Sager 9750 with AMD Athlon 64 X2 Review (pics, specs)

by Albsterama, California USA

The notebook under review here is the Sager 9750. Established in 1985, Sager specializes in portable computers. They are based in City of Industry, California and sell through their own online website or resellers such as PCTorque.com.

The Sager 9750 is the world's first dual core notebook with a desktop AMD X2 CPU (or the new FX-60 dual core) under the hood and was releasedin mid December 2005. The 9750 is based on the Clevo D900K, Clevois the original design manufacturer (ODM). The 9750can be considered a true Desktop Top Replacement (DTR) notebook for its weight/size and is aimed primarily at the gaming market.

Sager 9750 (view medium image) (view large image)

AMD Athlon 64 badge (view medium image) (view large image)

Specifications of the Sager 9750-V being reviewed:

• 17" WUXGA LCD (Glossy 1920 x 1200)
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+ (Toledo, Socket 939)
• nVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX w/ 256MB GDDR3
• 2GB 400Mhz Dual Channel PC3200 DDR SDRAM
• Primary 100Gb 7200RPM PATA
• Secondary 100Gb 5400RPM PATA
• Pioneer 8x Combo with DVD+R DL
• Windows XP Professional SP2
• Lithium Ion 12Cell battery
• Internal 802.11g Wireless Network Adapter
• Integrated 1.3M High-Resolution Digital Video Camera
• External floppy drive
• Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader
• 1 Year Sager Warranty
• 3 Year (US Only) Extended Onsite Warranty by PCTorque.com
• 4 Year (US Only) Accidental Coverage by PCTorque.com

Reasons for Buying

On June 2005 I started looking for a replacement notebook for my aging Dell Inspiron 8200. At that time Dell XPS Gen 2 was released with the 6800 Ultra GPU and the 7200RPM 100Gb hard drive. I ordered it with the 35% coupon but the order fell through after an 8 week wait as the order slept in the "In Production" phase. Then news of an AMD notebook began to filter on the internet, initially with a September release but it was not until mid December that the news became a reality with the release of the Sager 9750 that had an AMD X2, glossy WUXGA screen and the blisteringly fast nVidia 7800GTX GPU -- it became a no brainer, this was the notebook to replace my Dell Inspiron 8200!

Where and How Purchased

My Sager 9750 was ordered through PCTorque.com and delivered on January 9 2006. It was ordered through the online configuration sitefrom PCTorque.com. Total price paid including the extended on-site warranty and the accidental damage protection was $4,437.00, which is the credit card price. There is a "cash" price that is about $100 cheaper but the order process may take longer for the check clearance.

The original order was for the primary 7200RPM 100Gb SATA and the secondary 5400RPM 100Gb SATA hard drives. However, Sager experienced a shortage in the availability of the SATA drives and the PATA drives were offered in its place. Essentially the 9750 can support dual PATA or dual SATA 2.5" hard drives by just switching the hard drive interface cable.

The key difference between the SATA and the PATA configuration is that SATA would work with Raid 0 or 1. I did not need the Raid 0 or 1 so switching to PATA was an easy decision instead of waiting for new supplies to come in at an unspecified time (after the 8 weeks "In Production" with the Dell order I was not going to go throughsuch a thingagain!)
PCTorque.com did communicate this to me via email and through their affiliated forum website: www.NotebookForums.com. To change the order, I simplycalled PCTorque.com and it was quick and easy.

Packaging

Packaging (view medium image) (view large image)

The Sager 9750 came in a surprisingly small and compact package that is double boxed for protection. The computer itself was well wrapped and suspended within 2 foam ends. The power supply and the bundled CD software and drivers were neatly packed within the black business style travel case.

It was nice to see the whole 9750 layered with a protective covering from the back of the LCD to the actual LCD and the trimmings around the notebook. The layers came off easily to reveal a very nice looking notebook, far better than the 9750 computer images on the website.

Build & Design

First impression was WOW - the dual tone polish aluminum LCD cover and silver edgings contrast perfectly with the rest of dark gray casing and the glossy black trimming. Handling the 9750 showed that it was a solid machine. There was nothing flimsy or flexingon this unit.

Top view of Sager 9750 (view large image)

The 9750 is a heavy notebook weighing in at around 12 lbs and a power supply unit that is just a tad under 3 lbs. Taking it around town was not an issue for me since I always use a roller carrier. The LCD hinge locks were a snap to release and the LCD opens firmlyyet smoothly to reveal a nice full size keyboard with keypad.

Plug in the power supply cable, touch the power ON button to reveal a cool blue colored power and display lighting.

