Sager NP8258 incoming!

Just ordered! Incredibly happy to return to Sager

Sager NP8258 - Gaming Laptop
15.6” Full HD 16:9 Wide screen (1920x1080) LED-Backlit Display with 95% NTSC Color Gamut Matte Screen
nVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M 192bit w/6.0GB GDDR5
Intel Core i7-4810MQ (2.8~3.8GHz) w/6M L3 Cache - 4 Cores - 8 Threads
16GB (2x8GB) DDR3L/1600 Dual Channel Memory
1TB SATA II 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM Hard Drive
Combo Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW CD-R/RW Drive w/Softwares
9-in-1 Memory Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/SD/Mini‐SD/SDHC/SDXC)
Integrated 802.11 b/g/n wireless LAN + Bluetooth™ V4.0 Combo Card
8 Cell Smart Lithium-Ion Battery 76.96Wh
Full Range 180W Auto Switching AC Adapter
Sager Logo

 

Grats! Exciting times

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

 

Congrats! Glad you were able to sell your alienware.

 

Why did you decide to move away from AW?

 

Too bulky, no 15" high-end option. Can't handle carrying the 17" on my back while traveling to college on a bike everyday..

 

The lack of a 15in alienware is a problem. Add in the price difference between the 14 and 17 and it only geta worse.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

 

As a proud owner of an 8258-S, I'll tell you now, you will not be disappointed. At all.

Some things to keep in mind when you get your laptop.

1. Make sure the latest intel bluetooth drivers are installed. And you may be kicking yourself you didn't spend the bit extra for the AC card, but it should be adequate.

2. The touchpad out of the box will absolutely suck balls. However, as I found out through 2 hours of tinkering, it can be fixed!
a. There's a touchpad driver. Open it up, then tweak out the settings. You need to customize the trackpad mouse speed to be a bit faster to be more similar to other trackpads (like the asus or alienware).
b. Fix up the scroll speed. By default it's 6 pages per 'touch' which is damn annoying. I'd lower it to 1 or 2, then the page scrolling more closely resembles what you're used to.
c. Enable the touch points for up/down scrolling. Trust me, comes in very handy.
d. Make sure the multi-touch is enabled. you'll enjoy it.

Basically tweak the settings to get as close to the previous touchbad as you were used to, it is possible, and it makes the trackpad actually enjoyable to use.

That's honestly all I noticed that was 'annoying' with the 8258-S. And with just driver updates or config tweaks, I was able to resolve it fine.

Oh, and you'll be pleasantly surprised that the fan noise is remarkably quiet. From all the complaints I heard from the 8255, I was expecting to hear a jet engine when the fans kicked in, but that's just not so. Even when the fans kick on high, I'm able to carry on a conversation with my wife sitting beside me while we watch TV at normal volume without impacting anything we're hearing.

So it likely hits barely over 40 decibels. A remarkable improvement.

And the heat dissipation, yea, works great. Witcher 2 on ultra is fluid as hell, and runs the GPU (i got diamond IC paste), at about 82c. The CPU doesn't even break 80c. Usually sits between 75-78.

Enjoy your laptop! I know I am

 

Thanks for the tips on the touchpad. I had heard that it did suck the balls. I am going to have the same thing on my NP8278 Real Soon Now.

 

Thanks for the info, Ashen-Shugar! That will help me out too.

 

Yeah definitly something Ill be doing on my 8298 when it arrives. I primarily use a razer naga, but do surf on the couch with the wife and having a decent touchpad will be nice. Seems only the 8268 got the synaptics and the rest have the same or similar touchpad.

 

Thanks for the tips, mate! Could you perhaps provide links for the driver updates you'd want me to look into?

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

For the AC intel wifi adapter, for the bluetooth, grab: http://downloadmirror.intel.com/23451/eng/BT_3.1.1311_s64.exe

The built-in (non-upgraded) I believe is the belkin bluetooth, but not sure which card it is off the top of my head. xoticpc should be able to provide you that information.

 

Do you guys prefer the Intel AC over the Bigfoot?

 

Seems to be the general consensus.

 

Bigfoot is really just regular Qualcomm Atheros HW with fancy QoS software, which technically most routers can do.

That said, the Intel is generally picked because it's 802.11ac while Bigfoot things have been 802.11n this making Intel more future proof.

Atheros makes good chipsets though. I wish a mainstream laptop 802.11ac chip would be available. The Qualcomm Atheros 802.11n generally performed better vs. Intel and Broadcom 802.11n in my opinion but for whatever reason I've yet to see an 802.11ac chip from them for laptops thus making Intel the one ahead.

The Intel device in the beginning had some issues but they've sense great stabilized the drivers.

You just need to load two, one for wireless and one for bluetooth.

Beyond that the only thing I do with Intel extra is disable background scanning via registry modification to eliminate any random ping spikes

 

Awesome - thanks for the input guys!

 

So for the sake of using basic campus WiFi, I doubt the AC will give me any advantage over the stock Wifi card since it's slow overall anyway.

 

In that environment, correct. it'd buy you nothing.

