Review my final Sager NP8130 configuration please.

NP8130 Base Configuration: CA$1,043.40
15.6" Full HD LED-Backlit Display features 95% NTSC Color Gamut in Super Glossy Surface (1920 x 1080): CA$100.23
Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M GPU with 1.5GB GDDR5 Video Memory: CA$0.00
2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM Processor ( 6MB L3 Cache, 2.20GHz): CA$84.40
Stock Standard Thermal Compound: CA$0.00
Genuine MS Windows® 7 Home Premium 32/64-Bit Edition: CA$84.40
16GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 4 X 4GB: CA$63.30
500GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive: CA$0.00
8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software: CA$0.00
Internal 802.11 B+G+N Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Combo Module: CA$0.00
Smart Li-ION Battery Pack: CA$0.00
Fingerprint Reader: CA$0.00
Sager 2 Year Limited Parts and Labor Warranty: CA$83.35
Reflexnotebook Hassle free warranty: CA$79.13

Subtotal: CA$1,538.19
Tax: CA$199.97
Grand Total: CA$1,738.16

(Shipping and brokerage are free on Reflex Notebooks ATM due to a special offer.)

Minor upgrade projections:

1. At some point down the road, I hope to get an external for the DVD drive, acquire a hard drive caddy and load the optical drive slot in this with an SSD. How difficult is acquiring a slim internal caddy anyways?

2. If standard compound proves troublesome, I'll apply some of my own Arctic Silver 5 in it's place.

3. A wireless adapter upgrade possibly, but I'm hoping the default will have no issues connecting with my relatively close by router at home.

 

1. The easy way to do it is to contact one of the resellers now or when the time comes and buy one directly from them. Using the "official" ones allow you to just transfer over the exterior bezel to keep it looking proper.

2. You should try to use a better paste, the AS5 is a bit dated in terms of performance. IC Diamond 7 is a good one they use, I'm using Arctic Cooling MX-4. There are a lot of other good options too. All of these will cost about $10-20 at most.

3. This is really easy to do too, so you'll have no problem with it.

 

Hello from GameFAQs

That looks great. I'm glad you went with my suggestion of getting a Sager. Hope you get good use out of it.

 

What will be your main purposes with this laptop? Do you actually need 16GB RAM? For gaming, 8 GB is more than sufficient (You can have Photoshop running, an intensive game running and firefox open and not be threatened.)

 

You will love the screen for sure

On other note; wow over 10% tax. But worth it nonetheless.

 

Yeah, figured. I wasn't sure if caddys and optical slims had some sort of standardization for face plate switching or not. I guess the official cady from Sager has it's own flush, buttonless plate to cover where the optical drive cover used to be?

It's not quite that simple. Nobody sells paste locally here anymore since Newfoundland has a weak compute enthusiast's base. The last good store to buy paste (even then at elevated prices) were bought out some time ago.

So, I have to get my stuff online. Which, barring special deals, means paying the price of the compound again for shipping (it's usually identical to the price if it's under 15 bucks, if not than it's 10 bucks anyways) and then getting 13% tax on top of all that. This turns $9.99 into $22.57.

Yeah, from what I saw in the PDF service manual it's simply a matter of screws.

It held up on it's own, believe me. There's a really attractive Qosmio build at Costco that served as it's best contender (it's highlight being 120 SSD + 750GB HDD + Blu Ray player), but Sager won out because the Qosmio's screen is way worse, it's less upgradeable, the chassis is rather flimsy and it's by far the ugliest computer I have ever layed eyes on.

http://notebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Qosmio-1.jpg

That line decal all over the computer is actually ingrained. It's like they melted the case and then ran a comb over it a few times to get this weird wood finish. Plus that red to grey gradient in the back is actually banded.

Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and Dreamweaver at once is common, as would be Blender, which has to run alongside Photoshop and possibly Illustrator. Blender running alongside Z Brush is nice too. All these also have some form of media playing with it, usually Chrome with a few tabs open (one being Grooveshark, others would be any research I need to do, iStock, XCHNG, texture galleries, WhatTheFont, a Blip or Youtube video I'm listening to, things like that).

It's on sale for 33 percent off, and I can definitely put it to use. 3D Graphics Software in particular can and will use whatever it has available if you push them, which the Adobe suite can be configured in how each program rations out the resources (Photoshop using the most optimally). Unless there's some bottleneck present in my configuration I'm not aware of, or Sagers come with a higher risk of RAM DOA than I am led to believe, then why not?

Part of the price to pay for being Canadian, but that's also worth it nonetheless

 

Specs look good to me. I would love to recommend an SSD but i know budget is an issue but you'll never regret the choice, it's really night and day.

