ok. I have a $5000 budget. Which laptop?

[vandit]

I am planning on spending $5000 on a gaming laptop to use at the hospital when I am on call and sitting in the callroom in boredom. If I pass my oral boards, this will be a treat to myself (find out in 3 weeks). So here are my options:

1. ALienware m17x decked out.- I like the look/design of the case and lighting. I know Dell makes great LCD screens also (I am using a Dell 2407 as I type this). I know you pay a premium for the name/case design, but damn it's sexy

2. Option 2- Dell XPS 1730. I like the look of this laptop also, but not as much as the Alienware. Maybe a little cheaper decked out too.

3. Sager 9262 or OCZ white laptop- I love the insides and value, but damn that is an ugly design. Custom paint doesn't make it as sexy as 1 or 2 above either. I love the desktop replacement idea though since I will be using it mainly plugged in. I also love how you can get 9800GTXs also (AW you can only get 9800GTs).

What would you guys do with my cash? I know this is a Sager brand site, so I expect it to be a little biased. Has anyone seen or used any of the above you could recommend?? I want SLI and top of the line processors. Thanks for reading my delima

Vandit

[Zatara214]

Well opt out the Dell instantly. I've hated Dell ever since I got my first laptop, the Inspiron 8600. The support was awful, and they're overpriced. That being said, Alienware makes GREAT laptops. I'm going to be (as) completely unbiased (as I can) here. I have never personally owned an Alienware, and so I can't say anything for their service. BUT, I can tell you that they are not using parts that are as new as the Sager laptops. For instance, the 9800 series. Alienware is still using the 8800 GTXs. Also, they use SSDs as their top hard drive, which are known to have issues, and Xotic has avoided selling for the purpose of protecting customers.

Xotic also has the best support I have ever experienced from a company, and has the best hardware around (built off of Clevo laptops).

As for the choice of 9262 or OCZ White, I've always been an nvidia guy personally, for the one fact that ATI cards always seem to choke on newer games for me, and can't hande Anti-Aliasing as well as the Nvidia cards.

The Alienware does have the design going for it, as you can see in the older posts, I wanted to get a backlit keyboard for my NP8660, but can't find one. But, of course, I feel that Alienware uses cheaper plasticy parts in their laptops, as opposed to the brushed aluminum in mine. I like that lol.

The 9692 also offers a desktop processor with it, which, even though it is a battery killer, and may very well run hotter than the sun, is going to give you a significant boost over the Alienware.

As for SLi, and I've said this many times before, I'm against it. If you want to hear more from me, I'll elaborate, but I feel a processor upgrade, more RAM, or better hard drive will do you much better. That being said, on your budget, you may very well have everything set, and have money left over. In that case, go for the Sli.

The Alienware WILL give you great performance, very close to the Sager laptop (but less on paper, considering the 9800 GTX Sli vs. 8800 GTX, and desktop vs. mobile processor). However, it is significantly higher priced for the performance. But again, with your budget, it shouldn't be that big of a deal.

I would personally opt for the NP9692, although I don't know ANYTHING about the OCZ, so you may want to get someone else's opinion on that matter. The Dell WILL get you less performance than the Alienware, so you may as well just eliminate that choice.

I would expect that you posted a similar question in the Alienware forums, and no doubt they're yelling their little green butts off about how Sagers and Clevos overheat and don't last as long. I can tell you two things on that matter.

1. I have only been aware of the actual brand of Sager/Clevo for about a month and a half, so don't consider me a 'fanboy'. However, it is simply not true either that they overheat, or that life is drained. These laptops have the best cooling systems in them that I have ever seen for their hardware.

2. That being said, these laptops DO tend to get warm, considering the hardware. However, the hardware is rated for a higher thermal limit than average hardware, because it is of higher quality. Alienware, on the other hand, uses lower quality parts that offer around the same performance, but don't last as long because they are less tolerable to heat. So they compare the temperatures of the Sagers to their own laptops, and assume that we are causing global warming, while they are sitting at the best possible laptop temperatures. So yeah, now you understand that process lol.

tl;dr: Go with the NP9692.

[robamb2002]

I agree that the "black box" Sagers arn't much to look at, but I mean come on! just look at the major spec increases! lets compare shall we...

Area-51 m17x
Dual 9800M GT SLI
1920x1200 WUXGA
X9000 2.8GHz Core2 Extreme
4GB DDR2 667MHz Ram
Windows Vista Ultimate (32bit)
1 TB RAID0 5400RPM HDD (2x500GB)
DVD-Rom
$5139.00

XPS M1730
Dual 8800M GTX SLI
X9000 2.8GHz Core2 Extreme
4GB DDR2 667MHz Ram
Windows Vista Ultimate (32bit)
640GB RAID0 5400RPM HDD (2x320GB)
Blu-ray Burner
$4753.00

Sager NP9262
Dual 9800M GTX SLI
Q9650 3.0GHz Quad Core
4GB DDR2 800MHz Ram
Windows Vista Ultimate (64bit)
1TB RAID5 5400RPM HDD (3x500GB)
Blu-ray Burner
$4869.00

Now Bias or no Bias, the fact of the mater is, you get much more bang for your buck with the Sager. the Sager outperforms both Dell and Alienware at this price-range. throw a sweet skin on there for $90 and it will both look smooth and act smooth.

