Sager 5793 Buying Decision

All,

Well, after deciding on a Gateway P-172X-FX only to receive it with a broken touchpad, warped keyboard, one failing drive (wasn't configured with RAID 0 as advertised, either) and lots of BSODs to stare at starting happening beginning from the first boot... I returned and began to look elsewhere.

I'm fairly particular about quality and I appreciate good craftsmanship, so I have been intrigued with what I've been reading about the Sager 5793. My research ultimately brought me to this forum and I am looking particularly at Xotic PC as a vendor.

I wanted to ask the group here a couple of questions about the 5793.

1) How durable is the black aluminum cover on the back of the LCD panel? Is it painted or anodized? My experience with black aluminum anadozed PC cases has taught me that not matter how careful you are (and I am crazy careful) they always end up with slight scratches. How durable is the black aluminum on the laptop? I prefer the look of the black, but I am leaning towards silver for cosmetic durability. Any comments here?

2) How are these machines holding up over the long haul?

3) I see that Sager offers dead pixel protection. Is this a problem with Sager's machine that they need to offer this? I have been buying flat panels and laptops for years and I have to ever get a machine with a defective pixel. Maybe I am just lucky, but the fact that there is a warranty offered makes me wonder if there was a reason they had decided to offer it.

4) How loud are the fans, really? Does the latest bios address this by allowing you game with the fans running constantly on medium instead of spiking to full, or do they end up hitting full anyway?

5) I read a lot about other manufacturer's laptops having issues with cosmetic blemishes and the like, probably due to less than careful handing during the build process. What are the Sagers like in this regard? Particularly the units bought from Xotic PC.

Any other comments or suggestion around my purchase would be great!

Below is the build I am considering:

Sager NP5793 Custom Sager Notebook (Built on Clevo M570RU-U / M571RU-U)
- None Standard
- None Standard
- ~Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Installed (64&32-Bit CD Included) w/ Drivers & Utilities CD's
- None Standard
- None Standard
- Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- None Standard
- None Standard
- ADD 1 Spare 579x AC Adapter
- Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- Basic Black Business Case - Included
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- None Standard
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- None Standard
- Built-in Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965 802.11 a/g/n
- Internal Bluetooth 2.0+ EDR
- Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader (MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS Pro Duo/SD/Mini-SD/MMC/RS)
- None Standard
- None Standard
- ~ 200GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache)
- ~Combo 8x8x6x4x Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW 5x DVD-RAM 24x CD-R/RW Drive w/Softwares
- NP5792/5793 Silver Frame Trim Color
- None Standard
- ~ SPECIAL~ 4,096MB DDR2 667 PC2 5300 (2 SODIMMS) Dual Channel Memory (Requires Vista 64-Bit to recognize Full 4GB) $75 OFF When Purchased with 8800M GTX
- None Standard
- 512MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce 8800M GTX DX10 (User Upgradeable)
- ~Intel® T9300 45nm "Penryn" Core™2 Duo 2.5GHz w/6MB L2 On-die cache - 800MHz FSB
- Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
- 17" WUXGA "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy Screen (1920x1200)

Regards,

Rick

 

Regarding the heat/fans issue read http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=241632

 

I cannot believe my eyes!!! lol. Are those people crazy?!?!?!?!
I was really considering gateway.But this experience is just mind-blowing.

 

Tell me about it. I REALLY wanted to like that machine. I even went through the technical support process that took 2 days to complete only finally to get someone in their tier 3 support group to tell me it was defective. And then I entertained a replacement which was going to take 3 weeks to ship. On top of that, the 15 money back guarantee starts with the first purchase and after a lengthy discussion with a supervisor, I was told that this guarantee would in fact be expired by the time I receive my replacement. Since I hadn't even had a chance to game with it or do any other work with it as it was defective, I really didn't know if I was going to like it and after this experience, I was admittedly concerned that I might not.

So... back it goes and I move on to something else. But, I don't want to trade on nightmare for another, hence my post here.

 

Here are the questions that I can answer:

2. Very Well. So far, I had no overheating problems with my nb.
3. Many resellers offer and and big companies do so also. There is no need of it. The LCD is perfect with 0 dead pixels for most people.
4. With the BIOS update, theyre not that bad. Yes, you will be able to do hat.
5. Clevo Notebooks, In my opinion, are the best built notebooks, right behind buisness notebooks such as HP and Lenovo.

 

i cant find any dead/stuck pixel on mine

 

I know these machines are stable though I don't have a 5793,mine is 9262.