View 9750 Power Button and the programmable AP-Keys(view medium image) (view large image)

Screen

The 9750 comes with a choice of the WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) or WUXGA (1920 x 1200) both in a glossy finish. I chose the WUXGA because I felt the 17" would benefit from this resolution. Colors on this WUXGA screen are gorgeous -- the colors have a nice depth especially the rich dark blacks. The glossy overcoat accentuates this andmoving froma 4 year old Ultrasharp Dell 15" monitor, the 9750 LCD is literally a sight for sore eyes for me.

Tests using the dead pixel program show zero dead pixels ! (Please note that most resellers will offer a zero dead pixel guarantee for an additional $200, but I felt this was unnecessary)
Tests for light leakage did not reveal any issues of such a thing.

The only possible issue is with the refresh rate of the LCD set to 61Hz. In some games such as Battlefield 2, the refresh rate is part of the profile. This profile had to be changed from 60Hz to 61Hz in order to allow the game to booth properly.

Other than this, the WUXGA screen is absolutely superb. As an extra, on top of the screen is an inbuilt 1.3MP camera. I have not yet used the camera.

Speakers

The speakers on the 9750 comprise of a "mini" subwoofer installed underneath and four speakers. Two of the speakers are placed on the left and right side of the keyboard and two speakers are placed on the front of the notebook on the left and right.

The 9750 features the SRS WOW. This is an audio enhancement suite from SRS Labs. I am a little puzzled at this, since the form of the notebook is not conducive to producing audiophile quality sounds -- not with the super small speakers and a "mini" subwoofer that is smaller than the tweeter in a regular bookshelf speaker.

How does it sound? At normal volume, the rock music sounds fine with the limited bass produced by the mini subwoofer. Spatially the music sounds dispersed and wide as versus localized source. At maximum volume, there is no distortion and the sound is well controlled.
Personally, I would have liked the maximum volume pushing out more decibels.

Alternatively, you can use head phones when it's not practical to use the built in speakers. The head phone jack is located on the left side of the notebook. There have been reports of hissing from the headphone jack. On my unit and using an Etymotic Er6i ear buds, I can hear a low hissing present but it soon disappears when music is played at volume. For some audiophiles, this hissing may be a big issue. For me, its not.

Processor and Performance

Released around mid 2005, the AMD X2 4800+ (codename Toledo) is manufactured with AMD's 90nm process. This is a dual core processor, each core featuring a clock speed of 2.4Ghz and a 1024kb L2 cache. The X2 4800+ is packaged on the Socket 939.

(view large image)

The 9750 cold boots quickly thanks to the primary 7200RPM hard drive. There are 2 power settings for the AMD X2 4800+ that can be configured through the Control Panel -> Power Options icon. In the "Portable/Laptop" mode, the default frequency of the X2 is set at 1.00Ghz. The core frequency will rise as it is needed. On the "Always On" mode, the dual core stays at the full speed of 2.4Ghz. Each setting has an effect on the temperature, with the 1.00Ghz the CPU idles around 42C to 45C and at the 2.4Ghz, the CPU idles around 51C to 55C. Max load, the CPU temperature rises to no more than 61C (all readings based on the mob meter software utility). This is pretty good considering my Dell Inspiron 8200 with a 4 yr old Intel Pentium 4 1.8Ghz Mobile CPU idles at 55C to 60C! When the 9750 is booted up on battery, the core speed is limited to 433Mhz to conserve power.

Benchmarks

Below are the benchmarks using the Forceware 83.90 drivers. The 7800 GTX was left at the stock setting of core clock frequency of 400MHz and memory clock frequency of 1.10Ghz. The AMD X2 4800+ is set on the "Always On" with each core at 2.4Ghz.

Super Pi results

Notebook	Time
Sager 9750 (AMD X2 4800+)	1m 26s
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi(2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 15s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s
IBM ThinkPad Z60m(2.0 GHz Pentium M)	1m 36s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Pentium M)	1m 48s
Dell Inspiron 6000D (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	1m 52s
Dell Inspiron 600M (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	2m 10s
HP Pavilion dv4000(1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 39s
HP DV4170us (Pentium M 1.73 GHz)	1m 53s
Sony VAIO S380 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s

(view large image)

Below are the results gained from running 3DMark05 on the 9750:

Notebook	3DMark 05 Results
Sager 9750(AMD 64 X2, nVidia GeForce GTX7800 256MB)	7044 3DMarks / 5373 CPUMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB	2092 3D Marks / 4462 CPUMarks
ThinkPadT43 (1.86GHz, ATI X300 64MB graphics)	727 3DMarks / 3414 CPUMarks
Asus V6Va (2.13 GHz Pentium M, ATI Radeon Mobility x700 128 MB)	2530 3D Marks / 3749 CPU Marks
Quanta KN1 (1.86 GHz Pentium M, NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600 128mb)	2,4863DMarks / 4106CPUMarks
HP dv4000 (1.86GHz Pentium M, ATI X700 128MB)	2536 3D Marks / 3557 CPU Marks
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi(2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 256MB)	4157 3DMarks / 4812 CPU Marks

