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Anyone with Clevo/Sager experience?

MagickalKat777

MagickalKat777

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Feb 4, 2004
Messages
7,020
Location
Denver, CO
I just bought my first Clevo laptop - its a P377SM-A (Sager-branded NP9377-S) from XOTIC PC. Specs:

3.1GHz i7-4940MX
GTX 880M SLI
2x240GB Crucial M500 mSATA SSD (RAID0)
2x1TB 7200RPM HD (storage, no RAID)
6x Bluray burner
32GB DDR3-1600
Windows 8.1 Pro (with DVD)
120hz matte LCD w/ 72% color gamut

With a 3 year warranty plus accidental damage plus lifetime labor, 24/7 tech support (in the US - no outsourced bs), and custom copper heat pipe cooling it came out to 4800 bucks.

For reference, the only other SLI around, the Alienware 18, would have cost me 6k for a system that can't reach its full potential due to power constraints (Dell actually just gimped the BIOS and removed all O/C options in their latest BIOS release for the 4930 and 4940MX chips, making their unlocked multipliers useless unless tweaked through Intel's XTU in Windows) and would have left me stuck with Dell's piss poor customer service that speaks such broken English you would rather throw the machine out and a buy a new one than talk to them.

I ordered it on the 7th and its already undergoing its custom mod (the additional cooling) so hopefully I will have it early next week. Can't wait. I know 5k is a lot to spend on a laptop but I have it now and have to spend it plus my last laptop was an Alienware M17x that I bought in 2009. Still have it now. Technically could still use it if I bought a new keyboard, LCD cover (I scratched the old one), a hard drive, and a new GPU fan to replace the squealing one but it just was too tempting to buy a new machine.

I'm actually pretty happy but I'm curious if we have anyone with Sager/Clevo or any of their resellers on bluelight. They're not very well known but they used to supply every gaming machine that Alienware sold before Dell bought them circa 2009 and have been around forever (XOTIC has been around since 1999 and Clevo has been on ODM since at least the early 90s) so its not like I'm going with some no-name company that is going to take my money and run but its always nice to hear what others have to say too. I will have 15 days to put the system through its paces and if I am not 100% satisfied, I can send it back for a 100% refund except for the customizations so I'd be out around 200 bucks. Not a bad deal really. Those 880M cards are niiiiice for games though!
 
I must say... this is a pretty sick machine. Stock temperatures aren't bad and an unlocked video BIOS is being made but there's not much to complain about with this machine (most of it is nitpicking).

I've posted a bunch of pics and benchmarks -> https://www.flickr.com/photos/124320551@N04/sets/72157644774793902/

Here are a few highlights

Disk performance:

Crystal

Unigine Valley Extreme 1080p:

Valley

Temps are high but that's stock. I'm going to repaste the GPUs and CPU as well as do some undervolting. I should be able to bring the CPU up from 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz with the same temps (lower if I'm really lucky) and the GPUs just need an unlocked vbios (which is coming soon).

That said, Bioshock Infinite on its maximum settings? Amazing.
 
MagickalKat777 said:
I must say... this is a pretty sick machine. Stock temperatures aren't bad and an unlocked video BIOS is being made but there's not much to complain about with this machine (most of it is nitpicking).

I've posted a bunch of pics and benchmarks -> https://www.flickr.com/photos/124320551@N04/sets/72157644774793902/

Here are a few highlights

Disk performance:

Crystal

Unigine Valley Extreme 1080p:

Valley

Temps are high but that's stock. I'm going to repaste the GPUs and CPU as well as do some undervolting. I should be able to bring the CPU up from 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz with the same temps (lower if I'm really lucky) and the GPUs just need an unlocked vbios (which is coming soon).

That said, Bioshock Infinite on its maximum settings? Amazing.
Click to expand...
Awsome laptop but i fucked up and got Asus G750JZ .post some game benchmarks like tomb rider for instance
 
Some benchmark of the Asus g750
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overclocked 1072/6000mhz
q47PLDb.png

and stock
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6460CAl.png

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDVocYGv5C0
Your turn
Use passmark http://www.passmark.com/products/pt.htm
 
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I'm not going to give you an infraction or a warning this time but I removed the link to the keygen from your post, we don't support warez here.

I actually unlocked my vBIOS the other day but I need to redo the thermal paste (long story short, I got a bad BIOS the first flash and had to pull the cards from my system and flash them with my old Alienware because the onboard graphics are permanently disabled on this machine due to the 120hz screen) and I have to wait for some new screws to get here because I stripped them using MX-4.

Anyway, here's what I have right now:

3DMark 11 - P13546: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/8397449
3DMark 11 Extreme - X4152: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/8397379
3DMark Firestrike - 9983: http://www.3dmark.com/fs/2235579

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The unlocked vBIOS makes the chip a good 5-10% faster but its hitting 93C under load right now which is too high for me so until I get the new screws and put ICD7 on, I won't be doing any more testing.

To give you an idea how fast this thing really is though... My desktop 4770K w/ a 780 Ti: 10692 Firestrike http://www.3dmark.com/fs/2237636

P13397 3DMark 11: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/8398465

Firestirke was faster because of the CPU offset but if you compare the graphics scores, my laptop beats the desktop in both situations.

