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

Yes I agree....those temps posted above are in the good range for sure.

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Thanks so much, guys. Glad to hear I'm not in the danger zone. Also, no I wasn't using alt-f1.

 

Just to let you know, while some people notice much improved fan noise with the current bios revisions, I have noticed no changes with any versions. Either my wife and I are very picky, or my machine is just an oddball. Idle, its way too loud in a semi-quiet room. Definitely couldn't sleep with it on. Just my 2 cents.

 

This is interesting...have you made sure your fans are in a clean state? Have you removed the bottom cover and checked for dust in the fans and surrounding area?

It should not be that loud at idle if the fans are working properly.
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So is it worth flashing to the new EC?

 

Yes these updates usually address fan control that can help cooling your machine.

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With 2760, GTX 560M and an SSD, what kind of Pcmark 7 score range can it get?

 

If I purchase this model with a single hard drive, is it guaranteed to come the the second hard drive caddy? (I'd be purchasing from XoticPC, if that makes a difference)

 

Yes the Sager factory which XoticPC and others like ourselves use, does supply the hardware in a plastic bag of what you need to install the second hard drive.

This is usually found in the basic carry bag that comes with the order.
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For those that may not know...

"Sager is now shipping the 17.3" FHD LED AUO B173HW01 V.4 90% NTSC SuperClear Display 1920 x 1080 screen in all of the 17' models"


(approved by NBR Lead Moderator Charles)

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When using trixx to oc a single 6970m do you need to have Synchronies Card in multi gpu config?? Thanks

 

That's a pretty awesome stock screen, may actually influence my repurchase model soon. My P170HMx died @ 2 1/2 weeks old and I'm returning it, had to get a temp laptop today for work but still need to get a replacement for it.

Larry, do you know of any sager pricing changes on the 580gtx? I see another manufacturer only charging $75 more than the 6990m for this card now.

 

Thought I'd ask a few questions in here as I'm looking at an NP8170 built on xoticpc. I'll be using it predominantly for gaming/general use while on the road. Games I'll be playing include battlefield 3, skyrim, starcraft 2, WoW, and some less stressful games. Where is my money best spent?

These are the upgrades I'm looking at from the stock model listed here Sager NP8170 (Built on Clevo P170HM) Custom Gaming Laptop

17.3" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Anti-Glare Screen w/ 72% NTSC Color Gamut (1920x1080)
(Will add 4-7 business days to build time) (SKU - X1R552) ( + 199 )

30 Day No Dead Pixel Warranty (On any screen) ( + 75 )

2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM, 2.2-3.1GHz, (32nm, 6MB L3 cache) (SKU - S2N224) ( + 50 )

- IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU ( + 40 )

ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD6990 2048MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 $100 OFF (SKU - S3R151) ( + 145 )

8GB - DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS) (SKU - S4R371) ( + 40 )

120GB Intel 510 Series Solid State Drive (SSD2 Serial-ATA III) (SKU - S5R055) ( + 280 )

500GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache) (SKU - S6R210) ( + 110 )

6X Blu-Ray Read/8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive - Special! (SKU - S7P557) ( + 80 )

Anyone think I should be spending my money elsewhere for PC that'll mainly be on a desk and doing a lot of somewhat intensive gaming? I guess my main questions are about the CPU/RAM/GPU. I want a SSD, and I'm not sure how much of a difference going for the model I selected over the other intel model would provide. I might up this to 250gb as 120 seems a bit low, but then again I won't be storing tons of media on it as I have desktops at home.

Also what sort of battery life could I expect if I was just surfing the web/is it reasonable I could have it on my lap during those light tasks or is it likely to get super hot (/ maybe I shouldn't be doing that).

Thanks in advance.

 

Alright everybody. Finally got my new 8170 in yesterday. I ordered it with no HDD's (and subsequently no O.S.) since I was going to put the OCZ Agility2 (with latest 1.35 f/w) in from my recently dead ThinkPad. I knew it was going to be a bit of a chore dealing with drivers. Spent about 6 hours worth of restarts dealing with issues like:
*keyboard not working unless in safe mode
*fans stuck on full blast as soon as windows loaded
*constant freezing
*most of the installer for drivers simply not working at all
*freezing on shutdown (had to pull the plug to shutdown several times)

Long story short, got it running this morning and finished the last of the setup. My system arrived with EC 1.00.09 and a standard looking Clevo Bios 1.01.10NS1. Not sure why it doesn't have the typical Sager loading screen on boot up. Anyone think that may cause warranty issues if anything happens?

Also, I can't seem to find what the current firmware should be for the USB 3.0. I see that I am on F/W 4015, but cannot run the updater without error.

 

Very interesting indeed any news on that would be great!

 

Sorry I should have been more clear. That screen announcement is an optional screen not the stock one.

The 580M prices in the future is anyone's guess. I do not see them going down soon.

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I did something stupid...

I just got my NP8170 a couple days ago and have been enjoying setting it all up very much.