Below are the results gained from running PCMark04 on the 9750:

[/TD]

Futuremark PCMark04 Scores
	Sager 9750(AMD 64 X2, nVidia GeForce GTX7800 256MB)	LenovoT60(2.0 GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Compression	6.7MB/s	6.83MB/s
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Encryption	74.131MB/s	55.83MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / File Decompression	59.47MB/s	52.5MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Image Processing	29.23MPixels/s	23.24MPixels/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Virus Scanning	5091.12MB/s	4450.72MB/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Grammar Check	6.08KB/s	4.88KB/s
File Decryption	74.29MB/s	59.64 MB/s
Audio Conversion	3184.69KB/s	3062.34KB/s
Web Page Rendering	5.71Pages/s	6.35Pages/s
DivX Video Compression	87.55FPS	74.82FPS
Physics Calculation and 3D	214.91FPS	212.51FPS
Graphics Memory - 64 Lines	1778.1FPS	1514.98 FPS
Futuremark 3DMark05 Scores
3DMark Score	70443DMarks	20923D Marks
CPU Score	5373CPUMarks	4462CPUMarks
Gaming Tests
GT1 - Return To Proxycon	30.8FPS	9.7 FPS
GT2 - Firefly Forest	20.9FPS	5.7FPS
GT3 - Canyon Flight	34.8FPS	10.6FPS
CPU Tests
CPU Test 1	2.6FPS	2.5FPS
CPU Test 2	5.0FPS	3.5FPS

Belowaregraphs generated from running HDTune on the two Sager 9750 hard drives:

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Heat and Fans

Being a large DTR notebook and using a desktop CPU, the most obvious question is "how hot does it get and how loud are the fans?"

For cooling, there are 4 intake fans located at the bottom. All the internal hot air is then released through the large 5" vent located on the back right of the notebook or the smaller GPU vent located on the front left side of the notebook.

My 9750 is on practically 24 x 7 and I always use the 9750 keyboard and touchpad. With the power mode on "Always On"the CPU averages 51C to 55C, all the fans are quiet and is hard to tell whether the fans are ON or OFF. The only noticeable fan noise comes from the GPU fan when it vents the hot air from the 7800GTX card. Even then the noise it produces is a soft whirl.

Sager has provided a "hot key" to turn on all the fans at max speed for quick cooling. This is generally used for playing games, especially for an extended period of time. At max speed, the noise from all the fans sounds like little jets and using a sound pressure meter, it introduces about 6 dB of additional fan noise.

Does this distract from the sounds of the game ? No, the speakers even at mid volume override the fan noise. On the hot days in the office, the left and right palm areas can get slightly warm, no more than say 5C above room temperature. All other days, the warmth from the palm areas is not perceivable.

It is not recommended to work with the 9750 on the lap since you risk blocking one or more fans underneath. However, it is recommended to have a laptop cooler such as the Spire Pacific Breeze to raise the back end of the notebook, improve air flow and keep things nice and cool underneath. Elevating the back end has the added benefit of making typing easier.

View of the Spire Pacific Breeze laptop cooler and the rear of the 9750 (view medium image) (view large image)

Gaming

The AMD X2 4800+ and the nVidia GeForce 7800 GTX is an awesome combination when it comes to gaming performance. Games such as Battlefield 2, BF2 Special Forces and Doom 3 can be played at the highest possible settings without any flinching from the CPU/GPU and the action is buttery smooth.

Using the Forceware drivers, it is easy to over clock the 7800 GTX but I found that this is not really necessary. For all the games that I have, there has been no sluggishness to warrant it. Of course, over clocking may give bragging rights for the best 3DMark05 or 3DMark06 scores on the various Internet forums, but do it at your own risk.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard configuration took a little while to get used to especially with the key pad area on the right hand side and the QWERTY keys and touchpad left biased. The keys were great to use, firm short stroke and fast return with no sloppiness in the action at all. You know when you have typed and the finger nails do not strike the other keys on the way down or up, unlike other notebook keyboards that I have used.

Keyboard view (view medium image) (view large image)

Note the speakers to the left of the keyboard and right of the number pad. Although the Sager features a number key pad, I have not used it at all.

The touch pad took more time for familiarization. I liked the feel of the touch pad, it had a metallic feel as versus a plastic one. The feedback was accurate.

Touchpad view (viewlarge image)

The only annoying issue with the touch pad is that the scroll section encroaches (past the gray line) onto the pointer navigation section. It is possible to put the mouse pointer into the "scroll mode" simply by touching the near about inch left of the scroll section. This can be annoying when you move the mouse pointer to the right and suddenly it goes into scroll mode. I was unable to find a software solution to adjust this sensitivity.

