Auburncoast's Sager NP5796 Review

Sager NP5796 Review
By Chris Janzen (Auburncoast)



The Sager NP5796 which is designed by Clevo is based on the older NP5793 model. The only noticeable difference between the two models on the outside is the addition of eSATA, HDMI, black audio ins/outs and the lack of S-video out, and serial port. On the inside however is where the biggest revisions can be found.

The NP5796 uses the montevina platform from Intel which brings a 1066 MHz Front-side bus, HD Boost Technology (which helps boost performance in multi-media), Intel Wi-Fi Link 5300, Intel Turbo Memory II, and a few new processors which provide better battery life through lower power consumption. The video card configuration starts with the 9800m GT, which is comparable to the 8800m GTX, and can be upgraded to the 9800m GTX which is to be released in August. Another addition to the configuration is the new 320GB 7200RPM HDD’s.

Reasons for Buying: I purchased this high performance notebook because this fall I will be attending university in the architecture faculty and will need to run AutoCAD. And of course I went over the necessary configurations so that I can play all the latest games. The Reason I chose Sager is because I heard so many good reviews and found that they offered the cheapest configuration for what I wanted but maintained a high level of customer support.

Where I purchased From: I made my purchase through XoticPC and was able to contact Justin Nolte on the notebookreview site as well as through xoticpc email. Everyone I talked to over at XoticPC were extremely friendly and put up with the constant configuration and payment changes that I made. When I finalized my configuration and the money went through the notebook was built in one day and I received it a day later.

Configuration:
Screen: 17” WUXGA (1920x1200) Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy Screen
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo P9500 (2.53 Ghz/6MB L2 Cache/1066MHz FSB/45nm/25W)
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 9800M GT 512MB
Ram: 4GB DDR3-1066MHz
Hard Drive: 320GB 7200RM 16MB cache Seagate Momentus 7200.3 SATA II
Optical Drive: 8X DL DVD Burner
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
Wireless: Intel Wireless Wi-Fi ink 5300 802.11a/g/n
Battery: 8 Cells Li-ion

Build & Design: The design is very similar to the np5793 and there are no cosmetic changes at all (except for the inclusion and occlusion of the parts listed above) that I can see on the outside. Therefore the build quality is the same as the np5793. The NP5796 is detailed with a brushed metal lid, a carbon fibre style border for the keyboard and touchpad, and a metallic burnt orange trim surrounds the notebook. The rest of the notebook then consists of a matte black plastic. The wedge shape design makes the laptop look much smaller than it really is. The entire notebook feels very sturdy and I would say the weakest parts would probably be the speakers or the vents on the bottom of the notebook. Unfortunately there is a bit of vibration coming from the front of my notebook that seems to be due to the HDD. I haven’t yet tried to fix it but I’m sure it is a matter of tightening a few things. Also, my power supply is making a high pitched hum which is very tiring on the ears. I have not contacted support on these issues yet.

Screen: I was unable to create any ripples on the screen by applying pressure to it and the hinges that support it are strong and do not make any squeaking. My notebook did not have any dead pixels however there is a little bit of light leakage at the bottom of the screen which is only noticeable on a pitch black screen. Viewing angles are good horizontally both ways but the image gets dark when viewed at an angle from the bottom and the colours change when viewed at an angle from the top.
I would feel comfortable bringing this notebook anywhere because its durability would keep it quite safe and the understated looks would not attract thieves.

Speakers: The Speakers are okay. I don’t have any laptops to compare it too but my audiophile ear tells me they are not the best in the industry and of course are lacking low end. I did however notice that the sound was clear and there was no distortion on high volume and that the placement of the speakers off to the side made surround sound better. However, if you’re looking for a good media experience I suggest buying external speakers.

Processor and Performance:

Windows Experience Index



3DMark06



3DMark Vantage


And results with PhysX version 8.08.01 (this boosted the CPU performance by a huge amount!)



wPrime



Super Pi



SiSandra Arithmetic



SiSandra Multi-Media


As you can see the improvements Intel made for Multi-media have payed off!

Cinebench 10



HD Tune Pro 3.1



I ran three of the latest games including Crysis, Grid, and Call of Duty 4. Each test was done using Fraps except Crysis where the built-in benchmark was used. I used 177.41 Drivers from laptopvideo2go. Each game was updated to the latest version.

