Np9260 Review

PLEASE NOTE, this is under construction why do I post an incomplete review you ask? because I want your input on my review tell me how I could make it better! And I simply don't have the time right now to make a long video about it.

ON WITH THE REVIEW!
Sager NP 9260 FULL REVIEW
author: Jon Terp


First let me start off by saying, thanks for taking the time to read my review, I also want to thank those of you who are going to value my opinion.

This review is written from the view point of a hardcore gamer.


SPECS:
[Insert specs here]

(note, if you would like a FULL spec list, PM me, and I will link you to my DXDIAG)

Ok, with those boring formalities out of the way I will kick off my in depth review of this notebook with a simple PRO/CON or Likes/Dislikes.

PRO:

The most powerful notebook on the market today without a massive price tag (If you look at notebooks with the same hardware).
Sleek, sexy case design.
Large, beautiful 17' screen.
A Num pad.
A good battery (for this kind of computer)
Amazingly upgradeable
Cool and Quiet
Great WiFi Range
Gigabit LAN

CON:

Not made for your lap, with rubber studs on the bottom.
MASSIVE in size.
weights in at 19.5 pounds.



As you can tell This notebooks has very few things wrong with it, besides things that can't be helped.

You really can't picture the size of this until you see it in person, I was surprised as I took it out of the box It is BIG compared to my old Dell Inpserion 1100.

[PICTURE]

This beast comes with (depending on your video card configuration) 3-4 fans, Mine came with 3 because I went with just one 7950, instead of SLI.

ORDERING

I ordered it from www.powernotebooks.com
and I have to say, without sounding like a advertisement, they have amazed me a several occasions with their devotion to customer service, other wise, It ordered it fine, and I was able to talk with Ron about upgradeable parts in the laptop over all Power notebooks, does customer service right, which is hard to find in the computer industry today.
24/7 customer service, a real human being. Makes me happy every time I call and get an intelligent, English speaking person.

SHIPPING

coming UPS ground I was asking for something to go wrong, but nothing did it came on time without any dents or scratches.

USE

So in this section I will tell you how this notebook (from now on I will just say Lappy) feels when used in different ways.

*On your Lap*

You might think putting this big beast on your lap will get you burnt you would be only half wrong, this Lappy runs cool, even when you game for over 2 hours! The only thing is the size, and the uncomfortable configuration under the Lappy. That being said this was NOT made to be on your lap, it was made for a desk, so what I do when I HAVE to use it on my lap? I just have toggle max fans (Fn + 1) and set it on my lap so that non of the rubber nubs are stabbing me in the leg, believe me, it's not that unconformable once you try it.

Also, mouse usage (which is NEEDED for gaming, seeing as the glide point isn't that agile) can be remedied by throwing a mouse pad on the right (or left) wrist space, then use you mouse on that, there isn't a lot of moving space, but it works for when you ABSOLUTLY HAVE TO game on the go.


*On a desk*

This is what the Lappy was made for, just make sure you have enough room for the mouse, and if not, no big deal, just use the above method to fix that.

Not much can be said about this, it's what it was made for, it works fine with no complaints.


GAMING

Here is what this computer is meant to do, Hardcore, intense graphics.
I am running on a single card, and it still runs AMAZINGLY in ALL games.

***The only game that I had an issue with was STALKER, there is a driver issue with the dynamic lighting. Which IS fixed, in the 32 bit XP and Vista, but I am running 64 bit, so it is not fixed for me yet.

This is the list of games that I'VE TESTED and work amazingly.

HALO (MAX)
HALO CE (MAX)
HALO 2 (MAX)
STALKER ((MAX***)
SUPREME COMMANDER (MED)
GTA: SA (MAX)
F.E.A.R (MED)
BATTLEFIELD 2142 (MAX) [1400x1050 limit]
DARK MESSIA: MIGHT AND MAGIC (MAX) [must run at 1600 x 1200 or you will get random crashing]
HALF-LIFE 2, Garry's mod, HL2:EP1, Counter Strike: Source. (MAX) [Mixed results depending on the game]
ADVENT RISING (MAX)
TOMB RAIDER ANNIVERSERY (MAX)
EVE ONLINE (MAX)
WORLD OF WARCRAFT (MAX)
NEVERWINTER NIGHTS 2 (MAX)

*NOTE: All games are running on max resolution, most games can run at 1920 x 1200 but 2 on the list don't go above 1400 x 1050.

