Sager NP-8690 REVIEW(In progres)

I think spybenj has forgotton about his review lol

 

Both Times the system had been off for more than five hours when I did this. I turned on Windows, Then after that loaded up, started Prime 95 (Maximum heat), then started Furmark (Stability test, Xtreme Burning Mode, 800x600, No AA), then started an Avast scan (Thorough, scanning archives). Then let them run for an hour each.

I have an 1920x1080 screen, 820qm i7, 7200rpm 500GB HD, 4GB Ram.

 

He probably got grounded.

 

i tried downscaling my resolution again to 1600x900 and noticed that i had my settings at 125% ( medium) fonts, which is win7's default for 1980x1080.
when i scaled it back to 100% (normal),the look and general sharpness of 1600x900 improved greatly! it is not as sharp or bright as native res but is definitely more gorgeous than working in 1920x1080, 150%.
since adjusting this setting affects almost every graphical aspect, it had a significant effect on the look, sharpness of everything, not just text, etc.
to test this i fired up dragon age: origins, and it did look significantly better on 1600x900, 100%(normal) than at 1600x900, 125%(medium). i havent tested any other game but im sure the effect will be the same on all games.

so completely my bad for saying the screen downscales badly. it is the resolution i actually use now for the desktop, text is just right for my middle aged eyes. hope my comments didnt discourage anyone from getting this most excellent product.
and for what its worth, i ordered it thru justin w of xoticpc who was just super helpful in pre and post sales.

 

Hey Guys,

What do you think about add the dual fans cooler as upgrade?

 

One more question...

What are your suggestion, buy from XOTICPC or MALIBAL?

What´s the difference between than?

Tks

 

Bump? I'm curious about his questions.

 

Price and warranty.

Malibal is usually cheaper by $20-$40 (which can help with shipping costs). Standard warranties for Malibal are 1 year parts, 1 year labor. Warranty at XoticPC is 1 year parts, 3 years labor, so you get 2 extras years of free labor, but not parts.

Both have extremely good customer service.

The only other real difference is if you buy from XoticPC, you get the "Sager" badge on the laptop, Malibal's is pure black, no logo.

 

You might want to check RJtech and PowerNotebooks as well. I do believe they price match.

 

Hi Brandon!

Actually, our standard warranty has recently changed. The base configuration for each Clevo notebook we carry now comes with a 3 year Labor and 1 Year Parts warranty, the same as XoticPC.

 

Good to know, thanks!

 

I looked into them all, and I went with Malibal. They're really nice! I feel like they're really going to take care of me, before, during and after the sale. That's important to me since I'm paranoid about computer stuff. I know that if it arrives and something's not right, they'll help.

Also like the Zen-influenced stuff, but, you know, that's just stylistic.

I think xoticpc would be a great choice, too. I did not look into the other two retailers much.

 

Hi Brandon, we include our own 24/7 Toll Free Telephone Support in addition to our 3 Year Labor Warranty in case you were not aware.

 

Thanks Justin! Good point!

 

it had been a month now .... and the review is like ... oh well

 

Yep, unfortunately that happens. People get very excited and post a lot when they order their laptops, and then once they receive them, they disappear from the forums.

 

well he could be playing the hell out of his brand spankin new lappy

 

I might be like that, too... See how we are? When we're pining for our new laptop, we're here posting... and when we're having problems or wanting to upgrade or get questions answered, we're here... Otherwise, we're no where to be found!

 

Yes I'm also curious about this Sager NP8690, whether I should get it or not. Although I would prefer a gaming laptop with keyboard backlighting.

 

http://www.mtechlaptops.com sell these too. rebranded of course. =)

But does anyone know if there is some company in Europe that sell these ? Im not that keen on the import tax of +25% to the price including shipping cost.

 

Kobalt Computers - The link is in my sig

 

Thanx !! I have been looking for this.

Question : Are these laptops assembled in Taiwan or at the different resellers ?

