*** Official X8100 (Sager 8120) Owners Thread ***

The new HotKey driver upgrade was missing an .msi file (HotKey 3.0038.msi) that hung up the install, but found it on the driver disk that came with laptop, dropped it into the new install folder and wa'll'ah, install finishes no problem.

 

If someone has a X8100 with a desktop, could you try connecting the HDMI output from a desktop's videocard (without a monitor) to the X8100's HDMI input? You should be able to see the desktop's display on your X8100 LCD . Perhaps take a few screenshots too

 

This BIOS has the overclocking feature enabled.

The bios version is 1.00.06 (compare to the 1.00.02? the notebook comes with)

Code:

http://74.212.252.103/Sagernotebook/misc/812BV06S.zip

 

Is this true??

P.S. Yes, overclocking feature is enabled in this bios, but it dont work correct!

 

so this overclocking bios doensnt work either? excellent...

 

How did you test it, and how did it fail?

If so, glad I didn't waste my time with it.

 

Hi!

When i set the option Extreme Edition to enabled which unlocks the Multis 1x-4x, then my 920XM stays only at stock Speed (2000Mhz)! Turbo mode don´t work!
Disabling the Extreme Edition Mode and everything works as before!

Think the only working overclocking Bios is the mySN Bios! Latest 1.00.07BR!
But the only way to become this Bios is to buy a mySN® XMG8.c, send my Notebook to mySN to flash the Bios (they would do this) or a user here had an account by mySN!

Here is test (german) about the new 740qm/840qm and 940xm! With a mySN Notebook and overclocking works!

Tests - Intel Core i7-740QM, 840QM, 940XM - Neue Intel Core i7 Prozessoren im Test auf notebookjournal.de

 

hi everyone,

I am interested in buying a x8100, the problem may be that i will be a college student and want to know if this laptop would be good for well college, like i think i only need at max 1 hour and 30 minutes of battery life, can this laptop sustain, also how well does the hdmi input work?

 

I think you'd be better off looking at the G870, if Im honest.

The battery life on this in general usage is not really that high. Its a good laptop, but for your usage, I think the weight and battery life will become liabilities.

 

It's not a Laptop, it's a Luggable Desktop!

If I were in school I wouldn't get the 8100.

It is a desktop for me, that I can move. If I go back to spending the day moving around a lot and pulling a Laptop In and Out of a bag, I'll get something else for that.

 

Totally agree, luv this laptop but it's a beast. The targus pack + 8120 + NZXT cooler + stuff = 25-30 lbs. Have to use the hip belt that comes with pack to take some of the weight off the shoulders. Batt lasts 57 min for me, but almost never use it w/o plugging in the 'brick'. I bring it to work with me and it keeps me company! Can't say enough about this unit, but it's two weak points are highlighted in this thread, wt. and batt life.

 

Sometimes I wipe dust off the Top "Touch" buttons and accidentily hit the Color Cycle button. Is there anyway to put it out of color cycling like it is when it first starts? I know yiu can "Choose" a color, or put it in stealth mode. But I was wondering if you can turn the "Mood" lights off without messing with the other buttons like stealth mode does?

 

It was off on mine on arrival, I tried to turn it on, then turned it off again, somewhat distracting...

By the way, when I wipe the dust, nor the touchpad nor touch controls react to it... Only when you deliberately press.

 

I wonder when they are going to update to the Dual 480m's

 

Well after about 4 months of fun time with this laptop I am very pleased. I solved the LED screen issue (mine did not have one) with a Samsung SyncMaster XL 2370 led monitor. Everything looks perfect (ie. games, Blue Ray movies etc. with accurate color) through the HDMI outlet. I did get a netbook cooler for the power brick (put rubber feet to elevate it) to sit on and it runs significantly cooler in hard gaming. No issues at all and the GPUs/CPU run relatively cool under heavy load (significantly cooler than my Asus Laptop and puts out much less heat in the room than my desktop and for hot summers thats a plus for air conditioning costs). I did add a X-Fi card for sound and run it through a Sony Wireless surround headset system. A very happy owner!!!!!

