3rd Party Review - Page 3  

Re: Nah!

Those machines ship with 3.06 but with hyperthreading disabled. Yes, it looks like false advertising and some of there customers are upset when they find this out. You can probably do a similar swap if you wanted to. Another user here "DWStrickland" had swapped his cpu with a 3.06 in an 8886 long before the 8887 became available without any heat issues. I haven't heard of any problems with the other clones so a swap with the 5660 should be feasible. Just note that these machines are all operating with HT disabled. It seems to become another matter when it is enabled though it appears.

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Second Moral: Just because a notebook has the same OEM, does NOT mean it is of the same quality or performance. Even though brand-name companies may use the same OEM, they have specifications that the OEM has to adhere to for each particular company. It could be a case design, a chipset, a BIOS update, the components used... whatever. If you've ever read Laptop Buyer's Guide, you can see that notebooks that are obviously from the same OEM will have different results in performance. I can take 2 exact desktop systems and tweak one of them so it outperforms the other by 20% to 50%, so remember that "same" doesn't always mean "same" (does that make sense?).

Okay, who cares if I buy a non-brand name and it doesn't look quite as nice or is just a little bit slower. It's worth the money right? There are a few non-brand name companies that have been around for a while, I'll just buy the extended warranty and it will be covered. Support should be just as good anyways.
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What the above says is true but can be easily explained. Most of the DRAMATIC speed differences I have seen in reviews where the same oemed computer kit is used by different vendors can be broken down into TWO basic configuration differenences:

1) Base memory. A machine configured with 256mbs of memory will NOT perform as well as a machine with 1gb of memory on many tasks.

2) Hard drive. Many vendors use a 4200 rpm drive instead of a 5400 rpm drive.

Many vendors who send machines to Laptop Magazine to be reviewed are more out to be quoted as being the CHEAPEST instead of the FASTEST (more expensive).

Regards,

Shane

Re: Re: Re: Nah!

I had merely answered that user's question before it spawned more questions in this thread as I did yours when I said "NO 3rd party review" exists.

I would think any info I provide would be appreciated.

QUOTE
"I can take 2 exact desktop systems and tweak one of them so it outperforms the other by 20% to 50%, so remember that "same" doesn't always mean "same" (does that make sense?)."

right, and that tweaking is done through software, drivers, powerstrip etc. not the hardware. You yourself can do this, itsnot hard. Thats why we get 1000 point ranges in our "post your 3dmark" section, ALL ON SYSTEMS BOUGHT FROM PCTORQUE. the same computers. So heres how it works. You could pay more money for a computer that has already been tweaked / overclocked etc. Or you can pay less and do it yourself. as far as the hardware goes it is exactly the same. If I was alienware/ viewsonic anyone, and I was going to send in one of my systems to a 3rd party to review I would uoverclock that GPU to the highest possible, who cares if it burns up, they only need it for one day. I would do everything in my power to make that computer as fast as it possibly could be before I sent it, so that when people see the benchmarks they think, wow that alienware is fast! and then get significantly lower scores out of the box. Until they tweak it that is.

You have answered your question - He says that he can tweak one of them so it outperforms the other by 20% or 50%.

If you are saying they are not the same because of this tweaking issue then you're not reading the other posts on this thread.

I can tweak the Alienware to beat the hypersonic. Then I can tweak the Hypersonic to beat the Sager - I can tweak the Sager to beat the Alienware - and just keep repeating this cycle.

I was in your position a long time back when I didnt believe in assembled systems - I went ahead and bought an Apple Mac and I liked it very much.

Listen...These threads are for knowledge purposes but some of us have already over stepped the limits. I want to put a stop to this right here and let things proceed as they did where users were getting valuable feedback without being unpleasant.

You will be happier if you did some reading and study before you buy your Laptop - be it a Sager, Dell, Toshiba, IBM whatever.

We read what people here have to say because we have spent a lot of money on these machines. I have spent $2500.00 on my rig and this is a lot of money for me as a student with minimal support.

JTMAT - you can take our feedback and use it - you can also disregard whatever we have to say and continue in this critical fashion.

Just try to analyze and not criticize for a moment. You have the facts and you know that there is no "Famous or well known magazine" review - SO WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE??

If you can come up with what you are looking for in a Laptop maybe we can help you choose.

HT is BS for the moment

I will wait before further comment on the HT until they all decide to enable it in the BIOS. I think it is not the best policy to sell someone something without full functionality - I think the 8887 with the yet to be enabled HT falls into this category as well...

Why couldnt they wait to release it? Have they done the required mobo revisions? its quite surprising at this point...

