About to pull the trigger.. last few questions.

Hi All,

I am about to pull the trigger on the following PC. I was set on getting a w520 before stumbling along into this forum and learning about Sager (I had no idea who they were before hand).

I previously owned a Mac for 5 years and I loved it. After graduating and starting work, I really need a Windows Machine. Mainly for work in Microsoft office (often up to 100+ spreadsheets open at a time... don't ask), and pretty intensive data software, and of course, gaming (Skyrim, D3 / GW2, etc) which I would like to crush.

Here are the specs i'm considering:

Sager NP8150
15.6" Ultra Bright Glossy Upgrade
Dead Pixel Warranty? (Worth it)
2760QM Processor
IC Diamond Thermal
Radeon 6990
8gb @ 16000Mhz
300gb SSD

I bolded the things I'm debating between.

I have ran Nvidia all my life and loved it (despite the slight hiccup with the Macs that resulted in me sending in my computer for 2 weeks...), so I am leary to get the 6990, especially with Dell having slashed 580m prices recently. I have heard driver support for ATI has not been up to par, I find it hard to justify paying 300 more for a comparable card.

The Hard Drive is bugging me the most. I really want a SSD. 120GB is not going to cut it though, and i really don't want to deal with an external, but man it's an expensive upgrade. Anybody pull the trigger on the 300 that can help push me over the edge / or on the other hand convince me to exercise a bit of restraint? hahaha.

thanks so much for the help guys, excited to get my first Sager!

Also, anybody have any insight to the keyboard?

 

Regarding the GPU, I have only used two ATI cards my whole life. Both of them were problematic with issues and other things. Nvidia has almost always been hassle free for me YMMV.

While the general consensus is that you get more bang for your buck with ATI, Nvidia (in my opinion) is a lot better with driver fixes and support in general.

While 300GB SSD is a lot, the question is will you need it vs say 120GB SSD and 500GB @ 7200RPM.

I'm sure there a lot more qualified people out here at NBR to answer your questions or help you come to an answer, but those were just my thoughts.

 

That 300GB drive is the Intel 320 series, right? Beware that it runs at SATA II whereas the 510 series runs at SATA III speeds. (3.0GB/s vs. 6.0GB/s)

Other than that, the big decision is the GPU. I definitely agree with philiphan, but you'll find a lot of happy 6990M users on this forum too. It really comes down to gut feeling.

Whatever you decide to go with, I'm sure you will not regret it

 

SSD is mostly for the speed upgrade. Up to you if it's worth paying out the ear for a certain percentage for speed or getting an HDD with twice the storage and price decrease.

I think a 120GB SATAIII SDD with a 500GB HDD would be optimal. One drive to run all the apps from and the other to store things.

I've had a bunch of Nvidia and ATI cards since 1999, every ATI card has given me headaches while I've had hardly any problems with Nvidia.

Generally, neither offers more more bang for buck over the other. It all depends when and what you buy over the other. True, 6990 offers more performance for half the price, for now.