Sager NP9262

The Sager 9262 is based on the Clevo M860TU and is identical in many respects to other brands offering similar systems.

I ordered my system from XoticPC on July 22 for $2,257 with the following options:

1920x1200 glossy screen
E8500 dual core CPU
9800M GT single GPU
2GB single stick PC-6400 RAM
250GB 5400 rpm HDD with no additional drives
Bare with no OS

All other options were standard.

UPS ground shipping was $37.00 and shipped on August 4. Delivery was on August 8. Shipping was delayed slightly due to temporary supply problems from Sager with the 9262. There were conflicted reports about what exactly caused the delay including reports of delayed shipments of the 9800M parts from Nvidia and a shortage of 9262 chassis from Clevo. I suspect, however, the recent price drop by Intel on the E8500 CPU had something to do with it.

XoticPC was very good at keeping it's customers informed of the delays and the transaction with them was flawless. At the time they offered an exclusive extended warranty of three years labor over and above the one year full warranty offered by Sager. XoticPC accepts American Express credit cards which was critical in my selection of them for my purchase. While I'm sure this eats into their profits it makes things much easier for me and is appreciated.

The system was well packed in a 22lb shipping box. The cheesy little included carrying case made good packing material for the power brick but you will need a proper carrying case for this machine. The 9262 is obviously very large. The power brick is the size of an actual construction brick and almost as heavy. I'm considering a wheeled carrying case to replace my current Targus shoulder strap case for those times I need to lug it through an airport since there's no way I'll send this through checked baggage. Includes a video dongle for S-video and Component HD. It also includes a telephone wire for the modem, like I don’t already have a drawer full of these. Also includes extra thermal paste which seems odd considering using it would void your warranty. It came with three disks: Sager manual, drivers, and utilities disk. Nero 7 essentials. Cyberlink’s power DVD software.

The top of the lid is a dark gray brushed metal finish and the rest of the case is glossy black plastic with glossy gray plastic wrist rests. The underside is textured black plastic. There is a large and prominent Sager logo on the center of the lid. My opinion is the design is attractive and business like without looking over the top. The drawback is that fingerprints show up quickly so you may find yourself constantly wiping them away.

The lid movement is tight and requires you hold the system down with one hand while opening it with the other hand. You need to use both hands to release the plastic latches at the front of the case and they seem fragile. I anticipate they will break easily so be careful.

The installed BIOS is Phoenix and shows as version 6.00 dated July 9, 2008. I had to rearrange the default boot order to give the Optical drive priority to allow the Windows XP install disk to run. The SATA mode is set to IDE which allows Windows installation without loading additional drivers. I didn’t enable AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) mode on the SATA 250GB 5400rpm drive mainly because it significantly increases the boot time as it loads in BIOS and offers negligible, if any, performance gain. If you plan to run a RAID configuration or you want to enable NCQ (Native Command Queuing) on your SATA drive you will need to enable this feature and deal with the extra time when booting or recovering from hibernation. You will also need to install the correct SATA drivers from the CD during Windows installation if you ordered the system bare without an OS installed as I did. I'm not sure how the drive will be configured if you order the system with an OS installed on a single drive so you may want to ask. Other BIOS options were limited offering only very basic options. It's not even possible to disable the on board audio system in the BIOS.

I created a slipstreamed copy of Win XP Pro with SP3 and included some of the drivers and my favorite tweaks to allow a quick installation (www.nliteos.com). I thought about Vista but I’ve never been too happy with Vista even though I’m running it on three other computers including my Sager 5720. The Nvidia drivers on the CD seemed outdated and included notes on installation for an 8800GTX. They didn't recognize the 9800M GT so I used the recently posted 175.97 drivers downloaded from the Sager website.

I have this thing sitting next to my old Sager 5720 (Clevo M570A). The 9262 is much quieter. The 9262 actually quiets down to where you can’t hear it anymore so for casual use I’d say it’s as quiet as any notebook. The fan cycles automatically if needed to keep the system cool. During casual use the system doesn't get hot at all and is only slightly warm to the touch on the underside with a little heat dissipating through the keyboard as it should. The power brick, while larger, doesn’t get as hot as on the 5720 either but considering the 9262 supports SLI and quad cores there's probably a lot of overhead for my configuration allowing it to run cool. Older configurations are probably much louder and hotter as there have been many reviews indicating how hot this machine can get. It's possible with a keyboard command to manually select the fans to run at full speed and they do get loud. I run the fans at full speed when gaming but I also use headsets so the noise isn't an issue.

