A few questions regarding the Clevo W230SS/Sager NP7338

I have a few questions and I'm hoping to get some answers form people who have had experience with the product or similar models of it. Let me first give you my scenario. I'm a soon-to-be university student who is looking for a laptop within $1000 - $1500 that can game and handle daily tasks for the duration of my 4-year college. My major will be computer engineering, so CAD is a possibility. I believe this particular model is only up for pre-order at the moment, and the main difference compared to the Clevo W230ST is the upgraded GPU from GTX 765M to GTX 860M.

I found a review of the Clevo W230SS on NotebookCheck, but it's in German. Here's the Bing translated version (Google Translate would not accept the page due to it being "too large").

Product: Sager NP7338

Questions:

1. How reliable is Sager? Are they trustworthy?
2. Is this a durable laptop? Would it hold up through my college years? I'm extremely careful with my electronic devices, so there won't be a lot of abuse.
3. Do you think the 13.3" screen is big enough for daily tasks and/or gaming?
4. Is 4.6 lbs/2.1 kg considered "lightweight" enough for carrying around in a backpack?
5. How hot does it run during normal operation and under load?
6. i7-4810MQ vs. i7-4700MQ, which one would be better in the long run (price difference is minimal)? I've heard the 4810MQ runs a lot hotter than the 4700MQ; probably even at the max temperature of 100 °C under load. If I undervolted the 4810MQ, would it run more efficiently and at a lower temperature?
7. Which reseller would you recommend? I currently have my eyes on CyberPowerPC because they would give me the most for my money. Is there any reason not to choose them?
8. Which version of Windows would be the best, 7 or 8.1?
9. How is the battery life? If I put it into a power efficient mode and turned off the dGPU, how long would it last me? Are there any extended batteries for this model?
10. Should I get a third-party warranty for it (eg. SquareTrade)?
11. If you do not believe this laptop could serve my purpose, what other laptops would you recommend that's within my price range?

 

1) I've been a sager (clevo) laptop customer for over 10 years and find them to be very reliable to deal with. Ironically, this was the first year that I was actually considering deviating from buying a new sager and picking up the Razer Blade The new w230ss showed up in time and stopped my insanity.. Currently, I'm using a 17" Sager NP9280 that I bring everywhere with me. (I really do mean everywhere). I use a pack pack to carry it cause it's a real heavy laptop. it weighs 15lbs with the power supply and it's currently over 5 years old with no problems. Sager I consider them to be one of the best no frills laptop companies around. Many of the resellers for them are good too and if there's a certain service your looking for (custom painting/cooling etc) I would check them out. Price wise I've never seen a really big difference unless there was a sale going on.

2) Not sure how durable the w230ss will be since I never owned it. I'd hit up a current w230st owner and see what they think. If you are careful with your electronics I don't think it'll be an issue. One point I'm going to watch out for (I always carry my laptops in a backpack) is how strong the screen lid is. A ton of heavy books on top might not be a wise idea. My 17" doesn't care since I'm sure it has the same armor as a battle tank.

3) This is completely your personal preference. I plan on using this laptop as my mobile gaming machine and for traveling computer diagnostics which is should be great for. Naturally if I'm home I'd game on my home computer as it's much more comfy and powerful, but on the go this laptop should be perfect. Daily tasks should be fine too, if you were doing graphic design and editing I'd think you'd want a bigger better screen. Email, word, etc should be fine.

4) 4.6lbs is very light for a laptop, it's almost in the ultrabook category. I don't think you'd have an issue with the weight.

5&6) If you check out reviews for the w230st you'll find heat profile should be slightly better. THe 860m is a 50 watts instead of 75 which should help keep things cooler. Idling I believe the laptop runs around 40 C. CPU intensive tasks I'd expect it to be close to 100c unless under voltaged or with turbo off. Personally I'm planning on undervolting and maybe dropping the clock speeds to match the 4700MQ. I'll be playing around with mine. I'd have it run at 80 C max instead of going right to the limit of 100 C The 4810MQ is actually a cooler chip than the 4700MQ it gives you the same TDP at a higher clock. HTWingnut has some great tutorials on youtube on under volting on the 230st to check out.

7) I've only dealt with 2 resellers and had no problem with either of them. My first laptop I bought was a Clevo D900T from M-tech w a P4 and a 6800m GPU. A few months after my warranty expired I dropped my laptop backpack from the seat of the car onto the ground...naturally it hit on the corner of the laptop and broke the screen and hinge. I actually sent it back direct to Sager for repair and they not only fixed the screen and hinge, but replaced the motherboard to the newer version with a better video card (7900 go w 512mb of mem) and a bigger power supply for me. (yes of course I paid for it) Since then I've bought all my machines direct from sager.

