Comparing current Sager/MSI and MSI laptops

• Both 17" inches
• The same screen type
• The same processor
• The same RAM speed and amount

...

Basically the configuration on both laptops are the same, the only major difference is the GPU.


Clevo P170HM
17" Matte Screen
560M / 485M
i7-2760QM (2.4 - 3.5GHz)
16GB DDR3 (4G X 4)
120GB SSD
1TB 5,400 RPM HD
6X Blu-Ray Reader
Bigfoot networks Killer 1103

or

MSI GT780DX-215US
17" Matte Screen
570M
i7-2760QM (2.4 - 3.5GHz)
16GB DDR3 (4G X 4)
120GB SSD
1TB 5,400 RPM HD
6X Blu-Ray Reader
Bigfoot networks Killer 1103


Which one is better? Why? Please share your input.

 

for the same price, MSI with GTX570 is better than Sager with GTX560m. But if budget permits, Sager with GTX580m/Radeon hd 6990m would be much betther. So it depends on what kind of budget one is working with.

I haven't owned any MSI though so not sure about the build quality while reviews seems to differ from very good to poor. On the other hand I have a Sager NP8662 which is well designed & made. Same appraise goes to the newer models from Sager as you may find here on NBR. So I'd say Sager may be better in this aspect.

However, if not reside in US, then Sager is almost non heard-of while MSI is a more established brand globally. This may affect the re-sale value for non-US residents but for self using no difference.

 

Great reply mangos47!

Good point on the re-sale value, also if Sager is mostly based on USA and UK then those who are not from those countries would be hard pressed to claim a warranty. How about MSI? From what I gather MSI is mostly popular in Asia.

 

I can say from experience that the build quality is really solid. Some minor areas that have flex, but I expected that with a 17" notebook. I did a lot of research on both MSI and Sager before recently buying, and both notebooks have their fair share of very good to poor reviews. I think for many products, there's going to be bad reviews, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad product. For North America, there's a standard 2 year warranty for MSI and +1 year for registering before 30 days (not sure if they still offer that, but they did a little less than two months ago when I bought mine).

I honestly don't think you need the very top-end 580m or 6990m because the 570m will play all games on high/ultra settings with decent frame rates (assuming you OC a bit). Also, the GT780 CAN be upgraded to a 580m or 6990m in the future when prices go down.

 

Clevos are not upgradeable beyond specification, eg. the gt 240m is not supported.
Right now its not a problem, because the 400m/500m series are the same architecture and AMD 6000 series are supported. However, since there is no MXM structure, its unlikely the 7000 and 600 series are supported, also, no Quadro cards are supported.

I've tested MSI laptops to support many more cards than Clevos. So, I'd recommend an MSI.

 

@niffcreature, thank you for your experienced input on this topic.

 

that and MSI offers backlight keyboards (for some regions/models) not a big deal to most but something to consider.

 

If it matters, the sound system in the MSI, if it is Dynaudio, it will blow the sager out of the water in quality.

And the latest msi models tend to have good build quality. I used my MSI for 1 year in continous field engineer duty and it survived with flying colors, only some scratches.

both are great machines but the sager is only for when you can get the highest end GPUs, as GTX570m is a decent one.

 

Definitely audio matters a lot! I've read on Sager's thread that the audio in P170HM is not that good. Even if you use a headset, and some resellers are even advising some of its customers to get an external sound card to work around it. Hopefully this is not the case for MSI GT780.

 

Audio quality, audible sounds coming from fans... even with headphones on... yep only so much you can workaround.

 

Are you referring to MSI laptops or Sager?

 

Sager. Should have said, lack of audio quality.

I can hear my fans on low speed from the next room.

 

FWIW, I never heard my fans on my Sager, unless I was benchmarking, or if I forced them on.

 

But the audio quality on the Sager/Clevo laptop are very low and even for some are considered problematic, this is a given fact. I've read a lot of reviews on the sager/clevo boards and this gets mentioned a lot.

 

The speaker quality was crummy. The audio was fine through headphones, especially with THX turned on.

 

I was mostly referring to the built-in speakers that came with the laptop. But I also read some comments that the audio out is not that good as well, it's lacking power somehow.

 

I'd go for the MSI. They are upgradable, they have the best audio of any laptops out there, and they seem to just keep getting better in terms of build quality. My brother has a gx660 which was having battery problems, he emailed MSI got an RMA and they let him keep his laptop and only returned battery for a brand new replacement. I've had mine a year with no issues at all. Great cooling too for a single fan, but I'm sure sagers are better, but as others have said at the cost of annoying fan noise. That wouldn't bother me though since I use headphones.