Final Laptop Purchase Decision - Your Opinion

Ok, I am finally considering one of the following two laptops as my sole laptop PC for productivity and gaming. Very similar but a few different configurations:

(1) Sager NP8662
CPU: 2.8GHz P9700 25W
Thermal: AS5
Screen: 15.4" 1680x1050
Video Card: GTX 260M 1GB
HDD: 500GB 7200RPM
RAM: 4GB DDR3 1066MHz
Battery: Stock 8-cell
Warranty: Stock = 3 year labor + 1 year parts
Cost: $1643.00 + shipping (not sure that cost yet, maybe $40?)
Option A: $1882 ($239 for 2 year parts & labor + LCD accidental damage through XoticPC)
Option B: $1962 ($319 for 3 year full coverage + full accidental damage through SquareTrade)

(2) Asus G51Vx
CPU: 2.0GHz Q9000 45W
Thermal: IC Diamond
Screen: 15.6" 1920x1080
Video Card: GTX 260M 1GB
HDD: 2 x 320GB 7200RPM
RAM: 4GB DDR3 1066MHz
Battery: 6-cell
Warranty: Stock = 2 Year ASUS + 1 Year Accidental Damage (full machine not just LCD)
Cost: $1626 + free shipping + $100 Mail-in Rebate
Option A: $1795 ($169 for 9-cell battery)


Now two things to consider here.

(1) Warranty: I want accidental damage protection, mainly because I have two small boys, and as best as I try to keep my good stuff away from them, well, we all know how that goes. Not to mention any other unpredictables. I can get two years parts + labor + LCD accidental damage for $239 or SquareTrade 3 year full coverage with accidental for full machine for $319.

(2) Battery: Sager comes with 8-cell, Asus 6-cell (what where they thinking?) and you can't configure the Asus with just a 9-cell, you have to buy an additional 9-cell battery for $169. I'm thinking 8 or 9-cell is a must have.

Which would you choose and why? And what do you think about the accidental damage warranties? Thanks.

 

Ok. As it is I would go for the Asus. Reasons: it is cheaper, it has a quad core (the sager is not, am I correct?).

As for the battery, I am not sure of how much you carry your laptop around. I got this laptop (in signature) with the 9 cells but seriously, they only occupy more space, I have hardly faced situations were a 'long' battery life are necessary, less critical.

My personal opinion on the accidental damages warranty it that you read carefully the fine print. I have no experience but I remember when buying some tires (sorry, I have no better example) the company offered the accidental damages... but a nail in the road was not accidental... how about that?

Just my two cents. I hope this is helpful.

 

sager, but i would swap the p9700 for a slower and cheaper quad.

 

Well, the Q9000 @ 2.0GHz costs as much as the P9700 in the Sager. But I still am not sold on having a quad. I don't see the value really. Slower clock speed. Sure you get more cores but I don't see that equating, in most circumstances, to better performance. Only reason I mentioned it in the Asus is because to get anything but the Quad costs several hundred dollars more. Not sure why.

Regarding warranty, I think a laptop warranty is a little different from a tire warranty. I've had warranties through Best Buy that are actually pretty good. I did break an iPod once and they replaced it free and clear, granted the warranty was void after I got the replacement, but it saved me a couple hundred bucks. I did the same with a PDA.

My concern with the XoticPC only covering the LCD is that chances are if the LCD gets broken it's because you probably dropped the laptop, which means you probably busted something else, and have to pay for those repairs. The Asus at least gives you one year full accidental damage. The SquareTrade warranty gives you 3 years full accidental coverage, and you can't get only a 1 or 2 year, that's all they'll offer.

 

The benefit of having 2 extra cores greatly outweighs the extra clockspeed. Sure it's nice to have both, but if it was one or the other I'd choose the Q9000, hands down.

 

I'd take the ASUS but I'd only get a single 500GB HDD and add an SSD later when you can afford one. Cheaper, 2nd HDD bay, full HD resolution, and it can take up to a QX9300 if you ever feel the urge to get one down the road.

 

Good point on the SSD. The XoticPC configuration comes default with dual 320GB 7200 RPM and no option to select "none" from one or the other. That's ok though, I'm fine with two 320GB HDD's. I can always swap one out later as you suggest.

