Maxed out M14x vs. Sager NP9150

Hey guys. Long time lurker and I have a question for you all. I'm getting a new laptop, and have a 2k budget. I've narrowed it down to a maxed out m14x or a Sager. I'll be using this as a portable workshop for a mix between gaming/video-editing/photo-editing, + uni. studies etc. Here are the stats of the two:

+Dell/Alienware M14x @ $1,749
3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.3GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit
14.0" High Def+ (900p/1600x900) with WLED backlight
12GB2 DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
256GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s
Slot Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW)
2 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 650M with Optimus™
1 Year Basic Plan
6.45 lbs

+Sager NP9150 @ $1,789
16GB DDR3 RAM 1600 MHz
256GB Crucial SSD
750GB 7200RPM back up/storage hybrid drive with 4GB SSD,
Nvidia GeForce GTX 670M GPU with 1.5GB GDDR5 (Better than 650M)
3rd Gen i7-3610QM processor
and a fingerprint reader?

It seems, from a stats pov, that the Sager takes the cake. But, in all honesty, the gripe I have is with reliability. If I pay this much for a system, I expect longevity alongside performance. And despite the great value, BBB puts Sager at a C-, while a less powerful Dell/alienware at an A+.

So to make this relevant to this thread: is the reliability of the m14x valuable enough to offset the hardware-to-$$ advantage of Sager, esp. given their precarious reputation with customer service, et al.? Thanks

 

If your getting the sager from a reputable reseller like Xotic, and you get the warranty, they you shouldn't have any issues with reliability. those specs beat out the AW so much anyway that its almost not a question worth asking. the 670 demolishes the 650.

 

^ Completely agree. Strange coincidence, since I posted in this thread about the NP8130, which is pretty much the same chassis as the NP9150/NP9130. I personally bought the M14xR2 because I got it for a very, very good price, otherwise I'd have preferred the NP9130.

If you do decide on the Sager, why not get the NP9130? It has the same specs as the NP9150 you configured, but it's cheaper. The only reason to consider the NP9150 is if you opt for the upgraded video cards which are not options on the NP9130.

 

Dell over charges you on upgrades and you can save big chunks of money on that. I picked up a 240gb SSD EXTREME SANDISK SATA III BRAND SPANKING NEW FOR $105. Ram for 1600mhz for 16gb is $89 or less and I am sure dell wants good money for those 2 upgrades. Save on those upgrades and add a 2-3 yr warranty on the system and pick up those upgrades after the sale. If you are needing hardcore video performance then sager takes the cake but instead I would pickup a slick deal on the m17x r3 or r4 if I needed a mix of portability and extreme performance.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...-5-sata-iii-119-shipped-yeahhh-boiii-nbr.html

 

Hm why is he even comparing a 15,6" notebook with a 14" ?? Of course a 15,6" beats a 14" hardware wise. It has better cooling cause its bigger and therefor can use a GTX graphic card.

Would be more logical to compare it with the M17x even its a bit bigger. The M14x is the best 13-14" gaming notebook even with the needed modding cause of overheating. The M14x is a bit of a compromiss of a ultrabook with the wrong CPU and a 15,6" gaming laptop but its not a 15,6"er...

It just makes no sense.

And of course its more expensive cause smaller is always more expensive + bling bling + better quality chassis. But as for longlivity the Sager is probably the winner cause better cooling = better longlivity no matter how good the chassis is.

 

M14 , because normally a laptop can't do oppa gangnam style look at those FX...


If you want portable go for m14x , if you are hardcore gamers go for Sager NP9150(15") since stronger gpu use more power.

 

Definitely the Sager, in my opinion. Assuming you're an American citizen, a reputable reseller such as Malibal or XoticPC will probably cover you well for any reliability problems.

The M14x is simply not a good digital creativity machine for most purposes, because its screen is awful (obvious blue cast, color accuracy is mediocre, gamut is rated at only 40% Adobe RGB).

The Sager will obviously do all the relevant tasks far more better because you specified a stronger GPU and more RAM, plus the additional internal HDD means it can load the secondary HDD as a scratch disk if necessary. You might already know that digital video can take up a lot of space and consume it fast.

Also, you can specify a Sager with a wide-gamut 90% matte screen - this is absolutely something any digital artist should opt for.
On the portability front, the Sager is only slightly heavier, but in terms of overall volume, the M14x is actually nearly similar to that of a 15" (because it's so damn thick), while sacrificing the screen estate and functional space (no numpad, excessively vertical design leading to poor cooling and just about no-ease-of-maintenance or disassembly). If you need, or want, a small notebook, the M14x is the most powerful you can get for the form factor. And it is, in fact, quite compact indeed, it quite stunned me just how small it appears in practice.
But if you are purely judging your portability metric by weight, the Sager doesn't lose out much in this regard.

