New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

5320 vs 3880

post #1 of 27
11/23/05 at 7:24pm
Thread Starter 
I'm going to be purchasing at the first of next year, and I can't decide between a 5320 or 3880. The pro of the 3880 is a long batt. life (4-5 hrs based upon reviews), but it stops there. The 5320 has a little better video card, better design, and seems to be more popular.

Battery life is a big deal, I don't want to have to rely on the outlets being close by, but I do like the occaisional battlefield 2, so I'm torn between a little better performance and better design to something that I know I'll never have to worry about battery life.

I guess my quesitons are, What are the '05 benchmarks for 5320's? What is the battery life you are typically seeing out of a 5320? I'm able to get all of these answers on the 3880, and I've almost just decided on that, but I just want to make sure I get the best system for my money's worth ($1500 or therabouts).

Thanks for the help guys!
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 27
11/23/05 at 7:54pm
My 5320 review:

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=112730
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 27
11/25/05 at 12:46am
I love my 3880. The video card runs everything I want usually on max settings since I overclocked it. The battery life is very nice, and personally I like the design. I'd not have made any other decision.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 27
11/25/05 at 1:28am
What do you use to overclock it?

You can read my review of the 3880 btw, its in my sig. You'll get closer to 4 hours of battery on the 3880 than 5, unless you do everything to save your battery consumption.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 27
11/25/05 at 8:09pm
Coolbits registry tweak to enable it in Nvidai settings.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 27
11/26/05 at 5:17pm
Thanks
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 27
11/28/05 at 6:54pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by pplepiew
..... You'll get closer to 4 hours of battery on the 3880 than 5, unless you do everything to save your battery consumption.
What types of apps are you running on your computer? Games? Graphical Editing? I really like the sound of 4 hrs on a laptop computer. It's a joke how they are 'mobile workstations' but not mobile enough to leave the outlets for more than an hour these days...
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 27
11/28/05 at 7:19pm
I won't have anything special running. Just a few productivity apps like Word, powerpoint and adobe acrobat. I get just over 4 hours without paying particular attention to battery..usually my screen brightness is pretty high and my wireless internet is on.

That's when running on battery...back home i'll game and do occasionnally more cpu intensive stuff. I wouldn't say I'm into video editing but I have converted .mov and .avi into mpegs for a powerpoint presentation by a colleague...her powerpoint wouldnt run .mov or .avi for some reason so instead of figuring it out I just converted the stuff...went pretty fast too.

This comp's pretty powerful and its pretty mobile, it's just what I needed.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 27
11/28/05 at 7:22pm
Thread Starter 
That is awesome, do you do any gaming at all? and if so, what games and how long is the batt. life when gaming?
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 27
11/28/05 at 10:33pm
I've never gamed on battery. Apparently the comp also clocks down to 1.3 while on Battery so it probably wouldn't work too well as a gaming on the go thing unless you play older games.

I've played all through Half Life 2 at full settings and full resolution, worked great.

Played the Demo of FEAR and it was slow, it was before I'd updated my forceware but I bet it'd still be a bit slow. I think the game wasn't coded as well as Doom 3 and HL2...(slow with full settings at full rez)

Splinter Cell 2 works great, Fable worked great (got bored with that) and GTA: San Andreas works mostly perfectly at full resolution + full settings, I sometimes experienced slowdowns during night scenes where there's more lighting stuff involved / more graphic intensive.

Never played a game overclocked yet.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 27
11/29/05 at 5:45pm
Thread Starter 
What do you mean about clocks down to 1.3?
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 27
11/29/05 at 9:22pm
Pentium M processors clock themselves down when on battery so they save power. Its totally normal behavior and shouldnt be thought of as a defect.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 27
12/10/05 at 11:29pm
I too am having a hard time with battery life.

The 3880 obviously has the 12-cell batt and thus has much better batt life, along with slightly cheaper (honestly not much more than $100 when comparably equipped, obviously GPU is lesser though). Then again, it doesn't have the front DJ controls, the build seems to be better on 5320, screen has been raved about... and the more powerful GPU.

I thought, well maybe I'll pop in a swappable battery if I think the battery is an issue. What about playing a CD then? Plus I'd be lugging the spare with me. Maybe I'll put some MP3's on a flash drive to solve the CD issue... maybe I won't listen to music much on the machine.

