buying sager 9260

hey guys,
i think i've decided to buy a 9260...never bought a sager before, but after what i've read about them and what i've seen on here, i'm pretty convinced
i'd be using this laptop for gaming and general purpose use; it'll almost always be sitting on a table
my plan is to go for this:

WSXGA+ screen
E6420 2.13 GHz, 4MB L2, 1066 FSB
single 7950
2GB RAM
100GB 7200rpm
Windows XP Pro

how does that look?

also, i've got several questions:
is the 9260 quieter and less noticeable than the 5790? i read a couple places that the 5790 could get a little annoying w/fans constantly turning on and off

what's everyone's opinions on getting Vista? is it worth getting? and if i did, would it be recommended to go to 4GB RAM?

and it seems like powernotebooks and xoticpc are the places to go to buy, right? is there much of a difference b/t these two or are they pretty much the same? any difference in the quality of parts they use?

so far the biggest cons i can find are its weight and the glossy plastic...anything more significant?

thanks a bunch!

btw, how is sager pronounced? is it like say-jer?

 

Unless you are on a schedule and need the laptop soon, I would wait a month before buying one. I am going to buy one as well and have been doing alot of research and shopping around. I sent in a couple questions to Hypersonic about the configuration of the Clevo D900C (Sager 9260). AlexG from Hypersonic responded with:

The 8xxx series GPU should be released towards the end of this month, beginning of next. At the moment we are not sure if the change would require a motherboard swap, or if this would be possible for you to do on your end.

We will know more once these cards are released at the end of August.

Please feel free to contact us then!

Soooo, I am now waiting a bit longer before buying one. Dont know about you, but I would hate to buy one with a 7950 GPU in it when if I had just waited a few more weeks, could have gotten one with the next high end card.

Of course the computer world is always like that though. If i had just waited a bit longer.....it never ends.

Wether you decide to buy now or wait, you are still getting a mean machine. Now, to answer your questions. Check these out.

Justins reveiw

Chaz's reveiw

Jon's reveiw

Those should answer any and all questions. If not, then go here The D901C/Sager 9260/Pro-Star 9191 Owners Lounge

 

What do you mean they will be released? the M8800 GTX are coming in the end of this month for the d900/1c or is simply the M8700 GT?

Trance

 

Prob'ly the 8700.

 

I believed he (AlexG) meant the the 8800 or whatever the next card will be called because that is what I was asking him about. I really hope he was not refering to the 8700 because it is already out and available at the moment. Eurocom is offering it in their Phantom-X (D900C), SLI even.

I have no idea why nobody else is offering the 8700 as an option for the D900C yet.

 

Personally, I prefer the WUXGA screen, more space and the text isn't all that small.

CPU wise, your choice is OK, but I think the C2D E6600 2.4GHz is sweeter and is only $60 bucks more at XoticPC. If $160 is not an issue then certainly go for the E6700 2.66GHz.

Single 7950GTX and single hard drive? I don't get it. Unless you're planning to upgrade things yourself later to save some dough, why the hell in the world are you buying the most powerful notebook on earth and crippling it? Don't get me wrong, by itself the 7950GTX is a damn good card and the desktop processor kicks butt, too. But it would seem such a waste of potential not to have SLi and multiple HD's.

WinXP Pro is the way to go right now. It's a proven entity, esp. if you wanna go SLi because there isn't an official SLi driver for Vista yet. Speaking of which, if you can hold out and wait a little longer, I would, because I suspect that by year's end, the 8800 series cards will be released, Vista will be updated with an SLi driver, and who knows, maybe Sager will even start to use Quad Core processors in these babies.

Fan noise...you gotta remember these top of the line beasts are gonna run hot so some fan noise is to be expected. The 9260, fully equipped with dual GPU's and desktop processor, is gonna generate much more heat than the 5790. If you're gonna play with these high end machines, you've got to use a notebook cooler, without question.

