Dell fanboi thinking of switching to Sager

Hey all-

Here's my requirements:

General Questions

1) What is your budget?

$1500 max, would prefer less.

2) What size notebook would you prefer?

d. Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen

I carry my gaming laptop with me, so I don't want a big 17".

3) Where will you buying this notebook? You can select the flag of your country as an indicator.

U.S.A.

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
a. Like: On my third Dell laptop, but I think I'm ready to branch out.

b. Dislike; my first PC was a Sony desktop in '97, after that it's only been Dell's, 1 desktop, 1 workstation and 3 laptops. So I wouldn't know what to dislike.


5) Would you consider laptops that are refurbished/redistributed?

Besides the Sony and my 3rd laptop, I think every other one I owned was a refurbished from Dell (better tested and cheaper warranty).

6) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?

Gaming, gaming, gaming. No thanks to a desktop please. I'm a mobile gamer.

7) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both?

It will be in the living room, the bedroom, on the train, at a friends house, at work (on breaks).

8) Will you be playing games on your notebook? If so, please state which games or types of games?

Just finished Mass Effect 2 on my Dell 1520. I don't mind mid-range settings. I'm now playing R.U.S.E., can't wait for Batman: Arkham City, I want to play Just Cause 2 (my current system looks like it won't be able to handle it). I play mostly strategy games, but I love a good FPS. Also, I can't pkay any of the FEAR games because my current config (Nvidia 8600) can't handle shadows AT ALL.

9) How many hours of battery life do you need?

none. I plug it in whereever I'm at.

10) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK?

Always bought on-line. Whatever is in stores is usually craptastic.

11) What OS do you prefer? Windows (XP or Vista or Windows 7), Mac OS, Linux, etc.

I've got Vista, and am ready for Win 7.

Screen Specifics

12) From the choices below, what screen resolution(s) would you prefer?

Here's the thing: if you don't play a game at the laptop's native resolution, you get blurry text (and in the case of King Arthur: The RPG Wargame, an entirely blurry game). I went with a 1680x1050 screen but my GPU and CPU really couldn't handle games unless I played them at 1280x800, so I delt with blurry text and couldn't even play the aforementioned King Arthur game without getting a headache. So I want a screen resolution that my GPU can handle, I don't care about FHD since I really don't watch movies on it and will not be reselling it (I give old laptops to relatives).

13) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen?

You tell me. I have a glossy now and it's nice and colorful, but damn if there's the slightest bit of sun, I can't see anything. And I would love to game on my back deck, but the glare renders my glossy screen unreadeable. I'm leaning towards matte. *BUT* my Dell inspiron 1520 initially came with a screen that looked like someone smeared vaseline over it (some known issue with LCD's at the time, 2007 I think) and I managed to get them to replace it with a nice clear one (huge thanks to people in this forum, who went out of there way to give me a part number that I gave to dell tech support, who in turn were able to get it and give me a good screen).

Build Quality and Design

14) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?

NO.

15) When are you buying this laptop?

late 2011.

16) How long do you want this laptop to last?

My inspiron 1520 is 3 and a half years old and still works well. It'll be 4 years old when it gets replaced (and it's warranty runs out).

Notebook Components

17) How much hard drive space do you need; 80GB to 640GB? Do you want a SSD drive?

No SSD. I have a 135 GB and I'm a little out of room, so I'm thinking 200GB or bigger.

18) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a CDRW/DVD-ROM, DVD Burner or Blu-Ray drive?

DVD rom is fine. I buy most of my games online, so the DVD is more for watching movies.

I'm willing to walk away from DELL, but only if I get a good warranty. I'm especially eyeing Sager, since I recently looked and people claim they are good quality, you can get a warranty and better bang for the buck. NOTE: my dell warranty is a 4 year in-house warranty. Anything goes wrong, they come to my house and fix it. They only had to do it to replace my vaseline screen (see above), but otherwise, nada. It's just piece of mind for me. I like my warranty's and I like them to be no hassle (Dell's are no hassle).

Now I know nothing about Sager's because I've been buying from Dell for so long. I don't even know who to buy from etc., what's coming this fall/winter, etc. Are Sager's better than a Dell?

Jorune

 

Sounds like the NP8130 fits the bill for you, or even the NP8150 if you don't opt for the 485m.

The 8130 has a matte screen (vs glossy on 8150), which should suit your need for using the puter on your deck.

However, if you're buying in late 2011, there are rumours that Clevo/Sager might be releasing new models then as well.

 

Well, there is bad news and good news then for you.

