Sager - would you recommend them?

Hi,
I've been looking for a new gaming laptop and in my search I came across Sager and became interested in the NP8760.
Having never heard of Sager before, I tried to find out more about them to decide if I should buy from their site, and I've come here hoping for some advice from you guys on the Sager brand and their customer service.

So - I've heard a lot of different things about Sager's reliability; could anyone give their opinion?
I've also read that their tech support isn't what it should be; can anyone confirm/refute this?
Finally, I live in Australia and would have to get the laptop shipped out to me. Has anyone else bought Sager products from overseas? And what would my location mean for warranty and repair if I got tech issues?

Sorry for long post, I'm just trying to explain my situation. Any advice you have would be great. Thanks

 

I'm taking my Sager to Korea, so the first and third questions are relevant to my interests as well. =D

 

Being out in Australia, you might actually not be best off buying from Sager, which is a North American company. Instead, you should probably go take a look at the Clevo Guide 2.0 sticky ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=264311) and go down to the Australian section and buy a Clevo from one of those retailers. Be warned that the Clevo guide hasn't been updated in almost a year, and thus you probably want to call and check those retailers first.

In case you're wondering why I'm recommending a Clevo instead of a Sager, a Sager is simply a rebranded Clevo.

 

Couldn't agree with you more! BTW i bought a Sager from "www.powernotebook.com". Got it of US and am presently using it in India for over an year now! I am damn happy with the investment.
I wouldnt recommend you buying frm sager instead go with powernotebook or xoticpc. Both have excellent tech support. Just quote "palladin" in any of the threads here and the i am pretty sure Donald would be here to answer any of your queries.

The two i quoted above are resellers. They add excellent tech support to one of the best quality laptops one can buy today i.e sager. you can even get better deals from them. But do check out if they ship to Australia.

 

hmm, that's interesting.
when it comes to buying in australia, I'm reluctant as the prices here are jacked up beyond belief. I'd get much better value from USA, but then the distance can cause problems.

that's why racoon's suggestion of xotic pc is interesting to me, because buying from them i get the same system at a similar price, but with the Xoticpc warranty. Correct me if I'm wrong, but to my knowledge the Xoticpc warranty is generally regarded as a pretty good one. What do you reckon, go for Xoticpc?

 

From what I've heard (no personal experience), Xotic will handle any warranty issues (usually sending them on to Sager, I believe, but that would happen on their end), but you'll have to cover shipping costs. Hopefully, of course, you'll have no issues at all and this will never come up, but I think that's how it works. Justin does post on these boards; you may be better off directing any specific questions you may have at him (you don't have enough posts yet to PM him, but you could always go to Xotic's web site and email him from there, or hope he comes across this thread).

The main difficulty I've heard when it comes to Sager's tech support is that it seems to be hard to get someone that understands English, but if you buy from a reseller, you'll be going through their tech support and not Sager's, even if they end up sending the machine to Sager for the actual repairs.

For people that have ordered from Xotic from overseas... the only one that comes to mind at the moment is D2 Ultima, who is in the Carribean, if I recall.

 

I never had a Sager / Clevo laptop till now and I can say it's the best built laptop I've owned. I was leary at first but after talking to the reseller, reading the forums, and doing my research I was ready to pull the trigger and I'm glad I went with a Sager / Clevo. No issues to date, love my LCD, keyboard is nice, etc. Changing or working on the laptop is easy like replacing HDDs, CPU, or even GPUs.
Someone already mentioned this but a Sager is a rebranded Clevo so looking at either is 99.9% the same as they rebrand them. Keeping track of the different model number between them is a challenge. lol
I ordered from PowerNotebook and have been extremely happy with their support and my purchase from them. The tech support is from your reseller so it's important to check that out too. Someone mentioned Xotic earlier and I haven't seen anyone complain about their support. Plus both PNB and Xotic have active users on this forum.
What you would be dealing with in case of issues is shipping costs back to the US for repair and that travel time.
Do look at the guide and do research.
You may also want to look at EU resellers like Kobalt who I also hear nothing but praise about. my 2 cents. Hope it helps.