Input and Output Ports:

• Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps LAN & V.90 56K Fax/Modem
• 1 Type II PCMCIA Slot
• 7-in-1 Card Reader
• InfraRed Wireless Fast IR Interface
• Speakers out
• Mic in ports
• 2 IEEE-1394 Port
• 4 USB 2.0 ports
• 1 Line out
• 1 S/PDIF out
• 1 DVI out port
• 1 PS2 port
• 1 RJ-45 port
• 1 RJ-11 port
• 1 S-Video-In jack
• 1 S-Video-Out jack
• 1 Serial port
• 1 TV-in Port (with optional TV tuner)

Nice touch with the rubber inserts to cover the 7-in-1 Reader section and the TV Out/S-Video-In jack section.(view medium image) (view large image)

Front view of the 9750 (view medium image) (view large image)

Ont the front: On left and right side are the front speakers. Audio "DJ" Player Controls in the middle including volume control. The volume can be controlled through 2 sets of buttons. One way is to use the Fn-F5 or Fn-F6 function key combinations on the keyboard or through the "-" or "+" media buttons on the front of the notebook.

Back view of the 9750 (view medium image) (view large image)

On the back: The 5" exit vents on the left, DC-In jack, serial port, parallel port, DVI-Out port, PS2 port, RJ-11 Phone jack, RJ-45 LAN jack, CATV jack and S-Video-In jack.

Left view of the 9750 (view medium image) (view large image)

On the left side: S-Video-Out jack, 4 x USB2.0 ports, 2 x Mini-IEEE 1394a port, Line In jack, S/PDIF-Out jack, Microphone-In jack, Headphone-Out jack, 7-in-1 Card reader, PC Card slot and Infrared Transceiver.

Right view of the 9750 (view medium image) (view large image)

On the right side: Optical device drive. Up to two optical drive devices can be installed on the 9750 in a piggy back configuration. To access and remove the drive, you have to go through the hard drive compartment from underneath and will require a screwdriver.

Bottom view (viewlarge image)

Wireless

Included with the order is the Internal 802.11g wireless with the 9750. There is an internal wireless card with Bluetooth available at an additional cost.

Battery

Generally, the battery in a DTR notebook with any desktop CPU is considered as nothing more than a glorified UPS. Before this test I was expecting that at most, the battery would last between 45 mins and 1 hour.

Sager has equipped the 9750 with a 12 cell Li-Ion 14.8V 6600MaH battery. This appears to be the standard battery across their entire Sager 9xxx series. To access the battery, you have to use a coin or a straight tip screwdriver to release the three screws.

Once the battery was charged to 100%, the 9750 was cold booted. Boot time was similar to the A/C power. However, the 9750 booted up with a 433Mhz clock speed and the CPU temperature was around 41C. The LCD remained on the max setting and the 7800GTX remained untouched.

A number of tasks were then performed that included internet surfing, emailing and working with spreadsheets. The 9750 achieved a life of 1 hr and 25 mins until it reached the 5% battery capacity. A pleasant surprise and it may have broke through the 1 hr 30 mins barrier had I dropped the LCD brightness.

Operating System and Software

The default order from PCTorque does not include the operating system. You can elect to add the Windows XP Pro SP2 (32 bit) or the Windows XP Home SP2 as an additional cost. There is no XP 64 offered at this time but Sager, on their website, does provide the drivers necessary for XP 64 to run on their 9xxx series notebooks.

The chosen operating system was Microsoft XP Pro. The 9750 arrived pre-configured with the o/s and appears clean with all the latest updates and no adware present. Also installed is the OEM Nero Suite and Inter Video WinDVD 5.

Worried about a crash ? No problem, Sager provides the XP recovery CD, utility drivers and the OEM Nero and Inter Video CDs as well. All the bases are covered. Nice !

Upgradeability

Unlike the desktop counter parts, components in a notebook are not generally upgradeable. This usually means that once you purchased the CPU and GPU, you are stuck with it for the life of the notebook. However, the Sager 9750 is based on the Clevo D900 chassis (Sager 9860, 9880 and 9890) and in the past, Sager has been able to offer upgrades on the GPUs beginning with the nVidia 6800 DDR to 6800 DDR3, Ati X800, 6800 Ultra and the latest nVidia 7800 GTX.

The cost of the upgrades are not cheap --ranging from $600 to $900 depending on the changes involved which has, in the past, included a mother board revision and a new power supply. It is hoped that this tradition will continue with the next couple of GPU releases from nVidia or ATI, fingers crossed.

Customer Support

All Sager notebooks come with a 1 year return to manufacturer warranty, this means that if you have an issue you have to either mail the damaged part back to Sager (located in City of Industry, California) or ship the entire notebook to them with you paying for the shipping costs to Sager and they will pay for the return cost back to your home. Sager does not offer any on-site warranty. This was the most uncomfortable part of the purchasing process since I am used to the Dell on-site Complete Care protection.