Yes, XoticPC or Powernotebooks.com is the way to go if you're going to buy a Sager product. No, there isn't much difference between the two of them in terms of product quality because they're both Sager reseller. That is, they don't build the product, Sager does. But with Justin and Donald, you get the VIP treatment and first rate customer service. Think of them as your notebook pimps, like an agent negotiating the field for you.

Yeah, the biggest cons against the 9260 is size, weight (over 12lbs.), and portability. Yup, it's a big fugly square box. But hey, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

I think it's pronounced Say (long a) Ger (hard G).

 

Anyone here want to take a stab at quantifying the fan noise generated by the 9260? I'm thinking maybe by comparing it to something most people have experience with, e.g., a desk fan such as a 12-inch vornado like this: http://www.vornado.com/products/circulators/630b.htm

or like the 15-inch like this: http://www.vornado.com/products/circulators/733b.htm

or even a mini pocket fan like this: http://www.survivalstore.com/r4s12lcb2.html

Maybe if one of you intrepid souls has a decibel meter, and you're so inclined, a couple of decibel readings could be useful as well.

 

it will still be powerful, and maybe he is on a budget, i saw 8700m gt offered in sli on xtremenotebooks.com, said coming soon

 

xtremenotebooks is also offering the quadcore, which has been shown to degrade the system... so im a lil weary of them, even if it is the new 95 lower wattage. I TOO am getting a single 7950/HD/E6700... but thats cuz i am going to upgrade to SLI of watever the new card is next summer... maybe 8900? with dx10.1 support? but thats just me... if you dont want SLi maybe you shud get the 5790 :/

Edit: ps. it is SAy-Jer

 

Yeah, Eurocom and Xtremenotebooks certainly are pushing the edge offering Quad Core processors, Dual 8700M GT in SLi, and DDR2-800mHz RAM in the D900C. Sager has always lag the competition a li'l bit but for the price, you can't complain. Xtremenotebooks' price is quite outrageous.

You sure it's Say Jer with a soft G and not a hard G. Grrrr.

 

i think it is say-grr or say-jer like you have it. unsure.

 

You're right, I just called the mothership and the Sager sales rep confirmed that it's pronounced Say-Jer with a soft G instead of a hard G. Although, I first called technical support by mistake and got a guy with a middle-eastern/Indian accent on the phone. He pronounced it Say-Ger with a hard G. So I figured since he's foreign, he can't be reliably trusted with the correct pronunciation.

 

lol, he is trying though

also i found the quad core thing with xtremenotebooks really sketchy, why would they push it if it was known to deteriorate the laptop?

 

If your not going to go SLI then I wouldn't get a 9260. I would go with a M570RU instead.

 

hm...I am probably goingto exchange my 570ru for a 9260...

There are many other pros to getting the 9260 besides SLI isn't there?

Faster FSB...
RAID
etc.?

 

M570RU
2.8Ghz max Processor
800Mhz FSB
1 x Hard Disk
4GB 667Mhz memory
Fingerprint reader (in some models)

D901C
3.2Ghz max Processor
1066FSB
3 x Hard Disk
4GB 800Mhz memory

about all I can think of, but if your going single GPU go for the M570RU. Not trying to steer you away from a D901C, but just trying to help you find what works best for you.

The M570RU listed above with a 7950GTX and optimized with proper drivers should be able to hit 6k in 3dmark06 (default resolution).

Compared to the D901C with SLI maxed out being able to hit 9.5k.

 

those are "features"

 

hrmm

ok
thanks for all the advice guys
i guess i'll rethink my decision and look into the 5790 some more

one thing about the 5790 that bothers me a bit is the complaints i saw about one of the fans continually starting and stopping every couple minutes even while idle...i kinda feel like i'd rather just have it keep going
can anyone comment on this and if it would be very noticeable in for example a reasonably quiet office setting?

thx

 

well i dont know much about the fans on the 5790, but for my 9260 i can turn the fans on MAX full time....its not that loud IMO.

 

Yeah, I always have my fans on max when I game, but for just surfing or movie watching, there's no reason to. What, is firefox gunna get 2 more FPS due to CPU throttling? I don't think so, so there's no reason for max fans all the time unless want prematurely dead HSF's...