The footprint is the same as the 5720 but it’s much thicker and sits slightly higher off the surface. One thing I noticed is the very large rear feet to allow plenty of airflow under the case, a full ½ inch clearance at the back of the computer. This makes sense but it would be nice if they were somehow retractable to allow easier transportation. The power brick feet are very shallow so I figure it’s important not to place the brick on a soft surface such as a bed, pillow, sofa, or carpet to keep it cool. I wouldn’t recommend placing this notebook on anything other than a hard surface either and watch the room temperatures if you are going to be gaming. A lot of people recommend laptop coolers that you can buy for a bunch of money but I think if you use the machine in a good environment (indoors and air conditioned), you would be fine, that’s what it’s designed for. If you need additional cooling….buy an inexpensive desk fan and let it blow air across the machine from the side and/or place some small objects under the rear feet to raise the notebook a little higher off the desk.

On battery or just when idle the GPU slows automatically to 200/100 MHz. This keeps the GPU very cool during normal use and allows the fan to run at a nearly silent idle speed.

The 8500 CPU runs at 6x multiplier (2.0GHz) and 1.15 Volts when idle or on battery and picks up to 9.5x (3.16GHz) and 1.225 Volts automatically on demand when plugged in. This keeps the system cool enough to run nearly silent during normal use and allows longer battery life. It may be possible to extend battery life further with third party applications like Rightmark CPU Clock Utility and lowering the bus speed but I haven't experimented with this.

The built in Intel WiFi works flawlessly with my 5.0GHz Linksys wireless n router as does the Gigabit ethernet.

The included hard drive is the 250GB Fujitsu MHY2250BH 5400rpm 8MB 2.5”. Hard drives will vary from build to build.

The 1920x1200 WUXGA glossy screen is very nice for a 17” notebook and is bright enough with no detectable dead pixels. Back lighting is fairly consistent with barely noticeable variations. You will never get the quality of a desktop monitor in such a compact design but I'm pleased with the overall quality.

The touch pad is well placed and includes a built in scroll panel. The touch pad can be switched off via the keyboard. The buttons are brushed metal and I personally find the texture irritating. If you are bothered by running your fingernails over a chalkboard the buttons may bother you. I use a mouse mostly.

The four USB slots are grouped on the right side where your mouse usually sits (I'm right handed) but it hasn't bothered me as much as I thought it would. The DVI out and video in are located on the rear and all other slots including the DVD drive are on the left side of the case.

The 9262 has a full keyboard and I personally like it compared to other notebooks.

Tested battery life was one hour and forty minutes with the LCD brightness two clicks above minimum to provide a realistic setting. My test included continuous work with a USB mouse and WiFi connected, casual use such as web surfing, writing this review, and a couple short videos but no 3D applications were opened. Battery life would likely be less with quad core CPUs or the 9800M GTX graphics card. You might have trouble watching a long movie on DVD.

Gaming performance is very good and comparable to a similarly configured desktop system. The slightly higher latency RAM and slower hard drive may be noticeable in some situations but you can always change those with upgrades. Most current games are still optimized for only dual cores which is one of the reasons I didn't bother ordering my configuration with a quad core CPU as current games typically run faster with a higher clocked dual core than a lower clocked quad core. The CPU is upgradeable in this system to any desktop LGA 775 CPU that doesn't exceed the cooling capacity.

The 9800M GPU seems comparable to a desktop 9600GT in performance and is slightly faster than the 8800M GTX. The graphics card can be upgraded or configured for SLI with a second 9800M GT.

I ran 3DMark 06 at 1280x1024, AA off, with Nvidia forceware version 175.97. The results over two tests were consistent at 10085 overall and CPU score of 2960.

I would like to see a quick update of the supported video drivers from Sager especially considering Nvidia has recently included support for there new PHYSX technology with the 177.83 drivers.

Edit: laptopvideo2go has inf files specifically for Clevo based notebooks and driver version 177.83. This provided an almost 2% higher 3DMark06 score (10247) and Physx is now supported. I don't understand why it's so difficult for Notebook manufacturers to provide these updates directly but they generally don't. They also won't provide support for such updated drivers. If you ordered the system bare with no OS this is mostly irrelevent.

