how long should I expect my np8660 to last?

I'm not the kind of person who buy a new laptop every two years. I would expect a 2000+ dollar laptop to last at least 5 years, but with the kind of heat this thing generates I'm wondering if that's a hopeless expectation.

I know the 8660's temperatures aren't really anything out of the ordinary...I guess I'm just talking about gaming laptops in general. Does a sager/alienware/xps last anywhere near as long as, say,an inspiron? (mines going on 7 years)

 

It will last at least 5 years, though I can't tell you for sure since I don't have a time machine...

 

Well, Sager feels good enough about their products to offer a three year warranty...

 

A 7-year-old inspiron? That must have been back when Dell still made quality mainstream notebooks. You also must take pretty good care of your machine, which will extend the life of any product (gaming notebooks included).

I would expect at least four years out of it. You can easily replace almost any component that would fail yourself after a 3 year warranty would run out as well.

It really depends on what you plan on doing with your notebook. It's built well, but obviously running it hard (generating heat for extended periods of times and heat/cool cycles with extremes at both ends) will reduce the life of the machine, or at least specific components of it.

I wouldn't expect to get 7 years out of it, though. The inspiron isn't a gaming notebook, after all.

 

ha, well I guess what I'm mainly looking for here is info from current sager owners on how long their systems have lasted

 

actually my inspiron 5150 did suffer from some kind of widespread motherboard failure, but it was so common that Dell fixed it for free...

 

I haven't seen any broken notebook yet. Even my 200Ghz notebook from like 10 years ago still functions ok but it probably worth nothing nowadays.

 

200ghz? Grabbing notebooks from timemachines?

Don't lie about not having that time machine

 

If you are really concerned about heat get a laptop cooler, but like everything else it's how well you maintain it.
Like everyone else stated who knows, but I don't see why not.

 

I really don't have the time machine with me!

 

Biff took it back to 1955! That sneaky ol' dog!

 

it will last as long as you make it. For instance, i still have my over 10year old laptop with a 6bg hard drive and made for windows 98.
This thing is so old that it strugles with windows 2000 but it still works if i wanted to use it.

 

Like I have said many times before...

"If you take care of your notebook, it will take care of you."

This is a gaming notebook, so it will require a bit more attention (regular cleaning of the vents, monitoring temps, using on recommended surfaces only)... so if you are careless, then you are the only one to blame if its damaged because of overheating.

 

correction, sager feels good enough about their products that they wager nothing on them will break more often than not less than the cost of a 3 year warranty.

 

An... inspiron? Really? You consider inspirons to be well built and long lasting AND you've had a 5150? I can't imagine that an np8660 would have the same level of bad design, shoddy materials, bad heatsink placement, gummed up fans as a 5150. Then again, my 5150 runs great currently but this is after a few motherboard/heatsink replacements, cleaning every month, cooling, and running way underclocked. I'm sure if that's the level of function that you're looking for in five years, the np8660 can deliver at that level

But yeah, I think it all depends on how well you take care of it, cool it, clean it, possibly underclock/undervolt it when performance isn't needed. I'm sure hoping that an NP8660 would last longer and be better built than say, current m15x's; I wouldn't lump all of those builds together at all.

 

I too have never had a laptop of mines to break, including my Inspiron 5100, nor have they needed repair.

 

how much does the motherboard on the m860tu cost? i wouldnt mind having the choice of switching to a capella motherboard/chipset when it's released.

but its not worth it if the new mobo+cpu costs more than a new notebook.

 

You're assuming that any such motherboard would be capable of being installed in the current M860TU chassis, which is not a valid assumption. Given that Capella is the chipset/motherboard for the notebook Nehalem (now called i7) CPUs from Intel, which have a radically different architecture from the architecture of the current chips, I very, very seriously doubt that the Capella/i7 motherboard will fit into the current M860TU chassis.

 

The people who post on forums like this are not the norm.

People here are a little more knowledgable than the average laptop user, and a little more careful.

Laptops are, by their very nature, portable. This increases the amount of stress applied to the computer. Laptops are smaller and less heat efficient, which reduces a lifespan. Laptops tend to be less updatable and harder to work on, which shortens their life.

The expected life of a typical notebook is 3 years. Half the notebooks don't make it that far. Half exceed it. As others have pointed out, you are the biggest determining factor in which half your notebook falls under.

So anything after 3 years is gravy.

To answer your other question--I am typing this on a Sager np5680 that I bought in October 2003, so I am coming up on 5 years. Though a little long in the tooth, it is still a fairly competent computer and will actually best some fairly new laptops in benchmarking. It will not play the latest FPS games, but does OK with even semi current games like Company of Heroes.

