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

Bitcoins are a crypto based international currency. Even has an exchange rate. New coins are created finding new hashes. There is a limit to the number of coins that can be made, and it takes more processing power with each hash created. Mining is the act of creating new hashes. Most folks pool their resources together, since at my rate, it could take many months for my computer to even find just one. Im very new to the whole thing, sure there are points I am missing/wrong about. It may die out and never succeed, but I figure it doesn't hurt to try to get a couple coins.

bitcoin.org

 

I'm with this baby for one month now and had some thoughts changed:

I'm still impressed how this 6970 can run any game on max. res. and quality without dropping fps, and it's a laptop
Until now I've played Crysis 1 and 2, WoW, Dirt 2 and 3, Assassin Creed Brotherhood, Portal 2, Prototype, Duke Nukem Forever. Got high fps in all of them.
I like the keyboard too, it's very close to macbooks one, only thing missing is backlight keyboard.
Since I'm a beginner audiophile I'm just disappointed with its sound quality. I mean the speakers are great, but the soundcard itself sucks, I knew, it's onboard, it doesnt have enough power to run my headphones. So now I'm planning to buy some DAC/AMP like Fiio E7. If you guys want some quality laptop sound, check it out.
I'm still trying to find some good software for the biometric device.
In general, I'm pretty satisfied with this baby. I don't have the Sager model, but the Eurocom, but I think its the same machine.

I have just one question. Can I use the lastest AMD video drivers or its better to keep with Clevo ones?

Thanks.

 

@ bodosko

I assume you have the correct sound settings i.e stereo and FN+5 has been enabled?

I assume so since you mentioned that the speakers are great. I am surprised you consider the sound via earphone to be lacking, I think it is very good.

 

I want to buy the Clevo P170HM however I have one final question to answer. I want to use VMware or VirtualBox to run Virtual Machines. Specifically, I want to run 64 bit Guests which requires Intel VT-x enabled in the CPU AND in the BIOS. I know the CPU can do it, I just need to check that this feature is enabled in the BIOS.

Can anyone:
Tell me if they have ran 64 bit guests successfully on this machine? or
Run this tool from Microsoft which should tell
Download Details - Microsoft Download Center - HAV Detection Tool

Can anyone help?

 

VT is enabled (Forced on can't turn it off), 64-bit guests work just fine.

 

I am running 64 bit Ubuntu, Mint and SUSE, all 11.something and all as guests. The ONLY thing that does not work in a VM is native graphics card. However, VMware does now have a great SVGA software "board". I am able to run Windows 2000 Pro with the game Carnivores running for fun and also with sound. All VM's update as if native on the laptop. I also run Windows XP and it runs like it was native, just no accelerated graphics. Virtualbox was OK, I just loaded all my OS's in VMware and they both are pretty much the same as far as I can see, I did not go deep into what each can do or not do. Happy VM'ing

 

What is the latest bios for this laptop ??? I have revision 1.0.6 if i remember right.

 

well, just got my sager np8170! have had no problems so far and it is the most solidly built laptop I have seen

*edit* while I'm thinking about it... what is the best driver for the Radeon 6970m?

 

Congratulations, its a boy! And yes! it is the best built laptop I ever had. Have FUN!

 

Congrats!

I should be getting mine on Tuesday.

 

Got mine on wed for anyone wondering. Took less then a week. Pretty awesome.
About this sound stuff....I find the sound very lacking. I had the Asus G73 and the sound from it was awesome (it had the sub too) but with the Sager, I here absolutely no low end, just treble.
You say I must set it to 2 speaker?
Whats with this fn+f5 stuff?
Thanks alot.

edit - Sorry meant 5 not f5

 

It's Fn + 5 (number 5 not F5)

 

This from Sager...

 

6970m phased out already? I guess this could be good news if they are coming out with something new.

 

I just hope it isn't because they had a problem with it

 

If there was a problem, they'd probably just stop selling it. I think they're about to release something new to beat the crap outta 485m.

 

And then Nvidia releases something to beat the crap out of AMD ... we win!!! over and over

Just for fun, Running all this stuff ... 12gb memory, 5 VM's, a game, 32 open windows etc etc etc

 

honestly I don't like amd cards. I always liked my nvidia cards and was really impressed with the geforce 9500m gs that I got in my acer back in 2008, but the 485m was just a little out of my price range, and the 460m was not quite powerful enough for me.


but the last ATI card I had (in '06) had so many driver issues it wasn't even worth it! Hopefully AMD will do a better job with that now

 

My G73 has a ATI 5870M and when I installed the new BIOS and the new catalyst driver all was well.

