# Suggestions on gamer laptops at around $2,000



## Span_Wolf (Aug 17, 2009)

I know it's been a while since I've posted here on the forums, but I thought I'd see what you guys thought about my current laptop search.

I recently came into some extra money and I now have about 2 grand (exactly $2,300 so that's my maximum) to burn on the best gaming laptop I could possibly afford for that price.  I already have a high end desktop, but now I need a gaming laptop for work and travel.  If this new job I'm starting pans out I could be traveling up to a couple of months out of the year and I'll need something to game on the go and work with which is also gaming, so kinda same purpose all around.  So with 2 grand give or take I have to get something gaming focused, the benchmark is something capable of playing Crysis well, which I will link a couple of possibilities that are in the price range that can run Crysis fairly well.  Also it needs to be something that comes with a Win7 upgrade coupon, and has a Blu-ray drive so that I can watch my movies on the go or just hook my laptop up to a friends TV and use it as a portable player.  Now my boss is currently working on talking to some contacts to get me a good deal on a higher end laptop, you know get me a 3-5 grand one for my 2 grand and offer some kind of advertising on the show in return, but if that doesn't pan out I want to have my backup already ready to order.

Here are a couple of builds I already have set up, tell me what you think, which you'd go with, or suggest something else.  I want to get the BEST I possibly can for the amount of money I can spend, so let me have it!






ASUS G71GX-A1 - PRE ORDER
- FREE !! US UPS GROUND SHIPPING, Instant $30 OFF + ASUS $100 Mail In Rebate
(Use Coupon code FREESHIP in Checkout for Free Shipping)
- 17" WUXGA "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy Screen (1920x1200)
- Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- ASUS Zero Bright Dot (ZBD) 30 Day Pixel Guarantee
- -IntelÃ‚Â® Q9000 45nm "Montevina" CoreÃ¢â€žÂ¢2 Quad 2.0GHz w/6MB L2 On-die cache - 1066MHz FSB - Default
- nVidia GeForce GTX 260M 1,024MB PCI-Express DDR3 DX10
- No External Graphics Card
- No Video Adapter
- - 6,144MB (6GB) DDR2 800MHz Dual Channel Memory (3x2GB)
- Standard Finish
- - 2X Blu-Ray Reader / 8X DVDRW/CDRW Super Multi Combo Drive
- - 320GB 7200RPM WD or Seagate (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s) - Default Hard Drive
- - 320GB 7200RPM WD or Seagate (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s) - Default Hard Drive
- No Back Up Hard Drive
- No Floppy Drive
- Internal 8-in-1 Card Reader: MMC/SD/Mini-SD/XD/Memory Stick/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS Pro Duo
- Internal Bluetooth + EDR
- Built-in 802.11 Wireless A/B/G/N
- No Network Accessory
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- No TV Tuner
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Asus G Series Matching Backpack made by Targus
- Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- No Car Adapter
- None Standard*
- No Dock/Hub/Adapter
- No Fingerprint Reader
- Asus G Series Gaming Mouse
- No Notebook Cooler
- -Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit + Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Coupon w/ Drivers & Utilities CD's - Standard
- No Office Software
- No Software Bundle
- 2 Year ASUS GLOBAL Warranty, 24/7 Support, 1 Year Accidental Coverage & 2-Way Pre-Paid Overnight Shipping for Repairs (N.A. Accidental Requires Registration w/ ASUS)

Total: $2,036.00 with free shipping and before 100 dollar MIR





Sager NP5797 Custom Sager Notebook (Built on Clevo M570ETU)
- 17" WUXGA "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy Screen (1920x1200)
- Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- ~IntelÂ® Q9000 45nm "Montevina" Coreâ„¢2 Quad 2.0GHz w/6MB L2 On-die cache - 1066MHz FSB
- Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
- nVidia GeForce GTX 280M 1,024MB PCI-Express DDR3 DX10 (User Upgradeable)
- No External Graphics Card
- No Video Adapter
- ~ 4,096MB DDR3 1066MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS) (Requires Vista 64-Bit to utilize Full 4GB)
- None Standard--
- NP579x Orange Frame Trim Color
- ~ 2X Blue-Ray Read/8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive
- ~ 500GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache)
- No Back Up Hard Drive
- No Floppy Drive
- Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader (MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS Pro Duo/SD/Mini-SD/MMC/RS)
- Internal Bluetooth + EDR
- Built-in IntelÂ® PRO/Wireless 5300 802.11 a/g/n Wi-Fi Link
- No Network Accessory
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- No TV Tuner
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Basic Black Business Case - Included
- Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- No Car Adapter
- None Standard*
- No Dock/Hub/Adapter
- Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- No External Keyboard or Mouse
- No Notebook Cooler
- ~Windows Vista Business 64-Bit Installed (64&32-Bit CD Included) + Windows 7 Professional 64 Upgrade Coupon w/ Drivers & Utilities CD's
- No Office Software
- No Software Bundle
- 3 Year Labor* 1 Year Parts Warranty Lifetime 24/7 DOMESTIC Based Toll Free Telephone Tech Support (Labor Warranty through Xotic PC)

Total: $2,327 with free shipping

The second one has a GeForce GTX 280M instead of a 260, it has 2 gigs less of RAM, but it is higher clocked higher quality DDR3 RAM instead of DDR2 (does that even out?), little less HDD space, and while it has a warranty, it doesn't have 1 year of accidental damage protection like the Asus.  Also arguably better construction and upgradeability?  It's 300 bucks more for this one, is it worth the 300 bucks more, what do you guys think overall of this build on its own as well as compared to the Asus one?  Also IntelÂ® Robson Turbo Memory?  Is it something I need or should tack on if I get a Sager, or is it just snake oil?

