Part of the Family!

Hey Sager fans!

Just wanted to drop in and say "hello"! I have been watching this forum like a hawk the past 3 weeks! It has definitely helped me with my purchase of buying a great gaming laptop. As alot of stories go, I was leading in purchasing an Alienware M15x... and actually did. Then when i discovered this forum, I had read some good pro/cons about it (so I cancelled my order while it was still in phase 2 )... and learned about this "Sager NP9262".

I was never really "hardcore" about the scene, so I wasn't familiar with Sager at all, but reading more about them, they seem to build high quality rigs. So with everything said and done, I looked at my options and realized that bang for the buck... Sager wins. I received it yesterday... and am I LOVING IT!

I have started installing the games that will be played in this beastly machine. I play mainly WoW and CS 1.6 (i know... not really hardware hungry) but also picked up COD4 (wow MP is addicting!) and Crysis (since everyone seems to be playing it lol). So this laptop was built for gaming and of course the "oh lets check my email/internet " etc.

So my question to you all (since it seems like this forum will be my new home) what tools should I download to take care of her? I have downloaded CPU Z, GPU Z and CPU IDHWMonitor so I can keep an eye on those temps... anything other tools that will help me monitor the healthiness of my investment (ohhh yes indeed it is)? Reading about... the 177.92? Should I go ahead and upgrade my driver to that as well? Sorry for the noob questiions... I hope to be guided well as I start my new journey of gaming with my new Sager NP9262


PS. Addressed this issue in Baconcow's idle temp thread... but my 200gb 7200 HD isn't performing based on WEI as well as others... any ideas on this? Anything I should look into?

 

oh btw... dont know if You guys have checked out Sager's main website... Havent read this posted up yet... but the 9262 can come with 9800m GTX SLI now


now for more saving >.< hehe

(actually... since wow and cs are my only main games... I decided to just go for the single 9800m GTX... bad choice? some1 tell me I made a smart move >.<)

 

Oh,Hello,so lets start
1)Welcome to NBR!
2)Congratulations on your beast!
3)Don't worry about WEI-it is useless!
4)can you run 3dmark 06?it will help you see how good is your laptop performing

 

congrats on the new beast.

For temps monitoring, I recommend to use:
- for GPU: use RivaTuner (can monitor GPU temps even in-game)
- for CPU: use RMclock
- for all-in-one: you can use HWmonitor or Everest.

 

Awesome... starting to feel the love already! hehe...

I actually have HWmonitor... it is an awesome tool! RivaTuner being able to monitor GPU temps during game! Sexy!

3Dmark 06? Hmmmm, I have seen this 3dmark 06... But to be honest... I dont know what it will tell me. I'd love to do it... and I'll post it up... then... I can get an explanation? Now... I know I've seen where to DL it... time to search the forum!

 

alos,to make things even better,you might want to buy a notebook cooler

 

It is?!?! Okay... I'll try and never look at that page again hehe...

But baconcow also did a HD test... I believe it was.... HDTUNE? Will that tell me anything useful?

 

ahhh yes... a notebook cooler. Indeed.. I will be moving soon, so I'll need to get a nice desk that can accommodate for the laptop and a 15 inch gaming pad >.<

Beats an ironing board hehe...

 

not sure about HD tests.but WEI is 100% useless-dont care about it!also

sorry,but i have to tell this

gettinh 9800gtx was not a good move since it costs 370$ more then a single 9800gt and it is only 10-15% stronger

 

The Zalman NC-2000 is an excellent cooler for such a large beast. Congrats on the machine, and welcome.

3DMark06 is a benchmark for your graphics card . . . and the tech gurus on these forums love seeing the scores crazy notebooks like the NP9262 can rack up. Download:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4935
It's a rather large file.

 

I agree... WEI is to not be taken seriously.

as for the 9800M GTX.... its worth it if you plan on getting a second card later on to SLI... or just want bragging rights to have the fastest mobile videocard with 1024 GDDR3.

 

Yeah, I read the reviews AFTER I had made the purchase lol... but just like my desktop PC (which has been loyal to me for the past 4-5 years) I like the potential. And now that SLI is out... I can just grab a 2nd card and run that.

Let's just hope the SLI can pump out the juice. Who is gonna pick up the first 9800m gtx sli!!! Benchmarks pls! Hehehe....


I'm excited about the 3dmark06! This will tell me how well my laptop is performing? as a whole right? What affects the result? Processor.. Vid Card (of course)... RAM... anything else?


and I am now at ease knowing WEI is worthless... but is there something I can do to make sure that my HD is healthy?


Also... topic of 9800m gtx sli... I guess benchmarks will tell alot if it's worth purchasing... but overall, if the games that I avidly play won't really benefit... then of course there is no reason right? (seems like a common sense question lol... I should just delete)

 

3DMark06 stresses the GPU and CPU mainly.

