What really sets the Sager notebooks apart from Dell/Alienware?

Sager and Alienware both sell rebranded notebooks from various manufacturers, so some Sagers and Alienwares are identical under the different casing. However, some models are unique to either company, so you may find something more appealing from one or the other based on features.

Dell is a larger company which manufactures and sells their own computers. They have many satisfied customers in the private and professional markets, but there are also horror stories about their build quality and tech support. As a tech who works on them every day, I can tell you that their build quality is very refined, but the quality of the parts they use for the cases is not the best. Their business line of laptops uses much better materials, however. If I ever was forced to buy a Dell, I would only go with their business line.

Sager tends to be on the less pricey side, compared to AW, but they price custom configurations differently. For example, AW's maxed-out memory option may be cheaper than Sager's on the same notebook (this is hypothetical). So depending on what you want in your notebook, AW could be a better deal.

Dell is usually less expensive than both Sager and Alienware with comparable specs.

All three companies give you the 1-year standard warranty, and they also all offer extended warranties. I have no experience with AW support, though I hear for the most part they are quite helpful. I can attest to Sager support being speedy and responsive, as long as you keep your paperwork because they will need to know specific info about your order. Dell support can be a nightmare unless you get their more expensive warranty options. They even do housecalls, which the other two companies don't.

Sager GPUs are not upgradeable. Neither are AW's, IIRC. Some Dell models can be given new GPUs. I've seen threads on this forum about people going through the process.

The 9620 is not a laptop. It will sterilize you if you try to use it as one. But as long as you keep the heatsink vents clean and use it on a solid, flat surface, you shouldn't face major heat issues.

Alienware is owned by Dell now and the computers are manufactured through Dell's companies. The alienware computers and the Sager are completely different now and the alienwares are not rebranded laptops anymore that use to be made by Clevo..

Nyako, you seem to really know your stuff--especially if you work on Dells often; do you mind if I ask you a few questions? (Or anyone else that can answer me.)

I'm looking at getting either an XPS m1710, a Precision M90, or a Sager 5790-V--whichever I can get for a reasonable price, or whichever seems to be of the best build quality (I'm an accident-prone college student). (Dell-haters, please don't go on an anti-Dell rant--I know how you feel, I've spent hours trying to talk to someone in India, too.)

At any rate, here are the important specs I would use:
>>2.00 GHz Core 2 Duo (T7200 or T7300, depending on Santa Rosa or not)
>>512MB GeForce Go 7950 or 512MB Quadro 2500 (for CAD & engineering programs)
>>17" screen, 1920x1200 res
>>7200 rpm hard drive (small is OK, I have a big external one)
>>2 GB memory

I'm planning on keeping this system for four years, so Sager's affirmation that "the NP5790 is also ready for you to make the leap and upgrade to future DX10 cards that will improve its already impressive graphics capabilities" really sounds great (+ some 800MHz memory?).

However, I don't know how the heat on these big notebooks comes out--does Dell work any better than Sager? Or vice versa?

Also, how is Sager as far as customer service? I have to convince my parents that it's OK for me to buy from Sager/a Sager reseller. And is it better to buy from Sager or a reseller e.g. pctorque.com? If something goes serious wrong with this huge investment, can I get Sager to fix it? (Dell is pretty good about replacing anything you complain about, even down to their accidental damage warranty, which I really like.)

I have a budget of around $3100-$3300 or so; I can get Dell discounted via EPP, but Sager is just naturally lower-priced, so the prices are fairly even.

Any opinions/help is greatly appreciated.

just a little FYI on all the Core 2 Duos...

in terms of heat.. they pwn... i brought my AW 5750 to a LAN and played BF2142, BF2, CSS, FEAR Combat and WoW for 18 hours straight and my laptop was as warm as running Wordpad.

One thing to note: Alienwares m9750 is an Arima notebook, not a sager/clevo.

The closest comparison to the 9750 is the Clevo 900c, or the Sager 9260.

Both have their pluses, and minuses. The Clevo will give you better benchmarks, due to the desktop processor, the Alienware is thinner, lighter, and should have slightly better battery life, and less heat. The alienware has 2 hard drives to the Sagers 3, and it won't benchmark quite as nicely.

Take the Sager...

I bought about 3 of them from powernotebooks.com, and the support from them has been top notch

Not sure what the price comparisons are anymore...

Sagers are too heavy 13 pounds... My civil war musket weighs that much..

I disagree with this post. Laptops are manufactured by ODM's and sold to OEM's which Dell, HP, Sager & Alienware all are. http://www.xoticpc.com/info_pages.php?pages_id=11 Sager does sell laptops with upgradeable graphic processors and you will see more in the future. If you buy from a reseller or Sager you have to send it back to Sager. You would have to contact Sager and get a RMA and then you would pay shipping to Sager and they pay shipping back to you (unless you want overnight or a different type of shipping which you would pay the difference).

Dell did purchase Alienware and will leave that business alone for now so it's like they purchased it's name only. HP purchased Vodoo because they really weren't big competitors in the gaming market. Dell already had a line of gaming laptops in the XPS line. They current Alienware models are still manufactured by the same ODM's. One interesting ODM is Quanta who is making the Iphone. Another company made the first Iphones but Quanta got the contract to manufacture the Iphones.

Link to Dell
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/g...us&l=en&s=corp

Arima is make alienware computers..

Companies always outsource their products to be massed produced by other companies just like the Iphone you are talking about. This happens with almost all electronics made anymore. Even tvs are done this way. They subcontract out companies to make so many of an item to keep up with there demands..Business 101..
Alienware uses Arima now days instead of Clevo
Clevo manufactored the m7700 laptop and eveyone knows what happened with those laptops...

If you are so worried about who makes what then you wont be able to buy anything electronic ever because another company probably makes it..

Clevo does still make a couple of Alienware products. The post above says that Dells manufacture and sell their own computers which isn't true. Asus & Acer are companies that manufacture their own laptops.

"What really sets the Sager notebooks apart from Dell/Alienware?"

Price?

Im also pretty interested in sagers, considering getting one myself. I have heard a few bad things about them, mainly over heating. Is this still an issue?

All the Sager models except the 9260 have mobile processors. The new machines have the Santa Rosa which is the latest mobile processor. Mobile processors have evolved to run cooler and have better battery life. Sager has been know as having very powerfull gaming machines and 3 or 4 years all gaming machines had desktop processors that ran hot.

I have had the 9260 for a couple of weeks. It's SWEET. The heat is pretty low, considering I'm maxing out Oblivion in it's native 1920 x 1200 with bull Bloom, AAx4, etc... wow.

Unfortunately, the power-supply just died. No warning that something was wrong, no power, so I now have a $2,800 paperweight. : ) Guess I get to test powernotebook/Sagers service, eh? haha.

I'll re-post with the service and a listing of what I had to do. I'm trying to get a VERY fast turn-around, as my classes are all on-line and I need a laptop fast. worst comes to worst, I'm still in my 30 day refund window : )

9/11/07 update: oh well, sent it in for refund, I'll be going with a 5791 instead. The 9260 is a beast, but I need something a little more reliable and the fact that the 9260 weighs as much as my torso didn't help either. : )
- The service from both Sager and powernotebooks has been fantastic so far. My new laptop should get to me next week. Hopefully, it has no power-supply issues, but I'll keep an eye-out.
Don't companies do burn-in testing anymore?