8) windows is your preference. I don't think there's any performance differences. All tests and studies have should 1-2% performance increase in gaming in windows 8 which really equates to nothing and you'll lose some backwards compatibility with a lot of older games that still run on windows 7. Personally I plan on skipping win8 and pray they get something together for win9 in august. Just imagine dropping $2500 on a new razer blade and setup a nice black, carbon fiber type desktop theme with green accents to match the laptop and then having metro tile overlay in all it's magenta, hideous blue and yellow tiles of which some you can't change since they're coded into the tiles themselves to pick the color of the icon to use........ok maybe you see my preference here so I'll just stop!

9) no extended battery avail that I know of yet. And battery life will be slightly better than the w230st. I'm not sure if they corrected the problem of both the intel and nvidia GPU being powered up and essentially idling even though they're not being used. Obviously the 860m will increase battery life, but I'm not sure you'll get much more. I'd say 2.5 to 4 hours. For me, I only get an hour with my current laptop so that sounds great.

10) Your call on warranty. The biggest question to ask yourself is. Is this thing necessary for my school work and I can't live without it? If yes, and I break it can I replace it so I can continue on? Make sure you know your warranty terms.

11) only you can know if it'll work for you personally I think it's a great little machine and I can't get wait to get my hands on it. good luck!

 

Thanks a lot for your answers and feedback, it cleared up a few things for me. I definitely think this laptop is for me now. Now I just have to find a reseller. I've taken CyberPowerPC out of the equation since a friend of mine had bad experience with them. My main targets are now XoticPC and LPC Digital. They both offer almost identical configuration for the same price, so now it's all down to service. I've heard only positive things about LPC Digital, so it's probably going to be my choice.

 

When you compare prices on Sager reseller sites you will find the same prices as we are agree to sell at the prices Sager lists.
All the resellers here are very helpful, as you mentioned it does come down to service you get. Contact em all and see who fits your style the best.

 

Questions:

1. How reliable is Sager? Are they trustworthy?
   Yes.
   
   
2. Is this a durable laptop? Would it hold up through my college years? I'm extremely careful with my electronic devices, so there won't be a lot of abuse.
   Electronically, definitely yes.
   Mechanically, just average.
   
   
3. Do you think the 13.3" screen is big enough for daily tasks and/or gaming?
   Depends on personal preference. Don't ask, see similar screens for yourself.
   
   
4. Is 4.6 lbs/2.1 kg considered "lightweight" enough for carrying around in a backpack?
   You can't get better than that. I carry a W230ST around in my hand very often.
   
   
5. How hot does it run during normal operation and under load?
   Normal operation is always fine. This is a DTR after all.
   You might want to avoid stressing both CPU and GPU at the same time. Nobody is sure about W230SS atm, but my W230ST seems to do just fine while others do report thermal issues.
   
   
6. i7-4810MQ vs. i7-4700MQ, which one would be better in the long run (price difference is minimal)? I've heard the 4810MQ runs a lot hotter than the 4700MQ; probably even at the max temperature of 100 °C under load. If I undervolted the 4810MQ, would it run more efficiently and at a lower temperature?
   For similar price, always get the better binned chip. You can adjust TDP and maximum clock later.
   
   
7. Which reseller would you recommend? I currently have my eyes on CyberPowerPC because they would give me the most for my money. Is there any reason not to choose them?
   Can't answer this one.
   
   
8. Which version of Windows would be the best, 7 or 8.1?
   Whatever. You'll spend plenty of your time under Linux anyway.
   
   
9. How is the battery life? If I put it into a power efficient mode and turned off the dGPU, how long would it last me? Are there any extended batteries for this model?
   I can get ~6h on my W230ST (under Linux) and the new machine might do somewhat better.
   You can buy a backup battery pack if necessary.
   
   
10. Should I get a third-party warranty for it (eg. SquareTrade)?
    I find SquareTrade's warranty really expensive.
    
    
11. If you do not believe this laptop could serve my purpose, what other laptops would you recommend that's within my price range?
    It should do well. If you would prefer a "what notebook should I buy" thread, go to that sub forum and fill in the sticky.

 

I do have a question for xotic since your here. What would the copper cooling upgrade do for this style latop? I saw it offered as a service but no on what it entails and how it would affect temps. Since the 230ss is not out what was the rough temp difference on the 230st?

 

We do see slight temps drops but nothing real drastic. It will vary on which model as it varies how much we can addon there. Since this model hasnt been released and we cant perform that add on I really cant say right now. Once we get some on hand and can test it out then we'll know for sure.

 

Do you post that info anywhere for specific models?

 

We dont because it varies on each model. If we have NP7338 come to us from Sager for some other upgrades I can ask our techs to do some test. But it really hard to predict when one may come to as since they usually ship to customers directly from Sager unless they get something we do specifically here like the Copper Cooling, Custom Wrap, Etching, Overclocking etc.

 

Thanks Hutsady for the info!

 

Anytime, just post up any questions you come up with :thumbsup: