Is the NP8130 right for me?

I was digging in the "What to buy" section and there's a lot of people raving about this laptop.

Is this laptop definitely one of the best bang of the buck you can get right now for around $1,200?

A couple of items: I'll have a cord plugged in 97% of the time so I don't think I care that much about battery life. I read the owners thread and that seemed to be people's main concern. They wanted switchable graphics for battery life. Any other concerns I should think about?

I was thinking the following options and had some questions (they are all the default options by the way):

i7-2630QM
OEM Compound (is IC Diamond really worth the extra $40? I already have a laptop fan cooler)
GeForce 460M
8GB RAM
500GB 7200RPM HD

Price is $1,172 with free shipping.

I'm kind of a computer hardware newb. I could easily buy a SSD from newegg and install it in the optical drive, right? I'll just set up so that the boot and OS will be from that drive. correct?

Any other choices you guys can think of that would be a better deal then this Sager? Again, how good of a deal really is this deal? Haven't shopped for a laptop for a while so I could use your thoughts. thanks!!!

 

It is absolutely the best bang for your buck setup. I would have never fathomed 1080p with the CPU and GPU power they offer for under $1200. Sager / Clevo is a solid build too.

If you're looking to update your GPU in a year or two, your upgrade path will be more limited because of the cooling system and power supply. Also if you want to use your optical drive (ODD) bay for an SSD or HDD you will have to buy an adapter. Best place to start is at newmodeus.com. Also I'd recommend putting your hard drive in the ODD caddy so if you need your DVD drive for something you can just pull out the data drive and use the DVD.

IC Diamond is up to you. It will help with cooling by a few deg C. If you want to try to overclock, then it might be worthwhile. Also as far as a notebook cooler, you probably will see minimal advantages to using it because the cooling in Sagers are quite good. Obviously hard to say yet since nobody's done any thermal testing yet, but history is pretty solid. I've pushed my Sager NP8662 with no cooling pad and temperatures well within reason.

Otherwise the base setup system you've shown above is spectacular, IMHO.

 

thanks for your input htwingnut...

I'm not interested in paying $400+ for the 485M and don't plan on doing hard core gaming so I think the 460M will be plenty for me.

thanks for the link and tip on what i should do for the caddy set up...i think this baby will be on my short list that i will pull the trigger on in the next couple of days...thx again

 

Yes, primarily because there is precious little else. Its big upgrade relative to what came before is Intel's new processor and since that just came out a week ago, very few manufacturers have updated to it yet. The field will be a lot more diverse in February and March, but right now, there is nothing that rivals the 8130 at that price.

It doesn't have any obvious flaws except battery life. Of course, there are always non-obvious flaws (e.g. the specs look perfect on paper, but it makes a sound that drives you out of your mind or the hinge won't stay put), but nobody knows if it has any; we'll know when the first reviews come out.

 

ok thx guys, i think i'm about to enter the world of daym nice laptops

i'll think long and hard about it...i might wait another month or so, i don't have a urgent need for it other then i just really want it!

 

Yeah, in a couple months there should be more options and first unit reviews should be available. I still think it'll be hard to top that. Only thing that would hold me back is if you want switchable graphics. But for now it seems you'll have to live with a 540m GPU.

 

I just hope those 5160/5170s with switchable graphics will offer the same, awesome matte display on the 8130.

 

Same. I would really like to see what the 5160/5170s are capable of. Some review would be really nice in the next couple of weeks.

 

Right now i'm pretty excited about the 8130...a couple of questions...

I do want to get a 128gb SSD but I am cheap. I was thinking that I'll get the stock 7200rpm 500gb hd, then take that out and put it in the caddy while i get the ssd from newegg or something.

1. Will that work? I'm thinking why not, just want to double check...

2. htwingnut, you mentioned newmodeus.com, do you know which caddy is it exactly that I need for the 8130?

3. Question about the GPU and CPU, I understand the GPU is not switchable, but if I'm just surfing or checking emails, that doesn't use the full 40 watt, does it? i understand it's not going to be as low as a integrated GPU, but i thought it's not always going to be using the full 40watt?

4. can someone give me more info on the 5160/5170?

 

No, it downclocks and lowers the voltages so it doesn't use the full amount, but if the battery life really is 2-3 hours with a 77Wh battery, then it looks like at idle, the 460M is using more power than the rest of the laptop put together. Nvidia's Fermi GPUs are absurdly power hungry which is why switchable graphics is important and why waiting for AMD's 6000M series might lead to the same laptop having a much longer battery life even without switchable graphics.

 

When do you think the AMD 6000M series Sagers will come out? Don't need an exact date, either.

 

Sorry there is no information on the AMD 6000M series for Sager at this time...

 

I read somewhere in these forums that the 6000m series are going to hit the Sager/Clevos in February..

I forgot which thread though, I've been poking around every single thread!

 

I read March...anyone else read April? I guess we will have to wait and see. I hope 8130 has 6970HD...let 8150 get 485..but give 8130 buyers 6970HD option hehe...wishful thinking never hurt anybody.

 

I apologize guys, but my wallet got the best of me, i'm going with a cheaper HP...thanks for all the valuable information...you guys are a bunch of good guys...thx

 

Which HP may I ask (out of curiosity).

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/notebook-tech-bargains/548052-lenovo-ideapad-y560p-sb-8gb-950-a.html

$1,000 for same CPU, cheaper gpu, 160gb ssd, 6gb ram, 17.3" screen...It might not be at the same build quality as the 8130 but its several hundred cheaper :-/

 

Good deal. I thought the Y560p was 15.6" LCD? It shows it as 15.6" @ 1366x768 resolution. Good affordable SB laptop though.

 

No, my bad...in that thread, I was curius about the lenovo but further down in it, someone mentions the HP deal that I went with... It's actually the HP dv7t