Thoughts on Sager NP9280

Hello,

I've been looking for the proper desktop replacement laptop for myself for a few weeks now, and I've started to lean towards the NP9280. I'm planning to get 6gb of memory, a slightly better HD and windows home or professional, other than that I'll go for the default customization options. The laptop will be used mainly for gaming, and I'm wondering if this laptop will run newer games well despite the lack of two graphic cards, which seem to get more common these days?

Please note that I did read the poll thread for the NP9280 vs NP9850, and I relize that NP9850 probably is better for gaming overall. The thing is though that I probably wont play games like crysis with this laptop, I'm not a huge fps fan. I'll use this computer mainly to play games like starcraft 2 and diablo 3 once they come out, and I'll probably play some fallout 3 and Oblivion on it until then. Knowing Blizzard, neither sc2 nor d3 will have very high system requirements. I would, however, like to be able to play both of these games with at least decent graphics with max fps. Now I relize neither of the games have had their system requirements published yet, so I'm merely asking for your opinions. Do you think the Sager NP9280 will be able to do this?

One problem is that 2500$ is pretty much as high as I can go, because I live in Finland, and the transport + taxes will already raise the price noticably. This means that even if I would decide to go for the NP9850, I couldn't afford to upgrade to a quad-core processor (I'd have to settle for Core™2 Duo 2.66GHz), nor could I upgrade pretty much anything else. Another concerne of mine is that if I spend a lot of money on two graphic cards, and then neither sc2 nor d3 will support it, that's basically wasted money for me, as these two games are of highest priority to me. And ofcourse if ontop of that both games would support quad core processors, it would be an even bigger bust to go for a dual core instead of a very powerful quad core.

Bottom line: I'm not planning to play the very top of the line games with this notebook (graphic wise), but I would still like to be able to run the games I mentioned earlier with decent graphic settings with max fps. Do you think I'm still better off taking the NP9850 over NP9280 for gaming? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you for reading.

PS: I did consider Asus w90vp-a1 and -x2 aswell, but apparently -a1 model has been discontinued and newegg (which is the only one who sells the -x2 model) only sells their products within the US. As for alienware, I've just read so many complaints about their customer support that I don't want to risk it.

 

Whell im a very satisfied new NP9280 owner (bought mine at mysn.de - lowest prices in EU i could find and very good support) and i also bought it more for games of you kind, actually exactly with starcraft 2 and diablo 3 in mind (im a big blizzard fan yeah - and those are the only two games i intend to really play, not just test) and i cant say a single bad thing about it.. it can play everything maxed with great fps, except crysis, which will run at all high at 32fps (never dips under 26), but all very high at around 22 fps, which for me is too little.. but im not a fan of crysis either, i just tested how well it can run it..
Anyway, read my short "review" HERE. Its all there..
But even if you go for the NP9850 i think you wont be dissapointed.. i just didnt find the 9850 so much better than the 9280, and since i dont play crysis this machine is perfect for me.. i reccomend it but the choice is yours..

 

Wow, I'm amazed it doesn't get a better FPS on Crysis - I'm assuming though that is DX10 rather than DX9?

 

Thanks for the reply. I'm quite certain I'll go for the 9280 aswell. Btw, how do the prices of the site you mentioned compare to xotic for instance? I'd otherwise order it from xotic right away, but I'm a bit worried about the warranty (not sure if it's global). Also, I'm sure the transport fees would be way lower if I'd order it from the site you mentioned (220-250$ transport fee from xotic, and that doesn't include tax). Still, as that site apparently is deutch, do they even have english customer support?

 

Hello.
First post in these here forums for me.

I have actually ordered a M980 from Multicom.no (in Norway) - Clevo's from them are called Kunshan - so Kunshan M980, Kunshan D900F and so on.

But I am having second thoughts - maybe I should go with the D900F instead.
I would like to be able to have this computer for several years - isn't the D900F more "future proofed" ? I mean, Penryns and their mobile equivalents are about to be phased out, aren't they? The i7's and mobile i7's will be the future for the next couple of years I believe...
Also, I don't really need the SLI (I ordered the M980 with just 1 GTX280m), but I initially decided on the M980 because of it's looks... much sexier than the D900F.
So, what do you think? I better get a decision on this within a week.

And to Bob21 - have you checked out Multicom.no? Maybe they can deliver it cheaper for you.

