i've had it for close to a week now:
sager 4780
1 gb of ram
60 gb hdd @ 5400 rpms
dvd/cd-rw
windows xp pro
*The build of the machine is nice and solid. Major improvement over my Inspiron 4100.
*Received a defective screen in *addition* to a 'stuck' pixel from the outset. Sent it back and got a *new* screen with assurance there would be no dead pixels. Could have opted for a new unit but support said they would swap out the old screen for a new one and can only gaurantee me no dead pixels in that situation.
*Heat isn't that bad on the left hand side. It gets warmer but nothing to cry about in my opinion.
*The fan is relatively loud and can be annoying: it goes off, full-blast, every minute or so while i'm doing 'normal' tasks. It goes on full-blast while i'm playing a game. It's noticable---and you will need to get used to it.
*It's fast. I haven't done any benchmarks but it plays my games very well and can boot up XP pro in seconds.
*The display is 'decent.' I don't understand all the raves about it. The resolution isn't that great in my opinion. I'm used to a slightly higher resolution---not much higher, but just enough to get rid of the 'fuzzy' text. I've tried playing with the fonts and setting it to standard or 'clear text' mode without much improvement.
And this is the only reason i'm contemplating returning the machine. Had I been stuck with a dead/stuck pixel, it would have been a no-brainer: the machine would have been returned. However, i'm at 50/50 now on whether to keep it or return it. Also, i have seen it refreshing or flickering when i first got it. I haven't seen it recently so i'm hoping it was a burn-in process or the newer ATI drivers i installed.
*Keyboard is very nice: sturdy and no flex. One small problem, however. The 'Pg Dn' key is acting up. That is, it's not responding to every stroke. I can live with this thanks to my scroll button on the mouse and it's not worth the ~30 i would have to incur to send it back for fixing.
*Internal speakers are good for a laptop. It will do if you don't have access to external ones. However, it in no way replaces external speakers.
*Haven't had time to play with the built in camera.
*DVD playback is nice. But i don't watch dvds on my pc so i couldn't care less.
*Battery life sucks but i have it plugged in at least 95% of the time. And the way they've engineered it is kind of stupid: you have to remove screws to get to the battery.
In summary, everything is hunky-dory other than 1) the screen resolution and 2) the annoying fan noise that you WILL have to get used to.
sager 4780
1 gb of ram
60 gb hdd @ 5400 rpms
dvd/cd-rw
windows xp pro
*The build of the machine is nice and solid. Major improvement over my Inspiron 4100.
*Received a defective screen in *addition* to a 'stuck' pixel from the outset. Sent it back and got a *new* screen with assurance there would be no dead pixels. Could have opted for a new unit but support said they would swap out the old screen for a new one and can only gaurantee me no dead pixels in that situation.
*Heat isn't that bad on the left hand side. It gets warmer but nothing to cry about in my opinion.
*The fan is relatively loud and can be annoying: it goes off, full-blast, every minute or so while i'm doing 'normal' tasks. It goes on full-blast while i'm playing a game. It's noticable---and you will need to get used to it.
*It's fast. I haven't done any benchmarks but it plays my games very well and can boot up XP pro in seconds.
*The display is 'decent.' I don't understand all the raves about it. The resolution isn't that great in my opinion. I'm used to a slightly higher resolution---not much higher, but just enough to get rid of the 'fuzzy' text. I've tried playing with the fonts and setting it to standard or 'clear text' mode without much improvement.
And this is the only reason i'm contemplating returning the machine. Had I been stuck with a dead/stuck pixel, it would have been a no-brainer: the machine would have been returned. However, i'm at 50/50 now on whether to keep it or return it. Also, i have seen it refreshing or flickering when i first got it. I haven't seen it recently so i'm hoping it was a burn-in process or the newer ATI drivers i installed.
*Keyboard is very nice: sturdy and no flex. One small problem, however. The 'Pg Dn' key is acting up. That is, it's not responding to every stroke. I can live with this thanks to my scroll button on the mouse and it's not worth the ~30 i would have to incur to send it back for fixing.
*Internal speakers are good for a laptop. It will do if you don't have access to external ones. However, it in no way replaces external speakers.
*Haven't had time to play with the built in camera.
*DVD playback is nice. But i don't watch dvds on my pc so i couldn't care less.
*Battery life sucks but i have it plugged in at least 95% of the time. And the way they've engineered it is kind of stupid: you have to remove screws to get to the battery.
In summary, everything is hunky-dory other than 1) the screen resolution and 2) the annoying fan noise that you WILL have to get used to.
