Help with Sager9262 purchase

Hi all,

Im currently looking at the 9262. My budget is $4000-$4500. The laptop will be used at home often by my fiance (Web surfing, photoshop, Sims etc) and by myself when on the road (Lots of FPS gaming... web surfing). We both do a lot of multi-tasking so I really think going quad-core for now and future-proof is the way to go. Im somewhat computer savvy but not extremely in the field of computer parts so here goes.. i'll follow up with some questions

Here are the specs im going with right now

WUXGA screen

Quad Q6700

Dual SLI 8800GTX (ETA late March)

4gigs ram

2x 200gb 7200rpm Raid 0

Soundblaster X-Fi 7.1 card

Spare battery (probably a good idea with short battery life imo)

Vista Home 64-bit



1. First off, obviously the Q6700 is the best I can do currently. I have read the forum and realize the Penryns quad-core is not far off. How much of a boost in performance is that likely to give over the Q6700? Also, any idea how much of a price increase that would be from a Q6700? Im already near budget with the current config and if it's going to be another $500-600 woulden't I be better off spending that on SLI for the video cards and just use the Q6700?

2. I understand that the this is likely going to be upgradable to the Penryns chip but likely a mobo change and purchase of the chip would be needed... correct? Am I also correct in assuming that would likely be pretty expensive as in the $1000+ range?

3. I have already put off buying a laptop for about the last year or so waiting for the good DX10 cards (8800GTX) ... im not sure if the fiance would even be willing to wait more than another month or two at most for the penryns... would be nice if we knew when they were coming.

4. My hard drive setup... im clueless here... is that a good choice I made or should I choose something different?

5. Sound card... good choice or bad? I do have some surround sound headphones which are 5.1 that would pretty nice and I would likely use them some when out of town... would it be a good choice to buy the nice card?

6. OS.. again clueless... im guessing that Vista Home 64-bit would be OK... I know that you need 64-bit to utilize 4 GB of ram correct? I remember reading on here a while back about someone tested Vista Vs XP with a 9262 and XP was actually faster... is that likely to change with the newer games?

7. What is upgradeable here? Obviously I will be set as far as HDD and Ram goes... what about video card? Will it be able to use one of the new cards next year?

8. In your opinion, configured as is (with Q6700 and SLI), how long would this laptop likely be able to run most Apps and top of the line games at above average? My main goal is to have a laptop that will last for the next 4-5 yrs with minimal upgrades needed.

9. SLI... is it really worth the price?

Thanks and I appreciate any and all help

 

1)Not much, but it will take up less power and generate less heat. However, the 9262 is cool by default, in terms of temps I sugest sticking with SLI for max performance.
2)Pretty expensive,maybe,no prices have shown up yet,but a penryn support might be just as easy as a BIOS update.
3)Most likely this summer, so don`t bother waiting if you NEED the laptop now.There`s always going to be something better showing up.Get it when you need it, I always say.
4)RAID 0 means performance, no problems there.
5)onboard sound card is awesome,xi fi card is even better.If you`re an audiophile like me that is
6)Vista HP 64 bit since you get 4 gb of ram will be enough, unless you need tight security. You can also dual boot if you want max performance in gaming, but SLI 8800M GTX will smoke any game on this planet at WUXGA(1920x1200) , all high even in Vista.Also,consider Vista got a SP1 and it`s futureproof,has DX10 etc
7)The CPU, Hdd, Ram,Optical Drive and the GPUs are intechangeable for 7950GTX,8700M GT,Quadro 1600M,probably Quadro 3600M,8800M GTX.
A newer GPU has not been launched yet, so no point in speculating. The 8800M GTX is the best there is in laptops at the moment.
8)3 years at least,if you take care of it, 4-5 with the necessary upgrades
9)Definitely YES if you want max performance and high detail gaming.And video rendering and so on.

Nice choice of the rig, by the way. May you use it and enjoy it a long time

 

the q6700 imo isn't worth the extra vs the q6600

I just got the same machine but with q6600 and 1 video card.

I paid 3304 shipped with tax.

 

The Q6600 or Q6700 are fine and beats all CPUs for notebooks easily... but the Q6600 is more bang for the buck.

The Penryn Quad-cores would probably not give a significant increase in performance... especially for the price difference.

The 8800M GTX and a quad-core is why this notebook is king. And getting it with SLI makes it even sweeter.

The HDD setup looks fine, but remember that RAID-0 does not protect your data... so if one drive dies or the array is broken.. you will lose your data. It might be worth it for you to get a 3rd HDD for this system for backup purposes (using Syncing software like SyncToy or Karen's Replikator)

The sound on-board is 99% fine for typical and gaming usage. If you have 6CH headphones it works fine on this system (using 3 analog jacks or single SPDIF)... unless if they require an optical port. Buying an X-Fi for notebooks does not gain that much in performance or overall quality unless if you are always going to connect the system to external speakers or headphone.

The OS is fine, but XP SP3 32-bit w/ 3GB recognized still outperforms Vista SP1 64-bit w/ 4GB recognized. It will be best to determine which software/apps/games you are going to use for best compatibility and performance. Overall XP is still the preferred OS for business and media professionals on PCs. Vista x64 is fine if you are just going to game and do normal uses.

