Sager NP8662 - My Thoughts and reviews after 1 week Use

Thank you for the pictures. I just ordered mine! How is Xoticpc.com customer service? Does anyone know?

 

I bought mine from xoticpc. Everything went smoothly and so far I would recommend them without hesitation.

 

ok thanks alot. Im so excited haha

 

Hi moggy. Hi jestermax. Both of you are going to love your new machines, I can assure you. Make sure you get plenty of sleep prior to the day UPS delivers the notebook because I guarantee you guys are not going to get any sleep that night.

 

That night is tonight and that is why I am still up.

 

congratz man. So did you guys upgrade with the turbo memory? i didn't because i didn't know if it was worth it. What did u guys do?

 

No, I didn't get the turbo memory. I got the core 2 quad Q9000, 4GB RAM, GTX 260M, and the WSXGA display.

 

i couldn't do much upgrading. I just got 4gb of ram instead of 2.

 

Great review man, nice to see your enjoying it!

 

How significant is the gain upgrading from the P8600/8700 to the Q9000?

 

That's a good question. I'm thinking the 2.8 as well, but with the leap oto 2.8 (2.6?) GHz with Prototype, i might get the 2.0

 

The 3DMark06 score for Q9000 is about 13% higher than for P8700. That, of course, doesn't mean that the total gaming performance rises by the same percentage. P8700 (with GTX 260M and WXSGA+) will play the vast majority of current games on high settings with ease in the native resolution. While it's certain that Q9000 would achieve a better fraps score, I pretty much doubt you would know from the gaming experience. Q9000 with 45 TDP will emit more heat and be less power efficient than P8700 with 25 TDP. And the price difference of $165 (xotic) will get you a great sound card, headphones and gaming mouse. How about that for an improved gaming experience?

 

Really, the only reason I can think of not getting the Q9000 is if you really need maximum battery life. I have a P9600 and while playing left 4 dead, I get 100% cpu usage. But if you wanna save a couple bucks, yeah the P8600-P8700 are good processors too.

 

Couple bucks! more like a few hundreds =p

 

Any news on those battery benchmarks? It's a necessity for me.

 

For one of my main purposes, running Mathematica well, it is significant.

For gaming, I don't know.

 

There is nothing mentioned about a 2.8 Ghz on the Prototype DVD box, it says 1.8 ghz Core2Duo.

 

Hi, i have some questions about this laptop. How long does its battery last on normal stuffs such as word, or excel? Is it capable of any kind of RAID? Finally, how do you feel about the its weight? Thanks.

 

Its not capable of any type of RAID since it only supports one hard drive.

I don't know if any 15" laptops have enough room for a second hard drive and thus RAID capabilities. You'll have more luck with RAID looking at 17" laptops.

 

Asus G50 or G51 have capability to due dual HDs. Not sure about RAID. I believe the AW 15" laptop can also house dual-hds, as well as some of the business laptops out there.

 

Okay guys. finally back. I have been off the site for a couple of weeks i have been out of the state. Today when i get home i am going to try to run that battery eater test. Any good programs for that?

 

There's a nice program called stopwatch. It heard it works well with food, a drink, and a movie.

 

Would a 250GB 5400rpm be sufficient enough for gaming? Does the rpm effect the games performance other then load times and installations and stuff?

Does it make things run smoother?

I am probably going to pick this laptop up with everything standard except the RAM (up to 4GB) and now I am contemplating what HDD to get...I am trying to keep the price low as much as possible, and still keep it efficient for games like Crysis or FarCry.

So, would getting a 5400rpm make me regret it later? I am not really very picky with load times...

 

ey m4

Do you have any plans at any point to put an SSD in there?

 

i just thought the 30 bucks or so would justify a 320 7200 rpm upgrade.... your call though, i couldnt say if it would show you a real world difference honestly...

 

5400RPM HDD's should never be used as the primary HDD in such a high performance notebook. You made the right choice, m4ttjirM.

 

if its a new 5400rpm drive (320GB and up), it actually performs the same as previous generation 7200rpm drives (~200GB and below)... the reason being that the new high capacity drives have higher densities which vastly improved their seek times and performance.

