Newbie looking to buy a laptop. Are clevo and sager reliable?

What is your budget?
2000.00

What country will you be buying this in?
US

What size notebook do you prefer?
Desktop Replacement (17-inch + screen)

Would you consider a refurbished laptop?
No

What are the primary tasks you need this notebook for?
Web Surfing, Office and Productivity Software, Listening to Music, Photo Editing, Video Editing, Movie Streaming and Viewing, Output Video to TV or Large Monitor, Graphic Intense 3D Gaming

Where will you be using this laptop?
Will be used different places

Will you be buying online or in store?
online or in store

Which OS do you prefer?
Windows 7

List the screen resolutions that interest you:
Max Resolution (1920 x 1080)

Do you prefer a glossy or matte screen?
Glossy or Matte is fine

Is the laptops design important to you?
No

Approximately what date will you be buying this laptop?
Around 12/31/2011

How long do you want this laptop to last?
5 years

How much storage capacity do you need?
160 GB

Are you interested in SSD for storage?
Maybe

Do you want a built-in optical drive, what type?
Blu-Ray

 

From what I have seen Clevo / Sager are very reliable, and their track record through resellers are phenomenal. If you want your laptop to last 5 years I would HIGHLY suggest you put as much money into the warranty, and the GPU as possible. ^_^

cheers!

 

Your dream laptop should be the same as the one I have (look at my signature for specs).

Its a dream machine...performance, ordinary looks, low price. Thats what you need for it to last and be reliable.

Also - for the top-notch hardware it has inside, the cooling is simply superb. I just position it slightly lifted, by placing 2 plastic caps underneath its back feet and under maximum load I get no more than 78'C degrees, which is PHENOMENAL!!!

Buy it, man. Its worth it. Dont buy c-r-a-p like Sony Vaio or other branded stuff, that takes your money for nothing and has poor performance.

 

If you're looking for something with a 17" screen, check out my build in my signature. For 2K you could throw on blu-ray and a nice 510 SSD and still have a bit of cash left over. I recommend chatting with with Brett @ Xotic, they have some good Sager deals right now. Of course, if you want something that you couldn't really consider portable, consider the Sager NP8180 - Dual 560M cards in SLI - you could load that machine to gills and still be in your budget... just a heavy beast

 

Just to be clear, all the resellers have insanely high SSD prices, though it is not their fault. Never, never buy one as part of your laptop configuration. For one, there are more options in the aftermarket allowing you to catch a deal on one of them at any given time. But most of all, average prices are much, much more reasonable this way. I've seen a few SSDs cost half as much on sites like Newegg when compared to the effective price at any reseller.

Also one single 6990M is generally preferred to GTX 560M SLI. The power difference is not too big and with occasional SLI issues (variable scaling and stuttering), it is usually preferred.

 

As for a possible configuration...

I would load up the configuration till you hit $1800 and then save the $200 to get a reliable 128GB SSD like the Crucial m4 or Samsung 830, both with oscillating prices around $200. Right now its the m4 that is slightly cheaper.

Crucial Technology 128GB m4 SSD 2.5" Solid CT128M4SSD2 B&H


Clevo P170HM
http://www.malibal.com/boutique/pc/configurePrd.asp?idProduct=283
http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8170...stom-gaming-laptop-p-2971.html?wconfigure=yes

As for the configuration itself, something like this will easily fit under $1800 after the $100 discount and a possible extra $50 discount at XoticPC. I think the setup below will be around $1730 with the extra $50 off.

--17.3" FHD LED Glossy
--Intel i7-2760QM
--8GB RAM, 1600MHz 2 SO-DIMMS
--Radeon 6990M
--500GB 7200RPM HDD
--6X Blu-ray Reader
--IC Diamond 7 thermal compound
--Intel Advanced-N 6230
--Windows 7 Home Premium

 

Yeah got my 256GB Crucial M4 for $349.99 .... a steal. Already the price jumpped up a bit. Go for the M4 on your own! long live my crucial m4 it is soooooo fast and I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! games load sooooo fast. it has changed my life!

 

Clevo/Sagar are reliable laptops and for demanding games IMO they are #1 in terms of performance/cost ratio.

Virtually everyone here happy with the cooling system of such powerful laptops, which really can be a deal breaker.

You can easily configure a high end laptop within your budget and as others said get the SSD on your own. Personally I would recommend first Samsung 830 then Crucial M4, both offer the greatest performance for the less amount of money.

 

160GB really? you might wanna add a 0 there! clevos are the best bang for the buck!

 

As far as I know, Sager brand does not come in store, only online. As for the usage you mention, perhaps the 2670qm cpu would suffice. Or the 2760qm if you truly have some dough to spend but should not be higher on the cpu.

 

Thanks to all for the help. I hope I've done some useful homework. Below is what I came up with on the Malibal website. Still have some questions. Although I'm new to computer games, I went a little crazy when I got an X-box a while back. If the same thing happens when I try computer games, I'll want something that's going to last for many years. Does this fit the bill?

Also, do I need to update to a better graphics card (a dual, or more than the 560?) or would I just be paying for something that I might not need for playing games (I want to try things like World of Warcraft or Skyrim) or watching movies? In other words, are upgrades from the base model worth the money, if this is largely for non business use?

What about the hard drive and processor? Will the 2670 processor and the500GB 7200rpm hard drive be fast enough, large enough, stable enough?

I know these are a lot of questions, but I'll take any help I can get. Lastly, with that in mind, any thoughts as to who has the best support? Malibal? Xotic? Sager? PowerPC? Somebody else. I might need a lot.

Thanks.

Customizations:

Promotions: $100 OFF Configurations Over $1500


Display: 18.4" 1920 x 1080 FHD LED Backlit Glossy Display


Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM, 6MB L3 Cache, 2.2-3.1GHz


Memory: (8GB) 8192MB, PC3-10660/1333MHz DDR3 - 2 SO-DIMM


Graphics Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560M 1.5GB GDDR5


Hard Drive: 500GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300


Optical Drive Bay: 8X Multi DVD+/-R/RW RAM Dual-Layer Drive


Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium; 64-bit
$80.00

Wireless: Internal 802.11B/G/N LAN and Bluetooth Card


Cooling: Stock OEM Thermal Compound, CPU & GPU


Keyboard: English: US & Canada


Power Cord: US & Canada


Branding: Red Edition


AC Adapter: Full Range AC-in 100~240V, 50~60Hz, 220W AC Adapter, DC output 19V, 11.57A


Build Time: 5-7 Business Days (Estimated Time)


Warranty: LIFETIME Ltd. Labor and 3 Year Parts Warranty with 24/7 Support (USA)
$249.00

Extras: PowerDVD & Bison Cam Software Package


Extras: MALIBAL Software & Drivers Disc


Extras: Microsoft Windows 7 DVD-ROM


Extras: Integrated Fingerprint Reader


Extras: Microsoft Office Ready OS with Free 60-Day Trial


Extras: Integrated 9 in 1 Card Reader


Extras: Integrated 2.0 Megapixel Web Camera



Product Subtotal: $1,848.00

Thanks again.

 

I'd suggest the 6990m over the 560m, future games will run much better specially if you want it to last 2-3 years.

harddrive, really depends on your usage. for most people 500gb is more than enough (specially if you clean stuff out regularly)

if you opt for the 6990m an IC diamond upgrade would also help a bit.

with regards to support, personally I wouldn't know since I've haven't needed it yet, but based on what I've read here Malibal/XoticPC/Powernotebooks has excellent support, Sager directly needs a lot of improvement and I've no idea about PowerPC