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

My temperature stats are pretty much identical to rsdunphy's. The fans do the cycling the same way.

 

Sager News 5/18/2011

1. Reducing blue-tine on LCD panels (coldness) in windows 7

a. Right click on an open desktop area then select screen resolution by left clicking
b. Left click on Advanced Settings
c. Left click the Color Management tab
d. Left click the color management button
e. Left click the advanced tab
f. Left click on calibration display
g. Left click next on the Welcome to Display Color Calibration screen
h. Left click next on the set basic color settings screen
i. Left click next on the hot to adjust gamma screen
j. You may adjust or leave it as default (recommended) then click next on the adjust gamma screen
k. Left click skip brightness and contrast adjustment
l. Left click next on how to adjust color balance
m. Select the blue slider bar with the mouse, sliding it all the way to the right then use the keyboard left arrow key to move the slider right to left till the blue tint is lowered to your liking.

This will reduce the blue tint and give you a warmer color temperature

2. As Sager begins to ship our NP8170-3D this week we would like to let our users know that the 120 Hz 3D panel selected has its NTSC Color gamut rated at 72%.

3. Notice to Sager Customers that has purchased NP8130/NP8150/NP8170 and received their unit before the Intel chipset revision, Sager has begun our recall process early this month, and we have informed our dealers to send notices to customers to contact Sager Techsupport department to get their system motherboard serviced to the new B3 stepping chipset.

If you have not yet receive a notice from Sager or your point of contact, please contact Sager Techsupport to setup your RMA process.

 

never mind, looks like the power connector is a single in the 8150 vs quad connector in the 8170

 

If I wanted to pick up an older Sager/Clevo, where might be a good place to look?

 

The NBR marketplace is where forum members here tend to put their older machines up for sale. This may be your best bet.

NBR Marketplace

 

My np-8170 is perfect I have t say, except for that one stuck pixel and me too i lost a little rubber bumper on the screen. The build quality on mine is excellent in my opinion. Compared to HPs and toshibas i had in the past (which I thought at the time were really well built) there is no comparison. Its tough, no flex anywhere. Time will only tell.

 

So how do you measure CPU and GPU temperature on this machine?

 

HWMonitor is a good free program. HWiNFO32 is an even better one, as it shows more temps (some I don't even know what they are lol) and it works flawlessly with the W7 tray.

 

I have had my new desktop for a week now and I must say I am a lot happier. I miss the mobility but the new hardware and monitor really do not make me miss the NP8170 at all. Thanks for all of your help on this forum and I had high hopes for the machine it just didnt deliver for the price point.

 

I am extremely tempted by Desktops, particularly when they start releasing games that really push the PC's capabilities. I love portability and that is why if I ever do get a desktop, I will probably go for a shuttle gaming PC rather than a huge desktop. At the moment, the NP8170 plays every single game I need it to play and I am sure it will handle the Witcher 2 just fine. Considering that I play a lot of old titles, I expect to be satisfied with a laptop for years to come.

 

New status: Phase 2 (Sent for Custom Building / Testing / Burn In & Final QA)

woohoo, can't wait

 

If it weren't for my space constraints I'd be happy, but the more I think of it, the annoyance of only being able to use the laptop keyboard to kick fans to high is unfortunately, a huge turnoff, for a more or less desktop replacement notebook. I can't just tuck it in the corner with the lid closed or in a cabinet (with adequate airflow/cooling of course), because any time I'd game, I'd have to open the lid and press Fn+1. No external device (i.e. keyboard) or software tools allow you to change the fans. The automatic BIOS control of the fans is quite horrible, with no allowable user input.

I'm realizing from my NP8662 and NP8170 that the BIOS and general user control of the machine details are quite lacking which is one of the biggest downfalls of Sager/Clevo's. I love the features, build quality, and ease of upgrading / repairing. But I hate the fact that such a powerful machine has little to no control of the system's clocks, voltage, and cooling.

Because of this I'm strongly considering a Shuttle desktop now, even though I'd take a several hundred dollar loss on my laptop when selling it, the Shuttle will cost less than half of this laptop for significantly more powerful components, and will still be able to buy a reasonably powerful laptop with money left over.

 

I am laptop driven. I am so happy with this laptop. Check out my digs, and I can even take this power on travel with me.

 

I got an 1889 combined score in 3DMark 11. Is that good?

 

What resolution? Default 720p or 1080p?

