Which Sager should I get?

Hi everyone, this will be my first post. I just joined today, after many years of passive browsing of the forums.

I am looking at getting one of the two following laptops from xoticpc:

Sager NP 8690/Clevo W860CU
Price as configured: $1584

FHLED 1920 x 1080 screen
i7 620M processor
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870
4GB DDR3 1066MHz Ram
320GB 7200 RPM hard drive


OR


Sager NP 2180/Compal NBLB2
Price as configured: $1278

FHLED 1920 x 1080 screen
i7 620M processor
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
4GB DDR3 1066MHz Ram
80GB Intel X25-M Solid State Drive

As you can see, the two lappys have very similar specs, with the Compal having a significantly weaker graphics card but with a SSD as well as being $250 cheaper.

My requirements:

I do some light gaming (mostly MMO but also BFBC2 and HL2 occasionally), but am perfectly happy with medium settings and I think the 5650 would be more than enough for my needs.

I am a multitasker, so it is not uncommon for me to have several programs running at the same time.

Portability is not too much of a concern, but the battery life of the W860CU is really quite poor.

I am getting the dual-core 620M over a quad core i7 because I think that most applications will benefit more from the 620, as there are not many apps than can take advantage of multi-thread. Also, the 620 is 35 TDP and will run cooler and more efficiently.

From the multiple reviews and user opinions I've read on the W860CU, it has a superior build quality to the NBLB2 and overall, I think the design looks better.

I haven't been able to find many reviews on the NBLB2, but basically, I am worried about how long it will last. I am looking for something that will last 3-4 years and doesn't break down.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

 

Go for the 5870, its can mostly play games at full setting and Full HD, also try to get an i7 920 extreme, or core i720Q, ATI graphic cards are very cpu dependent. Also an ssd, cappella platform is currently being refreshed so wait a while.

 

Lol, not everyone can afford the 920XM. The 620M will be better for gaming than 720QM.

 

Yep, that's true for 99% of the games.

Also, if you can wait, camp for a month, there will be new models coming from Clevo. It's worth the wait 100%.

 

Really, Clevo is releasing new models in June?

That's awesome. I may just wait...

 

Yep, they should be announced 1-5th, June at Computex.
D900F successor: x7200 - 980X, GTX480M SLI or 5870CF, USB 3.0 etc.
W880/1xx: mobile CPU + dual 480 or 5870 GPUs, etc.

 

Between those two I'd definitely get the W860CU, but as Aikimox said you should try to hold out for another month or so. Clevo has some very nice stuff coming.

 

Neither seems like it would be particularly affordable, though. What about lower end options more in line with the ~$1500 the OP is looking at?

 

Um, the W880CU is the W870CU resfresh, and is a single GPU machine.

The 480M will likely be over your budget, but you can always choose to stick with the 5870.

It's worth waiting for the W880, just for the USB 3.0 upgrade.

 

Thanks for all the advice.

I think at this point, I'm leaning toward the NP2180 because of the SSD. I think that overall, the performance gain from the SSD will be greater than having a 5870 over a 5650. The graphics card would really only be useful in gaming, whereas the SSD will give me an across the board application/os load time and data read/write times. Plus, the NP2180 is still cheaper by $250.

I'm just worried about the build quality...

 

well, the 2180 is a Sager/Compal, which is in a total different class from the Sager/Clevo in terms of everything.

Screen on the Clevo is better, build quality is much better, graphics card is uncomparable, and you can always add in a 80gb SSD later for 100-200 later. Moreover, what's the 80gb intel SSD there? is it the gen 1 or gen 2?

Well, if you are not gaming then I don't see why are you getting a 8690 with 5870MR graphics card, it's quite a waste of money really. A compal might not have the greatest build quality, but it's still durable I would say.

 

The 5870 is basically twice as powerful as a gaming card, so the difference there is enormous. Keep in mind that the resolution of 1920x1080 is fairly demanding, so the 5650 won't hold up so well.

 

Do you mean the quality of the screen is better, because I'm pretty sure the resolution is the same on both-1920 x 1080.

I certainly agree with you that the Clevo builds better quality than Compal. I believe the SSD is G2, because the price $220 is right in line with the retail prices that I currently find for the Intel x25-m 80GB SSD

further evidence is supplied by anadtech, which lists the "introductory price" as $225.

 

The resolution doesn't stand for the quality of the screen, a 1600x900 IPS panel screen would be tons better than a standard TN panel screen with 1920x1080 resolution. Their quality would be different unless they are using the same screen, I'm not sure whether they use the same screen but compal and clevo are 2 different notebook makers, even though they both use AOU screen for this model. Well, they could be using the same screen though for all I know.