Thinking about a Sager NP8662

Hey guys - This is my first time posting on the forums, though I'm often lurking and reading posts. Just have some quick questions on the NP8662, and I figured that this would be the place to ask - I've been considering getting a new laptop for a few months, and in the last few weeks, have heard a lot of good things about Sager laptops and ordering from XoticPC.com. I realize that there may be some bias on this board, but I'll ask about the NP8662 anyway.

I've had a Dell XPS M1210 since it launched a few years ago, and though I often bought Dell in the past and had good experiences, I've had many, many problems with this unit. I'm an avid gamer, though most everything I play on PC is either a Blizzard product or a Valve product, and I got this tiny 12" M1210 just because I thought I could be clever and load it up with great specs while saving money on the screen and cutting a few corners. Turns out stuffing all of those intense parts (and getting a launch unit!) meant that I got a real lemon of a system that Dell has tried unsuccessfully to fix. I expected it to run very well, and it did for about a year, but the past year and a half have been really difficult for me. It's still functional, but it runs so hot, and looking ahead to what games are coming, I think it might be time for an upgrade.

So I'm thinking about the Sager NP8662, based on what I've seen. My price range is about $2000ish, though I'd love to spend less, and can afford to spend a bit more. After this bad experience with Dell, and reading horror stories about Alienware issues, I'm giving the lesser-known brands a chance to impress me, so I was wondering what you guys think about how much bang I'm getting for my buck. I play MMOs like WoW and LoTRO, and would love to play FPSes like L4D and RTSes like Dawn of War 2, to give you an idea of what I'm looking for... But my real concern is the future. I don't want to spend the money now (or this summer, as it were... is it worth waiting for Windows 7, or can I get by with Vista?) and then feel like I've wasted it if I can't run this and next year's slick new games. I was looking at a Gateway FX system for $1200ish a few weeks back, but I figure that for more money, the Sager looks like it will be way more futureproof. For you Blizzard gamers out there, I'll be looking to play Diablo 3 and SC2 well, and won't want to feel the way I feel with this unit - that it really doesn't get the job done, hangs up, skips, etc. I know there's no guarantee, but... Any thoughts? Sorry for the long post, but I just had to get it all out. As an aside, in case anyone wants to recommend getting or building a desktop instead (though I don't suspect that from this board), I'm still a college student (for another year) and enjoy the portability of a notebook. I'm thinking that 15" is exactly what I'm looking for.

 

Good choice the sager 8662 is the best 15" on the market... with a 2000 price range you can also get all the goodies you want it's an excellent choice... Also the Sager 8662 has non soldered parts so would hopefully allow for GPU upgrades in the futures, I have heard one has already been upgraded with a 280m... As for gaming, this is a gaming laptop this will handle andything you want at or near highest settings... But as always it is cheaper and you get better parts if you were to build a desktop, but personally I would like to take mine around with me and then plug in if needed to game... especially in todays society when we are constantly on the move.

Ok well then feel free to ask questions

 

Welcome to NBR

NP8662 is the best 15" notebook in the world. It will handle your games with ease. I don`t think its worth waiting for w7, it`s pretty similar to vista, but let some other who have tested the beta have a word.

Clevo is lesser known than Dell, but they sure know what they are doing, gamingwise.

 

Yes I have, you will receieve the 64bit if you go with a Sager 8662 off www.Xoticpc.com I highly recommend downloading the beta, they are still ironing out a few issues but you get a full free year, which is great becuase it really boosts gaming performance due to the 3d accelerator included in W7... Loses alot of bloatware allowing better performance, and is really just a smooth experience overall

 

If you're looking for an approximately $2000 configuration, then take a look at my sig because for those specs with a 3 year parts and labor warranty, then it will be just a bit under $2000. And you can always switch out the P9600 with the Q9000 for 5 bucks difference if you want to go with the lower clocked quad.

 

Thanks for the quick responses, guys! Love the optimism and the help. Maybe I'll try running Windows 7 on this laptop first, in the next few weeks - looks really slick, and would be quite the upgrade from my XP OS. Lstormy, did you order your system directly from Sager, or through XoticPC or a similar site? I can't decide which way I'd go. For $2000ish, the system you configured looks very, very similar to what I would get. I'd probably just go with the 2 better cores, as opposed to the quad-cores, since I don't think I'd need the quad-cores for the next few years, in general - do you agree?

 

I ordered via XOTIC PC and got my warranty via them as well. They have been very helpful and prompt in taking care of any questions I have had. I highly recommend that you order via XOTIC PC instead of directly via Sager due to better customer service and a bit cheaper prices.