 

I still like the snappy access times on 7200RPM drives. I have a few 5400RPM drives dedicated for torrents and they get thrashed around compared to my 7200RPM drives.

 

How does a 320GB 5400 rpm HDD sound?

Again I am no gaming enthusiast with PC gaming, only with console gaming...And I am not really picky about too many things...

Also, how much RAM is sufficient? I am seeing the standard is ~ 2,048MB DDR3 1066MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS). The previous Laptop I was looking to buy had 4GB of DDR2 ram with 800MHz.

Would you say the 2GB of DDR3 is > or equal to the 4GB of DDR3?

Again I am very tight on cash and upgrading to the 320GB would still be slightly setting me back.

 

RAM is really cheap nowadays. Go straight for the 4GB kit.

A 320GB 5400RPM HDD will serve you well.

 

The 4GB is a whole $50 upgrade :-\...

And then the HDD is +$15 (which is more then reasonable) but it all adds up to $1457...

I have to overlook this and think about it...Its a computer that will last me more then a long enough time thats for sure, its future proof for a good while.

Hmm...

 

Between your two choices, the upgrade to 4GB RAM is far more beneficial and future proof than the HDD. If you don't think you can swallow $50 for more RAM that will last you the next few years, then I have nothing else to say. Godspeed with your purchase.

 

Looks like it'll take me an extra month to get enough to purchase this thing...

Oh well thats fine. I got enough time and who knows if I am lucky something good will come around in that month.

One last question, does this computer come in with an overclocking feature like ASUS has on its G50 series?

 

No.

Oh my god! 699 posts!

 

If I wait a little longer I can get a 250GB 7200rpm with a 4GB..

I agree the 4GB is what I want more then either, for sure...but either or I have to wait a month to get, so I might as well get both in said month.

 

Alright I will just overclock it with SetFSB if needed ^.^!

 

Is this gaming laptop really that "GOOD"? Because Sager is kinda new brand in my country

And some people said the build quality is bad compare to Asus or Alienware...

And also, is there any service center for Sager in Australia?

thx b4

 

Those people probably haven't even seen one.

 

HA! Alienware tends to melt if you put the same kind of components into their machines (see early complaints of the m15x)

Most of what you've been told is fanboy/bias talk. Get the three similar machines together (G50-VT/m15x/M860TU) for a test run. Unless you're really into flashy gimmicks I think you'll find the results will surprise.

I'll be honest about one thing - having a smartbay and a secondary, onboard graphics card would have been pretty sweet on the M860TU.

 

wow. thx for the insight about this laptop.

but, what about the service center in australia?

 

Amazing review =]
I ordered mine yesterday, now for the longest 2 weeks of my life T.T

So Windows 7 RC works really well on this notebook?
I have yet to try Windows 7, but from everything I hear its really amazing.

I ordered the Vista OS with the free Windows 7 upgrade, but I think I'm going to install the RC when it arrives.

My only worry (just from not being extremely knowledgeable on the windows situation) is if using Windows 7 RC is good for my primary OS.
You said it works great, but I didn't know if there were a lot of bugs or errors that come with it not being a full release.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. =]

 

win7 RC1 is stable... it's usable for a primary OS. As for performance, i second that this thing is a machine, go nuts. What are your specs?

 

Crazy: Where are you ordering from? I know xotic allows you to order the pc w/o ram for 40 bucks less. Then you can buy 4 gigs from newegg for about $57. The total increase from the base price would be only ~$17.

 

very nice 3dmark score, especially considering my quadcore desktop scored 13,508.

 

Thats great to hear =]

as for my specs:

Processor: Intel® P9700 45nm "Montevina" Core™2 Duo 2.8GHz
Video Card: nVidia GeForce GTX 260M 1,024MB
Ram: 4,096MB DDR3 1066MHz
Primary Hard Drive: 500GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 3

 

YOU STOLE MY IDEA! enjoy it, the np8662 is a monster.

 

any way someone can post some pics?

 

I doubt you will have much luck with that but if you do, you will probably only get a few extra Mhz if anything at all.

 

Well I ordered today! I should get it hopefully next week!

I can't wait! And hopefully I dont get a screwy HDD but regardless I have been reading ways to help cool ot and I will be sure to do them instantly.