Build quality/Durability of the Sager NP8278

Will be used for college and gaming so will be carried around alot, have been considering getting an AW17 aswell even though the Sager has far better specs.

 

Solid as a rock. It has a solid feel to it, no cheap plastic or anything thats for sure, the only flimsy thing on mine is the DVD drive, cheap plastic little thing but other wise, the screen, the case, solid!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/752424-sager-np8278-clevo-p170sm-new-owner-xoticpc.html

 

Yea Sagers are solid machines

 

OK, thanks for the help

 

As mentioned, the dvd drive is iffy on build quality. I think it's because in this day and age, DVD drives for laptops are a dime a dozen.

Spend the extra $30 or so and go with the bluray burner. I have one and the build quality on it is top notch.

 

I'm looking at the 8278-S which comes with that included

 

Yes, the casing (although still ABS plastic, like most laptops) is pretty sturdy. The same can be said about the keyboard and trackpad, too. We seldom have any negative feedback on the build quality on the gaming series.

 

I've got the P170SM, instead of the P177SM. The touchpad and speaker lights were a major major turn off on the p177 chassis.

I have some minor lower chassis flex, and flex on the LCD. It's fairly stiff to open as well, even as heavy as it is. I can lift the front end off my desk when I pry it open unless I hold it down and kind of peel apart the top and bottom.

I do appreciate the aluminum finishing on the 170 over the 177 honestly, though I can see why others want the soft touch plastics.

It's definitely portable, though I'm not going to say this is going to be a travel buddy laptop. It's too thick for sitting daintily on your lap while you sip coffee in the library for sure. Can get noisy if you kick up the fans, as to be expected, but actually barely turns the fans on under normal casual load, like web pages, videos, playing movies, etc. I thought something was wrong when I turned it on the first time, because my old Asus G73JW would try to imitate the fighter jet it was modeled after on boot up.

 

Hi, did you get the laptop ? Looking to get the same, can share a brief review ? Which display did you get and how is it ?

 

Yes I got the Sager NP8278-S with the 90% gamut glossy screen. The screen looks great and so far no major complaints with the laptop.

 

I have an 8278 with the 880m. Its great appears to run very well for me. Very solid. I lug it around with traveling around the country.

 

I was initially worried about the plastic chassis, but it has been very durable; I've owned it for almost 4 years without a problem.

 

Ok, also should I get the Blu-ray burner or reader ? The difference is 35$.

And what about RAM ? is 8gb enough for only gaming ?

 

Yes, but I recommend you take 2x4gb, to use dual channel.
I had only 1x8gb but I´ve just bought other 8gb and I have noticed an increase about 4-5 fps playing (wolfenstein new order or splinter cell black list for example)
I thought it wouldn´t happen, but I was wrong.
You also may consider getting 2x8gb for the future, however it isn´t a must have.

 

I would get the burner since it's not much more, it may come in handy if you need to do some backups of some sort into disk (25GB). Bluray disks are fairly cheap now and it's nice to fit more per disk than DVD's.

I agree 8GB is enough, but if it's super cheap you could go with 16GB so you don't ever have to worry about it. I seem to get more "low memory" popups on my 8GB machines than I do on 16GB too but that is just more of an annoyance.

 

Thanks, will get the burner, I am really trying to restrict my buy to under 1500$. From 8gb to 16gb its 90$ more and for 12gb its 45$ more. Any suggestions on that ?

 

That does sound excessive. You could always go with 8 and in a year or two you could upgrade if you actually need it.

You will likely be fine with 8GB, and if you ever do get any low memory errors they can usually be tracked down to improper windows settings or bugs. I never was actually low on memory with 8GB, its just that sometimes windows says you are. Two things that can cause it off the top of my head are messing with the pagefile too much (too small or disabled) and a known issue when running the desktop at one resolution and playing a game at a different resolution (that's the one that drives me nuts).

