In the Market for a New Laptop

BOT#00001

BOT#00001

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I've finally came to the realization that I need a laptop for school. Problem is, I don't follow the brands closely and I dont know what the best deals are out there. Anyone have any preferences?

I want something with good battery life, good at gaming(doesnt have to be a beast), light, with an optical drive.
Lookin at this one, hear it's good.

Sager 8130

or this

Sager 5160

The first one is moreso for gaming. While the5160 is lighter and has better battery life. Leanin towards the 5160 i think..
 
If your in the market for a Sager you will get much better service buying them from a reseller. I usually price through XoticPC and they have several reps on notebookreview. But Personally have only dealt with GenTechPC in cali and their system builder is an awesome guy who has never turned me down for help with my or someone elses notebook.

Alternatives to sager would be MSI or ASUS, unless you need the expandability/upgradability of Sager... then the main alternative... dare i say it.... alienware.....

NP8130 on Xotic - Sager NP8130 (Built on Clevo P151HM1) Custom
NP5160 - Sager NP5160 Custom Laptop (Built on the Clevo W150HN)


Check out the lot of them though - Custom Laptops, Gaming Notebooks, Custom Gaming Laptops | XOTIC PC

Your likely to get it cheaper from them, but some of their services aren't exactly cheap. Reseller's are able to do upgrades without voiding warranty. Haven't owned a sager yet but i hear terrible things about buying directly from them. Much better things about support/rma through resellers.

The 560M is decent a little slower than a 550 Ti, same shader count and memory bus. It will play BF3 but its future is limited. If you have the cash the 570 and 580M's are available but not cheap. The 540M should be able to play bad company better than myne in DX10, not sure how the 11 performance would be.
 
Be sure to hit up one of their reps on NBR if you have any questions. Justin@XoticPC was one of the more active ones but i dont hang around anymore.

I would say that 540M is as low as I myself could go and its not a huge improvement over what I have. The optimus setup should make a nice compromise if you want to do a little gaming or need the gpu power for other things like gpu accelerated apps or video.

Be aware optimus has had its share of problems. Not switching gpu's when a game is laucnhed or not working with CAD software at all. But that was well over a year ago and on older setups I havent kept up but I am sure it has improved.

That i7-2630QM for 80 bucks is probably a worthy upgrade for the cash. Your losing 300 mhz base clock over the stock cpu but you are picking up 2 extra cores. Battery life will go down a little but the useable lifespan increase for 80 bucks is awesome. You likely wont be able to upgrade for very cheap unless alot of people start selling their 2630's.

I would look into doing things like the ram upgrade myself since no problems with warranty. As for the thermal paste if you want it done have them do it. +15 for a 500 gb hdd not bad. All up to what you need.
 
RainMotorsports said:
Be sure to hit up one of their reps on NBR if you have any questions. Justin@XoticPC was one of the more active ones but i dont hang around anymore.

I would say that 540M is as low as I myself could go and its not a huge improvement over what I have. The optimus setup should make a nice compromise if you want to do a little gaming or need the gpu power for other things like gpu accelerated apps or video.

Be aware optimus has had its share of problems. Not switching gpu's when a game is laucnhed or not working with CAD software at all. But that was well over a year ago and on older setups I havent kept up but I am sure it has improved.

That i7-2630QM for 80 bucks is probably a worthy upgrade for the cash. Your losing 300 mhz base clock over the stock cpu but you are picking up 2 extra cores. Battery life will go down a little but the useable lifespan increase for 80 bucks is awesome. You likely wont be able to upgrade for very cheap unless alot of people start selling their 2630's.

I would look into doing things like the ram upgrade myself since no problems with warranty. As for the thermal paste if you want it done have them do it. +15 for a 500 gb hdd not bad. All up to what you need.
Click to expand...

I think ive settled on a 5165. Still has the long battery life with an upgraded video card and not too big of a screen(but upgraded to the high quality matt type). I put 8 gigs of ram in it, with a bluray player, 750 gig hard drive, and the intel® Core™ i7-2630QM, 2.0-2.8GHz, (32nm, 6MB L3 cache).

