Asus G50V-A2 vs Sager np8660

Hi everyone, I've been looking for a 15" laptop lately. After joining this forum and reading threads on different laptops I've come to a decision between the g50v-a2 and the sager np8660. Can someone be honest not bias and tell me which is best suit me as I probably only play games like Supreme Commander and Starcraft 2 when it comes out. Beside playing game I only use it for Microsoft Office, Music and that's all.

One more question, beside xoticpc, anybody knows any other site that offer asus and sager laptop with custom paint job?

 

You're not in the right section. You should go to here and fill out the FAQ if you want an unbiased choice. Cause I'm going to tell you to buy Asus, cause I'm in the Asus forum.

 

Well I am unbiased and was looking at the 8660 myself, and you can see from my review that I have no problems pointing out flaws in the G50V even tho I own it.

It basically breaks down to this (and I have to run to work in a minute so I have to be brief)

The G50V has more value for the money, it has a lower base cost for the A1 (the A2 will cost about the same as a stock 8660 due to the blue ray)

Your looking at one of the best cpu's fully stocked with 4gb DDR2 800 ram, the dual and high capacity hard drives, very high quality build and finish, great screen, runs super cool.

I mean the G50V from almost all aspects is a perfect notebook with only one draw back. The 9700GT while it sounds like a high end card is actually near the top of the mid range card list, holding down about 6000 points on 3dmark06.

The 8660 with the 9800 can almost do 50% better with near 9000 points.
I also like the 8660's style its non flashy like my last notebook the C90S, however you sacrifce all of the above, lower hdd, lower cpu, lower ram.

Once you upgrade a 8660 to the G50V level your looking at a pretty significant increase in cost.

Witch is better for you? Well if your a very heavy gamer and not on a strick budget the 8660 may be better, but from your post SC & SC2 the G50V is more than up your alley, infact it may run SC better than the stock 8660 since its a very heavy cpu bound game and the G50V goes up to 2.8ghz stock.

You really pay a huge premium for the top video cards, and considering how fast they become replaced with newer and better cards its just not a good investment in most cases. Especially considering how much better the G50V is with all the other stuff.

Also you may want to do what I did today and look thru all the 8660 threads here on the forums. It looks like its having quite a few issues, notibly heat issues that are very common in a 15" high performance notebook. I can very easily say the G50V runs VERY cool and I love it.

If you needed a high end gaming notebook, rather than drop over $2000 for the 8660 I would probably get the $1250 Gateway with the 9800GTS, it maybe wont be as nice as the 8660 in every way but for the money its a better deal.

I may elaborate more later on at work but I have to run for now.

 

I looked at the np8660 as well, but it looks like they have heat issues as already mentioned.

 

i already filled out that FAQs when i joined this forum. Cuz people pointed out so many different laptops and i did check them all out and did comparison and read people reviews and everything. That's how i came to the conclusion of those two laptops. I was gonna go with alienware m15x as my first choice but people told me not to because of the problem it's been having since it came out.

Thanks ViciousXUSMC for the long post with all the info i need to know. Yes i thought that asus g50v-a2 has a lot of better features then the np8660. The only thing that it loses to the np8660 is graphics card. Another thing is that i don't like how the sager np8660. I know you like the non flashy laptop so do i. but for some reason it still doesn't attract me as much. I think it's too plain simple and look outdated. I don't know please i need more opinions before i can make up my mind.

EDIT: i forgot to mentioned that i also known of this heat issue with the np8660. i've been in alienware, sager/clevo forums for a while since i joined here. So i'm really up to date with all the issues they have. But after ViciousXUSMC mentioned that the g50v-a2 runs very cool which is something i've never heard in a 15" gaming laptop before.

 

Alienware is so overpriced too, I highly doubt you could configure a model even similar near the same price range. You pay a lot of money to have that alien head on your case.

Id personally recommend the A1 more than anything else, because I already did my research and look where I ended up. The A2 was not worth the extra cost to me for the blueray and change of hard drives.

