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    Sager NP8651 / Clevo P650SE with GTX 970m First Look

    Discussion in 'Sager/Clevo Reviews & Owners' Lounges' started by HTWingNut, Nov 5, 2014.

  1. wickette

    wickette Notebook Deity

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    LP156WF4SPB1 CONTACT the reseller to tell him you actually want IPS. that's what i did because he offered me LTN156 OR IPS.



    And...stop with that 4+gb of Vram madness,you'll see for yourself that 95% of games ported like AC:unity, Far cry 4 only suffer from bad optimisation, like a 980M 4GDDR5+16 DDR3 would be outpassed by....an Xbox one Oo !!
     
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  2. Xavvy

    Xavvy Notebook Guru

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    If I had the patience I'd get the 980, but for me personally almost $300 more for a card that only offers 30% more performance is just not enough to win me over. This time around the 970 and the 980 both are such great cards, I'm just glad I had enough to get the 970. Its like having to choose between two extremely hot girls in college who are the first and second best looking in the entire school. You know if you scored with the second best looking chick, you really wont regret it, except the fact that if you could've used more effort and spend a more money you could've snagged the number one babe. Its a win win really. haha.
     
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  3. tfast500

    tfast500 Notebook Consultant

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    Well if you score with the hottest chick you might as well also score with the second hottest...
     
  4. tfast500

    tfast500 Notebook Consultant

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    Wait does that mean I have to buy two laptops... Haha ;P
     
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  5. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    You say only 30% but how long are you going to keep it and how much gaming are you going to do on it, that extra 30% may see you good for longer.
     
  6. b.j.smith@ieee.org

    [email protected] Notebook Consultant

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    Technically, I don't think the analogy fits. Not all guys (or gals) agrees who the "hottest" and "2nd hottest" chicks (or studs), and they can very wildly. That's like saying ... even looping in another thread ... everyone agrees someone should buy the 840 Evo and that it's the best.

    Although this takes me back to the controversial advertisement in Italy several years back (by Matrox was it?) with a guy, two gals and the caption "two heads are better than one" for their dual-monitor support. It was a good reminder of how much male-dominated technology alienates women from not just consideration, but as a significant marketshare and related discussions.

    But on that note, I mean, I'm an American that has a clear Roman-Slavic bias, just neck up, and I differ with a lot of American men (and women) on what is "hot" when it comes to "chicks." Hence the "best" comment is hard to apply everywhere. Even the 980m does have additional power requirements over the 970m.

    And while still pushing off-topic analogies, using a less male/female "insensitive" one ... one could make the analogy the American obsession with "chrome" could be the related to the American obsession with "perfect teeth." That's something I just don't get ... as an American. ;)

    As Russell Crowe in ' A Good Year' (who visited us at IPC Systems to learn about trading turrets for the movie) put oh so well about an American blonde in ' A Good Year,' "The only country that issues teeth like that is America. I've always considered it a good example of America expectations, more than reality -- e.g., excessive use of veneer and the long-term issues with upkeep.

    Which goes back to that ambiguous determination and selection of "best." To me ... veneer is like ... TLC. You pay less, and it, correspondingly, was purposely designed for reduced lifespan over other solutions.
    Yep. It all depends how much you upgrade or buy new systems. In 3-4 years there may be major changes, but in 18 months, the 980m might still be within 30-40% of maximum performance while the 970m slips to less than half the top, single, mobile GPU.
     
  7. Sandwhale

    Sandwhale Notebook Consultant

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    So...

    -The 1080p on the P650SE looks much crisper than the 1080p on the 3k screen of the p35x v3... Though only during windows. In game, it's virtually imperceptible.
    -I love the trackpack of the P650SE, as it has such juicy and satisfying clicks and motions to it. Likewise, it's much better than the P35x's trackpad.
    -Speakers are much better as well, but the battery life is like an hourish less (browsing at half brightness).
    -When gaming at native I get much better FPS on the P650SE than I do at native with the P35x, but it's worth the sweet milky crispness of the 3k usually to suffer like 15fps.
    -Keyboard on the p35x is much poorer than the clevo, and this trend continues with the overall build quality.
    -Temps are much better than the p35x as well, but I've got to say that the screen on this thing absolutely sucks. SO BAD. It's so bad compared to the Gigabyte's 3k beast, but I plan to upgrade it soon.
    -I also LOVE the lack of branding on the clevo/sager. They actually messed up my order and put the sager logo on it anyways, so I called Xotic and they told me that I could use a blow dryer/space heater to heat up the adhesive on the back panel to peel of the logo (which is actually just a sticker with crazy good adhesive, luckily heat sensitive adhesive). I just peeled it off like any other sticker.
    -I also like the 32GB ram capacity and the choice to have no SSD's of the Sager. I have installed 24 more gigs of ram (up from 8 to 32), and have installed 2 m.2 512GB SSDs pretty effortlessly.
    -Windows 7 sucks so much with scaling that I can't use it at all with the p35x, and 8.1 still is rather stupid too when it comes to scaling (like device manager is ALWAYS blurry, SO ANNOYING). Either way, I want windows 7 and didn't want to deal with scaling issues anymore. The 1080p is actually great now that I have it in my hands and it seems very fitting to 15.6. Obviously 3k on a 17'' needs to be made soon...

