The Sager NP 8130/8150 (Clevo P151HM1/P150HM) Owner-Answered Frequently Asked Questions **READ BEFORE POSTING**

Frequently Asked Questions​

With a combined 620+ pages (at the time of this writing) of information about these machines, it’s a little daunting for prospective buyers to get the specific answers to questions they ask. Usually, they ask the same ones that have already been answered, but they just missed it. I thought it would be a good idea to organize the wealth of info into a neat little q-and-a format for everyone’s benefit. Enjoy:

Is Sager reputable?
For customer service? No, it isn’t. That’s what we have the resellers for, because they provide top-notch, personalized CS. The recommendation is to not buy directly from Sager, but to buy through one of the many resellers we have here on these forums. Their names are silver-colored and they often have recognizeable signatures. Otherwise, Sager creates excellent, high-end machines that are becoming more popular right now. There is a list of current resellers selling these laptops below.

I'm looking for the lowest possible price. Will the resellers pricematch?
Yes, a few do. You'll have to ask or PM them.

Can my laptop last for X number of years?
Depends on your question. If you mean physically, then with good care, these machines can easily last 4 years or more because they're built solidly. If you're talking about notebook relevancy, then you should know that if you want cutting edge components, everything you order today will become obsolete 2 years down the line.

Where can I get drivers support?
With your reseller. Otherwise you can find them here.

How about BIOS support?
Again with your reseller. But you can also find them here.

Are the heatsinks copper or aluminum?
Depends on your reseller, but they SHOULD be copper.

How many fans does this machine have?
Two. One for the CPU, and one for the GPU Both are quite powerful.

What is the difference between the NP 8130 and the NP 8150?
The computers are built on the exact same chassis, so there is little differentiating them. The Sager NP 8130 has a hard plastic body that extends to the touchpad, comes with your standard 120W PSU, and can go up to the GTX 560M graphics card. The NP 8150 has a rubberized finish that extends to the touchpad, comes with an 180W PSU and can support up to the GTX 580M graphics card.

What about the 8170?

I don't know much about that laptop to be honest, but it is very similar and HTWingNut knows more about it:

Can I upgrade my GPU on the Sager NP 8130?
Yes, you most definitely can, but you will most likely need a new PSU, which will cost an additional $100+, depending on the wattage it is rated at. There are people who have upgraded their Sager NP 8130 to the GTX 560M, the GTX 485M, GTX 580M, the Radeon 6970M, and the Radeon 6990M cards, all with excellent results.

Can you overclock the CPU?
No, you cannot overclock Sandy Bridge CPUs. This applies to all machines that support SB, not just Sagers/Clevos. Except the 2920XM, which is unlocked. But that is only possible on the HM67 chipset and therefore the Sager NP8170.

Can I overclock my GPU?
Yes you definitely can. Here's a guide: Overclocking Guide . Despite the name, it should apply equally for ATI/AMD cards as well.

What is the weight of the machine?
For my machine, with the specs listed in my signature, I weighted the machine with the battery in at an even 7lbs, without the PSU.

What are the dimensions of the Sager NP 8130/8150?
14.80” W x 10.08” D x 1.38” – 1.69” H

Do the graphics cards have 3D support?
According to the NVIDIA site, the graphic cards that are supported by these machines DO have 3D enabled. The 6970M is also 3D-compatible. You may need a 3D-supported screen, however.

What is the screen like?
My laptop arrived with an LED-backlit 1080p (16:9 format obviously) matte screen rated at 60% gamut. Depending on the reseller (most offer it now), you may get a matte 95% gamut screen for free or standard. That is an excellent value and offers amazing clarity, viewing angles, brightness, etc. That being said, even the 60% gamut is vibrant and clear, one of the best screens on the market right now.

How are the speakers?
The Sager NP 8130/50 has two speakers above the keyboard, and a subwoofer on the bottom of the machine. This is not a multimedia machine, but instead is supposed to be a gaming powerhouse, so while the quality, clarity and volume is good, it’s not great. It is certainly better than the average speakers you will find on a normal laptop, but is good enough for most people for personal use unless you are an audiophile. The machine comes pre-installed with THX software that may or may not improve the experience, since many have reported better fidelity with it enabled (after your free registration), and many have said that it makes no difference. Users have reported issues with the headphone jack, however, and it may be the Sager NP 8130/50’s biggest weakness.

This is what Malibal has to say about it:

What is the battery life rated at?
That depends on your GPU configuration and a number of other factors, but the highest possible number one should hope for is around 3.5 to 4 hours, under the best possible conditions. These are not meant to be road warriors, but instead the most powerful portable laptops possible. The Sager NP 8130, 8150 and 8170 do NOT have Optimus (or switchable graphics) enabled and they never will. The battery is rated at 77 Wh. The Intel iGPU on the Quad cores are disabled and will NOT work.

