Sager NP8170 Full Review

So my 8170 arrived today Or is a a clevo P170HM??? Whatever, unless you folks say otherwise its the same thing to me.

I want to do a comprehensive review over the course of 3 days... so here goes.


So first off, here are the specs for my laptop, ordered from pro-star.com:

1 P170HM 1 $1,349.00 $1,349.00
Screen 17.3" 1920 x 1080 Full HD (16:9) LED Backlit Glare Type Display, Super-Wide Viewing Angles
CPU Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor, 2.2 GHz (Max Turbo Frequency 3.1GHz), 6MB Smart Cache
Thermal Compound Free! Prostar OEM Thermal Compound CPU+GPU
Memory 8GB, PC3-10600/1333Mhz DDR3 - 4 x 2GB 1 ($50.00) ($50.00)
Graphic Cards AMD Radeon HD 6990M w/2GB GDDR5(Was $245, Now $145, Save $100) 1 $145.00 $145.00
Hard Drive 500/7200rpm GB 16MB Cache Buffer SATA-300 (SATA II 3GB/s) 1 $20.00 $20.00
2nd Hard Drive N/A
RAID RAID - None Enabled 1 $0.00 $0.00
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit 1 $80.00 $80.00
Microsoft Office No Microsoft Office
Optical Drive 8X Max. DVD±R/RW Writer/Reader / 4X Max. +DL Super-Mulit Drive
2nd Optic drive N/A 1 $0.00 $0.00
Battery 8 Cells Lithium-Ion Battery Pack 76.96WH
Integrated Wireless Lan Integrated 802.11 b/g/n + Bluetooth V3.0 Combo
Integrated Bluetooth Please Check Option in Intergrated Wireless Lan Section
LCD Protection N/A
Warranty Service 1 Year U.S. Premium Parts Warranty + 3 Year Labor $0.00
Priority Service Free! Ready to Ship 3 Business Days (Save $29) $0.00
Standard Accessories
$100 discount for Prostar P170HM over $1500 per unit excluding taxes, recycle fee, shipping and accessories
Built-In 2.0M Pixels Digital Video Camera
Built-In Fingerprint Reader
Built-In Gigabit Ethernet LAN
Built-In 9-IN-1 Flash Memory Reader(MMC/RSMMC/MS/MS Pro/MS DUO/SD/Mini-SD/SDHC/SDXC)
1 IEEE-1394a Fire Wire
2 USB 2.0 Ports
2 USB 3.0 Ports
1 eSATA Port
1 HDMI Output
1 DVI-I Port
1 CATV Port
1 Kensington Lock Port
Built-in Microphone, 4 Speakers and 1 Sub-Woofer
4 Audio Jacks for Headphone, Microphone-In, S/PDIF-Out, and Line-In
1 100/240V Autoswitch AC Power Adapter
Standard Carrying Case with Strap

Sub Total: $1,544.00
Holiday Discount ($100 off purchase over $1500): -$100.00
Prostar discount (Prostargoogle) ($60.00)
Total (Cash price): $1,340.68
Tax (8.75%): $0.00
Shipping Method (UPS Ground Service) : $0.00
Grand Total: US$1,340.68 **Does not include $350 I spent on my own SSD.

Un-boxing / Initial Impressions

It was packaged very well, happy to say zero scratches or dents on the computer. I was also happy to see two separate discs with drivers, as well as a snazzy bag that should be a hit with the ladies
The laptop looks sleek, but does not scream high performance from the looks of it. Oh well, its whats inside that counts.

Adding a second storage device

So I decided to drop $350 on a Crucial M4 256GB SSD. Before even booting up for the first time I removed the stock drive. I was happy to find a Seagate 500GB 7200 RPM drive, not just some off brand drive. I replaced the Seagate with the M4, and wanted to use the Seagate as the second drive.

But... where the heck is the second drive bay???? Answer, under the optical drive. Yep... it actually wasn't that hard to do. Just google "8170 adding second drive" and there is a PDF floating around with exact instructions. Took me all of 10 min to install the drives once I found the manual online.

The system took to the configuration with no problems. I booted her up and spammed the DEL key to get into the BIOS. Set the boot priority to OPTICAL , M4, and set the Seagate last. No issues to report, and btw my M4 is the newest Rev 009 firmware, if you buy one new it should be that version anyway.

Installing the OS and drivers

Another relatively painless step. This is probably the 50th time I've installed an OS, pretty much just pressing the "next" button a ton of times. The install was nice and fast since I selected the M4 for the boot drive.

Since all the drivers were on the two driver CDs included with the laptop, I didn't have to hunt for any drivers. I opted to skip the VGA drivers on the CD and just download the newest drivers online.

