Well, I've put it off long enough. I've been so busy playing with this incredible laptop that I hadn't taken the time to stop and provide a solid review until now. So here it goes
First off a little bit about me so you can guage for yourself my knowledge of PC's Laptops, and Technology in general. I've been in the computer business for the better part of 18 years, and currently I'm a MCT, MCSE and teach everything from A+ to the full server 2003 pathway. I'm a VERY picky shopper when it comes to PC's and I was very wary at first of a "Desktop Replacement" in a Laptop footprint. Well...I'm about to be proven wrong.
Here are the specs I ordered:
Sager 8790
3.0 GHZ HT CPU
1 GB Dual Channel Ram
1 60GB 7200 RPM drive
TV Tuner
WSXGA+ Screen
Bluetooth
2x DVD+R Drive
Now for the review:
This thing is truly amazing. So far it's outdone just about any possible expectations I ever had. I'm going to break it down step by step.
Display
The 1600x1050 display is an absolute beauty. I've had numerous people stop and watch over my shoulder and they all seem to say the same thing.. "That's a LCD??" That's how it feels when you first see it. It feels more like a very clean flatscreen than a LCD. The ATI 9700 with 256 RAM has taken every game and application I've thrown at it so far and has spanked them like bad puppies. I'm currently playing Painkiller and the Sager has so far blown away my desktops with Nvidia chipsets. (This is my first ATI..man I never knew what I was missing)
Sound
The sound system is just fine. I opted not to get the Subwoofer because I thought I would use the TV tuner more (don't get me wrong the Tuner works great!) but I ended up ordering the Subwoofer later anyway because I'm going to be away from cable TV a lot more than I will be near it so I figured why not. The sound is quite full and rich for a laptop, and not bad at all when plugged into my Altec Lansing Tuner system I'm using to drive my room audio now. No complaints here on the sound at all.
Networking
Flawless. The built in WiFi card is rock solid and I haven't had any problems connecting with a strong signal to my WAP from as far away as 100ft. Setup is a breeze as well. Bluetooth was painless and works great. I'm currently using a bluetooth mouse and keyboard with the 8790 right now and it has worked perfectly. One thing though...the drivers for the Bluetooth that come stock with the laptop actually do not allow for HID devices to be detected so you cannot hook up a Keyboard or Mouse with the BT until you go to http://www.billionton.com and download the H revision. That took all of 2 mins and my mouse and kbd were detected right away with the new driver. The LAN port works just fine, although it is not detected by XP during install, it is painless as well to install and I recommend it as the first and only device you set up until you get SP1 downloaded if you are doing your own OS install. No comment on the modem I haven't used it yet lol.
Drives
I debated ordering Dual 60GB 7200 RPM in a RAID 0 array. I didn't..then decided I wanted them so I ordered a second Hitachi a day after I got the 8790. I finished setting up the array last night. Easy as pie. Just make sure you have a USB floppy drive for the SCSI drivers. I now have a 120GB Raid 0 array and it's fast...very fast. The drives are super quiet and they really haven't increased the heat as far as I can tell.
The DVD+R world fine, although it is by far the noisiest of all the devices it still isn't all that bad. Does get hot though...watch you fingers. The battery isn't bad...it's not good..but it's not bad. You have to keep reminding yourself this is not really meant to be a pure mobile batter driven machine. An hour of battery life per session seems to be about normal...and that's fine for me..I won't use it as more than a UPS anyway.
Fans and Heat
DISCLAIMER: I am not recommending you do anything that may potentially void your warranty. I am simply providing info on the modifications I have made. If you fry your laptop I cannot be held responsible.
Ok with that out of the way let me say the first thing I did when I got this baby out of the box was to pop the CPU compartment cover, pull the head pipes and get rid of that piece of thermal tape. I spent about an hour cleaning the heat sink and processor shield with q-tips and alcohol, until I had removed all residue from the stock heat thermal tape. I then applied Arctic Silver 5 and replaced all the parts. My 8790 before Arctic SIlver was Idling at about 46 degrees (Mobmeter.exe) with no load. After Artic Silver as of today I have idled at 36 degrees for almost 2 hours today. So, as you can see the heat can be managed quite well, but again..you need to know what you are doing and talk to your rep first if you are worried about this and your warranty. I'm a speed and OC nut so I was going to do it regardless heh.
As far as "hotspots" on the chassis..I really haven't noticed any that were unbearable. It does get warm to the touch, but not painful by any means. The hottest area is probably the area just near the 7-1 Card Reader (which works great I might add). I wouldn't put the powerbrick in your shorts ..but it's not dangerously hot either.
Ok this is longwinded so I'm going to cut it short a bit by giving you some of 3dMark03 Bench results.
I currently have my GPU OC'ed to 459/290 and it's super stable. The GPU comes waaaayyy underclocked IMO.
With the RAID 0, GPU slightly OC'ed and the arctic silver treatment I have hit 3766 3dMark points consitently and still have much more to go on the GPU if I wanted to push it. I'm confident I could crack 4k if I really tried...
To put this in perspective..you guys may want to ask some of those proud new Area-51 owners what kinda scores they are getting. Just remember not to act smug when you consistently beat their 3dmark scores by 600 and 700 points... .
Conclusion
Wow...that's really all I can say. I'm sold on the Sager line now. This is a real high performance, highpower, true desktop replacement. It lived up to it's reputation and then surpassed it.