What chipset do these laptop have?
The Sager NP 8130 and NP 8150 both have the Intel H65 chipsets. The Sager NP 8170 uses the Intel H67 chipset.

Will it be compatible with Ivy Bridge? Can I upgrade my processor to Ivy Bridge?
No, intel has confirmed that this is NOT possible. End of story.

What is the webcam like?
Good quality and color, though not the best, but the video camera has 2.0 Megapixels quality.

Can I upgrade any component without voiding my warranty?
Yes! This is very possible and is actually sometimes encouraged. Most resellers’ (I can’t speak for all) warranties will remain intact, but they will not cover the item that you put inside, unless they do it themselves. That being said, if you put a new CPU inside of your Sager machine, you are responsible if it fails and bricks your system. Rest assured, the actual process of upgrading your Sager is very easy and user-accessible.

Is the $100 dead pixel guarantee worth it?
That depends on your reseller and how thorough they are with testing. You can have lower than 5 dead pixels and it would still get shipped to you, though you would have to ship it back. If you get the guarantee, you won’t have to pay for the shipping, but luckily you have a 30-day money back guarantee, no questions asked.


When was this machine announced/ How new or old is this machine?
It was announced on January 9th, 2011.

Does this machine have backlit keyboards?
Sorry, no. It will not have backlit keyboards in the future either, for this generation at least.

Does it come with 2 HDD bays?
No, it comes with 1 HDD bay, but you can remove the optical drive and convert it into an external, buy a HDD caddy at 12.7mm height, and add a second hard drive in the place where the optical drive used to be. The Sager NP 8170 comes with 2 HDD bays as well as an optical drive built in.

Can I use a ViDock or an eGPU solution for using external graphic cards?
No, the machine does not come with any ExpressCard ports and is not able to use an eGPU.

This is what nando has to say about it:

Does this machine support WiDi?
No, it doesn't. Intel uses the iGPU for the WiDi, which is automatically disabled on these models.

Does the machine support USB 3.0?
Yes, all Sandy Bridge chipsets use and support USB 3.0.

What is the SATA speed of the drive bays?
The internal HDD bay supports SATA III speeds while the optical drive bay supports SATA II speeds.

With such high-end components, will I need a cooler?
Most definitely not. Sager has one of the best cooling systems available on the market right now inside of these laptops, that also potentially allows for some serious overclocking (if you wish) Most people idle at high 30’s and low 40’s (Celsius) on all of their components. For max fan speed, click Fn + 1.

Can I use a 3G modem in the mini-PCIE slot?
It's manufacturer-select, but if you have a Clevo laptop, but you should ask the company if it is enabled or not.

Bluetooth?
The Intel Advanced 6230 (2 antennas) supports BT, while the Ultimate 6300 (3 antennas) does not and will need a USB dongle.

What about international orders? Warranty support?
Most of the resellers here do provide international shipping, contingent on various taxes, and will provide warranty support as well. However, if you need something fixed, the machine will have to be shipped back to the point of origin and then back to you again. Choose wisely.

What is the touchpad like?
The Sager NP 8130/50 uses a Synaptics touchpad that does support multi-touch gestures.

How do we get rid of the fan cycling??
Relax, this is a widely-reported issue that should be fixed in the next BIOS update.

Update: It is now confirmed that the "fan-cycling" is not an issue at all, but is considered normal. This does not affect the fan's life cycle, temperatures and does not affect your components. This cycling is perfectly fine, and is designed to operate this way.

Can I put an mSATA SSD in one of the mini PCIE slots?
No one has tried yet, but you are welcome to be the first!

How does Linux run on this machine?
Perfectly fine, though some of the newer components may not be supported.

Do I need the thermal paste?
Depends on the components you choose, but most likely, no you do not.

What is the maximum amount of RAM I can use? Speed?
You can go up to 16GB of RAM in this machine. Depending on your processor, you can go up to 8GB of 1600 MHz speed, and no more. That being said, there is a negligible amount of difference between 1600 and 1333; you can only tell them apart with benchmarks, and is not (in my opinion) worth the price premium.

Screen Specifics?

