Sager NP9280 vs alienware M17x

Hi

I am trying to decide on one of these two, I heard alienware makes great laptops but their services are terrible, so people recommended me sager and I find NP9280 to be the most suitable for me. I just want to hear people's opinions on these laptops

Sager NP9280

- Display: 17" Wide Viewing Angles WUXGA LCD with Super Glossy Surface (1920 x 1200)
- Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-920 Processor ( 8MB L3 Cache, 2.66GHz, 4.8GT/sec QPI )
- Video & Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M Graphics with 1GB DDR3 Video Memory
- Operating System: Genuine MS Windows® VISTA Home Premium 64-Bit Edition
- Memory: 3GB Triple Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 3 X 1GB
- RAID Storage Options: Non-RAID Storage
- Primary Hard Disk Drive: 320GB 5400rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive[+$15.00]
- Optical Drive: 8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
- Wireless Network Card: Intel Wi-Fi Link 5300AGN - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module
- Bluetooth: Internal Bluetooth V2.1 Module
- Primary Battery: Smart Li-ION Battery Pack (12 Cells)
- Microsoft Office: Microsoft Office Ready with Free 60-Day Trial
- Warranty: Sager 2 Year Limited Parts & Labor Warranty + 30 days No Dead Pixel Insurance[+$249.00]
- Carrying Bag: Standard Carrying Bag


Alienware M17x

Intel® Core™2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Windows Vista® Home Premium (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
1 Yr Ltd Warranty with 1 Yr NBD Onsite Service with Complete Care and 1 Yr
17-inch WideUXGA 1920x1200 (1200p)
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz – 2 x 2048MB
320GB 7,200RPM w/ Free Fall Protection
Single NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M, 1GB
Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)

I would appreciate any help, please note I am in Canada and its harder to get the sager
also alienware is made of aluminum
any info on battery life would be greatly appreciated

 

1) The Alienware isn't made of aluminum, it's plastic coated with aluminum.

2)The 9280 will outperform the m17x with the 2 configurations you've listed. It has a faster processor and gpu.

3) The alienware will get more battery life ( around 2 1/2 hours vs 1 1/2 hours).

4) Consider the sager 9850. Dual 280m's, the most power gpus out right now, and cheaper than an alienware m17x.

 

I know both laptops are huge but isnt the 18" way too huge, I will need to take the laptop with me to university but I have my car and I only walk a few steps to class 17" should be OK but 18" will make me look like an idiot
also the 17" has a higher resolution
any words on screen and durability?

 

17" isn't any better than the 18" to carry around. You also won't be able to fit the 17" in many classroom desks.

If you're getting a computer for portability, you should disregard both and consider a 15".

 

do some research on this forum on a device called the ViDock 4.

ViDock 4 will be released in Mid to end August

ViDock 4 is a device that will allow you to hook the very latest desktop graphic card and beyond to the DF900

If this ViDock 4 works with the D900F, it will be able to beat the M17x in the future when you have more powerful graphic cards being released.

 

oh no thats no problem i usually leave my laptop in class and leave to do what ever i do then come back for it, no need to stuff it under desks and stuff

 

School maybe secure but I wouldn't go to college/uni with that attitude. Many a man have I known to lose a laptop through such notion.

 

I agree with Oiad. University isn't a place to leave things out in the open. Stay smart and keep your stuff with you.

 

I come from a different place
where I come from its safe enough to leave a laptop in the class room and not fear for it being stolen but that is besides the point
about the quality of the screen and build of the laptop, is it reliable?
I will be very hard to ship it back if it breaks or arrives defective

 

Sounds like you are home schooled then. Why not consider getting a desktop?

 

That comment made me laugh
seriously though I knew a professor who forgot his cell phones for hours on a table, when he went back for it he just found it, no one touched it
different cultures i guess

 

Which culture doesn't have thievery? I'm really curious.

