Undecided between NP7338 and NP7358

Hi all,

I recently spilled soda on my ASUS G53S and have to replace it. I had narrowed my choice down to two Sager products - NP7338 and NP7358, both from Gaming Laptops - XOTIC PC - Gaming Notebooks - Custom Laptops - Custom Notebooks. The specs I am planning on are (for both):


- i7-4710MQ (2.5GHz - 3.5GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)
- NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 860M (2.0GB) GDDR5 PCI-Express DX11 w/ Optimus™ Technology
- 12GB DDR3 1600MHz [3x4GB] Dual Channel Memory
- 240GB Crucial M5 mSATA SSD - Preconfigured as an OS Drive ( Operating System – Drive C: )
- 1TB 7200RPM [SATA II - 3GB/s]
- 6X Blu-Ray Burner + 8X DVDRW/CDRW Super Multi Combo Drive (Sager)
- Sager - Intel® Dual Band AC 7260 802.11 A/AC/B/G/N 2.4/5.0GHz + Bluetooth™ 4.0
- ~Windows 8.1 - 64-Bit (64-Bit CD Included) + MS Office 2013 Trial

Works out to be $1302 after the cash discount and with the rush build.

My questions are:

1) The only difference between the 7338 and 7358 from what I can see, other than the size, is that the 7338 doesn't have the space for an optical drive so I would have to get an external optical drive. I've never used an external optical drive, I guess I would need one to install programs that can't be downloaded from the internet?

2) Also, is there any difference in terms of heat management and performance between what would be two identical specs for the 7338 and 7358?

3) What is the Sager/Clevo quality like?

4) Portability is important which is why I was considering the 13.3" but I guess the 15.6" is still pretty slim, especially compared to my ASUS G53S which is about 8 pounds?

Finally, I haven't dealt with XoticPC before but have seen positive reviews on this forum. I assume this reputation is well earned!

Any comments would be welcome - I want to order this today. I decided to switch from ASUS to Sager because it seemed to offer more bang for the buck.

Thanks for any advice!

 

You got it right about the differences. For the optical drive you really just have to ask yourself how often you use one. Pretty much all programs can be downloaded now. I've had my current notebook for about a year and half and it doesn't have an optical drive and I haven't needed it one. Occasionally I'll burn some discs but do that on my desktop.

There will be slightly lower temps on the NP7358 since its larger in size.

Sager build quality is very good, some of the best out there, especially in this price point. You can check out the owners forums for more info about that.

Just a heads up the NP7338 is currently back ordered, Sager expects more on May 22nd so about a week. The NP7358 is in stock.

For your build I would suggest considering the i7-4810MQ, its got a really low upgrade price right now, the rest looks good.

 

Thanks so much Hutsady, I didn't expect to have an actual representative from XoticPC answer my question! My need is great so I guess I will go for the 7358. Portability is important but it will be on my desk about 9mths of each year, the other 3 months I travel for work and that's when I would be carrying it around. I will go ahead with the 4810MQ then. My question about the rush order - if I ordered today and did rush on my build when would I get the notebook?

Also how would I get the cash discount? I am happy to pay via bank transfer.

 

Happy to help out!
15.6" are still pretty portable, thats the size I have and it hasn't been an issue.
When you place the order we typically will have it processed within 1 business day. Once it has been and payment is approved then the rush production build time is 1-4 business days then it will ship out. It will ship from Sager in CA so you can calculate shipping from there to you.

A bank wire transfer will get you the cash discount, but they can take 1-3 business days to clear and will probably save you less then the amount you pay for rush production. So you'd be paying more then you'd be saving and the computer would take longer to ship out. I'd suggest using a card instead.

 

Oh damn I ordered it and picked the bank transfer option. Can I still change it then? I was going to do the one day wire if that helps.


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Even one day bank wires can take a few days. Since it needs to go from your bank to the FED then to ours.
You can PM me your order number and I can let you know how to use a card instead.

 

Thanks Hutsady, I ended up calling xoticpc and they suggested I cancel the earlier order and just place another one using credit card as the payment method. So I think I am all set with that. Excited can't wait!



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Great glad you got it taken care of :thumbsup:

 

I did send you a PM with some questions regarding expedited shipment - I just wanted to make sure I ticked all the boxes I needed to to get it here as fast as possible. It's going to be a work machine as well as a gaming rig so I'm willing to pay a premium for expedited service. Just at your convenience, I'm sure you're busy with a lot of queries as well.

 

I pulled up your order and saw you talked to Derek on the phone, I asked him to check into it and he said you should have some information from him. Check your email if you haven't yet. Let me know if you dont see it.

 

Thanks Hutsady, I did get an email from Derek and he said I should be all set. Thanks to both of you for your efforts, first time dealing with XoticPC and I am very impressed!


