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

There aren't any import duties on notebooks shipping from the US to Canada, so the only tax you will pay is the GST / PST / HST depending on where you live. (In Quebec, I think it's 13.5% total) This is the same tax you would pay if you purchased a laptop locally.

So the only additional fee you might pay when ordering from the US is a brokerage fee. However, if you select an express shipping service from UPS, the brokerage fee is waived, so you only pay for the price of shipping.

More info: UPS: Rates for Customs Clearance into Canada

 

try going here Download | Ubuntu
step 2 gives good instructions, it has worked for me using several Linux distros, but I don't believe I have tried Fedora 15

 

Maybe I will try ubuntu, though this problem seems to be more at the kernel/driver level. I rebuilt the driver for this ethernet card and installed the module but the problem still occurs. Perhaps the Fedora project is falling apart.

Again, are there any UEFI/BIOS or EC updates for this laptop? I found an unofficial source that says there is a KBC/EC update to version BIOS V 1.01.02 and my laptop is running 1.00.03.

 

I downloaded ubuntu-11.04-dvd-amd64.iso and installed the ISO image to a USB drive using the dd command. dd if=./ubuntu-11.04-dvd-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdd

This image fails to boot too and I was using one of the USB 2.0 ports. The same port is able to boot a USB drive installed with Windows 7 SP1 ISO image. I used the F7 option to specify the boot device.

What BIOS are you people using? There are two firmware updates listed in the UEFI/BIOS menu:
- a BIOS version
- a KBC/EC version

 

Just for grins I installed Lubuntu (another Ubuntu distro) on two different USB sticks. It worked fine for me. One is a 1GB and I booted from that and installed over the other one.
No issues.
Have you tried the instructions I referred you to earlier? It is not the same as dd, it is not a simple copy...
Good Luck!

 

Are you running 32 bit ubuntu or 64 bit ubuntu? Please type "uname -a" on the command line and paste the response here so I can see what you are using.

Also, what is your BIOS and EC firmware version?

Also, your instructions require an existing Ubuntu installation.

For giggles, could you try downloading the 64 bit ubuntu ISO and use the dd command to install it to a USB drive? Then see if that works.

 

I run 64bit on USB sticks and my PCs
this OS is: Linux peter-P170HMx 2.6.38-8-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Mon Apr 11 03:31:24 UTC 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

BIOS: 1.01.07aLS2
KBC/EC: 1.00.05SA1

The Ubuntu option does not show the name and the place of the tools in other Linux flavors... I thought "Startup Creator" or some such utility was in all distros... kind of a core utility. There are Mac and Windows instructions there too if you can't find the Fedora tools.

 

I am researching different methods to recreate the USB disks; no longer certain that dd works since your drives boot fine.

You have newer BIOS and KBC/EC. Where did you get these? I don't see any firmware updates on Sager's homepage. Do you have to e-mail Sager and request the firmware directly from them?

 

Not updated, my NP8170 left Sager 8 days ago, it was "built" on June 3.

 

I am on track to order an 8170 this week. This fan speed cycling thing is troubling & it seems like quite awhile now since it was first noted. I may have missed it but I have not read anything about a fix, although someone posted about a fix for the 15" model. Resellers: what say you??

 

How is your ST950042 air flow/assembly temperature so low? Mine is like around 40 degrees F.

 

The factory has said this is not an issue. The NP8170's shipping now do not have any "fan speed cycling"....
_

 

I run VMware. I am able to run all OS's out there. In full screen also just like it was native. I even run Windows 2000 so I can run that old shooting game Carnivores. I am running three different versions of Linux and also Windows XP, all with full networking and sound. They still have a bit to go as I am unable to load the native Geforce GTX485M drivers as I would if it was actually loaded on the hard drive. I have an old USB stick and it will not be recognized by the bios to boot from.

 

OK then, the 8170 fan cycling issue is a moot point now, excellent!

Anybody hot-rodding any components in the 8170? (CPU,GPU,memory timing)

BTW, I have learned much from this lounge. It is also nice to see the excitement some of you express when you post what phase you are in, and such.

I had been considering the G73 and now the G74, but I need Firewire, which is fast becoming a legacy connection. After all of my DV tapes have been ingested and archived I suppose I could live without Firewire, as my other camcorder uses SDHC cards.

Which leads me to this: I will be installing Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium on the 8170. I did note a photographer's post some time ago who was quite happy with the performance, any Premiere Pro or After Effects users out there? "Howz it Run?"