Since Passmark is a short test... this is my 880M with the unlocked vBIOS and a 400MHz memory overclock (I got a bad card that will not overclock at stock voltage, I can't even undervolt the thing with stock clocks)

Bare in mind that Passmark does not use SLI technology

15i5cpi.png


EDIT: Wow... Apparently the MX-4 paste that is said to have no curing time has a curing time... Just ran this and my cards maxed at 82C with the fans barely even kicking up

10089 Firestrike with stock core and mem at +450! 8o

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/3219403

Catzilla:

5371bm.png


It hit 93C on Catzilla on the 2nd GPU which means it throttled so its still short of what it would have been without throttling.

BioShock Infinite Ultra + DDOF (average, min, max)

116.94, 14.10, 398.76, Overall
 
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MagickalKat777 said:
Bare in mind that Passmark does not use SLI technology
Click to expand...
actually you can force it but on the directcompute forced sli fucks up so for the final test you have to stop it [go to nvidia driver manage 3d settings/global settings/multi gpu rendering mode/force alternative frame rendering (and try 1 and 2 i forgot which runs it better)]P.S. for the keygen i was trying only to help
overclocked gpu core +57 memory +1000 i don't know why but the cpu throttles ?
Ym2M1oO.png
 
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crazy_dude said:
actually you can force it but on the directcompute forced sli fucks up so for the final test you have to stop it [go to nvidia driver manage 3d settings/global settings/multi gpu rendering mode/force alternative frame rendering (and try 1 and 2 i forgot which runs it better)]P.S. for the keygen i was trying only to help
overclocked gpu core +57 memory +1000 i don't know why but the cpu throttles ?
Ym2M1oO.png
Click to expand...

I know you can force it but since the app doesn't have its own SLI profile, the results aren't consistent across platforms so the results get skewed beyond the instability that you pointed out.

If the CPU is getting throttled, you are likely hitting the limits of the power adapter. What size power supply did it come with? A 4700HQ and an 880M can max out a 240W adapter easily and when you start overclocking, an 880M can really suck some serious juice.
 
MagickalKat777 said:
I know you can force it but since the app doesn't have its own SLI profile, the results aren't consistent across platforms so the results get skewed beyond the instability that you pointed out.

If the CPU is getting throttled, you are likely hitting the limits of the power adapter. What size power supply did it come with? A 4700HQ and an 880M can max out a 240W adapter easily and when you start overclocking, an 880M can really suck some serious juice.
Click to expand...
Yep 240w power adapter so that's why it throttles then, i tried it on forced sli and the end result was 159 percent jump on the 3d score
P.S. you can make yourself sli profile for it (on nvidia inspector) and for any game that doesn't have one but some times it pain in the ass doing so
BioShock Infinite

[TABLE="width: 320"]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 4"]74.31, 19.49, 185.45, Overall[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
overclocked core +57 memory +500
LFxoJ9u.png
 
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That's exactly why I didn't get the NP9570/P570WM - its too damn big. Even my NP9377-S is a bit of a change.

Besides that, the S is a special edition (IC Diamond thermal paste, free upgrade to 120hz LCD with purchase of 880M, free 30 days dead pixel insurance, discount on the machine). I got more for my money with this one than I would have with the 570.

The cooling in the 570 is much better obviously but that's because of its size... its base is like twice as thick as the base in this one - its actually thicker than my old Alienware M17x is.

By the way, the 780M scores higher than the 880M does. It has more overclocking headroom and it tends to be a lower voltage part than the 880Ms that have come out so far. Nobody has managed to push an 880M to 780M levels so far unfortunately.
 
Dude can you please do a passmark 3d graphic test in forced sli (for the last test you have to stop the forced sli)?
 
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heh, yall shoulda seen my old P4 laptop, it was literally a desktop CPU crammed into a laptop with the massive heat sink making it >2" thick.

so uh, forgive my ignorance but what's the reason for spending 5G on a gaming laptop? I don't understand it since there are many cheaper, more portable options for mobile gaming and many cheaper, better-performing options for gaming at home.
 
crazy_dude said:
Dude can you please do a passmark 3d graphic test in forced sli (for the last test you have to stop the forced sli)?
Click to expand...

I might do it later... I don't see the point, the app isn't meant to scale with SLI. Forcing it is going to give skewed results.

thujone said:
heh, yall shoulda seen my old P4 laptop, it was literally a desktop CPU crammed into a laptop with the massive heat sink making it >2" thick.

so uh, forgive my ignorance but what's the reason for spending 5G on a gaming laptop? I don't understand it since there are many cheaper, more portable options for mobile gaming and many cheaper, better-performing options for gaming at home.
Click to expand...

Because I got my disability back pay and it has to be spent in 90 days and I prefer laptops to desktops considering the space constraints in my room (I also built a desktop but that's purely for gaming with a console controller because of where I had to put the tower).

crazy_dude said:
just got latest aida
25NS2R3.png
Click to expand...

Not too shabby.
 
No way man, I am an active member on the NBR forums and I won't buy a performance machine outside of Clevo because of the issues ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, etc., have.
 
what sort of problems do the ASUS ones have? Does it only apply to the ones with discrete GPUs?
 
thujone said:
what sort of problems do the ASUS ones have? Does it only apply to the ones with discrete GPUs?
Click to expand...

They overheat, build quality issues, most of it is directly related to Haswell and discrete GPUs though. The cooling in them isn't adequate for the heat that needs to be dissipated.

They're nowhere near as bad as the MSI machines though... MSI considers 90-91C on an 880M to be just fine.....
 
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