The problem is imagining what my usage will be or COULD be (in all it's glory ;-) ) makes me want all bells and whistles. But to spend the cash and then realize I would have rather had the "lesser" machine with more time to spare... hard question.

The other machine I was considering was the Uniwill 259EN3, with switchable GMA/GPU to save battery. Then again I can't seem to find anyone offering on-site and accidental damage protection on that machine.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 27
12/11/05 at 4:38am
i created a thorough review on the 3880 in my signature. feel free to stop by and take a look.
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 27
12/11/05 at 12:13pm
I'd vote for the Sager NP-5320...it has a more powerful video card for starters, with 256MB of dedicated video memory - definitely comes in handy for the latest games. And, the 5320 has a DVI-D port, which is quite rare on notebooks. Very useful if you want to do HDTV-out or have an external monitor.

The 5320 also has a modular bay, which you can use for another battery or hard drive. And finally, it has the option for an internal TV tuner.

Just my thoughts.
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 27
12/11/05 at 10:42pm
Yeah, I'm wrestling with myself on this stuff.

I don't game now other than my X-Box. Of course, I may game if I was in a hotel room, on a plane, etc. I just haven't had the means to do so yet. So part of me says, "you'll be glad you can do these things".

The other part of me says, "you will probably never do those things and will be buying a decked out machine without using it's features fully" Can I get away with integrated graphics or maybe 128mb graphics? Is WSXGA or WUXGA that much better than WXGA for someone like me who has never owned a notebook?

True, right now I really need something to be able to send email, write/edit documents, spreadsheets, SQL/VB, mostly work type stuff. Of course, I also plan on putting everything (data) on my notebook so I'm never like, "darn, that file is on my desktop". in other words, this will be my computer always, even if it's got an external display and mouse/keyboard attached at my desk at home/office.

I can justify going all out sometimes, then other times I wonder if I'm being greedy and should just get what will do the job.
Reply
Reply
post #17 of 27
12/13/05 at 5:48pm
I decided that since I've never owned a laptop I don't need to go all out on my first one. I'm going 3880, 2GHZ, 1GB, 60GB 7200, 1yr. On-site and ADP. I'm also just going to get the WXGA since my "virgin" eyes only have used 17" Desktop monitors at 1024x768 resolution. Besides, I'll be plugging the thing in to my monitor at home most of the time. For the price, and the piece of mind through PC Torque, I can't rationalize a better decision.
Reply
Reply
post #18 of 27
12/13/05 at 6:39pm
Tredragon,

I was in the same debate as you, trying to decide between the 5320 and the 3880. To make it short, I'll just say that I needed portability and casual gaming. I decided that since I probably won't be gaming much other than my PSP or Xbox that the 3880 was better for me. I received it and I was right, it was the right choice for me. Just remember, if you decide it's not what you wanted, you can send it back and go with the 5320. I also had that in mind when I got mine in case I didn't like it, but the 3880 is a very good looking laptop and runs really cool. You'll enjoy it for sure.
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 27
12/14/05 at 5:32pm
ecliptk: how do you like the WUXGA? I'm debating because I only use 1024x768 everywhere (desktops) and wondering if the smaller size of everything will be hard to get used to. Also though I don't want to sacrifice image quality by getting the WXGA. Is going to a lower resolution (taking the native resolution of the WUXGA and going down a notch or two) a horrible thing? I guess it would be best that way because you can't raise the resolution on the WXGA.
Reply
Reply
post #20 of 27
12/14/05 at 11:18pm
Well let's just say this. I am used to a 19" 1024x768 monitor. The size is small at first but it actually is awesome after a few days of using it. It will take some time getting used to it but shouldn't have a problem. (I actually prefer it over my current monitor now that i've used for about 3 years.) The screen quality on it is absolutely amazing, no picture or word can describe it. That's not to say the WXGA won't have good quality either. My digital camera isn't the best or else I'd take some pictures to show you the screen from a certain distance away. But, if you can, I'd definitely recommend upgrading to that screen. Also on a side note, I've adjusted the settings to different and they still look good, but the native resolution is by far the best. Of course I did adjust up to 120 dpi to make it easier on my eyes and that helped a lot.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Sager & Clevo Notebooks