Is it even possible?

I currently have had the NP5160 pre-ordered since January from Xoticpc. I like everything about it except a few things. I guess my question is, is it possible that Sager will have a laptop featuring a few certain things?

Things I don't like about the NP5160:

-speakers on the bottom
-vents on the side
-GT540M

These are all things that I could live with, but would prefer to wait if something around the corner could be launching.

Things I mainly care about and would want:

-15 inch chassis
-1920x1080 res
-SB i7
-GT555m
-Speakers located in a more effecient place (could live without this one)
-Vent exhaust located behind the LCD (could live without this one)
-Price range to be in between that of $900-$1100

I don't care about Blu-ray or anything else really than what I mentioned. But is it even possible to have all those things with that given price range somewhat soon (few months)? Or am I better off just going with the NP5160 when they call me to verifiy my pre-order? And I guess another question would be, Is the GT555m even that much better than the GT540m that it would be worth waiting for?

 

possible? yes.. likely? no. i feel like sager isn't going to be intorducing new models until intel releases ivy bridge in 2012. IMO..

looks like the 555 is scoring around 34% higher in 3dmark06. havent seen a whole lot of benchmarks for the 555m..

also haven't seen any 15" lappys with 555m's. only the 17" dell xps has one that i know of. wait a few more days and see if anything is revealed at CeBIT. supposedly there's a new line popping up from MSI, could be interesting.

no idea what to say about speaker placement.. could pick up a cheap 2.1 set up that'd be better then laptop speakers any day.

 

There is the New Lenovo Y570 that will have it. Only downfall is the lower resulolution on the LCD

Lenovo Unveils IdeaPad Y470, Y570 And Y560d Notebooks

 

For that you could always buy a nicer screen, replace it your self, and sell the stock one to regain some $$

 

Dell XPS 15?

 

Has a pretty nice exterior from the photos

 

Only has a 540m, the 555 isn't an option

 

Honestly though, I'd rather have the stronger graphics at the loss of a high-res screen (Y570) because while the screen is always easily upgradeable, the video card isn't (especially on an Optimus setup)

 

That's really arguable... A lot of chassis its much easier to damage them while upgrading a screen vs upgrading a video card, and both are probably half hour jobs...

Also you can still have screen compatibility issues either way...

 

Most video cards of this level are soldered to the motherboard (555M and below)

 

So what would be the better choice then? the NP5160 with the 1920x1080 res and the GT540m or the Lenovo Y570 with the 1366x768 res and the GT555m and most likely more expensive too?

 

The y570 will probably start around $900usd.. IMO..

If it was down to this two, I'd have to go with the lenovo honestly. Better graphics card, and I feel like the lenovo will end up with better battery life. Could be wrong. Plus it's not due out till like may, so if you can wait that long, you'll be in a good place. Especially if you're still considering an SSD. there's about to be a whole bunch of new sandforce drives comin out that should be pretty fast

 

That's actually not bad, but starting at $900 I want the SB i7 with around 6-8gigs of ram. How much do you think that setup will cost? also, i'm really scared about the lower res. What do you guys think about the 1366x768 res? I heard it is really crappy for gaming.

 

Why not just get the NP8130, then? It's ~$1100, and has everything you listed in the OP.

 

I would do that but I really want Optimus since I will be using this laptop for school as well. I'm not gonna be doing any extreme gaming. Just a bit here and there. And the 8130 would cost me about $250-$300 more than the NP5160 with the same setup besides the GPU. Puts me at $1249 before shipping.

 

No idea.. Wait and see what results from CeBIT. It's last day is the 5th..

Other then that, all you can do is wait. I mean the tech world changes by the day. The more days you can wait, the more options you'll have

 

I'm actually considering getting the 8130 now. It has better fan placement, a better graphics card. And better speaker placement. I guess I just have a few more opinion questions now.

Is the GT460m really that much better than the GT540m?

How many of you guys would prefer a matte screen over glossy? and why? (If I go with matte, i'm probably just gonna go with the 8130 instead of the 5160)

Would you still get an 8130 even though there has been some freezing issues?

What do you guys think about the i7-2630QM ? Or is the i7-2720QM that much better that it is worth the $160 upgrade? (trying to stay cost effective as much as possible)

 

yes, its better. it depends on what games you'll be playing if you'll notice the difference. go to notebookcheck.com and they have some benchmarks of games

i'll be going with matte because i cant stand glare. overhead lights make it annoying to view the screen when in lectures

yes, i'd still get it. it seems that a lot of the people are having their freezing issues fixed by properly installing new drivers. It doesn't seem to be that big of a deal at this point.

you probably aren't going to notice the difference honestly. if you really wanted to save some money, you could go with an i5 processor. your gpu will bottleneck before these fancy new sandy bridge procs the i5 will use less power too, so longer battery life.