 

They might not do. As I understand the X7200 is reputed to use a larger power brick.
At up to 100W each per GPU, a 220W~ish PSU doesnt leave much room for us, not without replacing all the power packs and I doubt they want to do that.
We might have more luck with other MXM 3.0 cards coming out in the future with lower power requirements...we shall see.

 

Well I hope they update to dual 480m cards, and possibly a Nvidia optimus system would be nice. It would just make this laptop unparalleled on this field.

It would be nice if they changed the keyboard though. I would love to see a backlit keyboard on this model, but i know that most likely wont happen. At the least i would like to see the macro buttons changed to allow the keyboard to be moved off to the left more and space between some of the keys.

 

It would look like maybe a crossfire setup would work in the power and thermal limits if ATI can get their crossfire issues resolved. I would like DX11 capabilities at some point without having to upgrade to a new laptop.

 

I'm just an outdated M980nu follower, but seeing as how we have a few things in common, just..

My supplier of all things Clevo a remote company out of Germany keep me updated of all the things they can get their grubby little hands on, so to speak.

At present they are offering the x8100 with a single Nvidia 480, or Radeon HD 5870 1024MB x2. From what they have said they are excited about the radeon cards which to me is somewhat strange as the drivers can and have been well.. Take it or leave it for other systems. But thats my opinion.

But this this something they are recommending to customers who opt for something different, ie twin Nvidia 285's

But when I questioned them about the Nvidia 480, all they had to say was it's good but not as you would expect, but hot. Read into that what you will.

 

Problem is that if they did that, it would be encrouching on the X7200 territory, I don't disagree a slightly different keyboard layout would be nice, I actually enquired at one point as to whether a standard rather than chiclet layout was available, and would have been willing to purchase the part if it was.With the power brick we have, as already stated ATIs would seem much more likely than dual 480m's, Clevo will likely to be reluctant to have to revise a design when it means it will cut into the market for another proposed machine, and will cost them more money.

As Grassysparkle says the 480m is good, but its not a mile above the 5870s (at high resolution with AA it can be upto 30% faster in some cases which IS a decent gain, but it's usually much closer than that), not enough to outstrip the crossfire setup where driver support isn't an issue; Dell's issues have all been driver related, largely, in most likelyhood because they're using thier own modified VBIOS. Add on top that ATI now provide monthly driver support for mobile as well as desktop cards, and it's a decent scenario for improvement in the future, most people with the singular cards have generally seemed quite happy with them.

If they crossfire setup is anything like the desktop 5770/50s with good drivers, then I can see why the german suppliers are excited, the desktop cards in crossfire are up there with the 5850/70 setups, which is unparallelled performance for a laptop

We shall have to wait and see

 

I was thinking of something along these lines


the 5 left most buttons are as so
Gmode (allows you to change the current mode of G keys)
G1 (is the first macro button, when you hit the Gmode button, you hit this to select set 1)
G2 (is the second macro button, when you hit the Gmode button, you hit this to select set 2)
G3 (is the third macro button, when you hit the Gmode button, you hit this to select set 3)
G4 (is the fourth macro button, when you hit the Gmode button, you hit this to select set 4)

because the resolution of the pic was so small i had to color code a few buttons
Yellow (Delete / insert)
Green (NumLock / Scroll Lock)
Blue Home
Teal End
Magenta Pg Up
Red Pg Down

 

To be fair I'd have been happy with a standard config layout centered on the laptop, with macro buttons above, a very standard layout when it comes to gaming keyboards.
Personally I also much prefer standard tiered keys to chiclet flat keys, I find them much easier to touch type with as there is much less adjustment and placement to relearn, especially if you're used to a standard rather than Mac style KB.