    Thankfully though, my brother actually likes the p35x v3 more than the sager so we're both going to end up happy. To be fair, and I actually agree with all of these too, his favorite aspects of the p35x were:

    -980m obviously, as compared to the 970m.
    -Relatively thinner, and will be much thinner than the SG 980m sager.
    -The 3k screen is absolutely gorgeous, so much so that it's almost the single biggest factor in his decision to keep that laptop as opposed to the sager.
    -Speakers don't matter to him, and they aren't actually that bad, just compared to the sager they aren't the best.
    -The trackpad doesn't bother him since he will be using a mouse mostly.
    -He doesn't mind windows 8.1, but we both agreed that if you want to use windows 7 at all the p35x is a poor choice.
    -He's willing to pay 1200 dollars more than me to get the 3k screen, the 980m, and the thinness. (Albeit, after getting more ram, 2 SSDs, and a new panel, the sager came up to be about $1850).
    -We haven't had any BSOD issues or anything like some of the other p35x owners, so I can't comment on this front and everything seems great to me!

    In conclusion, both of these laptops are just fabulous machines, and you honestly can't go wrong with either of them. That being said, if certain things bother you more than other things, take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of each of these laptops before you buy. For example, if you don't want to open it up, go with the gigabyte (although I would definietly recommend a repaste, or at least get xotic to do it for you or something). If you want a beautiful screen and don't mind some quirks with scaling and don't mind windows 8.1, get the gigabyte. If you are short on cash, get the sager hands down. If you like the philosophy of brandlessness (which was actually a big factor for me in this decision), go with the sager. Etc etc

    Hope the helps anyone, and if there are any questions don't hesitate to ask!
     
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  8. tfast500

    tfast500 Notebook Consultant

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    @sandwhale what m.2 ssd did u install? Raid 0? How are performance I'm thinking of getting one for Linux and one for windows to dual boot off of... If I'm able to configure it that way
     
  9. b.j.smith@ieee.org

    [email protected] Notebook Consultant

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    You can certainly go with more than one storage device, and that makes it easier, especially with legacy BIOS firmware. E.g., switch the booting device in the firmware CMOS setup to switch OSes.

    However, Windows 8 is usually coming pre-installed in native [Unified] Extensible Firmware Interface ( EFI) mode these days, and it's very easy to dual-boot Linux in native uEFI mode. Intel designed EFI for multiple OS boot, and the option to even have its own standalone diagnostic platform and command line prompt (e.g., EFI shell). It also works for Windows 7 too, although pre-installed most OEMs don't use native uEFI, but legacy BIOS. One cannot change legacy BIOS to native uEFI, or vice-versa, after Windows is installed (it boots completely differently for either).

    The EFI System Partition (ESP), a FAT formatted file system, is where all boot loaders are located, and Windows and Linux (let alone different Linux flavors) can all co-exist nicely. In fact, when you just want to boot a different OS, you hit the firmware key for changing boot option (e.g., usually F11 or F12). On this very system** I'm typing on, a 2011-era Lenovo Thinkpad x220**, I have Windows 7 Enterprise, Fedora 20 and Ubuntu LTS 14.04, a triple boot**. I just hit the F12 key at boot to change if I don't want to boot the same OS as last time.

