Sager NP8651 / Clevo P650SE with GTX 970m First Look

Sager NP8651 / Clevo P650SE First Look with GTX 970m
Laptop courtesy of LPC-Digital

Sager NP8651 / Clevo P650SE
15.6" 1920x1080 TN Matte LCD (AUO36ED / B156HTN03.6)
Intel i7-4710HQ quad core
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970m w/3GB GDDR5 5000MHz
16GB DDR3 1600
Crucial MX 512GB
Intel 7260 802.11AC Wi-Fi

Well I've had the laptop for about an hour and made this quick video and also here to post my initial impressions and will post a handful of benchmarks over the next couple of days to tide people over, until I can get the full review complete.

<iframe width='640' height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/5GEM3xHxwJI?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

First impressions/Info:
- Keyboard is solid as a rock
- Overall construction is solid with what looks/feels like metal all around
- Dimensions/Weight Laptop: 15.5x10.75x1.0 inch (39.0x27.5x2.5 cm) / 5lbs 12oz
- Dimensions/Weight AC Adapter: 6.75x3.5x1.5 in (17.0x8.5x3.5 cm) / 2lbs 3oz 180W
- LCD is 1080p Matte TN AUO B156HTN03.6, Not the best but not bad
- 14 screws to remove bottom panel, but easy access to all components (except two RAM slots on other side of motherboard)
- Fans fairly quiet at load with 3DMark tests, although a bit high pitched whine when full speed
- Speakers are ON TOP of the laptop and sound far better than on the NP7338 / W230SS
- Battery Life: Movie loop, power saver mode, 50% LCD Brightness = 3hrs 32mins / Browser test = 4hrs 38mins
- Nvidia BatteryBoost 35FPS Battlefield 4 High Preset with Balanced power profile ran 1hr 10mins before 10% low battery warning came up.


3DMark 11 9409 / Graphics 9978 / CPU 76C / GPU 58C NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4710HQ,Notebook P65_P67SE

3DMark 11:X3231 / Graphics 2960 / CPU 77C / GPU 58C NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4710HQ,Notebook P65_P67SE

3DMark Fire Strike: 6557 / Graphics 7535 / CPU 75C / GPU 57C NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4710HQ,Notebook P65_P67SE

Grid 2 Benchmark loop 4 times (and is notorious for high temps) CPU 71C / GPU 62C

Battlefield 4 Firestorm Ultra 1080p CPU 77C / GPU 60C, avg FPS = 73

Unbelievable how cool the 970m is running. But I'll stress it more with games later.

I'll be sure to post more as I go, but will try to crank through the review as quickly as I can.

 

My jaw dropped when i saw those temperatures; are these even gaming pc's ? Any idea where i can see a complete list of all the Clevo's and how they relate to eachother ? I wanna see how similar your P650SE is to my P150SM.

edit- found it. So basically like mine only far slimmer. I'm amazed your getting that kind of cooling in such a small package.

 

Thanks Wingnut as always!

 

Am I seeing 3 fans on a 15"?!

 

OMG you really need to teach people on other sites how to do a proper review, even your initial impressions are always a step above, and your reviews have more detail than even Notebook Check.

Would give you massive + rep constantly on all of yours, but it won't let me :thumbsup:

 

^^ He is DA BEST

 

TN panel? I thought it's IPS.....

BTW please stress the CPU and tell us if it's going to throttle. That's the main thing I'm concern about this model after reading notebookcheck review.

 

I see that the fan opening on the backside is still slightly off from the GPU fan. Is this true ? I thought they would fix it on the final release ?

Already posted it in the official Clevo thread, didn't saw this one

I thought it should look like this.?

View attachment 117403

Could be a pre-production model..

Edit: Ah i see u only had the Clevo for hours, says enough
Thanx for the video man

 

Good questions I'll try to answer. Need to go back to my real job for a bit will get more time this evening.

 

Meh don't mind that its TN those temps are awesome

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

So looks like getting 4K screen and i7-4870HQ CPU for this Clevo is not a good idea. This version has just 1080p screen and i7-4710HQ but apparently miles better temperatures.

 

You can configure it with 4K QFHD (16:9) Glare-Type Glossy Sharp IGZO Screen at Xotic! Please Xotic, sell the SG version (980m) of this laptop, 2 fans for gpu! It can take care of 980m!!

 

I just love this! and those cpu temps are great! is this factory termal paste on this one? Will you change it out an try ICDiamond?
Do you think the back panel in metal will bend and get bumps (like thinkpad backpanels) Thank you for doing this!

Sorry for all the questions! but i am really curious about this

 

Great info HT, thank you.

One tip, could you point the camera away from the window next time which will reduce contrast and illuminate the laptop a bit better.

 

It'll be coming as soon as Sager offers the option themselves. These are still new cards and you don't want to short the supply of parts to other machines because a new model is released.

 

For displays Schenker has 1080p IPS matte option and 4K IPS glossy option, also has GTX 980M option (should be available since end of November).

mySN.de | SCHENKER XMG | Schenker Technologies - XMG P505 PRO Gaming Notebook 39,6cm (15.6")

Though after NotebookCheck review I think 4K display may be contributing to heat a bit too much. On MSI GS60 thread we are trying to figure out the effects of various features on heat and also there models with 3K screens run hotter than 1080p variants (even just running 3dmark, not really pushing 3K workloads).

 

Any news yet of a reseller offering the 100% NTSC 4K Sharp panel?