Those are a couple of builds I have going right now, what do you guys think of them, do you guys have anything that might possibly be better for that price in mind?


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## CryoScales (Aug 17, 2009)

Span_Wolf said:


>



Why is there a screenshot of Killzone 2? That game isn't even for the PC. It's only for the PS3


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 17, 2009)

CryoScales said:


> Why is there a screenshot of Killzone 2? That game isn't even for the PC. It's only for the PS3



It's a common practice among PC retailers to post screenshots of random bullshit on the monitor of whatever they are selling to make it look cool.  Hell I was looking at laptops the other day with Halo 3 crap plastered all over their screens.


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 18, 2009)

Werf.. I was hoping to get more than one reply.


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## Runefox (Aug 18, 2009)

Well, you might get better responses in Bits & Bytes, but all the same, I've never heard of Sager before, but I can vouch that Asus makes a decent notebook. The specs aren't quite as good, however; But the GTX 260M is more than enough to handle pretty much everything out there. You're not going to get much in the way of a laptop capable of pumping everything up to the maximum settings and run at a decent speed.

Now, just for the warranty alone, I'd recommend the Asus notebook. 3 years labour and 1 year parts isn't a good deal; The 2 year+1 year accidental with prepaid overnight shipping for the Asus completely blows that away. It also has more hard drive space, more RAM, comes with a mouse, has a better dead pixel guarantee, and comes with Vista Home Premium, which is more multimedia-oriented than Vista Business (comes with Media Centre, DVD Maker, etc). It's less expensive, too.

The difference between DDR2 and DDR3 will mainly manifest themselves in terms of battery life - And the difference in this case with these kinds of systems will likely be negligible. DDR2 memory will have a lower latency while still running plenty fast - Comparing DDR2 and DDR3 right now, DDR2 is still fairly on-par in terms of real-world performance. Past PC6400, you're not seeing a huge difference. Not now, anyway.

I guess it really boils down to what you want to do when it comes down to the graphics cards. If you want to try and crank everything up to the max, then the 280M will likely be a better choice; However, again, the 260M will definitely run anything you throw at it.

Either way, my recommendation overall is the Asus. It offers much more reliability, more storage, more punch, and while it has a little less in the graphics department, it's otherwise on par or better than the other machine in every way.


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 18, 2009)

Runefox said:


> Well, you might get better responses in Bits & Bytes, but all the same, I've never heard of Sager before, but I can vouch that Asus makes a decent notebook. The specs aren't quite as good, however; But the GTX 260M is more than enough to handle pretty much everything out there. You're not going to get much in the way of a laptop capable of pumping everything up to the maximum settings and run at a decent speed.
> 
> Now, just for the warranty alone, I'd recommend the Asus notebook. 3 years labour and 1 year parts isn't a good deal; The 2 year+1 year accidental with prepaid overnight shipping for the Asus completely blows that away. It also has more hard drive space, more RAM, comes with a mouse, has a better dead pixel guarantee, and comes with Vista Home Premium, which is more multimedia-oriented than Vista Business (comes with Media Centre, DVD Maker, etc). It's less expensive, too.
> 
> ...



*Oh crap you are right, It has been so long since I've posted that I forgot about bits and bytes.  Can a mod move the thread?*

And to answer your post a bit, Sager is known as being one of the most reliable laptop brands out there from what I hear, also known for being sturdy and highly/easily upgradable.

It's not just Vista Business, it comes with a free upgrade coupon to Windows 7 Professional which is better than Home Premium on the other laptop.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7_editions#Comparison_chart

With DDR3 you are saying that right now I won't be seeing much of a difference, but I'm planning on using this thing for a few years so I'm talking about long term use.  Also with the fact that Sagers are built with upgradeability in mind the fact that it is a chip set that supports DDR3 is good because I can go up from there and add more already higher quality ram.

On graphics, I am not so much a graphics whore, but I work in the industry and I have to be able to run just about anything that is thrown at me.  I do like being able to crank settings too, that's why you spend more on a computer than a console, to be able to crank settings.

So between the two machines the Asus is a little cheaper, but the chassis that it is built with is almost completely plastic and known for being a little flimsy.  It has a better warranty, a little bit more hard-drive space, and 2 more gigs of slower lower quality ram.  The Sager on the other hand is a little more expensive, higher quality build, but has a little less storage and 2 gigs less of higher quality ram, is built to be upgraded.  It also has a better graphics card.  Oh and the free mouse with the Asus is of no concern to me, I have several quality laser mice I could use.