One thing I had trouble with was trying to get HDDErass working on my 2 (1 1/2 year old) Intel X-25 SSD's that I used from my previous laptop. It would always lockup after the aggreements so I gave up and installed windows anyway.

Fast forward to tonight.. Before getting settled with a windows install I kept working on getting HDDErass working by booting to DOS from a USB key. I had also found a BIOS from a link somewhere on this forum that I wasn't sure was the right one but I threw it on the key anyway..

So.. After failing to get HDDErass working again I opened the bios folder and ran the autoexec.. I assumed it would give me a chance to say yes or no with some sort of message before running but it didn't. So now I have bios installed which I don't really know if it's for my Sager or not, or newer or not.

I know I'm stupid..

So my boot splash screen has changed from a cool Sager logo to now "Style Note"

This is what my bios version was before the update

BIOS 1.01.10LS1

After unknown update..

BOIS 1.01.06

I had also downloaded a KBC/EC file but decided not to touch that considering.. The untouched KBC/EC version that came with the laptop is 1.00.06
Btw, can someone tell me what the difference is between the 2?

So at the moment I've just installed windows and the system seems to be run inning fine, but what scares me the most is what I read about flashing a non-Sager bios you Brick the machines when trying to flash back to one...

Help?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/416916-clevo-bios-thread.html

So according to this thread Im f'ed as far as going back to a Sager BIOS (is it a big deal? did i loose anything else other than the logo?)

2nd I downgraded to an April release when i had the Sept version..

I just going to reflash the BIOS back to the Vanilla Sept. 1.01.10

and update the KBC/EC to the newest Oct. v1.00.09

Any reason that will be a bad idea?

 

You might want to check with your reseller on this bios issue.

If you have a Sager branded NP8170 you very well should be able to install the latest Bios / EC update and be fine.

Sager has confirmed that this is being done successfully if you burn the image files to CD and boot to it. Your reseller provides these files.
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What specifications did you end up looking at? yes, i ordered mine with only 1 HDD, but there is room for one more hdd of your own choosing easy to install too i have 2 hdds in mine now

and about your earlier questions about CPU vs. GPU, choose GPU first, because the fps difference from 2630/2670 vs. 2720/2760 is soooooooo small that you wont really feel the difference in games...

however the difference between GTX 560M and 6990M is enormous, the 3D Mark Vantage and 3D Mark 11 results of the 6990M is almost twice as high a score, and almost twice as much fps in games with the 6990M

so i would say 2X560M = 1X 6990M

 

First of all, if you are primarily gonna use your laptop indoor, choose glossy instead of matte, it looks so much better!

The rest of the specs are really really good, i run the 2720QM with 6990M and it runs Battlefield 3 on Ultra in 1920x1080, and i also play StarCraft2 aswell, and WoW, Deus Ex Human Revolution, and Witcher 2.... i have not met a game my laptop doesnt "eat"

Skyrim is gonna run fluently maxed out, that i guarantee ;-) the creation engine used on Skyrim is insanely good, but Frostbite 2 from DICE in BF3 is even more demanding, so you will have a very nice gaming rig with that setup that will run everything!

If you want a little more CPU power you might consider 2760QM instead of 2670!

I have my laptop on my lap constantly, i love sitting in my sofa playing from there... i have applied IC Diamond 7 thermal compound on my CPU and GPU, and my idle temp is 40C, and full load temp around 70-80C, it doesnt build up that much heat under it from my experience, but you could always have something between ýour laptop and your lap, if you think its to much when playing games if you have the laptop on your lap when not playing games, you wont feel anything

 

Well, I bought a couple of MCE Remotes to test. Both came with their own USB to IR dongle adapter. The nicer of the two is a model VRC-1100. The other is a very generic "PC Remote Controller". Both remotes functioned as expected when using their supplied dongle adapter, but neither worked at all with the built-in IR transceiver - nor did either work with the other's dongle adapter. So now I'm not sure what to do now. A bit of googling found plenty of other requests for info, but no real solutions.

I downloaded and installed the latest "Consumer Infrared Transceiver Driver (CIR) for Windows 7 32/64 BIT" driver directly from Sager's website ( Software Upgrade). When the upgrade failed to make a difference, I uninstalled the driver entirely and then did a clean install of the new one. That also didn't work.

Does Sager have any more specific instructions on how to configure the MCE Remote to work with the built-in IR transceiver, or can the provide the brand and model of an MCE Remote that works out of the box?

Thanks.

 

Email sent. I will reply back when I hear back.

 

My old laptop crapped out so I'm thinking of getting the NP8170. I would like to get the 120Hz 3D screen, but are these screens on backorder?



I think I'm gonna pull the trigger. This looks like the best laptop at the moment IMO.

 

Hey guys
I have an Intel 510 series 120GB SSD (Sata3) and I think my Read/Write speeds are a bit low. What do you guys think? What can I do to fix this?

 

Do you have the latest firmware for your drive, and are you using the Intel SSD Toolbox?

I noticed a definite improvement on my 320 series after both steps.