 

Yeah I tried that but kind of cramped for space and time (did this over "extended" lunch break). I have some light umbrellas coming that i got cheap used for hopefully better lighting. I'll try to do a full video review with improved lighting and audio. Trying to find a cheap but decent lapel mike.

I've never been good at presenting, but if I'm going to be doing video reviews might as well try to do it decent. I need to find a cute female assistant to present, lol.

 

No display has any perceptible difference in temperatures. The Sharp 4k display for instance should average a power consumption of about 2-4w total and almost all of that is released as light not heat.

 

Haha, sound good!

 

I believe differences are not due to displays themselves, more due to higher utilization of GPUs used to drive displays.

Keep in mind - independently of what's causing the differences, that's what observations from reviews and user tests tell us - notebook variants with higher DPI displays apparently get hotter temperatures than notebook variants with just FHD screens. This holds both for CPU, GPU and outside chassis temperatures. I mention it because it's kinda puzzling observation.

 

I so want to be a fly on the wall for HTWingNuts review of potential cute female assistants.

And here we have a Rachel, lets get her on the scale, ah 113 lbs, now when we add the purse up to 117 lbs. So lets see what accessories she comes with. Oh a Nvidia Shield tablet thats better than what most come with. Now let me get out my tape measure.
.
.
.
:laugh:

 

And now let's take the cover off....

Ok, sorry, too far

 

I see, many thanks Derek, I think this laptop is the one I will be waiting for, 3 fans inside a 1" thick 15.6" laptop that is full aluminum chassis! Like dreams come true

 

Oww this post is drifting toward a weird area
I'm going to instantly replace this TN panel with an IPS glossy one+ Repast with IC7.

Some people said that a 4k panel might make the GPU runs hotter, that's not totally false, since the "need" for a high pixel fillrate will be high and the GPU willl be pushed to its limit of course, but if the temps are stable on 1080P, for 4K that will totally be the case too.

 

Bro, I would be the first one subscribing to your channel! Forget about cute chick, I want you on those videos!

 

Awesome HTWingnut as always! Btw, the screen is a TN? I thought it was supposed to an IPS panel...

 

those temps are insaaaaaane cant wait to get mine, yehaw! keep up the amazing work wingnut, was actually interesting to see and hear u in "virtual real life" for the first time haha

 

Oh, I think I figured out another piece of the temperatures puzzle, namely why Clevo P650/651 with i7-4870HQ and Gigabyte P35X v3 with i7-4860HQ get so hot CPUs, especially when paired with high-DPI screens.

It may be because all graphics is piped via Intel GPU (this is what Optimus does) and in case of those two CPUs, the Intel GPU in question is Iris Pro 5200 (vs just HD Graphics 4600 for i7-4710HQ).

Iris Pro 5200 is actually a pretty hot GPU for integrated one. I remember Nvidia bragging about how their low-end GPUs were actually both faster and used less power than Iris Pro:



Well, I already knew I didn't want i7-4870HQ / i7-4860HQ CPU, so at least if my reasoning is true at least high-DPI screens with i7-4710HQ could be still kinda ok.

We already know that 4K model heats up terribly despite massive throttling of CPU, see NotebookCheck review. That's what started all these investigations

Clevo P651SE (Schenker XMG P505) Barebones Notebook Review - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

 

Jesus can you imagine the OC headroom with these temperatures??

 

Except you can only get a 180w power supply. If you don't use many HDD and no 32GB RAM or a USB laptop cooler you should have a few spare watts but not many. Hopefully under-volting the CPU will free up enough power to at least do the basic +135mhz on the GPU. I doubt even if a Bios mod comes out you will be able to go much higher though.

 

Does Jesus have one too? Sweet.

 

MHmm! i want one with premAmod!

 

I should have known from the 3 fans inside 15.6" chassis! It is definitely Jesus' laptop of choice!

 

You beat me to it!

 

But


It will come with ips also right??

 

ASK.YOUR.RESELLER it all depends on the choices they made.

 

Yes look at my post http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...651-np8652-owner-s-lounge-47.html#post9824986

 

you


Me: OK

 

Have mail back from my reseller.
He said that the i7 with 970m is available right now and that the clevo comes with the Standard IPS screen from the clevo factory. I just read here that they only have tn panels.?

 

Apparently the Sager NP8651 is coming with a TN panel. Not sure about other Clevo vendors.

 

@HTWingNut Please test screen flex on camera! Flex and Cover/middle Flex/"bending"(?)

 

I am using stock paste for now. I don't think I will need to repaste considering these temperatures but will do it anyhow and show how easy it is to repaste on this thing.

The one fan is not aligned, but it doesn't seem to be off too much. About a 3mm gap from bottom panel to fan shroud.

OK, will add.

 

Just jumped on a quick BF4 session:
Battlefield 4 Firestorm Ultra 1080p CPU 77C / GPU 60C, avg FPS = 73

 

those temperatures.... 2 fans on GPU is an amazing idea!

 

Oh I love those temps, all my worries on my order are gone. Not sure what was wrong on the notebook check CPU, maybe a bad paste job or the i7-4870 being a lot hotter, but this shows the cooling system can handle it easily

 

Thanks for another great review HTWingNut!

Those temps you're reporting are awesome! /broken record.

 

I am trying to find the dimensions of SG but there seems to be a lot of contradictory claims. Do you know for sure what are the dimensions? (It seems like a bit thicker right?)

 

I'm just hope i7 4870hq can stay below 90°C without throttling.