This rig should easily last you at least 3 years.

 

xp server 2003 recognizes 4gb of ram. and it's 32 bit. just as good as XP.

 

There is no such OS. There is only XP Professional/Home and Server 2003 Datacenter/Enterprise/Standard/Itanium/Web.
Anyway, if you want to use 4GB of RAM get x64.

 

4 gig works in server 2003 looks like xp

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283037

 

It's a bull**** solution. It can be a headache. Why would you need 4GB with x86? That's like supercharging an old car. It's still **** either way...

 

That all depends on what sort of "old car" we're talking about. I doubt if supercharging this baby would be **** (although that's what it might make you do to your shorts if you step too hard on the accelerator afterwards ).

BTW, in case you're curious, that's a 1969 Pontiac GTO, aka The Judge. Here's a bigger pic for those who need to lust a little. Ye gods but I wish I were rich!

 

I don't like American cars. I think that they have useless engines (Bugatti squeezed 1001BHP out of an 8 litre engine, while Americans usually manage at most 500 and some BHP), are totally pawned by European cars and also have rubbish interiors. The best thing the Americans made these days is the Chevrolet Corvette Z06, but it's rubbish on the road, it's made of plastic, it has a live axle (like 50s technology), but the good part is that it's great on the track.
I agree the European cars are more expensive, but at least they're worth it.

 

I`d take a Dodge Charger or a Viper any day over any European car, except the Bugatti Veyron
I love muscle cars :>
The 9262 is a muscle laptop...
q.e.d.

 

I'd settle for an European any day and night. The only American car I like is the Ford Mustang from the 60s.

 

It all depends on what you want to do with it, who you are, where you are, and what you have to give up in exchange for the car.

I've driven (and ragged out) a number of different cars, although nothing like a bugatti - d'you actually get to drive one - the best performers I've driven were an AUDI TT quattro and a couple of bottom-end Porsches (e.g, the Boxter), and even with that less-than-distinguished-experience, I quite agree with you that, except for doing straight-line drag-racing, almost every American car is a pitiful performer. Of course, that's exactly what you'd do with a supercharged GTO, which was the point of that example.

 

The problem with American cars is that even if they are powerful (V8 doesn't mean anything, BHP is where the power is) they have problems going off the line .
Anyway...wrong thread. But I wouldn't like to start one about American vs European cars.

 

Sure, if you just happen to have €1100000 or $1,716,440 laying around for the Bugatti with 1001 HP go for it. But if HP is all that matters the Bugatti vs a Lingenfelter C6 ZO6 with 800HP is €83311 or $130,000. Still too much IMO but at least you have money left over for driving lessons.

and to the OP:

1. The Penryns should actually be cheaper, for = to better performance. IF and a big IF they appear in the D901Cs.

2. A mobo replacement will more than likely be needed given Clevo's track record, I could be wrong but I'd go with the safe bet that it will be necessary, again IF they even put Penryns in. A new mobo usually runs around $500 USD for consumers to purchase.

3. We've been waiting much longer for info and are likely to still be waiting in a few months. Get what you need now and don't sweat the future.

4. Given the failure rate of HDD's and the very nice nature of the Hitachi 7k200's you should be fine, if your paranoid then I'd recommend going with RAID 5 array. You'll have to add another 7k200 drive in but performance wise RAID 0 is the way to go.

5. Don't bother with an express card sound card, the sound setup on the D901C is good enough for most applications.

6. Go with Vista x64. I've been using mine for 8 months now with no problems. There were some issues when it first launched but since then with driver upgrades it has become more stable and about as fast as XP to game on.

7. Highly doubtful, This unit is about a year old now. It already has 3 video cards that it can use. I don't expect any 9800's to be released for it. But then again with SLI 8800's should cover most bases for the next year or two tbh.

8. This will last 4-5 years and you'll still be able to play games. When I bought my D901C, I still had my Dell 8600 with a radeon 9600 pro turbo running games. Could I run at my screens native 1920x1200 resolution? No, could it still game? Yes.

9. There are some issues with SLI to be honest. Driver headaches being the forefront, but in the end I would say it is worth it.

Hope that helps!

 

Wu Jen, yet the Corvette will never be up to an European car's level. It's great as a track car, stupid to drive on the road. We like air suspension or pneumatic suspension and we don't like plastic exterior/interior.

 

I`ll second that.Although I love the roarring of a muscle car....

 

Let's not derail this thread any further please. Just give the OP his answers.

If we want to do a Car Discussion thread lets take it to Off-Topic.

 

One of the reasons to at least consider the sound card is this: I am usually plugging/unplugging my headphones a LOT and I've had too darn many of the interior/MOBO headphone jacks come loose or break altogether. I've basically gotten used to the sound card as, like, a $100 insurance policy so I don't have to send the whole lappy back to get something small like that fixed...I can plug my phones into the sound card's headphone jack and if that breaks, well, at least it's just a sound card! Just a thought, not really a performance issue per say, though...

later,
pat!