Intro
Sager has a laptop for everyone. Whether you’re a hardcore gamer, mobile internet addict or a combination of the two you are sure to find a notebook that will suit your needs from Sager. The Sager NP6790 combines gamers with the a low voltage geforce 8400 graphics card, providing more battery life than the more powerful graphics cards.
Laptop History
2000 Gateway 2000 450 15’’
2002 Alienware Area-51m 5620P 15’’
2003 Alienware Area-51m Sentia 244 14’’
2003 Sony S-Series 13.3’’
2003 T23 Thinkpad 14.1’’
2004 Dell 9700 17’’
2005 Alienware Sentia 223 12.1’’
2006 Alienware Area-51m 5750 17’’
2006 IBM T60 Lenovo 14.1’’
2007 Sager 5460 14.1’’
2007 Alienware Area-51 m9750 17’’
2007 Sager TP9260 17''
2007 Sager NP5791 17''
I provide the list of notebooks I have experience with so users can get an idea of what I am used to seeing in gaming or portable notebooks. I also provide links to each notebook throughout the review in case readers are unfamiliar with the models I reference. In this review, I have added a few more tests that I have not included previously.
The Sager NP-6790 is definitely not a hardcore gaming notebook, nor is it the lightest of the bunch but it still has a powerful Core 2 Duo CPU and nVidia’s newest Gefore 8 mobile graphics cards.
Specs:
Sager NP-6790
Intel Core 2 Duo Desktop Replacement Gaming Notebook
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7700 | 4MB Cache | 2.4GHz | 800MHz FSB
Arctic Silver 5 High Performance Thermal Compound
2GB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz
nVIDIA GeForce 8400M G w/128MB
100GB | 7200 RPM | SATA
8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL MULTI DRIVE W/ SOFTWARE
Mini-PCI 802.11b/g Wi-Fi
Built in 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet / LAN Network Card
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
1.3M Digital Video Camera
No Office Software
Sager 6790 Bluetooth
Sager 1 Year Warranty, Lifetime Tech Support
SubTotal: $1,175
Shipping: $37.01
Tax: $0.00
Order Total: $1,212.01
What’s in the Box:
Like all Sagers purchased from PCTorque the notebooks comes with a very convenient notebook carrying bag perfect for taking to class, on trips of on plane. A lot of people do not think about how they will carrying their precious new purchase to class, to the office or on trips and having PCTorque provide a carrying case straight out of the box is a great luxury. Any notebook purchase from PCTorque comes with a carrying case, manuals, CDs/drivers and of course the notebook.
Design
This is the fourth Sager I had the privilege in reviewing. The first impression on the 6790 is clean design. A polished dark metal looking plastic that looks very respectable no matter what purpose you are buying the notebook. Most notebook vendors slap their lable directly on the center of the lid but not Sager. Sager perfects a clean smooth lid with a tiny emblem n the top left of the lid that reads: “Sager Notebook Computer.” Such professionalism.
Screen:
The screen, like all Sagers, is remarkably sharp and bright, containing a lot of qualities from the Sager’s earlier 5460, 9260 and 5790 models. This model contains the 17" WXGA (1440 x 900). I was a little shocked that the nVidia 8400 card was not able to put out a higher resolution and upon first glacne, I had not even realized that it was not in 1900 x 1200 resolution until I turned on my Alienware m5750 for comparison. The screens on the Sagers are very consistent in quality and viewing angle. Like the pervious three Sager models, the viewing angle on the screen is at least 175 degrees; that is how well the screen can read to both the left and right. There is barely any screen fade because of the LCD technology. The 6790 also shipped with zero dead pixels. Like most laptops today and all Sagers, the 6790 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. A dead pixel test confirms there are zero dead pixels on this machine, after testing for black, white, red, green and blue.
Here are some more viewing angels of the 6790 screen. In the shots where there are two computers, the Sager 6790 is on the left with the 1440 x 900 screen and the Alienware m5750 is on the right with the 1920x1200 screen. The Alienware's screen has a lot better viewing angel and a lot more clarity.