Crysis


I Benchmarked this game at 3 different resolutions and also with two settings. One setting was all high and the other was using the latest CCC mod.

High 0xAA

1600x1200: AVG FPS 20.32
1280x1024: AVG FPS 27.19
1024x768: AVG FPS 35.20

Custom CCC Mod

1600x1200: AVG FPS 12.52
1280x1024: AVG FPS 15.52
1024x768: AVG FPS 20.68

Even though the CCC benchmarks are lower I found that in game I was able to have playable frame rates, 24 and up for me, at 1280x1024 and that was fine for me. It did look better than all high at 1900x1200 to me.



Grid


Grid was benchmarked at 3 different resolutions as well and I set the graphics as high as possible except multisampling was left at 4xMSAA

1920x1200: AVG FPS 32.37
1680x1050: AVG FPS 41.92
1280x720: AVG FPS 59.42

I found the game very playable with these settings but setting the multisampling any higher resulted in terrible FPS.



Call of Duty 4


I benchmarked this game at 3 different resolutions with all high settings 4xAA and 0xAF on two maps: F.N.G and Recruit Expendable

F.N.G
1920x1200: AVG FPS 61.71
1400x1050: AVG FPS 79.93
1280x1050: AVG FPS 91.31

Crew Expendable
1920x1200: AVG FPS 38.75
1400x1050: AVG FPS 52.57
1280x1050: AVG FPS 62.44



Heat & Noise: Again, exactly the same as the NP5793. Two fans cool the processor and Video Card and vents and perforations cover 2/3 of the rest of the bottom of the notebook allowing air in to cool the notebook. The Fans on the bottom suck air into the laptop and push it out the back exhaust. Heatsinks are organized to go right past the exhaust and also be cooled by the fans blowing air towards the rear. The notebook only ever feels a little warm to the touch and is nothing unbearable. In following with the previous model though the fans can get very loud. I have no experience with other notebooks really but I would bet that this is one of the loudest notebooks out there. Again this all depends on what you are performing. If it is only minor internet browsing or word processing than the fans are not needed and may cycle on low once in a while. The NP5796 is also equipped with a silent mode which does not seem to be working at the moment. When put into silent mode I find that the fans actually turn on when they were idle in normal mode. Pressing fn+1 in either mode will set the fans to full blast and can be turned down again by pressing the same combination. The cooling system in this notebook is phenomenal but a few issues need to be worked out in order to optimize it.

Keyboard: A full size keyboard and numeric keypad are included on the NP5796. The keys are not slick nor clicky but also offer enough resistence. I do find however that there is a bit of flex on the right side of the keyboard that seems to radiate from the L key and decreases from there. Perhaps the keyboard only needs to be re-seated. Again I have not attempted this yet. Otherwise, the keyboard is very satisfactory. Some might not like the fact that the keypad has only 3 columns whereas a regular keypad has 4. I found that I adjusted to this fairly quickly and can use it without hesitation.
Touchpad: The touchpad is textury which adds a little bit of friction but not too much to really slow you down. On the right side is a vertical scroll area and on the bottom is a horizontal scroll area. The touchpad buttons are a good size so as not to get in the way but also not to miss them either. They are also not annoyingly loud but make a satisfactory click when pressed.

Inputs & Output Ports*:






*images were taken from the sagernotebooks website.

Wireless: The notebook came with an Intel wireless WiFi Link 5300 802.11a/g/n card. I had no trouble connecting to my home network wirelessly and I feel that the speeds are as consistent as if the modem was directly plugged into my notebook.
Internal Bluetooth was provided as well but I have nothing to test it with.

Battery: the battery life on my Sager NP5796 was not phenomenal considering the advantages that the Centrino 2 platform was said to offer. I acheived 2 hours of battery life before the notebook went into sleep mode at 5% life left. My workload for this duration consisted of web-browsing including streaming video and regular text and a bit of word processing. Screen Brightness was on 3 of 7 during this time. I was also running the Zalman NC2000 cooler at high underneath and forgot to turn this off. I will try another run soon without the cooler and will update this when I have more accurate results. I think that an extra 30 minutes will be possible but please wait for further confirmation.

