Sager NP8760 Review

The NP8760 is Sager's latest gaming notebook featuring a 17.3” display, Intel Core i7 processor, and Nvidia GTX 280M graphics. Just how fast is this beast, and is it worth the price? Read our review to find out.

A special thanks goes out to Justin at XoticPC.com for loaning us this review unit.

Our Sager NP8760 has the following specifications:

• 17.3-inch 1080p (1920x1080) display with LED backlighting
• Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
• Intel Core i7 920XM processor (2.0GHz/3.2GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB L3 cache)
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M 1GB graphics card
• 8GB DDR3-1333 RAM (2x 4GB)
• 500GB 7200RPM hard drive (Seagate Momentus 7200.4/ST9500420AS)
• Intel Wireless WiFi Link 5300AGN
• Built-in Bluetooth 2.0+ wireless
• 8X DVD burner
• One-year limited warranty
• Li-polymer battery (3800mAh/42.18Wh)
• Weight: 8.35 lbs
• Dimensions: 16.25” (W) x 11.0” (D) x 1.69~2.25” (H)
• MSRP: $3,574

The NP8760 starts at $1,959, however out test unit has some expensive options including the Core i7 920XM processor ($745), 8GB of RAM ($605), and Windows 7 Ultimate ($185). The starting price includes the GTX 280M video card and 1080p display.

Build and Design
The NP8760 is a large notebook with a less-than interesting design based on the Clevo W870CU. Like most Clevo-based customized notebooks, Sager notebooks are built with an emphasis on performance rather than looks. The nondescript appearance can be a pro or a con depending on the person. The chassis has a traditional shape with no odd curves or designs. The silver trim around the chassis and lid looks smart. Most of the chassis is non-reflective black plastic; the only glossy plastic in sight is the small border around the display. The NP8760's non-reflective surfaces are a welcome sight after seeing so many notebooks covered with nothing but reflective plastic. Matte plastics are more practical since they do not pick up fingerprints or show dust/dirt as easily.

The overall build quality is good. The plastic is thick enough to feel a step above most consumer notebooks. The chassis is difficult to twist when grabbed by its corners. The palmrests and other areas do not flex under pressure. The lid resists twisting well for its size (17.3” diagonal) and pushing in on the back of the lid does not produce any ripples in the screen. The build quality is consistent; any given area is of the same quality as another and the chassis has no weak points.

Fit and finish is very good; there are no rough edges or corners and all parts fit together with even spacing. Overall the build quality is good, however on a notebook starting at nearly $2,000 a bit of aluminum trim would be a nice touch. Then again, the NP8760 appears to have been designed with ambiguity in mind.

Screen and Speakers
The NP8760 has a 17.3-inch LED-backlit screen with a 1080p resolution (1920x1080). The display is quite beautiful – it has ample brightness and stark contrast. The display's glossy surface helps bring out colors and improves clarity at the expensive of glare and reflections. The backlighting is even with only a tiny bit of bleed at the edges. Viewing angles are very good as well – the horizontal is nearly perfect and there is a generous vertical range. Watching movies and playing video games are enjoyable activities on this display; it is one of the higher-quality panels we have seen.

The speakers are typical for a notebook; they sound tinny and have no bass. Fortunately the NP8760 has many audio-out options, including HDMI, headphone jacks, and S/PDIF.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The NP8760 has one of the new 'chiclet' or island-style keyboards, where keys are raised above the keyboard surface and have more than usual spacing. The keyboard has a good if not sophisticated feel but is accurate and allows for precision typing. There is no flex at all. The keys provide enough resistance that resting fingers on them will not cause them to depress – this is good for gamers. Another plus is the matte surface for good traction. This keyboard has a harder feel than previous Sagers; it is not even remotely rubbery. It is somewhat noisy if typed hard on, but if typing softly it should not bother people sitting nearby.

The downside of this keyboard is the lack of dedicated home, end, page up, and page down keys, which are integrated as secondary functions in the arrow keys. If number lock is disabled they can exist as dedicated keys, but then the functionality of the number pad is lost. Speaking of the number pad, it has an odd three-column layout (as opposed to the standard four-column), however all standard keys are present. Regardless, given the size of this notebook's chassis it should have a standard keyboard layout.

The touchpad is easy to use thanks to its matte surface; too many notebooks use a glossy surface which trades looks for tracking ability. The right side of the touchpad functions as a scroll zone. The buttons are excellent, with a dimpled surface and quiet, defined clicks. The optional fingerprint reader is located between the two buttons.

Ports and Features
The Sager NP8760 has as many ports as some desktops. HDMI and DVI are both included for video-out. It also features eSATA for fast connections to external hard drives.
All picture descriptions are left to right.