Keyboard
The 6790 ships with a full size keyboard, which includes a numeric keyboard and 15 function keys. The function keys, which have come pretty standard on all Sager models, are: Pressing Fn + the ~ key will play or pause Audio or Video (DVDs), F1 will toggle the touchpad, F2 will turn the LCD Blacklight off, F3 will mute the sound on the notebook, F4 will initiate sleep mode, F5 and F6 will decrease and increase the sound volume respectably, F7 toggles the display through each output, F8 and F9 decrease and increase the LCD brightness respectively, F10 turns on/off the built in webcam, F11 toggles Wifi on/off F12 toggles the bluetooth module, Scr Lk toggles the scroll lock and Num Lk toggles NumLock on/off.
Yet again, just like the 9260and the 5791, F10 and F12 do not show the orange shade markings the rest of the function keys do to tell users that these keys actually serve as alternate functions. The only way to find out if the F10 and F12 have alternate functions is reading the manual or testing the keys yourself. I’m beginning to think that this is just common practice for Sager.
The comfort level on the keyboard is normal. The keyboard is in a great position for typing and not too far away from where your wrists rest and not to close to the front of the notebook. The notebook is thin so being too high off the ground is not a concern.
I found the microphone to the right of the touchpad. I still do not understand why vendors position the pic in a place where your hand would cover it if you were typing. Maybe they don't expect you type and talk at the same time or maybe you cannot tell the difference whether or not your hand is blocking the microphone.
Touchpad
The Touchpad on the 6790 puzzles me. Sager had this MASTERED on the previous Sager notebooks, however for some reason the scroll bar is not as efficient as it was on the previous models. The texture remains the same which is still a plus, but moving your finger up and down to scroll through documents or websites works half of the time. The other time it will just think you want to move the mouse. The touchpad is still located to the right of the touchpad. I also still want Sager to split up the touchpad from the scrollpad with a tiny raised line like Alienware does, but once users get familiar with the touchpad this will not be a problem. Fix the scroll pad issue! The buttons also make a very annoying “clicking” sound, much like my m5750. All previous Sagers did not have such an annoying “click” to the buttons.
Features:
Multimedia Keys –
There are three Application Hot Keys located at the top of the keyboard. These keys have become standard on all of the Sager models. The first Hot Key from the left launches the default internet browser. The second Application Hot Key launches your default e-mail client and the third hot key can be set to different windows applications such as Microsoft Word or Virus Software. In the manual, the third button also says by default pressing it once, should bring up the BisonCap or Videoview if your notebook ships with a web camera. This model has a camera, but pressing it once did nothing.
LEDS -
There is one set of seven LEDs on the 6790 and is located at the front of the notebook to the right of the touchpad. 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 AC/DC Adapter 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 third icon looks like a can, and is always green. This LED represents hard drive activity. The fourth LED resembles a wifi signal; when green this represents wireless LAN is powered on. When Orange, this represents bluetooth mode is powered on. The last three LEDs are all green and represent the Number Lock, Caps Lock and Scroll Lock toggle.
Wifi
Wifi is not an option in the 6790 it is a standard feature. It seems Wifi has become a standard feature on this Sager notebooks and have been integrated nicely to the point where even computer novices can turn a notebook on, search for a wireless connection and logon. There were no problems using the 6790’s wireless card.
Speakers
There are two speakers located on the left and right side of the 6790 notebook. Both are pointed outward instead of inward so sound is not really directed towards the users. It can be difficult at times hearing sound out of the speakers if you are using the notebook in a public place. The quality of the speakers is no better or worse than your average notebook speakers.
Input and Output Ports
The number of high-speed USB ports has shrunk from 6 on the 5791 to only three on the 6790. USB has become the connection interface of computers and this is the first 17 inch notebook I’ve seen that only comes with three USB ports. Large notebooks 17 inches and up should have at least four. Not only does it have few USB ports, but two are located on the right side and one is on the rear.