In those five years, I have replaced the harddrive, which lasted a little over 3 years. I added memory and upgraded from xp to vista. The paint on the sides of the wrist rests is worn away, exposing the plastic (what can I say, I am fierce typer). The infamous hinge cracks for this model did appear (this was a problem with the 56xx series case and has nothing to do with your model), but I stopped the cracks from spreading with a little crazy glue. The only other thing is the spring that holds the latch on the LCD broke last week (DANG IT!).

I have been very happy with it, and it was not until last two months that I even began thinking of buying a new laptop.

Right now, I am trying to decide between the np8660, the np5796. or the new msi 1651. I like the np8660 best, but don't need that kind of cpu power for my purposes so am loathe to spend that much extra for a heat seaking missle target. I was almost about to pull the trigger on this one when the ATI card was an option.

 

So it hasn't struck you that during your time here on this forum that there are quite a few members who are just casually interested. The kind who may not know that much and just want some help understanding a few things and then will leave again as soon as their problems are solved. Trust me - they're around and not just in the "What Notebook Should I Buy' Forum.

 

and learn from me... never and never hit your laptop screen with your fist when your angry lol

 

I've been browsing this forum for a while now before registering, and it seems to be a fairly mainstream forum, with a couple of niche/expert subforums (like this one). This isn't Anandtech or Tom's Hardware, where everyone is an expert*, but it's the biggest notebook specific one chock full of info (so that includes a lot of people looking for info as well). So.. agreed.


*even if they aren't.

 

Of course they are around, but even the mere idea of visiting a computer forum puts you in the upper 50 percent. I deal with dozens of people a day who can barely turn a computer on without a sticky note next to the power switch saying "ON!"

Seriously, though, it really does take a higher than average computer user to even find their way to a forum. First, they have to recognize there is a problem, but then also recognize that there are people floating around who can solve the problem.

It is clearly not quite as difficult as it once was...back when I first started helping people on the internet (and being helped), it required you to know what usenet is/was.

Forums like this one and others are far easier to find. But, I'll give you an example. I went to a local senior citizen computer club meeting to give a talk not to long ago...there were literally 100+ people in the room. After a brief talk on blogging, I just opened up the floor to Q and A and got dozens of questions. As part of the answer to a question on buying laptops, I introduced them to the forum here, specifically the What Notebook Should I Buy, and it had frankly not occured to them that such a thing could ever exist.

 

wow, last night I had a dream that I was carrying my new np8660 around, and the entire screen suddenly snapped in half...apparently I've been thinking about this too much

 

LoL...wow...u picked the perfect avatar

 

That explains my Dad to the letter. When anything unexpected happens with his computer (the resolution changed, wifi network stops working, he finds that he needs to tinker to make something work) he flips out, panics and wakes me up at six in the mourning. He doesn't think to Google his problem. He doesn't think 'maybe someone else had this issue and solved it'. No. Michael's a computer nerd person - his type will fix it. He's not a senior citizen by the way.

There's a downside to being a digital native.

My Grampa on the otherhand: the man introduced me to Linux, command prompt, soldering LEDs and resistors off of broken old appliances, and using command prompt.

 

Be careful of fixing computers of family/friends. I have stopped doing that.
First a "friend" of mine asked me if he should clean his notebook since he had it for a while. I told him it might be a good idea to clean the fans from dust etc, but that would mean he would have to open the notebook and because of stupid stickers, might void the warranty. So it would be better to give it to qualified technicians instead of trying it himself or me doing it. He didn't listen, he did it, he did something wrong, sent it for repairs, the company refused to fix it for free, he blamed me for the whole thing, bye bye friendship.

A year and a half ago, my mother had a problem with her PC (2001 model, celary cpu etc), it stopped working, had a look but it was erratic behaviour. I told her that it would be nice to have a UPS. I suspected the PSU, bought a new one (my money). It worked for a few days, then poof. She said I did it on purpose...I gave her my then desktop PC (AMD X2 @4400, X1800XT 512, 2GB corsair ram, thermaltake very expensive PSU, etc etc) and I told her that she should buy a UPS. She didn't. After 30 days, poof. She blamed me...no more Mr Nice Guy.

 

wow BlueMak, Its like we both live the same lives.

Computers can create the strangest aggrivations in my opinion.

 

agreed!! when I visit my parents, my dad always insits that I 'fix' whatever problems he's having on his computer; whether it's a question of installing updates, installing software, system maintenance, or on the rare occasion a simple hardware problem . He ends up waiting months for me to come home and try and figure out what's wrong, when i've explained to him a bazillion times that Google can be his best friend ("just type in the question you have and see what you get!"). The best part: it's all my fault! (even though I don't live at home)

hahahaha, gotta looooove family!

 

there is a fine line beween love and hate.