Thanks to Lauski for providing the following post:

How can I repay you for all the help?
I'll bill you later. (I'm joking, obviously)
==========================================================================================

Useful Links:

Owner's Lounges:
8130 => http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...sager-np8130-clevo-p151hm1-owners-lounge.html
8150 => http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...-sager-np8150-clevo-p150hm-owners-lounge.html
8170 => http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...-sager-np8170-clevo-p170hm-owners-lounge.html

Reviews:

8130 => http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...eview-thoughs-sager-np8130-clevo-p151hm1.html
8150 => http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...er-np8150-clevo-p150hm-review-forerunner.html
8170 => http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...-review-htwingnut-resident-goldfish-blub.html

Graphics Info for:

GTX 460M: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M - Notebookcheck.net Tech
GTX 485M: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 485M - Notebookcheck.net Tech
GTX 560M: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M - Notebookcheck.net Tech
GTX 580M: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M - Notebookcheck.net Tech
AMD Radeon 6970M: AMD Radeon HD 6970M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Processor Info for:

2630QM: Intel Core i7 2630QM Notebook Processor - Notebookcheck.net Tech
2720QM: Intel Core i7 2720QM Notebook Processor - Notebookcheck.net Tech
2820QM: Intel Core i7 2820QM Notebook Processor - Notebookcheck.net Tech
2920XM: Intel Core i7 2920XM Notebook Processor - Notebookcheck.net Tech

List of Resellers Currently Selling these noteboks*:

XOTIC PC (Nebraska): Link, Reseller Ratings, Profile

LPC Digital (Las Vegas): Link, Reseller Ratings

PowerNotebooks (Nevada): Link, Reseller Ratings, Profile

MALIBAL (Las Vegas): Link, Reseller Ratings, Profile

Mythlogic (Michigan): Link, Reseller Ratings, Profile

Reflex Notebooks (Canada): Link, (No listed reseller ratings.), Profile

FortNax (Canada): Link, (No listed reseller ratings.), Profile

Kobalt Computers (United Kingdom): Link, (No listed reseller ratings.), Profile

IlleGear (Malaysia): Link, (No listed reseller ratings.), Profile

PC Specialist (United Kingdom): Link, Reseller Ratings,

Devil Tech (Germany): Link (In German),

*Note: A few of them also sell different brands like MSI, Asus, etc. They are listed in no particular order.

List of recommended programs: I have all of these installed on all of my notebooks; they are good, resource-light and absolutely free.

HWMonitor
HWInfo
Microsoft Security Essentials
MalwareBytes Anti Malware
TrueCrypt
CPU-ID
BatteryBar
GPU-z
WinRAR
================================================================================================

More questions will be added as time goes on, so get your answers here. I hope this answers most of the questions that people ask about these wonderful machines. If there are any questions that I have missed, then feel free to comment or post, and I will add it to the list.

Suggestions, as always, are welcome.

Cheers,
Mr. Mysterious

 

I went through the first 30 pages of the NP 8130 thread to get most of my questions and answers…will go off and do the same for the NP 8150 thread now.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Nice aggregation! If you're willing to keep this updated as other questions come up, it can be pretty useful for those that don't want to read a massive owner's lounge (and since search here is *very* hit or miss)

 

Great! Thanks for your work! +1

 

Thank you! Yes, I'll keep this updated for as long as I frequent NBR

Welcome

Mr. Mysterious

 

Fantastic idea and great job! Rep +1

 

Great post! I'd add this to the question about Sager being reputable:

Who Really Makes Laptops | XOTIC PC (I just know this one exists, if there's a non-reseller specific one, that's fine too.

EDIT: Also, if there's a question about overclocking the CPU, you should probably mention the ability to overclock the GPU (and maybe a link to a guide for how to do it)

 

Good idea. Added.

Hmmm, I'd like to keep this as objective as possible. So that means I can't recommend one reseller over another.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Good Work +1

 

Could someone answer any questions about 3D for various GPUs? Is it supported on an external monitor (that supports 3D) if the notebook screen is not 3D?

Mr. Mysterious

 

Thanks a ton. This link is going to be used a ton to refer people. Better memorize it

 

Awww shucks. I'm just trying to help people, lol

Mr. Mysterious

 

can the machine last for at least 3 years ?

 

amazing job! Congrats!

 

Bad @ss FAQ. +1.

You prolly can add this too.

Review AMD Radeon HD 6970M Graphics Card - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

since widi wont work would netgear's push to tv work?

 

Well done.

May I suggest adding a list of the resellers who are active in this forum, including Xotic, Powernotebooks (paladin44), MALIBAL, Mythlogic, Reflex, LPC, etc? Include links to their web sites as well as their user IDs here in case folks want to contact them via the forum.

The FAQ thread in the main Sager/Clevo forum is hopelessly out of date.

 

Great job Mr. Mysterious!