 

well... on idle my laptop still cycles a bit >_>

 

My understanding is that dd is a copy tool. It does not "install" the ISO
this is what an ISO installed to a 1GB USB drive looks like:

 

More on the Adobe suite: As Adobe is sweet on Nvidia's GPUs I will have to go with the GTX 560M option. As much as I would love to rock the '485- finances say "no". However, I do not see the '560 explicitly supported & I checked just last night. On my last laptop, a Sony F (and it was an "F", problems galore, spoke with folks from the Philippines, India, and San Diego,eventually returned for a full refund) I performed a hack I found somewhere that enabled Premiere Pro to utilize (the rather meager) GPU installed in the F model I had. I imagine that this same hack will work on the latest cards too, even though not officially sanctioned by the OEMs. Has anyone harnessed the Cuda cores in the GTX 560M to work with Premiere Pro? In the meantime, I will try to find the gouge on that hack again. It was pretty simple, where you edit a list of "supported GPUs" to include the one you have. You did this after running a program that gave a read out of the capabilities of your GPU, to see what kind of horsepower it had. It worked on the old 330 (?, if memory serves) GPU, and the '560 has (ahem) a bit more HP than that thing.

 

Well it did not take but one Google search to hit on this concerning the GPU hack to work with PrPRO:

Premiere CS5 – Mercury GPU Acceleration on the cheap
Premiere CS5 – Mercury Playback Engine Confirmed List of Cards (with hack)

When I get the new computer, I will report back on my results with this. The "GPU capability" program I mentioned in my previous post is: GPUSniffer.exe. and this is mentioned in the link above. After reading this article, it is clear that GPU-accelerated effects WILL be possible utilizing the GTX 560M- yeah!!

 

I have the Adobe CS5. I run Lightroom, Photoshop and Bridge. Everything happens pretty much instantaneously. My changes to pictures happen in real time. I just tried converting a 45 minute .wmv file to .avi in primier and it wanted about 15 minutes to do it. The fans did not even spin up while doing this. my GTX485M stayed at about 138F. My card has 384 cuda cores and this is why I got it. I see that the 560M has 192 cores. Its a very nice card. I am partial to nVidia.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

On another note, is there a BIOS update for our fans?

 

Thanks for the info RSDUNPHY, yeah, 384 Cuda cores IS the bomb! It will be interesting to hack the 560M to work with CS5.5. I will do a test on a long form video of some sort and report my results. That may not be for a few weeks though.....

Then again, it would be better if Adobe would just get these new cards certified! Nvidia- submit your latest GPUs for this cert, please!

BTW, I feel strongly about going with the i7-2720 over the 2630. The upgrade cost is "do-able" & the processing power increase for ALL apps should be welcome. Where is that lottery win when you need it??

 

every mhz helps

yep, I need about $11,000 for my dream desktop replacement!

 

$11k would pretty much buy what would have been a supercomputer not that long ago.

I agree about every mHz helping. I studied the charts on Intel's site to see exactly what is different on each of the new i7's. Mentally I draw a bang per buck chart- there is always a sweet (or should I say Suite) spot there. Same with the GPUs. There are cores, memory amount and clock speed, etc. I wonder if money were instead of no object, merely much less of an object, if I wouldn't just delve in each years' offerings at the mid level of options and just know I would be parting with the thing. Like automobiles, as soon as you drive that new computer off the lot, you take a hit. "They" say to think about what you really want ("careful what you ask for") and (the neuroscientists would say) your brain will rewire toward that end. Voila!

"Just over here rewiring Boss"

 

The 2720QM is worth it. The enhanced encryption and virtual machine capabilities prove to be nice in many applications. Anything above the 2720QM is not worth the $$ yet. You can get good memory and hard/optical drives for less elsewhere so I never get anything above the minimum in these categories from the system builder.

By the way, my Sager 8170 (2720QM based) system is a beast and I would say it is the best bang for your buck on the market right now. I only wish it had a backlit keyboard. I also noticed a small 2"x3" area on the aluminum LCD backing where the black anodized aluminum finish is faded and takes away from the rest of the [new] machine's beauty, but I have let Sager know about this and I am awaiting a resolution now. The stock LG 1080p screen is also pretty good, but I think I may put in the better AUO B173HW01 v.4 at some point as it would be brighter and offer a 90% color gamut.