No issues with any of these steps, had to reboot a bit but that's not a problem when you rocking an i7 and SSD hard drive What I will say about the install process is that the combo of the i7 and the SSD makes this thing by far the most responsive, absolutely lag free computer I've ever owned. I'm upgrading from a 3 year old system and I would say to anyone reading this do not hold your i7 back with a slow hard drive. I would strongly recommend at least a Crucial M4 128GB SSD for the boot drive, which can be had for ~$210.00. Its totally worth every penny.

Screen Quality and Color

So after the VGA drivers are installed I upped the res to full 1920x1080. The detail is really good, but the viewing angle is just average. I'm typing on my 8170 right now, the screen is fine but don't expect to impress the person standing over your shoulder, the viewing angle just isn't all that good. I got the gloss screen, I can see no glare right now but have yet to test it in a sunlit area.

Overall, not hugely impressed by the screen, but pretty much what I expected. If you want that "next level" you might opt for the 580m / matte screen combo, but of course you'd be paying hundreds more.

EDIT DAY 3 UPDATE: After a few more days the screen is really starting to grow on me. For my setup, the viewing angle really is not that important, and the screen quality and color is really superb. And honestly the viewing angle is not as bad as I let on earlier, just not superb.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Meh. Average. No back-lighting and the touchpad has a very abrasive feel. And the reason I don't really care is that this is a desktop replacement so I will be using a Razer mouse and Saitek keyboard for gaming and my 3D modelling / photoshop work. For basic typing or programming, its good enough. The keys aren't scrunched. My left thumb tends to brush the touch pad, so in the course of typing this review I've tucked my thumb in a bit thus avoiding that issue.

EDIT DAY 3 UPDATE: After using the keyboard for a few days, it has really grown on me. I decided to ditch my Saitek keyboard in favor of just using the laptop keyboard instead. I really like the feel of the keys and really have not had any problems with my hands hitting the touchpad by accident. I am now using a Razer Deathadder mouse, so cannot say much more about the touch pad. Its really a backup if you think about it, very few people I assume use it as the primary input for games or photoshop etc.

Overall Day One Impressions

Well... its just cool to own something "special" like this. Feels like I am part of an exclusive club. Yeah, it may not be as flashy as an Alienware, but I'm happy with what I got.

Day one complete...

Stay tuned for Day two, I will update the post with benchmarks and temps galore


Day Two Update Here are My Benchmarks

**All benchmarks run at stock clocks.

3dmark 2011 Score: 3548 AMD Radeon HD 6990M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor,CLEVO P170HMx score: P3548 3DMarks
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3dmark Vantage Score: 14663 AMD Radeon HD 6990M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor,CLEVO P170HMx score: P14663 3DMarks

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Overclocked 886/1100
Overall Score 17078
http://3dmark.com/3dmv/3669132

My old system that this is replacing runs about 11900 for 3DMark Vantage. Its a 4850x2x2... meaning I have 4 gpus total (two 4850x2's dual gpu cards in xfire mode). So the numbers are not amazingly better but subjectively I really feel that the tests look a lot smoother due the microstutter issues with the xfire setup on my old desktop.
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Heaven Benchmark v2.5 Basic (stock clocks)
FPS:
30.2
Scores:
760
Min FPS:
8.1
Max FPS:
64.4
Hardware
Binary:
Windows 32bit Visual C++ 1600 Release Mar 1 2011
Operating system:
Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1) 64bit
CPU model:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM CPU @ 2.20GHz
CPU flags:
2195MHz MMX SSE SSE2 SSE3 SSSE3 SSE41 SSE42 HTT
GPU model:
AMD Radeon HD 6900M Series 8.902.0.0 2048Mb
Settings
Render:
direct3d11
Mode:
1920x1080 fullscreen
Shaders:
high
Textures:
high
Filter:
trilinear
Anisotropy:
4x
Occlusion:
enabled
Refraction:
enabled
Volumetric:
enabled
Tessellation:
normal
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Temps:

After one run of 3dmark vantage, Temps measured with HW Monitor:

Max GPU Temp 82C // Idle 44C
Max CPU Temp 74C // Idle 34C

Little worried, that is with the laptop resting on top of a notebook cooler. Note that my SSD loads the tests much faster so components have less time to cool between tests. This is not the best way to measure temps but I just wanted to do a quick run.
_____________________________________
Temps update after 1 hour of Deus EX Human Revoluation:
Max GPU 80C
Max CPU 57C

Much better, I think that realistically the i7 is rarely going to be at 100% for a long period of time, thus the vantage test is not a good indicator of CPU temps. 80C not great but still in the normal range.

Day 3 Update, Pics and Final Impressions

Initial Un-boxing:
Note that it was actually double boxed when it arrived, the outer box is not in the picture.