Here's my results, GTX 485m / i7-2720QM stock clocks:

 

I downloaded 3dmark11 basic and just ran it. here are the results:


Version: 1.0.1
5/20/11 1:34:53 AM
Id: 1231421

Score:
P3002 3DMarks

Processor
Intel Core i7-2820QM Processor
________________________________________
Processor clock
3292 MHz
________________________________________
Physical / logical processors
1 / 8
________________________________________
# of cores
4

Graphics Card
________________________________________
# of cards
1
________________________________________
SLI / CrossFire
Off
________________________________________
Memory
2048 MB
________________________________________
Core clock
575 MHz
________________________________________
Memory clock
1500 MHz
________________________________________
Driver name
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 485M
________________________________________
Driver version
8.17.12.7061
________________________________________
Driver status
FM Approved
________________________________________
General

Operating system
64-bit Windows 7 (6.1.7601)
________________________________________
Motherboard
CLEVO P170HMx
________________________________________
Memory
16362 MB
________________________________________
Detailed scores

3DMark Score
P3002
________________________________________
Graphics Score
2709
________________________________________
Physics Score
7461
________________________________________
Combined Score
2771
________________________________________
GraphicsTest1
12 FPS
________________________________________
GraphicsTest2
12 FPS
________________________________________
GraphicsTest3
16 FPS
________________________________________
GraphicsTest4
8 FPS
________________________________________
PhysicsTest
23 FPS
________________________________________
CombinedTest
12 FPS
________________________________________
Settings

Default settings used
Yes
________________________________________
Edition
Basic
________________________________________
Screen Width
1280
________________________________________
Screen Height
720
________________________________________
Msaa Sample Count
1
________________________________________
Texture Filtering Mode
Trilinear
________________________________________
Max Af Anisotropy
1
________________________________________
Tessellation Detail
5
________________________________________
Max Tessellation Factor
10
________________________________________
ShadowMapSize
5
________________________________________
Shadow Cascade Count
4
________________________________________
Surface Shadow Sample Count
16
________________________________________
Volumetric Illumination Quality
5
________________________________________
Ambient Occlusion Quality
5
________________________________________
Depth Of Field Quality
5
________________________________________
Enable Window Mode
Off
________________________________________
Enable Vertical Sync
Off
________________________________________
Enable Triple Buffering
Off
________________________________________
Enable Wireframe
Off
________________________________________
Color Saturation
100%

Htwingnut: you have the 2720, it is interesting to see that we are very close, I wonder how much of a difference the 6mb level 3 cache in yours would stack up to my 8mb cache. originally I was going to get the 2720 chip, but opted for the 2820, thinking that this is pretty much my last laptop I'll buy. my next laptop in about 2 years will be a 10" tablet running windows 7 that I can do all this on ... dreamin ...

 

Hate to say this, but somethings not right with that score. For reference this is what I got:

 

I used 1080p, but I also bumped the filtering up to anisotropic so maybe that's why.

 

Okay, just re-ran it with default settings on 720p and I got 3089. I guess your 2720 CPU gives you the extra 622 points.

 

Im not sure if ssd caching has been discussed here before but apparently its supported on your chipset:
AnandTech - Intel Z68 Chipset & Smart Response Technology (SSD Caching) Review
You get the best of both worlds, hdd capacity and ssd like performance.
If i knew about this before, i would have seriously considered the 8170. To me its the killer feature, more than cpu overclocking.

 

@ TheGreatAnonymous

Is 3DMark11 biased towards AMD? I mean 800 points overall higher with same config? Is your GPU overclocked?

 

It all depends on the code. Some games, especially driving games seem to bench better with nvidia, and some of the FPS games bench better for AMD. I think they are both really good cards. AMD has the price beat tho. It all comes down to what you like. My experience takes me to nvidia. So happy with this card. My 3d rendering is rocket fast. After a fresh reboot I had somewhat higher scores. I usually don't reboot for days. I want to see if windows 7 can run for days like my other laptop on linux. Of course, the competition between the graphics card makers is perfect for us gamers!

 

Well I don't reboot for weeks, and my score hasn't changed with a fresh reboot either, just ran it. That score by TheGreatAnonymous is inflated somehow, possibly due to overclock is all I can think. Even the Clevo at notebook check with 6970m only got about a P3000 score.

 

Maybe, his GPU does say 6900 series while mine says 6970. We apparently both have the same card so I'm not sure...

