Hello, Thinking about a Sager/Clevo

Hi Everyone,

I'm buying a new laptop soon and it seems as if the best bang for the buck are the Sager/Clevo builds I am seeing on Xotic PC and Malibal.

I primarily use it for screwing around and playing games but I want something that will last for a couple years. I am basically looking at two builds:

Sager NP8130
And
Sager NP8150

For the price, (About $1200) the fact I can get a second generation i7 is insanity. I can barely find an Asus with first gen for the same price.

How has peoples experience been with these? Is the build quality good, good support from resellers such as Malibal, XoticPC etc? I have heard about some possible overheating issues but have seen some people claim that it will be fixed with the second gen i7's. I'm not very up to speed on notebook tech and this will be my first one so any direction would be great!

 

If you really are into gaming on your laptop, you should really consider the 8150. Even if you can't afford the 485m option and just go with the 460m, the 8150's power brick can handle if you choose to upgrade to a more powerful GPU later, whereas the 8130 may not be able to upgrade. Many of the more experienced Sager purchasers are going with the 8150 with the 460m and waiting to upgrade to the AMD 6970 when it becomes available.

In terms of the resellers, I've only had any real personal experience owning a laptop from XoticPC. They were extremely responsive and their product (Compal IFL90) worked great until my recalled NVIDIA 8600GT decided to stop working (no fault of either Compal or XoticPC... NVIDIA made some really bad GPUs that led to a class-action suit against them).

I have conversed with Mythlogic and have chosen them for my next purchase because of their custom screen offerings. All the questions and concerns I've had have been answered thoroughly and quickly by them, so I feel pretty dang confident they will be a great company to buy from as well.

 

Yeah, if only the 6970ms come out soon enough I'll bite............

Hopefully they will soon..

 

I had actually placed an order with one vendor and things didn't pan out as expected. I am just trying to figure out who I am placing this next order with. Xotic, Mythlogic, powernotebooks.com, etc.

 

I am Xotic fanboy as I have dealt with them. I just do not know many others. PNB I have seen gets great comments also. The others I just do not know.

On the NP8130 vs NP8150 I called Sager when they 1st came out. They told me the NP8130 is technically capable of the GPU upgrade. Yes you might need new power brick. But the impetus for asking Sager was the gloss/matte issue. They have since expanded their offerings.

Xotic offers very good customer service. As do others I suspect.

 

I'd recommend Larry at LPC-digital.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/member.php?u=92267

He's the one I got my laptop from, and he is simply awesome.

He is helping me get my screen replaced because there is a dead pixel around the center of the laptop, and he was the one who first contacted me via PM when I wrote on the forums that I seem to have a dead pixel in my screen.



Can't beat that.. He really takes care of his customers, and I wouldn't doubt him for anything.

 

I am pretty much leaning towards Xotic or Powernotebooks at this point. If the GPU in the laptop can run most things I am going to throw at it, I don't see much need for the upgrade. This is however is going to be my first laptop in 5+ years, so I want to make sure it can run anything.

 

I think I made the same jump you are making now a few years back. And I like you when making it is a big deal. Anyone who can survive a notebook for 5+ years deserves respect. And also likely might be very cautious. I can tell you any notebooks we are talking about will blow you away. It is just technology keeps getting better. My cell phone might give your 5 year old a run for the money.

I have a G73JH I like it fine. Other than maybe the GPU what you are looking at kills it.

So go for it I think you will be blown away and will give you many years of fun.

 

Well if its you're interested in longevity I'm currently working on a 3 year old NP5792 and it's still kicking. I clean it regularly though.

Two of my closest friends had bought Sager notebooks way back when. Both with 7800 SLI configs and they're also kicking strong but those aren't their main laptops anymore. If you're worried about longevity it pretty much comes down to 3 things: build quality, maintenance, and environment.

Stuff like smoke, dander, dust, heat will kill a laptop in the long run that's why maintenance is such an important step.

 

I don't think anyone doubts Sager for either of those, it's the obsolescence that we're all worried about, especially with Ivy Bridges possibly coming out in 2011...

 

I've heard alot of good things about Sagers, so I'm trying them for my first time.

The only thing I dislike is the warranty coverage being limited to Canada/US (from what I've read). I'll be teaching overseas at the end of the year, so my game plan is to use the Sager until then, and then sell + buy an AW (rumoured M14X) when I leave strictly b/c of the international premium warranty.

I'm a little worried if it breaks during the time I have it, because that means sending it to California, which is 4000km's away from me, but less than 1 year of usage should have 0 problems (*prays he doesn't get a lemon*).

Sagers seem to have great resell value on these boards too.

 

If there's any truth to the below article, then perhaps we will have Ivy Bridge upgrade option. But in either case, is usually the nature of the beast with technology. Buy what you need to get you through however long you can even if with known upgrades.

Ivy Bridge 22nm works with H67 and P67

" Still there is a hope, as of April all boards powered with H67 and P67 will be bug free and with a BIOS update, they will be able to support Ivy Bridge 22nm processors. So once you get a functional bug free P67 or H67, you can expect to be able to plug Ivy into it and after new BIOS flash, they should just work."