**D900F (Sager 9280) Owners Lounge**

^ I'm sorry, but that is just creepy.

 

Actually, I could see why corporate type people might want to only use basic black notebooks, but that's why I am a non-conformist! Black electronics are so 1999.

I'm an Equine Sports Therapist at a Horse Sanctuary for retired race horses part time and full time Artistic Metalworker, as in sculpture, gates etc.

Now where's my plum colored Sager?

 

I've never looked at their site - thanks for mentioning it. It seems once I passed the $2700 mark, I desensitized to prices, so what's another $300 or so? lol I'm sure a custom paint job would be expensive.

 

lol, I was thinking the same thing, but virtual or real, guys will be guys....

 

Order, test, evaluate, then send it off for a custom paint job if you're happy with the purchase. It would be a waste to get a custom paint job on a system you are immensely displeased with owning.

Me? I'm a poster child of the view presented in the Apple 1984 commercial. Minimalist and clean lines with a lack of color is beauty to me.

I love the look of Thinkpads, Macbooks and Clevo's.

 

Me too. Actually a Clevo D900F with the Thinkpad ruggedness and "rubbery" paint would be nice.
If the Thinkpad W700 had Core i7 and could match the price of a Clevo D900F, that would have been my 1.st choice.

 

Hi. Can anyone give some game impressions? The new benchmark tool for Resident Evil 5 just came out, and word on the street is it's very laptop friendly.

Also, what kind of fps are you getting with Crysis, COD4 Modern Warfare, Fallout 3, Street Fighter IV, STALKER, and GRID?

 

RE5 seems to run fine on it from my tests.. the game is not that intensive it seems.

 

Thank you for the infor ...

 

Does anyone here have sense of humor for laptopssake?..

 

I knew you were joking around... no problem,
made me laugh !


@ electrosoft

Again, a very good idea about having the unit for a while to make sure I love it and then getting it painted, if I feel the need. There is something good to be said about the minimalist approach to design.

 

Well I got my replaced SSD HD the weekend. Installed, moved my OS image back from the 500GB to the 160GB, booted up. Ran HD tune, got same issue. So I thought what's the odds of that. Then rebooted in Safe mode, reran HDTUNE, everything looked good. So I started suspecting software. Reinstalled my RAID HD drivers (even though I don't have a raid configuration). Booted back up into Vista. All seems to be working fine for the last 4 days, touch wood.

Coming from years of using traditional HDs, SSDs are downright fascinating.

The consistent read performance is amazing (traditional HDs degrade as the head moves away from the center of the rotating disk), and SSD access times are fantastic. Writing times are merely comparable though. But most of the time we read from the disk anyways, and as for writing, that's what OS disk buffers are for. So you seldom feel it.

Anyways, what was really odd when I started using it was the performance inconsistencies. I mean it varied from fast, to crazy fast. Every run I do now though seem to be the same. It seems it has "settled" down to a consistent benchmark now. I have no clue how to explain that, or the initial inconsistent benchmarks. But I am happy with the performance, so I really don't care.

SSD bench in Safe mode:



Back in Vista-64 (weird scores):



Now getting these benchmarks pretty consistently:



I have my primary OS (Vista-64) on the SSD, and my primary XP-Pro VM (inside a steganos encrypted HD cooked file) on the SSD. Vista boots up scary fast now, working with my XP VM (despite the fact thats its inside an encrypted virtual HD) is lighting fast.

I believe that hands down the SSD has improved my notebook experience even more than the 975 CPU has. I always felt that my HDs were what held back my D901C back the most.

Also to respond to some other threads:

Firstly, the look of the D900F is a personal preference. I prefer the "business" look more than the flashy lights gamer look. I work at my client sites all the time. Impressions count when are a contractor.

Secondly (again a personal preference) regarding the lack of SLi support on the D900F. I see the D900F as a workstation first, and a gaming notebook second. Even then, as someone who has owned a D901C and had even gone through the motherboard upgrade so I could run two 8800Ms in SLi. I was not really blown away by the GPU performance. Even though cost is not a serious factor for me, I thought the cost of the additional card did not justify the performance gain. So my reasoning this time around was that I would use the money I would have spent on the 2nd GPU to upgrade when the next GPU come out. God know Nvidia/ATI just loves sucking us all dry with minimalistic incremental GPU upgrade steps, not to mention ridiculous naming (GTX280M, come on ...).