Front
Webcam Pictures
The quality of the webcam pictures are very poor compared to previous Sager models. In the middle and at the top of the LCD screen is a 1.3 MegaPixels Motion Eye camera. For some reason on this model, taking pictures feels like I’m taking a picture back in 1885. It takes up to 4-5 seconds for the picture to take, and by that time you’ve moved and the picture comes out blurry. Sager had this right the first time. Not sure what the problem is.
Like the 9260 and 5791 there are also two latches, which hold the screen down. The 7 LEDs listed above are located on the front right of the notebook.
Right Side: The right side of the laptop contains 2 USB 2.0 ports, Express card slot (34/54), 7-in-1 card reader, RJ-45 Lan Jack and VGA output. 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).
Left Side: The left side of the notebook contains the security lock slot, Optical CD/DVD drive, emergency eject hole, RJ-11 Modem Jack and the four audio ports which consist of a Line-In audio jack, S/PDIF Out jack, Microphone In and Headphone Out jack. I especially like the CD/DVD tray button. It’s very distinct and protrudes outward so it is easy to press.
Rear: The back of the notebook has the DC Power in connection, one USB 2.0 ports and the battery. One of the least busy backs of a notebook I’ve ever seen, especially on a 17 incher.
Bottom: The bottom of the laptop has five vents for air flow and access to the battery and internal components.
Size and Weight
The size and weight of the notebook are very tolerable, especially when you are talking about a notebook with a 17 inch screen. 6 pounds is a very nice weight for a 17 inch screened notebook and a lot of that is thanks to the new nVidia 8400 graphics card. Less power, means less heat sinks, which means less weight.
Rated: 17" WXGA 15.6" (w) x 11" (d) x 1.75" (h) and 6.8 lbs
Actual: Weight: 6.2 lbs
Heat and Noise
The 6790 does a great job recognizing high cpu processing and adjusts the fans accordingly. As fast as the fans go from low to medium to high, they will also go from high to medium to low just as fast. They do not stay on for extended periods of time to annoy the user.
Battery Life
The three 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 – 2:25-3:56- 91 minutes (idling)
8/8 – 8:15-9:06- 51 minutes (web surfing, youtube watching)
8/8 – 4:05-4:50- 45 minutes while transferring files over a wireless network
The size of the power block is considerably small for the notebook's size, but makes sense when you factor in the energy saving graphics card. The battery life is not very impressive on this laptop. Watching video on the internet or doing anything that involves the wifi drains the battery. I had the notebook on for 45 minutes idling and the battery was at 50%. I watched a 1 youtube video and paused it and turned around less than 20 minutes later and the notebook was below 10%.
Synthetic/Gaming Benchmarks
Here is a list of tested synthetic and gaming benchmarks. All results are with stock hardware settings. Since this is the first review posted using our new benchmark system, I no longer post the screenshots of the benchmarks in the review. To View the screenshots, look to the right side of the review and they are listed.
Synthetic Benchmarks
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 sued 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.
The 3DMark scores did not fair particularly well on this model. The most recent benchmark, 3dmark06, barely scored a 2000 score. This is mainly due to the low level performance of the nVidia 8400 graphics card. It only carries 128MB of memory, and is not designed to play high intensive graphic games like Call of Duty 4 or Crysis. Play World of Warcraft however is definitely a possibility.
Aquamark is an older graphics benchmark that
Super Pi, is a synthetic benchmark that calculates Pi to a certain amount of digits you prescribe, and the faster it does it, the better your notebook performs. All of the benchmarks submitted in the NBF database are set to calculating Pi to the 2 million digits of accuracy.
The first Super Pi test calculated Pi in 1 minute and 6 seconds.
After turning off the internal wifi card, Super Pi calculated Pi in 58 seconds which is a very respectable score. This benchmark is a more accurate benchmark in determining the processing power, where as the 3dmark benchmark is geared towards graphics.
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. Very impressive access times with this benchmark.
Burst Rate exceeds Max Write Speed. Test successful. Compared to the 5791 notebook the access time is significantly better as is the transfer rates. This shows the difference in performance between the 5791's 80GB 5400 rpm hard drive and the 6790's 100 GB 7200 rpm hard drive. Obviously the hard drive with the faster access time, will perform better. And this test confirms that.
