High end laptops: Will Sager give me as good of a discount as Alienware?

I've been researching and shopping for a high end laptop for the past couple of months now. I'm ready to buy depending on shipping times but I've got an issue with pricing. I priced out a pretty good Alienware laptop for just over $3k, and when I talked to one of their customer service reps they said they'd give me a 15% discount on laptops over $3k (that's about $450 for my math geniuses out there). It doesn't seem like Sager offers any "trigger" discount like Alienware does, but I wanted to know if anybody has received a discount from Sager before, how much, and how did you get it? I'd like to think that they'd hook up somebody willing to spend over $3k on a computer but if not then I'm goin with the Alienware. Here are the two systems I'm comparing:

NP9285:
Display 17" Wide Viewing Angles WUXGA LCD with Super Glossy Surface (1920 x 1200)
Video & Graphics Card Nvidia GeForce GTX 480M Graphics with 2GB GDDR5 Video Memory [$495.00]
CPU Processor Intel® Core™ i7-930 Processor ( 8MB L3 Cache, 2.80GHz, 4.8GT/sec QPI )
Thermal Compound IC Diamond 7 Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU [$40.00]
Operating System Genuine MS Windows® 7 Home Premium 32/64-Bit Edition ( 64-Bit Preloaded )
Memory 12GB Triple Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 3 X 4GB [$350.00]
RAID Storage Options Non-RAID Storage
Primary Hard Disk Drive 500GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive [$20.00]
2nd Hard Disk Drive 500GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Secondary Hard Disk Drive [$90.00]
Optical Drive 8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
Wireless Network Card Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module
Bluetooth Internal Bluetooth V2.1 Module
Primary Battery Smart Li-ION Battery Pack (12 Cells)
Microsoft Office New! Microsoft Office Starter 2010 - Included in Price
Warranty Sager 1 Year Limited Parts and Labor Warranty
Carrying Bag Standard Carrying Bag

Sub Total: $3,294.00
Sales Tax: $0.00
Shipping (3-Day Select): $90.57
Total: $3,384.57

Alienware m17x:
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English AW7HP6E [420-6436][420-9691][421-1400]
Processor Intel® Core™ i7 720QM 1.6GHz (2.8 GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache) 720M [317-3657]
Memory 8GB Dual Channel Memory (2x 4GB DDR3) 8GB1333 [317-3665]
Power Adapters 240 watt Adapter ADT240 [330-7841]
Display Panels 17-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 RGB LED (1200p) LED1200 [320-8856]
Video Card CrossfireX™ 1GB ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 5870 AT5870D [320-8988]
Hard Drive 1TB Raid 0 (2x 500GB 7,200RPM HDDs) 1TBR0 [342-0678]
Nameplate Personalized Nameplate (Kick ) NPLATE [330-3924][330-6106]
AlienFX Quasar Blue BLU [313-8792][421-2261]
Adobe Reader Acrobat SW Adobe Acrobat Reader ADOBER [410-1883]
CD ROM/DVD ROM Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW) DVDRWRX [313-8977][421-1304][421-1305]
Sound Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio IS [313-8944]
Wireless Intel® Ultimate N WiFi Link 6300 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO Technology INT6300 [430-3739]
Automatic Updates Automatic Updates: On AUTOON [330-6348]
Service 1 Year Basic Service Plan S1OS [421-1721][908-2207][922-3410][950-3337][950-9797][994-3730]
Factory Installed Games Steam and Portal™ Factory Installed STEAM [421-1360]
OS Customization AlienGUIse Theme Manager with Breed Theme AWGUISE [421-2611]
Bluetooth Internal Wireless Bluetooth® 2.1 with EDR
Sub Total Sub Total $3,084.00

Shipping & Handling 1 $19.00
Shipping Discount Shipping Discount -$10.00
Tax 2 $239.72
Total $3,332.72


I didn't add in the Alienware discount but just take $450 off and thats what you get. I realize these are very different systems....but c'mon, a 15% discount vs. a 0% discount? That's easy to me.....

Thanks in advance.

 

Yeah if your looking for discounts certainly go with Dell/Alienware as you will not find anything remotely like that from Sager or there Resellers.... Resellers do offer better prices though then Sager does generally...

 

Don't hope on sager giving you any discount. The best thing you can get is no-tax. Also, any reason why you are going or 12/8 GB of ram instead of a CPU upgrade? If gaming is what you are going to do, then I recommend upgrading the CPU instead of the RAM, and waiting for the Clevo x7200 to come out (SLI/CrossFire will help out a lot in gaming)

 

yeah just wait for the x7200, it is cooler design and sli capable. just wait for another 1-2 month max

 

You ar not buying discounts are you?

These systems are very different and discounts are a trick to confuse customers. So compare total prices for equivalent systems!

And check this X7200. The NP9285 is gonna be outdated soon!

 

Sager already give the lowest price it can offer without having buyer asking for discounts, do you really want them to raise their price by 20-30%, then offer you a 20-30% discount so that you feel better you are getting a discount?

 

oh how true is this sentence.

 

you could not have said it any better....what a junk thread

 

Well said.

One thing you need to note is that on the Dellienware machine, the CPU is a mobile CPU, whereas the Sager NP9285 is a desktop i7 CPU. The 9285 will make a mockery of anything CPU intensive versus the m17x.