 

enable write caching on the disk & advanced performance

 

Another idea I was contemplating was a custom image skin for the back of the lid. My daughter sent me some links because she wants one for her MSI, and you can submit an image of your choice for a skin for the back. She just rolled her eyes when I said a WoW skin would look kinda hot. I would put it on my 1722.

 

I couldn't possibly agree more with everything said here.

 

my np9280 does not play bluray disc . do i need to install a new driver ? and if so can you give me the link to the download site ?

 

Did you order it with BR drive?

 

yes i did .

 

If you physically look at the DVD tray, you should see the blue ray logo on it, if not ...

Your notebook should have come with the crappy Cyberlink DVD Suit which can play back Blue Ray disks, install that and make sure all your drivers are installed.

 

How big is the box the d900f comes in?

 

It's small, like the size of a mid-tower pc case box.

 

Well.
Today came the news that Intel is launching their new SSD's. ETA August 4.
Cancelled my order of the X25M 80Gb and changed it to the new X25M 80Gb - a little better and much cheaper.
At the last moment possible - my D900F was already in the last phase of production and was about to go into testing.

 

Some benches withs screens. I have used fraps (which is quite accurate) 2.98 build 7777
unless stated all tests performed with 1900 or 1920x1200
options to the max but no AA (vertical synchro waz always active)
D900 f I 7975, 6go ddr3 1333 3x 7200 500 go seagates Hd (no raid) windows 7 ultimate build 7229

left 4 dead 1920x1200 no aa options high






Hidden target options to the max 1920x1200




Bench resident evil 5 directx 9 1900 x1200 everything high no aa no vertical synchro (fraps was running at the same time )



same test with vertical sync





Railworks no AA options to the max )




Tunnelrats no AA each option to the max



Farcry2 benchmark (fraps running in the background)





NHL 2009 1600x1200 (maximal possible resolution))




Killing floor everything to the max



Velvet assassin with aa and options to the max



Vietcong 2 each option to the max



Temperature test



confirmed with everest ultimate




Stress test









test processor





Benchmark resident evil 5 directx10 1920x1200 vert sync options to the max no aa fraps running at the same time

 

very nice indeed!!
can you just run far cry 2 maxed out at 1920x1080 and use ranch long...that's if you get a chance. this was what we used for comparison through out all the testing of the high end systems. thanks.

 

Smart move!

 

Just ordered a Xplorer X7-Xtreme S1 from cyberpowerpc.com for $2,186.00.

Im wondering has anyone tried using t internal TV card with these laptops. I have a laptop pcie TV tuner card Id like to hook up to it.

 

Silly question for all you 9280 owners.

Where is the 2nd HHD bay located. I found the third under the battery compartment.

Thanks!

 

its all in the User's Manual.

the first two HDDs are stacked together... under the mouse pad area.

the third HDD is under the battery section.

 

If it was me, I'd upgrade to 1333MHz 12 GB. The fact that the board can take 6GB 1333MHz means that it should be able to handle 12GB of it, albeit a BIOS upgrade may be required. Also I'm happy to say I got the "on order" machine I have, and it's been awesomeness incarnate!

Works like a dream, I'm just wondering if I can overclock the GPU a little bit. I saw someone with a 100MHz OC but I don't know what he did XD

 

Well I can tell for Street Fighter 4 and CoD5

SF 4 never goes above 60FPS contrary to what others say. At x4 AA and 1920x1200 fullscreen with all on highest (mid character models though) and default Trilinear filtering, it runs at 56-60 FPS in all stages but the jungle stage. For some reason, Inland jungle drops the FPS to 30-45 quite often, so I dropped the AA to x2. It runs perfectly on x2 AA. Sadly models on high = 45 FPS no matter what I do.