One thing it really boils down to the 1 year accidental coverage, man that's one really big sticking point, but I just don't know which way to lean with everything considered.


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## ToeClaws (Aug 18, 2009)

First off - THANK YOU for actually being willing to spend the correct amount of money on a good laptop!  There's nothing more frustrating than when folks go "I need recommendations for a good gamer laptop that's around $600." >_<

Out of the two that you posted, and speaking first at a hardware level, the Sager unit would be the better performer and afford you a longer service life should it not have any problems.   It's not leagues better, just a tiny bit faster in GPU and memory access speeds, but... there is 2 gigs less of it.  You might want to see what the cost is of bumping it up (I'm guessing pretty minimal and definitely worth it).

For warranty, it's a bit of the opposite as RuneFox pointed out.

Now, if there's a bit of advice I can contribute here, it's "Don't limit yourself to just those two."  You're willing to spend a good bit of cash on getting a nice high-end machine, so look into some other manufacturers as well.  Alienware (Dell subsidiary) has a laptop called the M17 that can be totally customized, and for $2300, you can really dress it up.  System76 has the Bonobo, which can also be really customized (the only caveat of that one is that they don't sell Windows with it, so you'd have to get that separately).  I don't have time to scope out some other ones this morning, but there's likely lots of other nice ones from folks like Toshiba, Lenovo, and HP too that would all be pretty high-end boxes at that price point.  Good luck!


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 18, 2009)

ToeClaws said:


> First off - THANK YOU for actually being willing to spend the correct amount of money on a good laptop!  There's nothing more frustrating than when folks go "I need recommendations for a good gamer laptop that's around $600." >_<
> 
> Out of the two that you posted, and speaking first at a hardware level, the Sager unit would be the better performer and afford you a longer service life should it not have any problems.   It's not leagues better, just a tiny bit faster in GPU and memory access speeds, but... there is 2 gigs less of it.  You might want to see what the cost is of bumping it up (I'm guessing pretty minimal and definitely worth it).
> 
> ...



It's actually almost 400 bucks to bump it from 4 to 6 gigs of ram.  It's funny the base model is 2 gigs and then to bump it to 4 is an extra 55 bucks, but to go up to six it's not another 55 bucks noooo it's 375...  Makes no sense to me, maybe I could just buy some after market ram and dump it in myself.

I never said I wanted to limit myself, I asked for suggestions and posted those two as a good marker of what I had to spend and what I could get for that money.  Alienware is definitely out because there is the brand name surcharge and tax which I wouldn't have to pay on the other two which brings me up to about 3 grand on one of those... =P  I specked out a Bonobo and it ended up being more expensive than the Asus and that was without Windows or a Blu-ray drive(you couldn't even add one), so that one is out.  The Toshiba and Lenovo ones were crap, and since Alienware is now HP's gaming line while they let XPS die out there is no point in looking at anything but their Alienware line.


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## ToeClaws (Aug 18, 2009)

Span_Wolf said:


> It's actually almost 400 bucks to bump it from 4 to 6 gigs of ram.  It's funny the base model is 2 gigs and then to bump it to 4 is an extra 55 bucks, but to go up to six it's not another 55 bucks noooo it's 375...  Makes no sense to me, maybe I could just buy some after market ram and dump it in myself.



That's because you're changing the density of the sticks so that one of them is 4 gigs on one stick - that's pricey since those are not mass-produced in any vast numbers yet.  I would suggest 4 gigs of RAM - you will not likely need anymore than that for games for at least 4 to 5 more years, by which time you'll need a new laptop anyway.  Putting more than 4 gigs of RAM in a gaming box today is just a waste of money.



Span_Wolf said:


> I never said I wanted to limit myself, I asked for suggestions and posted those two as a good marker of what I had to spend and what I could get for that money.  Alienware is definitely out because there is the brand name surcharge and tax which I wouldn't have to pay on the other two which brings me up to about 3 grand on one of those... =P  I specked out a Bonobo and it ended up being more expensive than the Asus and that was without Windows or a Blu-ray drive(you couldn't even add one), so that one is out.  The Toshiba and Lenovo ones were crap, and since Alienware is now HP's gaming line while they let XPS die out there is no point in looking at anything but their Alienware line.



Alienware is Dell, not HP - but yes, you're right, they seem to be killing off the XPS line.  Hmm... not sure who else to check with - I get laptops more based on business class features than game stuff, so can't really think of other suppliers that would fit the bill.


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 18, 2009)

ToeClaws said:


> That's because you're changing the density of the sticks so that one of them is 4 gigs on one stick - that's pricey since those are not mass-produced in any vast numbers yet.  I would suggest 4 gigs of RAM - you will not likely need anymore than that for games for at least 4 to 5 more years, by which time you'll need a new laptop anyway.  Putting more than 4 gigs of RAM in a gaming box today is just a waste of money.
> 
> 
> 
> Alienware is Dell, not HP - but yes, you're right, they seem to be killing off the XPS line.  Hmm... not sure who else to check with - I get laptops more based on business class features than game stuff, so can't really think of other suppliers that would fit the bill.