Best regards

 

Thats DX10 yes.. and about mysn.. i dont know if they have an english tech there since i dont have any trouble speaking or writing german.. ask them yourself and find out..
Ordering from xoticpc would be foolish;
If you get the same config as mine, at mysn.de it costs 2741€ with tax + 30€ shipping = 2771€ total, and you have 2 years warranty without any additional costs or problems (they cover any shipping if something is wrong).
If you get it at xoticpc the same config costs 2987$ = 2128€, plus the import tax (20%) = 2553€ + 178€ shipping = 2731€. Now even though the price is 40€ lower (which is nothing realy) the shipping and paying import taxes is already a pain, it takes long and the package has more chances of being damaged.. and even though they do have global warranty you have to pay shipping both ways, so basically you pay 350€ just to send it back to get it repaired if something is wrong.. now i dont like the sound of that, do you?
So even if you decide not to go with mysn id say go with someone in EU at least and save yourself alot of headaches.
Glad to hear about your choice, i know you wont be dissapointed !

And ReDuNZL, id go ahead and cancel your rig and order the 9280, since if youre not getting or needing sli, why not get the i7 which i can guarantee is better than any mobile cpu, it has more ram and the youll have more chances to upgrade in the future.. You can also stick in a newer gpu later if you think you need one or to compensate for the lack of sli.. or put in something like THIS.. both rigs are good and have their pros and cons, but if youre not getting sli, which is the biggest (and id say only - looks are relative.. to me the D900F is much nicer) advantage of M980 over D900F why not just get the D900F?

 

If I go with the D900F, my setup would be such:
i7 920
3 x 2Gb Memory
Intel X-25 SSD 80Gb + 320Gb 7200 rpm spindle
GTX280M
Onboard bluetooth
Wlan 450
Vista 64 Home premium upgradable to Windows 7

Sounds ok?

 

The difference is bigger than that for me though, unless I'm missing something. The price of the NP9280 with my config is 2489.00$ = 1,787e: + tax + shipping = 2322e. That's with 6gb of memory, 320GB 7200RPM HD and vista professional. The rest is default. I'm certain I'm overlooking something, but I doubt the price will go up to 3k dollars considering I'm buying a rather basic version of the laptop. Then again, it's absolutely true that if the laptop isn't in good condition when I get it and I have to send it back, not only will I end up losing much more money than by buying from europe, but it'd also take much longer. Hence, I'd much rather buy the laptop from europe. I would, however, prefer to order from a webpage that would atleast have an option to translate the text to english, which I'm guessing a company with english support would have (although it isn't necessarily that way). Still, I have to look around some more, to see if I could find it for roughly the same price from somewhere in europe (similar price to the european webpage you meantioned).

ReDuNZL: I definitely agree with Hellcry, if you don't need the sli you're definitely better off getting the NP9280 imo.

 

Id go with this (i went to multicom.no so i looked that its the same price):
i7 950
3 x 2Gb Memory
3x 250gb 7200rpm (and put em in raid0)
GTX280M
Onboard bluetooth
Wlan 450
Vista 64 Home premium upgradable to Windows 7

The reason is that i have the same drives i listed here and their performance in raid0 is close to the x-25m so i dont see a reason to spend so much on that drive (which after fragmentation looses its edge since reads and writes drop) and you have more space, and it lets you get a better cpu..
But the choice is yours.. both will be just fine.. not so much difference if you get the 920 either..

 

Bob21 - A setup with i7 920, Intel X-25 SSD + 320Gb 7200 rpm hardisks, and Windows Vista Home premium upgradable to Windows 7 comes to about 2700 Euros on Multicom.no (+ shipping)
Go ahead and ask them about shipping costs and warranty to Finland - maybe the deal will not be bad at all for you.

And yes, I'm definately leaning towards the D900F ... still have a few days to think it over - I wish there was some serious reviews out soon. Yes, I read yours HellCry, thanks for that. Just need someone with a M980 now.

 

Oh MAN i see theyre still selling the D900C! Id so go for that one instead if i were you..

