Getting a new sager laptop. Need expert advices :)

Hi all!

I am an owner of sager 8760 from couple of years ago. Since it's already ageing for my taste, I'm hungry to renew my laptop. Now, please bear with me, I've been living under the rock ever since I gotten my laptop, so I know squat about the latest graphic cards, etc. Thus, these questions:

1. My gpu was Radeon 5870m 1gb. I can still play diablo 3 beta, gw 2 beta, and civ 5 on high setting (sure it lags bad, esp on civ 5 and some time on D3/GW2, but I don't care haha). I presume that the newer GPU has way more capability than my old card, and that's correct right? My question is, which GPU offers significant improvement over mine?

2. Related to GPU, I noticed that the driver support for mobile gpu has been...severely lacking. (At least for AMD's) Is this still the case nowadays? I don't even bother to update anymore because I can't apply it, etc. Some programs/games also won't run good due to my outdated driver..

3. Which is model offers the best money/value for me? I presuming 81xx something? (If I am correct, this is the successor to my old 8670 model)

4. I need the laptop before mid of next month, and I'm living in south east asia, so my option is limited on waiting for ivy bridge, will in real use situation Ivy bridge show a difference compared to my old 1st gen i7, 720 qm? If not, I'll proceed with sandy bridge, although another question arise, which one is the better one for me if what I'm doing other than gaming is photoshopping, corel, corel draw, and watch 1080p movies?

5. What is this about the additional adaptor I saw for some GPU models, and is it mandatory for me? Is the adaptor not already HUMONGOUS enough?

6. My old sager's batt has been bulging out ever since 1 year ago, it got no more power left, but I still use it for maintaining the balance of the laptop. So when electricity out in here, BAM.. lights out for my laptop at the same time. My question is, have they improve the battery quality? Same question for the speaker quality btw.

7. I heard that going to launch their new GPU architecture called "Keppler" or something. In what way do they different from the current one on the market? Should I wait for them? although I prefer AMD myself because if the past history still relevant, AMD's price/performance ratio is still better than NVIDIA.

8. Any good information in the past 2 years that anyone be willing to share with me that can help me into deciding which laptop should I get?

Backstory:
a. I found a local reseller here, and that made me so happy, until I realized that they marked up the price by almost $700 for the same config I could muster out of xoticpc.com! Although seeing how I won't have that luxury, I may ended up swallowing it..

b. I was thinking of ordering an Alienware because of their dual GPU capability, but I was shocked at the price when I was about to check out. Also, I'm honestly will be embarrassed to bring it to work with me.

c. Many people advice me to get a desktop instead. I saw the price and I am quite happy with what my money can get. Bad thing is, I kind of need a laptop for my work, and thus, with that sole reason, desktop may be out of the question

THAT'S ALL! I thank you anyone that care to read enough until this point. I also want to add, "excuse my english/grammatical mistake, English is not my native language, but I'm trying".

I thank you all in advance! I still remember how awesome this community back then for me personally! /bow

 

bump before sleeping

 

I'm avaiable for further questions, also, talk to a sales representative. Xotic PC and other retailers have excelent consumer support, you can solve your questions with people that have more qualities than me

 

Very nicely answered. I wish I could help +rep SynapseR (as soon as I can give again hehe)

 

WOW... thank you so much SynapseR!! I don't know whether I can +rep you or not, but I will find out!

This answered many questions!!

Btw, I am bit pushed against time, is 580m a good card that can last me quite sometime? Because the in stock laptop in my local store are:

Sager with 18.4" Full HD (1920x1080)
Intel Core i7-2670QM 2.2GHZ
RAM 8GB DDR3 1333MHz
750GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
CrossFireX Dual AMD Radeon HD6970M 2GB
Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit
DVD RW
2 Years Warranty
$2200 (Sager 8180 I think)

and Alienware with 17.3" Full HD 1920x1080, 120Hz, 3D Display
Intel Core i7-2670QM 2.2GHz
RAM 8GB DDR3
750GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
NVidia GeForce GTX580M 2GB GDDR5
DVD RW
Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit
1 Year Warranty DELL
$2400

Which one is the better choice do you think? :0 I am torn between either one, or order the new 9270 but need to wait for 1 month and by then I miss miss an important event that require a new laptop.

How bad is crossfire? I saw benchmark and they look delicious.. but I am concern abt the game/program not being compatible with it.. Speaking of compatible game, I plan on gaming for long term with only these 2 titles, Guild Wars 2, and Diablo 3.

Thank you again sincerely!


PS: +REP button = FOUND!

 

^ 7970M destroys all the cards you mentioned and its available on both Alienware M17x R4 and Clevo's high-end 15" and 17" models

I saw some benches where it scores more than a desktop GTX580 on 3DMark11.

