Advice on NP9262

Good evening,

I have been lurking around the forums here for several months, researching for an upcoming laptop purchase. After getting burned on my last two PC purchases, I wanted to make sure I did right by myself this time and get all the information I can before making a decision. I am an avid computer gamer and heavy computer user in general. I knew I wanted a laptop and I wanted the most powerful mobile platform available, which brought me to the Clevo D901C (Sager NP9262). I know it kind of stretches the definition of "mobile," but it's mobile enough for my purposes. It will be plugged into the wall 99% of the time. So I come to you, the experts on Sager/Clevo, with a few questions before I commit myself to this purchase.

While I am a heavy user of my computers, I am, regrettably, not an expert on the "in's and out's" of how a PC operates. I can update a driver, I can manage settings, and various minor tweaks... but installing hardware or flashing a BIOS are above my pay grade. That said, can a somewhat "novice" user like myself operate the NP9262 and still get my money's worth out of it? Or does it require a more expert user to make the machine live up to its potential?

Secondly, what is the advantage to purchasing from a reseller like Powernotebooks or XoticPC as opposed to Sager themselves? From what I have read, it seems that the warranty is through Sager in either case, so what is gained by dealing with a third party rather than purchasing directly from the company that will be servicing your machine anyway? Or do I not understand the process correctly?

Finally, are there any changes to the NP9262 in the coming months? I am currently saving up the cash for the purchase and will have the needed funds by the end of October. I understand that computer technology is always changing, and there is always "something new" coming, but is there anything major upcoming that could impact, one way or the other, the timetable for my purchase?

My apologies if these questions seem amateurish, or if the answers are somewhere I have overlooked. Thank you in advance for any assistance. It is much appreciated.

 

The 9262 wouldn't require any bios flashing to use it, but you might struggle if you purchase it with raid. Besides raid setup, updating your drivers would be the next hardest thing, but there are guides that can walk you through that.

As for who you purchase the laptop from, from what I've been reading lately sager will match their reseller prices and as you already stated, sager handles the warranty for the resellers also. There are a few things a reseller can offer, like 24/7 phone support and 3 year labor warranty. If the neither of those really matter then I say just get it through Sager.

 

The 9262 is a simple machine to operate.It's like a normal laptop.

The ppl who flash BIOS etc are those who want to get it's maximum potential.It's not hard and probably you too will doing such things soon.

It's better to get it from Xotic,PNB,Killer notebooks(they have some mods) than Sager though the warranty might be through sager soometimes.It;s a good machine and you won;t regret it.

I don't think there is anything new coming in as of now.

 

As a recent owner of a NP-9262 I would have to say it's the best laptop I have ever had.
I also do not know much about computers, but even I could do a raid set up.The owners manual tells you step by step instructions of how to do it if you like.I would also suggest you get a good laptop cooler with it, tends to run a little warm( nothing dangerous or anything, especially with 2-3 hard drives ).I really don't think you will see a replacement for the NP-9262 anytime soon, just great upgrades, just about a month ago they started offering Q 9650 cpu's and are going to start offering the 9800 GTX in Sli( But at a really crazy price of $1200) .IMO way too much $$ for them.
Overall this laptop runs and works great and I highly recommend them.
I have one with a Q9650,9800M gt's in Sli,4 GB's of RAM, 3x200 HD's in RAID 0, 1900x1200 screen that is the best I have ever seen with 0 dead pixels with Vista 64.
If I had to do it all over again it would be exactly the same.
Yes it's big and heavy but very well constructed with all high grade materials, I also have it plugged in 99% of the time but like the option of moving room to room.
It plays every game you through at it even Crysis , all very well.

 

I agree with IKAS V. I learned raid after buying my machine. My previous lappy was a Toshiba x305 sli-1. I couldn't imagine myself trying to replace... lets say a graphics card lol. So even on the hardware side of things it's more user friendly.

 

So regarding purchasing from a reseller, the benefit there is the technical support? That is not something Sager will provide directly, just the physical warranty?

And it is my understanding that 9800 GTX will be available in SLI by the time I reach my purchase date in October, but it sounds like the performance increase would not justify the cost over 9800 GT SLI?

Thank you for the replies so far. It is encouraging to hear from people who have more experience than myself in such matters.