I was waiting for the new 9800 series GPUs before getting a new notebook and although I'm sure they will be superseded by superior products from either Nvidia or AMD at some time in the future they represent a significant improvement over the 8800 series in price, performance, and efficiency. The 45nm CPUs also represent an improvement over the previous Intel CPUs offering better clock for clock performance while using less energy and producing less heat. I think given the current prices it is a good time to buy one of these notebooks if you're in the market. The 9800M GT equipped 9262 is only barely more expensive than the 5796 or 8660 while offering a much better upgrade path and better CPU performance. If you don't mind the size it's a great computer and much less expensive than a comparably equipped Dell or Alienware.

Intro

Sometimes size and weight is not an issue when notebook / laptop enthusiasts are in the market for a powerful all purpose machine. If this is a case, than a “Desktop Replacement” like the Sager NP9262 is the type of notebook that may interest you. “Desktop Replacement” is a cute way to say, ‘this notebook is a lot smaller than your desktop, but a lot thicker and heavier than your typical normal sized notebook.’ You will sacrifice the size for performance and later in this review you will find out exactly how much performance you are getting.

The Sager NP9262 is in the same chassis as the NP9260 Review that I reviewed back in October of 2007. Al though it is the same chassis, there are tons of component upgrades that make the NP9262 a much more superior machine. The first noticeable difference is the CPU, going from a Core 2 Duo to a Core 2 Quad while doubling up on the CPU’s cache makes a huge difference in number crunching as we will see later in the benchmark section. The second noticeable difference is going from the GeForce 7 series SLI cards to the GeForce 8 series SLI, equaling a total of 1,024MB dedicated video memory. These two components will clearly make a huge impact in performance whether your are using this notebook for gaming, video rendering or other high demanding processes.

Full Specs:
NP-9262

Sager 9262 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Desktop Replacement Gaming Notebook
17" WUXGA Super Clear Glossy w/ Wide Viewing Angle (1920x1200)
Intel® Core 2Quad™ Q6700 | 8MB Cache | 2.66GHz | 1.066MHz FSB
Arctic Silver 5 High Performance Thermal Compound
4GB 8`00MHz DDR2 Memory (2 Modules) 64bit Vista Req.
2X Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX in SLI mode w/1,024MB
RAID 0 (Data Stripping - Requires 2 Identical Hard Drives)
160GB | 7200 RPM | SATA-300 HDD
Add 2nd 160GB | 7200 RPM | SATA-300 HDD
8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL MULTI DRIVE W/ SOFTWARE
Built-in Multi-Region TV-Tuner w/ MCE Remote (Vista Home Premium or Ultimate Only)
Intel PRO/Wireless 4965AGN / 802.11N
Built in 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet / LAN Network Card
Microsoft Windows VISTA ULTIMATE 32/64-Bit Edition
1.3M Digital Video Camera
Free Notebook Carrying Case
No Office Software
Built-In Bluetooth Module
Sager 1 Year Warranty, Lifetime Tech Support
(No Accidental Protection Policy)

Subtotal $4,298.00
Shipping $51.39
Credit Price $4,349.39
Cash Discount Price $4,220.45

What’s in the Box:

Upon opening the box, two things will become apparent. First is the free standard notebook carrying case, which is very convenient for any notebook user. The second thing users will notice is the notebook itself, perfectly placed in a nice tight package.



Software & OS

The machine initially did not ship with an OS installed, which is why some of the pics below with the notebook turned on is just an MSDOS prompt, but I wanted to see how easy it is to install Windows Vista 32-bit edition. Not surprising, booting the notebook with the OS disc in the CD tray will take you right into the install process, which takes about 15-20 minutes.


Design

This notebook is huge. Not only by width and length, but by height. The notebook stands over two inches thick when closed and weighs well over 10 pounds. The chassis is the exact same as the NP9260 model in terms of dimensions. In the center of the notebook lid is a neat and professional looking Sager logo. The great thing about all Sager notebooks, is there is very little to be displeased about in terms of aesthetics. Every notebook on the Sager line is a shade of gray, brush metal genetic looking notebook.

The notebook build is strong and sturdy in all areas. The keyboard has very little flex, the CD/DVD drive feels strong and sturdy as it ejects and closes. The lid feels tight against the notebook when strapped down and does not move when the notebook is opened.



Screen:

Like all Sager notebooks I have reviewed, the LCD screen’s are remarkably sharp, bright and close to flawless. At this point in time, after roughly 30 years of Active Matrix Display development, we have reached a point where we can safely assume that all LCDs packaged with notebooks should be dead pixel free and manufactured to the best of the ability. Customers should feel confident when buying from Sager for they also have a very reliable dead pixel policy when purchasing from PCTorque.