HEAT

heat? What heat? This laptop runs cool 90 % of the time, the 10% is when I was running it in a hot room (85 F) and that was after playing for an hour or so of FEAR, which is the game that I tested that makes it run the hardest, besides Supreme Commander.

The cooling system in this is amazing.

THE SCREEN

The screen on this beast is amazingly sharp, on my 1920 x 1200 model.
The only thing I don't like is that, every little spec of dirt shows up, and don't get me started on finger prints.

BATTERY LIFE

One thing you must know about this machine is that it has A LOT of power hungry components in it, there for the tested battery life of 1.2 hours while just browsing, and 46 minutes of gaming is great.

NOTE: THIS IS WITH THE POWER SAVING SETTINGS ON, I CANNOT TURN THEM OFF FOR SOME ODD REASON.

UPGRADES

This Lappy has a great mother board in it. It supports up to 4 gigs of RAM as well as a great selections of upgrade sure to come in the future, I'm going to leave this blank until I put my TV tuner in it, and more will come after I get the 8700m, or the 8800m.

SOUND
The speakers built in are great for mobile gaming, but for those sound freaks there is the usual 4 slots (mic, headphones, lineout, sub)
The sound card is nice, with some OK software, it annoys me more than anything. It doesn't put out good bass to my standards.
But I hooked it up to my surround 5.1 setup and it sounding AMAZING, try playing Call of duty 2 with that, it's nuts.

Music testing at MAX VOLUME
------------------------------
Artist: Lemon Demon
Album: Hip to the Javabean
Song: My Evil Shadow has a cup of Tea (massive bass in this song)

Rating 2/5 (sounds like the inboard speakers were going to explode)
Rating 5/5 (Sounds awesome when I output to my 5.1 setup, HD sound with no breakup, and enough bass to shake my house)
-----------------------------
GIVE ME MUSIC TO TEST!
PM the song titles and the artist and I will test them

*!NOTE!*
I strongly urge you to reinstall vista in 32 bit mode when you get the computer (assuming you got the 64bit vista), 64 bit drivers to put it bluntly, Suck, just plain suck.

BENCHMARKS
COMING SOON!

VIDEO
COMING SOON!

PICTURES
COMING SOON!

ASK JON
SEND IN QUESTIONS!! (PM ME)

OTHER VARIOUS SECTIONS
COMING SOON!


ok, you guys (and gals) need to help me out, tell me what you want to see in my review, and I will put it in. (THANK YOU TO ALL THE PEOPLE HELPING ME WITH THIS!)


FAQ Getting updated

Q: How is the fan speed?
A: I wouldn't trust the auto fan sensor, so what I do is every time I start it I just press Fn+1 and the fans kick up to max. It is SORT of loud if you are in a quiet room but while playing BF 2142 in a room with the AC going, I can't hear the fans, and also in a 75degree F room, with the fans on max I get and average 50degree C on the CPU WHILE GAMING, very cool for those who don't know.

Q: I hear you have CPU fan problems? Explain more.
A: My CPU fan sensor is working fine, it's just not keeping it as cool as it should, so I just press Fn+1 when I start it up to trigger max fans and it keeps it cool even in a hot room (88degree F, the computer hovers at 60degree C)

Q: What video card do you have?
A: Nvidia Geforce GO 7950 GTX (single)

UPDATES ON THE WAY. EVENTUALLY

TV TUNER IS INSTALLED
VIDEOS ARE BEING MADE
THINGS ADDED AND FIXED
ADDED SOUND SECTION

 

Thanks Jon - looking forward to future updates + pictures.

If you're interested in doing a full review for us (you get paid), take a look at this page:
http://www.notebookreview.com/writereview/
Contact Andrew.

 

Updates will come soon, I just don't have that much time to do videos and stuff, I'm swamped this week.

 

How'd I miss this? Great review, Jon!

 

Nice job, Jon.

 

Great review in progress. There are a few hard to read area's because of the amazing use of comma's, but that can be ironed out as you go

I'd also recommend dropping the comment about your age. You will never escape that with some people. You are either to young to have an opinion (< 21? ), to old and biased / not up on things( 45+? ), or you aren't a seasoned veteran with enough experience ( 25-40? )

One thing I caught what you said that two of the games max out at 1400x1500, which I think you meant to say 1400x1050 (being a BF2142 lover I know this pain)

Look forward to the rest!

