Sager NP6658 / Clevo W650SJ Owner's Lounge

Just starting a thread here!

Specifications can be found here - XOTIC PC | Sager NP6658 (Clevo W650SJ) - 15.6" Full-HD Notebook

Review can be found here - Review Clevo W650SJ (Schenker M504) Barebones Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

I bought the WA50SJQ, but the specifications and motherboard look to be identical. I love this laptop!

 

I'm interesting in purchasing this laptop, but I'm worried about the sound quality. Is it really that bad or have you found ways to improve the sound quality?

EDIT: Also, how's the quality of the webcam? And I've also heard negative feedback about the keyboard.

 

hi
my w650sj has a strange sound, a ringing noise in the upper left of the keyboard area, near the region of the cooler.. it seems sound of HD working... but i have only SSD!!! what is this?

I tried to record sound with the iphone, listening with headphones on 21 seconds , then a dog , then on 28 seconds again ... is a typical hd buzz running ... whatever plugged in source or not.

http://www.4shared.com/music/R04KkdqQba/Nova_Gravacao_4.html

 

I don't usually use laptop speakers, but they seem fine for what they are. Definitely not as loud as my Acer V7 though.

Keyboard to me is fine, no complaints.

As for the ringing noise, I don't have that on mine.

 

I've identified the noise, is the fan, something scraping.
the fan makes a very strange clicking noise, which in all honesty sounds just like the sound a 7200RPM hard drive makes when it is being subjected to tortuous consecutive read/write operations (like during a disk defragmentation). It sounds just like that. Anyone who heard it would probably think the sound was the hard drive in ordinary spin operations, however, I only have SSDs in my laptop, so that spin noise cannot be coming from a hard drive. The only thing with moving parts in the laptop is the fan, so it must be making that noise.

 

Open the bottom plate up and take a look. There's only one fan in the laptop (for both the CPU and GPU I believe) and it should serviceable by a screwdruver,

 

Sager wont mind if you open up the bottom, it won't void any warranties by doing so. Just be careful and dont cause any damage as that will not be covered.

 

Has anyone attempted overclockng the VRAM? DDR3 2000 must be a huge bottleneck to the 850m, aand Im curious as to the performance increase possible through overclocking. I would just get the 860m model, but it is 2/5ths of an inch thicker and also is heavier, dispite the 860m and 850m being the same gpu.

 

It's the same chip but with higher clocks, voltage and power target so additional cooling is required.

 

yes, but clevo also managed to cool a 860m in their 13 inch w230ss, which is a whopping 1mm thicker. Both models run with full boost under load, and I find it hard to believe that the extra 13 MHz would be unmanageable in the w650sj. power consumption was 29 watts higher for the 860m machine, which also had a 47 watt quad core vs the 850m, which had a 37 watt dual core i5. Perhaps a slight design tweak would have allowed the 650 to handle the 860m's heat.
either way, the decision to go with ddr3 instead of gddr5 still baffles me. a ddr5 850m would come much closer to 860m performance, and this new clevo chassis is much nicer looking than the old, thicker model.

 

Does this laptop have a glossy or matte display?
The notebookcheck review says it's not glossy, but the xoticpc listing says "Super Clear Glare Type" -- which I think means glossy?
Seems near impossible to find a nice matte IPS display in this form-factor.

 

Is this a HM87 chipset like Schenker and Sager claims or HM86 that Clevo denotes?

 

HM86 I believe.

 

Overclocked, I get about 4800 3DMark11 points on my 850M.. The 860M is about 5200 stock, so it's not that big of a difference.

I have been interested in overclocking the VRAM past what stock voltage allows.. but that requires a modded VBIOS. I haven't been able to dump the NVIDIA BIOS using GPU-Z, and honestly, been too lazy to pursue the whole thing because the 850M works perfectly for my needs.

 

3dmark 11 is a 1280x720 benchmark so it's lack of sensitivity to vram arch and clocks is not surprising.

 

Hi guys.

