Time for a new Sager

It's time to retire my Sager NP7652. Yeah, I still game on this thing . It was never a powerhouse to begin with but has served me well for 7 years.

I am thinking of going with a 17 incher this time around, so I am eyeing the NP6872. It's only $20 more than the NP6870 and comes with a 1050ti instead of 1050 so I think that would be worthwhile.

Technology has changed since my last purchase so I have some questions:

1. IC Diamond Thermal Compound - worth it or not?
2. 8GB RAM should be plenty, right?
3. I want to get an SSD so should I get it as an M.2 drive or in place of the SATA drive? I won't be having a separate storage drive.
4. Which drive would be best? 250GB Samsung 850 EVO M.2 SSD or 256GB SanDisk X400 M.2 SSD?
5. For WiFi card, is it worth the $15 to go from the AC 3165 to the AC 8265?

Thank you!

 

1. Yes.
2. If you plan on keeping your new machine as long as your old one, get 16 GB. It's not that expensive an upgrade.
3-4. It doesn't really matter what form factor you get, as they'll perform about same, assuming you're getting a SATA drive. PCI-Express ones are faster but costlier. You didn't say what games you play, but modern AAA titles are often at least 20 GB in size; some like Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare crack 70 GB. I have a 1 TB M.2 SSD and with just a handful of my 240+ Steam games installed, it uses up more than 500 GB of space. I would stick with the M.2 interface for your OS, as you can add a cheap 2.5-inch platter hard drive later if you want. That's what I'm going to do with mine to offload older games that don't necessarily benefit from being on the SSD.
5. Yes. The 3165 has only a single antenna. The 8265 has two and will provide much more throughput.

 

I would say the wifi is worth the upgrade too, 8GB is easy to add later if you want.

Oh and the 1050ti is CERTAINLY worth the extra.

 

Worth it.

As you said, technology has changed; 8GB might be fine right now, but you might feel the squeeze down the road. Consider 12GB - 16GB.

Either is fine. The m.2 performs similarly to its 2.5" counterpart. Both the EVO and the SanDisk are decent drives (I recommend the Samsung over the SanDisk, though).

Mostly a difference in speed, so that's up to you and your router's capability/service provider's internet speed. $15 for twice the performance capability isn't a bad deal.

 

Why recommend the Evo over the X400? This is coming from someone who has two Clevo P650RS machines within 10 feet right now, and one has a 1TB 850 Evo and the other a 1TB X400.

 

He recommended the EVO over the X400 as far as I can see.

 

Crap thats what i meant.

 

Write durability could be one reason.

 

Unless you're going to write 10s of gigabytes of data to the drive per day, every day, this isn't something to really be concerned about.

I have a pair of X400 M.2 drives and they've been working great. The Samsung is a fine choice, too. At this point, for most users, the tech is good enough to where you should buy whatever name brand is cheaper.


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Well, on paper they're comparable (the EVO edges out the X400, but the real world difference is negligible). Write durability aside, the EVO's have consistently been reliable; very few sudden failures over the years. The X400s are fine drives, really. It's more a vote out of partiality since we haven't offered and monitored the X400s for as long as the EVOs.

 

Ah. I was going to say, I was waiting for your response first but the performance between the two drives is completely indistinguishable. And the X400s are often much better priced than 850 Evos.

 

As good as a value as the EVOs are, SanDisk has almost always offered their drives at a lower premium compared to most. Smart of them, too.

 

Because of that I don't even consider the 850s good value. SSD reliability is always rising, and the EVOs are near the peak of pricing for consumer ssds (not 850 Pro etc...). The X400 1TB I picked up for 160. Never seen an 850 Evo go that low. And I've seen MX300s go for 130!

 

Don't get me started on Crucial SSDs.

If the X400 and any iterations prove to be at least close to as reliable as the EVOs, then we've got a solid alternative to Samsung's best selling SSD. Time will tell how well these little guys hold up.

You might also want to check out the MyDigital drives. I've been hearing good things on them.

 

Ah your not a fan of the MX300s? Crucial ssds are not uniform in their quality, but I've liked the MX300s. Haven't seen too many problems with them.

 

If the bigger resellers are offering a drive it's usually a good sign, it's massively against their interest to offer a duff drive so they will stick with reliable units.

 

Thanks for all the input everyone.

I have one more question. This model is capable of outputting to 3 different external displays. Is it possible for all the displays to be cloned to the main screen, or does it merely extend? I have used laptops where it had multiple display ports and tried to clone to all of them, but it would only clone to one and extend to the other.

Also, does anyone know of a reseller that will invoice for its laptops? I may have convinced my boss to purchase a Sager as well but the way our finance department works is we order stuff and pay the invoice when billed.

 

I'm not sure I understand the protocol here. Are you describing C.O.D?

 

Not exactly. When we purchase from vendors such as Dell, CDW, Amazon, we simply place the order on their website, then they send us the bill in the mail and the finance department sends a check. I work for a government entity, so I'm not sure if that opens up doors for other purchasing options besides what regular consumers have.

EDIT: I spoke with one of our finance people at the term they are looking for is "Net Terms" for payment method.

 

You are best reaching out to the sales department and discussing such a matter shop by shop.

 

Ah! Terms, okay. Approval for this type of transaction does vary from shop to shop. Some may not have the means to take on the risk, but you can ask around here on the forums (PM) or by phoning any of us resellers.