P-6860FX is no longer the best bang for buck?

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looks like we got a new king here - sager NP8660. compare to p-6860fx ($1349), with $1496 you will get:
1) way better cpu - 2.26ghz
2) better gpu - ATI 3870
3) better ram - DDR3
4) better wifi - intel 5300
5) better screen with higher resolution
6) better built - might need to wait for some people to verify
7) better customer service - you know xoticPC and PNB
8) and the most important, its 15.4"!!
however, the OS cost extra tho

 

mind posting where you found this notebook at?

 

every clevo resellers are selling it, for US, check out xoticPC and powernotebooks.

 

Its a Sager np8660 so the two most popular would be powernotebooks.com and xoticpc.com.

 

That would depend on the GPU I guess. DOes the Mobillity 3870 beat the 8800M GTS??

Secondly, the P6860FX is being pulled from Best Buy in stores, which might mean it's getting refreshed, who knows?

Pretty sure 4GB of DDR2 would still be better than 2 GB of DDR3 though.

That's a very good price for the M860TU. Looks like Sager's got a winner on its hands. Assuming of course, that it doesn't overheat and burn up.

Link here.

Switching for a M860TU Nirvana?

 

too bad the ETA of the 3870 isnt untill late august =/ not enough time to get it before college

 

is it true that ATI3870 is better than 8800GTS?
anyhow, that is quite one catchy laptop

 

yes it has been confirmed by the retailers.
9800m gts < 9800m GT = 8800m GTX < 9800m GTX
and ATI 3870 is between 9800m GTS and 9800m GT.

 

Interesting. Especially since the 9800M GTS is priced above the 3870.

 

AMD/ATI are making a marketing comeback, they will undercut their competitor (Nvidia) to gain ground in the mobile market.

 

Also, where did you read that? As far as I can tell, Donald (powernotebooks) mentioned that the 3870 wasn't stable enough for testing yet.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3617035&postcount=16

Unless you are basing off the desktop cards?

 

hmm the notebook isnt even released yet but nice specs.
dont forget 64bit OS and 320gig harddrive on 6860.
I'd over 6860fx with price drop(if they have one)

 

So has come the end of days where top graphics cards are only in 17in Notebooks. Alienware came out with an 8800 15.4in and now sager, times they are always changing.

 

OMG is that the price of the new M860TU?

Im buying one. Stat.

 

the info was provided by Neil, which is based on the benchmark they did 6 weeks ago.

 

Okay, cool. Kobalt right?

 

I am excited to hear ATI is planning a comeback...

but a little apprehensive to see the actual results from someone who doesn't make a profit by "padding" the truth.


You see, ATI hardware is usually impressive and matches up well with nvidia.

Its the drivers where ATI fails and Nvidia buries them.

You see, it will be the benchmark games which work swimmingly with the ATI GPU, but then you load up your new game and get abysmal results where the Nvidia card will keep on truckin' no matter what you throw at it.

I honestly hope ATI is prepared for an actual victory this time.

 

yea, since kobalt is not sager direct, they might have more/less information.

 

Yep, no offense to Neil or Nirvana, but user generated test results or just simply MORE information/tests would be good to have. Guess we'll have to wait for those.

 

But dont tell that to users playing Grid, Age of Conan, CoD4, Half Life 2, or Bioshock. Where either nvidia's driver performance is awful or ati's is exceptionally good.

 

I'm also waiting for ATI HD3870 benchmark results. I want to buy new gaming notebook for my brother,but I don't want to spend so much money to nVIDIA .

 

OMG OMG. anyone wanna buy my dv6700?? lol j/k. Looks like it's almost time to buy a new notebook .

 

I wonder how this will affect sales of the grossly overpriced m15x...

 

^^not only m15x, even m1530 is also in danger.

 

probably not much. when economy is down, it's the low end cars that does bad, not luxury cars. ppl always have paid premium for alienware brand and not for its most bang for buck value.

 

Well it's not like the M860TU is considered to be cheap in the realm of notebooks... most people probably wouldn't pay 1600+ for a laptop. Even though the m15x is a boutique brand, I also consider Sager to be one. I don't see why anyone would go for the m15x over this unless they simply must have the FX lighting/aggressive styling.

 

Heh I paid $1800 for the laptop in my sig last summer with a $500 off coupon. I would kill for a price like this for such high end tech. I know part of this is prices go way down after time but still, plenty of people spend over $1500 on new laptops.

 

head turning looks come at a price. i thought this was already well understood since the creation of women

alienware invested in millions marketing, designing, building their brand/image and it only makes sense to recoup those expenses by charging a premium which the consumer base they cater to are more than willing to pay for. alienware and sager are tapping on two completely different market so i don't think they necessarily see themselves as competition. they both have different business strategy and notebook market is evidently large enough for both.