As things turned out, I did experience an initial issue with the optical drive that always opened each time the 9750 cold booted. A simple email correspondence with Sager Tech Support and an RMA was arranged. Turn around time for this entire issue was about 6 business days from the first initial email.

I also purchased two warranties from PCTorque.com. The first one is a three year extended on-site warranty. The second warranty is for the Accidental Damage Protection warranty. Both warranties cost an additional $500 to the bottom line.

Complaints

• Sager should offer an on-site warranty service. If a smaller reseller like PCTorque.com can arrange contracts to provide on-site service, it's hard to understand why a bigger OEM like Sager cannot provide this service. Also, this service is offered by Dell and Sager should be competitive and offer the same.
• Odd refresh frequency on the WUXGA LCD screen -- 61Hz as versus the standard 60Hz. This has caused issues with games like Battlefield 2 that it will not boot when the refresh rate is not set to 61Hz in the profile.
• The USB2.0 ports are mounted upside down. Not a big issue but unusual. Also, it would have been nice to have 2 more USB2.0 ports on the right side of the notebook for convenience.

Praises

• Awesome game performance. Max resolution on Battlefield 2 and Doom 3 and it does not flinch.
• Gorgeous WUXGA screen.
• Dual PATA or SATA (with Raid 0 or 1) Hard Drives.
• Availability of dual optical drives.
• Availability of ports now considered as "legacy" by other manufacturers such as PS2 and Serial.
• Nice to see the CF as part of the 7-in-1 Card Reader.
• Better than "average" battery life for a DTR notebook.

Conclusion

Having owned three Dell Inspiron notebooks in the past, it was a leap of faith to jump on the Sager brand. So far, I am extremely pleased with the build and quality of the 9750 and AMAZED by the performance of the AMD X2 4800+ and the nVidia 7800 GTX.
With the availability of the AMD FX-60 dual core CPU and the 7800 GTX GPU for the 9750, it is a lethal combination for a gaming rig in a notebook format.

 

OMG, that is possibly the most spec'd out gaming laptop I have ever seen in existence.... Nice!

Yeah... and the review was pretty tight too

Thanks for posting

 

Wow, what a breathtaking machine! Quite the monster also, at 12 lbs. But I suppose that if it's on your desk, it's fine. Nice review!

 

Oh man, all you ultraportables had better get the heck outta here before this monster stomps you into pancakes!
This is the most powerful and expensive notebook I've ever seen, kudos to you for being able to afford it!
As some have noticed, I'm extremely anal about the conditon of my notebook, especially regarding wear and tear. And its a shame to me to already see some wear on some of the keys on your keyboard, man, that stuff would really irritate me!

 

Uber sexy titan of a lappy. ^^;

 

i didn't know the X2 scored in the 1 min 20 sec mark for superpi. i know that the is not athlon's strong point in computing, but the core duo beats it and that is designed around performance per watt.

 

Thanks guys ! I thought it was time to get something out there for the Sager 9750 since its the only notebook with an AMD dual core and people are curious as to how fast, how hot and how big it is...

I was a little dissappointed with the super pi 2m result but the scores are what they are...

Mind you, mine is only an X2 4800+ and there is an FX-60 out there !

 

That's an insane notebook for an insane price!!!
That's almost as fast as computing can go today

 

Wow, what an impressive machine! Great job on a very detailed, thoughtful review, too! Your photos do a good job of making the laptop look a lot more svelte than the vendor pictures do.

 

An FX-60 would have set you back another $500 or so. That CPU alone costs as much as a mid end laptop. Just over $1K mark

Edit: forgot to ask my question. How good is that cooler that you have there? noise? Does it go deep under the laptop, as in does it support it, such the laptop sits on it?

 

wow, a 'monster' rather than a notebook impressed with that gaming performance...

 

There are 2 rubber "feet" on the SPB that the 9750 sits on and it does not move. Very stable. You can also biase it to the left and right and it will still be stable. The bottom vents protrudes in about 1/2" under the laptop.

I've got 2 of these SPBs and had them for over a year now with them running 24 x 7 and so far the fans are still near silent, with the speed set to normal. There are only 2 speeds: I and II.

Observationally, it drops the overall temp by about 2C. Not that much but it all helps. The cost....$15 per SPB !

Yes, its about 1/3 of the price of other bigger vantec coolers, portable, works and a VERY COOL BLUE LED fans. I think they are now selling for between $15 and $20.


Also, I'll wait for the FX60 price to drop and the upgrade it later on. The FX60 was not available when I was ordering it otherwise it would be an FX60 under the hood now. Oh well...Alls Good !

 

Great review, great - and of course a powerful notebook.
Hence how the T60 can follow it quite well in some parts of the benchmark.

