Gateway better buy than Sager?

I was going to buy a sager 2090, but for what i want like 2ghz 2gbram 160gb hdd bluetooth wsxga screen, its going to come out to like 1600$ :/

I found this notebook by gateway

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7200 (2.00GHz, 667MHz FSB, 4MB L2 Cache)3
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium (32-bit)4
2048MB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2-1024MB modules)
160GB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive
17.1" WUXGA TFT Active Matrix (1920 x 1200 max. resolution) (requires Intel 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N wireless)
8x Multi-Format Dual Layer DVD-RW with DVD-RAM (Dark Tungsten)
Integrated Intel® 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N Wireless Networking (for Windows Vista™
Features Intel® Centrino® Duo Mobile Technology
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS Graphics w/ 256MB DDR Video Memory
120 Watt AC Adapter
Microsoft® Works 8.54
Cyberlink Power2Go (for Windows Vista™ Home Premium and Ultimate)
Primary 8-Cell Lithium Ion Battery w/ 1 Yr. limited battery warranty1
Bluetooth Wireless Networking Module5
Intel WLAN to Bluetooth Cabling
Chassis w/ Intel® 945PM Chipset (Dark Tungsten)
One type II PC card slot
(4) USB 2.0, VGA, IEEE 1394 (FireWire), S-Video (TV-Out)
90-day America Online® Internet access6
Full-size keyboard w/ integrated 10-key pad and EZ Pad® Pointing Device
6-in-1 media card reader (MemoryStick®, MemoryStick Pro®, MultiMedia Card™, Secure Digital™, Mini Secure Digital®, RS-MultiMedia Card™
Integrated V.92 56K modem
Integrated Intel® 10/100/1000 Ethernet Adapter
Windows Vista™ Home Premium Backup Media (32-bit)4
McAfee® 90-day Internet Security Suite Complimentary Subscription with VirusScan, Personal Firewall Plus, SpamKiller & Privacy Service v. 1.2 (for Windows Vista™
End User License Agreement for Non-Microsoft Software
Adobe® Acrobat Reader® 7.0 and Google Toolbar
1 Year Value Plan (Tech Support - Parts - Factory Labor)1

http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529664469.php
all for 1450+tax+ free shipping!

For less money, i get a bigger BETTER lcd, and semi equal performance gfx card, and alot of other useful features.

What do you think?

 

Well, you're going to be spending a LOT of time bloatware that you probably won't need. God forbid, your Gateway ever dies, you'll have to use the restore disks with said bloatware.

I stand beside Sager since I've had one for 3 years, and have had no problems with it, other than it makes a nice hand warmer. (Gotta love P4's.)

 

If you think you are going to be moving around alot, the 15.4" Sager might be better despite the smaller screen and features.

 

That Gateway isn't Santa Rosa. The Sager is.

 

santa rosa isnt any faster than the original c2d :/

 

Ah.... yess... the Gateway NX860XL

I have been recommending this notebook for the last year for those that had a sub $2000 budget, and wanted a 17" gaming notebook.

This notebook, as well as the Dell e1705 (Inspiron 9400) are definitely comparable to each other... not to Clevo gaming notebooks.

As for your question:
(if you are referring to Clevo notebooks....rather than Sager)

Clevo notebooks are known to be the best of the best for innovation and build quality.... thats why its always re-branded from luxury brands like Alienware, VoodooPC, Falcon Northwest, etc.....

Read the Clevo Guide.

Sager is a reseller of Clevo notebooks, they do not re-brand it as much as the other boutique brands (which give them new coats of paint, decals, alien-head, etc... and mark the price up by $500-1000+). Sager sells the notebooks as if it was directly from Clevo themselves... only a sticker that says Sager.

The Gateway notebook is a great value... but its getting out-dated fast since the system is using the old Napa platform, as well as having a non-upgradeable 7900GS. If they dropped the price of that notebook (like the Dell e1705) to around $1500, then it would be a better deal.

For the money, the old Sager 5760 (w/ Nvidia 7950GTX or Quadro 2500M) will easily beat the Gateway for bang for the buck [especially in gaming performance]. And the new Sager 5790 (w/ MXM Nvidia 7950GTX or 8700M GT) will also outperform the Gateway and having future upgrades.

(if you are referring to the Sager brand with service/support)

Sager is a huge distributor of notebooks (mainly Clevo, and recently Compal), their service/support are not as great you would like, but [as stated in the Clevo Guide], they have many great Sager resellers (Powernotebooks, XoticPC, etc..) to handle that end... and well I might add.

 

Well some people go for the sager 2090 because of portability.

 

Keep in mind that the Gateway is a 17" while the Sager is 15.4", so you'll be sacrificing portability.

 

17 inch laptops are generally heavier also...

do this to test:
find a ream of paper (500 page pack); it's about 5 lbs. find the weights for both laptops and add 2 lbs for the power adapter.