Left Side: 56k modem jack, CATV (only enabled with TV tuner), 7-in-1 media card reader, IEEE 1394 mini-Firewire, USB, optical drive

Right side: Headphone jack, microphone jack, line in, S/PDIF, ExpressCard/54 slot, eSATA, DVI-I, Kensington lock slot

Rear: Exhaust vent, HDMI, power jack, 2x USB, Gigabit Ethernet, exhaust vent

Front: Battery status, AC power indicators
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Performance and Benchmarks
The NP8760 is one of the most powerful notebooks on the market with a Core i7 920XM Extreme processor, Nvidia's top-of-the-line GTX 280M graphics, a fast hard drive and 8GB of RAM. The NP8760 is no doubt an extremely powerful notebook and can play all of the latest games at maximum detail and resolution settings. It is one of the fastest notebooks we've reviewed here at NotebookReview.com.

Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark 06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

Crysis gaming benchmark (1600x900 and high settings):

Left 4 Dead 2 benchmark (1920x1080, high settings, and 4X MSAA)

Borderlands benchmark (1920x1080, high settings):

HDTune storage drive performance test:

The included 500GB 7200RPM Seagate hard drive is the fastest harddrive available for notebooks; the NP8760 can actually have two hard drives or SSDs configured in RAID 0 or 1.

Heat and Noise
A hefty cooling system is essential in a notebook with such powerful internal components. The NP8760 has three fans that exhaust warm air out two vents on the back. The need for extensive cooling unfortunately means the NP8760 is quiet noisy. Fan noise is pronounced even at idle, however only increases slightly under load. Regardless, quieter fans would be appreciated.

The notebook itself remains quite cool even under extended load periods; the top and bottom surfaces get no more than lukewarm. Component temperatures measured with HWMonitor are more than acceptable:

Battery Life
The NP8760 has a small battery at only 42Wh. While surfing the Internet in balanced mode with display brightness at minimum, I achieved just 59 minutes of battery life. This is low even for a gaming notebook. The battery pack serves as little more than an extended UPS.

Conclusion
The NP8760 is a good choice for those looking for a notebook focused entirely on high performance. It can play the latest games with ease thanks to its Core i7 processor and Nvidia GTX 280M graphics. The 1080p screen is beautiful and we like the keyboard and touchpad. While the NP8760s design is nothing to write home about its build quality is good; we would like to see some metal alloys used at this price however. This machine has notable downsides &ndash; noisy fans and low battery life - but if those factors can be ignored the NP8760 is sure to please.

Pros:

• Very high performance
• Good build quality
• Beautiful 1080p display

Cons:

• Loud fans
• Abysmal battery life, even for a gaming notebook
• Can get very expensive

 

Looks like it retains at least one of the issues that earlier models suffered from, the fan volume.

Battery life appears to have dropped drastically considering my previous D901C with SLI and a Q9450 had better battery life. Did the inclusion of another hard drive result in the smaller battery?

 

Personally, I like the way Clevo has gone with the battery. One hour is enough for me as I rarely use the battery. However, I am on a crusade to extend battery time during light work to two hours through pure optimization. I invite you all to join me once I complete it in a few weeks. Clevo did not create a larger battery for the W870CU because they wanted the notebook to be similar to it's smaller variant, the W860CU. The W860CU does not have any room for a larger battery, so instead of making a larger battery for the W870CU, which would be very expensive, Clevo added a second HDD bay in the empty space below the ODD. A second HDD bay is more of a reason to go with the W870CU over a larger battery. If Clevo did give the W870CU a larger battery, it would be reverse conflicting with the W860CU. Why would the W860CU, which is geared for portability, have far less battery time than the W870CU, which is made to be a DTR and a mobile workstation. It's all about compromises. If you want more battery time, then buy two more battery packs. They are fairly slim so you can easily slip them into your bag.

To many, including myself, that have previously owned the predecessor to the W870CU, the M570TU, they will find that the fans are quieter. Is it quiet enough to use in a lecture hall? Yes. Is it quiet enough to use in a smaller classroom? Yes. Is it quiet enough for me to sleep through the night? Definitely so. I am a heavy sleeper that can sleep like a baby with my five 1TB ES.2's clicking away.

 

Is the NP8760 louder than the NP5790? What about with silent mode activated?

 

The W870CU is quieter than the M570RU to M570TU. The CPU fan on the M570xU was notorious for being loud for many of it's users. For me it wasn't too bad, but compared to the W870CU fans, the M570xU fans have a more prominent "hum" when spinning.

I have not yet tried silent mode as I am still setting up my notebook. I have a lot of finals to prepare for so I can't go too in-depth with the notebook until after December 23.

