. I asked justin if he had any, but he said they only had the OCZ vertex which is a little out of my price range. But i figured the agility is good price and its better than the intel, but based on the same technology as the vertex.

 

Vertex 2 and Agility 2 you won't see any difference in real world performance. Intel is a great solid performer as well. I like them mainly for their all around good performance and low power consumption. Granted in this laptop it won't make much of a difference as far as power is concerned considering the GPU is 75W+ (albeit only a fraction of that at idle). Either way I already have an 80GB Intel G2 that I will use, no point in buying another. Plus I have a 750GB 7200 RPM HDD as well to throw in there, not to mention 8GB DDR 1333MHz RAM.

 

Is there a large speed difference between using DDR 1300MHz RAM and DDR 1600MHz RAM?

 

Not anything significant. Yes it's faster by 266MHz, but people haven't noticed a difference between 1066MHz and 1333MHz DDR3. Only when it's taxed fullly will you see a marginal benefit, like maybe 5%. On the other hand, if you're using an Intel IGP that relies on system RAM, then that extra speed will be welcome. But since these laptops don't utlize the Intel GPU it's kind of not necessary.

 

IIRC, the P/HM65/7 will only use the RAM at 1333 anyway.

 

Anyone know if you can replace the ODD for a 3 hard drive setup? (2x750 RAID for storage and 1 SSD for OS)

 

Yes you can get a ODD Caddy to mount a 3rd Hard Drive if you want. You will lose the Optical Drive.

 

yea. thats why i went to the cheaper agility 2. Its pricing is pretty much the same as the intel one thats offered.

 

Thats an interesting idea.

 

The speed of the memory has nothing to do with which chipset a laptop uses , it has to do with which processor you have. The memory controller is built into the CPU not the chipset.

The XM and quads support up to 1600, the duals only support up to 1333.

On the 8150, 8170 since the IGP is not used you will see just a small difference between 1333 and 1600. If the IGP was being used it would benefit from the faster ram, more so that just the CPU.

 

Didn't I just say that more or less?

The quads support 1600 except the i7-2630m

 

I understand that, I used the chipset family to refer to the procs (bad habit).

Why do no resellers offer 1600 if quads support it?

 

Just placed my order from XoticPC. Thankfully they let me remove items I didn't need so I don't have to worry about removing and selling them. Items denoted by a * are those that I am adding myself because I already own them.

Here's my config:

i7-2630QM
GTX 485m
8GB DDR3 1333MHz*
80GB Intel SSD*
750GB 7200RPM HDD*
6x Blu-Ray / dvdrw combo
Intel 6300 Wifi
Windows 7 Ultimate x64*

Now for the waiting game.

 

Nice htwingnut. Welcome to the 485m club.

 

Woot! Yeah, I figured the GTX 485m was available with known performance (awesome at that) and reasonably priced as far as MXM cards go.

Scary thing is this machine is about as powerful as my gaming desktop now (C2Q Q9550, GTX 260).

I also want to give kudos to babyhemi from LPC Digital and Justin@XoticPC. I ended up ordering from XoticPC over LPC Digital for a few reasons, but both guys were great to work with, responsive, and courteous despite my constant pestering.

 

GTX 485M is faster than the GTX 260, and it isn't that close. I'd say 20%.

 

Ok, so its more powerful, lol. I'm fine with that because I made the decision to buy a new performance gaming laptop this year instead of updating my desktop. I'm excited to see the 17" screen, blu-ray, and play bfbc2 on high at 1080p. It runs great on my desktop, so I'm assuming will run just as well.

 

Does the price go down if you remove items from base config for later self installation?

 

Of course. They deduct the value of what you don't need.

 

4R341? How do we know how much the default component costs?

 

PM, email, call them.

 

This memory is very rare at the moment. I looked at all the major memory manufactures and the only one that has it on their websites is Kingston in the Hyper X flavor.

I have a feeling It's going to be a while before availability gets ramped up, maybe mid year when you start to see it pop up.

 

So you can get a barebones from XoticPC? Do they allow not buying any CPU with the laptop?

 

If you could I am not sure why you would, there are no CPU's to be had on Ebay or anywhere else for that matter yet. I have been looking and ES or QS just aren't available yet.

Edit: I suppose down the road there will be availability, so knowing the answer would be a good thing.

 

We can strip out hard drive or Ram, that is not a issue. If you want a quote on this just contact any of our Sales Agents. We ship it with CPU and you can install your own HDD or Ram.

 

Do you have the choice of shipping it without the CPU and ODD?

 

Sager doesn't do it.

 

The resellers do it is what he's trying to say.