Box contents:
Laptop, laptop bag, Win7 Home Premium Disc, 2 x Driver CDs, Cyberlink DVD Suite CD, DVI to VGA adapter, Micro fiber cloth, Power Supply + Cable, Manual


Final setup with Cooler Master Notepal U3 on top of another stand (yes I know it looks like it is about to slide off but the rubber keeps it from sliding) and my Razer Deathadder mouse. Note that the marks on the palm rests are palm prints, the finish doesn't look that bad out of the box:


Final Impressions

I paid just under $1700 for the laptop, including the SSD. I needed the extra space for my photoshop and blender work so spent a bit more on a 256GB SSD. If you are just a gamer, you could could save $150 and go with a 128GB SSD instead. Also getting the slower 2.0Ghz CPU shaves $50 of the price I paid, so you could have a very similar setup for $1500. As I had said before, I strongly recommend the combo of an i7 and SSD. This laptop runs like a dream with that combo, so fast, so responsive... so glad I went i7 and SSD

I have yet to really game on this system, mainly due to work deadlines. You can look at the benchmarks and judge the performance for yourself. Remember, everything is at stock clocks. I don't plan to do any overclocking, this system is more about stability than raw performance.

EDIT: Did some overlocking, max clocks 886/1100

In closing, I really have no regrets with the purchase of this laptop. I got it as a desktop replacement and in that sense this is the perfect laptop for that kind of arrangement. I am not compromising at all in terms of performance, and its so nice to have less cables and clutter on my desk. My old system was large, bulky and loud. I now have a quiet laptop that takes up less space in my room, and it will do wonders for my productivity (when I'm not gaming at 1080p that is ).

 

I think this is way better then an alienware... Just look how much cheaper it is. The m17x costs like almost 2.5k to get it to this level, its jsut ridiculous

 

why dint you get the 4x blu ray drive??? its just $25 . is it bad? hows the customer service and stuff. none of the other sites have that option. Now I am seriously considering pro-star for np8170

 

I consider the bluray totally useless to me, I already have a PS3.

No issues with the customer service. I paid by wire transfer and the sales rep was quick to respond, next business day. No issues with the build quality and price was good, I'll be updating the first post later today with benchmarks.

 

nice, the temps are really low considering u have the stock paste. I see that you are rocking notepal u3 (i had that one ) how are the temps w/0 the cooler? I consider blu ray useless for me too but i tht it might increase my resale value ( i constantly sell my laptops , every 8-14 months) it does look like a 15inch in that pic, or maybe because i had 18.4 inch b4. are you sure its not a 15inch? jk

 

Laptop is 17.3".

I would guess the U3 is helping. Part of why I use it is to elevate the laptop for a better angle for viewing and typing. No time to run any tests with/without the cooler.

 

Hey I enjoyed the review you've made. Im really starting to question my NP8170 because I cannot seem to get average scores through testing. Here are my scores using the Unigine 'Heaven' DX11 Benchmark 2.5.

 

Remember, the settings in catalyst control center can impact your scores. I always put everything to "performance", this is what most people to when they benchmark. That said, your score is very close to mine, I only scored about .4 fps higher. I don't see any problems from what you've posted there. Your CPU is faster than mine but it wont matter much for a GPU bound benchmark.

 

Wow i didnt know! Thanks for sharing that info. Can you post a screenshot of your settings currently? I've also added the screenshot of 3dmark11 & vantage above

 

Its rather simple:

Slider left = performance.
Slider right = quality.

For benchmarking I always pull all the sliders all the way to the left. This ensures that i am making an apples to apples comparison between my own systems. For example my old computer did a 11900 in vantage, as you might have guessed, all the sliders all the way to the left

When it comes to gaming it depends, I always put vsync forced on, max the game settings to ultra, then play around with AA and AF till I get the right blend of quality and FPS.

btw... your other scores look fine to me as well. I think your system is performing as it should.

 

Thank you for your review, it was really interesting.
Now, I have an identical laptop, NP8170, every component is same as you. (CPU, Graphics card, and rams) However, I noticed that my score is a lot lower than yours. I only got 11626 for Graphics Score where you got 16078. I actually send my laptop to warrany center, since I get so many lags when I play fable 3. But they did not help at all, they say my laptop is fine after checking out all the parts of it. Why do you think my score is a lot lower than yours? AMD Radeon HD 6990M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor,CLEVO P170HMx score: P12784 3DMarks This is my score.
Do you think I have to do the overclock to improve my performance? And how did you do the overclocking, it seems like Bios is locked for this laptop. My Bios version is American Megatrends Inc. 4.6.4.
Please help me~~~
Thank you

 

Is your Hotkey settings in Performance mode or Energy Star mode? Since your CPU only shows 1496 MHz in the 3DMark score. Also set windows to performance mode press "winkey" + x and set to high performance under the battery icon.

 

Thank you so much for your advice.
I tried that, but it did not make much difference.
Now, I am thinking to do the overclocking, and try to find Bios.
Do you know any place where I can download lastest Bios (that is unlocked) for NP8170?