I went with the P9600 over the Q9000 due to most of the applications I'll be running not taking advantage of the quad-core capabilities yet and therefore relying more on the clock speed. In addition, the bit lower power requirements of the P9600 versus the Q9000 provides a bit more battery life.

 

my only problem with the 8662 is the subpar lcd screen.
ive seen a couple of sager owners complain about this on these forums
this laptop really deserves an led screen

 

The Q9000 will be better for tasking processes... highly intensive stuff, and you would see slightly higher gaming performance... Although I don't know how much the difference is to upgrade to the Q9000...

 

It's personal preference between the P9600 and Q9000 based on the needs of the user. If the games you will be playing support quad-core then go with the quad by all means but most of the games I am playing do not support the use of all four cores. If you will be playing games that cannot take advantage of all four cores, then you are going to see lower performance on the Q9000 than on the P9600 most likely due to the significant difference in clock speed.

 

I didn't want to make a new thread, so I'll ask here.

Do you guys recommend getting a sound card for the sager?

 

Yea, with the Wifi so you can stream to a radio or stereo... although keep in mind it will generate more heat... and the Sager comes stock with a good audio system (but a card is always better)

 

Do you care to explain exactly how you are going to see lower performance on the 2.0 Ghz Q9000 in gaming compared to the 2.66 Ghz P9600 considering that the vast majority of PC games are GPU dependent. There are dozens of benchmarks showing that even a 1.8 Ghz Core 2 Duo compared to a 2.9 Ghz Core2Duo would still get the same performance down to the exact same frame rates in games that are GPU dependent at playable resolutions (for example 1680 X 1050).

A good example is Crysis where a 1.8 Ghz Core2Duo were getting the same frame rates as a 2.9 Ghz Core2Duo on high settings at 1680 x 1200 resolutions. However, if you swapped the 8800M GTX GPU used in the benchmarks and replaced it with an 8400M or a 9500M GS but still using the same CPU's for both tests then the frame rates would drop considerably.

With the few games that are CPU dependent then you might see a slight performance decrease with the slower clock but some of those games are quad optimised anyway.

Higher clock rates in CPU's don't automatically translate into better gaming performance since you have to consider the bottlenecks of a given system. If you have a Q9000 and your game only supports dual cores, the chances are that the game is GPU dependent anyway so you will still get very good performance with no different than what you would get with the P9600.

However, if your game does support multiple cores or is quad optimised then you will get better performance and less slow downs from having the quad where the P9600 may suffer slow downs.

Although not many games currently are quad optimised, there are quite a large number of games that can use more than two cores as well as many games based on the same engine that scale to multiple cores as part of their coding.

 

I too am thinking about the N8662 but I'm curious as to what makes Sager stand out? Currently I'm torn between the Asus GV50VT-X6 and the N8662. My specs would probably be the same as Lstormy10's. I understand this is the Sager forums but if anyone would be willing to give me any thoughts, comments, input, etc. I'd greatly appreciate it.

I apologise if I'm hijacking the thread and if discussing a seprate computer brand is against any type of rule. I'm just lookin for a little input from people seem to be knowledgeable about laptops and trying to make the best decision for me.

 

@Mr. Rant

I said it was personal preference. A number of the games that I play the most are CPU dependent - thus my preference for the higher clocked P9600. If you are going to play games that you know are optimized for quad-core and/or are not going to be anywhere near CPU dependent, then of course go for the Q9000. And the lower TDP of 25W versus 45W also factored into my decision.


@RCKilm

If you mean the G50VT-X6, then the performance is going to be better on the NP8662 (as can be seen in the superior GTX 260M on the NP8662 versus the 9800M GS on the G50VT-X6). If you have the money for the Sager (as I believe it would be more expensive than the Asus), then I would go with it over the Asus due to the superior graphics card.

 

the Clevo M860ETU (Sager 8662) has the following pros:
- support for quad-core CPU
- GTX 260M will beat the 9800M GS by 25%
- very upgradeable for almost every component (all under one panel)
- sleek and professional looking (no lights or glow to distract people)
- very good build and thermal design

 

If had you said that in the first place then I wouldn't have even bothered ''ranting'' as you put it.


You originally said

That is an incorrect and misleading statement as well as being completely different to what you originally said. Before, you did not mention anything about CPU dependent games either.

 

It wasn't incorrect - it was partially correct. I just could have been more specific. Either way, we both have some valid points.

 

Agreed on all of the above.