Regarding CPU upgradeability, isn't the Sager capable of the same CPU's?

I'm not a big fan of 16:9 resolutions though. I don't plan on watching movies, and even if I did it'd probably be DVD quality and black barred anyhow.

 

I've heard this argument before, and only benchmarks I've seen show quads only, no comparison to dual cores. For comparison sake it would be nice to get a good comprehensive list of games running quad and dual core.

Here's a good article, it's desktop quad vs. dual, but same result nevertheless.

http://alienbabeltech.com/main/?p=4090&page=18

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=411615

Here are some of my observations. I've played a good number of games, and more often than not, quad cores are taken advantage of.

The Sager supports all quad processors. I would choose the Sager over the Asus, primarily for better build quality and cooling

 

Right now I'm leaning heavily towards the Sager with the dual core. I figure I can add a quad core later. I'll take the power and heat savings for the time being. I fell like I'd like to own a Sager just to see first hand how well they're built. I hear nothing but great things about them.

If I do go with a dual core, I already told "LaptopNut" that I would perform same benchmarks as him to do a head to head comparison with his Q9000 since everything else about the notebooks are the same.

Only thing I'm debating about now is the warranty. Just forget about accidental damage and go with stock warranty, get LCD only from XoticPC, or full from SquareTrade.

Although I think about it, out of all the years I've owned a laptop, I broke one screen and didn't have any warranty. It set me back $600 to have it fixed, and it was a $1500 notebook new. Otherwise, not one has had any issues. I typically take good care of my laptops, but with my boys, who knows.

 

Go for the Sager NP8662,

• 1680x1050 is great for a 15", 1080p seems overkill with only a 260m.
• Very upgradable, good resell value.
• Xotic PC has a great reputation on here.

---------Just my thoughts

 

I suppose warranties are good, for the most part. Like you mentioned, I also take care my things, so I usually skip extended warranties and insure myself .


But... you can get 40% off SquareTrade warranties until midnight today,

From Cin' in the deals section:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=411764

 

Definitely get the Sager with the dual core. A quad core would be a good idea, but not a 2.0 GHz quad core. It will give you a significant performance increase over a 2.8 GHz dual core if and only if all 4 cores are being fully stressed -- and even then it's only about a 40% improvement. For anything that only uses 2 cores, the quad is significantly inferior (also by about 40%). There are very, very few real life applications (video editing, etc.) that fully use 4 cores and if you need to use them you'd know it. As it is, it is not worth the nearly doubled TDP (you might not have heard it, but the ASUS runs really hot).

As to the warranty... only you can correctly estimate the risk in which the laptop will be in.

 

Just some warning about both:

The G51 has had the GPUs run a bit hotter than normal (up to 90Cs without any modifications. Can hit 100C if you run Furmark for a long time on an unlucky laptop) but the temps drop down with some modifications.

Asus engineers have apparently assured us that the temps are perfectly fine though.

The Sager has had crazy HDD temps in some NP8662s (like low 60C) but they seem to be either a hit or a miss.

 

Hard drive temps due to the location of the hard drive over hot components? Or just hot hard drives?

 

There's no HDD heat sink and the chassis is compact. Certain HDDs will run cooler than others, but generally you'll just have to deal with above average HDD temps.

 

Well, I pulled the trigger. I went with Sager NP8662 with P9700 2.8GHz and standard warranty. I figure I can ponder the SquareTrade warranty for a bit, and if a decent coupon comes along then I'll use it. Seems 20% are always available. The 40% coupon is only good to $40 where the 20% is good to any amount which would suit me best (currently 20% = $80 off).

I did the cash option through PayPal eCheck so it will be a few days before its cleared then hopefully the system will be built and shipped quickly. With any luck I'll get it by next Friday, probably wishful thinking. More likely about two weeks from today.

Once it gets here I'm saying good riddance to my Lenovo U330. It's been a decent machine, but with no driver support, it's become antiquated very fast. Good solid machine for someone who's happy sticking with Vista 32-bit and stock drivers. I will miss how light it is though.

 

I probably would have gone with the Sager as well. Not only is the dual-core processor going to perform better that the quad-core is most situations, it uses significantly less power, thus increasing battery life.