 

Great Job Albs - nice review, too bad i won't get the 9750 (budget)

 

What i am absolutely shocked to see is the Core Duo 2.0GHz seeming to nip at the heels of that massive desktop CPU! Insane! Am I reading those benchmarks correctly? Does this mean that I can get comparible computing power (Purely CPU / Memory performance, i don't care about graphics) out of a 6 pound travelmate as opposed to a 12 pound clevo? As a musician who likes quiet and cool machines, this could be very good news!

 

I think this is a beautiful machine. But it just seems pointless as a laptop. i personaly would rather have a pentium M with a 7800 card in it sager has one and its beautiful. and the new core duos coming out are prettymuch on par with these athlong chips. just 12 lbs **** might as well build a shuttle desktop and carry it around. with the pentium m model scoring about 6400 on 3DMark 05 is it worth the extra lbs.

 

Ever since I saw one of these beasts I have wanted one. Unfortunately I cannot afford it at this time but it would be great for me. Weight is not an issue for me as I keep mine at home anyway. I just like the ability to move it around the house easily. I doubt there is anything else out there right now that has the gaming ability of this beast. AMD has never been quite as good as Intel on Super Pi, however, this machine is still dual core and would multi-task very well and also AMD is known to be better for gaming so if gaming is what you want and some portability and you have the money for it then in my opinion this is the way to go. Great review and glad to see someone has finally done one.

 

the dothan was great for overclocking (if you had the right PLL on your notebook mobo). people typically were able to squeeze an extra 200-300 mhz out of their 90nm dothan (pentiumM), so we should expect even better numbers out of the 65nm core solo.

 

Albsterama - I forgot to mention, that was a nice write up. BTW, I'm curious, how many watts is that power supply rated for?

 

Great review mate,

Truelly one of the best I have ever seen! I want to felicitate you with your monster (yes, I am not gonna call that a laptop ). It is amazing to see that a 2.0 Centrino Duo is outperforming a X2 4800+! Incredible!

By the way: I have that same notebook cooler! I am very happy about it. It doesnt cost much but it cools good. When I game it cools my CPU 10 degrees and my harddrive 10 degrees. Too bad that the cooling is bad with your laptop...

Overall superb done

Hitman

 

Great Post Albsterama!...

I'm also considering a DTR with similar capabilities... I'm curious if you considered an Alienware DTR ? I've heard a lot of Alienware bashing, but also praises. Specs seem similar, thus the question...

Thanks!

SD

 

20V 11A and its 220 watts ! Its the same power supply shared with the Sager 9890 (the Intel P4 version of the 9750)

 

it is so huge !!!!!!

and i am very suprised that a Core Duo has a better benmark than the X2, wow.

that 3dmark05 score is crazy however.

 

Yes I did think about it and I agree there is a lot of Alienware bashing from the fanboys of both sides and it does no good for anyone.

Alienware Aurora M7700 is the same as the Sager 9750. They are both Clevo D900K. What I really like about the Aurora is the Alien Blue finish as versus the Silver/Dark Gray/Black finish on the Sager. Also, I'll admit the alien head looks great as well.

Spec for spec, benchmark for benchmark, its the same. It has to - it's the same machine.

The reason I did not opt for the Aurora is the price and the warranty. If you spec out a single 7K100 HDD, XP Pro, 2Gb RAM, FX-60 CPU and 7800 GTX GPU: Sager 9750 and the Aurora 7700, you'll find a $700 difference.

Personally, as much as I love the smooth creation Alien Blue finish, I cannot justify the extra cost when I could use this on the PCT Sager for the warranty and other goodies.

Also check out the warranties. I opted for PCT because it was an ON-SITE and ADP for the additional $500. Other top and reputable resellers like Discountlaptop also provides similar coverage.

If money is no issue, go for Alienware Aurora for the finish otherwise I think your money will buy more with PCT Sager.

 

Thanks Hitman ! Appreciate it !

As the others have pointed out the Super Pi 2M is the weak point with the AMD and I too was a little dissappointed with the score. It just proves the Intel strength with this measurement and the improvements they have done since the PMs. However, 10 out of the 12 PCMark04 scores the X2 ahead.

Based on your post, the SPB is not as effective as your rig. My HDD is around 35C so I am not sure if it is going to go any lower temp than that ! Gotta love that cool blue LED though....!

Cheers...

 

Hee...thats not crazy. I "conservatively" o/c the 7800GTX to a 449 core and 1.19Ghz before and it posted 7753 on the 3dmark05 and 4429 on the 3dmark06, that IS CRAZY and the core can go higher !

But whats the point of the o/c when it chews all the current games on stock cores.

 

D*mn!!! You've gotta have the most powerful notebook here on NBR. As a comparison, my 5720's best 3DMark05 score was 6975 without over-clocking. Your 9750 has gotta be the 3DMark05 and 06 king. Congrats!!

The word "notebook" seems so inadequate for that beast. The only nickname that seems worthy of your machine is...

the HULK

 

Wonderful review and nice pictures!