Shit shit my bad, no I know it's Dell I just misread, reading fail... =P

But anyway, anybody that might have a recommendation based on the specs of the computers I listed at the price I listed, please let me hear them.


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## Aurali (Aug 18, 2009)

I'd suggest looking around, some places have laptops extremely cheap (compared to their website alternatives). Compare, contrast. A good gaming laptop should have decent ram, a great vid card and processor, and a decent harddrive.

I'd give specs myself, but I've been out of the "good stuff" market since I got my bohemoth of a laptop.

Second Edit:  going through dell's site. The high end on http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/note...d.aspx?refid=laptop-studio-xps-16&s=dhs&cs=19 wouldn't be too bad for a gaming laptop.


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 18, 2009)

Eli said:


> I'd suggest looking around, some places have laptops extremely cheap (compared to their website alternatives). Compare, contrast. A good gaming laptop should have decent ram, a great vid card and processor, and a decent harddrive.
> 
> I'd give specs myself, but I've been out of the "good stuff" market since I got my bohemoth of a laptop.
> 
> Second Edit:  going through dell's site. The high end on http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/note...d.aspx?refid=laptop-studio-xps-16&s=dhs&cs=19 wouldn't be too bad for a gaming laptop.


I appreciate the suggestion, but since they are fazing out the XPS line they aren't even offering real high end options anymore, so running through a build from that link they don't even offer quad core, and only ONE graphics card option that is worse than the 260M, and it comes out to about 1,900 after 135 bucks in tax, and an extra bullshit tax of 16 bucks because California just loves to screw people.


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## Aurali (Aug 18, 2009)

the bump up to Quad core on a laptop is expensive though... are you sure you want that? Most dual cores will last you a few more years easily.

Not really a "Gaming" laptop, but this is what I have if you are looking for a laptop with raw power
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...en&s=bsd&cs=04&kc=workstation-precision-m6400


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## Runefox (Aug 18, 2009)

Span_Wolf said:


> And to answer your post a bit, Sager is known as being one of the most reliable laptop brands out there from what I hear, also known for being sturdy and highly/easily upgradable.


Huh, looking at it a little more, it looks like the major reason I've never heard of them before is because they don't market outside of the USA. You seem to be right about the reputation of the company.



> It's not just Vista Business, it comes with a free upgrade coupon to Windows 7 Professional which is better than Home Premium on the other laptop.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7_editions#Comparison_chart


Which of the features of Windows 7 Professional makes it "better" for your usage? It seems to me that for a gaming machine, the addition of domain joining, remote desktop, encrypting filesystem, etc don't really add much to the overall "experience" unless you're looking to make use of these features.



> With DDR3 you are saying that right now I won't be seeing much of a difference, but I'm planning on using this thing for a few years so I'm talking about long term use.


Well, in order to see a huge difference, you're going to have to use DDR3 RAM with a very high clock rate and have a chipset that can support it (high-end desktops). The major advantage for laptops for going with DDR3 over DDR2 SODIMMs as technology stands right now is less power draw with DDR3 memory.



> Also with the fact that Sagers are built with upgradeability in mind the fact that it is a chip set that supports DDR3 is good because I can go up from there and add more already higher quality ram.


Actually, I'd argue that the Asus with the extra RAM slot has a little more upgradeability right now, but you'd be right that this will change down the line when DDR2 becomes the DDR of this era, which it's already on the path to. It will become more expensive to expand the RAM in the Asus in a few years' time than the Sager.



> One thing it really boils down to the 1 year accidental coverage, man that's one really big sticking point, but I just don't know which way to lean with everything considered.


Well, if Sager's reputation is true, then this might be a little less of a concern if the build quality is truly better. All the same, though, spilling liquid into it will probably still cause some issues.

Regarding upgradeability, though, I've never really heard of being able to upgrade the graphics card on a laptop except for exchanging different GPU's through the same model range. Unless I've been away from the retail world for too long (half a year), I'm pretty sure this is still the same; Therefore, the upgradeability should lie mainly within the RAM, hard drive(s), and processor for both models.


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## Rel (Aug 18, 2009)

I have a G71GX-RXO5 (same body as the G71G) and i personally love it. My specs are similar to your but ive bought mine for only $1200

-2.53Ghz Dual core (able to overclock to 3ghz)
-NVIDIA Geforce GTX 260M With 1GB GDDR3 dedicated (up to 2GB extra shared video)
-6GB DDR2 
-500GB 5400rpm HDD
-no bluetooth
-1.3 MP webcam
- (everything else is the same besides it doesn't have a blueray drive)

Overall this is a great laptop, I would recommend anybody getting it. It runs TF2 at 200 - 300fps (on mine), and the case has a nice and easy layout though.