The default paste is more than adequate enough, but yes if you want to reapply it on your own AS5 WILL do the trick but i also recommend IC D7.

The default wireless card is more than adequate enough for your needs especially being so close to the router.

Congrats on your order(when you do order it), you're going to love it.

 

Well, even if AC5 has slipped, it's only a matter of fractions of a degree. The top like 20 or 30 competing pastes only ever have about a 2 degree C difference between them total, if that. You don't get the kind of 5 - 10 degree differences people like to talk about unless you compare top line with low end pastes, or the difference in poorly applied paste.

By the way, Mark told me over the phone that you guys do do part orders (new battery down the road for example), if not directly through your website. What's the prospect of getting that $15 drive caddy in on top of my order now so I know I have it in the future?

He also mentioned the possibility of getting Sager with the branding sticker(s) placed in the box rather than already applied. God I really hope that works out

 

It looks good.. But, for an 8150 w/ those specs - $1700.. really? I see what it was.. The screen upgrade, warranty and customer service deal...(My system below ran $1630 w/ Win 7 and the Crucial - bought seperate).

You really should have just put that money into the laptop rather than paying extra money to be able to call them up(which is free) and extend the warranty an extra year.

It'll be a good system - though, I would have gone 6990 over 560m and dropped the customer service + warranty extension.. Not to late to make a change.

 

The dude is buying from Canada. That's why.

 

Oh ... that sucks. Are there any canadian resellers?

 

He's buying from one of them (ReflexNotebooks). The other one I've heard of is Fortnax.

 

I have pieced a few together over the last while and the US sellers seem cheaper even factoring in the exchange and tax etc. I would suggest at least looking, ask them on here, the US companies reply very quickly.

 

It's an 8130, not an 8150. Here's the thing: Warranty coverage for Sagers in Canada and the US are different. All the extensions for US coverage (free to and from shipping in continental US for example) do not apply up here. You have to buy that extra, and Sager's own 2 year shipping two way coverage add-on is about 52 dollars for 2 years.

The reason I upgraded to Reflex's hassle free instead is a matter of distance. Sager is in California, which is roughly 5600 kilometers away from me. Ground shipping, two way, with a trip across the border both times. Any warranty recall to Sager directly means my computer spends a like month in shipping, not accounting for the time it spends with Sager. Reflex is located in Montreal, which is both within Canada and only 1600 kilometers away. They offer to handle anything save the screen and motherboard (as I'm told) there without going back to Sager. I didn't ask how this pertains to consumables like batteries however.

The Euro Crisis is also doing a bit of damage to our exchange rate. For the most part our dollars have been equal since the recession, but investors fleeing the Euro for the US dollar has strengthened it but not us. Watching their site, Reflex seems to update their rates every morning, which is making the price of this thing crawl up by the dollar...

Keep in mind this computer has the shipping waived, which is somthing I was going to negotiate: a price match. I checked against Malibal before, and while it was cheaper, the issue here is that Canadian customs fees can be brutal. Malibal doesn't collect Canadian taxes, so customs and brokerage at the door would be both guaranteed and as pleasant as sodomy. Reflex guarantees no hidden fees at the door (of course, if I do get hidden fees, I won't be happy about it) which means quite a lot when Canada customs fees are decided with dice rolls and black magic. However, I did go back through various resellers to see how things break down for price matching.

The same machine from Malibal (who is also Cali I believe) comes to $1,383.00 base. With the current exchange rate applied it's $1439.15. Plus taxes is $1626.24. Including their cheapest shipping brings it to $1710.99, so it'd only really be worth the time to price match if Reflex is waiving shipping from comparative prices too.

Do you have any advice on this matter, NovaH?

 

do you need the 95% gamut screen? If not, i'd take that off, and instead put in a blu-ray drive. you have 1080p, may as well use it

 

I had contacted a US seller and had a code for free shipping to Canada as well. I read, on these forums, that there isn't duty on laptops, I will dig for it, believe it was in a sticky. If that isn't the case it would change things some for sure.

Also, when a reseller asks for a quote to match, how do you supply that? I tried copy/paste of the quote which wasn't good enough. I have asked Reflex with no response, twice. I don't see a file to download or anything....

Thanks!

 

Hi Guys, just to clear things up, there's never a duty charge. Just brokerage. As Designopolis said, we do not hide any fees, ever. We tell you it's going to be $2,500.87 for example you won't pay anything more than that, no hidden fees means nothing extra out of your pocket, not when you get it at the door from UPS not ever. Hope that's clear enough.

The Reflex hassle free is for peace of mind, we cover shipping to and from wether it's coming here to Montreal for repair or California.