 

Good review Jon, aside from a few gramatical errors, not bad at all. As a matter of fact, I am clicking a 9260 into a shopping cart because of it. I just can not believe it weights nearly 20 lbs! Time to get one of those backpacks with wheels.

Looking at the Powernotebook website in the specs, it says it weighs 11.5 lbs. I am guessing you listed the weight of the box it shipped in with everything in it.

 

22.0 LB as shipped.

also, I am happy my review helped you make the jump to this amazing machine.

 

All changes have been made that you guys suggested.

Thanks guys!

 

Added sound stuff.

 

Hey, great review so far! Keep it up man!
But, can you tell us a bit more about your CPU fan problem?

 

Nice work-in-progress Jon, rep power just went your way...

 

How about fan noise?

It's great to hear that it runs cool... but how much noise is there at max fans?

 

what video card or cards do you have?

 

I may have fallen off the face of the planet for a few weeks, but now I am back,
I've got to keep reminding my self of this, I keep forgetting about it.

ADDED FAQ SECTION!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

 

A couple times you refered to the temperatures on stuff.
How are you getting those temperature readings?

On all my computers (b.i.y. destops until now) I've always run a tool called motherboard monitor 5 (MBM). Works great but problem is I have NO information about this motherboard so I don't quite know how to set the program up. Also the mobo bios setup has no temperature readings to compare to so even if I could manually trial and error the program I have nothing to compare the temperature readings of the MBM program to in order to know if I got it right.

 

Read this for your temp monitoring needs.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=81852

 

Hi Thanks for the info Gophn. Guess I'll have to keep looking though.
I downloaded both programs and the NHC doesn't run. It gets this
error and no "lower" versions of the program are available on the
website to try (yes .NET 2.0 is installed).
(The error is "InvalidArgument=Value of '-4' is not valid for "SelectedIndex'.
Parameter name: SelectedIndex )
Last, As near as I can tell it is still guessing at the true temp, which brings
me back to my post above...why in the world are the temps NOT available
for viewing in the mobo BIOS so they can at least be used as a reference
baseline? Come on notebook mfgs.

The Riva on the other hand does work but has several problems
that prevent if from being as useful as it could be.
For example, in order to monitor gpu temps you must open the graph window.
You can then place an icon in the system tray that shows the gpu temp
BUT you cannot close the graph window or it stops monitoring and the
system tray icon goes away with it. Why?
If you cannot close the graph window why do you need the system tray icon?
Just look at the graph! Also you cannot minimize the graph window
just reduce it's size to about 1 inch x 2 inches.
Another problem is that it only shows the temp for one graphics processor
at a time. So if you are running two cards in SLI then that's another
limitation.
Still I give high marks and many kudos to the author for all the
hard work that has obviously gone into the program so far.

 

Regarding the NHC software;
----
Hello,

sorry for the late answer. I'm very busy these days. I think on the Clevo D900C there is a Desktop Processor – the Core 2 Duo Extreme X6800.
On this processor NHC has some problems. I will fix this problem as soon
as possible and the release the new version.

Regards
Manfred
-------
It seems to be an issue of the D900C Laptop having a Desktop CPU rather than the mobile processor. I use the E6700, not the X6800, and got the "-4" error. I purchased the Program, and therefore the faxed response from them regarding the '-4' error. I will post with any success from an updated version of NHC.

As to the Riva SLI issue. Keep in mind that SLI available in a Laptop is rather new. I would imagine that the problem will be fixed if there are enough machines out in the market to drive demand.

I wonder if gaming software, as well as Windows XP, is really well written for SLI, or is it a quick patch that has a few tatters....

 

Hi AlanP,
I have an E6700 too (the 6800 is just too expensive).
and on the question:
"I wonder if gaming software, as well as Windows XP, is really well written for SLI, or is it a quick patch that has a few tatters...."

That IS the question ... I wonder that myself.

 

Has anyone actually hooked this thing to a cable box and tried to watch tv on it!? Just wondering how good it will be as Ive never used a laptop for that purpose.

 

Jon, still alive?

 

Is what I want to know...either way...review was great so far.
+Rep Jon