*Note; this screen depicts an Operating System not installed yet



This model contains the 17" WUXGA (1920x1200) Super Clear Clear Glossy Screen. Like most laptops today and all Sagers, the 9262 has eight levels of brightness settings that can be adjusted using the function key (FN) + the F8 key to lower the brightness and F9 key to raise it.

(viewing angle)

(dark)

Keyboard

Just like it’s predecessor the NP9260, the Sager NP9262 does an incredible job of keeping the keyboard and surrounding chassis warm to the touch. This is very impressive considering how hot the CPU runs with two graphics cards inside. There is nothing more uncomfortable than a hot keyboard or touchpad and the NP9262 shows no signs of discomfort due to heat.

The keyboard also comes with a range of useful function keys; Pressing Fn + the ~ key will play or pause DVDs, F1 will toggle the touchpad, F3 will mute the sound on the notebook, F4 will initiate sleep mode, F5 and F6 will decrease and increase the sound volume respectively, F7 toggles the display through each output, F8 and F9 decrease and increase the LCD brightness respectively, F11 toggles Wifi on/off and Num Lk toggles Scroll Lock on/off.

A second disappointment is the comfort level with typing on the keyboard. Since the notebook is raised so high, daylong typing becomes an uncomfortable chore because your wrists have nothing to rest on. Your forearms end up resting on the front of the notebook, which is an unnatural position. (flex)

Touchpad

I have said this on every Sager I reviewed, but it is the truth. The Touchpad on the Sagers are the best I've used. It has a great texture, is set to a perfect acceleration on stock settings and is very pleasing to use. Next to the touchpad is the scrollpad which is also very easy to use and scroll through web sites or word documents.



Features:


Multimedia Keys –

There are three Application Hot Keys located at the top of the keyboard and two Game Hot Keys located to the left of the keyboard labeled G1 and G2. Three hot keys on notebooks are pretty standard these days and usually are set to generic functionalities as these are. The first Application Hot Key launches your default e-mail client. The second Hot Key launches the default internet browser and the third hot key can be set to different windows applications such as Microsoft Word or Virus Software. The Game Hot keys are a good idea, however most people who will be using this notebook for gaming, will probably be using their own keyboard, and own built-in hot keys instead of the ones on the left of the notebook keyboard. However, if you do end up using them, you can set them to pretty much any macro or command you wish.



LEDS -

There are two sets of LEDs on the 9262. The first three are built into the bottom of the LCD panel and represent the power and communication indicators. The first icon is the generic Power icon with what looks like a wall plug when AC power is in use. When Orange, this represents the battery power is being used. When Green, the Computer is On and when Blinking Green, the computer is in sleep mode. The second icon looks like a battery; when Orange, the battery is charging, green when the battery is fully charged and when blinking orange, the battery has reached a critically lower power state. The last icon resembles a wifi signal; when green this represents wireless LAN is powered on. When Orange, this represents bluetooth mode is powered on.

The second set of LEDs is located above the keyboard to the left of the hot keys. There is five LEDs, all green, which represent typical keyboard indicators such as number lock, caps lock and scroll lock (LEDs #3, 4, and 5 respectively). There is also a hard drive activity LED (#2) and a card reader LED (#1)which indicates when the notebook is accessing a card in the 7-in-1 card reader.



Wifi

(no problems)

Speakers

One of the most impressive features on the 9260 is the four speakers built into the 9260’s chassis. This gives a subtle surround sound-like tone when playing games and watching DVDs. Usually notebooks, even desktop replacements, have only two speakers, but the 9260’s speaker quality is definitely a cut above average.

Input and Output Ports-

Front



The front of the notebook also has a Line-In audio jack, S/PDIF Out jack, Microphone In and Headphone Out jack. There are also two latches, which hold the screen down. On the very front of the notebook are two surprisingly large speakers. Two more speakers are located to the left and right of the keyboard.




Right Side: The right side of the laptop contains 4 USB ports and the standardized security lock.



Left Side: The left side is packed with components. The external monitor VGA output is the first feature starting from the left. There is also an S-video and CATV port, RJ-11 modem and RJ-45 LAN jacks, an IEEE 1394 Firewire port, Express card slot (34/54), an optical drive and 7-in-1 card reader. Every laptop every made should have a 7-in-1 card reader which consists of supporting formats: MMC (Multimedia Card) / SD (secure Digital) / MS (Memory Stick) / MS Pro (Memory Stick Pro) / MS Duo (requires PC adaptor) / Mini SD (requires PC adaptor) / RS MMC (requires PC adaptor).



