How much Sager NP8690 can $1500 buy?

So I'm shopping for a new laptop and gaming performance is one of my concerns. I will be using it for other stuff such as Office programs (school work), surfing the web, and watching video but the games I want to play include L4D2, TF2, Borderlands, UT3, and Starcraft 2. While they aren't the most demanding titles, I would like to play them at highest settings possible. Enter the Sager NP8690. It seems to offer create bang for the buck so it has definitely caught my attention. My budget is $1500 and I'm trying to price it out on Xotic PC.
So what is my money best spent on? Do I want an i7? Special thermal compound? Is 4GB of RAM fine? Sound card option?

Thanks for the advice.

 

The 1080p upgrade is the only one I strongly recommend.
I think the extra money is best spent on an SSD (not from Xotic, since their price is too high), though if you need storage space as well you'd have to buy a caddy to keep it in the optical drive bay instead.

 

Its a preference - id keep the 1600x900 screen since for even a 17" i think full 1080p is too much and things become too small, not to mention a 15" where it will be even smaller, plus if youre a gamer, youll get better fps on the 1600x900 screen at native resolution obviously (and you should game at native if you want good image quality).
The two upgrades id take is the i7-740qm (its out already, talk to them that you want that one - it should cost the same as the 720qm, but has 133mhz higher clocks) and the and Intel X25-M G2 80GB if 74,5GB on that SSD is enough space for you, youll love the speed if it is.

 

unlike lackofcheese i don't think the 1080 is necessarly a good choice.

the main issue is the pitch size on the 1920 x 1080 who is very small.

my previous one was a asus G1 15 inches 1680 *1050 I used it native resolution without problems. I have an extremely good eyesight 12/10 both eyes (no glasses) and I bought a clevo w860cu (the same as yours) 1920 x 1080 screen. I needed to increase the default font size because otherwise it really get small and eyes get tired easily.

as i have a good external screen 27 inches dell 2560 * 1440 it is ok, but if i could i would get the 1600x900. it is more comfortable when traveling.

memory is always a must.

I got 8 GB, disabled the swap disk. and use sqlserver with many 10 GB databases, 3 visual studio running, photoshop, mass effect 2 in background and i can switch from application to application instantly. I guess not everybody is as crazy as me. bear in mind windows seven will use around 1GB so better get 4 GB.

CPU won't make a big difference i got lucky to get an i7 840 for cheap but i think a i7 720 would have been enough. now it seems intel plan to kill the i7 series and extend the i5 series. but someone would need to confirm that.

a 7200 rpm hardrive is really nice.

now if your bugdet is limited you might consider an asus G series computer best buy got some very sweet deal. the good thing with the asus is the batery will last much longer. the bad thing is that customization is not possible and reliability is supposed to be soso. mine need repairs after 3 years but well i spend my life in airplanes and so on. i cannot say i am very sweet on my computer.

I forgot something. i tried the 3d glasses on the clevo stand of the computex. it is impressive but sure you got headache in no time.

 

Neonblack seems to want more eye candy here, so i'd go with the 1080p, especially on the not so demanding game titles, he should be able to play them on full hd on highest settings. Throw in an SSD for amazing speed. At least an i5 processor, stock thermal compound and 4gb ram is fine, and having any better wont improve gaming anyway.

EDIT: you budget will probably be not enough for an SSD, go with i7 instead, you can easily upgrade to an SSD later on.

 

If you really want the most for your money, you go the barebones route:

W860CU barebone + wireless = $889.00
i7-920XM ES = $465
2 x 2GB RAM = $97.98
HITACHI Travelstar 7K500 500GB 7200 RPM = $79.99

TOTAL = $1531.97

With the 1080p = $1581.97

 

You americans are lucky

I paid 2100$(1420£) for i7-720qm 5870m, 4gb ram in the clevo 870

 

Ouch @ that price!

 

hmmmm....I'm not 100% convinced the i7 is worth the cash....I just ordered my 8690 and I opted for the i5-520m...with HT its effectively a quad core and the scores are just so close to the i7...

