Any Sager owners Stationed in IRAQ?

Uzi, I just came back last month from a 12 month deployment with the 3rd ACR. I brought my Dell Inspiron 8100 with me. Now, have in mind that the only reason I brought it was that I really didnt care if it got messed up or not, I knew i was going to make some money being away, and it would give me a reason to buy a new one. Now, I first got there in April of 2003. Apr-May is the season for sand storms. Even if you are in hard-stand buildings, there will always be a film of dust everywhere. ensure you have plenty of canned air. Tell your supply SGT to stock up. also, depending on what part of the country you're in, you may have a pretty well stocked PX. Thats were I got most of my canned air, and antistaic wipes. Towards the end of the deployment my unit was in Al Asad air base, and they had a pretty good PX, so does BIAP. Now in the summer months, it is so damn hot that my Dell would shut itself off all by itself, and the chasiss would be hot to the touch. After we moved into air conditioned buildings, that problem went away. But my notebook never worked quite the same. If you keep your notebook cool, and clean you should be just fine. You will regret it if you dont bring one. It helped pass the time watching DVD's and gaming. Plus some places have MWR tents with internet, and if you have your own laptop you dont have to wait in line for a terminal. Most important, be safe out there, make sure you sandbag the hell out of your vehicles, use up armored on convoys, the IED's are no joke. I'm in supply, and i survived 2 RPG attacks, an IED, and a sniper took shots at our truck in Bahgdad. Be very coutious and safe. Godspeed. SGT Tak

Be safe over there!! Thanks to all of our bad-ass soldiers, marines, airmen, and sailors for serving our country!!! Hoo-aahhh!!!!

I second that -- Thanks, and be safe!!

I agree!
Thanks for all you guys are doing for us! Be safe!
(And spread Sager goodness to Iraq!)

Triple dittos on all the best wishes and strong support for our men and women in the Armed Forces. We had some Iraq-stationed posters in the forums last year:
Sarge
BillyJack?
Jarhead

Syco to Afghanistan

Definitely be safe

I was in the Army for 3 years from 90-93, so I know what you mean about worrying about your laptop. I was a tanker, so I read a lot, played on a gameboy, and listened to a lot of music when there was nothing to do inside the tank while we were in a hull down position for weeks. I say go for it. Just keep it clean and protected and it should be fine.

Regards,
Sean

More to the point, and given the previous comments about the heat and lack of AC, it may be a good idea to go for a laptop which doesn't have any heat issues to begin with, something like a Pentium-M 1.7, which will stay much cooler than a regular P4.

Steve, I havent brought a sager to the desert but I do own a sager 5660. I love my Sager, I travel with my civilian job all the time and it works great under normal conditions. Having said that, I'm also on the next years rotation (national guard) and I am leaving my prized laptop at the house. It is a hot running mofo. I've had heat problems in Tennessee during the summer time when I got cheap and didn't want to run the AC. I love my sager but I dont think it can stand the desert heat. Maybe your older laptop, a game boy, and one of those new dedicated dvd players or mp3 players would be a better choice. God bless us everyone.

A word from Ar Ramadi

Here's my experience so far. I've been in Ramadi for the last 2 months, and so far my Sager 4760 has held up exceptionally well. As long as I remember to clean the dust out of the fans regularly it runs without a hitch. The heat isn't as much of a factor as you'd think it would be, because the majority (if not all) the time you spend on your computer will be inside wherever you live. Which at this point in time could range from Semi-permanent tents to old palaces, in either case air-conditioning is not in scarce supply. In fact every base here in Ramadi has an air conditioning unit in every barracks area, and most of the spaces used for offices as well. The best bit of advice I can pass along is to bring (or have someone mail) a bunch of compressed air, it'll really come in handy as the dust does tend to build up a lot faster out here. No matter what you decide, good luck when you get out here, and make the most of what time you have left in the States.
Also, if you'll be anywhere NEAR the Euphrates, bring a years worth of bug repellant, you'll go through it in a week.

Semper Fi
Joe Romeo
CPL
2nd Battalion 4th Marines

From USAF in the Republic of Korea

I'm not in Iraq, however, I'm in South Korea, I ordered a 5680 and when I recieved the USPS tracking number it showed up here in 8 days to my APO box. I ordered through the SAGER website and was pleased to hear that they do ship to APO boxes. Not only that, my jaw dropped when I saw the overall performance so far with my laptop. I can play all my games on it, wireless network works like a champ, and I don't notice the weight at all.

Stay safe over there got a Marine buddy of mine in Iraq right now.

Sager 5680
P4 2.8GHz w/HT
512MB RAM 60GB
5400RPM HDD
ATI M10 128MB

yeah, a few of us had sagers shipped out to the desert, and every model seemed to hold up pretty well. I will second the heat-problem issue, you may consider bringing your old junker for the really hot days.

I will say that I recommend getting a protective sheet to go between the screen and body when the laptop is closed, I did get a few mar marks on the screen from the keyboard.

Also, if you bring a tube of actic silver, you will be able to disassemble your lappy every few months and restore the laptops inside. Either way, canned air is a definate must, although if your unit has an air compressor that is also ok.

you might also consider buying a small switch and some patch cables if others have computers too. in fact, try to get them to get in on it with you.

nice headphones are great too, if you work in a noisy environment, you might even consider the bose noise cancelling headphones, they work pretty good.

External harddrives are clutch too, bring AS MUCH MEDIA AS POSSIBLE. this is key for sanity.

All in all, it was worth it. $2000 is about three bucks a day, and it is worth it to be able to relax and forget where you are.

as a disclaimer for those who don't know, my job requires me to sit in a steel box with 2.5' x 7' of space for up to 16 hours a day, so this worked great for me.

Hey I am going to Iraq too; I was looking at getting either the Sager 8790, or the HP zd7000 series. I really would like the Sager, but they said they would not cover the conditions brought about by the dust in Iraq. As seen at the bottom of my post. Anyone have any suggestions on what to do? I was thinking about putting it in one of these cases: http://www.casesbypelican.com/app-1520.htm Suggestions????

You do get 30 day money back guarantee and standard one year labor and parts warranty with SAGER.
Philips extended warranty only covers in USA area.
The warranty only covers the computer under normal uses and hardware failure. It does not cover when you use it under harsh condition.


Thanks and have a nice day.

SAGER Midern Computer Inc
Sales Rep.: Leon L. Huang (ext.103)

good luck and be careful over there

Neat cases. Definitely a good idea for rugged portability. IMO, the 8790 is sweeet for that 256MB graphics chip (which some say is overkill right now), but they are biiiig and wiiiiide. Any of the 128MB graphics chips should game as well, or not. Also, the 2.8 CPU should perform as well as most. What I'm gettiing to is get a good, basic, config that will do all you want for a reasonable price, take it to Iraq and use the hell out of it, and when you get back with some of that hard-earned hazardous duty pay that you darn well better be getting, sell your combat-tested machine (someone will be proud to have it if you don't keep it for a special momento yourself) and buy yourself the dream machine of the moment of your return. Stay safe, get that job wrapped up over there, and come on home!