Rear: The back of the notebook has the widely popular DVI video output port, DC Power in connection, an S-video in jack and fan intake/output.



Bottom: The bottom of the laptop is where the four fan outlets are located for air intake and ventilation. The bottom is also where users can get access to the primary and secondary hard drive bays and secondary battery.



Size and Weight


Rated: 17" WUXGA 11.75" (w) x 15.5" (d) x 2.35" (h) and 11.5 lbs
Actual: Weight: 11.0 lbs

Heat and Noise

The notebook generates a decent amount of heat, which should not come as a surprise. It has a dual graphics card and high performance processor. However, the heat does not affect the keyboard or front of the notebook because of the placement of the air vents on the back of the notebook. Well done Sager.

Battery Life

The two following battery tests were taken on the assigned brightness level. The test runs until the battery reaches 10%, which is the stock setting in which the notebook will notify a user with a low battery warning.

1/8 [Vista Power Saver Managment]– 74minutes (web surfing, trailer watching, youtube)
8/8 [Vista Balanced Power Managment]– 55 minutes (web surfing, trailer watching, youtube)


Synthetic/Gaming Benchmarks

Here is a list of tested synthetic and gaming benchmarks. All results are with stock hardware settings.


The 3Dmark Benchmarks are the most common benchmarks used to determine if the notebook is configured to play the latest games. More specifically, it is used to determine the direct X performance of the graphics cards. The higher the score, the more suited your notebook is to playing games. The number behind the 3dMark Benchmark (3dmark2001, 3dmark03 etc) is related to the year the test relates to technology, which is why the 2001 scores are always significantly higher than the 06 scores. You can compare the scores of this notebook to other notebooks by going here.


Super Pi calculates Pi to a certain amount of digits you prescribe, and the faster it does it, the better your notebook performs. For all my tests using Super Pi I calculate to 2 million digits of accuracy.


Cinabench runs several tests on your computer to measure the performance of the main processor and the graphics card under real world circumstances. This test is important to graphic designers and 3D editors. The higher the bench, the better the performance.



wPrime is an "application designed to use a highly multithreaded approach to calculating the square-roots of large amounts of numbers (up to 32 billion at this stage!)".





This next benchmark I ran is called HD Tune which measures raw performance of transfer rates, access times, CPU usage, burst rate and the overall health of your hard drive setup. A couple of obvious notes; the burst rate should always be higher than the maximum transfer rate of your score. In this case it is. The second number to look at is the Access Time. The bigger the number, the better the performance. This is the second notebook I have reviewed that has the SATAII 300 hard drive inside versus SATA 150.


Even though the SATAII 3.0 GB/sec showed very little performance increase over SATA 1.5 GB/sec type hard drives in the Sager NP5793 notebook, this was NOT the case in the 9262. This is the fastest test I have seen in a notebook based on read time and access time. 14.3 ms response time and 85.5 transfer rate are the fastest benchmarks on any review I've written. This is obviously why the Windows Experience Index benchmark tested so high as well.

Here is a list of comparable tests by model, hard drive type, access time/average transfer time. (on the third row, the lower the first number is and the higher the second number is the better the benchmark)


Gaming Benchmarks

Every benchmark/screenshot in this section is run on the highest settings available, with AA off, unless otherwise noted. Every resolution is run at 1920x1200p (unless noted) on Vista with stock NVIDIA Graphics Driver 7.15.11.7482.


After testing the following games, no other notebook has come close to these kinds of numbers.



Pros:
Screen – Incredible sharpness and amazing viewing angles
Performance – Best performing notebook I've tested to date!
Touchpad – Best scroll/touchpad I've used in a notebook.
Free Stuff – Ships with free laptop carrying case

Cons:
Keyboard - very uncomfortable to type on, forearms rest on end of notebook
Battery Life – as expected, not much battery life at all
Weight – very heavy!

Conclusion:

As expected, this notebook is a monster. It weighs over ten pounds, is very thick and not very mobile but the reason to buy this notebook is note for the battery life or on-the-go computing. The reason to buy this notebook is to have one of the most powerful notebooks on the market and the option to pick up that kind of power and bring it with you relatively easy. The term “relatively easy” is used because it is a lot easier than disassembling a desktop and moving it. The Sager 9262 is indeed a desktop replacement which will dramatically reduce the amount of space in your office or dormitory and still give you the kind of desktop power running the latest games at the highest settings and the best processing power.


If you have any questions about anything written here you can e-mail me: Dukefrukem[at]notebookforums.com