 

So NovaH, if I fire off an e-mail to you guys about price matching and a separate order for the caddy right now, what's the over/under on getting a response before the end of tomorrow? I'd like to make my order before the end of the week.

 

Just shoot off an email, i'll make sure Mark looks at it in the morning.

 

Well, I just spent like 2 hours number crunching (might as well do it myself first, right?), and if you add in the UPS Brokerage fee for a computer like this after taxes (which is like $75) and waive the shipping for both offers (as per Reflex's offer), it basically comes out to within 10 dollars difference to Reflex for all the competitors I checked. So, Reflex wins. From what I can see, the missing brokerage fees are essentially made up from the more expensive warranty rates.

Now there's just the matter of an additional parts order (the caddy). Other than that, really it comes down to Mark being able to negotiate Sager leaving their logo sticker in the box rather than applying it, which I will be ecstatic over if that goes through.

 

The fees aren't missing They're there, it's just covered in the price as per our promo.

Did you send off that email to him?

 

I sent the e-mail to your info@, not to the AET email Mark responded with. I can forward my request to that one if you like. It's just a matter of the drive caddy inclusion, and how the best way to handle it (if possible) might be.

 

That's fine i'll let him know.

 

Oh Christ, a standalone bezel is 50 bucks. My bad, I guess when I was checking accessory prices on Sager's website I glanced at the price of the cables above the bezel rather than the correct price. Why does Sager have such a gigantic rift between installed bezels and standalones? I wager it could be a deduction on the installed price for the fact that they get to keep the DVD drive.

Now I feel bad that Mark put in the effort to update the site.

EDIT: Mark got back to me just after I posted here, and confirmed that this is indeed the case. The cheap Bezel offer for installation is accounting for the fact that the actual cost of the default Drive is being removed.

 

I would be thrilled if my reseller took out the ODD for even a small reimbursement. I have no use for a DVD drive, they don't even sell, I'd be happy as I would throw them out anyways..

 

I can't place the order for an hour yet, so lets update the build:

NP8130 Base Configuration: CA$1,043.40
15.6" Full HD LED-Backlit Display features 95% NTSC Color Gamut in Super Glossy Surface (1920 x 1080): CA$100.23
Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M GPU with 1.5GB GDDR5 Video Memory: CA$0.00
2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM Processor ( 6MB L3 Cache, 2.20GHz): CA$84.40
Stock Standard Thermal Compound: CA$0.00
Genuine MS Windows® 7 Home Premium 32/64-Bit Edition: CA$84.40
16GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 4 X 4GB: CA$63.30
500GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive: CA$0.00
Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy with Bezel ( No HDD ): CA$15.83
Internal 802.11 B+G+N Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Combo Module: CA$0.00
Smart Li-ION Battery Pack: CA$0.00
Fingerprint Reader: CA$0.00
Sager 2 Year Limited Parts and Labor Warranty: CA$83.35
Reflexnotebook Hassle free warranty: CA$79.13
1 x ACA-8130, NP8130 120W 110V/240V autoswitch AC Adapter: CA$79.13

Subtotal: CA$1,538.19
Tax: CA$199.97
Grand Total: CA$1,739.95

Bolded the differences. Good thing I found out before I ordered that the $100 off over $1500 orders thing was valid here too. I could definitely use a backup adapter.

OR

Upgrade to a 750GB HDD and Intel Centrino Ultimate N for $89

OR

The HDD and a Thermal compound upgrade for $94

OR

The Zero Dead Pixel guarantee for first 30 days for $79.

Testify for me fellas. How rugged are Sager adapters? I find the adapter to be the weakest link in a laptop computer, since it (and specifically it's DC connector) tends to be the first to fall to wear and tear.

 

I'd opt for the extra adapter, they come in so handy.

 

Yeah that' the way I'm leaning to unless someone can testify that that wireless adapter is an amazing upgrade. I wager I can keep one at my desk and another in my travel bag, though I hear the adapter for Sagers are gigantic.

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND

Purchased.

I'm gonna send one last e-mail off to Mark - the order isn't under my name. Plus just a reminder on my lack of a sticker request.

 

The Intel is a huge step up from the standard,

and the Killer is another step up.

The Killer is so much better in terms of reception and speed.

 

Not sure if the same because I have an 8150, but I ordered a caddy from a reseller here and I was able to use the bezel from my ODD on the caddy. Fairly easy change too.

 

I do hope Mark catches my email about the different order name before you guys process it. Otherwise that Sager sticker request might fall through because Mark said he was going to keep an eye out for my name.

Sorry, I just get really paranoid about large online transactions.

 

No worries, he's pretty quick on catching things.