The reason for the Intel AC is:
1. Once they fixed their driver issues, intel tends to (not always, but mostly) have superior hardware with networking.
2. The AC wifi standard is the future and it means that you can adapt as tech progresses.
3. It's only like $35 extra

 

Right. But it's only seemingly the future in the present. In the actual future, there'll be something else to consider as the further future. But I guess that's just how it works.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

*grin* sounds like a line out of Monty Python or Three Stooges.

The future future will be past the past in the present for the future.

 

Lol that's true too!

 

Hey there! I'm thinking of getting the NP8258, how is yours coming along so far? Any problems, concerns or anything at all?

 

Great machine overall. Fantastic build quality. I do have a few issues with it though, one being the trackpad isn't always functioning perfectly but it isn't too bad either and gets the job done most times. Otherwise, I still have my trust mouse. Secondly, the screen panel isn't as sturdy as I had hoped. Then again, it's not fragile or poor quality either. I just suppose that's how it's gotta be unless I'm okay with dealing with more weight (which I'm not). Finally, the speakers aren't the best but they can be tweaked decently enough with the Creative audio software suite. That's about it.. All in all a great purchase! I'm extremely happy with it's usability, performance, lovely keyboard feel (for a programmer too), cooling, etc. No comments on the screen since I got one of the last 2 95% NTSC Gamut screens from XoticPC, and it could be better for the additional price. Perhaps the stock screen is better than it after all. I've flashed the custom PremaMOD BIOS and svl7's modded vBIOS and the laptop runs even better than stock (without OC/UV) ! Anything specific you looking to hear about?

 

Well, been running for about 4 months now.

I'd be lying if I said I had zero issues, but I've been able to resolve them.

Issues I've ran across:

1. The sound (both speaker and headphone) would become tinny and muted after the use of a microphone in the mic jack.

Solution: Update the sounddriver and the hotkey (in that order). You need to update the sounddriver then uninstall the old hotkey and install the new hotkey (from the sager site. The April release fixed my issue).

2. The headphone jack would become unresponsive when the system is put into sleep mode. And this happened only once so far in a blue moon.

Solution: Sadly it required a reboot. I believe this is also related to a hotkey driver issue, and I think the hotkey driver went into some weird spin-lock and didn't recover when the system went out of sleep mode. Other people have reported some random wonky behavior with headphone jacks and putting their system in and out of sleep mode and the hotkey app. So at this point we just wait for a hotkey driver issue.

Again, this is a driver issue, not a hardware issue.

3. Keyboard -- It's the best keyboard for a laptop I used, but some of the key placement took my fingers a bit of time to get used to. Hitting the caplock, and alt/control (on the right side) is a bit easier to do because of how they reduce the size of the shift to make room for the arrow keys and shift the keys a bit. It's not hard to get used to, but it is a bit annoying to start with. After a few weeks I got along fine with it, and as I said, the keyboard feedback and tactile is absolutely fantastic.

4. The 'Sager' decal on the top of the laptop wore off the first time I put it in my nylon laptop bag. They sent new decals (more than a few) so it's a non-issue and is more an annoyance than anything else. And I believe it's because the laptop lid is rubberized (which I approve of) and the decal has time sticking to it.

So for 4 months and going, that's the only thing I ran into. Mostly driver related issues and a small annoyance with a front-cover decal.

The build quality has been spot on.
The cooling of the laptop has remained entirely strong.

Granted, I do have a laptop cooler (The Coolmaster V3) but I use my laptop quite often on the go, and I don't use the coolmaster when I'm traveling (too much a headache), and I usually play Skyrim, Fallout NV, and Dead Island when I'm traveling (all max)

The highest my GPU has gotten is about 76c and my CPU hovers around 66-72c with those particular games.

Granted, if I played something like BF4 or Thief 2014, I'd probably clock higher temps, but I've not hit max fans yet, nor has the GPU gotten above mid 80's (except once at 91 with a beta non-optimized game (Planet Explorers) that went into some graphical loop before the fans kicked up to medium and dropped it back down to around 82).

So cooling has remained amazing on this laptop.

The build quality is solid, no cracks or separations on anything. The lid still remains firm and has minimal wobble. All the various jacks on the laptop works fine. Though to date I've not tried the HDMI out.

The screen is still beautiful, and the sound quality is strong enough to fill a small room while watching blurays. I did this quite often while in my motel.

The fan noise is non-existent for normal day to day tasks (browsing, email, youtube videos, blah blah), and only kicks on lightly when you do things that require more grpahical and/or cpu utilization.

Even loaded down with games it still isn't loud. You can play games with the sound at around 30 (out of 100) and it drowns out the fans nicely. I do this all the time on Skyrim, and yes, I play skyrim on 1920x1080xultra

I have gotten a nice pair of headsets though. I have the V-MODA XS on the ear headphones. The boommic works insanely nicely with the rig. Absolutely amazing headphones, insane build quality, but they won't be cheap.

Overall, this laptop has exceeded my expectations and I believe this laptop will last me 5+ years compared to my previous Asus(s) that died after 2