Personally when playing games, browsing and office stuff I have never came close to using all 8GB. I have gone with 16Gb though on several machines because it was cheap or free upgrade (and I tend to over build my machines at times).

 

Thanks, I have 8gb on my current PC and it works fine, so I will stick to it.

Also should i get 4*2 or 8*1 ?

 

How many slots are on the machine? I would leave an open slot in case you want to upgrade so that you don't have to rebuy all the memory. I would not worry about dual channel as you won't notice the difference in anything except benchmarks (IMO).

 

I guess there is going to be atleast 3, as the 12gb one is 3*4gb.

 

I am sure there are 4 slots in that case. Then you can go either way, you can do the 4x2 if you want dual channel or 8x1 if you think you would ever go to 32 hehe.

 

If your budget is $1500 I would get XOTIC PC | Sager NP8278-S (Clevo P170SM-A) - 17.3" Gaming Laptop and just add an OS.

 

Also, spend the bit extra for the Intel AC Wifi/bluetooth combo card. The default one sucks. And I've had hit and miss with the bigfoot cards.

 

I dont need an OS. Further I am changing to Glossy screen. The total comes around 1525$. Since I already have a 250gb SSD, I dont need separate one either.

 

This is the final config:
Sager NP8278-S (Clevo P170SM-A)
- FREE!!! – U.S. UPS GROUND SHIPPING (Use Coupon Code "FREESHIP" in Checkout) [U.S. Lower 48 ONLY / Restrictions Apply]
- FREE - WATCH DOGS for PC! (While Supplies Last / Must be requested in comments box during checkout)
- 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Sager Screen w/ 90% NTSC Color Gamut (1920x1080) (SKU - SSC010)
- FREE! - 30 Day No Dead Pixel Warranty
- NO Professional Monitor Color Calibration
- Sager - 4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4810MQ (2.8GHz - 3.8GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache) (SKU – SPU401)
- FREE! - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 870M (6.0GB) GDDR5 PCI-Express DX11 [User Upgradeable] (SKU – GPU15X)
- COPPER COOLING UPGRADE - Extra Cooling Copper Heatsinks Applied to the Heatsink/Heatpipes (XPC Service - requires shipment to XOTIC PC: will add to build time)
- No Video Adapter
- No External Mobile Display
- 8GB DDR3 1600MHz [2x4GB] Dual Channel Memory (SKU - RAM01S)
- Sager Branding
- Standard Laptop Finish
- No Laptop Laser-Sketch™
- No Custom Laptop Painting
- No Custom Laptop Painting
- Non-RAID Storage
- Remove mSATA
- NO mSATA Solid State Drive
- FREE UPGRADE! - 1TB 5400RPM [SATA II - 3GB/s] (SKU - HDD098)
- None Standard
- HDD Raid Settings - OFF
- 6X Blu-Ray Burner + 8X DVDRW/CDRW Super Multi Combo Drive (Sager) (SKU - ODD083)
- No Extra Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy
- No Back Up Hard Drive
- NO External USB Optical Drive
- Bluetooth Included *With select wireless cards only* (See “Wireless Network” Section Below)
- Sager - Intel® Dual Band AC 7260 802.11 A/AC/B/G/N 2.4/5.0GHz + Bluetooth™ 4.0 (SKU - WIFI94)
- No Network Accessory
- Internal 9-in-1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD/Mini SD/SDHC/SDXC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo)
- Integrated Digital Video Camera
- No TV Tuner
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- No Carrying Case
- Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- No Car Adapter
- No Spare AC Adapter
- No Dock/Hub/Adapter
- Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- No Headset
- No External Keyboard
- No External Mouse
- No Notebook Cooler
- No Thanks, Please do not Overclock my system (Overclocking will add 3-6 business days to build time)
- No Operating System Redline Boost
- No Operating System [Drivers & Utility Software Only (Windows 7 & 8.1)]
- None
- No Antivirus Essentials Software Bundle
- No Back Up Software
- No Unlimited GB Cloud Backup
- - No Microsoft OFFICE Software
- No Software Bundle
- No Global Anti-Theft Protection (Options below require an operating system)
- LIFETIME Ltd Labor* 1 Year Parts Warranty Lifetime 24/7 DOMESTIC Technical Support (Labor through XPC)
Includes FREE Shipping Both Ways for Parts Warranty Repairs (SKU - WTY099)
- * 24/7 LIFETIME U.S. based technical support
* Extreme QA testing by dedicated technicians
* 24-72 Hour stress testing and benchmarking to ensure top performance and stability
- Standard Production Time
- No Outside of US Shipping Coverage
- No thanks, standard double boxed packaging is okay with my order
- No XOTIC PC Gear