I'm on the Alienware M7700 right now - I still think your machine is good looking. Yeah, the blue finish is nice, but gets a LOT of fingerprints and dust.

I agree, why overclock when you can blow through anything?

Awesome laptop, I love it.

Chaz

 

WAY, But way overpriced!!! I mean, for that money u can get a high end desktop and a more less high end laptop.... I mean.... lets say a SLI N-Force 4 mobo 250, then 1000 for any FX procesor u want(easily overclockable), another 300 for a good pair of 1gb sticks, lets say 2,000.... u have got another 2,000 for a good laptop....

 

seriously, you might break/numb your legs putting that beast on your lap

 

YIKES! it's like a CRAY for your desk! what dreams are made of...

 

WUXGA+??? That's overkill!!

Does it include a magnifying glass?

 

Hee...yeah you do need glasses. Fixored. WUXGA (1920 x 1200 res).

 

Great review Albs. Now if I could just talk the wife into spending that much on a laptop.

 

I'm about to order one of these (Sager 9750) myself (similar, if not exact specs). However, although I do play a FPS time to time, I'm not much of a gamer. I'll be utilizing this BEAST as a portable AVID / Motion FX / Maya / Photoshop system for my small business.

Considering this will be my first high-end laptop purchase...

Can any of you think of a portable system that would better serve as a editing/fx machine??
It was the 64bit DualCore Athlon 4800+ that sold me on this BEAST.

Any advice/suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks guys. This forum is great.

 

The Sager 9750 is the most powerful notebook out there. Look no further.

 

Albsterama:

To follow-up my Sager/Alienware comparison, I noticed that the Sager offers HD video out, but the Alienware only offers S-video... This points out to a difference in the MB don't you think? Other things being equal, the Sager is looking better...

SD

 

Yes, nice review.
First time here to be honest as I do some research for a dual core portable system.

Alienware offers also the MJ-12 m7700a which is very similar to the Aurora.
The difference is that the MJ-12 has an AMD Opteron dual core option, dual HD RAID option, and very powereful GPU options.

I wonder about the difference between the Opteron and the Athalon Dual Core? There are subtle differences based on AMD website, but not being too tech savy, I dont know how these translate for me.

Given the benchmarks, I also wonder about the utility of waiting for a Lenovo T60 or X60.

My end use is for biomedical research - flow cytometry data analysis using java based programs that are multithreaded and graphics intensive.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Sanders

 

Below is the backend of the Alienware Aurora 7700:



And this is the backend of my Sager:


Port for port, its the same back end. The Aurora should do DVI out but as to whether it does Hi Def, I do not know at this time since I have not played or tested with this particular port. I have heard of some people say AW model numbers are on the mobo to show that the AW is different to the base Clevo D900K but I cannot confirm this.

Based on the CPU, GPU and even all the ports, the Aurora is a D900K and the same as Sager.

Hope this helps.

 

Welcome to the forum Sanders. I would suggest you direct this question to the NBF "What notebook should I buy" section of the forum. This is the link: http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16

There is a simple questionaire that you can fill in and the mob over there are very good at pointing out what notebook may be best suited for your needs.

However, just looking at what you are going to use it for, maybe the Intel P4 with the EMT64 CPU would be better for your needs instead of an AMD X2 or FX since the P4s with their long pipelines are ideally suited for computational intensive programs and with hyperthreading.

This is an excellent website that has a number of intensive benchmarks for the various Intel and AMD CPUs including Opteron:
http://www.techreport.com/reviews/page.x?pg=processors

Some light reading for you !

In regards to the GPU offered on the m7700a, the 7800GTX is the best of the lot. However, if your graphical needs are similar to that of CAD applications, the Quadro GPU may be better.

Hope this help. Cheers...

 

You would probably be better suited by a Sager 9890 with a Quadro 1400 card. Both the P4 and the Quadro will serve you better if you're strictly interested in the kind of floating-point computations that the programs you mentioned use.

 

Excellent review! That's the same platform that I'm saving for now, and although it's only a Month away, I can't stand the wait...

It is the same machine as sold by Alienware, M-Tech, and ExtremeNotebooks. M-Tech is pretty good pricewise, but the real price winner is http://www.avadirect.com/product_details_configurator.asp?PRID=3486 . They are marketing the series in the US with Clevo branding, and even though they don't sell it without an OS installed, it is cheaper than the other brand names. I'm in lust with the AMD 64 FX 60 dual core CPU, but the notebook is also sold in Intel form with up to a P4 670HT CPU installed for those so inclined.