 

I didn't claim we don't have thieves, the students know each other mostly so they won't go around stealing random laptops and the building has more surveillance cameras than what you can imagine
I am from UAE, i go to UAEU university

 

I go to a CSU. There are so many cops and cameras on this campus that one would feel totally secure here. But to the contrary, there are so many thieves and reported robberies on both campus and the dorms.

 

Do you have an M17x in front of you? I do and the base IS made out of aluminum

 

So now I am also adding Asus to the mix

Asus W90

http://www.canadacomputers.com/asus/W90/

asus has international warranty and great services but I am not sure of the ATI and quad core spec
any advice?

 

get the alienware. the clevo is a major fingerprint magnet (how can you cover a notebook in glossy plastic? that's just stupid), and the AW will hold up much better thanks to the aluminium chassis.

 

Dude, that's only because you spend 95 percent of your time in the Alienware forums..

 

Says one of the most active trolls in the AW forum.

 

what in the world makes you think the the reason NOT to get a laptop is because of fingerprints? wow....

 

the entire thing is glossy plastic. it'll look ugly after about 2 minutes. if you clean it, it'll be ugly again 2 minutes later. also, 18.4" really "redefines" the term "notebook".

did i mention the M17x is made out of aluminium? let's face it, alu > plastic.

 

Have you touched it? have you seen the fingerprints? do you know for sure, really?

 

According to this there is not so much alu?

 

vs.




that's about as clear as i can make the fact that the Alienware's finish/cover/body is lightyears nicer than the Clevo's.

 

opinions = fact!

 

not an opinion. the lid and palmrest (the bits you touch) of the Clevo m980nu are made from glossy polycarbonate. that's a fact. the lid, sides, and bottom of the Alienware M17x are made from anodized aluminium. that's another fact. glossy plastic shows grease marks (e.g. fingerprints) much better than matte aluminium. final fact.

 

Facts are what they're made of. Opinions are how they are seen to the eye and how they feel.

I'll be honest with you. The M17x is a nicely designed machine. But looks are subjective, and the style of M17x is not to my taste. I absolutely hate the point on the lid, it's too edgy, and I could care less about LEDs and backlit keyboards. I liked the nice black slab look of the older M17x. And the M980nu? If the glossy finish avoids the majority of fingerprints, I'll be in favor of it. And a glossy sheen is more appealing to my eye than a dull alu, a la mac book.

What I like about a mac is its simple and thin design. The alu chassis creates the simple and tough design, but that doesn't mean I dislike the look of the older plastic mac books, especially in black.

Either way, both the alienware and sager are large, thick, desktop replacements that I won't be taking around with me around town. And if I did, I wouldn't want the aliewnare as it attracts too much attnetion and it's overstyled out of my taste. The clevo has an attractive gloss and it's large enough it will still attract attention, but it doesn't say "hey everyone, im a gaming nerd!" quite like the alienware.

Anyway, I'm done...

 

it's your opinion when you say, it makes clevo's laptop worse then aw, it's your opinion when you say aw is "lightyears nicer" then clevo (which i don't agree). The glossy finish doesn't define a laptop's quality and i actually prefer the glossy finish, you can compare it to a car, why do people buy black cars when the dirt is more noticeable in them? black = high quality, same for the glossy finish.

 

Exactly, does anyone want a dull black metal car? No, they want a freshly painted, shiny black car.

I prefer the look of glossy over dull, but for some the maintenance in keeping a glossy surface clean is too much to bear. Understandable, I guess...

 

I wouldn't even leave an old paper notepad alone on a desk unsupervised let alone a laptop.

However, if you must take it with you then surely you should at least consider a 15'' like the NP8662.

As mentioned before, another good alternative would be the upcoming Vidock along with a laptop so cheap that no one would even want to steal or even accept for free.

Something like that you could get a really portable one and have the best of both worlds.

 

... Do you rub your computers every two minutes? Most people just press the keys, stuff like that. I don't understand what you're saying. I also don't know how 1.4" makes a difference in the size of a notebook if it has another hard drive more than your "Alienware".