Cons -

It is a desktop replacement, and its not your friend when you ask it to move to another room. lol

It draws up ALOT of power (and i mean alot), its not saving energy even when its in sleep mode

It gets hot, really hot. and the case doesn't  have a fan directly under the CPU (unlike some of their other models), so i would recommend getting a fan for this laptop (especially when your playing an intense game)

The laptop has pretty weak fans, and it doesn't even seem like it has any (it has 2 rows of slots to exaust) which sometimes doesn't seem like it will cool anything off

Other than those minor problems, I love the laptop, It's one of the best laptops ive ever gotten.

Ive never heard of sager, and tbh, those specs seem nice, but for the price and the features, i'd get the ASUS


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 18, 2009)

Runefox said:


> Huh, looking at it a little more, it looks like the major reason I've never heard of them before is because they don't market outside of the USA. You seem to be right about the reputation of the company.


If I may ask what kind of looking into did you do, I'd just like to know what you learned about Sager in your research.




Runefox said:


> Which of the features of Windows 7 Professional makes it "better" for your usage? It seems to me that for a gaming machine, the addition of domain joining, remote desktop, encrypting filesystem, etc don't really add much to the overall "experience" unless you're looking to make use of these features.


Well if it comes down to I can always knock down to Home Premium on the Sager and save 50 bucks.




Runefox said:


> Regarding upgradeability, though, I've never really heard of being able to upgrade the graphics card on a laptop except for exchanging different GPU's through the same model range. Unless I've been away from the retail world for too long (half a year), I'm pretty sure this is still the same; Therefore, the upgradeability should lie mainly within the RAM, hard drive(s), and processor for both models.


Sager is built in such a way that it is really easy to get at and swap out the RAM, HDD, and CPU.  I'm not so sure about the graphics card, but if any laptop would allow it I'm sure Sager would.  There are some manufacturers that do it for you but charge a premium price for it, so I know it _can_ be done.


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## Rel (Aug 18, 2009)

Span_Wolf said:


> If I may ask what kind of looking into did you do, I'd just like to know what you learned about Sager in your research.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


How come your asking us a question about which is better, yet you are heavily biased towards one that barely any of us have heard of? We are just giving you our opinion, tbh, you can do whatever you want. anyway...

With the G71, all you need is a screwdriver to take out the RAM and HDD, and everything else. No big deal. But i dont think access to a laptop is the main difference in buying 2 different brands.


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 18, 2009)

Rel said:


> How come your asking us a question about which is better, yet you are heavily biased towards one that barely any of us have heard of? We are just giving you our opinion, tbh, you can do whatever you want. anyway...
> 
> With the G71, all you need is a screwdriver to take out the RAM and HDD, and everything else. No big deal. But i dont think access to a laptop is the main difference in buying 2 different brands.



I'm not biased towards any particular model, Asus was going to be my first choice, but I don't jump onto a 2+ thousand dollar purchase without doing research first, and a lot of it.

I believe I should question, dig and probe. Only an idiot would ask really big computer questions like this and then drop a few grand taking everything at face value alone without at least having some back and forth.  It's an open floor and we go back and forth until everything is whittled down to a final choice.  

Like I said I'm not biased towards any particular model, that's why I want opinions, if I was I would have already bought one by now.  Hell I was a heartbeat away from an Asus until I did a bit more research.  Now I'm just leaning a little towards the latter simply because of specs, build/material quality, and reputation.  But I'm still on the fence, and if somebody were to show me a third or even fourth option just as good as the first two at the same price I'd consider those as well.

Besides my last post was merely answering questions and comments that were made towards me as well as asking one of my own.


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## Runefox (Aug 18, 2009)

Just general searching online (that's all I can really do to dig up information on these guys); The company has been around since the 80's, and they're based out of the City of Industry, California. They market pretty much exclusively to the United States, and they've developed a reputation for offering high-performance systems. Also this.

You shouldn't forget, however, that Sager's product line is mostly just rebranded Clevo gear; You should look into what the differences are and see about getting pricing for the original model.


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 18, 2009)

Runefox said:


> Just general searching online (that's all I can really do to dig up information on these guys); The company has been around since the 80's, and they're based out of the City of Industry, California. They market pretty much exclusively to the United States, and they've developed a reputation for offering high-performance systems. Also this.
> 
> You shouldn't forget, however, that Sager's product line is mostly just rebranded Clevo gear; You should look into what the differences are and see about getting pricing for the original model.



Hmm I've heard that about Sagers, but I've never seen a Clevo on its own, it's always been a re-seller or a laptop manufacturer using Clevo.  So I just assumed that was basically like saying that laptop has an intel chipset, not that they are intel laptops.  So if you have a link or two to Clevo laptops I'd like to see it.

Also I read this in the link you gave, "By the way, Sager offers the industryâ€™s strongest warranties and guarantees, including a 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee, and lifetime technical support."  I'd like to know how though, I mean I don't see anything special about it.


