XoticPC Sager NP9370 or Force (MSI) 1762

I am looking for opinions on the two chassis, please let me know the good / bad of both. Please people with hands on experience reply, not people jumping on the AMD vs Nvidia bandwagon, looking for chassis vs chassis differences, warrenty info etc. Subtles difference that I may be over looking. Below is the build out of both, added the 16GB in the sager for price comparisons since the Force 1762 upgrades to 16GB for free, subtract roughly 50 additional from the Sager to stick with 8GB.

Sager NP9370 - Gaming Laptop (Clevo P370EM)

- FREE!!! – U.S. UPS GROUND SHIPPING (Use Coupon Code "FREESHIP" in Checkout) [U.S. Lower 48 ONLY / Restrictions Apply]
- SAGER Winter Sale!!! - $50 OFF When you spend $1350.00* or more! (*excludes non-sager parts, accessories, shipping, & taxes)
- 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Anti-Glare Screen (1920x1080) (SKU - S1X506)
- Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- NO Professional Monitor Color Calibration
- Sager - 3rd Generation Intel® Ivy Bridge Core™ i7-3630QM (2.4GHz - 3.4GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache, 45W Max TDP) (SKU – S2R174)
- -Stock OEM Thermal Compound
- AMD Radeon HD 7970M (2048MB) GDDR5 DX11 [User Upgradeable] (SKU - S3R705)
- No Copper Cooling Upgrade
- No Video Adapter
- No External Mobile Display
- 16GB - DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (4 SODIMMS) (SKU - S4T822P)
- Sager Branding
- Standard Laptop Finish
- No mSATA SSD
- 750GB 7200RPM [Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache] - Default (SKU - S5T306)
- None Standard
- HDD Raid Settings - OFF
- Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive w/ Software (When selecting a Hard Drive in the Optical Bay, No Optical Drive is Included) (SKU - S7R455)
- No Extra Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy
- No Back Up Hard Drive
- NO External USB Optical Drive
- Internal 9-in-1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD/Mini SD/SDHC/SDXC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo)
- No Back Up Software
- Bluetooth Included *With select wireless cards only* (See “Wireless Network” Section Below)
- Sager - Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 (3x3) (SKU - S8R056)
- No Network Accessory
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- No TV Tuner
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Basic Black Business Case - Included
- Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- No Car Adapter
- No Spare AC Adapter
- No Dock/Hub/Adapter
- Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- No Headset
- No External Keyboard
- Standard Sager/Clevo Non Chiclet Backlit Keyboard
- No External Mouse
- No Notebook Cooler
- No Thanks, Please do not Overclock my system (Overclocking will add 3-6 business days to build time)
- No Operating System Redline Boost
- No Operating System Standard - Drivers & Utility Software Only
- No Antivirus Essentials Software Bundle
- - No Microsoft OFFICE Software
- No Software Bundle
- LIFETIME Ltd Labor* 1 Year Parts Warranty Lifetime 24/7 DOMESTIC Toll Free Telephone Support (Labor through XPC)
Includes FREE Shipping Both Ways for Parts Warranty Repairs (SKU - X9R009)
- No thanks, standard double boxed packaging is okay with my order
- No Outside of US Shipping Coverage
- Standard Production Time
- No Xotic PC Gear

Total : 1629.00 + Shipping

FORCE/MSI 1762 (62-033) 680M (MSI GT70 Barebones)