Operating System & Software: My Sager NP5796 came pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit. I had no trouble whatsoever with the software or OS but wanted to do a fresh re-install anyways just to get rid of the very little that Sager pre-loads onto the Notebook. The only pre-installed software besides the OS were the drivers, Nero 7, Cyberlink PowerDVD, Bisoncam (for webcam), the fingerprint reading software, and the hotkey software. I did notice a difference in my pre-fresh install and fresh re-install benchmarks where I ran 3Dmark 06, and 3Dmark Vantage but the numbers were hardly significant.

Customer Support: I have not yet needed to contact customer support. I may call in to ask about my power adapter but I feel that the support would be very friendly and helpful as the customer experience I have had so far has been extremely good. Sager provides lifetime technical support and I can reach both sager or XoticPC through live chat, email, or phone, as well as mail. XoticPC also provides 24/7 tech support. The drivers for the NP579 are all available on the sager website as well.

Conclusion: I am very pleased with the performance of my Sager NP5796 as well as the support I have received from XoticPC thus far. The fact that Sager produced a notebook with the latest technology in such a short time frame leads me to believe that they are striving for the best and we will see even better yet to come. I would say that the only thing I dislike about the laptop is the strange cooling software and the fact that it can get very loud but I would rather that than the laptop overheat. The laptop is very well priced for the components it was equipped with and yet no standards were cut in the production of the notebook.

As promised, here are pictures of my notebook. if you want more request them. I might even take them for you.

These are my creative shots:


P.S. I based my review off of Chaz’s NP5793 review and would like to thank him for such an organized reviewing method and layout.
I will be converting Game benchmarks into Graphs soon. Please be patient.

 

Wow! Wait, let me say that again, Wow! That is one heck of a well-done review Auburncoast. Make sure they give you official NBR Reviewer status for this work of art.

 

thanks, now how exactly would i go about doing that? lol

 

Wow, amazing. So much better then me just being whiny. Thanks for the time and effort.

 

PM Chaz or a mod about the review.
Nice job!

 

Nice complete review, I just got 5796 hours ago. Crysis was the first thing installed. This is my first Sager and gaming laptop and I am blown away that Crysis runs better on this than my 1 year old desktop (I didn't get the 1900x1200 screen). Now I am opening Photoshop documents side by side with the desktop and the Sager beats it every time. Love this thing, bye bye desktop.

In terms of the keyboard 'missing' issue or popping with audio that I have read about, I have had neither problem yet.

 

nice review, makes me want my M860TU even more to see how it stacks up!

 

sorry for all those on lower res screens. I will think about thumbnailing my images for you. I forgot how it was until I went on my desktop and viewed it from there. Everything was huge! lol.

 

Yup,you might wanna do that. Even my WUXGA screen is stretched when viewing this thread.

 

Awesome!!!

 

nice review dude.

contact Chaz so that he would put it on the front page.

 

really? mine is't stretching at all. it all fits for me.

 

very nice bro - +1 for you!

 

awesome review now i have to wait for them to receive and clear my check so i can get mine ...making me want it more

 

Wow nice review indeed!! But, uhm...does the NP5796 only have 3 USB ports?

 

It has 3. 1 in the back, 2 in the right side.
The e-sata replaces a port apparently...

 

That's right, just rub it on in there...oh, pardon me, but doesn't everyone have 1920x1200 resolution these days?:cry:

Just kidding; the pics could stand a little resizing, though.

 

Fantastic review Auburncoast, truly a masterpiece.
This is what I was waiting for, Great job and +1 rep.

 

1. Nice review!
2. Funny how you having DDR3 RAM get 5.0 for memory in WEI, while I get 5.1 with DDR2. Then again, we know how WEI is..
3. Make sure you get the latest video driver from LV2G and PhysX... that will jump your Vantage score to ~4600, as it did for me.
4. Congrats on being another official NBR Reviewer!

 

Great review, mate!! You've made me more certain about my purchase!

P.S. The name of the second mission in Call of Duty is called "Crew Expendable", not "Recruit Expandable". Just trying to get the little mistakes sorted out

 

How 'bout posting some actual pics of the beast instead of using the generic ones from Sager's/reseller's web site.

 

I think this review more or less seals it... I'm getting a 5796 . Excellent work.

 

Yeah... agreed!

 

what is PhysX?? sorry im a noob, is a physx card included in the 5793?

 

PhysX:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhysX
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_physx.html

No, PhysX cards do not exist anymore... especially in notebooks.

 

They still exist(PPU) but they`re useless. I have one and it`s disabled cause it does more harm than good.

