Looking for a new Sager. Detailed Description.

Hello everyone, it has been a while.

I currently have a Sager NP9262 purchased in June of 2008. The current specs of it are listed in my sig below. I spent about $3700 on it.

Unfortunately I have ran into some problems and have gotten fed up with some other ones. The first thing that is bothering me is the weight. I seem to be one of the few people that actually uses it in my lap. ( Here is my setup) The weight (11.55lb) feels like it is slowly doing serious damage to the circulation of my legs. Then there is the heat. The heat causes three problems in itself. It makes my room overly hot (in Arizona that's pretty bad), it causes the fans to make too much noise, and it may be the cause for the failure of one of my graphics cards.

I have heard that NVidia had some problems with their solder or something between 2004 and 2008 that caused increased failure rates of their cards that were made during that time. I have baked the failed card in the oven to reflow with great results. Unfortunately, that only lasted a couple weeks.


I play less games now than I used to, but will be picking up Call of Duty: Black Ops in about a month.

So with that out of the way, here is what I am looking for:

Budget - ~$1000-1500 (not solid, can go up if it's really worth it)
Screen - There is no way I can downgrade far below 1920 x 1200 after using this. 15.4" may be okay though.
Processor - I seem to be one of the few that realizes how little most programs utilize a lot of the processor. The most intensive thing that will be done on the notebook is Call of Duty: Black Ops when that is released in a month. So i5 - i7 or equivalent.
RAM - doing fine with the 4GB I have now, anything extra is a plus.
Graphics - See above about CoD. Although I am not buying the notebook for Call of Duty.
Size/Weight - Size is not an issue, I got used to this monster. Weight is though.
Heat - Biggest annoyance here. I want a balance of graphics/power but without a nuclear reactor in my lap. High heat for extended periods of time is probably what is causing my failed graphics card (although having a desktop QC processor probably isn't helping either.)
Wireless N - The reliability and speed of wireless N convinced me to purchase a router for everywhere I go with my notebook. I have never had problems with wireless since. So wireless N is a must (although it is probably standard now considering my phone even has it.)


Extras that would be nice:

HDMI Out - I have a 32" TV 3 feet from me that I use to watch movies from my computer with my brother. Having to transfer from computer to phone to PS3 or dealing with the problems of streaming got old a long time ago.
Decent Sound Options - I have Tritton AX Pro headphones. They are true surround sound (yes 4 speakers in each ear) headphones. They only accept optical or self-powered 3.5mm connections for each speaker (4 plugs including mic). I will have to buy a $30 add-on if the notebook doesn't have options. So no biggie.

Dont cares:

Blu-Ray - I have yet to use even one blu-ray movie, and it is improbable I will start soon.
Battery - I plug it in everywhere I go. My notebook lasts about 45 minutes unplugged and I have yet to see it run dry.


I have been looking at the Sager NP8690 and NP8760.

This is the current spec I am looking at:


Sager NP8760
17.3" FHD LED (1920x1080)
Core i5-560M / i7-740QM (*)
Geforce GTX 460M (**)
4GB DDR3 1066MHz / 6GB DDR3 1333Mhz (*)
500GB 7200RPM
Upgraded Wireless N Card (no logical reason really)

(*) - The first will be what I get if I decide to go cheap route. Next week or so will decide this. Chances are I will get the better of the two versions.
(**) - Did a ton of reading between the 460M and the 5870 and figured that I enjoy the way NVidia handles some stuff over ATI (both need to up their quality IMO) so I chose the $30 addition to switch to the 460M.

The cheap version comes out to ~$1400 shipped.

The QC processor and 2GB increase in ram comes out to ~$1600 shipped. (seems better bang for the buck)


What I want is opinions on what would be the best thing to get, Sager or not, that has a nice balance of weight, power, cooling, and a low sound output.

If you get all the way down here you have my deepest and sincerest thanks for your time. Any information or links you can provide would be appreciated on the highest level. I am posting this as a supplemental source of input and not a "do the work for me" thing.

 

Would be nice to get some input from anyone.

 

I would highly recommend putting a SSD in there. It was one of the best upgrades I have ever done and the performance is very noticable. Since the lappy you are choosing has dual hard drives, make one a small SSD with the OS on it and other a regular HDD for storage. At least that is what I would do, once you start using a SSD, you will never want to go back.