 

I was going to make a thread for this, but since this thread is already on the subject of 8130s...

I was having the same internal debate (5160 v 8130) and decided the 460 alone was worth the price difference for me. But then I looked at the 8150 and now it's 8130 v 8150 in my head. My question is this: Why is the 485m an option on the 8150 and not the 8130? Is it just the power adapter? Or does the 8150 have more room and/or better power supply.

I'm just thinking longevity. Like 5 years down the line, if I could get my hands on a 485m, would I be able to swap it?

 

The 8130 could potentially use Nvidia Optimus. The GTX 460m is capable of using Optimus as per Nvidia's page. I talked to Sager and Mythlogic reps and it seems the only issue is that Clevo doesn't sell the frame with the motherboard wired to use the integrated GPU and the GTX 460m.

I think it'd be worth it to get a 5160 now and then sell it for 50-75% its price a year or so later as AMD's 2nd generation Fusion APUs come out in 2012/2013. Personally I wish there were a way to convince Clevo to just wire their damn 8130 mainboards to use Optimus

 

the 485 could technically use optimus as well, the boards just aren't wired for it.. afak it's just the power adapter that makes the 8150 be able to use the 485.. i could be wrong though. the 8130 and 8150 are exactly the same other then their power adapters and the fact that the 8150 has that rubber coating on it. i believe the 8130 and 8150 use the same mobo even so it's just a matter of the power supply

 

Optimus = displays all driven by integrated card (connected to integrated too) with heavy processing offloaded to GPU but then the output piped back to the integrated. These models the displays are all connected to the GPU as far as I know...

 

Exactly. Clevo's boards weren't designed to use the integrated graphics = no optimus

 

There is a chance that you would not be able to replace the screen on the Ideapad with a FHD screen. They may use different cables for laptops that only offer 768p displays, so you would have to see if you could get a compatible cable as well as a new screen. For me, the screen is more important, though a 555m sounds really tasty.

 

Between the NP5160 and the NP8130, I'm kinda leaning towards the NP8130 now. It already comes with the matte screen and better speaker placement along with better fan placement. After trying to keep the specs exactly the same between the two, the 8130 was a mere $149 more all together than the 5160 totaling at $1249 which is already a bit out of my price range. But now that i'm spending that much, i'm also looking at the Asus G53SW... What do you guys think about this model compared to the NP8130? And also the I noticed according to notebookcheck.net that the 540m wasn't really that much worse than the 460m although it is definately noticebly worse at ultra settings in most games. It is still pretty viable. But the better speaker placement and fan placement I think are important as well. So now it's a question of:

Battery Life + Decent Graphics + Savings + Nice Placement > Less Battery Life + Better Graphics + More Expensive + Crappier Placement

or

Battery Life + Decent Graphics + Savings + Nice Placement < Less Battery Life + Better Graphics + More Expensive + Crappier Placement

 

That's up to you you have to evaluate your needs and decide from there..

Also, if you've got a set budget, try and stick to it. Don't go over board and do everything everyone suggests or you'll end up doubling what you originally planned to spend (much like myself ). And don't be afraid to contact a reseller and say "hey, here's what I want, here's my budget, what can you do for me?".. The worst they can tell you is no

 

That was my problem. I started at $1500 budget but got talked into adding quite a bit more. (8130 to 8150 and 485m)

 

my budget started out at 1200 lol.. was thinking of the xps 15, dreaming about a g73.. one thing led to another and here we are $2500 later

 

I can bend my budget a little bit. But after doing some research, i'm beginning to think the matte screen would be a better option for me. With that being said, the NP8130 with the same exact specs as I have on my ordered NP5160 is only $149 more. Which seems viable considering I get better placement/speakers and GPU. But on Xoticpc.com the NP8130 only has the one screen option which is matte, but it doesn't say that it is Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Anti-Glare Screen w/ 95% NTSC Color Gamut like I would get with the NP5160. So basically now i'm questioning the screen quality of the NP8130 compared to the 5160 if I were to order it from Xoticpc?

 

Lol I started my search this time around with the XPS 15, and before the refresh it didn't have a 1080p screen. Looked around for 1200p (WUXGA) screens and couldn't realistically find one at 15".

I ran probably $1200 over budget and you guys are responsible!
- My budget is a bit looser than most of you though...

 

We have too much in common. Coming from the same laptop, both looking at the pre-refresh XPS 15 ending up on a Sager. And considering my budget was around $1200, ending at $2500 is a touch over my budget.

Yay for tax refunds.

 

lol, that makes three of us. Although I'm not quite as bad as you guys were, I was planning on spending ~$1400 on the XPS15 refresh, oogled over the pre-refresh for the longest time, the dropped ~$2000 on a 8150, haha.