I have also tested 1333MHz memory up to 16GB and have found there is no real performance difference in Windows 7 between 12GB and 16GB in relation to 90% of the real world applications I use (MS Office, Adobe CS5, Acrobat 10x, XP Mode, etc). The WEI also stays at 7.6 for anything above 10GB.

Scott

 

Maybe it's hotter in your room ? Right now we have 18c (64.4f) outside and it idles at 30c (86f).

 

I have different requirements. my 3d software eats rams like crazy. I also knew this would be a very long time laptop so I bought with that in mind. I went with the most ram and the highest CPU I could get at the time within my $3000 budget. If I could have I would have went with the max cpu too. I also needed lots of cheap disk drive space. The GTX485 was great because of the 384 CUDA cores and the nice thing also was it played all my games VERY well.

 

The news on the 2720 is good to hear. It really does appear to be the sweet spot doesn't it? When studying the Intel data, there were a few items besides raw clock speed range that stand out.

As to the comments about sourcing and installing your own hard drives. Have you located the sweet spot for drives (seller & manufacturer)? I have put together from scratch a few towers, so the remove a few screws and slide the drive in level of difficulty is most welcome.

 

Glad to see people using these fast computers for things other than games. Don't get me wrong, games are OK, but..... there are things that need to get done too. So, thanks to the people who are responding with real world app info. I just don't give a rat's for how many fps, etc. I can get with a game. Maybe because I saw the reality of combat first hand back in the day in SE Asia as a Naval Aviator, and do not find "entertainment" in reliving death-related gaming. If that is your thing, have at it, that is what FREEDOM is all about.

 

And I was in a ship off the coast ...

 

Me? CVAN-65, the Enterprise.

Going to order the 8170 tomorrow.

 

OK, I ordered my 8170 with Matthew at Malibal. Happily there was a free 8GB RAM promotion, & the free shipping due to being a registered user here made this purchase easy! Matthew estimated that it may ship in about 4 days. I will be nice to be in current century again regarding computer power.....

 

Glad we could help out! Please let us know if you need anything!

 

Oh, its like around 100 F here hahaha. But wow, your idling temp is very low, did you apply thermal paste yourself?

 

Nope, I went for the stock paste, I figured that if the temps would be high with stock paste I'll just apply better paste myself, I don't trust these guys at sager anyway
Here's the paste they did on one of my laptops, I'm no expert, but that looked a lil bit too much to me.

 

My office now is 84F and GTX485M idling at 102F, CPU i2820 about 112F

 

Just run this for fun...no clue what any numbers mean, but testing looked interesting...

 

Temps immediately after 3D Mark '11, which was 720p, all stock options.

http://imageshack.us/f/815/dfgdfgm.jpg/

 

Of course I will have to run this test when I get mine. So I looked at their site
which is: 3DMark 11 | 3DMark 11 – The Gamer's Benchmark for DirectX 11 and I see they have a free version and two for $$, well one of them for $$$$$$$$$. Bottom line is that this test is only for DirectX 11. Then there is this, the Extreme preset

OhBoy.....


"This preset is designed for benchmarking with a very heavy load on the graphics card. The benchmark runs in 1920 x 1080 (1080p). Although this setting may well bring many PCs to their knees today it represents the likely loads used by high end games in years to come. This preset is particularly well suited to high-end gaming PCs."

Sounds intriguing dudes! But I do not see where they talk about exactly what the numbers mean, the value may be in comparisons only. "My GPU can take your GPU".

 

That's exactly it. Comparing performance. In any case 3DMark is a single benchmark. A good indicator but not an end-all.

I got an X973 Extreme (X = eXtreme, P=Performance) score.

 

Hi,
Can someone post their impressions on the quality of the 3D screen for the 8170. is it better than the stock screen in terms of image quality, viewing angles, etc..

I intend on purchasing the NP8170 and I'm so inclined towards 3d vision but so worried the screen would end up inferior.

 

No direct help on that here.... B U T:
I opted to save my few remaining dollars and go with the standard screen. It is awesome! Now when I step over to a 1600x900 monitor it looks like it went into safe mode with minimal graphics.
I now have so much more real estate with tiny characters but the clarity is so much better that I can read it much better.

So, "you can't go wrong" in my book.

 

Hi Charz, I will post my impressions of the stock screen as soon as I get it. I considered the 3D, but the necessity of also getting the '485 GPU put it at a price point I could not justify. I aim for a sweet spot in components, knowing that in 18 months so much will have changed that the idea of upgrading your current rig starts to look less attractive. NEW!! starts to bark at your heels.