Also you might want to consider the fact that the Sager has far more USB ports and the sort - if you're planning on content editing, you're probably going to have a lot of external hard disks around.
The other thing you might want to take note of however is that the M14x R2 has fantastic speakers (provided you tune the SoundBlaster settings properly) for the size (competes with my 17" G73Jh easily), wheras the Sager NP9150 uses Onyko branded speakers which I'm told so far are just awful, if not average. Unless you always use headphones for your video editing, you probably should be aware of this.

I also wouldn't exactly place too much faith in the BBB rating - Alienware/Dell isn't exactly known to be super reliable either, you know. Among the real community. In fact I'd actually trust a Sager not to fail on me compared to my M14x. For example - my M14x already arrived with a creaky hinge. It's not damning and certainly not malfunctioning, but it didn't exactly bode well for my impression of them. Plus its high running temperatures (~95 degrees celsius on the CPU with all four cores of my 3720QM loaded at 3.4GHz) will probably hinder long term reliability. Sager has a far more effective cooling system in the NP9150.
Yes I do just about everything you asked for, but no I didn't buy a Sager because I'm not a US citizen and claiming warranty would require costly shipping and an associated lengthy downtime (not having my notebook for a whole damn week or two).
Speaking of which, Alienware does offer on-site service so this is something that's a value-add you might want to consider.
Also, have you tried contacting Alienware's sales? Or a Dell representative? Usually you can haggle the price down significantly with a call.

 

Sager if you can afford upwards of $1,400+. It has a beatiful stock screen and a true class 1 GTX card and dual cooling for both cpu and gpu.

I would also recommend M14x R2 if you can get it for $1,200 or less with haggling but because of the throtlling horror issue at 65c and obnoxiously max jet engine hairdryer fan noise then i wouldn't recommend it now.

 

I still am not completely happy with the m14xr2, but a repaste seems to solve the jet engine fan noise.

 

I love my Alienware but the GT 650M really isn't that great of a GPU pick for the M14xR2 in my honest opinion. They could have easily gone with a GTX 660M(43w TDP). >_>

The Sager is clearly the winner in this regard.

 

Obscure fact - Malibal told me that the mSATA slot is limited to SATA II, but the primary HDD bay is full SATA III.

The m14x r2 supports SATA III for both the mSATA slot and primary HDD. I think both the Sager and the AW support SATA II for the ODD bay?

If I could upgrade this 900p display, I would pick the m14x every time. The only other advantages the Clevo has are eSATA and an additional audio input.

Complaints I have heard re: the Clevo are mostly about the keyboard and chassis quality. Everyone likes or loves the default display, and the 95% is supposed to be awesome after being calibrated.

I'll probably be looking into Malibal again in a few months. But tbh my m14x may finally be the notebook I have been wanting...

 

Dude, just no.

I have no idea about mSATA on the Sager NP9130/NP9150 or Alienware M14xR2, they could be SATA2 or SATA3. Personally I am not overly concerned with that because mSATA SSDs are slower than full size SSDs. But the NP9130 can be configured with a HDD caddy instead of a DVD-ROM, allowing you to use a full size SATA3 SSD and a full size SATA2 HDD.

Now the rest of your comment is off.

First of all the 95% RGB gamut screen on the NP9130 is immensely better. I had it in the NP8130, and I still miss it a lot. In comparison the M14xR2 screen is washed out, has poor viewing angles and even the 900p one is lower res. You have to see the 95% RGB gamut screen in person to appreciate it, otherwise my words or online pictures will not convince you. Remember, you are looking at those pictures of a great screen on a crappy screen, so yeah...

Second, the NP9130/NP9150 chassis is excellent. Outstanding cooling with large vents all around, enough to support the GeForce GTX675m and GTX680m. You and I spent a lot of time repasting the M14xR2, and this forum is full of throttling complaints because of a dinky GeForce GT650m. When I had the NP8130 it never crossed my mind to repaste anything, or to disable turbo or to use funky power profiles. Just start a game and enjoy.

The whole laptop is as solid as the M14xR2. I will grant you that the keyboard on the NP9130 is average and the touchpad is crappy. But since they're gaming, high performance laptops, I really don't think a mouse is ever too far away.

Now if you're happy with the M14xR2, that's great. I'm more than happy with mine, since I paid a bit more than half what an NP9130 would have cost me. But I'm also aware that I also got about half the performance of the GTX670m that comes stock with the NP9130...

Sigh... Why do we keep discussing Sager notebooks in the Alienware subforum again?

Edit: I had the NP8130, not NP9130.

 

Because Sager is the next most commonly looked to brand for a high performance machine <__>