 

It's pointless to discuss about this with Alienware fanboys. It's already proven in their section of the forums. No matter what, Alienware is better for them even when what they're comparing to hasn't even seen, felt, or heard of. Drop it.

 

but to press the keys, you have to put your palms on the palmrests... which will presumably leave grease marks.

also, i'm not an "AW fanboy". i've recommended Clevos to people here on NBR, and to RL friends. i'm just trying to show that, at least regarding the external finish, AW made the smarter choice than Clevo. funny how you should call me a fanboy when you can't accept something like that yourself.

 

M17x is seen as more user centred. However, if you want the cake, and being able to eat it, AW's price rocks upwards to $4k; a typical M1730 would be much cheaper and faster, cos its already depreciated drastically in the value.

Where as M17x is sold as a new product, with the new price tag; ironically its merely the improvements on current gen tech. For marginal performance gains, The early AW buyers have to pay skyhigh artifically set prices; and I suspect the resell value of current M17x will fall much quicker than M1730, partly due to the warranty issue. For once, on the Sager, if you go with the default config, the performance would be great. Starting at $2.2k, the base config of its a dream machine. AW needs you to pay premium for things that ought to be default options... I mean, must be something wrong, when you need to pay £1$$ for a upgrade for WUXGA on a 1.7k laptop...

9280 is also years more futureproof investment. Times have changed since M1730 came out, C2D/Q is nowaday soon to be obsolatate. In the CPU department. You can get 3.33 Ghz desktop i7 CPU now on the Sager; even has the Gulftown upgrade path, upto 12 threads, cant really go wrong there.

M17x can only use current gen C2D/Q CPU, suppose if you get a motherboard replacement down the road, you can still only upgrade to a 2.0Ghz Clarksfield quad. Beside, its gone to be quite long wait, before the mobile chip can rival the existing Nehalem quads, both in terms of clock speed and value.

Extra ram and HDD slot is always gone to bring greater expansion possibility, when 4Gb SODIMM gets cheaper, 12Gb ram looks really sweet...

Sure there are things that make 9280 evem even more unbeatable package, things like:

Lighterbody,
better exterior material quality,
9400m integrated chipset,
Even better display,
backlit keypad,

But truth be told, unless you got tonnes of cash, and dont mind getting another laptop in process, 9280 is better choice in terms of money and performance, as well as upgradability. You pbly could even save enough money to build a desktop as well, than getting a comparible AW...

@whizzo, ppl might just close the lid on their laptop, hook it to a 30 inch external monitor, better quality keypad and more precise mouse than the trackpads...

 

Actually, the proper position for typing is that the area behind the hands and wrists should be raised above it.



If you get your notebook dirty by typing incorrectly, that's your problem.

 

There is nobody else here that made a statement to reason themselves as a fanboy, other than you. Refusing a biased opinion on an unconfirmed item doesn't make us the Clevo fanboys.

Have you read the replies? There is a little flaw in your little opinion regarding this issue: Nobody knows it yet. Furthermore, it's only your opinion as to which one looks better, as far as we know from the pictures.

 

i'm sure that's why they're called "palmrests"

 

I've never heard that.. I'm American, not from Switzerland. You should take ergonomic classes though, so you don't get hand diseases.

 

wow. way to turn racist all of a sudden. for your information, the "palmrest" is the area to the left and right of the mousepad (on laptops) where you literally rest your palms.

 

LOL Racist? Racist = saying that I'm not Swedish? I'm actually 10 percent or so Swedish and Finnish, from my Grandpa's side. I just asked everyone on my MSN and Xfire, they've never heard of a palmrest either. Also, even this message board calls "palmrest" a miss-spelled word on the spell check. Please, don't try to start arguments because you dislike members of the forum.

 

Thread should've been locked awhile ago, the OP decided to forgo choosing between all three of his laptop choices due to all of the relentless conflicting information he was given in three sections of this site. Thread's turned into pointless discussions of glossy vs aluminum and opinions....

 

seconded, sadly.

 

We don't need flamebait threads like these - closed.