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

The 580M should be faster then the 6970M, however that GPU-Z screenshot implies that's it's slower. For example, the bandwidth and pixel fillrates are slightly lower (especially the bandwidth: 96.0GB/s for the 580, 115.2 GB/s for the 6970). Anyways, can't wait to see some real benchmarks for the 580M.

 

Hmmm, I had called xotic pc yesterday regarding when the 580 might come out for the NP8170. They said they had no idea and everything was only rumors...

Now I see the 580 is offered today T_T. This has happened to me several times already- not sure if its cause Sager informs resellers at the last minute or something

 

It's called an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) where they are not legally allowed to say anything until the time and date defined by nVidia.

 

Exactly as HTWingNut says. Unfortunately are are all legally not allowed to discuss ETA's or anything related to the release of the product. Although we would love to share information to all, we are unfortunately not allowed to.

Sorry chiapet874, hope you do not take any offense to it.

 

580M sounds sick. I seriously hope it beats the performance of the 485m considering the extra $200 cost. It kills the 480m in performance according to the geforce website but I'm excited to see some benchmarks hopefully!

 

Well 480m was a debacle from the beginning. It should have never existed. 485m is what 480m should have been. 470m defeats the 480m even.

 

no no, of course not! I completely understand. I just thought it was a bit odd that it happened to me so many times. I also felt bad wasting your time, making orders, then having to change the order the next day b/c of a sudden upgrade.

 

Don't feel bad. You're spending your hard earned money, and lots of it... it's their job.

 

Does anyone know if any retailers still sell the np8170 with the 6970m or has something changed?
Also is the upgraded display available for the 580m? (most retailers sites say only if you have 485m)

 

The 6970M is no longer available on the P170HM / 8170, however - the pricing on the 485M was just reduced by $200 - so, it's now only $75 more than what the 6970M was selling for.

Also, the 3D 120Hz screens are still only available with the 485M cards, but this should change in the near future.

 

EUROCOM still sells 6970

 

also does the 580m support dual-link?

 

Yes it does. The AMD 6970M doesn't.

 

Finally, (lots of questions I know ) the main problem that the standard display has is bad colors and viewing angles correct? If so does the 485m (soon to be 580m) compatible 3d screen make that better or is it only the higher gamut display from xotic pc that makes a worthwhile difference?

 

Hey All,

Sorry if this was mentioned and I missed it, I have been waiting for a 485m refresh before pulling the trigger on my first gaming capable laptop, never had the money before. Was really hoping for optimus and the info from nvidia shows it is capable. Is it being supported in the NP8170 out the gate, the optimus on the 580 ? Thanks.

 

You will notice that no one is really offering Optimus with high end video cards. Even though it is theoretically possible to implement Optimus with high end video cards like the nVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M w/1.5GB GDDR5 and above there are compatibility issues with several games, STEAM, and even Linux. You will see it with the mid-range cards like say the GT 540M, but not with the high end cards. It seems that when you try to compromise you don't do either thing well.

So, you have to decide whether battery life or powerful graphics is most important to you, and make your choice accordingly.

 

I havent tottaly understand if this laptop is 3D, i mean does it have a 3D screen with 3D glasses?

 

BLAST....two weeks after my laptop comes in they offer a new card + lower the price of the card I wanted....grumble. Always happens.

 

You do have a 30 day return guarantee. Make use of it if it's really what you want.

 

Update: FANS come on full speed after waking from Hibernate.

I tested this a few times now, hibernate, wake, fans on full, every time. And the Fn+1 key combo does not reset the fans to normal speed. Interestingly, if I restart, the fans are again at full speed, Fn+1 does nothing (although I had the "stutter" of the fan speed aural signature as WSGROVES had a few times). Then after another restart, all is normal once again: fans at normal speed and Fn+1 works as it should.

Wazzup?

I know many are frothing, P.O.'d etc about new parts being announced relative to their recent orders. FWIW, this condition is to be expected when dealing with pretty much the state of the art in laptop tek. I know the "if I had waited just a little bit longer"...... is easy to do to ourselves and never gives a warm fuzzy. I have rerun the "numbers" myself. At some point one could argue that the best time to get a new machine is never, as it will get better, faster and maybe even cheaper someday. The point is not lost however about what just happened. We do love to love our toys, and not think of them as has-beens. In any event, in 6 months, there will be even more power coming at us. We just have to leap when it feels right and live with the outcome of our decision. Life is just that way!

One other idea to kick around: when we worry about these things we tend to spend more than we originally had budgeted. So the computer gets "bigger" and more costly. Then some number of months into ownership the idea of upgrading/ replacing rears its expensive head. Then the more we had put into the (now) "old dog" becomes a hindrance to the process as we "spent so much on it" just xx months ago. Give it some thought. A year from now, the specs on all of these models may look relatively lame, no matter what score it posted on some test or fps in a game

 

Interesting... My fans don't kick up after waking up from hibernations- they stay the same

 

And two years from now, people will be laughing at us as they play Crysis 4 on their GTX 995M SLI phones @_@ On "gamer".

Mr. Mysterious

 

Don't be silly, it'll be at least three!

 

Nahhh, that's the year when the government starts implanting chips into newborns' brains.

We just think "toast" and the toaster gets to working. Cutting edge stuff.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Well I think "fart" and ... well nevermind.

 

imagine in a coupla years where tablets will be. no more laptop in 5 years

 

That's still debatable. Some people still prefer the laptop form factor (I know I do- the lack of a real keyboard is painful). Plus, if tablets are x times more powerful in 5 years, imagine where laptops will be then

 

How do you use multiple monitors with a tablet?

