Sager NP8170 (Built on CLEVO P170HM) Advice

Hello guys

after days of searching and searching i finally came to the conclusion that my next laptop will be a clevo, since their specifications are amazing and their prices are really good. I am thinking about P170HM and X7200, and the main difference between them is the single card and the SLI/Crossfire combination. Although their price is huge, do you think crossfire 6990 will be that great in order to cover my gaming needs for the next 4-5 years in terms of high demanding games? or single 6990 will be just fine?

Furthermore I wanted to ask. Say i order the pc either from xotic pc or malibal and i dont have any EU warranty. in case something happens cant i find any european reseller of clevos and pay him to repair it for me or? I mean can it be done or it has to return to the supplier ?

I would really like your opinion on this. I am a european citizen greek but i will be in the UK from september and onwards and prices here are really high. I wanna configure a laptop that will cover easily my gaming needs for the next 4-5 years for games like GW2, BF3, MW 3 etc etc

 

Did you need your laptop to be portable at all? The P170HM is a beast, but the Nine x7200 is even bigger and less portable. If that isn't a factor, then you're right- the x7200 is much more powerful offering crossfire/SLI. Check out the benchmarks for the 6990

AMD Radeon HD 6990M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Crossfire can potentially bump those up anywhere from nothing to 60% or more improvement. (It depends a lot on the game whether it can take advantage of multiple cards).

It's hard to say whether any laptop will still be relevant that far in the future. There's just no way to know whether games will jump in requirements, or if some revolutionary technology might come out that smokes everything that came before it.

As for the warranty- since you mentioned us specifically, we do offer EU warranties now If you order without the EU warranty you would have to ship back to North America at cost. You could always take it to a local repair shop, but they may not have the parts/expertise and you'd be paying out of pocket for the repair.

 

thank you for your reply malibal, so you think i should wait and see in 1 month time how the CF 6990 will perform? or do you think single 6990 will be able to play the games with ease? I mean if it can handle BF3, MW3 etc it will be able to hold future games as well since i dont care that much of being able to play in ultra graphics etc i just want them to be flawless with okay to great graphics. I wanna be able to play MW3 and BF3 competively and properly as well as new MMORPGS such as GW2 etc which i dont think they can be that demanding. I dunno really its a hard choice.

any more opinions would be really appreciated

I dont really care for mobility, i just want to carry it when i travel from UK-Greece. Other than that it will be in my office 24/7.

 

I'd say a 6990m will last you at least 2 years with the extra 6990m making maybe 3. Aiming for 4 or 5 without upgrades is really pushing it.

Keep in mind when I say 2 years etc, that is to play at reasonable settings. You'll probably stay maxed out for less than that. It is just the nature of computers.

 

Really? That low? i am okay with the idea of upgrading since clevo are customize friendly so i guess single card would really be the magic here since dual would really be expensive. only issue is if the motherboard can support future cards

 

I'm just guessing and I'm basing that on trends I've seen over the last 10 years.

If you were lucky to get in on these past 3 years, I'd say the technology didn't change much. So I tried to pick points somewhere in the middle.

As Malibal stated, it is somewhat luck of the draw.

 

Okay thank you for your opinion! my real question is if i buy a clevo from usa will i find european resellers providing me with service for it in case something happens?

 

I belive Malibal stated in another thread that they have European service available for European customers.

 

Malibal do offer an EU warranty, I think its around £250 extra (it may be $$$ I am sure they will confirm )

But tbh expecting any clevo to last 4 years is pushing it, even if you are open to the idea of upgrading cards there are a couple of problems

A) Availability - Single cards are often hard to come by, even more so with the cards with the SLI/Xfire connectors

B) Price - Single cards are often over £300 each to replace + Heatsink

C) Compatibility - Even if you can find a card and afford the upgrade there is no gurantuee that the card will work in 3/4 years time the connector will almost certainly be different and even if it is not you need BIOS support which is unlikely.

So in short, Buying from the states can save you abit of cash but a single failure and the cost of repair/postage will negate any saving.

And if you want to upgrade cards in the future, have deep pockets, utilise the net to source cards and cross your fingers on A, B and C above

Pman

 

Yes, we do offer an EU Warranty now... the pricing is on our configuration pages. It's in USD.

 

Yeah i totally forgot about vat and import duties + shipping costs so i will go with a european clevo provider. Thank you pman for your advice. I configured from mysn.de a great P170 around 1800 euros but i hope it can last 4-5 years even at low graphics, cause its really frustrating to waste so much money for something that will last only 2-3 years maximum.

 

In 4 or 5 years, there will exist something twice as powerful for around the same price. I say just buy what ever you can afford now, cherish it in the present and don't worry about a future we know nothing about. We can be so busy concerning ourselves with the future that we don't fully appreciate what we have access to right now.

 

thats very true indeed but the thing is although i can afford something strong its really not worth the money spending that much if my job can be done with something less strong!

this is the pc i want:


Chassis & Display
Vortex II: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2630QM (2.00GHz) 6MB Cache [or the 2720 i7 processor]

Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)

Graphics Card
AMD 6990 (when it will be available) (17.3" Vortex II)

Memory - Hard Disk
250GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)

2nd Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 320 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 270MB/sR | 130MB/sW)

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)

Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)

Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Surround 5.1 PRO (£65)

Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD INC. BLUETOOTH 3.0


USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD

i think this pc will cost me around 1800 euros together with shipping etc etc. the ssd will be for windows and some games for pure performance. what do you guys think? i chose the 2630QM processor to save some money instead of the 2720 dunno if its a good idea.

you think its a good purchase? or i can spend less on commercial laptops like MSI/Asus/ Toshiba qosmio and get something maybe less powerful but way cheaper? all i wanna say is it value for money you think?

the specifications are from pcspecialists.co.uk just to show the specifications i want. most probably i will set up the pc from mysn.de cause of better prices but will see.

 

anyone can tell me his opinion pretty pls?

 

specifications are good. If you want to pay less, buy the ssd from where you want. You can get the intel ssd for approx 170€.

 

Purchase the ssd later and upgrade it yourseld. laptop reseller normally have high markup for hard drive. Get a sata 3 ssd. Cheap one i think is crucial c300 or m4. Your reseller give u 250gb 5400rpm drive. I thought sager or clevos come with basic 500gb 7200rpm drive.

 

According to Moore's Law, you'll have something twice as powerful in 18-24 months. Technology will always get better, but the highest end parts now will still be relevant in a few years, but the prices are quite high.

If you want a laptop that will last you longer, the X7200 will be a much better choice for you, be warned that it is a monster and not nearly as portable as the P170HM.

 

Ignorance speaking, but isn't the SSD generally set as the primary for OS purposes? I've read through topics where people buy the SSD and then move their HDD into the secondary position, but is it one of those either/or situations?

 

In this case, it actually wouldn't matter. You can switch which drive is booted through the Bios, regardless of which slot it's in.

Now on the P151HM1 and P150HM, etc- if your SSD is SATA III, you'd want it in the primary slot because the optical bay people use for secondary drives is SATA II only.