awakeN's P150EM/NP9150 Review

I asked for the $50 off configs.

 

Also awaken was talking about 3dmark11 not the FF benchmark

 

Something is jacked up, and it's very likely the benchmark itself. Some folks on overclock.net were reporting gtx 460s scoring lower than gtx 260s.

I haven't run it on my P150em since I don't have it yet, but my old desktop (i7-860, single HD6870) scored a 4800-ish on low and 4200-ish on high. The 3610qm + 7970m should be more powerful than that seeing how the 7970m is scoring between a 7850 and 7870--both of which are more powerful than my desktop 6870.

 

Yeah I'm pretty sure that the benchmark itself is either outdated or just not able to compute accurate scores for newer hardware. I recall some people with the Asus G75VW with the 660m getting scores in the 2000-2500 range. I'm sure this card is much more powerful.

 

Hey can you run a battery benchmark program if you have the time? thanks

 

I'm pretty sure they OC'd the card still. P5800 is what the 7970M is supposed to get at stock, at least everyone with a Clevo is getting that score.

What would you like me to benchmark doing? Just web-surfing and word processing?

 

Love the whole computer but the glossy bezel looks cheap to me. Plus, it shows dirt and micro swirl scratches like crazy. Wish they used a matte like finish

 

Totally agree with the bezel being too glossy.

 

Is there a way to take off the glossy bezel and spray paint it?

 

awaken, do you feel held back in any way by the 1333mhz ram? I noticed the $50 price drop xotic offers on it, but I don't want to build a super powerful laptop (similar to your config) and end up getting held back by my ram choice.

 

Yea if you can thanks

 

the memory downgrade isn't affecting the gaming and overall performance in a noticeable way. only is some bechmarks you will see some minor improvement with the 1600Mhz RAM.

 

Could look at removing it and using spray-on Plastidip, though it's not super durable from my experience using it on car interior trim pieces. It might be fine on the lcd bezel, and it peels right off if it doesn't hold up.

 

Unless you want a faster HD 4000 or are compressing large files, there is no need for 1600 MHz RAM.

 

Thanks for the review. You got a 2771 on the FFXIV benchmark? Isn't that really low, according to this chart?

http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com/media/benchmark/na/

 

time to re-run dat benchmark

EDIT: odd. got the same score again. I just realized that it was running on HD 4000 lmao.

 

Haha, that's what I figured. Not a bad score, I think that's better than what I got with my Core 2 Duo and 9600M GT.

 

For some reason I'm consistently scoring in the 2700 range, but I'm running a 1080p and it never dips below 50 fps.

 

FFXIV is very poorly optimized, and the benchmark is even more so. I wouldn't pay too much attention to it honestly, it's not a very accurate portrayal of in game performance. I still play FFXIV and my NP9170 w/ 7970m should be on it's way any day now. I'm gonna play with the settings and see how high I can put it and what the FPS looks like. I can keep you guys posted if you'd like.

 

Wouldn't something like Krylon Fusion be a better fit?

 

Wow the 9150 looks so nice can't wait to order mines.

 

Nice find +rep.

Might give that a go!

 

Fusion works good, I have sprayed a old laptops bezel with it. It would be great to have a video of taking the bezel off. I hope its not attached by cheap clips that break.

If its easy to take off, or if someone uploads a video on taking it off. I will paint mine when I get it in and do a video on it.

 

The Krylon Fusion would probably be more durable, as well as available in more colors, but it's normal paint that's made for plastics. The plastidip is rubbery. It's going to be a preference thing.

I wouldn't use the plastidip on surfaces that get regular rubbing/touching. I used it on a number of interior pieces of my car, and it wore right off the cupholder & door handles, and came off in spots where my helmet banged against it during autocross. It looks and feels great, but just isn't quite that durable.

You could also look into finding someplace that could flock the bezel trim, which gives the texture/grip, but should be more durable. I've just never looked for a place that'll do it and checked pricing.

 

I have a spray can of clear PlastiDip in my stuff, but like you said I haven't found it to be very durable.

Certainly not if there are any sharp edges to whatever you're coating. I tried using it on a Nexus S battery cover and it started peeling almost right away. I would be very concerned that the bezel would do the same.

Here's another question: is the Onkyo speaker branding something that would be difficult to remove?

 

The onkyo speaker branding is, unfortunately, printed on the chassis. or so it seems.

 

Does it look like silkscreen printing, similar to branding on many cellphones?

Would it be a candidate for the sugar cube trick?

(Edit: I tried it. Works and doesn't seem to alter the texture. Why am I using conditional here? I made the mistake of attempting with a raw cane sugar cube, slightly golden in color, that I had on hand, instead of the white refined ones. Turns out those have harder particles in them and made small but visible scratches. Finished off the job with a refined sugar cube, which worked much better, but the damage was done.)

One comment mentions using baking soda and cotton swabs instead, this variant being less abrasive.

 

@YAYTech. Hey I noticed that you ordered your np9150 on June 11. I ordered mine on the 8th. What did you do to get yours in Phase 2?!