 

For me the performance of the 9800m gtx in sli probably won't justfy the steep prices. I believe the gains maybe 10%-15% over the gt's, but that's just a educated guess being that nobody has the gtx sli setup yet. If I see some crazy benchmark numbers after the realease I may splurge and upgrade to'em

 

I've seen a few people around here saying that there aren't really any plans to update the D901/NP9262. I hope this is true because I am going to be ordering a NP9262 soon and I would feel lame if it got updated a month after I purchase one.

 

I run a boutique IT consulting firm. Across our staff we own at least one of all the popular notebook brands. We also own several Clevo D901C/Sager NP9262 machines which we use for Enterprise Systems Development.

The Clevo D901C/Sager NP9262 are excellent machines and when our clients see them when we bring them in to run demos, they are all impressed by the obvious quality and desktop performance. The machines are large and heavy which is the only real down side.

I can't comment on relative gaming performance since I don't game but there a many posts here on these forums that cover that subject.

We have purchased Sagers through xotic pc and also Clevo D901C based machines through OverDrive PC which offered options that were more systems development and workstation oriented (at a higher cost). We also buy our desktop development machines from Velocity/OverDrivePC so we already had a relationship there and a real need for MTRON SSDs in RAID 0.

For general use, I would really recommend that you stay away from RAID and go with a mainline configuration through a reseller for the additional tech support.

In any given month there might be a special mod available from a given integrator but unless you are an expert you are unlikely to really understand what you are getting.

Sometime early next year (I hope) these machines will support the Nahalem chips which will be real advantage for my enterprise development work but from what I saw at the IDF will unlikely have as great an impact on gaming.

The only other alternative you might want to consider is a NP5796 with the Intel x9100. (check out the forum posts) This is more of a stretch right now but it is tough to fully load quad core processors in normal personal or gaming use. A dual core with lots of cache is likely to be just as peppy in every day use and the machine is a few pounds lighter.

I'm thinking of getting one to test as soon as I'm done with my current project with but I doubt it will be before November.

Irrespective of that, you won't be disappointed if you buy a Clevo D901C/Sager NP9262 machines (just make sure you go the gym regularly to handle the weight )

Phil Schaadt

 

Ahh yes, I see the reasoning behind going through a reseller now. That extra technical support is definitely something that I would want. And based on the price point I'm seeing for 9800 GTX SLI, it would appear that is going to be out of my price range regardless of how well it performs, unless I wanted to delay my purchase until Christmas time.

 

From what I've seen, the np9262 doesn't require any more skill or technical aptitude to use than any other notebook, in general, and less than some (e.g., my _Sony vaio Z1A1, for which you need sufficient technical skill to dismantle the entire thing just to replace the hard drive - on the NP9262, it's just a matter of unscrewing the access panel, and removing the hdd caddy from the system).

In terms of buying from a reseller rather than Sager, the price typically seems to be a bit better from most of the resellers - my supposition is that Sager is perfectly happy to have someone else handle the marketing, and thus doesn't compete directly with its own resellers.

You also get different warranty coverages, depending on what reseller you go with, particularly as regards over-the-phone support, and labor coverage (e.g., several resellers offer a 1 year parts/3 year labor warranty under which the 2nd and 3rd year of labor coverage is provided by the reseller directly, not by Sager).

While I am certainly not privy to Clevo's (or Sager's) internal deliberations, I doubt very much that there will be any further significant changes/upgrades to the NP9262 because it runs desktop processors, and the desktop Nehalem-class processors are due to be released sometime about the middle of next year, which means that the most likely scenario is that Clevo is, or will be, working on a Nehalem-based replacement to the NP9262 for release sometime around September of next year. To the extent that Intel releases any further desktop processors under the current architecture that the current NP9262 can support, it's possible that those will be added as upgrades; however, such changes are likely to be incremental, not fundamental, and are more likely than not to be capable of fitting onto the currently released versions, with at most a BIOS upgrade being required. On that basis, once you have the necessary funds in October, there seems to be little reason to wait "just in case" something might be coming up.

 

How superior are the Nehalem processors going to be? Will the Nehalem-based replacement be significantly better than the current 9262?

 

Around 20-30% performance increase along with a 10% increase in power draw. The performance difference for multi threaded applications could be even more.