 

Sigh....if only I had all the money in the world. Hence the reason I don't have the NP9280/D900F right now.

Oh Sager, Sager...maybe next yr.

 

The W870CU only has two fans.

 

Well, my NP8760 certainly isn't that loud. (At least not since I last used some compressed air on it.) But if the NP8760 is quieter even before the use of silent mode, that is probably satisfactory. It would definitely be nice to be able to use the notebook in public without fear of bothering anyone with fan noise.

 

Nice review. If the battery life were similar to the M570TU, this would be an almost flawless 17" notebook. Oh, by the way, just want to note that there is a USB port on the right side.

 

The speakers on this notebook are pretty nice. Bass, like every other notebook, isn't there, but they aren't too tinny either so it doesn't screech at certain upper frequencies. It's certainly better than my M38AW speakers, which is also a four speaker setup minus the "sub." Also, contrary to other W870CU users' observations, the speakers are quite loud. It should be loud enough to use during a presentation in a small classroom.

 

Man, I've had a number of desktop-replacement/gamer notebooks, and I have a hard time understanding the complaints about the fan noise. This is by far the coolest and quietest notebook I've owned.

 

Nice review,... but IMHO, those benchmarks are taken out of the blue. With all due respect it is misleading for those who intend to buy a gaming laptop.
Those 3dMark06 scores are taken...well randomly.
Maxed out M980Nu can easily score above 15k, even without GPU oc'ing, M17X is capable of hitting 17-18k with 280s and around 20k with 4870s.
WPrime - even my P8700 (@3Ghz) hits 16. What about those T9900 and X9100 (@3.6Ghx) or QX9300 (@3.2)?
PCMark05 - M17X :9600+ ( http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Alienware-M17x-Gaming-Notebook.18781.0.html) @stock drivers.
If the comparison is to be fair, all the systems should be equipped with extreme CPUs.
But,... well,... since when there were fair comparisons.
Sorry for my 2 cents here.
Need to rethink the meaning of life again....

 

I think expecting any given review to account for scores when overclocking is a bit much. There are, of course, websites that have (fairly) extensive listings of CPU scores, including overclocked CPUs. If someone wants to know those kinds of details, they should know where to look:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=404170

 

Lol, I don't expect it to... But I DO expect to see maxed Clevo machines compared to MAXED laptops from other brands. When you take a fully loaded NP8760 and compare it to M980NU with T9600 CPU and M17X with P8600 CPU - it's not even funny.
It's like to say "my old x9000 cpu was hitting 100c and my new i7 is 50c @load, and then people rush and buy it just to discover that @load (gaming) it hits 80c just as easy as their x9100 and even higher.
We need reviews, but we need them fair.

 

Good point

 

They certainly should compare against top-of-the-line (though not OC'ed) CPUs if they're going to put a top-of-the-line CPU in the 8760.

I don't get how that's like your example, though. It's not like they're publishing false info about this laptop.

 

typo. 10 char.

 

Thanks for the feedback so far.

Right - the only way we would include overclocked scores would be if the manufacturer included utilities/controls to do so.

It is definitely cool running, but quietness I can't agree as noted in the review. This notebook is quite noisy compared to most notebooks on the market, including Alienware's machines.

 

It's not false, it's misleading.
I would expect at the very least to see the compared models details (CPU/GPU/RAM/Driver version), next I'd very much like to see an average of 10 runs (I know it's insane) on every bench. Of course it won't be perfect (toooo many factors to consider) but not completely strange numbers. From those an average user can actually assume that NP8760 performs better than the rest in games. And that would be a false assumption.
Sorry again, no offense. Seen to many unfair reviews in the last couple of weeks, couldn't hold on any longer.

 

Most notebooks, or most notebooks at this CPU/GPU level? Mine is way, way quieter than my OCZ whitebook (M17).

I snagged an iPhone SPL meter app so I'll test my 8760 tonight when it's quiet in the house.

 

Most notebooks; the NP8760 is still noisier than many notebooks in its class including the Alienware M17x however. The fan motor noise is what caused me to give it a low rating in the noise category.

We don't measure sound levels with SPL meters so I won't be able to give any comparisons.

 

My fans are NOT louder than my former M17x.

 

It appears to be much better laptop than that Ailenware reviewed few weeks ago. Plus, a gaming laptop that doesn't look absurdly stupid!

Still, for that price, I'd rather get a desktop and a laptop, though.

 

No Home, End, PgUp, or PgDn?

Yikes, that would not fit my RTS playstyle, at all.

Please tell me the W860CU isn't that way...