 

^^^^ agreed with eleron i think i may remove mine and see how that goes

 

Very nicely written up review. Great pics/benchmarks.

 

wow. okay somehow i got banned from posting for a while. Anyways there are 2 usb ports in the back and 2 in the side. the eSATA and USB port share. I'm surprised no one corrected this but there you have it.

and i'm also not an NBR reviewer anymore... darn lol.

 

Holy great review Batman! Dude that was quite informative. I cannot say that I was going to get this machine before, but if I had been going to it would have been helpful.
I commend you on taking the time to write the review for all the people who you have just helped. Keep it up bro.

 

yes! i was waiting for a great review like this. the only thing though is that i dont understand any of those charts except for the first one with 3d mark. i wish i knew what they all meant . but this compared to my desktop in 3d mark fully beats it. i get 4000 (not trying to brag or anything ) but i guess if your ok with your 9000+ score then so be it...

 

PS 1. maybe some of your own pics of the laptop

and

2. sticky please!!!

 

in response to pictures I don't really see a reason why. it looks exactly the same lol. unless you just want to see it in a more natural habitat But i'll see what I can do with my Canon Rebel.

PS Thanks for all the encouragement. Really helps.
Will post a review of the NC2000 under the sager as well. Oh, and I did a battery retest without the coolerpad and without any mouse or peripherals and I still got only 2 hours of battery. seems strange. I'll have to see whats going on unless the cooler and mouse take very very little of the power but I doubt that.

 

very nice review Auburn!!

 

Taking pics of the beast in the wild gives us true perspective rather than a generic picture with a whited out background. Put some ordinary items next to it when you do take some pics, please. Like soda pop can, car keys, cell phone, fruits, etc... be creative. Make us drool, maestro!

 

haha okay. will do. but i must warn you. I do not own a cellphone... i know... crazy eh? but I just can't stand when I'm trying to visit and the person is just texting on their phone.

 

whats the highest setting you can fully play cod4 online on any map? i know on my friends computer, he has to play on low detail on downpoor because of the rain, and he gets 17000+ 3d mark overclocked (i dont know if thats good, but better than laptops get)

 

Either he has horrid drivers, terrible components other than the GPU, or he's running 3DMark 01
My 8600MGT with 174.74 can run COD4 on max WXGA with over 30FPS at all times.

 

excellent review!

 

totally amazing review.. thx for it!

 

Very good review for a laptop I have always had a soft spot for.


Maybe I'll get whatever it turns out to be in 2 years or so.

 

As others have said, awesome review! Would give rep, but nbr is saying I've given too much in the past day.

With a full-sized keyboard and all, does it feel cramped/awkward having to use Fn key and numbers to adjust volume? (At least thats how I think its set up; could be mistaken)

Other than that, the only other thing that turns me off to it is the speaker port in front. For external speakers, just seems off putting to have the port there.

 

very good and detail review... thanks for the info... i might have missed it... what was the final price of the purchase?

little surprise at the performance level of the 9800m gt though... was there an option to get the 9800m gtx?

again, thanks for nice detail review...

sg

 

Wait what do you mean? So there are actually 4 USB ports, but one of them is both USB and eSATA?

 

I love that COD4 screen shot lol!

 

The full size keyboard isn't cramped. The only thing I don't like is that my fingers are kinda small to press Fn and the speaker volume or screen brightness buttons without making some contorted shape lol. I find that I have to use two hands for best results.
Yes I agree that it is kinda lame to put speaker jack in front but for headphones it might be more ideal. Either way I win cause I use a professional audio card that plugs in via USB. well once it supports 64bit anyways.

final price was $2590 I believe. Very reasonable.
Yes there was the option for the 9800m GTX but that would be around mid august I believe and I needed my notebook by the 25th for school. the 9800m GT is on par with the 8800m GTX so it makes sense to me.

yeah, the one port has both USB and eSATA. It's kinda neat how it's combined. It's space saving. Although I still wish they were seperate because I use lots of usb and do use eSATA.

Thanks, It was kinda random lol. was just hitting F10 for fraps and snapped that one I guess. It almost makes me look kinda good lol.

 

could u take some pictures in natural home environment

 

taking photos now. well as soon as I clear up a bit of clutter that I don`t want to show everyone lol. oh also made images into thumbnails to help out all dialupers and just so its not so freaking huge lol.

 

cant wait for pics also mine to arrive

 

okay. new photos are up!