Gaming Benchmarks
The big question people may have about this notebook is, can it play games? We've seen the poor scores of the 3dmark benchmarks. But can it play Counterstrike: Source? Doom 3?
Counterstrike: Source Stress Test - Although the stress test got a poor rating, playing Counterstrike: Source and Half-Life 2 is very conceivable if you don't mind turning your graphics settings down from high.
Company of Heroes - A game that requires a bit more graphics power does not play very well on this notebook. gameplay is choppy as this notebook struggles to run it. Games like Call of Duty 4 and Crysis will not run on this machine.
Software
The 6790 ships with Security Manager, Cyberlink power DVD player and Nero home Essentials SE for burning CDs/DVDs.
Pros:
Screen – The WXGA screen is perfect for people who want to save some extra money for a lower resolution than WSXGA. This screen looks great!
Touchpad –great texture, great acceleration
Noise – Fans are quick to come on when it senses hard computing, but quick to turn off as well
Weight – a 6 pound 17 inch notebook!
Price - the value of the notebook is very high for the final cost
Free Stuff – Ships with free laptop carrying case
Cons:
Scroll pad Doesn’t work.
Keyboard - markings left off the function keys..(again)
Battery Life – even if it is a 17 inch machine, the battery life is not very good if doing anything with the wifi
Conclusion:
As I began playing with this notebook it became more and more clear what Sager is trying to do. Find the common ground between people who want a little bit of everything in a notebook purchase. Playing games, is not the machines top priority, but it can play the Source Engine well on medium to high settings. Six pounds for a 17 inch screen is also a very nice luxury. I know from carrying around my eight pound 17 inch m5750 that even two pounds can make all the difference when traveling. As shown by its processing power this machine has the CPU strength to carry out some heavy duty programs. Overall this is a highly recommended purchase if you want a little bit of everything especially that little bit that keeps your wallet fat.
If you have any questions about anything written here you can e-mail me: Dukefrukem[at]notebookforums.com
Sager has a laptop for everyone. Whether you’re a hardcore gamer, mobile internet addict or a combination of the two you are sure to find a notebook that will suit your needs from Sager. The Sager NP6790 combines gamers with the a low voltage geforce 8400 graphics card, providing more battery life than the more powerful graphics cards.
Laptop History
2000 Gateway 2000 450 15’’
2002 Alienware Area-51m 5620P 15’’
2003 Alienware Area-51m Sentia 244 14’’
2003 Sony S-Series 13.3’’
2003 T23 Thinkpad 14.1’’
2004 Dell 9700 17’’
2005 Alienware Sentia 223 12.1’’
2006 Alienware Area-51m 5750 17’’
2006 IBM T60 Lenovo 14.1’’
2007 Sager 5460 14.1’’
2007 Alienware Area-51 m9750 17’’
2007 Sager TP9260 17''
2007 Sager NP5791 17''
I provide the list of notebooks I have experience with so users can get an idea of what I am used to seeing in gaming or portable notebooks. I also provide links to each notebook throughout the review in case readers are unfamiliar with the models I reference. In this review, I have added a few more tests that I have not included previously.
The Sager NP-6790 is definitely not a hardcore gaming notebook, nor is it the lightest of the bunch but it still has a powerful Core 2 Duo CPU and nVidia’s newest Gefore 8 mobile graphics cards.
Specs:
Sager NP-6790
Intel Core 2 Duo Desktop Replacement Gaming Notebook
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7700 | 4MB Cache | 2.4GHz | 800MHz FSB
Arctic Silver 5 High Performance Thermal Compound
2GB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz
nVIDIA GeForce 8400M G w/128MB
100GB | 7200 RPM | SATA
8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL MULTI DRIVE W/ SOFTWARE
Mini-PCI 802.11b/g Wi-Fi
Built in 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet / LAN Network Card
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
1.3M Digital Video Camera
No Office Software
Sager 6790 Bluetooth
Sager 1 Year Warranty, Lifetime Tech Support
SubTotal: $1,175
Shipping: $37.01
Tax: $0.00
Order Total: $1,212.01
What’s in the Box:
Like all Sagers purchased from PCTorque the notebooks comes with a very convenient notebook carrying bag perfect for taking to class, on trips of on plane. A lot of people do not think about how they will carrying their precious new purchase to class, to the office or on trips and having PCTorque provide a carrying case straight out of the box is a great luxury. Any notebook purchase from PCTorque comes with a carrying case, manuals, CDs/drivers and of course the notebook.