I do note that the Asus G73 had a pretty nice price point with 3D. I have read much about both the 8170 and the G73 and now the G74 RoG's, and well, you just have to choose at some point. Since I will be doing video (and NEEDED Firewire) my choice narrowed quickly. If I start creating 3D content, it will be time to upgrade or purchase a new computer.

Question to ask yourself: is the added capability something I will actually use (after all we almost never "need" it) in the next year? When I asked that question of myself I realized that yeah, 3D is cool, it will only get better, it will only get more plentiful. And when it does, I'll look @ it again.

Let us know what you decide, and maybe even the thought process you pursued. Good Decisions!

 

Mine runs a bit hotter, at around 75F, I idle at around 107F (41C) (CPU) hope its not a huge issue

 

I feel that right now 3D is in its infancy, and also remember that frames per second takes a huge hit on 3D screens.

Maximum PC | 3D Showdown: 8 3D Notebooks and Monitors Reviewed

Review Asus G53JW 3D Gaming Notebook (GTX 460M) - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

I only put up these reviews to show what 3D does to frame rate vs a 2D world. I am glad I did not go with 3D because there is just not that much I would do or play with. I instead opted for the 90% screen which is absolutely hands down the prettiest screen I have ever seen.

 

Thanks guys for the input,

I agree with every one saying 3d is in the early stage now, however, I am looking for a long term value of my new laptop. that being said, i wouldn't get anything lower than 485m or 580m (if it ever get released next month) and to get full advantage of these cards I thought of having 3d screen. Otherwize a single 560m is more than enough for most games/apps in the next 2years.

Of coarse, the 90% gumat screen is a hard-to-pass option, specially that I am a designer and a 3d hobbiest and yah I could always get an external 3d monitor + 3dvision. however, I just want to know if anyone has tryied the 3d screen yet...

 

My 1st post - quick background:

Purchased NP8170 on May 24th, Shipped on May 31st and received on June 3rd. Very satisfied so far but haven't really pushed the system yet. I should add that I am not a gamer but rather a photography enthusiast looking for a 4 YO desktop replacement to run Lightroom and PS with Nikon Raw files from a D2Xs.

This is also my first win7 machine so that has taken a little while to adjust.

My comments regarding the computer itself along with some previous comments and questions:

• I keep hitting the Enter key on the Number keypad expecting to delete!
• I really like the 90% NTSC Glossy screen thus far but I have not color calibrated it yet (I have Spyder2Pro).
• When I placed the order I felt, based on published performance specs, that the i7-2720qm processor was far and away the best price/performance processor offered.
• I also felt, for the same reasons, that the Radeon HD9760m was the best performer for the graphics card. I must admit however, that previous problems with a nVidia 8800GTX card on my desktop and the hassles associated with it turned me off slightly with respect to nVidia. With all that said I could not justify the price for the 485M.
• I agree with previous posters that the current implementation and available sources did not support the purchase of a 3D display.

I do have one question (admittedly a software question and not a hardware question) regarding LR and its catalog file(s) on a network with both my desktop and laptop: Should I use the catalog file on the desktop when viewing, editing, printing, etc. images on the laptop or should I use a separate catalog file on the laptop and then periodically sync the two files?

 

I am a heavy user of lightroom, I would do local everything then sync to network as backup.

Also, HAVE FUN WITH YOUR NEW TOY!!!

 

Hi, about this I have a similar question.

I bought my sager from Xotic with the upgraded matte screen V5. and AMD 6970m card.

Now I'm planning on get a new TV.
Probably will be a Samsung 40" D6500 3D Capable.

I don't have blu-ray player in my living room, not even in my laptop yet.

Is this a good choice?? I just want my laptop to be capable to send 3D signal to my Samsung TV for watching 3D movies, Or should I save some money and go with a lower 2D model??

I couldn't find threads with experience using this laptop and 3D TV.
Any help will be much appreciated.

 

I think the blu ray drive in the laptop has to be 3D compatible as well. When you get that, should work fine.

 

Anyone do bitcoin mining? Just started, with 100% cpu and gpu utilization, getting 54.1 Mhash/s

Update: switched to Cuda instead of openCL, 63.2 Mhash/s

 

I was just playing a hunt and find game that took me to 73C,highest I ever went so far.

so what is bitcoin mining ... game, programing thing or what.