    The only thing I would recommend is that you install Windows before Linux, such as getting Windows pre-installed by the OEM, as Windows has a tendency to remove any existing EFI boot entries. If you install Windows after, you'll likely be using "efibootmgr" to fix the Linux boot entries in the uEFI firmware (none too difficult, but a bit of a learning curve if new). Do not use the Linux GRUB menu to boot Windows (or another Linux than the GRUB it is for). Instead use the F12 key or whatever the firmware "Boot Menu" key is at POST (GRUB menu definitely doesn't work for Fedora or Ubuntu trying to boot each other).

    **My 240GB M500 mSATA GUID Partition Table (GPT) ...
    Code:
    # parted /dev/sdb u MiB p
    Model: ATA Crucial_CT240M50 (scsi)
    Disk /dev/sdb: 228937MiB
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
    Partition Table: gpt
    Disk Flags:
    
    Number Start     End       Size     File system  Name                         Flags
     1     1.00MiB   896MiB    895MiB   fat32        EFI system partition         boot
     2     896MiB    1024MiB   128MiB                Microsoft reserved partition msftres
     3     1024MiB ...
    NOTE: I like to align on perfect 1GiB boundaries, so after the first 1MiB (2048 sectors defined as 512 bytes -- plenty of room for the GPT itself), I create a 895MiB EFI system partition (ESP), which is then followed by the 128MiB (if the disk is 16GiB+) Microsoft reserved partition (MSR), which ends at a perfect 1024MiB (1GiB). Everything else is 1GiB from there. Windows usually creates a much smaller ESP, but it's usually sufficient to store several bootloaders (although Intel recommends 500MiB for EFI Shell and a full diagnostic install).
    **Tree of my EFI system partition (mounted at /boot/efi/ under Linux) ...
    Code:
    # tree /boot/efi/EFI/
    /boot/efi/EFI/
    ├── Boot
    │ └── bootx64.efi
    ├── fedora
    │ ├── BOOT.CSV
    │ ├── fonts
    │ │ └── unicode.pf2
    │ ├── gcdx64.efi
    │ ├── grub.cfg
    │ ├── grubx64.efi
    │ ├── MokManager.efi
    │ ├── shim.efi
    │ └── shim-fedora.efi
    ├── Microsoft
    │ └── Boot
    │     ├── BCD
    │     ├── BCD.LOG
    │     ├── BCD.LOG1
    │     ├── BCD.LOG2
    │     ├── bootmgfw.efi
    │     ├── bootmgr.efi
    │     ├── BOOTSTAT.DAT
    │     ├── ...
    │     ├── en-US
    │     │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
    │     │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
    │     │ └── memtest.efi.mui
    │     └── ...
    └── ubuntu
        ├── grub.cfg
        ├── grubx64.efi
        ├── MokManager.efi
        └── shimx64.efi
     
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  10. Sandwhale

    Sandwhale Notebook Consultant

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    I had a M550 Crucial m.2 sata 512GB from about 2 months ago, and so I just ended up buying another. I set up RAID 0 in the bios before installing the OS by using the Intel Rapid Storage thingy... And I'm getting like 750 MB/s read 650 MB/s write with RAID 0 as opposed to about 500 MB/s read 450 MB/s write without RAID 0.
     
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  11. b.j.smith@ieee.org

    [email protected] Notebook Consultant

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    Is this in the P65xSE?
    If so, that confirms one can use two (2) M.2-SATA devices at the same time in the B and M keyed slots.
     
  12. jaybee83

    jaybee83 Biotech-Doc

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    was there ever any doubt whether one could use two m.2 ssds in the SE in RAID...?

    iirc the question rather was, if the second m.2 slot was still usable once u stick a pcie m.2 ssd into the machine...
     
  13. Sandwhale

    Sandwhale Notebook Consultant

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    I didn't think this was ever a concern too haha. But yea, b.j.smith, this is in the p650e
     
  14. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    If I had an M.2 SATA drive I'd try, but unfortunately I do not, only the Samsung XP941. I'll see if I can borrow one if I can find someone with it.
     
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  15. b.j.smith@ieee.org

    [email protected] Notebook Consultant

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    It was the far lesser concern, as there was a bit flying about the 3042 option, which is shared with one 2280 slot.
     
  16. Dabeer

    Dabeer Notebook Evangelist

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    There was never a doubt that RAID 0 with 2x SATA M.2 SSDs was possible - at least, not in my mind (it's explicitly stated as possible in the manual). The only questions I have have to do with when the M slot is populated by a PCIe device: 1) can a SATA SSD drive be used in the B slot? 2) can a 3042 LTE card be used in the B slot? And secondarily, do these answers change if the PCIe device is x2 vs x4?
     