Design
This is the fourth Sager I had the privilege in reviewing. The first impression on the 6790 is clean design. A polished dark metal looking plastic that looks very respectable no matter what purpose you are buying the notebook. Most notebook vendors slap their lable directly on the center of the lid but not Sager. Sager perfects a clean smooth lid with a tiny emblem n the top left of the lid that reads: “Sager Notebook Computer.” Such professionalism.
Screen:
The screen, like all Sagers, is remarkably sharp and bright, containing a lot of qualities from the Sager’s earlier 5460, 9260 and 5790 models. This model contains the 17" WXGA (1440 x 900). I was a little shocked that the nVidia 8400 card was not able to put out a higher resolution and upon first glacne, I had not even realized that it was not in 1900 x 1200 resolution until I turned on my Alienware m5750 for comparison. The screens on the Sagers are very consistent in quality and viewing angle. Like the pervious three Sager models, the viewing angle on the screen is at least 175 degrees; that is how well the screen can read to both the left and right. There is barely any screen fade because of the LCD technology. The 6790 also shipped with zero dead pixels. Like most laptops today and all Sagers, the 6790 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. A dead pixel test confirms there are zero dead pixels on this machine, after testing for black, white, red, green and blue.
Here are some more viewing angels of the 6790 screen. In the shots where there are two computers, the Sager 6790 is on the left with the 1440 x 900 screen and the Alienware m5750 is on the right with the 1920x1200 screen. The Alienware's screen has a lot better viewing angel and a lot more clarity.
Keyboard
The 6790 ships with a full size keyboard, which includes a numeric keyboard and 15 function keys. The function keys, which have come pretty standard on all Sager models, are: Pressing Fn + the ~ key will play or pause Audio or Video (DVDs), F1 will toggle the touchpad, F2 will turn the LCD Blacklight off, F3 will mute the sound on the notebook, F4 will initiate sleep mode, F5 and F6 will decrease and increase the sound volume respectably, F7 toggles the display through each output, F8 and F9 decrease and increase the LCD brightness respectively, F10 turns on/off the built in webcam, F11 toggles Wifi on/off F12 toggles the bluetooth module, Scr Lk toggles the scroll lock and Num Lk toggles NumLock on/off.
Yet again, just like the 9260and the 5791, F10 and F12 do not show the orange shade markings the rest of the function keys do to tell users that these keys actually serve as alternate functions. The only way to find out if the F10 and F12 have alternate functions is reading the manual or testing the keys yourself. I’m beginning to think that this is just common practice for Sager.
The comfort level on the keyboard is normal. The keyboard is in a great position for typing and not too far away from where your wrists rest and not to close to the front of the notebook. The notebook is thin so being too high off the ground is not a concern.
I found the microphone to the right of the touchpad. I still do not understand why vendors position the pic in a place where your hand would cover it if you were typing. Maybe they don't expect you type and talk at the same time or maybe you cannot tell the difference whether or not your hand is blocking the microphone.
Touchpad
The Touchpad on the 6790 puzzles me. Sager had this MASTERED on the previous Sager notebooks, however for some reason the scroll bar is not as efficient as it was on the previous models. The texture remains the same which is still a plus, but moving your finger up and down to scroll through documents or websites works half of the time. The other time it will just think you want to move the mouse. The touchpad is still located to the right of the touchpad. I also still want Sager to split up the touchpad from the scrollpad with a tiny raised line like Alienware does, but once users get familiar with the touchpad this will not be a problem. Fix the scroll pad issue! The buttons also make a very annoying “clicking” sound, much like my m5750. All previous Sagers did not have such an annoying “click” to the buttons.