 

Does anyone have an Idea about AVA direct? I know they are big... but would they ship to Aussie land?

JW

 

The laptop in my sig is the first Sager laptop I have ever owned, and the best without the slightest doubt. My next laptop will be a Sager too (once a worthy GPU upgrade is out) and I recommend them 100%. The build quality is solid and everything else about it is well made, well thought out and nothing is cheap.

All you have to do is make sure that you research your resellers and know where the best place is to buy one.

You want to go with a reseller who independently builds and quality checks their laptops as opposed to just shipping them in and reselling.

This will avoid lots of issues including the lame inadequate thermal paste problems I always hear about

I recommend Kobalt and they ship intl too.

 

Powernotebooks and Xoticpc are both good resellers, but you better check on shipping internationally. For a long time, I don't think powernotebooks did, but they do now with USPS Worldwide. Xoticpc has been shipping internationally for a while. Don't know who they use.

Either way, you should contact them directly about you specific situation.

 

Thanks for the advice guys.
I've worked out that despite shipping costs and import duty, getting the laptop I want from america is much cheaper than buying it in Aus - AU$~3500 vs. $~4000.
ATM it looks like going with XoticPC is the best option; its a pity that my location is going to cost me about $800, but even that is better value than what we get here in Australia.

 

It's really too bad that international customers have to go through such an ordeal and pay such a premium to purchase goods from out-of-country. You went with a great reseller though.

 

Sorry, one more, very nooby question: will I need a cooler? (system is a Sager NP8760 built on a Clevo W870CU)

and will a cooler that is "for up to 17 inch laptops" work on a 17.3 inch laptop?

 

No and yes.

 

Agreed
No cooler is really necessary (excellent cooling setup) but you should always try it first checking temps and buy one later if you feel it's necessary. But if you plan to leave a high OC then having one wouldn't be a bad idea.

Yes those type of coolers will fit a 17.3" laptop.

 

A cooler isn't necessary. I only use one on mine because I like to keep the laptop as cool as possible. Although it is not a necessity, I do recommend one.

 

I think there is an error with the address powernotebook.com

It is a parked domain.

 

It's www.powernotebook s.com (plural)

About the cooler... Clevo machines are known not to need any external help with cooling like a notebook cooler. I however am getting a cooler for my D901C just because I want to extend its life slightly by keeping it a little colder.

By the way, since you're importing the laptop, be prepared to pay a hefty customs/duty fee! Best wait to order the machine until you have about 10% of the total cost of the machine to cover import costs. Just to be safe. ($4000 AUD total means you should have $400 AUD to be certain)

 

I would recommend them if you're a person that would order a computer notebook from the internet

 

I would actually recommend buying your own barebone laptop and spec'ing it yourself. You actually save a little money by buying the components from newegg or ebay or other websites, and if something goes wrong with the computer you can partly blame yourself for it instead of dedicating a stream of hatred for Sager or any other reseller you would have purchase from.

About the cooler.. I do recommend it, especially if you plan on doing overclocking or not using an external keyboard. I have found out that coolers do really help a lot in keeping surface temperatures low like the on palmrest area.

 

Just wonder. My set up is to play WoW at max do you think i'd need to Oc?

 

nopes
(I think there's some 10char rule here)

 

You won't need to over clock for WOW but be sure you are patched to the latest game version as well as a recent GPU driver (I like 186.81). I always hear that WOW is particularly CPU intensive so you will be ok with that 2.85 Ghz Core2Duo.

 

I've always use laptop coolers in the past especially for my Asus and HP I used to own. Ever since getting my first Sager I never had to use a cooler again. Didn't really help because it didn't really need it. Sagers construction and design is so well thought out it makes people who designed other laptops look like idiots. Sager laptops maybe bigger and slightly bulkier, but rest assure their laptops are going to last you for a long time.

 

Great, I'm buying this babe just to play wow on ultra. I'll make sure to do both when i get the laptop.

 

great, thanks a lot for the advice guys.
im pretty excited about getting a Clevo/Sager to call my own, and now i'm more confident and informed. thanks again