 

These are the 2 options:
Sager - Intel® Dual Band AC 7260 802.11 A/AC/B/G/N 2.4/5.0GHz + Bluetooth™ 4.0 (SKU - WIFI94) -----> DEFAULT
Sager - Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1202 + Bluetooth 4.0 (SKU - WIFI93) ( + 15 )

 

The S version comes standard with intel dual band.

 

So guys should i place the order or any other changes ?

 

Looks good. Near exact match to what I got my wife, though I got her the 8258 (she prefers the 15" over 17") and I got her 16G memory instead of 8G.

If they have it, maybe look at the 7200 RPM 1TB drive though, the extra spindle speed would be noticeable.

 

I may be in the minority, but I have had no luck with the 3 machines with AC wireless cards. They connected at low speeds, constantly varied from 30-130Mbps connection, slow throughput, and higher latency.

I love the bigfoot cards, never had an issue. They connect at my routers max speed (300Mbps), have great throughput and low latency.

I have come to the conclusion my router must not like the AC cards because everyone else seems to have better luck with them. I gave up and am sticking with what works for me.

 

Honestly, at first I noticed that with the Intel AC cards as well. I found it was driver related.

it was slow, it hung at times, and then would drop off and i would have to manually force a reset to get it to connect again.

I downloaded and installed the 17.x drivers for the Intel and the Bluetooth, configured the Intel special connector for the service in question and it's been rock solid, stable, and insanely fast ever since.

You need the latest drivers though.

 

Can you link the drivers? thanks.

 

For the 8278 you can get right from sager http://files.sagernotebook.com/Sagernotebook/misc/W65SF_SJ_W67SJQ/01_WLAN_I7260.exe

Or you can download directly from Intel (which I did at the time) https://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Wireless+Networking&ProductLine=Intel%C2%AE+Wi-Fi+Products&ProductProduct=Intel%C2%AE+Dual+Band+Wireless-AC+7260

 

I already have a 250gb Samsung SSD, so I dont think I would be needing much access to the 1TB. If the difference isn't much I will get the 7200RPM one.

I am still confused over RAM :/

 

Would 2x4gb+1x8gb work alright? Or 4x4gb? Or do I need to pretty much trash my 4 gb to upgrade to more RAM

 

I've begin to notice the power jack will very easily disconnect, and is beginning to cause a slight annoyance. Has anyone noticed this with their 8278?

 

Is the pin itself getting loose? If so the soldering may be broke and need to be redone.

 

Yes the pin wiggles around quite abit, and if i move the laptop at all it will lose connection.

 

I know it will be inconvenient but I would set up a warranty repair as soon as you can. Its only going to get worse.

 

How would I go about doing this, and do you have a general idea on how long it would take? Thanks.

 

Contact your original reseller and they can help set up the return. If you ordered it from us you can use the "Contact" section on our site and "Request RMA" Sager does typically cover 3 day shipping which is most cases is faster then UPS ground, the repair process is usually pretty quick but can vary if they need to get a certain part. We wouldn't be able to know that until Sager got in back to their location.

 

Ok, thanks for the help.