Im also a big hard drive space hog. I keep multiple games installed, some movies, pictures, and a ton of other stuff on my notebook and for once I am not finding myself worrying about space.

Its nice to know I can toss some 500gb drives in here in the future for 1TB on the go

Since I do video editing, photoshop, all that jazz the G50V comes packaged ready to go for all that stuff with the ram & cpu speed.

 

Personally, the G50 would be right up my alley if it wasn't for the whole design factor. I'd take a non-flashy low-key laptop any day over one that screams "GAMER!".

I consider the np8660's 9800M GT to be a little bonus, even if you pay a bit more for it.

 

the only thing i didn't like about the g50 was that orange trim. but if you order it from xoticpc i think you can do a custom paint or at least have a skin for it.
anyway, i can't decide weather to go for the g50 or np8660 yet. i'll probably just gonna read some more and see for sure which of the two i'll buy.

 

also check out the toshiba qosmio f55, 15" with a 9700m gts (a little less powerful than a 8800m gts) for around ~$1,400

 

Be aware that hardware customization or paintjobs on the G50V means you lose the ASUS warranty. Which is one of the strong points of an ASUS.

You will be covered and supported by the reseller instead, so make sure you select a good reseller (I think XoticPC qualifies).

 

but xoticpc provide the custom paint job. you doing it through them how can that void your warranty?

 

EBE just said it word for word, the Asus warranty goes *poof* and Xotic will give you a warranty thru them instead.

So you would need to see what there warranty terms are, and all warranty related things would go thru xotic not Asus.

Me, I am actually considering trying out some of that carbon fiber stuff now, or I found some cool black marble stuff

 

oh yeah about the carbon fiber that you mentioned i couldn't find it in your thread can you give me a link to that?

 

awesome! how much do you think will it cost you?
thanks man

 

I thought about the black marble for the palm rest area, its just a look alike not actual marble and it was like $5 on ebay.

The Carbon Fiber stuff I think is like $15 from the place linked in the other thread, but I think there should be a material thats less permanent and easier to remove than that so I would not jump into it just yet. Plus this mod would e for somebody with a lot of patience/free time and steady hands. I have nether because its not a simple square or anything to cut you, you would have to very carefully cut the stuff as you apply it and thats gotta be a pain to do and have it come out well and not accidentally hurt the laptop by cutting into the frame.

It can be done tho. A better alternative maybe something than can be cut by heat.

 

i checked xoticpc warranty policy on painted systems. it says in there that you have to pay a restocking fee of 25% and you have to return within 15 days from shipping date.
Hey ViciousXUSMC, could you give me a link that carbon fiber you were talking about? And can you have the whole orange trim carbon fiber?

 

I didnt link it, somebody else did its in the "A2 hypethetical" thread and sure you can have the entire orange area covered its all just dependant of your skills.

The vent area tho would be rather hard to do. May just cheat on that part and use a touch of black paint

 

Is this the warranty terms, or the return policy? It looks like the latter.

 

link = http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=293391&page=2

 

i went back and checked and it was a return policy.

 

I can get the G50V-A1 for $1706.00 and the Sager with the following specs for $2600.00 Canadian, the Sager is just too expensive:

NP8660 Series
- Internal Bluetooth V2.0 + EDR Module
- 8X DVD ± R/RW/+DL Burner Drive & Softwares
- 15.4" WSXGA+ LCD with Super Glossy Surface (1680X1050)
- Fingerprint Reader
- 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 2 X 2048MB
- Microsoft Office Ready with Free 60-Day Trial
- Intel Wi-Fi Link 5300AGN - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module
- Genuine MS Windows® VISTA Home Premium 32/64-Bit Edition
- 320G 5400rpm SATA 300 Disk Drive
- 45nm Intel® Core(tm) 2 Duo Processor P9500 / 6MB L2 Cache, 2.53GHz, 1066MHz FSB
- Nvidia GeForce 9800M GT Graphics with 512MB DDR3 Video Memory
- Sager 1 Year Limited Parts and Labor Warranty