I'd really like to know what brand of harddrive the NP-8690 is shipped with ? Can somebody check ?

Some resellers also claim it comes with a 3 cell battery others claim it has a 9 cell battery .. Can they really differ or is it a badly updated homepage ?

 

i believe they are ordered barebones from taiwan and are assembled by the resellers like sager on their sites, which for sager is in socal.

 

the sager comes with a 3-cell battery fyi
im not sure of the other resellers but afaik the 3-cell battery is the only kind available for this model.

 

Might have mixed up the battery thing ..

But this means that You never know what brand of harddrive You get .. that sucks ..

 

They receive the barebone laptop from Taiwan just like every other reseller, and add the upgrades e.g CPU onto it.

The 500gb 7200rpm HDD is a Seagate.

The Clevo w860cu/Sager NP8690/Kobalt G860 comes with a 3 Cell battery.

 

New Question :

How does the NP-8690 compare to the Dell Studio 15 or Studio XPS 16 ?

The graphic card seams to be the only difference or am I missing something ? And the numeric key pad of course and the longer battery time.

15
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dell...en&m_30=321945&oc=N0053508&rbc=N0053508&s=dhs

16
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dell...en&m_30=322467&oc=N00X6502&rbc=N00X6502&s=dhs

 

Yes I had mixed up the batteries =)

 

Ouch! That's a pretty hefty import tax.

 

sagers are best known for their great thermal design and build quality.
these are things you would not see in a spec sheet though.
trust us when we say there probably is no better 15inch laptop with better thermal design atm.

 

I REALLY like mine... and the thermal design does seem excellent. Unfortunately, the application of thermal paste was apparently not excellent, so I'm forced to figure out how to do a paste replacement (never done it before) on my brand new laptop. Lame.

Other than that... best computer I've ever used (minus a few niggling things like the touchpad, which bothers some and not others).

 

Does the touchpad bother you?

 

Yeah, kinda. Clicking and dragging, which is problematic on many touchpads, seems impossible here, and scrolling is difficult. Sometimes the double-touch to click doesn't register the way I'd expect it to.

But I use a mouse 90% of the time, so it's kind of a non-issue.

I'm more bothered that my internal temps are higher than they're supposed to be.

 

I think that the tuchpad bothers everyone forced to use it =)

 

the touchpad scrolling is more like tap scrolling pad. tap it to scroll up and down instead of sliding your finger.
kinda sucks using it that way though

 

Ya don't slide your finger down the scroll feature on the touch pad. I thought that was how it worked as well and of coarse thought it sucked. Once I found out that you touch the top or bottom on the right side and it moves up and down I like it. I don't have a problem with the click and drag, just double tap and hold.

I wouldn't be that bummed about having to reapply the thermal paste. I redid mine just so I knew it was done right. I usually do it to most of my computers just so I know. It doesn't take very long to do it either. There is some videos on youtube on how to do it. There is different ways some people do it but I would do the method where you put a bit on and smooth it out with a playing card.

 

Ah ha! So that's how the touchpad works. I will give that a try. You guys nailed it--I assumed it was the kind where you had to kind of drag your finger to scroll. And as far as click and drag, I was kind of doing that the same, literally dragging my finger across the pad instead of holding. Maybe once I figure it out I won't have issues anymore.

As for the temps and paste and everything, I got freaked out and was definitely overreacting. My temps are okay from the factory, certainly within acceptable limits. I think re-applying paste (which is unnecessary) will help and satisfy me, though. It will also be good experience/practice and hopefully then I won't be afraid to open the sucker up. I want to have this computer a LONG time, which means eventually I may upgrade RAM, the GPU, or even the CPU and perhaps the HDD. So I've got a lot of learning to do...

I'd really like to use it at least 3 years, maybe 4, and with upgrades, hopefully more like 5 years. I wanted to buy the best and run it into the ground until it just won't run new stuff satisfactorily anymore.

Uh, sorry, where am I? Got rambly. I really like this laptop, tho.