 

just my 2 cents here..

i don't see the point of paying so much for the 9800GTX. think the 9800GT (SLi or not) would be pretty good enough already.

new upgrades, don't think so.. desktop processor already hell fast.

umm you don't need to be a good computer user to use the 9262.. i'm not very good at computers either but i'm having a blast with this machine.

buying from a reseller gives you direct support, and perhaps cheaper prices cos some of them do price matching.

oh and don't worry about 'amateurish questions'.. tho i don't think there's such a thing.. because this 9262 isnt' gonna be cheap (unless you print money), its always better to clear all doubts before getting one..

 

Thanks for the responses so far. You have helped ease some of my concerns, and perhaps more importantly, some of my wife's as well. Blowing $4k on a "tech toy" doesn't exactly fill her with glee, but all my research, and your assistance, has helped show that it is going to be a worthwhile investment.

Any idea when we might start seeing 9800 GTX SLI benchmarks? I know XoticPC was saying "ETA 9/10" on the SLI machines. I probably still won't be able to afford it, but I'd like to see what I'd be "missing."

 

I don't know if anyone ordered the GTX in Sli yet, but I'm pretty sure they will post there benchmarks soon after
But **** $1200
But it gets really pricey, over 4K easy!

 

Ok, I know things can change between now and October, but here's the config I'm looking at right now:

- Display: 17" Wide Viewing Angles WUXGA LCD with Super Glossy Surface (1920 x 1200)
- Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Processor Q9650 / 12MB L2 Cache, 3.0GHz, 1333MHz FSB
- Video & Graphics Card: Dual Nvidia GeForce 9800M GT Graphics with 512MB DDR3 Video Memory in SLI mode
- Operating System: Genuine MS Windows® VISTA ULTIMATE 32/64-Bit Edition
- Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 2 X 2048MB
- RAID Storage Options: Non-RAID Storage
- Primary Hard Disk Drive: 320GB 5400rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive
- 2nd Hard Disk Drive: 320GB 5400rpm SATA 300 Secondary Hard Disk Drive
- Optical Drive: 8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
- Wireless Network Card: Intel PRO/Wireless 4965AGN - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module
- Bluetooth: Internal Bluetooth Module
- Primary Battery: Smart Li-ION Battery Pack
- Microsoft Office: Microsoft Office Ready with Free 60-Day Trial
- Warranty: Sager 3 Year Limited Parts & Labor Warranty w/Three-Day Shipping Both Ways Paid + 30 days No Dead Pixel Insurance
- Carrying Bag: Standard Carrying Bag

I was dead set on 7200rpm drives, but a lot of what I have read here seems to suggest that 320gb or larger 5400rpm drives offer similar performance with less heat and battery usage. That's really the only thing I'm still up in the air over. That and whether I want the added hassle of a RAID config.

 

We have been beating up two 7200 RPM drives all summer in our Sager NP9262. We rarely use a laptop cooler but we do use it for multi-hour test stress runs.

Perhaps it's just paranoia on my part but I would recommend a cooler for intensive sessions.

The battery life is so short that the difference in disk speed will never be noticed.

I also would not bother with RAID.

 

No-one knows because they're not out yet; perhaps some Intel engineers do, and, somewhat less likely, a few engineers at big vendors, but generally speaking, no-one knows. That applies a fortiori to any Nehalem-based replacement for the 9262, since Clevo's engineers will first have to have better information on Nehalem before they can start giving any of us an idea of what the 9262's successor might be capable of.

On a theoretical basis, they should perform better simply because, with the Nehalem architecture, Intel is finally doing away with the decades-old front side bus, and going to a point-to-point communication architecture now called QuickPath. Basically, since the FSB is a common bus for every attached device, each attached device has to wait until the bus is free before using it, and once it gets the bus, it monopolizes the bus until it's finished having its say. QuickPath does away with that, so components, in particular, the individual processing cores and the memory controllers (there will be one per processing core) will be able to communicate more readily.

Of course, with that being said, I am quite certain that there will be quite a few kinks, knots, and bumps in the road to be worked out at the initial release, so I wouldn't want to be in a position to have to buy a system using one of the first RTM Nehalems.

In short, if you need a computer now, don't wait for Nehalem; if you're just keeping tabs on developments so you can plan for an anticipated replacement in about a year or so, Nehalem is worth keeping tabs on.