Whatcha think?

Btw the price on ram is only marked up like 2 bucks so, don't care. As for the thermal paste, I'm not sure if that would void the warranty or not getting to it, so I might as well just let them do it.
 
Tee.Kay. said:
I've got this HP ENVY 14 series | HP® Official Store
love it
Click to expand...

Problem with hp is the best gpus they ever offer are still under the models offered by other companies for less money. I love how hp refuses to even sell decent shit for any amount of money. Thats not to say you cant find something that you like but you could find better for cheaper most of the time elsewhere. Back when i was shopping for this pos hp for 600 more had a worse gpu cpu hdd and ram and i was left with my jaw dropped that the only thing ebetter was the screen. It has to do the job you want it to do if it cant then dont buy it if it can then consider it.
 
Bot looks good didnt even look at that model myself. Im on my phone so just gonna add to the post. Problem with sager versus say hp or any other company is they dont come with an oem os. Theyre on the custom end of the market. Its alot more like buying a custom pc from a dealer its not the same deal as regular companies
 
Supra said:
Mac Book Pro or Air would do you just right
Click to expand...

Yah...no

RainMotorsports said:
Bot looks good didnt even look at that model myself. Im on my phone so just gonna add to the post. Problem with sager versus say hp or any other company is they dont come with an oem os. Theyre on the custom end of the market. Its alot more like buying a custom pc from a dealer its not the same deal as regular companies
Click to expand...

Software isnt a worry for me.
 
I will have to look into the 555M some more. Its 144 cuda cores and either 128 bit or 192 bit memory interface. It seems like the clevo the 5165 is based on its 128 and comes in the 590mhz version versus the 709 max version. Depending on the chassis though should be able to throw a good overclock at it.

With the i7 you should be able to play Battlefield 3, atleast a hell of alot better than this peice o shit. The 555M outperforms my 9800M and the i7 smokes my C2D. All while getting better battery life while doing school work in office lol. I would predict 720P medium, 1080P low for BF3... @ In the Alpha I was getting 20-30 fps in low at 1366x768, but that was also in DX10 and early versions so we will see. It will definitely play BC2 nicely.

Its up to what you want. If a compromise between gaming and battery life is what you want i think it looks good. Why else would you have picked sager. HP & Dell should have some good battery life models. I swear assus had 2 models getting 8-11 hours battery life... cant seem to find them lol.

http://www.gentechpc.com/config.asp?config_id=NP5165
Alternative source for the 5165. These are the people I deal with but I have a feeling your going to end up buying it from xotic.

@TK - I took a look at the Envy 14 when i got home. Sadly Radeon 6630 BLOWS! Unless your not really gaming. It is a nice notebook otherwise but at is price, could have a little more oomph.

Looks like the standard warranty is "3 Year Labor / 1 Year Parts Warranty, Lifetime Toll-Free Technical Support" Gentech's upgrades to the warranty make sense to me and the prices are good. Xotic's is a bit confusing and the price with accidental is understandable and inline with other companies. Might talk to a reseller about the warranty details and chat with sager owners.
 
RainMotorsports said:
I will have to look into the 555M some more. Its 144 cuda cores and either 128 bit or 192 bit memory interface. It seems like the clevo the 5165 is based on its 128 and comes in the 590mhz version versus the 709 max version. Depending on the chassis though should be able to throw a good overclock at it.

With the i7 you should be able to play Battlefield 3, atleast a hell of alot better than this peice o shit. The 555M outperforms my 9800M and the i7 smokes my C2D. All while getting better battery life while doing school work in office lol. I would predict 720P medium, 1080P low for BF3... @ In the Alpha I was getting 20-30 fps in low at 1366x768, but that was also in DX10 and early versions so we will see. It will definitely play BC2 nicely.