[Zatara214]

1TB RAID5 5400RPM HDD (3x500GB)


Dont you mean


1.5TB RAID5 5400RPM HDD (3x500GB)


? lol.

[robamb2002]

damn that cut and paste :)

[vandit]

thanks for all the input. I guess it wouldn't be so hard if the Sagers weren't so damn ugly! I guess there is something about dropping 5Gs on a laptop and having it look like a black brick. I agree about the performance increase with the Sager. I thought the X9000 overclocks to 3.4 ghz (it evens says so on Dell's website)??

[LaptopDude]

Vandit,

I"m in the same boat as you. I'm only looking at Alienware, the NP9262 and the OCZ. The Alienware is ridiculously overpriced but it looks very nice. The NP9262 is easily the beast of them all but its really hard for me to get past its looks.

I think the OCZ Whitebook is a great midpoint. You still get a very high-end laptop and it is in a chassis that is an updated version of one that Alienware used to use. As much as I like the 9262, the OCZ has 3 things it doesn't: HDMI, DDR3 support, and an eSATA port. I am looking to hear more about the performance of the Crossfired 3870's. While I would really like to go with NVIDIA 9800GTs, but if the ATIs are getting similar performance, then that is a win!

[Zatara214]

You can always try this... even though it will probably void your warrenty... anyway, there's bound to be some company that offers backit keyboards, etc, custom made for specific laptops, especially high end gamer ones. You can attempt to score a deal with one of them, but, the only issue is, idk of any lol...

[Woody]

Looks are highly subjective. I personally think the Sager 9262 looks a lot nicer than the Dell or Alienware. I think it's spartan appearance make it look more business like and less like a fancy toy and if you're going to use it at work that may be better for you. The 9262 will blow all other notebooks out of the water and anyone who knows enough to look at your computer in awe will be more impressed with a Sager than a Dell. I get a lot of compliments on my 9262 and I guarantee it looks better on your desk than in the photos. It's very well built and has a solid feel to it. None of my co workers had ever heard of a Sager before and they ask me where I get them.

On the other hand If your priority is looks get the Sager NP5796. That is one sexy machine and you can actually use it to pick up chicks at the coffee shop! ;-) You'll make those Mac users look like lame conformists.

- Chassis Color: Orange Trim or Silver
- Display: 17" Wide Viewing Angles WUXGA LCD with Super Glossy Surface (1920 x 1200)
- Processor: 45nm Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme Processor X9100 / 6MB L2 Cache, 3.06GHz, 1066MHz FSB
- Video & Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce 9800M GTX Graphics with 1GB DDR3
- Operating System: Genuine MS Windows® VISTA ULTIMATE 32/64-Bit Edition
- Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 2 X 2048MB
- Primary Hard Disk Drive: 320GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive
- Optical Drive: 2X Blu-ray Reader/8X DVD±R/2.4X +DL Super-Multi Drive &
- Intel Robson Technology: Intel 4GB TurboMemory Modul
- Integrated Security Device: Fingerprint Reader
- Warranty: Sager 3 Year Limited Parts and Labor Warranty with Three-Day Shipping Both Ways Paid

3959.98 with the added three year warranty. You can save a few hundred on the warranty if you don't plan on keeping it more than a year.

This thing will look nicer than all the others and save you a thousand dollars. It doesn't have the SLI but SLI won't always help you and it will outperform the Dell and Alienware in many other areas. In fact a single 9800mGTX will perform pretty close to the 9800mGT or 8800mGTX in SLI since SLI scaling isn't always that good. The faster single card will perform better in some game and less in others. The general wisdom is always buy a faster single graphics card than to SLI two slower cards. And it has a faster processor.

I personally don't know why you'd want to spend $5000 on a notebook. It's great that you can budget that much but It's better to proceed from a different perspective. What are you going to do with the computer? What type of games do you want to play? Will you ever need to use this notebook on an airplane or on battery power or will you just lug it to and from work or leave it at work and always plug it in? Do you plan to watch blue-ray movies on it? How much storage do you need? Do you want to RAID your drives or not? There are advantages and disadvantages. Do you need or want a 64 bit OS? Do you want or need Vista Ultimate? Do you want Vista at all or do you prefer XP? Again what will you do with the OS? Don't just throw money at it for bragging rights, get the computer you really want and need. Save some money for the games you will buy for it (I hope no one here pirates games).

I don't think you need to spend 5k on a notebook but it's up to you. You won't get much more power in most cases than if you spend 3k. You also need to consider that a year from now whatever you buy will be second rate and you will want to replace it.