Id configure that like this:
Intel® Core™2 Quad Prosessor Q9650 3.0GHz 12MB Cache, 1333MHz
G.SKILL 4GB DDR2 800MHZ SO-DIMM 200 pin (2x2GB)
SLI: NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800M GTX 1GB DDR3 skjermkort (2 stk)
960GB SATA 7200RPM 2.5" (3x320GB)
Innebygd bluetooth for trådløs kommunikasjon med f.eks. mobiltelefon [+247,-]


And its around the same price if im not mistaken
This system is better in my oppinion since it has SLI AND A DESKTOP QUAD CPU (its not i7 but its still loads better than any mobile one! a monster cpu to have actually..)

Thats just me though..

 

HellCry - you said little about the finish and build quality of your machine ... and the screen, especially the viewing angles ... could you expand on that, please?

 

Whell the finish is nice - even though its polished the fingerprints and such on the palmrest are not really visible (you really gotta try to find the right angle and lightning to see them), so the fuss about the finish is nonsense, and the build quality is in my oppinion excellent - the chassis doesnt flex, the temps are amaizing considering what components are inside, the screen opens and closes perfectly and the screen locks dont even make a sound when they lock and are easy to unlock/open.. And about the screen viewing angles ill borrow this from the review in the reviews section:
Vertical viewing angles are average compared to other WUXGA panels we have seen, with about 25 degrees of play forward or back before colors start to distort. Horizontal viewing angles are much better, with colors staying true to roughly 75 degrees to each side. Beyond that angle, reflections overpower the picture displayed on the screen. While gaming we didn't notice any sort of lag or streaking.
Although i dont think its only 25 degrees vertical.. im looking now and its still good beyond that..
Is there anything else specific youd like to know?

 

well, I have been quite frustrated with the vertical viewing angles with my previous laptops, I would like to know if the colours and contrasts stays good even if you move your head up or down a little. Also , the D900 is quite "tall" - isn't it uncomfortable to writ on when the keys sits so high above the desktop?

 

Nope, typing on it is very nice.. i dont think that will be a concern.. and i updated the previous post with viewing angles info.. you really have to move real high above the screen for the colors to be distorted..

 

Thanks.
If I go with the D900, it will be with a i7. I'm not a hard core gamer, I spend more time playing around with processor intensive programs. ProTools, Photoshop and the like. I want processing power and multiple threads

 

In that case you dont even need to think further.. D900F with the i7 will be perfect for ya..
I myself still do some light gaming so the sli would have been nice (not really needed but comforting to know i have more power than i need) and i also do some photoshoping and video encoding so i wanted a desktop cpu.. and just knowing i could have the best of both worlds - sli and a desktop cpu if i just bought the 9262 sooner, when it was still available, or waited a few days for angelicvoices to find her thread, makes me a bit depressed.. but life goes on.. im still happy with this one (although i admit im still drooling every time i see a np9262 and fell the urge to buy it)..

 

You have the fastest lappy in the world and you're still complainin' ... jeez

 

I'd be pissed off too if a deal like that went by my blind side.

 

The prices of that webpage certainly are reasonable. The problem is that I'm not sure if I'll be able to order from there. For some reason a postnumber can contain 4 digits at most, while finnish postnumbers have 5 digits. Also, the maximum length of the phone number is 9 digits, although my number is 10digits(+3 digits when calling from another country). Hence, I don't know what to do. I can't even get it to work if I type a random post number or phone number, just so that I could check what shipping options they have. Then again, if I wont be able to give them the correct postnumber I wont be able to order from them anyway.

PS: That D900 sure looks wicked, do they still have those in stock, or is it a pre-order? I might be able to afford one with the Q9550 processor, although I'm not sure as it'd still end up being like 300e more expensive with sli.

 

the D901c will be better if you want more all-around power, in gaming and in regular app performance as well as high end video editing/rendering... best current all-around notebook as it has desktop cpu up to Q9650 3.0GHz and SLI up to 9800M GTX 2GB SLI... the i7 will do better app performance and better video rendering than the Q9650 but the Q9650 will still do it well... if you dont care about all that and just want gaming go for D901c or M980NU or alienware m17x...

 

I will mostly use the laptop for gaming, but I'm pretty much at my price limit atm, and 300e more is quite a lot already. Is there a huge difference performancewise between the d900f with a 920 processor and a d900c with a Q9550 processor and sli? I relize the d900c is better, but I'm wondering if the difference in performance is big enough to justify the price, considering what I'll be playing with this computer (explained in my first post). Personally, I doubt it.