A real keyboard and multiple monitors for REAL laptop users FTW

 

♥♥♥ L a p t o p s F o r e v e r! ♥♥♥

 

I think the deal will be when the Quantum Entanglement is sorted & action @ a distance is an everyday thing..... Oh, "they" are listening, um ah, like I said, in a year or so, even today's bleeding edge screamer will have been trumped.

Wouldn't have it any other way, given the choice.

 

My fans don't come on at all, after hibernation.

 

When you guys Fn + 1; do you experience uneven airflow out of the exhaust vents? For me, I can feel a lot of air flow out of the right hand back exhaust, but the left hand side seems weak.

Also, while max fans are running, they seem to hesitate/stutter sometimes- the speed will drop down for a second and pick back up

 

Yes, fans seem to cut out intermittently very very briefly. I haven't noticed uneven airflow though.

 

So I finally pulled the trigger a month and a bit ago and ordered my new machine, and on Monday it was delivered after waiting for the back ordered 90% gamut screen. I've been a long-time lurker on the forums gathering information on what would suit me best, and I can say I'm very happy with the decision I made! I absolutely love this thing so far, Sager really knows how to put together a nice piece of hardware.

Anyway, is it normal for the fans to cut out intermittently when they are on max from F+1 for a very brief time?

Also, I have the Intel 6230 wireless adapter in my NP8170, and it connects to my network and the internet just fine through wireless G. However, when I set the adapter for wireless N, it will connect to the network, yet will not gain internet access. Any thoughts?

 

It seems it is a normal occurrence; its not really a "cut out", but more of like a rapid slow down before rapidly speeding up again. It's only noticeable if you are trying to listen for it.

I took the time to rerun prime 95 again (without FN +1 being turned on). I noticed that after 15 minutes (Max CPU temp: ~86), the fan speeds haven't kicked up. The air flowing out is hotter, but it doesn't seem like the fans are kicking up, no where near fn+1 speeds anyways

 

As others said, they don't "cut out" but they do cycle in power and speed. That's normal though.

As for your wireless, is it definitely getting network access (aka, an IP address)? What do you mean, you set the adapter for wireless N? If your router only supports 2.4ghz, then connecting to it will default to the fastest supported speeds on both. Did you mean you went into the driver properties and forced it to N? In that case your router may not support it.

 

I know this is off subject, but what browsers you like?

 

Lol, are you asking anyone in particular, rsdunphy?

Mr. Mysterious

 

I have not had the best experience since upgrading to the newest FireFox, it is slower than Chrome to load and literally about half of the files I download somehow do not get saved (yet some do and I definitely have enough hard drive space) and a warning to that effect is issued.

I keep my MS Explorer up to date but rarely use it, for security reasons. So I keep going back to Chrome.

Additional info on the FANS: if I Sleep and then sleep migrates to Hibernate, when I awaken from Hibernate the fans come on full speed just as they do when I go directly to Hibernate. Fn+1 will only cause the often mentioned "stutter" in speed but will not throttle them down.

I have not noted any difference in exhaust velocity side to side.

 

lol, I've been using chrome for a long while. Never been happier

Mr. Mysterious

 

I ran the Cisco Connect program that came with my router from the USB key wherein it resides and I connect at full N speed without monkeying with anything. Did your router come with anything similar that enables connection with no hassles? I wonder if you are just getting a generic (Windows went out & got it for you) connection that fails to utilize the capabilities of your router. What router is it BTW?

 

Chrome!

But due to some activeX sites in Korea, I use both Chrome and IE9,

but Chrome gets my vote..

 

Chrome for the win! Especially with the integration with Google+

 

I just don`t use 100% chrome because there are plenty of websites that do not work corectly in it.
So I use like 90% firefox 5 and 10% chrome only sometimes.

 

Guess I missed the FireFox 5 release, I just d/l it & it does indeed load faster. Until recently I was 90% FireFox, and 10% Chrome. When I started having download issues with the Fox, I went Chrome. Now, it is an open question, as I reevaluate FF.

 

Google Chrome all the way !!!!
By the way is there a bios update for the P170MH?

 

Everything seems to be working regarding my wireless connection now, however I'm still uncertain as to why. Tonight when I got home from work I enabled wireless N on my wireless adapter's properties and I can connect to the internet fine through my router.

Thanks for the response as well to those who did, if the problem rears its ugly head again I'll be sure to get into further details about it.

 

Here's a question:

Does utilizing the raid on the p170hm rely on certain ports?
Such as having a raid array between the second hard drive bay and an ODD caddy?

 

Most likely, the second hard drive bay is SATA III speed while the ODD caddy is SATA II, negating the effects of RAID 0.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Yes, Sager Resellers confirmed during the Intel SATA chip recall that both HDD ports utilize the SATA3, and the ODD uses SATA2. There's two SATA3 and four SATA2 ports that can be used with the Intel SATA controller.

Now I wouldn't say it negates the effects of RAID 0. Sequential speeds of newer SSD's may saturate the SATA2 bus, but it's still in parallel so you could still use the SATA2 controller and achieve high performance. But unless you use sequential large files it doesn't matter much.

I'm not sure why people are so bent on SATA3 speeds. It only affects a very small number of users that are transferring large files from one SATA3 SSD to another frequently. Otherwise most other data is smaller file random performance which doesn't even approach SATA2 speeds.