 

Yes, as I said the speakers are great. It's the onboard soundcard that suck.
Of course the sound will be good on a cheap headphone. But for someone that is used to listen to hi-fi sound with Studio headphones and dedicated xonar soundcards it's really annoying. The output doesn't have enought impedance to "run" my headphones.
Just for curiosity, try to go to a hi-fi sound store and listen to music on a dedicated sound card + quality headphones. You will never go back to onboard audio anymore.

I always had ATI cards and they never let me down. You probably just had bad luck on that. Don't worry.

 

I have to agree regarding the disappointing audio circuitry on this computer. I played some of my lossless iTunes music through the built in speakers and there was no bass. I assumed the problem was the speakers. Then I connected my wonderful Ortofon ear buds and there was still no bass. By contrast, when I play the exact same material on my iPod, the bass is quite full and natural sounding. The iPod is not known for ultra high audio quality, so it is disappointing that the 8170 cannot even match this modest level of audio quality.

Ira

 

I'm always impressed at mine as well. I cant believe how much crap this thing can handle. playing Crysis 2, acrobat X creating pdf's and a portfolio a couple of really large excel files open, outlook, a comparison of contracts on word, looking stuff up on the web, itunes playing and downloading, auto back up to external drive and switching from one to another without a prob. I was really stuck in medieval times before. To anyone who's hesitating buying this as I was for months, its a good investment. Apart from all the new components coming out and my feeling that i will soon be out of date. Wingnut was correct once when he said that there is always something better coming out, you will never have the latest and might as well take the plunge.

 

You have to really play around with all the tips in this forum and you ll get it. I was like u for a couple of days, don't really remember the sequence of what I did and now am getting bass through headphones and rest. (not only Fn+5,combination of thx, itunes settings , windows audio etc).

 

Fn+5 (NOT F5). So many people have said no bass, how can you not hear the bass after you activate Fn+5 AND make sure it's set to stereo in the Windows audio setup.

I was underwhelmed until I realized I needed to set it to Stereo. Makes a difference in both speakers and headphones.

 

See Paladin44's comment here (and below): http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...evo-p150hm-owners-lounge-317.html#post7611209

 

Yea, we still have 6970m's. No shortage on our end if people still want them.

:GEEK:

 

Of course all orders that have been placed with the AMD 6970M will be fullfilled...
_

 

Any idea behind the reason for the shortage? New GPU, sourcing of a component or components?

Get them while they're hot then I guess?

 

It is true that there is only a small inventory of the 6970M at Sager at this time, but why they are not expecting more is unclear. We do not know for sure. We should know more soon.
_

 

Regarding the audio, you sure its 5 and not f5?
Hitting fn+5 does nothing, while fn+f5 lowers the volume for me.

 

It would not make sense for AMD to come out with newer GPUs since they just very recently released the 6970M.

I'm going to believe the resellers and think that it's just a shortage. That should come as no surprise because it's an excellent card for a great price.

Mr. Mysterious

 

10000% sure it's Fn+5. Fn+F5 lowers volume, Fn+F6 raises volume, Fn+F3 mutes it. It's not one of the traditional volume controls. It's also on page 2-11 of the manual. Expand spoiler tags below for images. It says it only increases volume, but all speakers are clearly being used.

Open the Realtek HD Audio Manager (quick way is right click Realtek sound icon in system tray - looks like orange speaker, not white - and click 'Sound Manager'). Set speaker configuration to "Stereo" press the play button. Press Fn+5 then press the play button again. World of difference.

Spoiler

 

Thanks a lot. I'll have a look at this.

 

Thank Kevin_Jack2.0 for this mainly. He's the one that brought it to our attention first! (Credit where credit is due!)

 

My sound is so loud that when I was working outside in the yard, I was feared that I was going to damage the speakers. Just have to mess around with the settings. FN+5 is very nice. Try balancing the front to rear speaker ratio while listening to music. That is how I finally figured out the sound. The sound compared to my G73 side by side with the same sound files are equal. I would give quality to the G73 and volume to the NP8170 hands down. My old Toshiba was not bad on sound either but these two are great.