Voyager

 

After losing a 15-month old Toshiba Satellite P35 in a home burglary last week, I have been spec-ing a new purchase with hoped-for upgrades to improve photo and music file handling, as well as for beginning to delve into video recording. Cruising in and out of all the big-name brand product and review sites, I came across Sager in a review of the Athlon processors, and ultimately to Albsterama's excellent review of the 9750. I'm essentiallly sold, but wondering if I'm not crushing over a Land Rover while window shopping for a Chevy. Why should one go with the Sager 9750 instead of the comparable Dell, Gateway, or Toshiba models (i.e., the high-end graphic production, entertainment, and gaming models)? For one thing, what's the anticipated longevity of the Sager product? Will it handle all that Vista promises? Weight isn't a real issue since my notebook stays pretty much at home, mostly on my desk (although from now on it will be tucked away out of site whenever I'm away from the house!).

Thanks in advance for what I've seen will be most courteous and helpful responses.

 

Sorry to hear about your burglarly - i'll be so bummed as well if it happened to me.

Based on your post: music, photo and video recording, why aren't you looking at a Mac ? Seriously, the Macs are wonderfull for this type of work rather than a PC platform.

If you still want to do this on a PC platform, go with the FX-60 or my X2 4800+. There is so much power in these 64 bit ready CPUs and coupled with the currently king of the hill GPU: 7800 GTX.

Currently, no other brand offers a dual core 64 bit CPU with the 7800 GTX unless they are a Clevo underneath (like the Alienware Aurora M7700). In the next few months, we will start to see the 32 bit Intel Core Duo CPUs marrying with the 7800GTX or the ATI X1800XT (ATI's answer to the nVidia 7800 series). Intel will not release Merom until much later this year - assuming no further delays and AMD will have the Turion dual cores out around April/May but the Turions, although dual core, I don't think, will come near the power of the X2 4800+ or the king, FX-60.

Vista - you can run the XP64 right now on the 9750 but I am sticking with the XP Pro for the time being until the Vista 64 is released and even then until after SP1 is released. No one really knows what the final Vista will be since its still months ahead but based on what I know and read, I don't see any issues with running Vista 64. Proof of the pudding is in the actual installation and we can discuss this months down the track...

I hope this helps, good luck with your decision, its not easy. For me, I always wanted a dual core 64 bit with a kick a$$ GPU on a 17" screen - mobility gaming rig. However, after using my 9750 for 2 months now, I really like the fact that I have SO MUCH storage with the twin HDDs and the 7-in-1 card reader. For your needs, this has to be an important consideration as well.

Look, go play on the pctorque.com configurator for the 9750, I think you'll find it much cheaper than what I paid for mine.

Let us know what you ended up with.

Cheers....

 

Thanks for the great feedback, Folks! The Fujitsu is eye-catching and worth studying more. I'll be checking out some reviews on that one. I had begun to consider Macs, especially the new Macbooks with Intel inside. But shopping for them confirmed a long-held notion that one pays more for Macs with features comparable to or lesser than PCs. Maybe I just don't get the differences, and will study some more. Still, a critical reason for staying with a DTR level PC that will provide the hobbiest features (music, photos, etc.) is because I also need to produce actual work on the machine. Everything in the workplace is PC (XP Pro). I do know that current Macs offer MS Office type applications, and frankly, I prefer OpenOffice at home for all purposes, so a Mac could work just as well.

So what in the Mac lineup would be comparable to the Sager 9750 CPU- and GPU-wise?

Thanks again for your consideration and helpful opinions.

robastewart

 

Might want to check out the Mac line, the highest core duo is the T2600 but for sure the GPU is nowhere near the same class as the 9750's 7800GTX in terms of performance. The same goes for the Fujitsu. However, the Fujitsu has the best screen in the business....

Another thing, unless you intend to game, you don't really need something as powerful as the 7800GTX or even the X1800XT but you never know....Cheers !

 

great review, Albsterama !

have you take a look under the hood to see if others can initially purchased the AMD Athlon64 3200+ and in the future upgrade it to X2 4800+ ?

I figure this will save me $950 today.

2. does the VideoToGo driver gives you extra features not available from the stock ?

3. how is the sound level compared to your previous Dell's ?

can't wait to get mine

 

First, welcome to the NBF forum !

Great Questions !

I have not looked under the bonnet but I plan to this weekend, just got caught up with work. I don't see why you can't perform the upgrade yourself. However, we know that to go to the FX-60 you will need a BIOS update. Also, check with your reseller to make sure that you don't void your warranty with the CPU upgrade !

The laptopvideo2go drivers are more advance than the stock drivers Sager gives you - resulting in better performance and nicer graphics. Get'em. Do note that I have used Xtreme-G drivers before but I have issues with these drivers when I boot from battery, it was not very nice so I just stick to the laptopvideo2go drivers from now on.

Sound - i just played the remix of Britney Spears Toxic on both the Dell Inspiron 8200 and the Sager 9750 and it's like chalk and cheese. The 9750 had more base, wider sound field and louder. The poor ole 8200 was a loud but the sound quality was very thinny in comparison - its like as if someone turned up all the treble controls way up and the bass way down.