 

SynapseR covered things very nicely, so I'll just throw in s few additional thoughts.
This new generation of GPU's (600m and 7000m) have been experiencing uncharacteristic price cuts as opposed to their predecessors. The 675m, which is the recommended card for you, is actually a rebadged 580m, which is a faster 485m, which was nvidia's answer to the 6970m, which was the successor to your 5870m, to put things in perspective. However, while the 580m cost about $700 here in america, the 675m is only $300.
The speakers in the new EM models (or 91**) are a big improvement over their predecessor, but that's not saying much.
Ivy bridge has been released already, the performance gain over sandy bridge, which succeeded your 1st gen 720qm, is about 15%. I would recommend the 3610qm for you. Again, to put things in perspective, the 940xm, the best of the 1st gen i7's, is outperformed by the 2630qm, the base model i7 for sandy bridge. The 2670qm is just a 2630qm that is 2ooMhz faster, and that's what's being compared to ivy bridge. The 3610qm is the ivy equivalent to the 2670qm.
The 580m (which is the 675m) is a good card, it was the king of mobile GPU's for a year, but 7970m will be here in a month to take it's crown. If you want to see how it stacks up against other GPU's, you should visit notebookcheck.net, it's a very valuable resource.
Between those choices I would pick the 8180, but I have very specialized computer needs and would be doing a lot of aftermarket upgrades on it.

Overall, I would recommend you import a 9150 or a 9170, as the 8180 and the alienware both do not support ivy bridge, the 9270 will take time to become available, and all other sager models will sport weaker GPU's.

 

Alienware does have Ivy Bridge.

EDIT: Oh, I guess you were talking about those particular models/configurations.

 

Thank you very much for the, again, very helpful reply. I feel like I know the missing links from where I left off last time already

Anyone can give me comment regarding the 6970 crossfire? I am afraid that if it not performing well, then I'll be stuck with single 6970, from which, if I understand correctly, is weaker than single 580m

 

One thing I dislike about the Alienware I listed above is.. there's no USB 3.0! either it's mistype, or its an old model and they just change the GPU manually..

Also the screen is 3d.. I see no purpose when the slot drive is filled with dvdrw instead of bluray..

 

Since it's running a Sandy Bridge CPU, it's the M17x R3 which does have USB 3.0.

The 3D screen is for more than just 3D BluRays. It can be used for 3D gaming and the 120hz refresh rate is smoother for non-3D stuff.

 

oh.. I got to goggle that refresh rate thing then. I dont understand that term. :0

 

6970m crossfire should be about as powerful as a single 7970m, which you can have in a sager if you wait an extra month. Crossfire doesn't seem to be very finicky to me, but this is only from what I've read, I don't actually have it. You could get a lot more traffic on that question if you asked it on the alienware forums (you probably don't even need to ask, there should be plenty of topics already) because there are a lot more dual gpu alienware machines than sager ones.

Something I didn't see anyone mention that you probably wouldn't know: a lot of resellers offer discounts for being part of this site. If you don't know what a reseller is (not sure if you know), I'd be happy to explain.

Refresh rate refers to how many frames your screen can display every second. Even if your super-buff GPU is churning out 150FPS, on a display with a refresh rate of 60Hz, you won't be able to tell the difference between that and 60FPS.

 

I live in the Middle East, and my advice to anyone living outside the major high-end consumption hubs (North America and Europe basically) to import, because retailers where you are, anywhere, will be thieves.

If you live in a place where the majority of computer users have no idea what goes into the chassis, chances are, you will have one or two EXTREMELY overpriced boutique retailers selling last gen (or last-last-gen) stuff.

I went into Virgin megastores here in Doha, Qatar, and saw an mx17 alienware, that had 4GB of RAM and a 570m vga card, regular HDD. Price tag was 13 000 riyals, which is about 3560 USD. This is last week. (And a tax free country. Everything is tax free. ... EVERYTHING)

Don't buy locally. Crush those shylocks and make them go out of business by importing from where this stuff is being invented, and not cheaply copied.

Yes, I'm a little incensed because I wish I enjoyed the perks of living in the US where you click a button and 3 days later a box with the latest tech inside is at your door, FREE shipping.

Instead I have to shell out 165 USD (minimum) to get my 9170 shipped to me, and hope nothing goes wrong on the way, and that nothing BSODs because RMA would just be a violating nightmare.

 

I see.. I get it now.. My local reseller just informed me that asus g75 is also available as an alternative.. but the gpu is 660m.. which I need to do some research first. They priced it $2000 though, which if I check on xoticpc.com, it will only set me back ard $1600..

ughh..

which bring my point from Neoczar about the super rip off! I tried to configure Sager 72xx last night, and with basic configuration including dual 6970, it totaled around $3300 for me! where as in xoticpc.com, it's only around $2700..

 

Just choose the UPS international shipping option. It's around 160 US dollars. I'd rather spend that on shipping than to feed a greedy local retailer. If I were you I'd ship it and then I'd show it to him and tell him I got it for 1700 dollars or something.