Features:
Multimedia Keys –
There are three Application Hot Keys located at the top of the keyboard. These keys have become standard on all of the Sager models. The first Hot Key from the left launches the default internet browser. The second Application Hot Key launches your default e-mail client and the third hot key can be set to different windows applications such as Microsoft Word or Virus Software. In the manual, the third button also says by default pressing it once, should bring up the BisonCap or Videoview if your notebook ships with a web camera. This model has a camera, but pressing it once did nothing.
LEDS -
There is one set of seven LEDs on the 6790 and is located at the front of the notebook to the right of the touchpad. 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 AC/DC Adapter 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 third icon looks like a can, and is always green. This LED represents hard drive activity. The fourth LED resembles a wifi signal; when green this represents wireless LAN is powered on. When Orange, this represents bluetooth mode is powered on. The last three LEDs are all green and represent the Number Lock, Caps Lock and Scroll Lock toggle.
Wifi
Wifi is not an option in the 6790 it is a standard feature. It seems Wifi has become a standard feature on this Sager notebooks and have been integrated nicely to the point where even computer novices can turn a notebook on, search for a wireless connection and logon. There were no problems using the 6790’s wireless card.
Speakers
There are two speakers located on the left and right side of the 6790 notebook. Both are pointed outward instead of inward so sound is not really directed towards the users. It can be difficult at times hearing sound out of the speakers if you are using the notebook in a public place. The quality of the speakers is no better or worse than your average notebook speakers.
Input and Output Ports
The number of high-speed USB ports has shrunk from 6 on the 5791 to only three on the 6790. USB has become the connection interface of computers and this is the first 17 inch notebook I’ve seen that only comes with three USB ports. Large notebooks 17 inches and up should have at least four. Not only does it have few USB ports, but two are located on the right side and one is on the rear.
Front
Webcam Pictures
The quality of the webcam pictures are very poor compared to previous Sager models. In the middle and at the top of the LCD screen is a 1.3 MegaPixels Motion Eye camera. For some reason on this model, taking pictures feels like I’m taking a picture back in 1885. It takes up to 4-5 seconds for the picture to take, and by that time you’ve moved and the picture comes out blurry. Sager had this right the first time. Not sure what the problem is.
Like the 9260 and 5791 there are also two latches, which hold the screen down. The 7 LEDs listed above are located on the front right of the notebook.
Right Side: The right side of the laptop contains 2 USB 2.0 ports, Express card slot (34/54), 7-in-1 card reader, RJ-45 Lan Jack and VGA output. 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).
Left Side: The left side of the notebook contains the security lock slot, Optical CD/DVD drive, emergency eject hole, RJ-11 Modem Jack and the four audio ports which consist of a Line-In audio jack, S/PDIF Out jack, Microphone In and Headphone Out jack. I especially like the CD/DVD tray button. It’s very distinct and protrudes outward so it is easy to press.
Rear: The back of the notebook has the DC Power in connection, one USB 2.0 ports and the battery. One of the least busy backs of a notebook I’ve ever seen, especially on a 17 incher.
Bottom: The bottom of the laptop has five vents for air flow and access to the battery and internal components.
Size and Weight
The size and weight of the notebook are very tolerable, especially when you are talking about a notebook with a 17 inch screen. 6 pounds is a very nice weight for a 17 inch screened notebook and a lot of that is thanks to the new nVidia 8400 graphics card. Less power, means less heat sinks, which means less weight.
Rated: 17" WXGA 15.6" (w) x 11" (d) x 1.75" (h) and 6.8 lbs
Actual: Weight: 6.2 lbs
Heat and Noise
The 6790 does a great job recognizing high cpu processing and adjusts the fans accordingly. As fast as the fans go from low to medium to high, they will also go from high to medium to low just as fast. They do not stay on for extended periods of time to annoy the user.