 

Well I can tell for Street Fighter 4 and CoD5

SF 4 never goes above 60FPS contrary to what others say. At x4 AA and 1920x1200 fullscreen with all on highest (mid character models though) and default Trilinear filtering, it runs at 56-60 FPS in all stages but the jungle stage. For some reason, Inland jungle drops the FPS to 30-45 quite often, so I dropped the AA to x2. It runs perfectly on x2 AA. Sadly models on high = 45 FPS no matter what I do.

CoD5 I have no benchmarks for, but everything on the highest lent me no slowdown and amazing visuals. I don't remember seeing AA options for it, so it would be off, but it runs swimmingly. I thought i had slowdown at some points, but it turns out I was just running slower by walking uphill XD. I figured that out by seeing the NPCs running normal speed and jumping yielded much more fluid motion.


EDIT: Sorry for the double post. I pressed submit before I did the COD5, and I stopped the page loading, but looks like the power of the D900F posted it before my page loaded

 

some more benches

Chrysis 1920x1200 vert synch, no aa ,and each option set to ultra
it varies from 11 to 19 fps but strangely enough it is smooth and playable without any trouble (solo)










Superbike world championship 2009 1920 x1200,vert sych , options to the max no aa(got same results with aa x16)





Summer athletics 2009 1920x1200 each option to the max







Clutch 1920x1200 options to the max with aa 16






Pyroblazer 1620x1200 vert synch each option to the max no AA





same bench with aa 16 implemented



Hunting unlimited 2010 1920x1200 each option to the max







damned my last contribution to this board

 

additional benches If u don't mind.
Of course compared to a M980NU equiped with a qx9300 we are trailing 15 Fps
but as far as the DF900 is concerned I have noticed that I get the same benchresults ,if I for instance use grabit and rip a dvd in the background ,(xilisoft dvdrip platinium 5,0 uses all cores and requires 20% processor's power.)
we can play and perform useful tasks at the same times

Fall out 3 each option including AA to the max








Ubersoldier 1600x1200 (highest possible resolution ) vert synch AA and each option to the max

 

All I can say after 2 days of use, is : Desktop replacement is no lie.
This machine is a beast - I can't think any other laptop can compete, and it will give many a decent spec'd desktop computer competition too.

Everything works as expected - no problems getting bluetooth, wireless, hotkeys, gamekeys to work - went quicker than any machine I have owned before.

Build quality is good - not exceptional, but good.
Screen is good for a laptop - zero dead or fawlty pixels.
Speakers are a load of crap - but that was expected. No problems in getting my 2.1 external system to work though, and the onboard sound chip does a pretty good job - actually I think I get better sound than my old desktop with a Soundblaster card. It will be fine for anything but critical listening - that's for the living room stereo system to deal with.

Also external Dell screen and LaCie HDD was up and running in minutes.

I got a Logitech VX Nano with this - works like a dream. I love the scroll wheel. I was a little worried this laptop mouse would be a bit small for everyday use, but it's not. Very comfy.

All my temps are well within limits, after heavy use with 3D rendering apps and ProTools, and gaming.

Haven't done any benchmarks as such, except 1 run with 3dMark06 @ default settings - I got 13800 and something. Not sure if that is up to standard, but I tried the Crysis demo, on 1600x1024 I think it was, with overall setting on "High" - very smooth, could not notice any slowdowns at all. With setting at "Very High" not so smooth anymore, but damn this game looks good. Is there a way I can see the fps with this?

The fans are clearly audible at full blast, but nowhere near as loud as I expected. When in auto mode and they settle down to slow speed, I can't really hear them unless I put my ear real close.

The PSU runs hot, (not too hot) but so far it's been very quiet.

Ok, enough for now. Just waiting for my SSD now (see signature), and what improvements that will bring.

 

http://www.fraps.com/download.php Use this to see FPS

 

I second that very accurate and reliable.got the same value as the included framecounter as I ran farcry2 and residentevil 5 demo

 

Thank you very much.

 

Ok, Crysis demo on 1600x1024, High gives me average of 32 fps
Very High gives me average 21 fps

 

Congratulate me. My new np9280 should arrive from Sager on Thursday!

