Are there any major problems with Sager laptops at the moment?

Are there any known problems I should know about before I purchase one? My last ASUS laptop had GSoD, a wonky touchpad and missing keystrokes. Alienware seems to have ghosting, throttling, overheating and hardware failure issues. Sager and MSI are my only options left.

Also, can you use any drivers or are you stuck using drivers from Sager?

 

Not any common problems that come to mind. If there is a particular model you're looking at you can visit the owners lounge and see if there are any issues to worry about.

For drivers you can use the hardware manufacturers most of the time, but Sagers tend to be just as good. The only one you may want to keep updated are the GPU drivers and the newest ones from the manufacturers usually work.

 

Generally speaking the touchpads are not regarded as great. I typically use a mouse, so that's never been a huge issue. I'm not as familiar with the newest models, but the big issues (in my mind) along the lines of overheating and throttling don't tend to surface. Nobody typically calls Clevo's cooling system the best, but they've haven't gotten into the habit of trying to pack too much into a thin/light notebook with the expectation that it will throttle to remain "usable". With regards to drivers, I've been updating the GPU drivers regularly (straight from Nvidia), but many of the others (fingerprint, hotkey, etc) I would only upgrade if there was a specific problem (so far so good).

You have a lot of options in terms of customization, so if you're worried about something in particular, you can plan around it to some degree.

Definitely check the owner's lounge for any model you're thinking about buying as Hutsady suggests.

 

I would call their cooling systems the best, I don't know really any other company that could pull of putting a desktop cpu in a laptop in the way that sager/clevo did.....or any other company that has 980m's in SLI in a way that Sager did....they are the best laptops for the money imo...

 

Honestly, it depends on which Clevo you get. The real truth is, any of the current Clevo models have very good touchpads.

 

While I'm personally quite happy with their cooling system, I really haven't seen it mentioned at the top in reading other posts. I agree with your points here and I'm glad to see someone else say it.

Most definitely agree. I like too that I don't have to pay for what I don't want.

 

My sager has been great the past 1.5 years and still going strong. I had some driver issues here and there but nothing out of the ordinary.

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Not many actualy. The only problem I have with my P370SM is that the fans are extremely loud, even while doing nothing. However that's definitely because I haven't repasted it since the day I got it (somewhere in August '13. I know, I'm crazy). I opened it up recently while cleaning the fan, and decided to take a look at the thermal paste, or atleast what was left of it. Definitely gonna repaste this week.

 

as long as the original paste job was done correctly, you really shouldn't ever have to repaste, unless it was some really bad paste they originally used , maybe your fans have lots of dust or something which is causing them to be louder, otherwise I can't really think of a reason as to why the fans would get louder period....

 

When you looked at the thermal paste, did you do so by removing the heasinks then putting them back on? Doing this will really increase temps because doing this will create air pockets in the paste. As soon as you can take them back off, clean them with a high % rubbing alcohol like a 91% or more. Then apply the thermal paste.

 

Nah, I clean my fans regulary. And paste does wear off over time. Otherwise I see no reason why my GPU used to run at a max of 75 and over the past 2 years sometimes reaching around the 90c.

As a matter of fact I actualy did that. Haven't seen any difference in temps so far though. I will be cleaning and reapplying this week anyway. Gonna use Arctic MX4.

 

If you haven't already ordered or have on the the MX4, give IC Diamond a shot, Its what we use around here.

 

Haven't ordered it yet. However, I can't find IC Diamond anywhere in my country, so I gues I will just go with Arctic than.

 

I've heard that from a few other people too. If ICD is not available Arctic will be a good alternative

 

There are no major problems with Sager laptops at the moment.

 

I much prefer MX-4. It goes on smoothly, it's pretty cheap, it's non-thermally conductive, and it's non-abrasive. ICD is super abrasive and ends up leaving scratches (superficial scratches, but still) on the surface of the CPU which is just scary and I find it performs the same as MX-4 plus I'm always afraid of re-applying ICD unlike MX-4.

MX-4 is great.

 

Imo Mx-4 is terribly old/outdated ....it is good for old hardware but for the new hardware it just isn't sufficient it isn't anywhere near as good as ICD, ICD will last forever if properly applied and will keep verything nice and cool, MX-4 gets hard and cracks and flakes after a while and it doesn't keep temps down nearly as well, BUT if thats all you have access to then I guess it is the best of the available options even though I am sure there are places on ebay on amazon that would ship to your country. Good luck!

 

I haven't ever had any problems with MX-4, not with longevity or an other issues that you said. I will ALWAYS buy MX-4 over ICD or most other pastes simply because I don't want to use something abrasive that WILL scratch my IHS like ICD, even if I don't have to re-apply it it still scratches it from being spread, I don't want something electrically conductive like AS5 that could potentially destroy my motherboard, etc. If you REALLY want the best temps might as well go with something like Coollaboratory Liquid Pro even though that has the tendency to melt certain heatsinks depending on their material. MX-4 provides the same temps as other thermal pastes: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/thermal-compound-roundup-september-2011/5/

 

AS5 does not perform as well as newer pastes but it isn't conductive. ICD doesn't scratch anything if you remove it properly. All those MX-4 reviews you're citing were tested on desktops. Many members of this forum have proven that MX-4 is less than ideal for laptops, which are low pressure bare die mounts. It has poor longevity and performance over time. ICD, GCE, PK3, Shin-Etsu, and CLU are all better choices for laptops than MX-4.

 

Actually, ICD DOES scratch the IHS simply just from the heatsink spreading it around the IHS. I have gotten better performance out of MX-4 than ICD on all the Clevos I have ever seen/repasted. As for lack of longevity with MX-4, I have simply not seen that happen.

MX-4 is bad with low pressure, you say? http://media.bestofmicro.com/6/H/396809/original/03-Air-Cooling-Low-Pressure.png

 

Mobile CPUs have no IHS.

This is more appropriate.

There are pics from ppl who've properly cleaned ICD off their CPU/GPU die that show a mirror finish, no scratches at all.

I didn't say MX-4 performs badly with low pressure. It performs fine at first. I said it has poor longevity and temperatures start climbing back up after mere days/weeks due to pumping out of low pressure mounts.

 

You are right, I got my terminology wrong.

How do you properly clean off ICD so it doesn't scratch a CPU/GPU? I have seen countless posts of it scratching surfaces and have seen it first hand.

I haven't seen MX-4 perform worse days/weeks after repasting, even on low-pressure heatsinks such as on laptops.

 

only one general problem comes to mind: its a dying breed of true, upgradeable high performance laptops...

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Soak it in ArctiClean/90% alcohol for 5 min and wipe off with a coffee filter

 

I also use isopropyl 90%+ but put it on a cotton ball. Have never seen a scratch and its the only TIM I use.