Sager NP9260 ( Clevo D900C ) Review (Pics, Specs and Benchmarks)

i am looking at this notebook as an upgrade from my sager np9860 but have several questions.

1] it supports 3 hard drives but it seems that raid 0 only works on 2 of them and not all 3. i am wondering if i can have the operating system on the 3rd hard drive and have the other 2 as raid 0 for performance. i have raid 0 on my 9860 and i do worry about hard drive failure so i assume having that 3rd hard hard drive will allow me to put the OS on it as (c:, m:, or whatever) and have piece of mind while also storing important content on it. the raid 0 array can act as the games and video editing performance drive.

2] my np 9860 is original with a geforce 6800go. i have 2 power bricks for it and i am wondering if they can be used on the 9260 as it seems it has the same 4 prong connector. the power bricks for 9860 are rated at 180w. also, what is the wattage of the power bricks for the 9260? i have read they are 120 or 130 on a reselers website when i went to configure one but the 5760 was also listed as having that same rating for it's brick so i am thinking there was a typo.

3] i know the synthetic benchmarks nearly double with sli option. but what is the actual real world performance in games with sli....5% increase? current game that i got into is supreme commander and i am wondering if anyone plays it with the 9260. what settings can you play the game at without bieing a slide show? i play on all low settings on my 9860. i am debating whether to do the x6800 option with 1 gpu or sli it with the e6700 cpu. i will be using a wsxga resolution.

4] the 9260 does not have a subwoofer like the 9860 does so i assume that overal audio quality is worse. one thing that bothered me with the 9860 speakers was that they are not loud enough.

5] the 9860's were basically lemons due to clevo's motherboard issues. my first one died out within the 30 day return policy and was sent a new one. i have not had any serious issues with it so far except that the damn thing powers on by itself sometimes if i simply plug in the AC cord. i am hoping clevo learned their lesson with these 9260's.

6] i am not terribly impressed with the 9260 due to some "conviance issues" with it. they moved the usb ports to the right side and since i am a right handed with the mouse it will interefere it seems with daily tasks. ironically i am left handed when it comes to FPS games but all other tasks i am right handed. there are overall less inputs on the 9260 than the 9860 like the lack of parralel port (for my cad security device key, i have to get the flimsy usb version), no ps2 port (for my favorite FPS keyboard) and they have added a useless VGA port when you can simply use the dvi to vga adapter. the removal of the front lcd clock which was a nice touch on the 9860, only one optical bay instead of two (how are you supposed to conveniantely disk-copy a home-made dvd?) and one ieee firewire port instead of two. still no analog volume control! it seems they went backwards on alot of things.

7] they 7-1 card reader that my 9860 has is buggy in that it won't always read an ms pro memory stick correctly. if it wont read it, i have to take anotehr picture with the camera and insert it again. sometimes in re-writes files on it i have deleted over a year ago. the card reader also causes windows to hang a little during boot and assigns multiple drive letters as well. i hope they have a better version of these card readers from know on.

8] i have the p4 3.6 ghz in my 9860 and the system will severly cripple the FSB under battery and basically the system cannot be used for anything except minor web surfing and to shut it down. i wonder how severly the new ones cripple system performance under battery? i will not be running these things on battery and i know they are ment as a battery backup system in case you lose power but i don't like that the system performs like a pentium 100 mhz back in the day.

9] it seems that clevo finally went with an mxm platform for graphics card and that you will be able to upgrade the card once the 8800m comes along. but, i question this when you factor in the x6800 cpu option as that takes up more power than the other cpu's so in addition to this increase, plus the enivitable power demand increase of the 8800m card, maybe these two combinations will not be able to coexist. i think the new 5760 centrino duos will have a much greater chance of user gpu upgrade since they require overall less power. people really got "Screwed" with the 9860 as they ultimately ended up not being user upgradable in terms of the gpu and the only option is to shell out $1k dollars to have the mobo replaced along with a new power brick. it seems that this same power brick is the same one used for the 9260 and they are rated at 220w. if thats the case i will not be able to use my existing power bricks on the 9260.

edit; ok just found out that the power brick is 280w so never mind that. heh

i wanted to add this; on the 9860 when you close and open the lid the screen will sometimes not turn on or it will turn on and blink off. this is a software glitch with nvidia drivers and i am wondering if it is still present in the 9260?

 

1) have three drives but don't use Raid, sorry.
2) you kinda answered. 20 volt and 11 amp output yields 220 watts.
3) 3d Mark06 scores for single with E6700 about 5500, SLi for the same test is low 9000, and with light overclocking tops 9500 easily. I went with the SLi and will wait out X6800 or maybe the X6900 cpu [or quad core]. RUns Oblivon very nicely at 1400x1050.
4) I always use headphones.
5) no comment.
6) I agree that the location for the USB sucks. I run on a raised Laptop Cooler, and it helps. The back is vents, the front is speakers and half of the left is DVD. I can see that they ran out of room, but I don't like the location also.
7) I use SD Cards, and they don't snap in like on my Toshiba, but it has worked flawlessly. I don't use my Canon Software, but instead treat the card like a thumbdrive.
8) I can't imagine running without being plugged in on a desktop, and on the Laptop Coolers. Too big to squeeze into your lap on an airline flight these days.
9) A site in Australia is already taking orders for q6600 and expect August ship dates for dual 8700 SLi. http://www.pioneercomputers.com.au/products/info.asp?c1=3&c2=15&id=2218

 

that is interesting that they are taking orders for q6600.

the 8700 cards are inferior to the 7950gtx so i am puzzled as to why they are charging more for them.

 

Probably a combination of - because they can - and because it'll be SLi support for DX10. I imagine that it won't be that much slower than 7950 paired. I like the idea that maybe Clevo has already developed another video card for this Laptop.

 

Relieving the topic

 

Very, very nice review Justin.
+Rep