 

Wait, do people manually set their fans to max? Why? I've never had to do that with any games.

I'd be tempted by a desktop if I could still use it on the couch. Maybe tuck the machine in the corner, and then use some sort of laptop-looking keyboard/monitor combo on a mechanical arm....sadly I don't think that setup exists outside of a batman movie or something.

 

Depends on the game. Something like Bad Company 2 will tax your machine quite a bit and if fans aren't on max, my temps approach and even exceed 80c. Still within spec, but still too hot.

Yes there are armatures for a monitor and keyboard, but they cost a few hundred bucks.

 

try one of these on the couch, wife and I have one each

Amazon.com: Altra 9234096 Laptop Cart, Cherry on Black: Home & Garden

there are many different forms of these

 

Stock clocks, using 'hacked' 11.5a mobility driver. Undervolted, but that has nothing to do with scores. I believe 3DMark11 is somewhat AMD biased, as opposed to Vantage which favors Nvidia more (or maybe it's Unigine that does better with Nvidia). Benchmarks can be deceiving.

 

Somewhere in this thread I saw someone post a pictures of rounded legs to put under back of your laptop to raise it for airflow.
Where can I buy such things ?

 

They're called Cool Balls. Google it!

 

Are they any good?

 

Hi guys ! I've been reading this thread for a long time (even before I bought mine) and after using it for a few weeks I have 3 questions for you :

- is there a monitoring software available to see the speed (GHz) at which the CPU is and was running now and before ? like there's intel turboboost monitor that is realtime but I want to see back like 5 mins ago (while i was gaming)

- I have some weird effect going on with my mic input jack, when I unplug/replug it my Skype-mate says it changes my voice, sometimes there's huge background noise and after replug it's like if I'm talking in a bowl and the next time everything is clear ... where can I check for a new version of driver ? realtek site or intel site ?

- for the HD6970M owners : are these temps normal ? It was while playing StarCraft2 at Ultra w/o vertical synch ... the weird thing is that the airflow of the CPU is A LOT MUCH HOTTER than the airflow out of the GPU



thanks !

 

Welcome to the forum.

Not sure about your other questions but those gpu temps are too high. I've had temperature issues with the 6970M but I believe my problem may be related to a defect with the heatsink. You might want to try reapplying the thermal paste for the gpu, because it may not have been applied well. What temperature do you normally idle at?

 

It idle presently at 60°C but the air coming out of the GPU fan is not even warm (a lot cooler than the air out of the CPU fan which idles at 40°C) but also the GPU fan seems to run slower than the CPU one ... I think I'll try checking the heatsink and apply some MX-4 to see if it changes something ... until the I'll game with full fan speed to see if it changes something ... thanks for the input !!!

 

You IDLE at 60C! I thought I had it bad at ~48C. Generally, from what I've gathered from reading around the forum, the 6970M should idle around 40C and peak no higher then 80-85C max, especially if you're just playing a game. The fact that you said that you feel no warm air coming from the gpu vent makes me think that the heat isn't being released properly. I'm willing to bet that there is a problem with your heatsink (maybe not seated properly) or you just need to redo the thermal compound.

 

WOW you idle at 48°C ? ok I'll check this tonight ! thanks for the comparison !

 

'Ello people.

Been reading here and there at this thread, thinking of buying a NP 8170 trough XoticPC, however I have a few questions first.

1. Is it possible for me to find out how much it will cost to ship the Laptop to Sweden? Could anybody be so kind and perhaps give me a link of some sort?

2. I am going to get the 6GB RAM version, And from what i've read, do you have to install it yourself? I have probably just understood it wrong, please correct me here.

3. What difference is there exactly between a ''Matte'' screen and the ''Glare Type 90% Gamut''?

4. Do you have to apply the ''IC Diamond'' thingie yourself? Is there a tutorial somewhere on how to do it?

5. Is there a large FPS drop in let's say.... Bad Company 2 or other such Graphic Tense games if you have the 6970 card instead of the 485?

Thanks in advance.

 

Ok what a noob I feel like : I was looking at it the wrong way, the hot air was indeed coming from the GPU and the cool air from the CPU ... now I'll still reapply the thermal paste but want to know : do you guys also apply some directly on the GDDR5 to remove the thermal pads used or do you only apply some on the GPU itself ?

 

I'm not sure about the shipping, but I can answer your other questions. If you upgrade the RAM, they will install it for you.