 

I have SSDs lying around the house. So putting those in was a given. I was asking about whether or not I SHOULD get one of those. I want opinions on which model to get, not what to put in.

Although, I appreciate the response.

 

^^^^The Clevo W870CU or Sager NP8760 with the specs you chose would be an excellent choice! There are so many happy owners of this system as seen in the owners thread...

_______________________________________________

 

Sorry about that, I read your post but was not really paying attention to what you were after. IMO, I would go with the NP8760 as well. I have actually been considering that machine for awhile now since I am getting tired of lugging around my current beast. Though I am really tempted to get a new X7200 with Sli 480s regardless of the protests from my back and arms.

 

Ahahaha. +1

I'm mostly in between graphics units now. The battle between ATI and NVidia seems to be a never ending thing. Some people are saying the 5870 runs colder and others say vice versa.

Opinions?

 

According to this and a lot of other opinions, the 5870 is better for power, while the 460M is better for conservative usage (less heat):

Bench - GPU - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Still can't decide. The difference is only $30, but it will likely become a big deal later on.

EDIT: Hrmm that seems to be a 1GB 460M and not the 1.5GB that would come with the notebook.

 

As far as the heat goes I guess ATI can still work. Its performance is ahead by enough to be able to underclock it and probably get similar levels of performance to heat ratios.

 

I've always felt that nvidia has an edge in the driver dept. When I bought my 8760 I ended up paying $75 for the 285m over the 5870. In the one game that I spend the most time in the ATI card has driver issues, where the Nvidia plays perfectly with it. I know the 5870 has downclocking issues that make it run warmer than it should in idle type conditions, albeit can be mitigated using Vbios. Also Looking at the the CPU choices I like the 580M for around 55 bucks more.

 

See, stuff like that keeps me going back and forth.

Next I'm going to hear something about how customizable ATI is and how NVidia does have <random thing>.


Seems like this is going to have to rely on the most sacred method of decision making. A method that can be relied on to decide the fate of the most important decisions. Of course I am talking about none other than....the coin toss.

 

if you can wait, see if the 470m will be available for this laptop and how it performs relative to price

 

Wait if you can but don't wait for more than 6 months..

 

I say that you should wait for at least the 470M, if not the Mobility 6870.

The GTX 460M is underpowered for what it is, and the Mobility 5870 is decent yet soon to be replaced. Neither is the ideal option, with faster replacements right around the corner.

A W880CU w/ GTX 470M will be the most immediate solution, between the two. It would be nice the see the 6870 this year, but there's no guarantee.

 

I decided to go with the Sager 8760.

Went with:

i7-740QM
8GB 1333 ram
460m (sucks that it is backordered)
500gb hdd (i wont even fill 100, but the upgrade from 350 was only $15)
and the 6300 intel network card.


Had another superb experience with XoticPC, great guys.

Now the hard part...

 

The 470M has yet to be thoroughly tested so I was worried about that. Plus, the huge price difference from the 460M to 470M did not seem justified based on notebookcheck.

I'm also not much of a waiter. If I was going to wait for the 6870, I'll find myself always waiting for the next thing and would never actually buy.

I'm happy with my decision. I feel it is a nice balance of power and heat. Although, I have yet to actually try it out.

 

Now that the 470M's price is known, I don't recommend it, under any circumstances.

I can understand not waiting for the 6870; it could be February or March, before it's in our hands.

 

You could also look into a hybrid HDD as well. I ordered a 500GB one the other day. Regarding what GPU to get, I would never recommend the 5870 but that is due to the bad experience I had with its pooly fitting heatsink and stuttering in games. The end result was more heat, louder fan noise and less performance than the GTX 285M.

According to a reseller, the GTX 460M should perform around the same as the GTX 285M so you should be ok there. The GTX 470M is like paying a mortgage for a shed, not worth it.

 

Yea I was reading about so many problems with ATI in general with GSODs etc. I felt it was kindof a step backwards to have to learn all about vbios and all these programs just to get it to work the way it should.

I'm happy with my purchase, although I would be happier if I had waited another day to take advantage of the special they have going for the 720QM as a free upgrade. It is due to arrive on Monday so I'm excited.