 

Sager finally got back to me this morning. They said that MCE remotes from Microsoft themselves work the best. Something like this? Amazon.com: Microsoft Remote Control and Receiver for Media Center PC with Windows (A9O-00007): Electronics

The 120Hz screens should be in stock tomorrow.

 

Yea I have the latest firmware. And I also use the SSD toolbox.
My other laptop has an Intel 320 series 40gb and it also has low write times
I don't get it

 

How full is your SSD with data? Do you have at least 50% of open space? This has been known to help

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My Sager has about 48GB left open and my other laptop has about 16GB free
Are there any tweaks that I need to do? What is everyone else getting as far as SSD benchmarks?

 

Looking to buy the 8170 with 3D screen, but the Nvidia glasses are version 1 and I want version 2. Anyone know how to get version 2 and if they work with the original equipment.
I don't need a receiver I would think since the 8170 would have it built in right?

 

These were with my Crucial M4:





All of your numbers look too low, except maybe Seq. Read.

 

Your read speeds look to be normal for this SSD in a laptop, however the write speeds are definitely way too low. Your 4K QD32 speeds are on par for what is regular as well despite them being much lower than what was posted for the Crucial M4; 120GB Intel 510 SSDs are widely documented to be extremely slow in this area compared to their competition. I have the same SSD installed in my laptop and am getting better numbers across the board.



Are you able to pull the drive out and temporarily install it into a desktop configuration and run the benchmarks again to eliminate the possibility that it may be a chipset issue with your laptop, and not the drive itself?

 

Hi there my friend, someone already answered this, 3D glasses 2 is backward compatible with the existing 120hz 3D monitor (if you upgraded) and YES you do not need the IR emitter as it is built-in, but as of now it is not yet available in any our Clevo resellers.

 

Damn. . With my slow write speeds, what does that mean? Slow performance? It's a new laptop with all the updated drivers. Should I wipe the entire system and reinstall Windows? Is there a special way to install SSD's? I just did a windows format and installed everything

 

Couple things you may want to check to increase SSD speed:
Turn off Defragmenting
Remove your virtual memory paging file (since you have 16GB RAM)
You can also open an elevated command prompt and type “fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0″ as this will activate TRIM

I have a sneaking suspicion that the reason your write time is so low is because TRIM may not be activated. Therefore, the drive needs to wipe the sector it means to write to, which adds a LOT of time to the process.

 

Yes this may be what you need to do. A fresh, clean install may give you the read/write speeds that are in the good range.

Just install windows the normal way. Then install the drivers in the recommended way. The chipset driver is always first for example.
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I turned TRIM on and my write speed is still 62MB/s
How do I turn off the virtual memory paging file?
How do I Secure Erase the SSD? It is my boot drive. The Intel SSD toolbox won't let me do it

 

You can turn off the paging file through Control Panel > System > Advanced System Settings > Performance Settings > Advanced > Change.

You can uncheck the automatic management box and set your own size below it

As for secure erase, you'd have to find a program designed to do it. Tools like DBAN that worked great on HDD's don't work on SSD's due to the change in how addressing and overprovisioning work.

 

Ok i turned on TRIM and turned off the paging file and just did a reboot and it worked!!!! I forgot to reboot earlier.
YAY!!! Thanks for all your help gentleman!

 

Soon to be a proud owner of the Sager NP8170 with 120hz 3D screen, 250GB Intel 510 SSD, GTX 580m, i7-2760QM, and 8GB DDR3 1600 (w/2 free slots which I can upgrade later).

It was either this or the Alienware M17x. Close call, but I like the Clevos.

Just wish they had better webcams and lit keyboards on these, but not necessary in all reality for me.

This is replacing my Clevo M570TU, which has a gpu problem I think. I loved that thing [probably will sell for parts in future]

Anyway, can't wait!

 

@Handsomerob: Glad we could help you get that taken care of

@sotoa: Congrats! Hope you enjoy it!

 

You should really enjoy your new machine!

This will be easier to work on and upgrade over the M17X.
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Thanks guys.

That is one big plus for sure.

 

Hi Guys,


My first post and about to get a Sager NP8170. I cant wait.





Thanks Donald over at Powernotebooks.com for getting my questions answered. Cant freakin wait.

 

Specs?

Whatever it is, you won't be disappointed!

 

Hi,

I am getting a

17.3 Super Gloss
i7 2670QM
6990M
750gb


I have some questions?

8gb or 12gb for Ram?
Which network card?
Is Blu Ray worth the upgrade?


Thanks in advance

 

Without ever owning or seeing a Sager. Hows this one I chose.. I am excited and curious about fan and noise levels and temperatures. Do I need a cooling pad?

 

Huge question.


Does the 500gb hybrid 4gig ssd...make a difference?

 

Depends, if you really need it then go for it. I have 8GB and that's more than enough for what I need.

If you choose the better cards you will have better signal but no bluetooth. Definitely choose something other than stock card if you're planning to use wifi often in different places

Do you rent DVDs often? If you answer 'no' then don't bother