I'm interested in this laptop and have been doing some research on it. I've come across a few concerns about it:

1. Sources indicating that case stability and quality is not that great, but still tolerable.
2. Keyboard typing isn't a good experience because of the mousepad position and that the cursor will keep moving. I have big hands myself, so I wonder if that would be affected.
3. i5 vs i7? I'm not a big gamer and the only game I play is Dota 2. I intend to do some engineering stuff (CAD, Matlab, etc.) but don't really need anything too strong. Should I get the i7 for future or remain with i5?

Overall, what are your guys experience? I'm from Australia so I have limited choices for the price range this type of laptop is at, so it seemed pretty decent for that price in terms of specs.

Specifically, I was after:
1080p 15.6", SSD/HHD, some gaming.

 

Depending on price difference and how important battery is to you.

The i7 will undoubtedly get more performance at the expense of battery life, however the performance score with PassMark is almost double that of the i5.

For Dota 2, you won't need more than an i5. Even an i3 would suffice.

I went with the i7 and I don't regret it.

 

The quads do well in battery life since they can totally gate off cores when not needed and power them up when it's more efficient. The cache can be kept all online though reducing memory accessing and even improving power consumption over the dual cores.

 

I was thinking of buying a different laptop with the same Clevo 650sj chassis. What do you guys think of the build quality? While I know it isn't stellar, is it at least acceptable? How about the keyboard?

 

This is also identical with Gigabyte P15Fv2

 

I have the Eurocom Electra 2, screen IPS Matte, but the white has a yellow cast .. anyone have a good setup calibration to white to be really white, and not yellow?

Display AUO - AU Optronics / AUO12ED
Model: B156HAN01.2
IPS Matte

 

How long of a battery life could I expect if I was just doing some web browsing and watching youtube videos.

 

According to Notebookcheck review, around 4 hours browsing with 50% brightness, 3.5 hours playing DVDs.

 

Could you give me your opinions of the Electra 2? What's good and bad? How's the chassis and keyboard? Is the IPS screen any good? On the website it states it uses an LG LP156WF4. Did you get that screen or the AUO one that you had listed? Thanks!

 

Can anyone confirm if the stock screen is matte/glossy (I assume glossy, just checking) and if it is IPS?

 

It is a Glossy/Glare type screen. It is not IPS, its a TN Panel.

 

Ok thanks, I was just wondering because the W230SS has about the same description for the screen and people on this forum say it is an IPS panel.

 

The W230SS does use an IPS display, the NP6658 does not.

 

So, a few questions about this machine since it's on my to buy list if a cheap one comes along.

1. Does the 1336x768 version come with a dual channel LVDS cable? I already have a FHD screen ready to swap in from my 1564.
2. Is the HM86 in these machines backwards compatible with Ivy bridge CPU's? I heard both yes and no so.. Still have a 3630QM laying around with no chassis.
3. Is the 850m the Maxwell variant? I could only find one review where this was mentioned and it seemed rather generic pasted from some other review so just making sure.
4. How far does the screen open up? Couldn't find this in any review either.
5. This place that sells barebones is offering a "COSMOS SERIES BELGIAN KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD" option, I'm hoping this is an internal keyboard but I guess not. Any ideas on this one?

I think that's it for now, I wish I could buy these more barebone that is right now, don't need the screen, wifi card or ODD. I'm sure that I should ask these questions to the merchant instead of here, but I can always do that later, I like posting on NBR
It seems I can't find much about this laptop on the internet, any reason? Is it more popular under another name perhaps?
~Aeny

 

2. No.

3. Maxwell.

4. If by open up you mean remove the bezel then check out the service manual, it's always either just clips or screws hiding under stickers/rubber.

5. It's the standard keyboard.

 

1. I guess these don't get sold much with the 1366x768 screen, I'll see what I get by poking the reseller.

2. Sucks, that's going to kill the killer price I was going to get on it

3. Perfect

4. Sorry, should have been clearer, I meant how far does it open up as in the angle it can open up. I don't want something like these touchscreens that barely open more than 90°. I have no idea why this isn't in the specifications for any laptop.