Matte is not glossy and won't give you the vibrance and contrast that a glare type (glossy) screen would give you. You won't get any annoying reflections with a matte screen, however. Don't bother with the upgrade on Xotic, that matte screen is backordered, and it's most likely gone for good. That matte screen is 72% gamut, by the way. Gamut represents the color spectrum, pretty much. It tells you how black, blacks will be and how white, whites will be, etc.

The IC Diamond thermal paste has to be applied yourself with the 8170, yes. It's really not worth it since it will barely make temperatures lower.

There isn't a drop in those games in particular, but there may be very slight difference in some games. Honestly, you won't notice any difference that matters. Unless you need CUDA or Physix or more 3D support, go with AMD, which is much cheaper.

 

Two new GTX 485m benchmarks, this time Half Life 2!

YouTube - ‪Half Life 2 - GTX 485m - Maxed out - Part 1/2‬‏

YouTube - ‪Half Life 2 - GTX 485m - Maxed out - Part 2/2‬‏

 

Thank you for the quick reply.

About the screen. Is it worth the extra 220$ for the 90% Gamut screen? Is it Backordered aswell? Also, alot of people complain about the regular stock screen. How bad is it exactly? Can you live with it?

A little bit off topic perhaps but, what exactly is the ''CUDA'' and ''Physix'' you are talking about?

 

I've actually thought about this myself, until I realized it just wouldn't work. The thermal padding is there for a reason, and that's to bridge the gap between the ram modules and the heatsink. The gap between the two is too wide to try and fill with thermal paste. It's not designed to be a tight fit like the core heatsink. Not to mention it's messier. Plus the padding is used to cover/protect other things besides the ram, like the voltage regulator modulator and some other circuitry. Besides, the heatsink for the ram chips is made of metal where the contact is made, I believe it would need to be made of copper (like where the heatsink goes over the gpu core) in order to get the best effect from paste.

In short, don't do it.

 

is any way to quieten the fan? I have 2630QM + 6970m, and when I want to surf the web is very loud and annoying. Any solutions? The new bios? software? editing hotkeys is possible to reduce the rpm?

 

CUDA - What is CUDA?

PhsyX - PhysX FAQ

As for the screen, I'm not sure if the glossy one is backordered as well. Call and ask them. It will help viewing angles and what not, you can see for yourself here. It depends what you're doing too. You might want to consider it if you are a photography professional.

Mlody - Not yet. No controls at all beside Fn + 1, which maximize the power of the fan for GPU intensive things.

 

Meh. I will be doing mostly gaming on it. Should I take the regular screen for that instead then?

I also have another question. Does having one Hardrive with 500gb decrease any kind of Performance or anything like that? Or is it better to have more Hardrives then one?

 

The default screen should be fine for you. It's fine for me and I just game and do browsing and what not.

Nothing competes with the speed of a solid state drive, but an SSD costs a good amount of money. One HDD compared to two will not decrese performance, at all.

 

For gaming, you probably won't even notice the screen upgrade. Mostly only professional graphic work would see a significant benefit.

As for the hard drive, you won't see a *decrease* in performance, but you definitely won't see an *increase*. 7200rpm hard drives are still pretty fast, but compared to two 7200rpm drives in RAID, or a single SSD, you're going to be quite a bit slower.

 

Like in the old days you could put theo swap file on the second drive and speed things up with dual hdd. Not sure if win 7 allows that. Gonna check

Ran default basic pcmark vantage basic trial version 64 bit and got 9509, here are my stats:

http://3dmark.com/pcmv/445138

I am very very happy with the 90% screen. I do photography and such, it is just real pretty. For me, money well spent.

yep, I have 16gb, not really worried at all. There is only one piece of software I have that can use it all. With a bunch of stuff open, I average about 4gb used.

 

Yes Win 7 allows swap file on other hdd, however, considering the massive amount of RAM people have these days, it's hardly an issue.

 

This is what I call gaming bliss. I bought this roll top desk for $100 at a consignment store in San Diego. It weighs 600lbs. I was not sure that I could race on it. Racing is my main gig with F1 2010 being my mainstay game ... err … simulation. As you can see, the 8170 can sit on a slider board that is used to lock the desk and sits it above the steering wheel. The pedals are down below. Tonight I achieved racing nirvana. Monza track, first lap at 1:52:45 and after 8 laps I was down to 1:28:04. All safety’s turned off.





Sweet!