Jumping ship from Alienware to Sager - Some Questions

After extensive research and the help of several people here in the forums I have decided to get the Sager NP7330. I have been an alienware user for the past 5-6 years owning 3 different models. Before I make the final purchase I have a few questions which I'm hoping I can have answered here.

1. This is a dumb questions but I honestly couldnt find the answer. I understand the laptop comes with 2 mSata ports as well as a 2.5" HDD bay. Can I boot from any of the 3? Or is the 2.5" the only one able to do so?

2. Should I upgrade the stock wireless adapter to the AC 7260? I'm not too savy about wireless cards but since it is a small investment i might just upgrade if its worth it.

3. It scares me a little bit to see most re-sellers offering a "no dead pixel guarantee". What does this mean? Do they not check the screens before they send them? Are these machines famous for having dead pixels when purchased new?? There is probably an obvious answer for this, but like I said, the fact that it is offered concerns me.

4. I noticed xotic pc offers a "thermal compound upgrade".. how much of a difference can that make? Is it worth the extra $35? Do note I have a very nice NZXT aluminum laptop cooler where the laptop will always be. Important to note I will NOT be overclocking at all.

5. I will be moving to the UK soon, will the warranty be applicable there even if I buy in the US?

6. I'm having a tough time picking a re-seller. Any inputs would be super helpful. So far I'm liking xotic pc and lpc digital. Im guessing they all have the same build times. In your experience which re-seller is known to be best? (they all have the same price)

7. Finally, im wondering how the battery life can be so poor? (3-4 hours, right?) I understand it is a beast but my alienware m11x r3 gives me close to 6 hours thanks to optimus which this sager has. Why such a huge jump? How long does the battery last for you?

Thank you for your patience and any help you can provide! I know I extended myself quite a bit but its quite a bit of money and its my first time with sager

Cheers!

Alex

 

I never purchased a clevo/sager unit so most of my help will be tailored towards the hardware end of things

1. Well I would say

If you 2 MSATA slots and a 2.5" slot,you can boot independently from them,most likely the 2 msata s would come raid'd and you can easily restore them to 2 individual drives


2. Yes you can, but that would mean you would also need to upgrade your wireless network to actually utilise the 7260 properly, I'd say wait for a proper 3 stream AC card, but that's just me

3. Well ASUS and mebe MSI offer something like that, I have never seen that being offered by AW.

4. A better cooling compound will prolly give you an extra 15% headroom for OC, I myself have the R4 on a zalman

5.no idea.

6. Same as above

7. Perhaps it doesn't feature Optimus. I remember that a few SB/ ivy bridge models didn't feature power saving features of NVIDIA, but that info would be available on site ( even with power saving features enabled a 780M would go through a lot of power)



Cheers!

 

posts that he's jumping AW ship in sager subforum, AW user replies.

:hi2:

 

1. You can boot from any of the 3.

2. It won't hurt, but unless you have an AC router you won't be able to take full advantage of the 7260.

3. This one may differ slightly depending on the reseller. Basically it safeguards against any dead/stuck pixels that may develop on your screen after you have received your laptop. Since LCD manufacturing is still an imperfect process, manufacturers set their own tolerances for what is considered an acceptable amount of dead/stuck pixels. So for example if you didn't purchase the guarantee and you see 2 dead pixels in one corner of the screen, then you're out of luck since that's still within manufacturing tolerance. Don't quote me on this, but it's also rumored that if you pay for this guarantee, the reseller will try to get you a class I panel instead of the industry standard class II. If you're OCD like me then I highly recommend getting this guarantee, if just for the peace of mind.

4. I think the consensus is that best case scenario you'll see about 5C difference, assuming a decent paste job. It's worth it if you don't feel like repasting everything when you get the laptop, otherwise DIY will be much cheaper.

5. I'm sure different resellers will have different policies, best to contact them individiually.

6. They're all pretty much the same, I'd say go with the one that's willing to give you the best price and warranty given your special situation.

7. According to Notebookcheck, the comparatively small battery capacity of 61 Wh is to blame.

 

The other questions were answered so i'll hit on

5. Sager warranty is US only. You dont lose your warranty by going international but the Sager repair center is in the US. If you have a problem with a removable part like RAM or Hard drive etc you can just send in that part instead of the whole computer. You do have to pay for shipping both ways but being able to do that will help save on shipping costs.

 

1. Like it was said by others, you can boot from any of the three. Raid is really not necessary unless you adamantly want a single partition. SSD is fast enough by itself to be honest and standalone drives have less risk of failure. I have 128GB and 256GB Plextor M5M, 128GB is the boot drive, larger mSata is used for my favorite games and programs, while HDD is used for media.

2. Yes, I would highly recommend it. Even N routers in my experience have shown better connection and speed with 7260AC than my other laptops with older wireless cards. There is a good chance that AC will replace N at some point, so it's also an investment into the future technology.

3. I'd get it. Beezow wrote a great explanation. Personally I have a single dead pixel in the very corner. My older Clevo came without any flaws, so it's luck of the draw. In order for the screen to be considered faulty under warranty you would need several of dead pixels. Otherwise you can still do a full refund without the dead pixel warranty, however you would lose the shipping costs + promotion costs. Another option is to get laptop serviced and pay for the replacement, but honestly it doesn't bother me at all and waiting for the laptop return is a pain. Dead Pixel warranty will pay for shipping both ways and will make sure you get an ideal panel.

4. XoticPC and most other resellers don't actually do the job themselves (exception Pro-Star, Mythlogic, a few more maybe). Sager does it in their production line, and they usually use way too much paste. For this model I'd recommend doing it yourself. The process is extremely easy due to the convenient access to heatsinks. Should take you less than 15 minutes to do it. I used IC Diamond and have really good temps, as long as you apply it correctly any decent thermal paste will work.

5. If you buy it in US, it would probably not be applicable. So you would either have to ship it to US to be serviced and probably pay for return shipping too. Otherwise you can service it with UK resellers and pay service fees. Alternatively you can buy it in UK from mySN or PCSpecialist.

6. XoticPC, GentechPC, PowerNotebooks, LPCDigital, Pro-Star, Mythlogic. They are all good. Check the promotions they have, see if they offer some free games you actually want and maybe some other merchandise. Ask about discounts for being NBR member, military/student, cash discount if any of that applies. Mythlogic might be a bit more expensive, but they do all building QA in-house. Pro-Star also gets Clevo barebones, while others mostly work with Sager.

7. With Prema custom BIOS and EC, I've tested the laptop and got 4 hours and 10 minutes of continuous browsing and streaming at 50% brightness. I use that brightness setting when plugged in, because the screen is really bright (unlike AW 14 for example). With lower brightness, I think it could easily get 4.5 hours or more of light use with wifi. Some users reported 5+ hours with Linux. Prema said that a new update might be coming with improved battery longevity.

 

thanks for the information everyone! I officially jumped ship and the new laptop is on its way

Alex

 

Enjoy it mate! Beware though, Sagers aren't made of aluminium like Alienwares. That's not too say, they are great machines.

 

Yes im aware. Mine wont leave the desk much.

Cheers

Alex

 

Well, I am objective, dell has a warranty system that hasn't failed me (exasperating..yes) and I like some "tailored" bling