buying a sager

for months ive been saving up to try to get a Alienware, but today i checked sager and HOLY COW, i was blown away by the price and how cheap it is. but the question is does sager experience many problems like alienware? if one were to ever look under the alienware forums, its riddled with peeps having trouble. i would never mind working on it, but if there arent such severe problems (for ex one calling about faulty motherboards and giving it a clean wipe every month) then i think ill be sold on sager. thoughts? comments? opinions? anything would help.
thanks

 

hi
you will find many many ex alienware owners who now own clevo laptops.
the brand is clevo and sager are resellers like xoticpc and powernotebooks.

you can find a full list of the worldwide resellers > http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...-0-faq-reseller-info-read-before-posting.html
list needs updating but this is the best place for advice.
which lappy are you thinking of getting.

 

well, i got 1200.00 to spend, and i was looking at the NP5170, because that one is cheep and even better specs than the alienware lolz, and it has the 2nd gen processor, so this is a tripple whammy in my book. the only other question is how is their warranty and support..? ok and im understanding more.

 

Which alienware are you comparing to because the NP5170 has a weaker graphics card than the 15 inch alienware...

Also the second gen processor makes delivery more of a april may deal than a next week thing...

 

hmmm, i did not notice the vid card part, thought it was a 1.5gig. nvm then, but i was trying to get the m17x r2. but i think i will just wait until the r3 comes out and see where the money lands on that model if the shipping will be march/april anyways, so might as well wait.

 

Its not the ram that makes a big difference but rather the GPU, and the 540 is just not a very strong one. the 460/470 used in most of the other high end models is probably the lowest you want to go for a gaming system this generation.

 

so wait, the 470 is better than the 540 one...? that kind of stumps me, eh, i guess i need to read a little bit better on what is good.

 

check this it may help you
Comparison of Laptop Graphics Cards - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

I suggest looking at the 2nd digit for nvidia cards (ie 4 60m vs 5 40m). Then look that the 3rd/hundreds digit. A 540m is much weaker than a 460m.

 

so it seems that the 480m SLI is the best, but i dont see them in the sagers or aliens. hmmm, thanks for the help. +1 rep

 

Sager doesnt offer the 480M in SLI but they have the even better 485M on the NP7280

 

the 480 is actually not worth it in any situation. IE don't get a 480. The 485 is much much better if you want to spend that kind of money. I think even a 470 can be better than a 480 if you OC it.

 

this view is a bit extreme. the 540m is a reasonable mid range card at this point. It won't play the most taxing games on the highest settings with strong fps, but it also won't drive the cost of the laptop through the ceiling. If you like to buy technology products on the "knee" of the price/features curve, as I do, I think that is where the 540 is right now. The "gotta have the best of everything" crowd here can really lead you to overspend, in my humble view.

 

yeah id love to get the 485, but i really dont have that type of money :\ if i could i would hands down. so i guess il ltry the next best thing

 

The 460 is a pretty reasonable price and a nice card. I'm pretty much in the same boat.

Would I like a 485? Yes.

Can I justify dropping another $500+ on one? Not really.

The 460 should be fine for any current game.

 

I had the GTX 280m in my previous Sager and frankly, this was already enough to play many games on high settings. Imagine what the 460m - 485m could do, which are two leagues higher at least.

 

Get a 8130 or a 8150 for your budget, don't get the 5170 if you're planning on trying to play new games with high settings, let alone games down the road. The problem with a GPU like the 540M is the native resolution on most of these laptops is 1920x1080, which is WAY to high for these cards in the first place. It would be nice to see options for lower resolution native panels, but it seems 1080 is what you get.

I have a GTX 280M right now, and lately I have had to set my resolution to 1600x900 or even lower to get smooth frame-rates with newer games. Of course my native resolution being 1080p, lowering the resolution makes it look fuzzy . the 8130 has the 460M GPU, which scores about 6,500 in 3dmark Vantage, the 470M scores around 8,500 , and the 485M scores around 12,000. the 540M however scores like 3,500, and is equivalent to a 9800M GT which is a few years old and was a mid-range card to start with.

I would personally choose the 8150 since you can configure it with a 485M ( not that you would right away, but hey you have the option down the road ). There are some who are saying the 8130 will be able to house a better GPU, but so far the only option is the 460M.

The 8130 base config has a bit more RAM and a bigger HDD, also a matte screen vs. the glare type. So with your budget I would suggest going with the 8130 actually, but if you had a bit more to spend you could get the 8150 with the 485M, but the 8130 should be able to hold at least a 470M later on, but we need confirmation on this information, and if anyone knows anything about this.

 

The 5160 comes as low as 1366x768 resolution, which I mention because you are pushing him to a 15.6 inch screen model (8130) anyway. It comes down to the games you plan to play over the next 3 years I think. I play mostly SC2. I have played it on extreme settings and, frankly, I prefer to play it on high instead. Extreme settings don't enhance the gameplay for me on that one and just seem to make more things "glow." Most games look fine on medium or high. It is neat to see how they look on ultra or extreme settings, but not really critical to play them on those highest settings. As long as the 540m can handle SC2 and its expacs for the next few years on medium to high settings with playable fps, I am fine with it.

I suggest, check out how a comparable gpu plays the actual games you are playing now, and mess with the settings and see what you like/need. If a comparable gpu can handle the current games you play at plenty high settings for your tastes, chances are that will be true for a few years to come. On the other hand, if you play Crysis, for example, you need a better card.

 

My guess is that the 8130 could potentially hold a GTX470M, but getting one is a different story. Clevo has discontinued the production of that card so when the time comes it would be more expensive to purchase that card(if it were available)than it would to get the 485M now. I do agree though the 8130 is going to be a great value for him right now as the GTX460M can hold its own on pretty much every game even in native resolution 1920 x 1080. Plus the screen on the NP8130 is really good. I love the quality of the new matte finish screens sager is using.(so much so that we are starting to customize 8150/8170 with the same type of screen if people want) I am hoping it is a trend that most manufactures will start using.