 

Could be some consistency issues with the fans/manufacturing ....Going through the Clevo forums and watching youtube vids some people are getting obscenely loud machines and others are claiming they are very quiet or somewhat quiet.

 

The home, end, page up, and page down keys are binded with the numberpad, so we will need to toggle numlock if we want to use either one. This is for both the W860CU and W870CU as well as the D900F and M980NU.

 

The problem is, NBR largely reviews the notebooks that people send them. In this case, Xotic provided a top of the line W870CU to NBR to be reviewed. AVADirect provided a M980NU with only a T9600, and Dell (I assume) provided the M17x with P8600 CPU. If you want to complain to anybody about the specs of the machines reviewed, complain to the companies that provide the machines to be reviewed.

 

The regular arrow keys also work as Home, End, PageUp, and PageDown with the Fn key depressed. Which unfortunately takes two hands.
Sager should have swapped the Fn key with the useless ContextMenu key -- then you could simply use your right thumb on Fn to get H,E,PU,PD with the arrows. They certainly weren't afraid of making all the other changes.

 

Charles, how does this compare to the M15x? Same CPU, slightly slower GPU...I think that should be a fair comparison.

 

Comparing the NP8760 to the M17x would be a more accurate comparison. You can see here for benchmarks of the M15x though:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5360
It's also a beast, but the NP8760's GTX 280M graphics card is faster.

The majority of the time I spend on a computer is text editing or typing; those keys along with the arrow keys are my crutches. Without them my productivity is hampered. Over the last few years I have very much enjoyed reviewing (and owning) Sager notebooks, but I just don't understand why they have not changed their keyboard layout to something more standard.

And the NP8690 is the same way, its keyboard is identical . . .

 

Battery life is horrid... it may be excellent in all other departments. But a fail is a fail.

 

Agreed......being so large, you wouldn't think it'd be moved around (away from an outlet) all that much, but an hour of battery life is still a little too paltry.....

 

Is it fair to compare Intel's top CPU 920XM to the QX9300? Considering the 820QM is on par and/or beats the QX9300 depending on the case...I am not sure.

Wait, didnt the M17x have dual GTX280M?

 

And I'm loving it. Clevo answered my prayers for a smaller battery.

 

Only if you categorize laptops based on screen size. If you categorize based on actual weight and dimension, comparing NP8760 to M15x would be fair - in fact, NP8760 weigh less than M15x.

 

I am looking for a desktop I can lug around. I have been doing it for years with a Toshiba P25-S609 - 10.5lbs without the power brick! Also the fans on the Toshiba can be quite loud. Still I am wondering just how loud the 8760 really is. The bang for the buck is awesome:

Sager NP8760 (Built on Clevo W870CU) Custom Gaming Laptop Sager NP8760 (Built on Clevo W870CU) Custom Gaming Laptop
- 17.3" FHD LED Backlit 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy Screen (1920x1080)
- Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- Intel® Core™ i7-820QM, 1.73-3.06GHz, (45nm, 8MB L3 cache)
- - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- nVidia GeForce GTX 285M 1,024MB
- ~ 8,192MB DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory
- Standard Finish
- ~Combo 8x8x6x4x Dual Layer DVD
- ~ 640GB 5400RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 8MB Cache)
- ~ 640GB 5400RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 8MB Cache)~
- HDD Raid Settings - OFF
- No Back Up Hard Drive
- No Floppy Drive
- Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader
- Internal Bluetooth + EDR
- Intel® Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Basic Black Business Case - Included
- 11.1V Smart Li-Polymer battery pack 3800mAh, 42.18Wh
- Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- ~Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit Installed

I have always looked at my toshiba battery as an UPS, I am never away from a plug. I don't live at home during the week so i need a transportable desktop.

I do lots of video transcoding, 3d rendering and sound conversions for our website(The wife and I are ghost hunters). I also race rFactor online and high frame rates with the eye candy is something I can not wait for.

however, I am torn between the HP ENVY 17 and the 8760....

 

What does this machine ($1999-$4000) do that an Asus G73JH cannot ($1200-$1500) ?

 

I agree. A fully upgraded Sager/AW can't be thought of as "bang for the buck". It's more like, let's add a few high end features that gives no performance gain to something like the G73 for double the price.

 

May be goto Asus forum and see why many people are crying for the problems of G73JH

 

$2359 out the door ..

 

You need to stick with the 5870 though. It's cheaper, and faster.

 

really, what is the 5870, i have an open mind (and a limited pocket book!)

 

sorry, i know what the 5870 is, however, i have been told for 3d rendering, i should stick with the nvidia 285m

 

We are going to be reviewing an updated version of this model with the GTX 480M:
custom gaming laptops - Welcome to Sager Notebooks