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  17. jaybee83

    jaybee83 Biotech-Doc

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    dabeer successfully boiled it down ;)
     
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  18. Xavvy

    Xavvy Notebook Guru

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    I'm not a big dedicated gamer. But since my field is in motion graphics, I do value the power behind the 970/980 cards. However in my situation, I also work in an office with a desktop 2013 imac. For on the go jobs (I also work from home at times or while travelling) I don't mind losing that extra 30% if that means that I get to pocket an extra $300 - considering that I have an actual work computer that does most of the grunt work and that the 970 is going more than capable. I know that not many folks have that luxury to have an available desktop, but in this case it gives me a chance to spare a few bucks, vs if it was my only computer (in that case I would consider the 980 over the 970).

    Not saying that more isn't better, but for my $1300 budget it wasn't financially feasible enough for me to pick the 980, as it isn't a big enough jump for me to buy for that extra 30% to begin with. I found from my personal experiences that cards that are atleast 52% or more different "performance wise" is an indicator that I need to upgrade. This is just MY experience though, I just tend to run technology into the dirt - because if it isn't broke...

    Also fun fact! For the record, I tend to buy new computers/laptops every 4 years or so, as my budget at the time allows. As of right now my old laptop I'm using has a Geforce GT 540M with 1GB CUDA. Its not neccesarily bad per-se for animation or gaming. But due to the increase in demand from my work (1080p video for example, my laptop is a 720p laptop) it is mediocre at best. The Sager NP8651 /Clevo P650SE is quite literally my first high-end gaming laptop. But even my old asus laptop is still getting driver updates from nvidia (got one yesterday in fact hahaha), and its technically a dinosaur in the computer world. So for me its only up from here!

    Does that mean that I may risk the 970 becoming more obsolete than the 980 in the next 2 years? Sure does. In fact it is inevitable. There WILL be a bigger, better card. Thats just what Nvidia does. But at the same time, this is a great way for me to see just how far it will last against the 980. Almost an adventure in a way!


    I say it in a jokingly and purposely stereotypical manner of course but I'm sure you know what I mean. I compare the two cards very vaguely in regards to two hot chicks, but my point is that in a world where you have to choose only between the 970 and 980, neglecting all other cards coming after. They both offer great benefits if you were to make a purchase at this exact point time. You win either way since they are good quality cards.

    If these cards were seen as two women (or man if you don't want the biasness) who had everything exactly the same about them except their desirablility. You still win. In another light, talking reproductive wise, you still have offspring that has good genes, since a 30% out of the "100% most desirable scale" is 70%, which is still above average. The 980 girl/guy would give you the best genes according to that scale, but perhaps at the cost of less power efficiency (maybe that person spends 30% more time on facebook, running your electric bill). I don't know how much more the 980 uses in terms of power to performance, but just putting out an example.

    The same could be said for the 980 in terms of there can be a possibility of it becoming obsolete before the 970. There are also variables that could make the 980 worse than the 970 within those next 4 years. For example. Maybe a graphics driver that is only compatible for the 980 decreases efficiency for the card vs the 970. Perhaps its architecture is just different enough to cause it to glitch and be more unstable than the 970. Perhaps both the 970 and the 980 slips to less than the top mobile GPUs in the next 4 years. We'll just have to see. Technology is always changing. But the point is that since both of these high end cards are great at what they do right now (one of the best) for laptops, you have a little more wiggle room for not going for the best card between the two. Since the drawbacks aren't that bad either way.

    GAH!!! I'm now excited since my laptop supposedly comes in TODAY! I'll be hopefully offering feedback from my perspective as well for you guys since I have a different setup. Its also cool that you're using windows 8.1 because thats EXACTLY what I plan to install on it hahaha. The removable sticker is also a nice quirk. I didn't mind the logo but knowing that is a great addon!

    Seems like the keyboard is also great, as confirmed previously by WingNut. Good to know since I'll be using it a lot. Also do you use Adobe CC 2013? If so hows performance on after effects and premiere pro? And your brother seems to be a graphic designer since he went all out for that 3k lol.

    Meh, great, now I can't wait for my laptop to come in. Hurry up UPS!!!
     
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  19. Sandwhale

    Sandwhale Notebook Consultant

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    I actually work with Premiere Pro 2014.. and my bro just games haha. But Adobe doesn't scale at all properly with high dpi screens so that can be a pain in the a*s, which is why I ended up sticking with the 1080p. I need accurate color and stuff though so that is why I'll be upgrading the screen this week!
     