 

I've known for a few weeks now 100% ATI 5870s are coming officially for the X8100, but I've been keeping my mouth shut which is why some of my responses a week or two ago were vague, now Kobalt have announced them on thier site however...
Unfortunately the cards were due in this week but got delayed, and I'm on holiday for the next fortnight as of Monday, but as soon as I have the machine in my possession I will be doing a run of benchmarks so we can see how they perform, and also so we can compare them against Dell's equivalent solution in the M17x to see if there is any performance difference between the two chassis' now offering this setup.

I've already got the likes of DMC4, PC Mark/3DMark Vantage, Last Remnant, SF4, RE5 etc benchmarks stored on my external drive ready for a round of testing, hopefully with the mobility 10.7/10.8 OGL beta drivers providing there are no issues installing or in terms of stability.
Might bother to reinstall Crysis for a bench run too...debating that one
If anyone has any specific FREE benchmarks they want me to try running once the machine is in my possession in a couple of weeks, let me know either on here or by PM, and I'll try and put together something along the lines of what I put together for the 4850m crossfire in my old M17.

 

Alex, when you receive the dual 5870 machine, can you post the vbios here? I'd be curious to look at it.

Thanks.

 

Yeah I dont have an issue with that. Won't be for a couple of weeks though, til after I get back from my hols. Will a copy taken via GPU-Z be ok for you?

 

Sure but I don't think GPU-z will work. It will likely have to be via atiflash. Thanks.

 

No worries, I'll take a look when I get back and have the machine, either way I'll grab you one, one way or another (I'll grab one from both cards incase they're using a master/slave setup, rather than master/master)
Given I'll be rocking a similar setup to you, I'm hoping performance will be in the same region, although hopefully the Clevo bios will be more mature/compatible in terms of driver support than the Dell release.

Looking forward to it, the 18" Clevo chassis certainly has decent cooling, its going to be a beast given I'm coming from dual 285m... these are noticeably faster 1:1 in some situations and it should only get better with two cards (providing I dont hit any driver related issues), not to mention a larger feature set (excluding Physx/CUDA).

 

The origin 18 (x8100 re brand) has had dual 5870s as an option for a while now.

 

What Laptop cooler fits this bad boy
I get mine in a week?

 

I use this one and have for the last two big laptops'
Newegg.com - Rosewill 15.4" - 17" Notebook Cooler with 4-Port USB Hub Model RNA-7600W
Works really well and has a USB hub. I power the hub from the laptop and do not use the ac power unit.

 

Thanks
That cooler you recommended is clean looking.
BTW how do you like your Sager 8120. How does the display look with Blu-Rays and games. I don't know what to expect when I get the box from UPS
Enlighten me

 

Fantastic. U will probably get the LED screen since urs is newer. The reg screen looks fantastic, but I do have a Samsung XL2300 led (23") monitor that I use at the desk with the same native resos as laptop. I really can't say enough great things about this laptop. The vid cards stay way below their max temps even under hard gaming for hours. It is not as fast as my desktop in games, but does play them all at more than acceptable setting and fps levels.

The laptop was packaged well so should not be a problem.

By the way, I put industrial strength velcro on the notebook pads and the cooler so it is attached pretty firm if u need to move the laptop (i.e. the cooler stays attached to laptop. I did get a netbook cooler to sit the power brick on because that does get hot.

 

My understanding is that until very recently whilst a few providers have offered it, it was not officially supported. There is a new BIOS release to support these etc

 

yup its been out for a little while (it also has the option for the single 480m)

http://www.originpc.com/eon-gaming-laptop-features.asp

 

Aye but who wants a single 480m when they can have dual 5870s
I'm happy to see support and parts rolled to EU companies, we lag behind the US etc quite a lot because of market size.

 

whats everyone doing for audio? I just bought some AD700 Headphones and need an amplifier or external soundcard??