17" Wide Viewing Angles WUXGA LCD with Super Glossy SurfaceIntel® Core™ i7-920 Processor
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M
6GB Triple Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 3 X 2GB
Intel 4GB TurboMemory Module
250GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive
8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive
Intel Wi-Fi Link 5300AGN - 802.11A/B/G/N
Internal Bluetooth V2.1 Module

Upgrades planed when the price comes down:
1: SSD; ≥128 gb, SLC (will use the 250gb HD for storage then)
2: Core i7 extreme edition
3: Internal ATSC tuner (can't find one yet)


What do you think?

 

Congrats, the D900 is a monster!

 

To the guy who thinks the speakers are a load of crap, we must have different machines or you're accustomed to being a DJ. Because this thing is LOUD. And clear. When I played COD5 I left my headphones out... that was like DANG. You should try changing your sound playback quality to a higher amount if you really dislike the sound. I don't notice much of a difference, but either way it's amazing.

Sadly no more COD5 for me I miss my gunshots ='(

But it's true this thing is a pure beast. I have not been able to get close to the limits of the CPU yet, and I am very glad for that. The GPU has been easier to get close to the limits of ^^

 

That was me, I guess.
Yes, they are crap. I have not come across a lappy with good sound yet, and I never will. Actually I shouldn't even have mentioned it as a negative - with lappy speakers, it's just a question of degrees of crappiness.
I can't listen to music/net radio with these. Thin, harsh sounding, with no bottom range, and they distort when you turn it up loud.
Can be used in an emergency, of course, but my external Klipsch 2.1 set sounds much, much better. That's just the way it is.
But as I said - exactly what I expected.

And not DJ, but a producer/technician in the music biz, and an audiophile with a insane stereo system at a insane cost, set up in the living room ;-)

 

Lol well now you make sense. For me, I tweaked the sound options a little bit, got them to sound excellent, but that's just for me. Not accustomed to the finer points of music hehe. You can always just set up something I guess, but for me it works great, far better than my other laptop and FAR FAR better than the Logitech 5.1 surround sound on my desktop, which has a very very bad habit of playing bass VERYYYYY loud and having no options to change said settings

 

For the people with the i7 975 cpu's - what is your average CPU core(s) temps.

This is mines and my room temp is 79F.

 

Here are my temps sitting around surfing, checking mail and doing everything I normally do outside of hardcore gaming.

This is after 1hr.

CPU = i7-975 (3.33ghz) Extreme D900F, fans to auto (as always).

Avg room temp = 75.

 

Most of these systems have a knob on the subwoofer or sound control module to regulate the bass.

 

Hi Everyone,

I've been reading about your experiences, and your temps are running cooler than mine. I have the 975 chip and 12g of ram.

I just tested with Prime95 blended mode, and one of my core temps reached 93C!!! There were no warnings or errors after 1:25, but I stopped the test because I was afraid of the heat. Otherwise, the core temps idle around 49C with the fan on high.

My room temp is about 78F, and I keep a little fan pointed at the keyboard to help in cooling. The laptop is also raised up on 4 eraser feet to help with air flow. Sometimes I get the fan blast sound on idle that some of you have mentioned. I don't have a whining sound from the power brick, though.

Other than high temps, it's stable. It handles avchd editing in Premiere CS4 (81C tho!!). I haven't had a chance to check gaming yet (wow, sims 3).

I love this machine, but I'm worried it will self destruct within a year. With temps that high, should I send this thing back?

 

i should have goten the m17x, this d900f is fine but the heat from the palm rest and keybroad get hot after 15 to 20 min of playing game. My wrist get real hot and i dont knwo if i can enjoy my game like this.
Does anybody have that issue?

 

left palm rest ..... is the optical drive
right palm rest ... is the battery

center (touchpad) is the hard drives.

in any case, I have not experienced any of this for the last month I have been using this system.

Oh, I think you are not aware of it.... but you are NOT supposed to rest your wrist on those areas while gaming or typing... thats NOT very ergonomic.

I have gone over this many times... the wrists are never supposed to be down while gaming or typing, which would cause a number of problems:
- grease stains
- carpal tunnel (will happen over time and painful)

I have been typing and gaming properly on my 3 year old D900K and the palm rest area's are mint condition... no marks.

read this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=361671&page=18

 

thanks gophn, your very helpful and educational gamer lol.
I will practice this way of gaming.