NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Alienware Notebook Forums › Alienware Area-51 and Aurora Notebooks › Please Help, Trying to make a laptop decision.
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Please Help, Trying to make a laptop decision.

post #1 of 11
5/7/04 at 3:14am
Thread Starter 
Hi, I'm looking to buy a laptop and I looked at various notebooks and reviews and decided on an Alienware Area 51m. After doing a little more research I also found a company called Sager. With comprable parts the Sager comes out to cheaper including a ATI Radeon Mobility 9700 256MB card and 400mhz ddr dual channel ram along with a 17 inch wsxga moniter. This is at (http://www.pctorque.com/8790.php)I'm looking at the s model. What I am really wondering is if you have ever heard of and know anything of these computers. I have been on forums (http://notebookforums.com/index.php?) and it seems many people are getting better overall performance for less money out of the Sager and they like them a lot. I am hesitant to buy from a company I don't know much about. It seems they use the same parts and casing as the hypersonic notebooks. Overall I'm looking for a laptop with: P4 3.2 and up, ATI Radeon Mobility 9700 128, 1024 333mhz DDR and up (preferably dual channel because of the performance boost, which Alienware doesnt offer), 8x DVD 24x10x24x CDRW, Internal wireless (which Alienware doesn't offer but it is self installable) and decent support and service, also a good looking comfortable laptop that has good battery life. What should I do? I can get this system from Sager, Hypersonic, Alienware, and Dell all for comprable price and all but Alienware have the internal wireless and the dual channel ram. Please help! Thanks for your time, Dan
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 11
5/7/04 at 3:24am
AW doesn't have dual channel RAM. If your looking for good battery life, your going to have to sacrifice gaming. Gaming laptops aren't made for battery life.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 11
5/7/04 at 4:00am
Thread Starter 

thanks

thanks for the reply. Ya I realize i'm gonna have to sacrafice battery life for gaming performance but my main question is which laptop to buy. I know a bunch about alienware, a little about hypersonic, and nothing about sager, although from these boards and pricing out a comp, sager looks the best, but i want to be sure before i buy.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 11
5/7/04 at 4:10am
please don't double post...it's not necessary. we'll get to your questions as soon as we can.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 11
5/7/04 at 4:18am
Thread Starter 
sorry flapjacks im new to this forum and REALLY want my laptop so im looking for a quick answer. thanks for telling me i wont do it again.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 11
5/7/04 at 4:30am
Don't worry about it. Voodoo, Hypersonic, and Sager all use the same chassis', I believe. Don't even consider the internal wireless on the AW it would be a waste of money, something about the chassis/antenna prevent the card from receiving a useful signal. AW offer's support that is more than just decent, it's downright excellent. Remember, when you buy an AW, you ARE paying for the name and looks as well as the performance. This forum is provided by PCtorque...click on "notebook forums" at the top of the page to get to the sager and dell forums.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 11
5/7/04 at 4:30am
Thread Starter 
oh by the way what do you guys think of, for gaming, screen size? 17, 16.1, 15.4, pros, cons?
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 11
5/7/04 at 4:35am
From what I've read, Sager's are great machine and have a very loyal following, just as AW does. AW offers a feature that no other company does, namely, user upgradable graphics. Dell seems to have had probs with their initial xps release, but they may have cured them by now. Really...you need to choose whichever laptop is going to make to happiest and suit your needs/budget.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 11
5/7/04 at 4:36am
Wouldn't get 17" unless I plan never leaving the house with it (can you say 18 pound laptop). I have 15.4" and as much as I like it, I haven't and never will get used to the damn stretching effect (and yes I know it can be turned off). I'd rather have 16" or even 15.0". As long as it's larger than 14.1", I don't care. So yeah, my answer for YOU is 16".
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 11
5/7/04 at 4:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alucard21
oh by the way what do you guys think of, for gaming, screen size? 17, 16.1, 15.4, pros, cons?
I really like my 15.4. The response time is great and the 2 extra speaker are a nice feature. But, many people really like the added real estate of the 16 or 17 inchers. I dont play games much higher than 1280x1024, so the max res isn't really a big issue to me, plus I wouldn't want to spend another $600 for less than an inch of screen. The 17 inch looks good, but makes for a large laptop...I actually take mine with me to class, and at that size, it's just too unwieldy.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 11
5/7/04 at 4:47am
What I don't like is the fact that my AW 15.4" has MORE than a full INCH LESS vertical space than my 14.1" Presario.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Alienware Notebook Forums › Alienware Area-51 and Aurora Notebooks › Please Help, Trying to make a laptop decision.