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Just wanted to say that I got my notebook on Thursday May 22, a full day before the "target date". With rush build and shipping that's basically 5 days from the time the order was placed. Given the amount of customizations I had I am very impressed. Love the machine too, it's running like a dream. What I am more impressed with was the service I received. I received help every step of the way, from the decision making process (here on this forum) to when I placed the order through to expediting the shipping. XoticPC certainly made me feel like I was important and that my business was important, rather than being "just one of the numbers". First time I have dealt with you but it won't be the last. Very well done guys (especially Hutsady, Derek and Donna) and keep it up.

 

Good to hear OZGOD. I'm considering that same notebook. How do you like it so far? Can you say anything about its fan noise?

 

Reviving this old thread, as I'm torn between the same two machines. The 7358 is attractive with its 2nd hdd bay, lower price, free upgrades and cooler temperatures. The ooooonly thing holding me back is that the xoticpc website says that the 7358 only gets 2 hours of battery life! That would be pretty unacceptable...does anyone own this laptop and can they attest to its battery life?

 

Replied to your PM about this. Hopefully a few owners can also jump in with their battery time results.

 

I don't ever game on battery. Today while browsing; leaving brightness all the way up, high performance, and no tweaks, I managed to go around 3 1/2 hours and was only down to 40% battery.

 

Haswell and maxwell along with tweaks from clevo have helped improve that

 

Yep. On my 8258-S, I can squeeze a bit over 3 hours gaming on battery alone.

Last one I did was Borderland 2. Didn't even realize I was running on battery until it gave me the low battery alert 3 hours in, which should go to how well the performance is with the Geforce 800 series battery saving.

 

The performance would have been lower but specifically gaming on battery is much more controlled on the 8xx series.

 

Correct, it'd have locked it down to 30fps, which the naked eye usually can't see much difference of, eventhough I was likely pulling 80ish or more fps or so under power.

There may have been a slight 'sugglishness' with rapid movement, but I'd have been hard pressed to identify it.

 

Well at 60hz the max your monitor can output is 60 fps, exactly what fps will feel as fluid as possible varies from person to person but it normally lies between 60 and 120fps (or 60 and 120hz) and is usually closer to 120hz.

 

Depends on the technology of the game and if they enabled motion blur or other techniques to merge the frames into a smoother overall experience, as well as how much detail is in each frame, as well as what the general eyesight of the person viewing it is, as well as the varying degree of performance of the monitor they view it on.

Lots of things to take into consideration. But the general consensus is 30fps is more than adequate for a 'good' gaming experience for most games, and that the human eye has great difficulty distinguishing changes past 30 fps.

The issue is when you get drops below that 30fps where your eye starts to notice 'stutter' or the like. So that's why a lot of people prefer the 60fps or 120fps or higher to provide higher fps for those moments of dips during high graphic utilization (like massive explosions, mass amount of people on the grid, etc).

And while correct, a 60hz monitor can only refresh 60 times a second, thus, '60 frames', it still is beneficial even in that situation to output more than 60fps as during mouse movements and others, you have less 'lag' since it will refresh with the latest frame while it 'tosses' the others away.

Of course vsync will enforce the monitor refresh to frames, and is a nice feature, but it still doesn't stop the fact the game I played achieved well over 80 fps, I just only saw 60 of them.

 

So would it be safe to say that the 7358 would have pretty much the same battery life as the 7338 since there's just the difference of the screen size and optical drive?

 

Yeah, the 7358 also has another 2.5" drive bay and a third ram slot.

 

Ah no wonder it's much heavier. It does have a 8 cell battery over the 6 cell of the 7338 though

 

It's really not that heavy considering. I've had no issues with the weight of it at all.

 

It's personal preference but for me 60 is mostly the minimum I will take in most games, so I have a top end system to keep me happy. Anyway on battery the 30fps thing makes sense for most people, I think I am particularly picky.

 

Hi WCFire I'm sorry to reply so late. I'm loving it. With respect to the fan speed I can honestly say I haven't noticed it at all. Definitely two enthusiastic thumbs up for me. The only thing I can't figure out is now to change the laptop resolution to 1920x1080 - according to Windows Control Panel it is at 1920x1080 but it's not the same resolution as my monitor which is 1920x1080. As in if I duplicate the screens the resolution on the monitor is higher, even though according to Windows both screens are at 1920x1080. When I use a site like whatismyscreenresolution.com it says my laptop screen res is 1396x785 while my monitor is 1745x982. It's not a big deal since I'm using an external monitor 90% of the time but am I doing something wrong?

 

Regarding battery I don't usually game on battery but I have gotten about 2 1/2 hours using it to surf the internet and Skype. I do have all my settings on max however.

 

The larger screen will impact battery life over the smaller systems.