 

Sager for the Faster Dual core (gunna be better for gaming) and the 8-cell. Plus Sager's GPU cooling is legendary, not so much for the g51...

As I always say about warranties...I rarely buy any, the money I've saved NOT buying them can easily pay for a replacement laptop. So I lean towards no...but I'm a cynic.

As far as whats covered though, If you scream laud enough and you have a warranty, you always get your way.

 

Well that's just it. I think I've had to use a warranty ONCE out of all these years on a notebook PC. And that was when my wife's Sony Vaio's screen just went completely white one day. I didn't know it came with a 3 year warranty, but it happened just a couple weeks before it expired. I never have that kind of luck. Usually it happens one day after.

I'm quite satisfied with my purchase though. Looks like a solid machine with slight upgrade opportunities down the road to give it another year of life. My intent was to keep it two years, then upgrade CPU and GPU or just sell it and get something new.

 

I just downloaded the Tom Clancy's HAWX Demo (1.5GB) and ran a Benchmark because I heard that it is pretty CPU intensive. When you get your laptop, this should be good as one of the tests we can bench. The game actually looks interesting and I am not usually into these genres.

Congrats on the purchase by the way, you will love that laptop. Do you plan to play GTA IV?

 

Oh, so actually when people say these laptops can be upgraded it includes the CPU? That is good, I was under the impression only the GPU could be upgraded given you have the right MXM configuration.

 

From what I understand (please correct me) that the CPU can be changed as well. I figure I'll probably go with a quad core down the road and whatever max possible for the GPU, probably in a couple of years, to give it another year or so of life.

 

I have the full HAWX game. Pretty fun. But for benchmark purposes I'll run the demo. And no, unfortunately I don't play GTA IV. Only GTA game I ever played extensively was Vice City. Fun game, but got bored after a while.

 

I would go with the Asus for my personal pc

Higher resolution screen (multi tasking i what I would use it for)
2 HDD's (backup and RAID)
Quad for number crunching

But I think the Sager would be better for gaming

Duo core is not really a limiter for gaming (my P4 still can play COD4 at 7 years old)

 

Yeah definitely a good choice . Although, I think the quad is a better option. The only games I've played that needed a good cpu used multi-cores, and for normal tasks 2.0ghz is plenty. As for battery life, the Q9000 won't run at max on normal tasks so it isn't that bad. But a duo P9700 is pretty good
You will be surprised as how much this laptop performs

 

Congrats on your purchase, I definitely would have gone for the Sager as well. Better build quality, slick and non-cheesy looks, better battery life, fast as hell.... I'm jealous.

 

Don't be. What laptop are you anchoring for?

 

Haha... well right now, none. No money, no job, and there's no way I'm going to ask my parents to cough up. Besides, my desktop is sufficient for everything I need to run.

 

That is a nice desktop config though...

 

Nice one htwingnut you will love it, im really happy i went with the P9700 its a fantastic processor, the sager is very well built and yes you are right can can change the cpu in the future and the GPU all be it only upto the GTX280m.
Congrats mate

 

Cool. Maybe there will be some highly optimized or enhanced 280m option (i.e. overclocked) in a couple years. I know a higher clocked quad core will definitely be in order by then.

Looks like we will have twin NP8662's!

 

yeap exactly mate, im planning on dropping in the QX9300 and the GTX280m maybe when they have come down in price....heres dreaming there will be an enhanced 260m or 280m by then...
anyway enjoy it when it comes mate, let me know if you want some help with doing some in game benchmarks.

 

Sure thing. I'd just like to do a same-same comparo with the Q9000 to see what games benefit more or less or same.

 

I wonder how many people on this forum would buy the average extended warranty...

 

I don't know. I may opt for the SquareTrade, but even with discount $319 to include accidental damage is quite pricey. Although an $800+ repair bill to replace the LCD would be pricey too.

 

It's very well possible there will be future MXM 2.1 cards, but don't count on it, and you won't ever be disappointed

Like I said, the Q9000 was the better choice from performance standpoint, but the P9700 is a desireable processor (My P9600 went fast at $200 some months back) should you ever decide to upgrade. As far as battery life goes, speedstep or taking power into your hands by enabling power saver mode will solve that problem. I can easily get over 2hrs battery life without undervolting.