Anyone have an opinion on Sager Notebooks? (Bought on 11/30)

[Tanooki]

Erased original post -- useless, see new post below 12/1

[MrPopo]

I have a Sager I purchased second-hand from a coworker as a machine to bring to LAN parties; so it needed to be able to run TF2 but didn't need to be high end. So far I've been happy with it; it has a nice cooler built in that does make it heavy but also means I've never had overheating problems like a friend with an Alienware had. However, the hinges are very stiff, which I think is what led to recently a piece of plastic breaking on the back of the laptop where the hinge is. As a result it doesn't fold down quite right and won't lock in a closed position unless I work at moving stuff around. I'm also concerned that joint (which has a wire in it) is going to fully break at some point and I'll have an inoperable machine. But for the time I've had it and the price I paid I'm happy with it. When it comes time to replace I plan on getting whatever the latest Surface Pro is anyway.

[Tanooki]

Interesting. I just did more digging, can't figure it, but the same model Sager in the -S variant is better and the price is slightly nicer since the stuff I added to the base model is stock. You're the only one I've read any issues on their laptops having hinge issues so that's something to consider - thanks.

[ExedExes]

Sager - 8268-S: i7-4810MQ, 16GB DDR3 ram, 6x BluRay bdrw, Nvidia gtx 970M 6GB DDR5, 1TB WD HDD(free upgrade from 750GB), CPU diamond Paste upgrade, Intel AC/N Dual Band Wireless+Bluetooth 4.0combo = $1708 ($1888 with 500GB Crucial SSD)

That's hot.

For a laptop, I mean.

Same stuff, but cheaper? I'd spring for the SSD with those savings.

[Tanooki]

That's the one thing I'm on the fence with. I've decided I don't need a blu ray burner, just a player / dvdrw to do just more than fine as I almost never burn a thing and that saves $35~. The SSD adds $200, but what has me is the $300 price difference on the video card. You can go up to the 980M which also has +2GB of ram on it, it has like a 25-30% improvement across the board over the 970M looking at that notebooktech site that rates stuff.

I have to decide to I add another $50 to the pot and get the video card and the old school warmer less stable disk drive, or do I go with the physically smaller, cooler, faster solid parts SSD. This is a laptop I'd keep for like 5~years unless it breaks, so I'm trying to go as highball as I can within a budget I set. At $1888 with the SDD and bdrw (not bd+dvdrw), and the 6% tax in KY I can get it for $2001. The chassis on it can handle up to 3 drives, and I find mixed info online that the video chip can be replaced but given how small laptop parts are I imagine the cost wouldn't be worth it while SSDs are far more reasonable so I just don't know yet. I'll have the money within a couple of weeks roughly as I just need to clear a few more ebay sales and I have a buyer on my sharp nes tv.

[ExedExes]

The performance edge is much clearer w/SSD plus a lot more reliable with no moving parts. But I really like WD's drives too.

That laptop can handle 3 drives? Did I read that right? Wow.

5 years is about right; had to replace my regular (non-gaming) laptop this year, but damn these Core processors are so much nicer, that and I think Win 8.1 really isn't that bad. Also got 8GB of RAM and a 750GB drive. Despite the Intel HD Video onboard, it runs all the GOG stuff I threw at it so far, and is also good for emulation.

[Tanooki]

Win 8.1 turned into a touch panel frontend you can kill with Win7 basically in the background but 8 was trash.

You read it right, 3 drives.
http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php? ... e=NP8268-S

You have a primary bay for a normal HDD or a SDD, then you have mSATA raid as an option on top of two mSATA SSD drives. So three 'hard/solid' drive bays, a fourth bay for the optical drive. Then there's a pair of pays for 4 slots of memory chips. And if I read the truth you can pop out the video card/chip too so there's a bay for that as well. Basically these books from them (and xidax) are like old desktop tower shells you fill with lots of bays with whatever you want that fits. With these newer memory chips, drives and processors they're equals to a desktop, and finally this year with nvidia that 970/980M chipset runs around 80% of the potential of the desktop version as they closed the gap as it used to be 50% or worse(far worse with integrated.)

My laptop I'm on now that's 3 years old has the intel hd 3000 with an i5 chip and it's the equal of a board that was out in pc's about 1-1 1/2years before a radeon 5450 minus a few things which is why I noted hardware transform and lighting on it sucks so games like CODMW1 won't work yet others scream so it's a mixed bag. I could easily used this computer for Steam stuff another couple years, but I want to pass it along since the desktop is about dead.



...so anyway sidetracking aside, has anyone here ever bought a Sager? I'm going to go with them but I want to make sure there's not a good reason to avoid them.

[Tanooki]

I finally saved up the 2K needed to get my long term beefy laptop and bought it last night through xoticpc.com. They had the same price (usually more) due to Black Friday promotions, some freebies, and better warranty support.

I ended up getting this: http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8278s-cl ... -6985.html Sager NP8278-S (was looking at the 68-S but +$35 went from 15" to 17".)

Take that base unit. Click on specs, and then change these additions: 1TB 7200 HDD (no SSD), NVidia GeForce GTX980M (8GB RAM, DirectX 12 capable), 16 (8x2)GB RAM (room for 2 more up to 32), IC Diamond cooling paste (CPU+GPU), and I also threw a 3yr total (minus accident) warranty on it.

With black friday it also came with 2 free mousepads, shirt, lanyard and a 32GB USB Pen Drive and free shipping (they also don't charge tax in my state.)

I did months of research this was the best by far with Sager(Clevo.) You get the absolute most parts for the best price. Also they start as shells like the old days of building your own PC in a local shop, even the CPU+GPU are not soldered in, total upgrade capable. The GPU is maxed, but the CPU could have cost me $880 more for a GeForce GTX4940MX at 3.1/4GHZ.)

I maxed the video, 1/2 the RAM the right way so I can just buy 2 chips (not 4) later, and the CPU I have is 2.5/3.5GHZ, and I feel if I think the computer is 'slow' in like 3 years I could get the maxed chip for cheap at that rate and pop it in. The system is a snap to open up top and bottom for any maintenance an upgrades. I'll pop it open probably every 6-12mo just to blow out and wipe off the fans to keep it chilling with the way it is rigged up inside with them being large and supported with good copper tubing. I still have my 3 year old cooler master cooling fan/stand from this laptop I have now and it still is one of the best rated online so I'll just drop it on top of that.

With the way things are it's far easier going forward for me to be once again a PC gamer, something I really haven't been this entire century as I bailed on it almost entirely in the late 90s. This machine alone will last me a long time and the easy upgrades will give it even a longer life.