Opinions on this Notebook for gaming?

I've been looking extensively here the past few weeks for a Notebook that could serve as a decent desktop replacement. My budget including shipping costs is $2000 max, but cheaper would be better. I'm leaning towards a Sager 5750 but I still have a few concerns I was hoping someone could help me out with. The one I've been looking at on Powernotebooks.com would cost me about $1900 with shipping and the specs are

17" WXGA+ (1440x900) Super Clear Glossy LCD Display
ATi RADEON X1600 w/Up to 512MB HyperMemory (128MB dedicated)
Intel Core Duo T2500
AS5
100GB Hard Drive 7200rpm
2gig DDR2/667 ram
Combo 8x8x6x4x Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW 5x DVD-RAM 24x CD-R/RW Drive
Built-in Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g
Window XP Home

Ok, now you know the specs to what I'm looking at here are the concerns.
1. I've heard some bashing of the WXGA+ displays resolution, is it really all that bad compared to the higher resolutions on the Sager 5760? On a side note I'm currently using with my desktop a ViewSonic 19" LCD with 1280x1024 resolution and I find it to be perfectly fine.
2. Is that graphics card going to be able to handle games like Doom3, FarCry, HL2, Halo, and Call of Duty 2 on high settings, or at least medium?
3. How is Sager quality compared to other notebooks? How is fan noise and temperature of the notebook? I was also considering a Dell E1705 but they don't seem to have great quality or customer service which turned me off.

I suppose that's about all I can currently think of for now. Obviously the Sager 5760 would be a nicer choice but the only difference is the resolution and video card and it's not enough to justify the $8-900 difference in price. I couldnt afford it anyway even if I wanted to. If there's anything else you'd suggest in my price range that you think would suit my needs better feel free to suggest them. I had also considered the Compal HEL80 and Asus Z96J but I think since this is primarily a desktop replacement I'd like the 17" screen size better. Thanks.

 

That is really good for gaming but it is going to get very hot. The E1705 is good quality but it is not the best for gaming. If I had to choose I would go with the M1710 from the dell outlet because you can get the best prices for a good machine and upgrade the warranty.

 

at the very least, it will handle those games on medium. however, you should note that the x1600 only has 128 mb dedicated vram, while the x1600 in the s96j has 256mb. the difference 3dmark05 is about 800ish.

 

That sagers a perfectly fine machine. And I dont see why it would get hot. It will handle the games you listed on fairly high settings without trouble. Although I'd look into one of the Asus' models with the x1600. Same performance for less money.

 

Thanks for the quick replys. The M1710 is out of my price range and if I was gonna spend that much I'd probably upgrade to the Sager 5760. Will the hypermemory help at all since both cards go up to 512, and the only difference is dedicated? I assumed since I'll be getting 2gigs of ram it should work together with the hypermemory since it is shared, or is all that hypermemory stuff a bunch of nonsense and a gimmick? Even if it is worthless do you think for the games I listed the card in the Sager 5750 is plenty good enough?

 

Since you are getting 2 Gigs of RAM it should be perfectly fine. That is a nice setup. And yes the M1710 is very pricey but from the dell outlet you can get a great deal.

 

The Asus Z96J is about $100 more but it has a nicer resolution, more dedicated video memory and bluetooth 2.0. But like I said this is a desktop replacement so I was kindof looking for something that was 17", I'm not sure if 15.4 is big enough for me.
Edit. I was also not too sure about Asus because in the forums I was reading that they were having some problems with the screen, keyboard, etc.

 

e1705 with 7900GS would far outperform anything with an X1600, all for about ~$1250 after coupon...

 

Ya I saw that $750 coupon but Dell overprices everything bad so to still get it that cheap with that video card I'd have to lower all the other specs to just about minimum to still get that price. I also have another thing I need to know if anyone is able to help.

I read someone somewhere say that the ATI cards can't show games without widescreen support with black bars on the sides. Is this true or is someone just not knowing what there talking about? The games I have that I either know won't play in widescreen or assume won't are FFVII, Driver, Warcraft II, Warcraft III, Starcraft and Heroes of Might and Magic 5. Any help would be appreciated, Thanks.

 

even if the sager is a 17'' i would still go with the arus, mainly because of the GPU hyper memory is not all that great really and you will get by far the best preformance on the arus. if you cann't stand you could you and external LCD monitor

good luck

 

Keep in mind that the Sager NP5750 only has 128MB of dedicated memory - the other 384MB is shared via HyperMemory. The performance of the 128MB X1600 is signifigantly less than that of the 256MB version - I'd take a look at the HP dv8000t instead of the Sager. It has a properly-clocked Go7600 256MB and good build quality, along with a very nice screen.

 

I agree,… If you are thinking in gaming, get the best GPU you can afford. The e1705 will do with that graphic card… my own experience.

 

You should try Dell Outlet. They got everything.