Its up to what you want. If a compromise between gaming and battery life is what you want i think it looks good. Why else would you have picked sager. HP & Dell should have some good battery life models. I swear assus had 2 models getting 8-11 hours battery life... cant seem to find them lol.

GenTech PC - Customize System
Alternative source for the 5165. These are the people I deal with but I have a feeling your going to end up buying it from xotic.
Click to expand...

Yah thats what I'm lookin for. A compromise. I mainly want it to be good at gaming as a way to help futureproof it. My primary gaming will always be on my desktop, it just would be nice to have something to mess around on when not at home. But the weight and battery life are definitely important as this will be my primary school computer. I heard about it only having 128 bit as opposed to 192 which didnt make sense to me. Why not just toss the better version in? But oh well, it should be fine.
 
Sent in my order monday. Here's the specs:

1x Sager NP5165 / Clevo W150HR
- Warranty: Sager 2 Year Parts & Labor Warranty, Lifetime Sager Toll Free Support (SKU - S9R207)

- Fingerprint Reader: Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- Sound Card: Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Camera: Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- Wireless Network: Intel® Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module (SKU - S8R112)
- Memory Card Reader: Internal 4-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO)
- Optical Drive Bay: 6X Blu-Ray Read/8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive - Special! (SKU - S7P557)
- Primary Hard Drive: 750GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache) (SKU - S5R308)
- Exterior Finish: Standard Finish
- Ram: 8GB - DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS) (SKU - S4P368)
- Graphics Video Card: nVidia GT 555M 2048MB PCI-Express GDDR3 DX11 with Optimus™ Technology (SKU - S3R507)
- Thermal Compound: IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU (Cools better than all Compounds)
- Processor: 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM, 2.0-2.8GHz, (32nm, 6MB L3 cache) (SKU - S2R201)
- Dead Pixel Warranty: Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- Display: 15.6" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Anti-Glare Screen w/ 95% NTSC Color Gamut (1920x1080) (SKU - S1R305)

$1,372.00 (with a student discount coming)


Gonna pick up a Razer Orochi bluetooth mouse as well as a largew SD Drive(when the prices come down) for windows.
 
Kick ass cant wait to see how it does.

For that much money I probably would have bit into a Full fledged gaming laptop with the 560M but you would lose alot on battery life. The bluray player, the upgraded screen, upgraded wireless card would all add to the price of the 1250 to 1500 dollar gaming notebooks so you still came out ahead.

My notebook stock got 2.5 hours out of its 3 rated on the extended battery when i got it. I was wondering what yours will get googled someone said something about 3.5. Ever since i upgraded my processor lol... then the battery got old. I still get 1.5 hours non gaming just tried playing Civ 5 earlier got about 30 minutes. Mind you my gpu is overvolted to hell and the processor is a higher tdp than stock.
 
RainMotorsports said:
Kick ass cant wait to see how it does.

For that much money I probably would have bit into a Full fledged gaming laptop with the 560M but you would lose alot on battery life. The bluray player, the upgraded screen, upgraded wireless card would all add to the price of the 1250 to 1500 dollar gaming notebooks so you still came out ahead.

My notebook stock got 2.5 hours out of its 3 rated on the extended battery when i got it. I was wondering what yours will get googled someone said something about 3.5. Ever since i upgraded my processor lol... then the battery got old. I still get 1.5 hours non gaming just tried playing Civ 5 earlier got about 30 minutes. Mind you my gpu is overvolted to hell and the processor is a higher tdp than stock.
Click to expand...

I feel ya, and normally I'd agree. But this laptop is fitting a specific role. Battery life and mobility(smaller screen) are the primary features I need. But it also hasta be strong enough for gaming. The bluray player was just cuz i figured with mobility comes the desire to watch movies, so why handcuff myself. So really to me this laptop will be 70% school/work, 30% gaming.

I'll tell ya how my battery does. I'm gonna go find an online guide though so I can properly season it to its maximum potential. Keep ya posted!
 
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