- FREE!!! – U.S. UPS GROUND SHIPPING (Use Coupon Code "FREESHIP" in Checkout) [U.S. Lower 48 ONLY / Restrictions Apply]
- FREE!!! - FIREFALL Exclusive BETA Key w/ Purchase! [limited time offer / while supplies last]
- 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Matte Screen (1920x1080) (SKU - X1R553)
- Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- NO Professional Monitor Color Calibration
- 3rd Generation Intel® Ivy Bridge Core™ i7-3610QM (2.3GHz - 3.3GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache, 45W Max TDP) - BACK-ORDER (SKU – X2T300)
- Stock OEM Thermal Compound ( IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU Provided FREE with Processor Upgrade!)
- nVidia GeForce GTX 680M 4,096MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 (SKU – X3R537)
- No Copper Cooling Upgrade
- No Video Adapter
- No External Mobile Display
- FREE UPGRADE! - 16GB DDR3 1600MHz [SKU–444EP] (Dual Channel Memory (4x4GB SODIMMS)) - [$50 Value!]
- Standard Laptop Finish
- 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s) (SKU - X5N203)
- No Second Hard Drive (Primary Hard Drive Required When Adding a Secondary Hard Drive) (SKU - X6R953)
- HDD Raid Settings - OFF
- Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive w/ Software (SKU - X7R451)
- No Extra Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy
- No Back Up Hard Drive
- NO External USB Optical Drive
- Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader (MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS Pro Duo/SD/Mini-SD/MMC/RS)
- No Back Up Software
- Bluetooth Included *With select wireless cards only* (See “Wireless Network” Section Below)
- Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1202 + Bluetooth 4.0 (Dual Band) (SKU – X8R008)
- No Network Accessory
- Integrated Digital Video Camera
- No TV Tuner
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- No Carrying Case
- Smart Li-ion Battery (9-Cell)
- No Car Adapter
- No Spare AC Adapter
- No Dock/Hub/Adapter
- No Fingerprint Reader
- No Headset
- No External Keyboard
- Stock - BLUE Backlit Keyboard
- No External Mouse
- No Notebook Cooler
- No Thanks, Please do not Overclock my system
- No Operating System Redline Boost
- No Operating System Standard - Drivers & Utility Software Only
- No Antivirus Essentials Software Bundle
- No Office Software
- No Software Bundle
- 1 Year Complete Care Warranty - 1 Year Parts with Ground Shipping, 24/7 Telephone Tech Support & Lifetime Labor Warranty (SKU - X9R000)
- No thanks, standard double boxed packaging is okay with my order
- No Outside of US Shipping Coverage
- Standard Production Time
- No Xotic PC Gear

Total : 1747 + shipping

 

Sager 9370 has more power overall, upgradeability and option for sli/crossfire
which also means it'll be bulkier, heavier and the will require a bigger power supply which adds weight when traveling and mediocre battery life.

warranty, will be the same for both under xoticpc, If I remember correctly the the Xotic PC Force while an MSI barebone is not under the MSI Brand meaning you lose the MSI global warranty and such (which won't be a problem if you live in the U.S., outside the U.S. you'll need to ship your laptop back to xoticpc for warranty claims and repairs). unless this has changed the past year.

there were reports before that MSI's speakers are better than sager's as well.

 

Warranty wise I live in Alaska so shipping is going to be 150.00 ordeal every time if I do have to ship this laptop off. I don't mind swapping out components etc, but say if the chassis is "flimsy" and breaks it will take a bit to get the laptop back.

As for the sound I keep hearing that the NP9370 doesn't have bass, even when using headphones (which I use 90%) of the time along with desktop speakers + sub. I wasn't completely sure if the sound complaints are just from the speakers themselves or from the sound card / muxing. The other complaint was when using the laptop for Skype with the mic being put near the keyboard you hear clicking while talking to someone if you are typing, there is a good youtube video of it. However, as you stated the chassis itself can be upgraded nicely later on down the road and if they continue to use the MXM 3.0 slot then I could SLI / Crossfire down the road and hopefully not break the bank. It's 400 to go with crossfire atm, but I have seen GPU's that were 650 a year ago selling for 300ish, which hopefully a year from now that may be the same with the 7970m / 680M if I go that route.

As for overall build quality of the laptop that is what I am concerned with, bestbuy locally does sell the MSI chassis but doesn't stock so I cant inspect either of these in person and am relying on user input on the quality comparison's.

Thanks again for any info!

Jason

 

Clevo chassis are great, but the are not business class great and not flimsy at all.

About the Mic, yes annoyingly it will be heard through Skype.

As for the sound, I can't really comment as I'm not an audiophile. I'm happy as long as I can understand the words lol.


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