Carry 2 reams of paper around and decide what you want. Weight is something that some don't take into perspective.

 

I'd rather buy an abacus than a Gateway. (Yep... I'm going to milk the abacus for all it's worth. Gah!... disturbing image...)

Seriously, several years ago Gateway made design decisions that has condemned it to be banned from consideration on my part pretty much forever. Basically, they designed their desktop to force their customers to buy *their* hardware even if there was no good technological reason to do so. It's not like they could claim that it was the state of the market at the time. It would have been possible for them to make computer that would have been hardware-compatible with the rest of the world but no, they decided to bet on vendor lock-in.

I don't know whether they changed their ways or not but Gateway is a non-entity as far as I'm concerned. Goes to show how bad vendor decisions can alienate some of their potential customers for a long long time.

 

The processor is slower because of the 667MHz Front Side Bus as opposed to Santa Rosa with an 800MHz FSB.

The Santa Rosa platform also has the draft 'n' wireless card with all three leads so you will get better reception and more range. Gateway, in their typical deceitful fashion, says they are putting the 'n' card in it. Well, I am sure the card will be in there, but since they are using the Intel 945 chipset instead of the new Intel "Crestline" 965 chipset their laptop only has 2 leads so you will only get 'g' performance.

Yet another deception is when they say: "Features Intel® Centrino® Duo Mobile Technology". Centrino® Duo is only for the Crestline/Santa Rosa platform, not Napa/Merom that they are using in this model.

Of course the 7900 GS w/256MB is DX9 and slower than the 8600M GT w/512MB DX10 video card.

PCMCIA slot so it doesn't have the newer Express Card slot.

Bottom line is it is all old technology and should be selling for much less than it actually is...but then of course you do get free AOL with Gateway, and a bunch of other bloatware as well...

 

Just a quick question Donald, I thought the 7900GS was performing somewhat next to the 7950GTX, am I right? If I am correct wouldn't the 7900GS be somewhat better then the 8600GT?

 

No way will the 7900 GS w/256MB be even close to the 7950 GTX w/512MB, so I guess it boils down to how you define "somewhat".

No, the DX10 8600M GT w/512MB will definitely out perform the DX9 7900 GS w/256MB

 

Oh ok thanks for clearing it up for me.

 

Well, you can't get free AOL on the abacus.....

"Why buy the abacus when you can get the milk for free...."

Darn it Lemur, It's stuck in my head!

 

Ha ha, remember when "Free AOL service bundled with this computer!" used to be a selling point?

God that Internet service SUCKED.

 

I get those free AOL CD things every month in the mail now offering so and so free minutes haha...*sigh* I remember when I had dial-up back then we had limited minutes on the internet...

 

I noticed I don't really get AOL discs anymore (not that I want more...) but they made great free Frisbees.

 

AOL sucked ?!? (past-tense)

They still SUCK!! (present-tense)

 

Yeah, I remember every time you logged out it would say "You have been on for X minutes."

 

Canceling AOL was one of the happiest days of my life.

 

Uh you sure about that? Doesn't the 8600 have 128-bit memory bus while the 7900GS has a 256-bit bus?

Reading this link says the 7900GS is faster than the 8600GT

 

yeah. i thought that the 7900GS is faster than the 8600GT.. the 8600GT comes close but doesnt outperform the 7900GS.

 

if the 8600gt is outperformed by the 7900gs, doesnt that make this card uselss because an older/cheaper card is better? I know it runs dx10, but its going to be insufficient when games like crysis and need for speed pro street come out?

or do i not know what i am talkin about?

 

well you have to remember, this card is the best that 15.4" notebooks have to offer as of now. the 8700gt is probably going to be a 17" only and the 7900GS is 17" only. It is faster because of of the higher temps. Technically if you want the best graphics available then you would go for the 17"+..but that just gets rid of the portability of a notebook

 

not to mention the 17'' are really expensive :/

 

well only if you choose to put in expensive parts into it. and those expensive parts is the difference in the class of graphics and etc etc. not to mention that theyre bloody heavy.

 

When Chaz reviewed the NP9260, the thickness of it was like :O



You know, for the most powerful laptop in the world, that thing sure looks portable.

 

ahhhh....wow it was that thick???? Any bigger and I'd rater carry around a Small factor pc + monitor + battery...(not really but you know what i mean XD)

wow i just passed 200 and i didnt even know

 

I will concede that they may be fairly comparable (only a 6% difference with a synthetic benchmark instead of a real world benchmark with DX10) depending on what games you want to play, but the link you quote does not show whether they are comparing the 7900GS with 256MB or 512MB which could make a difference, and of course those are only synthetic benchmark scores.

So I would still prefer the DX10 8600M GT with 512MB over the DX9 with 256MB

 

well i actually wasnt talking about the stock settings since the 7900gs is rediculously overclockable (to the extent being called the 7900 GSX) so I was taking that into heavy consideration. but stock then i would probably take the dx10 and drop 6%