This is my setup and also using FN+5(five)

I also use the THX TruStudio Pro with the subwoofer gain at +15db, surround all the way down(left)

In my sound properties all settings for room correction are at +10db, at 30 ft.

Been messing around with all this stuff and this seems to work for me. I have been told to turn it down a couple of times ...

 

Thanks guys for taking the time to post your settings. FN+5 does indeed change the sound. Very odd that that combination is used to do that lol. You would think it would be one of the icon buttons.
Anyways, just tried Witcher 2 with ultra settings on the 6970m and it ran very well. Actually suprised me.

 

Where is subwoofer gain in the THX software?

 

under speaker tab

 

Are you running 6970 or 485 ?
Did you run fraps by any chance on ultra ? Curious how many fps it managed.

 

6970. No not have fraps installed on the laptop yet but I would say it was playable. I just started a new game so did not get to the fighting yet but it ran pretty smoothly. Better then I expected for a laptop.

Question guys, I did a thread search but came up with no results. What were you guys talking about regarding the CPU fans?
I shut my laptop down and turned it back on and the fan for the cpu is at 100% and I can not get it to go down.
Wasnt there a fn+ something to cycle through fan speeds?
I know its not too hot, its under 70 here in my house.

edit...I hit FN+1 while at the bios screen and it seemed to turn them down. Odd it did not work from windows, it only kept them on max.

 

I have been reading the PDF of the 8170 manual, as I await the UPS truck this Tuesday & as a picture is sometimes more valuable than 1k words.....see the attached <"keyboard function keys"> page about the keyboard function key assignments, both the volume adjustments AND "audio toggle" are displayed.

BTW, somewhere along the way I downloaded both the 8170 user manual and the service manual. Both have been helpful in my learning curve for this computer. There is a note concerning 1600MHz modules that is worth noting, see attached <"specs">

The latest posts about the fan issue was that it was now a non-issue. Perhaps there is more to this? Earlier posts mentioned a fan speed cycling affair, much talk about possible BIOS updates etc. If I have this issue, I will get back to you with exactly what is going on.....UPS, where are you?

 

Thanks Wakon. Yea I am not sure it is an issue. I looked in my manual and didnt see anything about the fan key but remembered seeing it here somewhere.
I was hitting fn=1 and it turned up the fan but not down. Turning pc off etc still kept it at max when turning back on. When I hit the key combo again at the bios screen it went back to normal and has been ok since.

You should or gotten over night shipping like I did lol. I cant stand waiting for items in the mail.

 

This post will complete the data set from my last post. When checking the link to the PDF page I uploaded for the keyboard function page, I noted that the issue in so many recent posts about just what does Fn+5 do, is shown, but, that page also refers to another page; that other page is attached. I named it " The Audio Toggle ploy".

RTFM, as we used to say.....

 

Thanks for the additional 'splanation ws. My PDF of the manual does not show every BIOS screen entry, I really hope that there is a reason for this fan thing, that can be found and selected as needed. Never liked wonky in my tek!!

Enjoy, I am quite excited to get mine soon.....

 

Yea it really is an amazing machine. I am sure you will enjoy it.
My guess is the FN+1 is to get the fans running to max in case it is very hot in the room or something like that.

 

For all of us rather new on this forum, and since I had mentioned finding the service manual in an earlier post- this is where I "found" it......Thanks Theriko!

 

I am really very curious what your BIOS version is when you receive your laptop. I want to compare that to mine to see if there is a BIOS update concerning the fan issue as we are all curious.

So ... Malibal does not offer the 6970M anymore on the NP8170, and neither does Powernotebooks.com?!?! Sure am glad I went with Nvidia for future support besides raw performance.

 

I definitely FN+1 when playing intensive games like Witcher 2. If I don't, my GPU gets up to 93C (according to GPU-Z) which is pretty damn hot. If I force the fans to max it tops out at 84C or so. This is in a 70F room with the laptop on a hard surface.

 

I also checked the Sager site: concerning GPUs, only the '560 & the '485 are available there too.

Will definitely post my BIOS version, hopefully Tuesday evening?

I see all kinds of info gathering/ testing apps being reported here. Anybody care to list them with a quick "why I need this one" report?

Thanks all!

 

I haven't ever seen mine above 73c (running crysis/crysis 2) as long as the computer is on a flat surface. maybe its the diamond thermal paste they put on the heat-sync..... I use Cupid Hardware Monitor, but ill have to compare it with the gpu-z temp