Btw ... wait another 20 days and get the 7970m man... in order to get a double gpu chassis you're paying a premium, just to fit in two last gen cards, which are matched by a single card. My 3610QM, 8GB 1600MHz RAM, 7970m, and 120GB Intel 520 rig is 1650 Dollars, and will beat your rig for a 1000 dollars less, if you'd only wait less than a month.

 

I see.. I guess it would pay off to wait.. but the problem is.. STUPID custom and tax on my corrupt country! Once they saw that it's a laptop, and moreover, the bill is wayward $1500+, they will go crazy imposing all kinds of taxes to me.

Real life lesson: My brother in law was too impatient on getting the new ipad (3). He ordered it directly from amazon.com for the 16gb wifi only version. I warned him about the stupid-no-law-custom-and-tax, he chose to ignore it.

When the goods came, he was ordered to pay $160 for the custom alone, and +$40 from DHL (custom help or something), so at the end, he paid ard $300-$350 extra (because he already paid around $90 for the shipping alone from US)!

Thats for an ipad, a goods worth around $600. Imagine $1700 machine.. I'll ended up paying the same..

so sad..

 

they added new item for clearance sale:

ntel Core i7 2860QM 2.5GHz (3.6GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache)
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz (2DIMMS)
2GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon HD 6990M
750GB 7,200RPM HDD
17.3-inch WideHD+ 1920x1080 60Hz WLED
Wireless 802.11 g/n
Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Alienware M17x, Soft Touch Stealth Black/Red
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit
$2600

should I stick to the Sager 8180 earlier or this alienware? is the gpu that made it so expensive, worth the extra money?

thank you guys

 

sounds like you're from somewhere very familiar to me. if it is where i think it is, your best bet would be to buy a 2-way day trip very cheap budget airline ticket to singapore and buy your sager there. the tax refund itself would cover for your airline ticket and more... not to mention the already "$700" cheaper price than you local reseller... which i might also add "only carries last year's model". so handcarry/backpack your new laptop then. you're not supposed to be entitled to custom tax on things you own and you personally use anyway... thats just wrong imo.

well at least i did as stated above with my current asus g73, while the local reseller only can say "what kind of product is that? is that asus? may we suggest xxxx series (which is much older model at same price of my g73 from singapore)?" when i inquire about it.

 

Hmm.. but where in Singapore? I'm going there this month, but the previous reseller I know, which is sgcubehub.com has been shut down due to fraud -_-

and mucro asia seems suspicious.. :0

 

"As for the battery, I can't tell you for sure, for maximum battery life and quality, you should always follow the directives: don't overcharge it, let it discharge for over 50% till the next charge, etc"

I don't think this is actually the best thing to do in all case. IF you keep your laptop on as a workstation all the time and need a battery in there as a UPS, the best thing actually is to keep it fully charged. Every time you cycle the battery (discharge) you wear it out a little, and heat it up during discharge/charge. Plus you can NEVER over charge a li-ion battery, especially in your Sager. If you did manage to somehow overcharge you'd risk an explosion. I've had a D900F plugged in, ON and pretty warm to hot for nearly 3 years now with almost never discharging the battery, and the battery capacity is at 89% of original. That's quite good for li-ion.

If you really want to preserve your battery, you'd have to keep it cool. Best 50% charged and in the freezer

 

hehe I see I see I don't know why my battery is bulging though.. So far no threat because the pc doesn't detect anything, and it doesn't even fit the compartment. I just using it for balancing the notebook..

 

yeah i wouldn't recommend buying from sgcubehub or mucro atm, the next best thing is to do some more research for other online reseller or try funan IT mall.

the latter option might force you to make a return trip later for pick up tho. unless you have friends or family who can place your order ahead and/or pick up the unit when its ready.

i'm thinking of upgrading my 2 year old g73 with the sager myself, so i'm going to do some researching on online reseller, and will post them here if i find one.
i'm waiting for the amd 7970 tho, coz i think its quite pointless to get the nvidia one.

btw NBR posted a reseller in malaysia "illegear" if you wanna check them out. i personally haven't checked them yet.

 

It's okay, just understand this.

The higher the refresh rate the more fluid, real and perfect the movement looks.

Usually on older laptops would increasing the refresh rate decreases the flickering, thereby reducing eye strain.
Which was a good thing, now a days with all that action going on the higher the refresh rate the smoother everything runs and makes it easier for the eyes to overcome all of it.

I tried to explain it as good as I could hope it helped

 

Something has gone wrong with either your board or your battery and caused it to gas off and possibly overcharge. I would strongly suggest not installing the battery in the laptop even though its convenience. I also don't recommend disassembling it as even a dead li-ion cell can pack a serious punch (fire hazard) if specific internal components are shorted.

IMO just take the battery to a battery recycling center (stores etc) and buy another one somewhere.

 

It helps a lot! thank you! My eyes are easily tired lately, so that 120hz may be useful

Ok.. You are scaring me but I dont put it in right now, I cant even type properly because its not even.. and too bad, in my country, there's no such thing as recycling center or available option to get another sager battery.. sad..