5. Perfect, then I have no idea why I got buddies running around with Clevo's complaining there's no Belgian keyboard option available for them.

More questions added:
6. If I get it with a cheapo dual core CPU, can I just upgraded it to a quad later or do they use different motherboards/heatsinks for that like some HP/Dell laptops?

7. Can this machine drive 3 monitors at the same time? (2external+internal). On my 1564 this only works on Linux, windows can only use the external ones.

I'd buy from one of the resellers that are active on NBR but you guys are all in the US. But 2257865% Import taxes and your postal services not knowing the difference between Belgium and Brazil makes that impossible sadly
~Aeny

 

4. The angle looks to be around 135 degrees.

6. Same motherboards.

7. 2 displays at any one time due to the igp unless you use intel wireless display.

 

bump !

 

Any progress on your vBIOS mod for this laptop??

 

Hi all,

I have a problem where my headphones and speakers become a single device if I reboot my computer.
DESIRED STATE : Have different volume for my onboard speakers and my headphones, and the sound output switches to headphones when I plug them, then back to speakers when I unplug them.

Here's my setup and how I get there.

Clevo W650SJ // NP6658
Windows 7
Audio : Via HD Audio
Drivers : From Sager's website : Software Upgrade

Steps :
1. Entirely uninstall the drivers and codecs (I don't even get the Via HD Audio icon in Control Panel).
2. Reboot
3. I now have High Definition Audio Device as a Sound device. I have the DESIRED STATE, but not the Via drivers (so sound is meh, and my headphones mic is unusable)
3. Run Setup1.exe, which first installs the Codec, then the Audio Deck
4. Reboot
5. I now have Via HD Audio as a Sound device. DESIRED STATE ACHIEVED, with great sound
6. Profit?? NOPE
7. Reboot
8. I now only have one device for speakers and headphones. The sound still switches correctly, sound quality is great, but only one volume level for both devices, which means instant pain when I put my headphones in.

If I never reboot, I stay at step 5. But as soon as I do, BAM.

Any ideas?

 

Hello all, thanks for your time.

I recently bought a Eurocom Electra 2 (W650SJ chassis) with an IPS display. I also put a 256GB Crucial M550 mSATA SSD in there.

The mSATA has rarely been below 60 C (while operating) and usually hangs out around 65 - 70 C, which is somewhat alarming. There is no reason that my drive should be triggering thermal protection with such relatively light use (10 - 20 Chrome tabs).

When i took off the casing to install the drive, I noticed that there doesn't seem to be any airflow across the mSATA slot. This may contribute to the problem. Also, I have Win8.1 and all of my frequently used programs installed on the mSATA, so maybe I'm overusing it .

Is it my own fault for installing an mSATA on the W650SJ and not expecting this temperature issue? Could this be a fab defect on the mSATA ? Is the HIPM/DIPM route my only option?? (this seems like a workaround that I don't think I should rely on) ... I'm planning on bringing this up to Eurocom and Crucial on monday.

Also, I've been carrying this nice beautiful lappy around in a nice messenger bag 3x / week, and I've noticed that a small horizontal line is visible on the screen when it's turned off, due to the flimsy lid allowing the screen to be pressed into the ridge on the lower side of the keyboard . The line has been wiped away with a cloth pretty easily (this time), but I'm concerned that eventually this pressure could cause permanent damage over time. Am I just being paranoid? Have any of you experienced anything concerning this issue?

Thanks

 

Hello buklau,

this might be of some help : http://www.ocinside.de/go_e.html?ht...tml/results/crucial_m550_512gb_msata_ssd.html

look for the "temperature" section, they appear to be running @ 59° C so very close to what you report.

Keep us posted if you receive any official feedback from Eurocom.

HTH,
cheers

 

The M550 is a hot device in any machine.