First, the bad news: There probably is not anyone that will actually make house calls for a damaged Sager. As far as i know, neither sager themselves nor any of the resellers are big enough to accomodate that kind of service. Sager themselves also have a reputation of having less than amazing warranties, by industry standards.

Next, the good: Sager Resellers (i.e. xoticpc, malibal, etc.) do a lot of the warranty legwork. You go through them instead of dealing directly with sager. The resellers also have typically better warranties, you can purchase extended ones as well from them. It's recommended that you buy a sager not directly, but through a reseller for those reasons.

As for the quality of the machines themselves, are pretty good for the most part. In my opinion, the build of the 81xx is not quite as good as my old dell xps m1530 (neither are any of the new dell computers i've seen) but they are better than a lot of the ones i have dealt with.

As for price / performance, you'll get more out of a sager machine.

 

Agreed.

This is likely due to Sager and resellers simply not being on the same scale as Dell is, to be able to offer on-site support in a cost-effective manner.

However, I think this is made up for by the ease of access in Clevo's designs, which allows users to upgrade or switch out defective parts themselves if they so choose.

 

Former XPS m1530 user as well eh? Welcome to the club. Windkull and I both are moving up to Sager 8150's.

OP: The Dell warranty on-site service is great, but I think the resellers will take care of you just fine if anything should happen. I've been dealing with Malibal and they've been above and beyond so far. I got the extra year of parts warranty for $79 plus another year through my credit card free, so 4 years/ 3 years should be plenty of coverage.

I haven't seen anything with the build quality of my XPS since I bought it, but from what I keep hearing the Sagers are made solid and easy to upgrade/fix yourself should anything happen.

As others have said, the 8130/8150 with the 460m seems to fit the bill for you. If you want 2x the graphics performance, the 8150 with the 485m is a good choice, though out of your price range. The 6970 should be coming to those models sometime soon at $300 less, so it may be something worth waiting for.

 

Yeah but Myth says I won't get my laptop until next week I did get him to do a bunch of custom software installs and testing for me though but I won't get it til after my spring break so I have to hope that my laptop works fine after repair man comes this week.

Problem is, do I have to call MS to reactivate my copy of Office? I mean will my license work on the new HD?

 

You may have to call them, but it's like 2 minutes on the phone. Office gives you a key, you call and enter it into an automated system, they ask how many pc's it's on- you get a new key. (This is how windows goes at least when I did that for my MSDNAA keys).

I couldn't tell you if that's for sure or not though, since I have MSDN now with unlimited use VL keys so I haven't had to do that in quite a while.

 

Go witht he NP8130, that's what I'm going to get. I had an HP ZD7000 then HP ZD8000, then dropped HP for Dell and grabbed the Dell Inspiron 1520; it was having problems and Dell upgraded me to a Dell Studio XPS 1640 and I'm looking to upgrade again. I've been doing a lot of research, checked out Sager notebooks because my friend suggested it; the community here was very helpful and I wanted to get the NP8130 over the NP5160.

 

Ah, any idea what the number is?

 

If it's like the Windows XP activation, they give you the phone number within the wizard - after you select activate offline and select your country. (or possibly just your country.)

 

Thanks, I was told I'd get called today to schedule repair appointmen but didn't yet, other than that this warranty experience seems pretty good with Dell. I hope if I ever need one with mythologic it will work out well too. Annoying that sager held their shipment though until after sager filled their own first wave.

 

Sometimes when you uninstall the Microsoft Office Suite via Add/Remove Programs, it will ask you for verify the uninstallation and then connect to their activation server to keep a record of it. Afterwards, you should be able to install it into another computer with the Office key; otherwise you can contact the Microsoft Product Activation Center: How to contact a Microsoft Product Activation Center

 

Erm..guys, kinda hijacked Jorune's thread here.

I hope we answered their questions adequately.

 

former m1530 owner here as well. :wave:

my NP8850 is the first sager/clevo i've owned, and even seen in person. i only heard about all the awesome performance numbers before my purchase. before that, i was an avid dell supporter. i've owned, pretty much, almost every 15"-17" XPS laptop. i even had multiple units of a few of the 17" models.

i like to think of sager/clevo's as "wolves in sheeps clothing". sager/clevos might not be the best looking laptops as far as design and materials, but it's the performance and ability to upgrade that u'r really buying. if your main use is gaming then the switch for u should be seamless. i'm still amazed at how well sager/clevo's cooling system performs. my 480M will not budge past 65*c - 66*c.