Sager NP5160/NP3250: Good for College Laptop?

I apologize ahead of time for the length of my post.

To be honest, I never heard of Sager/Clevo before joining these forums. But after careful reading and research I am thinking that the Sager models that I listed in the title might be the right one(s) for what he needs. I have been astonished at the freedom of configurations one can do. Certainly more bang for the buck as well. Also, USB 3.0 seems to be standard now in these models (am I correct here?).

*My budget is $850 but I would go as high as $900. I have been looking at Xoticpc, LPC-Digital, and Power Notebooks. (I have also looked at Malibal and Mythlogic but they are beyond my budget)

My son will be entering community college this fall and will be pursuing an A.A. degree in Digital Design and then move on to a 4 year institution. The core courses he will be doing are Color & 2D Design, Graphic Design, Art with Computers, Web Graphics, Animation, and Web Page Design plus other art classes. In addition he will be doing the standard Word docs, surfing the net, term papers, etc.

I also know he must be able to run Adobe Flash CS5 and there will be animation software involved but I have not been able to find out anything else -- I've tried. I know that either model could be a decent gaming system but the primary use will not be for gaming except light stuff. He plays the majority of his games on consoles.

The reason I am looking at a Sager is because if I go with let's say a Lenovo I would have to pay considerably more for a dedicated card as well as cpu.


The central parameters I've settled on: 15.6" display no less than 1600x900 and if I can in Matte; 540M card (but would consider the 520M: see below), 4 gigs of RAM, i7 2630QM processor, a 320 GB harddrive @7200 rpm, and Windows 7 64 (which I already have so it doesn't need to be put into the budget).

Anyway, what I would like to know from you guys is this: Are these systems greater than what he needs? In light of his course work would the 520M and an i5 processor provide more than enough for what he will be doing or would you stick with the i7 and 540M?

Thanks!

 

I think it is a lot greater than what he needs and these aren't going to fit your budget very well.

4 gigs of ram is good to have for photoshop (if not more), but photoshop doesn't require a killer video card. My Dad runs his on an integrated card no issues.

It is when you get into video editing that more is required - photos not so much.

You state "animation" software but I still don't see that being a drag on the system. Possibly bump your ram to 6gb for safety, your vid card selection should be plenty, and don't fret as much about the processor if you can save some $$ there. I5 should be plenty.

 

If he's doing graphics work you'll want a high fidelity screen, so look for a 95% gamut one. It will have good color reproduction which is important in design.

Also, Photoshop doesn't require a video card (necessarily) to run well. If you're curious, here's a list of cards Adobe tested with CS5: Tested video cards | Photoshop CS5 (TL;DR - pretty much everything)

Adobe optimizes it's software to take advantage of multiple threads. I'd look for a quad-core processor.

You can get 8 GB of RAM for about $40 on and off again at Newegg.

This isn't necessary, but it's It's nice to have a second disk for PS (to use as a scratch drive). You won't find a system with dual drives for that price, but you might be able to find an external USB 3.0 drive.

The clincher is the animation software. Is it a 3D softwre package like Maya or 3DSMax? If so, you'll want to look at a professional graphics card like the nVidia Quadro series or AMD FirePro - and that means looking at a different set of laptops entirely.

 

Hey, thanks guys for the replies. So far after doing some configuring I am anywhere between $865 to $885. Perhaps if I drop to the i5 (any suggestions?) I could put the money towards more RAM.

I don't think at this point there will be 3D software package like Maya or 3DSMax and if he needs to so he can use the college's systems for that. By the way, Xerloq, I've seriously looked at the Lotus P150HM.

 

Don't drop the processor for more RAM. an i7 with 4 GB would be just fine. RAM prices are dropping right now, so an upgrade should be cheap in the future.

See if your retailer will install a single 4GB stick. You could pick up another 4GB for $20 later on.

 

Okay, will do.