 

Ur right, the onboard sound is tinny through headphones. I got a Creative X-Fi sound card and it sounds great now. The only problem with a card solution is it sits very close above the DVD player. I have not had any problems with DVDs but u need to support the tray good as u manuver the DVD ON and Off

 

What X-fi did you get?? Are you using the Creative X-FI Notebook. I just ordered the Creative X-Fi External USB. I plan on plugging it into the back of my NZXT CRYO LX laptop cooler. So it will be out of the way. I get my laptop delivered this friday. I cant wait. How does the screen look? Does it look amazing with games and Blu-Rays?? I dont know what to expect when i get my 8120. Tell me more

 

Note book X=Fi. U will not be disappointed with blue rays and games.

I did get a netbook cooler for my power brick. That seems to be the only thing that gets really hot.

 

Hello All,

I've been trolling 4ever these forums, and now I'm looking for a new laptop. I want this monster. I noticed Origin PC has the CF 5870 option for this puupy. I had some questions:

1] Is one 480GTX card, better than 2 5870s in CF?

2] Does anyone know if the 5870s problems detailed in the Alienware forums were solved, or will they exist on this machine?

3] Is the i7 940 card the best for gaming?

4] Is the 4GB memory okay for this machine for gaming, or go for 8GB?

5] Will other resellers offer the 5870s

6] Will the 5870s be offically be supported?

Thanks for any insight anyone can offer

 

1. No, 2x5870s will crush a 480m though there is always issues with 2 cards vs one so it just depends are your tastes and needs...

2. No one knows yet because no one has it ...

3. Yes the i7 940xm is the best especially for a 2 card machine...

4. yeah 4gigs is just fine for gaming..

5. yes all the resellers who offer the X8100 or what ever name they have called it will/should offer the 5870s...

6.Clevo is part of the ATI driver program so yeah it should be just fine....

 

Man i hope they offer both dual 480m sli and 5870 cf, because i have had nothing but problems with ATI, if they only offer 5870s i don't know if i would still get this laptop.

 

480 sli exceed thermal and power capabilities of this laptop. The 5870's are the way to go.

 

One other option, wait for a GTX 460M SLI release!

New Bios available, comes from Sager (and Eurocom) , Bios 1.00.11, KBC 1.00.07! No Information about the Changelog!

http://74.212.252.103/Sagernotebook/misc/812BV11S.exe

Bios works fine, but i think the KBC 1.00.07 is buggy! CPU Fan dont work correct on my System! Back to KBC 1.00.04 solved my Problems!

Regards

 

lol, when i said i hope they offer it, i was hoping for a minor redesign/update to handle these problems.

 

Does anybody know if the Sager 8120 supports Dolby Digital Live out of the SPDIF output jack?? I'm thinking of buying an Astro Mixamp.

 

5870 in CF is way better than a single GTX 480M.

Alienware's problems resulted from different vbios and stuff like that, the X8100 supposedly runs great with 5870 in CF.

I guess you mean the i7 940XM CPU. Its the strongest mobile CPU. But also a i7 740QM will be strong enough for every game. If you don't intend do play a lot of RTS or poorely ported console games like GTA IV even a i5 or i7 620M would be more than enough. But with two card machines, a strong CPU helps, so I'd recommend you a i7 740QM or 840QM or, if you want to overclock, try to get an i7 920XM, you will not notice the difference between 940XM and 920XM, but the latter will be cheaper.

4GB is enough for gaming.

Yes, and you can always ask if they can offer this option.

They are officially supported otherwise resellers wouldnt offer this option.

 

Hey Guys
I just got my Sager NP8120
I noticed that it has 189.64 Video drivers
These are the most current on Sagers website.
But Nvidia has drivers in the 250.00 range.
Which do I use? Do I get the latest Nvidia Drivers for my SLI 285's????

 

Sry, was looking (and responding) at the upgrade path vs a new machine.

 

While some system builders offer this option it is NOT officially supported by Clevo or Sager.