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I'm interested in buying a Sager 4080, i would like to know your experience with this computer. Would you recommend it? How good is it for games? How reliable is it? How's the tech support and if the warranty works good? Have you had any problems with this model? (i.e. cd burner problems, display problems, too hot surface, and so on...????) Thanks in advance for your insights!!!

OK, I'm going to preface that any complaint i have is vastly minor in comparison to the performance of the machine in general, and/or something that is true of ALL similar machines.
1. Reccomend-- Yes, best bang for buck ive seen yet, and with 2.6.5 its fully (yes, even the modem) supported by linux with no ugly patches.
2. Good for games--i get in excess of 30FPS under UT2k4 at high settings and native resolution. thats good for a desktop.
3. Reliable...as reliable as any Laptop. take care of it and itll take care of you. make sure you clean out the heatsink occasionally, it hurts performance, power, noise, as well as heat when it gets grungy, but with basic matinence its been good. a few slight issues there :
a. I have a single red stuck pixel near the middle of the screen. only a minor irritation, but it popped up there after a couple months.
b. the screen, as reported by others, occasionally flickers. its got great brightness and its the best looking screen ive ever seen on a laptop with its glossy surface. 1400x1050 is also really easy on the eyes, and its very bright.
c. there is an inxplicable chip in the corner of said screen. probably my fault, but i have no earthly idea where it came from.
d. havent tried tech support or warranty yet, but the tales of PCT's support are wonderful. i wouldnt buy direct from sager, ive heard bad things about their support abilities. As for hot surfaces, the keyboard (inconvienetly, specifaically near the WASD keys) gets slightly uncomfortably warm at times, but only under HEAVY load, and thats largely alleviated by keeping airflow good.
Some minor annoyances include that its LOUD and/or HOT. it has to cool a lot of very hot desktop-style parts so that is to be expected, after a while i might mod to quieter/more powerful (depending on what its being used for at the time) fans. I parcially solved that by building myself a raised, sloped lap desk (it is a desktop replacement, dont even think about putting it straight in your lap, itll suck your leg in) with a cut off piece of wire shelving and some wood, it keeps it nice and cool, and comfortably slopes the keyboard. if i get time in the near future im going to put pictures and instructions up, some friends of mine with gaming laptops have asked and i figured it would be a good presnentation.
hope that helps.

[quote=replicacpp23] i would like to know your experience with this computer.
Overall, I have to say that my experience with the 4080 has been great. I'd buy another one if the need arose. Nice balance between power and a little portability.
I'd highly recommend the 4080 for anyone looking for a portable desktop replacement. It has most of the features you'd want for most work and some play. It isn't a full on gaming notebook! It that is what you are looking for you'd be better off with one of the higher end Sager's.
I don't play a lot of games, but it does run Halo and DF2 as well or better than my desktop. The screen is beautiful. I've seen some of the other glossy screens in CompUSA and the 4080's at least as nice as those if not better. I love it.
I have to echo PAPP here, as reliable as most laptops. I've only had minor problems. First, I had the backlight flickering that a number of others have complained about. I RMA'd it back to Sager and they replaced the inverter board. I also had a minor problem with the DVD/CDRW, but they cross shipped me a new one, and that fixed the problem Other than that, the machine is super.
See above comments. The warranty works fine. All problems and questions I've had have been promptly answered and taken care of by either Sager or Tom at PCT. As of now, if I need another laptop It will be a Sager and it will come from PCT. Can't beat the combination of great performance and absolute customer satisfaction.
See previous comments. It does get hot, but not uncomfortably so. If I'm outside in the heat of Hawaii it can be a little bothersome, but for the most part I use it in an air conditioned lab so its fine. The fan is a little loud, but it doesn't bother me. I used it once at a conference for a PowerPoint presentation, and when the fan came on you could definitely hear it throughout the room.

I think this is an ideal machine for anyone looking for a balance between portability and power. It has all the raw power you'd want for almost all games, and definitely can handle any type of word processing, editing, browsing, graphics editing that you throw at it. I use mine a lot for statistical analyses (i.e. Bayesian and maximum likelihood). These are really CPU and memory intensive applications, and the 4080 handles them better than many of the desktops we use at the University.

Maybe give us some idea of your intended uses and then we'd have a better idea of whether this system would suit your needs.

Thanks for all the answers.

This computer has a good balance for what I am looking for. Good price($1700 budget) and power. The 5680 looks like a good choice too. Just a little bit bulkier. Is the 5680 more powerful for gaming than the 4080(more reliable or has less technical problems)? The only thing that really worries me is the display flickering problem that you both have mentioned. Is this a common problem on all 4080s(Sager systems)? Do Any body has not had this problem with their 4080? How bad is it(symptoms) and how do PCTorque TS works with it?

Thanks