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  20. MichaelKnight4Christ

    MichaelKnight4Christ Notebook Evangelist

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    What gets me is the integration of the cpu/gpu to the mobo and the lack of a upgrade options it doesnt even have a thunderbolt port or pcie card slot. And once again clevo shoots themself in the foot by not using a bigger battery. A four cell is great to save weight I get it but the lack of a 6 cell or 8 cell will disappoint me greatly since I know it would run much longer of the plug. Keep in mind the notebook is marked towards the portable slim crowd but longer battery life is important to that field. If it used a 8 or 9 cell the usage would be doubled to 6-8 hrs unplugged low settings.

    Not bashing this just venting my fumes brother, despite my rage I am impressed with the design of this thing and the pricing is pretty decent. Also for a 4 cell its amazing this thing can last 2-3 hrs for low browsing. Its nice it also has that 4k display option even though I dont think its a necessity right now for most casual usage like gaming or low level editing.
     
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  21. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    They should nix the 4-cell description and just put 60WHr, because many 6-cell are 60-65WHr. Using the same size cells on the P650SE, a 6-cell would be 90WHr! Larger than pretty much ANY laptop out there. I agree it would be nice to have more battery storage, but there's literally no room. Something has to be sacrificed. You increase battery size, then you likely loose cooling, eliminate the 2.5" drives, or you increase thickness significantly, and definitely increase weight. If you want long battery life and added features, then there are many full size laptops available that serve that purpose.
     
  22. tomeka

    tomeka Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yeah, well, back then I had a Dell Latitude E6410, there was an option for a 9 cell battery that was exceeding from 1 or 2cm in the back, it was acceptable when you were in need of a couple of extra hours of autonomy.
     
  23. heibk201

    heibk201 Notebook Deity

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    well HT you forgot about something that serves as a perfect example to what you are saying. it has extremely long battery life, and that's pretty much all it has, it's called a mac
     
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  24. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    LOL yeah @ Mac. I'm not saying sager couldn't improve efficiency a bit though. They changed the W230ST from 3.5 hrs to almost 6 in the W230SS. So there may be a chance for something improvement with an updated EC and BIOS.
     
  25. MichaelKnight4Christ

    MichaelKnight4Christ Notebook Evangelist

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    Look pal, fist of all I want to thank you because you do great reviews that really are precise and helpful to many of us so let me get that said and I don't intend to be a kill joy or anything but from what Ive been reading over the years it seems I'm not the only one POed with the lack of battery options here. The Battery it comes with gets the job done and saves weight and space I get it, but it would have been better if extra battery options were made available for most these clevo machines including the p150/np8268, and the new p17Xzm/z97 desktop cpu laptop that im also very interested in. I don't think the efficiency is the problem the problem is lack of different battery sizes. The 60whr battery is good for average use but a bigger one would be great especially for a portable powerhouse like this. Adding a pound or more wont hurt most people unless there born with a macbook in there hand lol and cant take the extra pound but thats nothing to me since that extra pound or so will be doubling the usage without looking for a wall.

    Again clevo seems to just not get that laptops with external battery packs should have more options for extra uses when not plugged in. Your right there are other notebooks that can add the battery and features I want but what I cant get is why clevo does not join the list of manufactures that give more battery options. Why should I have to look elsewhere when thats the only thing stopping them from being the total package lol? I dont think they should nix the 4 cell in the advertizements because thats what it is a 4 cell even though there are some 6 cells with similar 60whr specs. Its better they come out with truthful accurate descriptions rather than masking it or trying to pretty it up which might deceive people leading to distrust. Anyway I love clevo and im going to pick one up sooner or later but I would feel much better with more battery options for the external battery models.
     
  26. Sandwhale

    Sandwhale Notebook Consultant

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    Oh and yea Premiere Pro runs great on this machine! It rarely ever lags and I work with very CPU/GPU intensive codecs (like XVAC-S and AVCHD which are sometimes pushing 50mb/s...). It renders great and not too hot, and the utilization of the cuda cores is awesome with the Mercury GPU engine!
     
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  27. Xavvy

    Xavvy Notebook Guru

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    Look who's been naughty playing around with someone special last night... I'll take the blame, me!

    [​IMG]

    Good stuff man!