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## Rel (Aug 18, 2009)

Span_Wolf said:


> I'm not biased towards any particular model, Asus was going to be my first choice, but I don't jump onto a 2+ thousand dollar purchase without doing research first, and a lot of it.
> 
> I believe I should question, dig and probe. Only an idiot would ask really big computer questions like this and then drop a few grand taking everything at face value alone without at least having some back and forth.  It's an open floor and we go back and forth until everything is whittled down to a final choice.
> 
> ...


Yeah your right, but to me it sounded like you were really biased (till i read it again) my bad.

Also here are the clevo links, from mini to 17"+

http://www.clevo.com.tw/en/products/index.asp





The G71 is made of plastic yes, but it isn't flimsy, its pretty sturdy. It could easily survive many drops, and the plastic protects it more from shock damage to internal components.


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 18, 2009)

Rel said:


> Yeah your right, but to me it sounded like you were really biased (till i read it again) my bad.
> 
> Also here are the clevo links, from mini to 17"+
> 
> ...



Hmm I don't see any purchase options off hand on the site.


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## LotsOfNothing (Aug 18, 2009)

I'm currently using a Gateway 7811FX.  It's a very good gaming-centered laptop, and it was $1450.
Its specs are:
17" glossy screen at 1920x1200
Intel Core2Duo p8400 at 2.16gHZ
Nvidia GeForce 9800m 512
4 GB DDR3 RAM
etc.

Of course, they probably have a much better model out now, I've had this for about 2 years.


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 18, 2009)

LotsOfNothing said:


> I'm currently using a Gateway 7811FX.  It's a very good gaming-centered laptop, and it was $1450.
> Its specs are:
> 17" glossy screen at 1920x1200
> Intel Core2Duo p8400 at 2.16gHZ
> ...



While Gateway has been doing well perusing a gaming line of laptops, which are very sexy looking I might add, they are about a step behind the curve spec wise at the moment.


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## LotsOfNothing (Aug 18, 2009)

Actually I'm looking at the new p-7809u FX and it seems decent enough for most recent games.


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## Rel (Aug 18, 2009)

Span_Wolf said:


> Hmm I don't see any purchase options off hand on the site.


Most manufacturer sites dont. ASUS doesn't either.


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 18, 2009)

LotsOfNothing said:


> Actually I'm looking at the new p-7809u FX and it seems decent enough for most recent games.



I was looking at it when I made my post.  Slower hard-drive, older graphics card, Core Duo instead of Quad, and no Blu-ray option.


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## ZentratheFox (Aug 19, 2009)

I'll always trust a Sager notebook. Just sayin'


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 19, 2009)

ZentratheFox said:


> I'll always trust a Sager notebook. Just sayin'



Cool, tell me about your Sager.


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## ZentratheFox (Aug 19, 2009)

Span_Wolf said:


> Cool, tell me about your Sager.



I have an XPS M1530 >.> ($300 from a 'friend' who wanted a mac, lmao)

Other friend has a SLI'd RAIDed Sager notebook, and he's had it in Iraq for months. Filled with sand and shit, but has been used every day without so much as a hiccup.


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## Ziff (Aug 19, 2009)

I so want this... IF I HAD THE !@#$%^& MONEY T.T


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 19, 2009)

minx112 said:


> I so want this... IF I HAD THE !@#$%^& MONEY T.T



This?  Which one?


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## ZentratheFox (Aug 20, 2009)

By the way, between the two systems you've posted, even disregarding the brands, the Sager is a significantly better system as far as performance.


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 20, 2009)

ZentratheFox said:


> By the way, between the two systems you've posted, even disregarding the brands, the Sager is a significantly better system as far as performance.


Oh, how so?  They both have the same CPU, but one has 2 gigs more ram and the other has 2 gigs less.  But the one with less ram has higher quality ram while the one with more ram has lower quality.  But the one with more ram has a slightly less powerful graphics card while the one with less has a more powerful one.  I could imagine the Sager being marginally more powerful for game performance, but how would it be significantly better?  Also would you say it's 300 dollars better?


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## ZentratheFox (Aug 20, 2009)

Span_Wolf said:


> Oh, how so?  They both have the same CPU, but one has 2 gigs more ram and the other has 2 gigs less.  But the one with less ram has higher quality ram while the one with more ram has lower quality.  But the one with more ram has a slightly less powerful graphics card while the one with less has a more powerful one.  I could imagine the Sager being marginally more powerful for game performance, but how would it be significantly better?  Also would you say it's 300 dollars better?



DDR3 has a massive performance increase over DDR2, and the GTX280 is more powerful than the 260. I would say, in the laptop world, that it's worth the extra $300.


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 20, 2009)

ZentratheFox said:


> DDR3 has a massive performance increase over DDR2, and the GTX280 is more powerful than the 260. I would say, in the laptop world, that it's worth the extra $300.



I think somebody else in the thread was implying I wouldn't see much of a performance boost with the DDR3.  In another thread somebody said that when all is said and done I'd be seeing maybe 5fps increase over the other laptop in Crysis for example.  What do you say to that?

