1762 barebones or Sager NP9170

Hi all,

I have almost made my mind up on this decision, but I would like some input from people who have actually got some experience with these laptops!

I am torn between a 1762 with a 675mx or a Sager NP9170 with the same GPU. All other things being the same, the MSI is about $200 cheaper than the Sager, which would be a better buy?

I guess the main concerns I have are over build quality, how do MSI and Sager compare? I have never owned either before, my current laptop is an Asus g50VT, which I really like, so if anyone can compare the build of MSI/Sager to Asus, that might help me bit!

Thanks for any help.

 

Build quality is fairly comparable, the MSI does have a better keyboard and sound system though.

 

In terms of build quality, they do just pretty much have the same quality, depending on how much build quality is worth to you an alienware might be a sensible choice.

Back to the comparison, IMO the unmoddable difference between the two is the speaker which the 1762 is proudly the winner whereas the 9170 which supports amd graphics wins in terms of compatibility;
the moddable difference tho, is noticeably the power brick and the keyboard, the keyboard by steelseries is definitely a better keyboard of choice on the 1762, where mixed reviews have said that it is capable of going into the 9170
The 240W power brick on the 9170 does make it a better choice for overclocking, but as always the cable can be changed to fit into the 1762 and the cost of the whole procedure should be within $70.

If you never would have considered the A-series graphics card and wants to stick with N-series 1762 IMO is definitely the better choice, however if you like overclocking, overvolting, switching to A series gfx card and don't want to do soldering job then do opt in for the 9170

 

Do you need a new notebook today?

Why not wait a month or so and order a new notebook with a series 8 chipset and Haswell CPU.

As soon as the new series of notebooks are out the value of present series will drop.

 

I did consider the 7970 in the Sager, but I am still a bit wary of the problems some people seem to be having with drivers and Enduro, which is why I opted for the 675mx. My "modding" to laptops is generally limited to CPU/HDD upgrades, with no overvolting or overclocking; I leave that for the desktop where parts are cheaper if I break them!

As for power, I have noticed a few people on the forum using a 240W Dell slimline adapter on the MSI, if I do ever need more power, I thought that might be a good option, or indeed if I get fed up carrying the larger MSI one around with me!

 

There is a lot of sense in what you say, I don't need it now, I just wanted it now! If Haswell does come out on time then I think you are right, it makes sense to wait until June and see what happens. I think I would be quite happy with a reduced price IB laptop just after the Haswell launch to be honest, since it's good enough for my needs right now, I don't see why it won't be in a month.

Thanks for the voice of reason there!

 

The only thing I've seen confirmed in news leaks is that Intel has released ES chips to ODMs and OEMs for testing. The anticipated June arrival still seems up in the air, so just keep that in mind if you consider holding off purchasing for the price drop.

 

It is also quite likely that Nvidia and AMD will prospone their release date on high end mobile graphics too, they usually get released together with the CPU update in order to make new gaming notebooks attractive, as gaming notebooks do want to be updated with all possible newer techs instead of just one by one which drives potential customers away (think of it all the gaming notebooks are released with motherboard, GFX and CPU upgraded to next gen without any exceptions, only mid range notebooks get them one by one due to its nature of broadly accepted price instead of high pricing)

 

Thing is intel has came to a problem of S3 resuming with USB3.0 devices disabled, thus another revision is needed, I do believe it will be delayed till june or even further. And for the 240W Dell slimline adapter, it does require the user to solder another cable since the tips don't fit into the MSI, (different dimension, MSI uses something like 5.5 x 2.5 mm charging tip where the Dell uses 7.4mmx5.0 mm, this is quite a simple job tho if you can pull this off the MSI will definitely be the better buy and at a lower price compared to the 9170

 

If you worry about the Enduro issue about 7970, go with Sager 9370 instead, that model don't carry Enduro capability, so hassle free!

And also, I did consider 7970 in Sager-9370 before I get my current MS-1762. I was looking at the 7970m on 9370 while keeping the budget within my limit. But finally, I discover the MSI Barebone series got a much beatable price among full MSI branding / Sager series, so I pick the barebone one and build with 680m

 

The #1 reason I suggest waiting for MSI GT60/GT70/1762/16F3 replacement models with HM87 chipsets is that both internal SATA drive bays will be SATA III 6GB/s.Maybe even a caddy in the optical bay will offer SATA III since the chipset has support for 6 SATA III connections.

If you like setting up raid arrays the Intel Raid Utility OROM should be a more current version,maybe a 12 series?

Possible better USB 3.0 support?

 

That is the thing, the MSI barebones is cheaper than the 9170 by about $200, the 9370 is even more! I think I will go for a barebones, but if Haswell comes out before I need to buy, I will get that. The 675mx should be plenty for my needs and seems to give much more bang for buck than the 680m (680 is $300 more).


Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

 

I had the same dilemma between the two but in the end I decided to go with the MSI bare-bones solely because of the audio quality issues that plague the Clevo/Sager models:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/685409-my-np9170-has-virtually-no-bass.html

I use headphones most of the time when I travel. So for me this was defiantly a deal breaker. Honestly I do like the simple clean look of the Sager, I just wish they would have payed more attention to quality of some of the more major details.

You might also look at the 9370's. I'm pretty sure they don't suffer from the same issue, but not 100% sure. It will cost a bit more tho...

Edit: Grammar

 

That or greater Thunderbolt implementation.

 

Problem with usb3.0 support is not the controller embedded inside the system but instead the converter inside the enclosure the converts SATA signal to USB signal, I put my recently removed samsung 830 SSD and put it in a usb3.0 enclosure but on whichever computer I plug it into its speed is still a steady 1.2-1.5Gbps, upon changing into couple other 3.0 enclosures speed rose and drops , and I return them because my current enclosure is the only one that has esata/usb3.0 support, Esata goes straight through the controller without the controller so the full SATA2 bandwidth is use.... not until enclosures that provide full speed signal conversions that we will be able to run the full bandwidth of USB3.0 with one storage device, in one port only

 

Haha, the audio issue read from other thread about Sager over MSI also the point that I switch from Sager to MSI... but I think the bass problem just only limited to the speaker on Sager, headphone should be fine on Sager model. MSI claim they have a better amplification circuit for headphone that improve headphone sound quaity alots.... have no comment since never get compare with Sager...

Sager's cleaner looks is tempting for me as beginning, while MSI too cyber..... but for the price, spec (unbeatable price for 680m) and option (the speaker, superRAID read/write speed) i pay for the MSI finally