    It finally came in and I'm so excited! As expected this laptop is EXACTLY as WingNut Describes. Its quiet, its, light, all metal, beastly goodness. Ok thats not his exact words but you get what I mean!

    Installing Windows on this thing was pretty easy once I found out that the BIOS actually uses UFEI so you guys that have no operating systems will be happy to know that a simple bootable usb works great. I didn't have a usb at the time so I was able to use my 500GB lacie external hard drive. Anyone who has questions on how to do this in more detail with this laptop feel free to let me know and save yourself an extra $80 bucks! I also recommend to also copy all the files from the utilities cds that come with it and throw those on a stick or external HD. Altogether (including the win7 cd) its gonna set you back at around 7GB plus some change and I had to do it since mine doesn't have an optical drive.

    Also tried rendering a minute long animation in after effects. It literally ate it up. Taunting me as if to say "is that all you got? Give me a REAL challenge next time!" All in all its blazing fast yet quiet and cool. Its almost unsettling to me how quiet it is under heavy load. Most of the time it just gives off a few puffs of fan time then goes into silence - like a tiger... made of blackened aluminum... of death.

    This is just with the base "8GB model". I only got 8gigs of ram atm and one TB 7200rpm HDD. Can't wait to see what I can do with this thing in the next few months!

    [​IMG]

    P.S. anyone know what this stuff is? It came with the laptop. Its kind of squishy so I'm hoping that its not the thermal paste I ordered, since I asked if they can just apply it on the motherboard before shipping so I wont have to do it!
     
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  28. wickette

    wickette Notebook Deity

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    looks like it's an "industrial paste", just put it between the CPU and the copper heatsink, same for the GPU, BUT : in my opinion you should put a little IC7 and throw that in the garbage.


    Ps : stop teasing me i have to wait 3 weeks to get my p650sg, next time you tease me you will sleep with the fishes (say it with fat tony's voice in the simpsons);



    IPS or not ?
     
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  29. Dabeer

    Dabeer Notebook Evangelist

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    Glad to hear it's as impressive as you hoped :)

    None of them do, but thanks for the info on how large of a thumb drive one would need to have an on-the-go Windows reinstallation solution with drivers.


    LOL I love it. I'm looking forward to seeing it in action myself - tomorrow!

    Not sure off the top of my head - maybe replacement thermal pads for the VRAM and/or any M.2 SSDs you might choose to install in the future? Or maybe extra TIM for if/when you need to repaste in the future? Although I'd think if that were the case it'd be a tube...
     
  30. Xavvy

    Xavvy Notebook Guru

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    Hehehe! Oh and I have just the junky stock 1080p TN screen. Its actually not THAT bad though for a matte screen. But the fact that it looks like my old ASUS 720p screen leaved more to be desired. A good reccomendation if you're using a Windows OS (I have Win 8.1 pro) is to Calibrate your screen under their settings. Dunno if it works as well as using a calibration tool (its probably worse than the tool) but I will say that out of the box the first thing that needs to be adjusted is the GAMMA. It most likely will be set very low. Tuning this up helps a bit with the overall bad output of the screen, but alas, you can only dress up a pig with so much makeup!

    Exactly what I thought! I never seen this stuff before? Has anyone else get this stuff?
     
  31. wickette

    wickette Notebook Deity

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    Anytime you want to change your screen just go to ebay and order a IPS FHD 30pin eDP screen :). Make sure to check with the reseller that he's sending you an IPS screen.
     
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  32. teknikk7

    teknikk7 Notebook Geek

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    So your saying all 30pin eDP IPS screens will fit as long as they are 15"?
     
  33. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    slim 30 pin eDP.
     
  34. Dabeer

    Dabeer Notebook Evangelist

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    No - make sure it's a "Slim LED" panel. Find a pic of a screen known to be compatible, and look at where the mounting screw holes are. Make sure that what you order matches that.

    Edit: Dammit, HTWingNut..... :D
     
  35. b.j.smith@ieee.org

    [email protected] Notebook Consultant

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    That's how a lot of OEMs do it, although usually more "business" models than consumer units.

    It's so you can have an, at least near, "flush" battery for size and an "extended" battery for longevity. But I see complications with the design, plus the slightly added volume used and other impacts, versus one that is encapsulated within the back panel.
     
  36. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    The battery is internal, so no way to manage that. Personally though, I would not mind if they either made an adaptable bay for SATA drives or extra battery, or just get rid of the SATA drives altogether and offer 4 M.2 or even 2 M.2 and 2 mSATA drives, and free up space for a larger battery.