Or you could wait for the Clevo X7200.

 

With Sager/Clevo you are always assured of getting the razor thin margins price just about anywhere. Just pick your favorite reseller or RJtech for barebones nirvana and then price shop the components elsewhere (my way) and go with it.

With Dell/Alienware, it really becomes a game of hunting down coupons, "negotiating" with reps or getting the rare Outlet item that happens to be priced insanely well COUPLED with an outlet coupon that is valid. You do get those instances where the pricing is much better but they are few and far inbetween since Dell will routinely raise their prices on the outlet which negates their "coupons" saving you 15-20% (plus you have your bots clogging/holding systems which is another issue).

Then you get Dell and their plethora of throttling via BIOS issues across many systems. They probably have a dart board set up in their engineering department with a pic of UncleWebb and the Throttlestop logo for stress relief.

Sometimes it is so much better to just order hardware with thin margins, pedal to the metal performance and insane cooling and no purposely added, invasive throttling.

With that being said, anybody who just orders blindly from Dell's website with listed prices, as-is, needs a pimp slap. We're not talking Kat Williams. We're talking Huggy Bear here.

Still like 'em both though.

 

You can always get a cash discount from most retailers to get an extra 3% off Clevo/Sager systems. And hey, shop around - maybe another retailer can give you a better price

 

Go with the Clevo, you'll get a way better processor if you do, and I prefer single GPU in a laptop. Plus Alienware quality is just abysmal. Read some of the horror stories for yourself. My friend got one and his fan is a little off true, every couple of seconds it makes a loud buzzing sound.

 

These are really very different systems. One is a brick with a desktop CPU, CCFL display (barf), and single mobile GPU. The other is a dual graphics card system with RGB LED (beautiful), metal chasis and better warranty service.

If I had to answer this post even yesterday, I'd have said avoid Alienware because there were no updates for the Crossfire driver. Fortunately that's changed and a 10.8 Catalyst release is coming tonight. If you do not mind the quirks of a multigpu system, the Alienware will annihilate the Sager in gaming performance.

The desktop CPU in the Sager is meaningless unless you plan to do CPU intensive work or play RTS games all day because it will be bottlenecked by it's single mobile GPU.

Electrosoft: There's no throttling with the M17x, none, zip, zero. Guess the Dell engineers decided to torture just the M15x/260M guys.

Build quality, well I've had a Sager 8690 in the past and I have to say Alienware blows Clevo out of the water. There's no comparison in my opinion but as far as cooling is concerned, it's the other way around and Clevo is easily the best. Alienware is no slouch either but overall Clevo just does a better job of it.

Warranty service, well I'll keep it short: I purchased a brand new 8690 from xotic pc that had a defective fan and shoddy build quality. Initially I asked for a fan replacement and the reseller was good about arranging it. However, I realized the entire system suffered from poor quality so I opted to return it. Now rather than Sager sending me a prepaid UPS label, they instead informed me that I had to insure the system and mail it off to them at my expense. I was also told by the reseller that I'd lose any shipping discount I had when I purchased the system. Keep in mind I was sold a lemon and after all was said in done, I lost about $100+ in shipping/insurance fees and I had to wait over 2 weeks to get a refund.

Contrast that with Alienware, I was shipped an M17x that had a dead pixel. I called up tech support and asked for a new display at 3 PM PST. The next day I had FedEx knocking on my door with a brand new display. Any time I needed service, Alienware/Dell shipped out the part the next business day. That's service that can't be beat by anyone and I've bought laptops from a lot of different manufacturers. And unlike Sager resellers, I didn't have to fork out an additional $200 for the dead pixel policy, Dell replaced it with no questions asked. Lastly, my girlfriend purchased a Dell Studio XPS 16 not too long ago from their Outlet. It showed up with a scratch on the lid and some other cosmetic issues. When we contacted Dell about it, they said they'd locate a replacement. A week later, we get a knock on the door from FedEx and what do we get? A brand new Studio XPS 16 from the factory. 'Nuff said.

As for x7200, that may be worth getting just because of the 480M SLi. nVidia in my experience offers better drivers than ATi does and their SLi scales a bit better as well.

 

What a load of crap. At least try to come up with something credible if you're going to troll.

If by chance you did buy one and weren't happy, a return is a 10 minute call and if you genuinely did have faults with it, they'd issue a return label almost immediately via email or send for someone to pick it up.

 

You have to learn how to deal with huge companies and make most of their services. You can't expect them them to put a golden spoon full of sturgeon eggs into your mouth.

You also need to understand how to handle gaming notebooks (any PCs actually). Not every combination of software/BIOS/OS updates is perfectly healthy and stable. It takes awhile to built a good image and sometimes, a single driver update is enough to completely ruin it.
That's why companies like HP warn that updating the BIOS might brick your system

As for the warranty - I totally agree with Joker.
I had my M17X-R1 replaced (for free, with upgrades) with R2. Then, since it had a very peculiar problem with CF, Dell engineers decided to look at my system and it was replaced with a brand new one again, this time there was a 500$ worth of free upgrades. The new system is perfectly functional with no software or hardware issues.
So in one year of sticking with Dell, not only my system went C2D -> i7 upgrade, but I also got a total of 700$ extras (RAM, HDDs) for free, not to mention that I have a brand new system today