Sager NP8170 from xoticpc vs Satori malibal and choosing AMD

looking for gaming machine with 1080p, lets put it that way
first of all both of them rock. customer service seems gr8. This is my 5th laptop in 2 years. dell -gateway fx - asus g72gx - g73jw - toshiba qosmio x505 which i just sold , so now its def sager

1. I want to know if one is better than the other in terms of build, finish? malibal website photos look awesome

2. now the other issue i am facing is, I have been a nvidia guy all my life. I am thinking about switching to amd 6990m since its only $145! thats a steal really. I know their drivers are no where near nividia verde! any thoughts on that ? will I be fine. or upgrade to 485m which is about $245 with malibal

3. ic diamond worth the $40 ?

4. should i buy blu ray writer or can i buy external usb ones? looks like i can save around $80. I dont how they will work though. i m looking to backup all my files with blu ray discs, i got around 3tb of data man, not kidding

5. wireless card should i upgrade to killer or intel or leave it.

6. is there a way to get win7 cheaper somewhere?(legally the student deals have gone up to $65.

thanks guys really appreciate your time. If there is anything else feel free to add.
oh btw my budget is $1300 cash , might go upto $1400 to get the extra $100 off!

 

Hey acroedd, send a PM to both Xotic and Malibal to get custom quotes worked out too, since NBR forum rules are pretty strict for us resellers.

To answer your questions:

1.) I'll ignore this one since I am obviously biased
2.) I think you'll be good with the ATI card, lots of NBR members have it and love it.
3.) Depends, if you plan to game a lot, it can help keep things a bit cooler. You can always apply some yourself after the sale too. I would put this a little lower on the upgrade priority list.
4.) If you've got a lot of data, I'd suggest an external hard drive instead of blu-rays since you'll have a bunch of those laying around if you plan to back up 3TB of data. USB 3.0 could help with that.
5.) A lot of NBR members are starting to take a shine to the Bigfoot card. The comparisons show it is a good one.
6.) The student deal at $65 is better than the price most resellers offer at $80.

Thanks for your interest!

 

1. The notebooks are identical. Malibal posts better pictures.

2. I've never heard anyone regretting going with the 6990 due to poor performance compared to the 580M. From gaming benchmarks, 6990 may be 5%-8% slower in certain titles. It's up to you what 1-2 extra FPS is worth.

3. Unless you are deathly afraid of using a screwdriver than no, it's not worth it. You can get a decent tube of thermal paste for <$15. Plus you'll have the tube for many reapplications. There are plenty of detailed how-to's on this subject.

4. Personally, I don't think an internal blu-ray drive is worth it. You'll likely want to replace the optical drive with a HDD (>500 gig) at a later point anyways. Go with an external drive.

5. I have no experience with this. I got the standard Intel model on my 8150 and haven't had any problems with gaming lag or download speeds.

6. No clue. I got my Win7 for free from my university.

 

@ JP you are awesome! the guys from xoticpc are friendly.
you really got me thinking about externals, i have a 1 tb wsd which is nice. maybe one more, going to drop the thermal paste upgrade and maybe get the bigfoot. ill pm you to get a custom quote this weekend. ill def buy one by black friday latest, if you guys are planning some cool deals let me know.

 

@ tbert03 . atleast the cosmetic issues are fixed! ill take your word

2. i was not really worried about the 5% gain in graphics, my problem was updating drivers. i had g73jh with ati hd 5870 and it crashed when i updated the drivers, since its not manufacturer specific! so ill be stuck with an old driver as new games keeps coming up.JP any pro insights?
3 again i m not gonna use the thermal paste upgrade thanks man , i saved 40 bucks there
4 . oh major question. i have an oldd dell pc in the house with win7 home pre i got 30 bucks. can i use that to install in my new laptop?? that will save me 65 bucks!
thankkkkkkk youuuuu guys!

 

I haven't heard of any issues with the current set of ATI drivers with the 6990M, most members have reported that they have had great luck with the newer drivers

Also I think Microsoft has a policy where Win7 can only be installed on one machine unless you have that family pack edition

 

oh that is gr8 news? now can you update the drivers from the amd website or thats a big no no? also what do you think abt the blu ray reader? do you i m better off not spending $80 there? i can just get an external one later? also please check out this page
Amazon.com: Panasonic UJ240 6x Blu-ray Burner BD-RE/8x DVD±RW DL SATA Drive (Black): Electronics
will that fit with sager chasis perfectly or you would advice against that! ? I really appreciate you guys replying to my posts!

 

Any slim 12.7mm SATA drive will fit. That model looks like it should work. The only issues you might have are that the plastic bezel may not match the machine unless you swap it out for the one the machine ships with. Some drives this is easy, some it's not.

 

If there is a frys near your or want to order online they have this LG burner for 98 bucks.

FRYS.com | LG

I decided not to go blu ray on my laptop I ordered since I have no blu rays, I nearly stream anything I want to watch via hulu and netflix. Also I am expecting holiday sales for possible blu ray burners or writers and possibly ssds.

 

I have decided against blu ray player n burner, I dont use blu rays too, i tht i would start backing up all my media, like our nbr friends advised me, thats not a good plan, might as well get some good portable 1tb hdds this black friday! thanks guys!