IMHO if u have a HD screen(1900x1200) you don't need a dead pixel checking option as you probably won't notice it.And I don't think the checking option is due to problems.I had 2 and never noticed any.

I think your spec choice is good too.

 

I just noticed that with Sager, Xotic offers a 30 no questions asked money back guarantee. That's pretty good!

I think I may just take the plunge on this. They don't appear to be open on the weekends, so I suppose I should wait until Monday.

As far as color choices go, can anyone comment on the durability of the black? I would think the silver is probably bare aluminum with a clear coat of some sort so it might be more scratch resistant.

 

First of all, don`t buy directly from Sager.
Get it from XoticPC.com or PowerNotebooks.com since they get the SAME units from Sager but sell them at a lower price and you get BETTER customer support.
Otherwise,the questions have been answered..
Anything else you want to know,just ask

 

Your spec almost same like mine, except for the HDD.
Mine came in silver colour

1. I think it's scratchable :O but then if you apply some cosmetic like schtickers.... and no, it's not paint but the side trim is.
2. I "burn" my laptop for 72 hours (up until now) there's no heat or indication of it. Although the right palm rest does get a little bit warm, but overall it's a cool machine, and within the keyboard (the backspace area) you can feel a bit cool air on it
3. Mine came with no dead pixels, but as RAMBO29 mentioned, yeah you won't notice even if it's there
4. Mine came a bit loud for standard laptop, but then I don't know if it's applied with the newest version of the firmware (and btw, how to check the fan's firmware?)
5. There's no cosmetic scratch on my Clevo, and yeah as Eleron911 said, the build is very strong

 

It all sounds pretty good. I know the painted finish on my Dell laptops has lasted without getting scratched pretty well, but it's painted plastic instead of painted aluminum. Now, aluminum is very cool and I'd rather have the black, unless it's prone to easy scratching.

 

The black tops are annodised. When you lazer etch them it shows up the silver metal colour underneath but tbh if you scratch either there will be a mark. However it may show up more on a black top as if it's deep enough you will see metal under it..........

 

Yeah, this is what I was wondering about. I had a black anodized aluminum tower case and it scratched pretty easily. I am really careful with my things but if sliding the laptop in and out of a bag (perhaps brushing against a zipper by accident or something) will put minor scratches on it that will show the metal underneath, then I may just opt for silver.

I figured I'd ask around in here before placing the order.

 

I've had my 5793 for 4 months now and couldnt be happier. The black top showed way to many fingerprints for me, so i just went and got a skin for it, no scratches and i took it everywhere, (didnt want to let it out of my sight) the fans are not that loud, my old HP's fans were louder then the 5793's.
I run my laptop for hours on end and havent even noticed a single hiccup yet, so they do hold up very well.
Hope the info helps out.

 

i covered mine with 3m clear car bra material i custom cut to fit.. cant even tell its there

 

I keep mine as it is and clean it weekly. Just like new

 

I love the finish on my 5790, but during the first week it got a small dent on the lid. it's hardly noticeable, but -I- know it's there and it bugs the crap out of me, like the first scratch/dent on a new car

 

I wondered about that knowing that aluminum is easy to ding but I assumed it was an aluminum skin over plastic. Is that the case?

 

Do all Clevo's make as much noise as the 5793? And if not, is it because of the 8800m GTX it is making so much noise?

 

No.
It`s a M570RU thing.
The D901C is actually much quieter.

 

@Deathwinger, the air 5793 blows are more than the sum of my other 4 laptops

 

OK, now you're making it sound like a hovercraf!

I hear some people say it's not that bad while others say it's loud. I wonder how it compares to an Inspiron 1705 on full fan speed. That gets noticably loud.

 

well I said the amount of air, the not noise level.
however, I doubt there would be any laptop user not surprise about it when they first seen it.

 

You mean to say that anyone would likely be surprised at how loud it is, or by how much air it moves?

I've read in numerous posts that overheating isn't an issue with this laptop at all, which is great considering the horsepower crammed into it. You have to expect some moving air with a setup like that.

But, some fans are noisier than others. When I build a desktop PC I try to go for efficiency of airflow so as to reduce the speed of the fans, thereby reducing noise. This isn't easy to do with a laptop but the fan design can add to the noise level.

Are the fans themselves noisy or is it just the sound of a lot of airflow that you mostly hear? If you can't hear the high pitched whine of fans, then that shouldn't be too bad.

 

both......