Ok shutting up for now.
Jason
First off a little bit about me so you can guage for yourself my knowledge of PC's Laptops, and Technology in general. I've been in the computer business for the better part of 18 years, and currently I'm a MCT, MCSE and teach everything from A+ to the full server 2003 pathway. I'm a VERY picky shopper when it comes to PC's and I was very wary at first of a "Desktop Replacement" in a Laptop footprint. Well...I'm about to be proven wrong.
Here are the specs I ordered:
Sager 8790
3.0 GHZ HT CPU
1 GB Dual Channel Ram
1 60GB 7200 RPM drive
TV Tuner
WSXGA+ Screen
Bluetooth
2x DVD+R Drive
Now for the review:
This thing is truly amazing. So far it's outdone just about any possible expectations I ever had. I'm going to break it down step by step.
Display
The 1600x1050 display is an absolute beauty. I've had numerous people stop and watch over my shoulder and they all seem to say the same thing.. "That's a LCD??" That's how it feels when you first see it. It feels more like a very clean flatscreen than a LCD. The ATI 9700 with 256 RAM has taken every game and application I've thrown at it so far and has spanked them like bad puppies. I'm currently playing Painkiller and the Sager has so far blown away my desktops with Nvidia chipsets. (This is my first ATI..man I never knew what I was missing)
Sound
The sound system is just fine. I opted not to get the Subwoofer because I thought I would use the TV tuner more (don't get me wrong the Tuner works great!) but I ended up ordering the Subwoofer later anyway because I'm going to be away from cable TV a lot more than I will be near it so I figured why not. The sound is quite full and rich for a laptop, and not bad at all when plugged into my Altec Lansing Tuner system I'm using to drive my room audio now. No complaints here on the sound at all.
Networking
Flawless. The built in WiFi card is rock solid and I haven't had any problems connecting with a strong signal to my WAP from as far away as 100ft. Setup is a breeze as well. Bluetooth was painless and works great. I'm currently using a bluetooth mouse and keyboard with the 8790 right now and it has worked perfectly. One thing though...the drivers for the Bluetooth that come stock with the laptop actually do not allow for HID devices to be detected so you cannot hook up a Keyboard or Mouse with the BT until you go to http://www.billionton.com and download the H revision. That took all of 2 mins and my mouse and kbd were detected right away with the new driver. The LAN port works just fine, although it is not detected by XP during install, it is painless as well to install and I recommend it as the first and only device you set up until you get SP1 downloaded if you are doing your own OS install. No comment on the modem I haven't used it yet lol.
Drives
I debated ordering Dual 60GB 7200 RPM in a RAID 0 array. I didn't..then decided I wanted them so I ordered a second Hitachi a day after I got the 8790. I finished setting up the array last night. Easy as pie. Just make sure you have a USB floppy drive for the SCSI drivers. I now have a 120GB Raid 0 array and it's fast...very fast. The drives are super quiet and they really haven't increased the heat as far as I can tell.
The DVD+R world fine, although it is by far the noisiest of all the devices it still isn't all that bad. Does get hot though...watch you fingers. The battery isn't bad...it's not good..but it's not bad. You have to keep reminding yourself this is not really meant to be a pure mobile batter driven machine. An hour of battery life per session seems to be about normal...and that's fine for me..I won't use it as more than a UPS anyway.
Fans and Heat
DISCLAIMER: I am not recommending you do anything that may potentially void your warranty. I am simply providing info on the modifications I have made. If you fry your laptop I cannot be held responsible.
Ok with that out of the way let me say the first thing I did when I got this baby out of the box was to pop the CPU compartment cover, pull the head pipes and get rid of that piece of thermal tape. I spent about an hour cleaning the heat sink and processor shield with q-tips and alcohol, until I had removed all residue from the stock heat thermal tape. I then applied Arctic Silver 5 and replaced all the parts. My 8790 before Arctic SIlver was Idling at about 46 degrees (Mobmeter.exe) with no load. After Artic Silver as of today I have idled at 36 degrees for almost 2 hours today. So, as you can see the heat can be managed quite well, but again..you need to know what you are doing and talk to your rep first if you are worried about this and your warranty. I'm a speed and OC nut so I was going to do it regardless heh.
As far as "hotspots" on the chassis..I really haven't noticed any that were unbearable. It does get warm to the touch, but not painful by any means. The hottest area is probably the area just near the 7-1 Card Reader (which works great I might add). I wouldn't put the powerbrick in your shorts ..but it's not dangerously hot either.
Ok this is longwinded so I'm going to cut it short a bit by giving you some of 3dMark03 Bench results.
I currently have my GPU OC'ed to 459/290 and it's super stable. The GPU comes waaaayyy underclocked IMO.
With the RAID 0, GPU slightly OC'ed and the arctic silver treatment I have hit 3766 3dMark points consitently and still have much more to go on the GPU if I wanted to push it. I'm confident I could crack 4k if I really tried...
To put this in perspective..you guys may want to ask some of those proud new Area-51 owners what kinda scores they are getting. Just remember not to act smug when you consistently beat their 3dmark scores by 600 and 700 points... .
Conclusion
Wow...that's really all I can say. I'm sold on the Sager line now. This is a real high performance, highpower, true desktop replacement. It lived up to it's reputation and then surpassed it.
Ok shutting up for now.
Jason