Oh and I asked at the beginning of the thread but got no answers so I'll try again, "IntelÂ® Robson Turbo Memory? Is it something I need or should tack on if I get a Sager or is it just snake oil?"  And if it is something I need should I go for 2 or 4 gigs?  It's like 44 bucks extra for 2 gigs and 80 bucks for 4.


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## ZentratheFox (Aug 20, 2009)

Span_Wolf said:


> I think somebody else in the thread was implying I wouldn't see much of a performance boost with the DDR3.  In another thread somebody said that when all is said and done I'd be seeing maybe 5fps increase over the other laptop in Crysis for example.  What do you say to that?
> 
> Oh and I asked at the beginning of the thread but got no answers so I'll try again, "IntelÂ® Robson Turbo Memory? Is it something I need or should tack on if I get a Sager or is it just snake oil?"  And if it is something I need should I go for 2 or 4 gigs?  It's like 44 bucks extra for 2 gigs and 80 bucks for 4.



DDR3 is quad data rate vs DDR2's double data rate. I'm not saying that it's going to be lightyears ahead of the DDR2 system, but on paper, it's definitively faster.

Never heard of "turbo memory"... but if I had to guess, I'd say it's likely marketing. Try google.

Crysis FPS != real world, but I will say that a mere 5FPS can determine if it's playable or not. That could bring it from 20 to 25, which makes a huge difference.

I'd say it's worth it.


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 20, 2009)

ZentratheFox said:


> DDR3 is quad data rate vs DDR2's double data rate. I'm not saying that it's going to be lightyears ahead of the DDR2 system, but on paper, it's definitively faster.
> 
> Never heard of "turbo memory"... but if I had to guess, I'd say it's likely marketing. Try google.
> 
> ...



Ok you've made your point about the ram. ;3

Here's a short explanation of turbo memory;
It is basically just flash memory that is connected via a Pci-e bus. it is used as a lil mini SSD that stores frequently used data for fast access without having to go to the HD. I have heard that includes OS data, so that it boots up pretty fast..but I have never actually seen it in action.
So I'm wondering if it's worth it, but I guess I'd have to ask somebody that is familiar with it and how it works.

On your Crysis comment I agree with you wholeheartedly, I just wanted to see what you thought I'd be looking at as far as framerate boosts over the Asus, and if you thought that comment was accurate.  I know that an extra 5 frames (he actually said give or take so maybe more maybe less) is the difference between life and death in a game like Crysis.


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## Runefox (Aug 20, 2009)

ZentratheFox said:


> DDR3 has a massive performance increase over DDR2


Not in the notebook world, it doesn't. While we don't know exactly what the speeds are here, the major reason to be using DDR3 at typical notebook speeds (DDR2-800 / DDR3-1066) is for the sake of power saving and compatibility with the newer sockets. If we were talking DDR3-1333 or higher, you'd start to see a difference; But there isn't a massive improvement; Actually, the latency typically increases sharply between DDR2 and DDR3 to boot (depending on the vendor), which is one of the reasons why a much higher speed module is required to be leaps and bounds better.

Also, DDR3 is still double data rate; It does, however, have the ability to transfer at twice the data rate as DDR2, hence the much higher bandwidths available. You'd need to be using one of those higher bandwidths in order to really take advantage of this. For reference, a 200MHz base clock for DDR2 will get you DDR2-800; A 200MHz base clock rate for DDR3 will get you DDR3-1600. Per-clock, it's faster; However, the rating is still directly relevant to its actual performance. DDR3-1066 is equivalent to 133MHz, and also equivalent to the 266MHz DDR2-1066.

EDIT: Oh, and Turbo Memory is a small amount of high-speed flash memory attached to the motherboard that supports Vista ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive to decrease boot and application loading times by caching frequently-accessed files to it. Supposedly, this makes laptops in particular faster and lowers power consumption, but I don't know anything about how it works in practice.


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 22, 2009)

Runefox said:


> Not in the notebook world, it doesn't. While we don't know exactly what the speeds are here, the major reason to be using DDR3 at typical notebook speeds (DDR2-800 / DDR3-1066) is for the sake of power saving and compatibility with the newer sockets. If we were talking DDR3-1333 or higher, you'd start to see a difference; But there isn't a massive improvement; Actually, the latency typically increases sharply between DDR2 and DDR3 to boot (depending on the vendor), which is one of the reasons why a much higher speed module is required to be leaps and bounds better.
> 
> Also, DDR3 is still double data rate; It does, however, have the ability to transfer at twice the data rate as DDR2, hence the much higher bandwidths available. You'd need to be using one of those higher bandwidths in order to really take advantage of this. For reference, a 200MHz base clock for DDR2 will get you DDR2-800; A 200MHz base clock rate for DDR3 will get you DDR3-1600. Per-clock, it's faster; However, the rating is still directly relevant to its actual performance. DDR3-1066 is equivalent to 133MHz, and also equivalent to the 266MHz DDR2-1066.
> 
> EDIT: Oh, and Turbo Memory is a small amount of high-speed flash memory attached to the motherboard that supports Vista ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive to decrease boot and application loading times by caching frequently-accessed files to it. Supposedly, this makes laptops in particular faster and lowers power consumption, but I don't know anything about how it works in practice.