 

Idk about you guys but i totally prefer the classy, brushed aluminum looks of the Clevo to the blinding looks of the Alienware. But then again, I've always preferred minimalist styling.

 

That's all probably true, but when you enlarge your scope of view to gaming/performance notebooks in general, I think most people would see the Clevo as being a better investment. The ultra high-end gaming notebook market (VoodooPC, Alienware, etc) is pretty small compared to the price/performance notebook market.

 

lol what do we started talking about something expensive here? this thread is about the best bang for buck.

 

I am all about "bang for the buck"

For Gaming notebooks....

With sub-$1500 budget:
- 17" ... Gateway P FX (if you can still find them)
- or notebooks with 8600M GT GDRR3

With a $1500+ budget:
- 15.4"... Clevo M860TU

With a $2000+ budget:
- 17" .... Clevo M570TU

With a $2500+ budget:
- 17" .... Clevo D901C

 

Ditto! That's why I dislike Alienware, though I'm not trying to offend people who do like them! (rich b*stards)

 

If you are rich or have money to burn on the aesthetics of a notebook rather than the main internals, then more power to you.

Nothing wrong with Alienware, VoodooPC, Falcon Northwest, etc.... but their prices do not reflect the best bang for the buck.

I am a frugal person and cannot buy something with knowing the alternatives... especially if its such a big ticket item like a high-end notebook.

 

But then again, not everyone will trust ordering their notebook from "XoticPC" or "PowerNotebooks". It's just not as well-known as companies like DELL or Sony.

 

Just wondering Gophn, how did you afford that beast of a laptop in your sig...

 

if people are in high-end market, trust me, they will notice sager. of course, there are definitely few people who won't, ie paris hilton.

 

finally someone mentioned it...
alienware is a very popular brand, where as most people never HEARD of sager. i know i didnt before i came here. but i only came here because i needed help on what was the best bang for the buck machine. if i had a ton of money, i would not have bothered, just ordered direct from alienware or something.

and thats why alienware is still flourishing. people who have that kind of money dont bother to do research to find better machines.

 

Da Gateway stomps dat ATI carded thang! Unbiased opinion!

 

That may be true... but thats because they[Sager and their resellers] do not use millions of dollars to brand themselves.

They let their reps stand .... which outshines pretty much all major brands.

Check Dell or Sony's BBB record and resellerratings... you would find that they have under-par service/support since they may be so large that they over-extended their customer service quality.... which is a shame.

If you read this thread I made back in March 2006, you would know.

I am a poor college student and was on the go, so a desktop was not practical for me. So I did heavy research and found the first and only dual core notebook on the market.... had to get it. But since I could not afford to get it as a fully configured system, I had to save up for about 6 months to even get the barebones, then I slowly bought the standard parts (CPU, HDD, RAM) on my own through eBay and such.

Alienware (and other boutique brands like VoodooPC and Falcon Northwest) re-brand Clevo notebooks....

so saying you never heard of Clevo is not entirely accurate since many famous Alienware (m7700, m7700a, sentia series, mALX, etc..) , VoodooPC, Falcon NW, etc.. have used Clevo notebooks.

 

that's only because sager owners fix the problem themselves before rushing to post bad ratings

 

true.... people that research while making informed decisions usually want to know what they are buying so that they can figure things out themselves... without crying and complaining about the vendor.

 

atleast for most of them

 

This is true and they can contact resellers for help. People tend to complain a lot more than they give thanks. Its why most big name companies do not have stellar ratings.

 

Eh... I thought the HD 3870 was a notch above the 8800m GTS?

 

does anybody have actual results. like real results. or is this just guessing off the desktop card or by just looking at the two cards internals and comparing them..
also wasn't the p6860 a 1100 or 1000 for like 2 or 3 weeks
so hardly anybody payed full price if they did your get your money back with price protection
anyways i bet gateway will have another version of it for same or less
besides with the fx laptops they finally turned it around and finally have some respect and good reviews with these fx models

 

According to donald(sales rep) the ati card is not stable enough for testing yet.

 

I am not sure where you get your info from.

I don't have Grid or CoD4, but the others (especially Conan) seem to work fine on Nvidia... ATI might very well outperform in those on similar hardware, but "awful" performance doesn't seem to be the right word.

Remember, I am not saying ATI doesn't build good stuff, but ATI's early adopters usually get the shaft.

I really want to be wrong... my desktop has sported ATI since the days of the 9800Pro.

 

ATI KILLS Bioshock.. the desktop counterparts have like a 50% increase in performance

 

actually AW uses Quanta. they used to use Clevo.