 

i was wondering uf you could perhaps do some battlefield 3 ultra benches but in multiplayer?
i heard that in mp the fps are a bit lower but can you confirm that?

 

I don't own BF3 so I acquired it in "special" means, but I've already uninstalled and deleted it since all I used it for was benching single player :-/ sorry man.

 

Ah ok, I understand. No problem thought, thanks for the awesome review

 

Awesome review! I cant wait for mine ahhhh

 

I'm also curious as to if we can remove the sound logo thing. I want my laptop PLAIN. No branding, no logos of any sort. That's the way I prefer things

Let me know if anyone / or you awaken, has done this or knows of a way. I saw the post about the sugar cube method but am wondering if this will leave any marks on the laptop? I want the logo gone but not at the cost of scratches/scuffs. I want this thing clean its going to be my baby haha.

 

I don't mind the logo and I don't want to risk damaging my laptop, so sorry

it's definitely printed on there, i can feel the glossy surface of ink.

 

Hi awakeN, I'm bit concerned about the sound quality of my clevo p150em, thing is whatever I do I cant feel any bass, even when I plug my JVC HAFX1X Xtreme Xplosives In Ear Canal Headphones: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics earphones and put sound on maximum there is absolutely no bass and sound quality is absolutely awful, even my nokia c1-02 reproduces much better sound. Can you clarify whether do you feel any real bass

Could it be something with the sound chip itset? I'm 95% sure that the drivers and THX are in order.

Thanks.

 

Hmm... I'm not sure what you're doing wrong; I somewhat do feel bass and the sound quality is decent. Try reinstalling the drivers and stuff, make sure THX is turned on (where all the text will be in orange). The sound quality and bass sound fine to me when I wear my Razer Morays, but the speakers are just god awful though.

 

But how deep are bass when in speaker mode?

In this song for its all flat Röyksopp - What Else Is There? (HD) - YouTube

 

The speakers are terrible so you won't hear any bass from there (most likely). You'll have to rely on earphones in my experience to feel any bass. Also, that video is apparently blocked in the US and I can't view it D:

 

Hi, I just read this post, and scratched the painted Onkyo logo off with my fingernail. And all looks as it has never been there.

 

AWESOME thanks!

 

laptop body is matte,screen is matte but lcd bezel is glossy
somebody don't think when design this laptop

 

People have been talking about sanding it down or spraying some flat black paint on it. I have yet to see it done but once it's confirmed that it's an easy fix I'll do it.

 

i think we are waiting on how to take the bezel off with out breaking the clips

 

Yeah, I agree. the glossy bezel is just messed up and out of place >.>

 

Great review awakeN! In depth and a huge help. Definitely looking at buying one. +1 rep!

 

I recently completely disassembled the P150EM bezel and all to apply my own custom A/B/C panel wrap, and did not break the clips when unsnapping them with a flat plastic squeegee tool. It all snapped back into place as well once I put everything back together. Picture album link below (couldnt attach because of size):

Photo Album - Imgur

 

Did you order it from xotic pc that way? or did you do it yourself? What did you use to do this?

 

I ordered this Clevo barebones from RJTech. It currently doesn't have a GPU yet, as I "pre-ordered" the GTX680M model, and asked them to ship the laptop separately without the GPU until it was available so that I could work on getting this all done before hand myself.

I used 3M Scotchguard 1080 Series Black Carbon Fiber wrap, which is probably what XoticPC uses (or something similiar), however, their carbon fiber mod is a more silver/metallic color, while mine actually looks like actual carbon fiber in terms of color.

Took about 5-6 hours to really get it all done correctly with an X-Acto Knife (hardest part is the front bezel / B panel due to its thin overall structure and having to cut around the actual snap pieces). The laptop also has an MSI SteelSeries keyboard in it, however, this keyboard doesn't quite fit correctly with the speaker bar and doesn't snap fully into place, so I'm probably going to have to end up using some sort of resilient double sided tape to really get it to "stick".

I also used a heat gun on the edges after cutting to really activate the 3M wrap and get it to stick in place with so little actually sticking to the inside of the laptop lid/inside bezel/exterior sides/keyboard slot.

3M actually offers a ton of different options and colors (found here: 3M US: Graphic Solutions: 3M™ Scotchprint® Wrap Film Series 1080 ) for use with this same type of wrap job. I was able to get them to send me a free product sample as well with every different color/finish that they offer, so if you wanted pictures of them I'd be more than happy to provide those as well.

Overall though, disassembly was not difficult at all, and anyone who has tinkered with a laptop or building of a PC should be able to do this, if they're willing to have the patience required cutting little slivers of the wrap off at a time to get it fit perfectly without bumps and wrinkles around some of the edges.

 

How do you think the Matte Black 1080-M12, Dark Gray 1080-M261, Black Metallic 1080-BR212, Titanium 1080-BR230, Steel 1080-BR201 would look for just the bezel? That's pretty much the only piece I am looking at really changing up. The rest of the laptop looks fine to me.

If I ever get the GE60 I would do the whole thing to keep the finger prints down.