Yeah in concept the Turbo Memory sounds great, but I'd like to know if anybody knows if it actually works as advertised and is as good as it seems or is just a waste of 85 extra bucks for 4 gigs of it or 45 for 2.


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## The Blue Fox (Aug 23, 2009)

Span_Wolf said:


> Yeah in concept the Turbo Memory sounds great, but I'd like to know if anybody knows if it actually works as advertised and is as good as it seems or is just a waste of 85 extra bucks for 4 gigs of it or 45 for 2.



Turbo Memory is not worth it. It's just flash ram the OS will use as a page file instead of writing to the hard drive. The bench marks i have seen there is little to no performance increase with Turbo Memory.

As for the quality of sager note books. I have a sager NP9280 laptop (if you can call it that) at work. and it's a good laptop. I have more problems with the dell laptops we have the the sager ones.


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 23, 2009)

The Blue Fox said:


> Turbo Memory is not worth it. It's just flash ram the OS will use as a page file instead of writing to the hard drive. The bench marks i have seen there is little to no performance increase with Turbo Memory.
> 
> I have a sager NP9280 laptop (if you can call it that)


Thanks for saving me 85 bucks.

Behemoth?


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 23, 2009)

Update, I have ordered the Sager.


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## ZentratheFox (Aug 23, 2009)

Congrats!!


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## Runefox (Aug 23, 2009)

Let us know how it performs! I'm quite interested to know if that reputation really is true.


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 23, 2009)

Runefox said:


> Let us know how it performs! I'm quite interested to know if that reputation really is true.



I went with the specs listed on page 1, though I downgraded the windows version to Home Premium.


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## ZentratheFox (Aug 25, 2009)

Span_Wolf said:


> I went with the specs listed on page 1, though I downgraded the windows version to Home Premium.



As long as you don't need extra Windows security features and/or domain connectivity, you should be fine with that. 

Good luck with your new toy!


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## ToeClaws (Aug 25, 2009)

Span_Wolf said:


> Update, I have ordered the Sager.



Woo!  Nice - let us know how it worked out.


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 25, 2009)

Well it seems I won't be getting it till mid to late September.  No biggie, I can wait.. even though I want it right now!


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## Magnus (Aug 30, 2009)

i have the sager one, tad noisy cause the fans gotta keep the cards cool. but other then that it's a beauty <3


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## Aquin (Aug 30, 2009)

Damn, i really wish i had around $2,500 now.


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## Span_Wolf (Aug 31, 2009)

Magnus said:


> i have the sager one, tad noisy cause the fans gotta keep the cards cool. but other then that it's a beauty <3



When wearing high end headphones I doubt it would be an issue.


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## Span_Wolf (Oct 1, 2009)

So I've had the laptop for a few weeks now and you guys said you wanted to know how it worked when I got it.

Runs great so far, everything I throw on it I've been able to run at max settings. Crysis Wars runs on max everything except little things like shadows and physics one setting below max at between 15 and 35 FPS at 1920x1200 resolution (it jumps around quite a bit, but no serious lag so far). I've only played it by myself on an empty lan server though, so I don't know how well things will hold up in an actual game. Every other game I've put on so far runs maxed out without a hiccup.

I haven't really tweaked it yet though, I'm thinking of a minor overclock, maybe 5% just to give it an extra few frames in Crysis, as well as a little more oomph for future games.

Loving biometric login, wish the new version of Firefox supported it cause you are supposed to be able to use it to log into websites too.

The computer is sleek and sexy while still being understated and not all crazy Ferrari styled like the more ostentatious systems like Alienware and Asus. It also feels very solid with a metallic feel to the lid, though it should feel solid with how immensely this thing weighs.

One downside so far is that it has one stuck pixel, but that's better than a dead pixel because it could eventually go away. I tried running a de-sticker but no luck so far. Any other tips?

Battery isn't fantastic, but that was to be expected. Ran it for a while browsing the internet without plugging it in and after a little over an hour I had about 45% or so battery life left. Haven't tried playing a game on the battery yet, but it really isn't an issue I don't expect to be playing games and such on this thing without being near an outlet.

Speakers are generally good enough, but sometimes when viewing online video something will be extra quiet and you can't hear a word for shit without headphones. But that's only happened for a couple of youtube videos, otherwise they've been loud enough for whatever I've wanted to watch or listen to.

One thing that drove me crazy was right after ordering this thing 20 different laptop companies announced that they are just about to release their own i7 laptops, but I guess there is nothing that can be done about it. I can live with it, oh well.

It has been a useful purchase, last week I went to visit a friend that lives out of town. We watched a few episodes of Fringe on my laptop, then he bought Left-4-Dead for his computer and I played with him next to him on my lappie.

So overall good stuff so far, this Sager has been a solid purchase and is performing very well! Though since this is my first laptop purchase, any tips you guys can give me now that I have it?


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