The reason why I am including this is that the Area 51 and Hypersonic already have this option on their laptops which almost made me buy one from them - luckily commonsense prevailed...

I think HT is overhyped at this point of time - its really not that big a performance jump with current applications - when the time does come for it i'll be ready for the next gen laptop - till then the 5660 should do just fine

here here, i compare 3rd party reviews to that of reviews of movies, and golden globes. Movies which are awesome, incredible, amazing, get bad reviews, yet everyone loves it. Same with computer reviews...if they see it, they have a few days to mess with it, forums, you have hundreds of users who OWN and USE daily, heck they probably typed it on a sager If you want specifics, ask specifics, but if you want what some guy who gets paid no matter what he writes, then goto 3rd parties....poo

I went 5660

I splurged on my 5660 and my review is - Its been great!!!

we write a lot as it is - no need for extra motivation

But if you want to know how I feel about the 5660 -

It outperforms most desktops my friends have so I serve at LAN parties. I can play all the latest games on it without a problem. (If you note that my laptop came to me underclocked for some reason - still trying to find out why!!??)

So I am assuming that once Sager gives me a reason for the underclocking and I am free to clock it to its rated specs - it should have no problem playing future games as well.

It gets hot and its not a Laptop in the literal sense - best on the desk with lots of air circulation.

It is heavy but not as heavy as I expected - still - better to get a good case with padding for the shoulders - Ouch!! otherwise...

I would get the second battery and stow the FDD because there is just not enough juice in one battery to last on those longish journeys. I got the DVD/CDRW combo.

This is only my second laptop and first wintel laptop - the previous one was a Mac G3 which was quite awesome.

I have had no problems with it so far - got it earlier than I paid for, got 17 GB more than I asked for and it looks and feels great. No dead pixels - natch!!!

If you read some of my earlier posts you'll know that I was in the same position you are in now - i'll even post them for you just looking them up now...hee hee

Re: I went 5660

17GB more then you asked for?? whats this in reference to, just curious

More 5660 info

http://sagerforums.com/forums/showth...=&threadid=940

http://sagerforums.com/forums/showth...&threadid=1277

Here I actually ask a user to consider other laptops!!
http://sagerforums.com/forums/showth...&threadid=1335

http://sagerforums.com/forums/showth...&threadid=1012

http://sagerforums.com/forums/showth...=&threadid=806

a little hesitant here..
http://sagerforums.com/forums/showth...=&threadid=912

http://sagerforums.com/forums/showth...=&threadid=923

Re: Re: I went 5660

What are you implying jtmat? That I 'fixed' this as in did something like this on purpose?? to impress you?? hee hee dont even think dream about it - if you saw the new 5660 screen you'd walk to California to get it installed...

I am just so pleased that I have no dead pixels that I am willing to put this away till my next laptop...

just my tuppence (that's the UK equivalent of two cents ) worth..

I own an Alienware Area-51m. Apart from the paint job and the Alienware logo, it is EXACTLY the same as a Sager 5660. It's got exactly the same hardware, down to every single component. The only other difference is the software that the machine comes configured with.

How do I know this?

1. I read alot of stuff on this board, such as the 5660 tear-down review in the reviews forum.

2. I own an Area-51m.

3. The Sager 5660, Alienware Area-51m, Hypersonic Aviator etc are all actually made by the same company - Clevo. Sager and Alienware etc simply buy the machines from Clevo and sell them on. The different companies may use different brands of memory or hard disk, but the rest is identical.

The Force is strong with you Young jtmat..but you will soon join us..to the Sager Dark side..wwwouu ha ha ha ha haa

He's an American!! No kiddin'

I think this is taking things too far my dear fellow Must you seek the shelter of your nationality to support your opinions??

I may be Indian but hey... guess which one of us is going to MIT for a PhD. ??

So cool it alrite - stay on the technical level and satisfy your curiosity..

We're finally going in the right direction, but I'll try to sum it all up here:

First and Foremost: There are no "3rd Party Reviews" out there, I've looked, and there are none, so you won't find any (5660). That's why nobody links any.

ETC: The difference between the Dell the Winbook is not the same as the difference between the 5660/Alienware/Hypersonic. The Dell and Winbook have different hardware and software. The 5660/Alienware/Hypersonic have the same hardware, but different sofeware (company specific).

So, Hardware reviews of Alienware and Hypersonic DO APPLY to the 5660. Software or productivity reviews do not necessarily... I think you understand all this, but I'm just putting it all in one post so it'll be here....

I do not own a Sager, but I'm about to buy one when the 5660 gets the 3.06 with HT and the M10 video card. So I have no tie to Sager right now. But I have done a ton of research for the past month, and I have decided on Sager (opinion).