There are other benchmarks to test with for other components:
- HDD: use HDtune
- CPU: use wPrime 1.55 (set # of threads to how many cores you have)
- all in one: use PCMark05 (or Vantage)

There are many HDD programs (like HWmonitor) that check the SMART status... which tells you the health.

HDDs are rare to go bad... until after years of use.

 

Awesome!

Where in HWmonitor can i check the SMART status? Hmmm... as mentioned... its only been a day (and am I missing it now as I sit @ my work desk) I'll have to venture around more in HWmonitor then!

I'll be doing the 3dmarks this weekend and will post... thanks for the input guys

 

HWmonitor get the HDD temps via SMART.

But I recommend HDtune to look at the total health of the HDD... with a ful layout of all values of the SMART HDD.

 

I too am very curious to see 9800 GTX SLI benchmarks when they are available. I would gladly delay my upcoming purchase for a month in order to afford SLI on that beast.

 

ahh IC IC... just checked out some reviews and saw some of the tools you guys just recommended at work. But after getting the results of the 3dmark06 or the PCmark... how or what do I compare it to? Or... I dont? It's like... finding out if my PC gets an A+ B- or F on a test right? (sorry... sooo noob atm) Is there a bible that will tell you whats normal etc?

 

Don't Delay!! just pick up the single 9800m GTX for now... because... your missing out not owning the Sager! hehe jk... but why wait when it's a simple (or so I hope) add on if you like the results... thats if you want a sager 9262 of course

 

post the screenshots of the results, then we can tell you how to compare.

another way to to read through some recent reviews and look at their results for each benchmark for comparison purposes.

 

will do.

as of the results though (i guess that is why I asked what affects the results), I need to compare apples to apples correct? So a 9800m gtx needs to be compared to a 9800m gtx... but having different processor ram etc wont.. will.. >.< matter?

okay... now I'm really excited... *sigh* 4 more hrs. I'll post results and will post. We'll take it from there

 

also,be sure to optimize r windows before running 3d mark

 

I think you mean compare a 9800M GT to a 9800M GTX.

if you want to compare videocard to videocard, you can want post the screenshot of the results (of the 3DMark06 and Vantage) since it will not just tell you the total score... but the separate scores that make up the total.
- SM2.0 (videocard based)
- SM3.0/HDR (videocard based)
- CPU Score (CPU based, obviously)

Then you can just look at the videocard scores to compare to another videocard... which would not matter which CPU or RAM a system would have.

 

Awesome... will do then...

and yes Xirurg, I'll make sure the windows are maximized

 

Congrats on your new machine, and welcome to the forum.

After you run 3dMark06, you'll be prompted to a web page that displays your score like this:




You can compare your SM2.0/3.0 scores to those on the left, which are from my 9800m GT. Of course you CPU and overall scores will crush mine.

 

awesome! now it makes sense... I've never done so many tests before on a pc/laptop

its exciting though!

 

Forgot to thank you for linking earlier... i'll be downloading when I get home!

After this test... i can uninstall right? lol... I already have 130 gb left from 186! where did it all go!

but to put my mind @ ease on that too... I've always had this "the more HD space you have the better your laptop/pc will run"... some1 snap me out of it pls!?! And explain :smile:

 

RivaTuner can read the CPU temp of Core2Duo processor and can get the smart data via some plugins. It gives you a nice little graph and have On-Screen Display (OSD) when you game. HWMonitor is better is you want to check the max/min but it keeps crashing on my Vista x64.

Welcome to NBR!

 

Hehe, thanks (all these welcomes gives me the fuzzies inside)

Hmmm the hwmonitor keeps crashing on ur 64 vista any ideas when and such? Haven't been able to play around with it much (had it on for a good... maybe... 5-6 hrs total so far?) but I haven't had any issues yet (also have a 64 vista).

I like the idea of RivaTuner giving me readings while I game... I should look into some SS's because if it is nothing OBSCENELY big and distracting... I might consider that. Even though... alt tabbing isn't so bad hehe.

Even though (then again... I only played with CS... some COD4 to see some temp changes) when I alt tabbed to GPUZ... mine was still reading at 200/100 clocks... should it be more like bwhxeon's?



I know he overclocked his, but mine shouldn't remain at 200/100 right? =/

 

Actually the RivaTuner on-screen display is not noticeable since its put in the corner of the screen... and you can adjust it to whatever size or location you want it to be.

Here is the guide (with examples):
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=81852

 

awesome write up Gophn! That isn't bothersome at all. I'll definitely have to look into that.

I haven't tested or checked out my temps w/ full fans and gaming (haven't done a full WoW session yet) but I was glad to see a 5C drop at idle... Hopefully it is the same w/ gaming. Will be looking at a notebook cooler as well. Newegg here i come!

 

Installing a video card is way above my pay grade. Even if I had an idea how to do it, I would be too afraid to break something. So I need to order it the way I want it.

 

hehe... valid reason. It shouldn't be a long wait. Just came out... so now lets hope someone is brave enough to make the purchase

 

The Verdict is IN!