Battery Life
The three 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 – 2:25-3:56- 91 minutes (idling)
8/8 – 8:15-9:06- 51 minutes (web surfing, youtube watching)
8/8 – 4:05-4:50- 45 minutes while transferring files over a wireless network
The size of the power block is considerably small for the notebook's size, but makes sense when you factor in the energy saving graphics card. The battery life is not very impressive on this laptop. Watching video on the internet or doing anything that involves the wifi drains the battery. I had the notebook on for 45 minutes idling and the battery was at 50%. I watched a 1 youtube video and paused it and turned around less than 20 minutes later and the notebook was below 10%.
Synthetic/Gaming Benchmarks
Here is a list of tested synthetic and gaming benchmarks. All results are with stock hardware settings. Since this is the first review posted using our new benchmark system, I no longer post the screenshots of the benchmarks in the review. To View the screenshots, look to the right side of the review and they are listed.
Synthetic Benchmarks
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 sued 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.
The 3DMark scores did not fair particularly well on this model. The most recent benchmark, 3dmark06, barely scored a 2000 score. This is mainly due to the low level performance of the nVidia 8400 graphics card. It only carries 128MB of memory, and is not designed to play high intensive graphic games like Call of Duty 4 or Crysis. Play World of Warcraft however is definitely a possibility.
Aquamark is an older graphics benchmark that
Super Pi, is a synthetic benchmark that calculates Pi to a certain amount of digits you prescribe, and the faster it does it, the better your notebook performs. All of the benchmarks submitted in the NBF database are set to calculating Pi to the 2 million digits of accuracy.
The first Super Pi test calculated Pi in 1 minute and 6 seconds.
After turning off the internal wifi card, Super Pi calculated Pi in 58 seconds which is a very respectable score. This benchmark is a more accurate benchmark in determining the processing power, where as the 3dmark benchmark is geared towards graphics.
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. Very impressive access times with this benchmark.
Burst Rate exceeds Max Write Speed. Test successful. Compared to the 5791 notebook the access time is significantly better as is the transfer rates. This shows the difference in performance between the 5791's 80GB 5400 rpm hard drive and the 6790's 100 GB 7200 rpm hard drive. Obviously the hard drive with the faster access time, will perform better. And this test confirms that.
Gaming Benchmarks
The big question people may have about this notebook is, can it play games? We've seen the poor scores of the 3dmark benchmarks. But can it play Counterstrike: Source? Doom 3?
Counterstrike: Source Stress Test - Although the stress test got a poor rating, playing Counterstrike: Source and Half-Life 2 is very conceivable if you don't mind turning your graphics settings down from high.
Company of Heroes - A game that requires a bit more graphics power does not play very well on this notebook. gameplay is choppy as this notebook struggles to run it. Games like Call of Duty 4 and Crysis will not run on this machine.
Software
The 6790 ships with Security Manager, Cyberlink power DVD player and Nero home Essentials SE for burning CDs/DVDs.
Pros:
Screen – The WXGA screen is perfect for people who want to save some extra money for a lower resolution than WSXGA. This screen looks great!
Touchpad –great texture, great acceleration
Noise – Fans are quick to come on when it senses hard computing, but quick to turn off as well
Weight – a 6 pound 17 inch notebook!
Price - the value of the notebook is very high for the final cost
Free Stuff – Ships with free laptop carrying case
Cons:
Scroll pad Doesn’t work.
Keyboard - markings left off the function keys..(again)
Battery Life – even if it is a 17 inch machine, the battery life is not very good if doing anything with the wifi
Conclusion:
As I began playing with this notebook it became more and more clear what Sager is trying to do. Find the common ground between people who want a little bit of everything in a notebook purchase. Playing games, is not the machines top priority, but it can play the Source Engine well on medium to high settings. Six pounds for a 17 inch screen is also a very nice luxury. I know from carrying around my eight pound 17 inch m5750 that even two pounds can make all the difference when traveling. As shown by its processing power this machine has the CPU strength to carry out some heavy duty programs. Overall this is a highly recommended purchase if you want a little bit of everything especially that little bit that keeps your wallet fat.
If you have any questions about anything written here you can e-mail me: Dukefrukem[at]notebookforums.com