Perhaps add the following link that Atmosk has kindly created for a 1-stop-source for driver updates

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/573379-clevo-driver-thread.html

 

I was planning on doing that, as well as adding a bunch of other stuff. I'm at work now so i'll update everything when i come home. Thanks for the kind words everyone

Mr. Mysterious

 

Answered.

I've updated the first post with a lot of new information

Edit: I've added locations for the resellers.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Ah, think there's a mistake on the amount of DDR3 1600 MHz RAMs that can be supported. You wrote 4GB max, but it's actually 8GB . Just a slight mistake.

 

Are you sure? I've seen a lot of posts stating that it's 4GB

Perhaps a reseller could clarify this for us?

Mr. Mysterious

 

^^It's 8. Otherwise, it would always default back to 1333Hz because of dual-channel when 2x4GB sticks are used.

 

The info is updated. Thanks you guys

Mr. Mysterious

 

Add PCSpecialist.co.uk to your list of resellers, this is a UK alternative to Kobalt Systems and helps give options to EU and UK based prospective buyers.

To add to that, Deviltech.de will do for prospective buyers in Germany.

 

Will do, once i'm back at my computer.

edit: Harley, I need help with finding the profile of the reseller for pcspecialist, and the reseller ratings and profile for deviltech.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Hey Mysterious

LOL funny avi

My question to you is are the stock cooler good enough or do I need to upgrade it to a IC Diamond?

My other question is are the standard stock wireless good enough or do I need to upgrade to the 6300 or the one before that?

Thanks btw rep

 

I just repasted with IC diamond and only noticed minimal differences. Its probably worth it even for the 1-3 degrees Celsius, but it's up to you.

EDIT: And, just to be safe, you can always upgrade to the 6230. The 6300 is completely un-necessary (the chances of you ever getting above 300 MB/sec bandwith are very low).

 

I believe you can overclock the 2920XM on a H67 chipset, so your answer to the 'Can I overclock the cpu' question is a bit misleading.

Great work on the FAQ!

 

H67 chipset is for the NP8170, though (This FAQ is only intended to cover the NP8130/50 until updated).

 

Also...does anyone know how the front page got so wide? Couldn't find anything that should be causing it....

 

1 question, where are the parts of the notebook ( hdd, screen ... etc ) made from ?

 

I made the divider (the"=====") a little too long, lol.

Mr. Mysterious

 

China, China, China, China, China, China, China and Taiwan. Like every other laptop in the world.

 

You can add Clevo France

Clevo Home page clevo.fr - distributeur Clevo officiel en europe , CLEVO X7200 - CLEVO X8100 - CLEVO P170HM - CLEVO P150HM ...

 

i c .. they better b reliable lol , coz my hdd n ram in my current laptop are from korea

 

Hey im planning on purchasing this laptop soon. im just wandering if the Ic diamond thermal compound is worth it? The most hardcore program.game ill be running is probably going to be crysis 2.

 

I think the NP8170 should be added to this FAQ because 90% of it is common.

One additional FAQ is what is performance of machine on battery?

 

^^^^Yes I agree. The NP8170-P170HM should be added or a thread made for it ...FAQ

 

The only differences I've deduced are:

1. 17" 1080p screen (obviously) with different screen options
2. two hard drives + optical available
3. 220W power supply
4. metal + plastic construction
5. HM67 chipset

 

To quote from the FAQ on the first page:

Also, Mr Myterious...the front page i still too wide.

 

Better now?

Mr. Mysterious

 

Yep

10char

 

I agree. Except I don't know much about the 8170 and I wouldn't want to overstep my boundaries.

Perhaps if someone is willing to help...?

Mr. Mysterious

 

Well done. This would have saved hours of my waking hours. But then again I would have missed the delivery race between Mr. Mysterious and Batman.

 

Lol! I remember that...good times

Mr. Mysterious

 

Is that the whole body is rubberized finish or only the cover and palm rest?
thanks

 

I watched the extensive XOTIC review on youtube but I couldnt quite make out what the audio port with the red light is. The reviewer mentioned something about needing a special cable that wont be found at the local best buy? What is this port for and why should one use it?

 

Whole thing

S/PDIF, and I have no idea what it's used for.

 

Thanks! I couldnt quite catch what he said it was in the review video.

Per Webopedia: Short for Sony/Philips Digital Interface, a standard audio file transfer format. Developed jointly by the Sony and Phillips corporations, S/PDIF allows the transfer of digital audio signals from one device to another without having to be converted first to an analog. format. Maintaining the viability of a digital signal prevents the quality of the signal from degrading when it is converted to analog.

I guess I wont be using this much.