Sager NP5792 direct comparisons with Alienware m97xx

On Monday, I finally picked up my NP5792 computer from the office where I had it shipped. Since I am also an Alienware m9700 owner, and that system shares a chassis with the m9750 I thought people would be interested in some direct comparisons between the two. As there is obviously no comparison in performance between my brand new 8800M GTX machine and my two year old Alienware, I will focus on the physical comparisons, rather than the performance differences.

My first impression of the NP5792 was that it was quite a heavy machine. It is easily a pound heavier than the m97xx. When you include the power brick however, the systems are almost equal, as the brick for the Sager is one of the smaller ones you would generally associate with a 15" notebook, and the m97xx has probably the largest brick I have ever seen. The Alienware is deeper (from rear of machine to front of keyboard) by almost 3/4 of an inch, but the Sager is slightly thicker at the rear (about 8mm thicker), but thinner at the front of the unit (1mm lower). This would make the Sager easier to use on airplanes, where the Alienware would often be unable to open completely.

I was shocked at the build quality of the Sager. The machine is incredibly solid, and even the well-made Alienware seems flimsy beside it. Nothing on the machine looks to be fragile at all. The hinge in the back is especially notable in comparison. While the m97xx screen and hinge will sway at times and feels a bit "loose", the NP5792 feels rock solid. Design, on the other hand, have a few things I would consider flaws. While the m97xx has an easily adjustable volume wheel on the right hand side of the machine, the Sager requires you to tweak your volume via Fn/keyboard controls. That's a dissapointing omission on a $2500 machine. The ethernet connection is on the right-hand side along with the two USB ports. This will probably lead to some cable management issues, and I would have placed the ethernet and modem connectors on the rear or left hand side. The optical drive on the other hand, is properly placed on the left, in comparison to the poorly situated m97xx with it's front-loading optical drive which I have on numerous occasions had open while carrying the unit. Visual impressions are extremely subjective, but the m97xx is clearly the more striking unit. The skullcap is unmistakable and announces your laptop to everyone. The Sager resembles a well-made business computer, which is either good or bad, depending on the impression you wish to make. Overall, the m97xx is the better looking machine in my opinion.

The Sager is no louder than the m97xx when operating at full tilt, but the well-documented fan throttling issues are real and not imagined. Comments that loud fans are a byproduct of owning a performance laptop are partly true, but the constant spinning and stopping of the fan system is completely unacceptable, which is probably why Sager has released two BIOS fixes already. There is no reason for this laptop to run its fans at full speed while typing this review, as it does every 30 seconds or so in normal use. When operating at full speed, the Sager is actually slightly quieter than the m97xx, although make no mistake... both machines are significantly more noisy than your standard laptop with integrated graphics. While I have no issues sleeping with one 2 feet from my head, my girlfriend will protest if my m9700 is still running in the next room. This is a subjective thing, and what is too loud for one person will not bother another.

Summary:

Build Quality - Sager
Functional Design - Even
Portability - Even
Asthetic Design - Alienware

The bottom line then, is that the Sager is built better, but the Alienware looks better. Both are very well designed cases with a few flaws. The fan issue on the NP5792 is a serious concern, which should hopefully be solved with a bios fix.

Hopefully this helps some Alienware owners decide if they want a NP5792 or to wait for the m17x.

 

reserved for pics

 

Well, since you got to this point,benchmark them anyways! it would be a nice way for a direct comparisson between 2 years of evolution in performance

 

Yeah, that is all I want some benchmarks.

 

both hardware are identical...

 

I am pretty sure they`re not
This is about the newly bred sager 5792 and the 2 year old Dellienware...

 

well... its like comparing table with pornstar... its impossible to compare... one have a 7950 or a 8700 and the other one have a 8800... lol

 

Tawnos, DO you have the fan firmware update?

 

Megabud , it probably has the 7950gtx. And it`s exactly why I want to see the difference, since i have the 7950gtx myself.

 

The Alienware is a single core AMD machine running SLI 7900's, I'll bench them if you guys want something to look at, but obviously the NP5792 is going to annihilate it in every category. Furthermore, the m9700 is crippled by it's single core processor, especially in RTS games like Company of Heroes, and a objective Go 7900 GS SLI vs single 8800M GTX comparison would be flawed for this reason. The m9700 is not a m9750, it is inferior in numerous ways, from the processor to the video card to the driver support. Suffice to say that my initial impressions are overwhelmingly enthusiastic on the performance side. I am seeing jumps of 50-90 FPS on most games, and many titles that the m9700 simply could not play at reasonable framerates (Bioshock, Supreme Commander) run flawlessly at top settings, and even Crysis runs without a hitch on high (DX9) settings. It is unbelievably fast under Windows XP, and the Hitatchi Travelstar 7200rpm is easily the fastest hard drive I have used, desktops included. No game I have loaded has experienced even the least amount of FPS lag, including Company of Heroes, Team Fortress 2, Bioshock, Medieval: Total War, and Supreme Commander. I'm delighted with the performance of both the 8800M GTX, the T7700 CPU, and especially the Hitatchi Travelstar. Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 installed in under 10 minutes, compared with half an hour on some systems.

Bottom Line: The combination of the 8800M GTX, Hitatchi Travelstar, and the 2.4GHz intel processor is unbelievable and everything we hoped it would be. Regardless of if you buy an Alienware, Sager, Dell, or anything else... if you get these components you will be getting the fastest video card on the market, the best HDD you can buy, and the best bang-for-the-buck processor intel is selling at the moment.

Hkman - haven't gotten the firmware upgrade yet, so can't say how that will help. Also note my system is a true NP5792, not a 5793 like some of the later orders will recieve. As far as I can tell it's not important unless you plan to upgrade the CPU, which I certianly do not.

 

well i do 9123 on 3dmark with a single 8800m gtx... whats your mark with 7950go gtx sli or not?

 

Apologize for not getting back to everyone with the benchmarks, I've been playing with my new toys, just picked up a NAS box today! The NP5792 posted a 9800 3DMark05 running at 1680x1050. The m9700 posted a 10054 running at 1280x1024. This pretty much illustrates the complete worthlessness of the 3DMark benchmark in my opinion.