 

xotic charges $220 for their SSD

Newegg offers same type drive for $199. Only a $20 savings, but who knows, might get it on sale one day or something.

 

instead of a SSD id go with a hybrid like the seagate momentus xt, very similar performance as a SSD + up to 500gb storage and all for 140.00.

 

The i5s don't come close to a Core 2 Quad.

 

That's great...what does that have to do with anything I said...?

The dual core i7 has almost identical scores to the i5 according to notebook check (usually around 10%...ya, I'd call that close). The quad is admittedly better in some benchmarks, but within 1% difference to the i7-620m on 3dmark 06's CPU test, for example.

but don't take my word for it kids!

i5-520m: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i5-520M-Notebook-Processor.23749.0.html

i7-620m: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i7-620M-Notebook-Processor.23043.0.html

i7-720qm: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i7-720QM-Notebook-Processor.23035.0.html

for $150-250...no thank you...also keep in mind battery life...

 

Sure, but you're also losing the cost of the HDD you could've kept, which makes the saving more like $100.

 

You can NEVER compare that hybrid drive to a real SSD and if youre spending 140$ for it i dont see why not add those 50$ to get a real one.

 

my alienware I have is a beatifull 1600x1200 screen. Its very enjoyable to use in windows/linux distros. When I game on it though, Ill switch it to another resoulution that suits it better, it is older made in 2004. There is absolutly no degradation in clarity or vibrance. Your stating that you need to run the lcd at its native resoultion has no merit to it with my laptop.

 

Tom's Hardware did a recent review of the Momentus. They concluded that the hybrid drive is an important innovation in disk drive technology and that the Momentus is the fastest 7K2 HDD available, but emphasized the enormous performance gap between it and an SSD. See Momentus XT Review: Seagate's Marriage Of The HDD And Flash Memory : Seagate?s Solid State Hybrid Drive Reviewed

 

Going back to the OP's question, I recommend the following specs:

Sager NP8690 (Built on Clevo W860CU) Custom Gaming Laptop
- 15.6” HD+ 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1600x900) Super Clear Glare Type Screen
- Intel® Core™ i7-720QM, 1.60-2.80GHz, (45nm, 6MB L3 cache)
- - Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5870 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11
- ~ 4,096MB DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS) (Requires 64-Bit to utilize Full 4GB)
- ~Combo 8x8x6x4x Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW 5x DVD-RAM 24x CD-R/RW Drive w/Softwares
- ~ 500GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache)
- Intel® Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module

Cost: $1524.00
1.) Why 1600x900? Well, higher framerates, imo a better game experience. And I agree with what has been mentioned regarding getting 1600x900 - 1080p is a bit too much for 15.6" screen. As a side effect, playing games at 1080p would put you on slightly higher GPU temps.
2.) The i7-720QM feels right especially without core parking
3.) If you have the budget, get 8GB ram! Otherwise 4GB is okay for the foreseeable future and fits with your digital lifestyle.
4.) No sense in getting Blu-ray if you're not getting the 1080p, imo.
5.) Get at least the Artic Silver 5 to keep your CPU and GPU cooler than the standard thermal paste.
6.) This Wi-Fi card works wonders!!! Amazing stability and connectivity!

 

i will agree that for gaming the 900p screen would be best for a little more future gaming at native res.
but if you do other things like watching hd movies, photo editng, looking at multiple charts, or even surfing or anything that would benefit from more desktop real estate the 1080p is the best choice. actually after using a fhd, i cannot see myself going back to a lower res.
also the 5870 is powerful enuf to run 95% of games at fhd maxed out, and if not, the fhd actually scales quite well.
there are only a few clevo guys who have had both screens and from the diff posts i see them saying that the 1080p is the better screen hands down.
but then again its your choice, depending on your needs.

agreed.
the momentus xt makes an excellent hdd replacement but a poor ssd substitute.