So now, how do I read this? lol And if I keep doing the test... with out changing anything... the results will always be the same correct? And anyone with my same set up will get the same score?

I have read in some threads that, changing video drivers can change 3dmark scores? Is that true? If so, based on GPUZ:



I have 176.09? And people seem to go for the 177.92? So does this mean I should upgrade as well? And if I do a 3dmark06 again, will my results change? The upgrade process seems tedious... but I think I can manage lol... I just want to make sure its worth the upgrade. Thanks in advance

 

Yeah that's an old driver, and 177.92 will give you better in-game performance. Download it here.

Basic Process:
1. Download driver and INF.
2. Create folder, then extract driver to this folder.
3. Add inf to folder, replacing current inf.
4. Run setup.exe

 

awesome!!! will do that now...

 

what is the difference between that and DOx's modded driver? Is dox's better?

 

Hmmm, Just updated to 177.92 here are the results:




lower than the 176 .... I'm going to try Dox's and do another 3d bench

 

If you run the test ten times, you'll get a different score each time, and there can be a hundred point difference between the highest and lowest.

Don't obsess too much over these scores, because real game performance is what really matters; image quality, stable frame rate, etc., these are the things that are important. Don't turn into one of these freaks, who spend more time running benchmarks than they do gaming on their $2000+ notebooks.

 

hmmm, lol thanks for the save... I was going to start obsessing. I'll do some gaming instead then

 

Hmmmm shouldn't his score be higher?
I have 9800M GT with a 2.4 processor, and I'm scoring 9000...

 

=(

quad 2.4? and also 177.92 drivers?

 

Hey nam3less if you disable windows aero and set your visuals to performance your scores will be higher.

 

interesting...

overall, I think I am over the 3dmark scores lol... the issue that I'm having now is this random lag spikes with my games (CS and COD4)

*sigh* I'm currently at a coffe shop (good mexican moka and bagel sandwhich ) and just tested it... still happening. So now I am convinced it is my wireless card... I will try 1 more option when I get back home... and that is to install CS on my toshiba (vista 32bit) and see if it can be a vista / cs issue >.< if not... I'll be making a phone call to sager monday morning and see if I can... get this card replaced? *sigh*

 

random lag spikes can be a few things... but usually the drivers.

I like using the latest official stock drivers.... in your case would be 176.09
http://64.208.175.44/pages/notebooks/download.cfm?ProductType=9262

They prove to be stable and have good performance overall.

 

Hey gophn...

that is what I was using. It was where it all started. I updated it as well just bc from another post (listed earlier on one of my posts here) they were leaning towards a driver too. But... no luck =/

I actually just finished playing CS on my toshiba and didn't see much lag spikes there. It would skip... but it wasn't as frequent... it wasn't as long... and I didn't see any ping jumps (thats how short it was ) Something is definitely up w/ this laptop.

Did some research and came across WLAN optimizer. That one thread (here it is again http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=297223&page=5) talks about doing some IP assigning? Gonna give that a try =/

*sigh* wish me luck

 

go to the Properties of your WLAN adapter, set the Performance to Max (its usually set to low for power saving)

As for old games like CS1.6 and such, you have to play the game on one core (through setting attributes in Task Manager for the game's process).

 

OOo interesting... thanks for the input... i'll try it now..

(learning so many things)

OH! BTW! I dl'ed PC mark yesterday... it went through the test... and when it was time for results... all i got was a bunch of N/A... what gives? wrong version?

 

make sure you run it as admin (right click on it > choose "Run as Administrator")

make sure to disable UAC, which can mess with the tests.

 

Hmmmm... currently in properties (went through device manager):

General, Advanced, Driver, Details, Resources, and Power Management

I'm guessing its in advance?

Clicked on the tab... I see Property and Value

802.11n Channel Width for band 2.4
Value: 20 MHZ (auto other option)
802.11n channel width for band 5.2
Value: Auto (20mhz other option)
802.11n mode
Value: enabled (disable other option)
Ad Hoc Channel 801.11 b/g
Value: 11 (enter value option)
Ad Hoc Default Wireless Mode
Value: 0.802.11 b/g (only option)
Ad Hoc Power Management
Value: disabled (maximum power savings and noisy environment other options)
Ad Hoc Qos Mode
Value: WMM Disabled (WMM enabled other option)
Fat Channel Intolerant
Value: Disabled (enabled other option)
Mixed Mode Protection
Value: CTS-to-self Enabled (RTS/CTS Enabled other option)
Roaming Aggresiveness
Value: 3. Medium (lowest, medium/low, medium/high, and highest other options)
Throughout Enhancement
Value: Disabled (enabled other option)
Transmit Power
Value: Highest (lowest, medium/low, medium, and medium/high other options)
Wireless Mode
Value: 802.11a/b/g (802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11b/g, and 802.11a/g other options)


So... where is "Maximum"? Or is it already set to maximum? *sigh*

 

ooOo ic ic....

may i know what UAC is? >.<