    M.2 drives run same sizes as SATA 2.5" and aren't that much more expensive and have comparable speeds.
     
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  37. IKAS V

    IKAS V Notebook Prophet

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    Hey xavvy is that pic you posted of your laptop screen at full brightness, before or after calibrating ?
    More screen pics would be great becuase like you say from your one pic it really doesn't look that bad.
    Congrats and enjoy.
     
  38. Noteb00kFreaK

    Noteb00kFreaK Notebook Enthusiast

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  39. bigspin

    bigspin My Kind Of Place

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    ChImei panel use lvds cable, so if P67X comes with that display you cannot change it to eDP panel.
     
  40. b.j.smith@ieee.org

    [email protected] Notebook Consultant

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    Yep. More and more "consumer" notebooks are coming that way. It's usually the same panel to remove to reach the components on those designs too. It slightly reduces the packaging volume of the overall design, wit a few, other benefits.

    I'm sure we could play a lot of "what ifs" with the design. Given where the 2.5" drive bays are, I guess they just decided to leave that area, and the number of 2.5" drives that fit are based on the thickness of the unit.

    But yeah, it would have been nice if the 2.5" bays were modular, as they are near the side, and one could slide in a battery instead for added longevity.
     
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  41. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    But alas, it is what it is, and I've learned thats' what we have to deal with until we can make our laptops! But many of these niche or boutique laptop makers like Sager/Clevo tend to listen to the users, and these forums especially. So we can have an impact on what we feel is required in a laptop. Clevo has never been known for their stellar battery life though. They are gaming/performance first, and battery life and styling second. I like that. I love the basic look of the laptops. I just don't like drawing attention to myself or my laptop, and a flashy laptop will do that.

    3-4 hours battery life is more than enough for most users who want top end performance, and this laptop even exceeds 4 hours useful life, and with some tuning with an updated EC/BIOS hopefully can eek out another hour.
     
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  42. Noteb00kFreaK

    Noteb00kFreaK Notebook Enthusiast

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    Is it possible to change the cable to a eDP cable? :rolleyes:
     
  43. heibk201

    heibk201 Notebook Deity

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    from the NBC review and yours it seems like they made some updates with EC, because before its battery life was turd for a 60whr. did they also fix the hotter pch problem that clevo always had?
     
  44. heibk201

    heibk201 Notebook Deity

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    is it possible to change integrated circuits? :rolleyes:
     
  45. Noteb00kFreaK

    Noteb00kFreaK Notebook Enthusiast

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  46. Dabeer

    Dabeer Notebook Evangelist

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    It's definitely not just the cable. There is also a change to the circuitry on the motherboard to convert the signal from eDP to LVDS. Whether that's a change to the actual integrated circuit, or just a change to the configuration (i.e. BIOS) we don't know (yet?)
     
  47. jaybee83

    jaybee83 Biotech-Doc

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    if your compare the innards of the NBC test unit and the pics that HTWingnut provided, u can see that Clevo actually added a metal foil kinda thingy onto the PCH, maybe that help to reduce temps :) (the NBC unit shows a bare die PCH)
     
  48. barrabclaw

    barrabclaw Newbie

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    This is my first post but I've been following this thread for a while. I was just on XoticPCs site and noticed they have an option for an IPS panel and two different 4K panels. Before, I remember they only had options for a TN panel and one 4K. I saw a number of posts not long ago about the lack of options, at least in the US, so hopefully that helps make a decision or save some trouble replacing it.

    I hope someone else didn't already post this but I think I've kept up with the thread fairly well....
     
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  49. Xavvy

    Xavvy Notebook Guru

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    [​IMG]

    15.6" FHD (16:9) Anti-Glare Matte-Type Sager IPS Screen (1920x1080) (LG Brand) (SKU - S2K003) - [ETA: Dec.12] ( + 45 )

    This second option seems particularly attractive. That additional 4k screen option is also a nice touch.

    Too late for me though since I already purchased an LTN156HL01-102 samsung screen. Doh!
     
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  50. Dabeer

    Dabeer Notebook Evangelist

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    Same... but even though the PLS screen cost a lot more and we have to do the work ourselves, I still think it's a better screen, especially for gaming, with its 16ms response vs LG's 35ms response. Not sure about picture quality, but I've never heard a complaint about a PLS screen's picture quality.
     
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