gsferrari's Sager **5670** review - Page 3

I got my 5670 about a week ago... I picked it up directly from Sager but bought it at PC Torque (Thanks Adam!). Anyhow, my story is long... I purchased from a different company the equivalent to the 5660 about 2.5 weeks ago with the 2.8 CPU, UXGA etc.

When I found out that the 5670 came out, I immediately returned the 5660 being that it was within the 15 day 'no questions asked' refund policy. I wont mention the company I got it from as it is not relevant... They are very good too and I actually had 2 5660's... The first one I got had a bunk screen, no dead pixels but you could see white light coming out of the left upper side of the screen, it really looked bad against a black background. It was replaced for a brand new unit. When I went down to exchange the 5660 (April 4th, 2003), I asked everyone who worked there when the 'new' 5660 was coming out with the 3.06 HT and 128MB vid card. NO ONE knew anything about it, or so they said...

The next day I see the thread here about the 5670 shipping that very next Monday! I was pissed! I called the place where I got the 5660 and returned it, they were great and said that they would have done the same thing. I would have bought the 5670 from them as well but they didn't know when they would be 'ready'. I told them that Sager was already shipping them, what is the holdup? I was told that the units were still in 'testing'. I thought WTF? Doesnt Clevo test the damn things before THEY release them?

They could not give me a date on when I could receive the 5670 and I had to have it this week as I am going away in 2 days and I knew I had to install everything etc. So, I gave Adam a call, on Wed the 6th and ordered my 5670 but told him I wanted to pick it up directly from Sager and that yes I will pay the tax, can't wait (literally) for it to ship to PC Torque then back to me. I ordered the thing Wed at 6PM PST, so it was 9PM at PC Torque. Adam said it wouldn't be ready til Friday (2 days later) and I said, 'cool'.

Tony from Sager called me at 2PM on THURSDAY to say, 'it's ready'! Hows that for service! Friday morning I picked it up, installed everything, and I could not be happier! This is a beautiful machine that, except for the intake fans, looks identical to the 5660 it replaced.

Mine has the following specs:

3.06 HT
UXGA
128MB 9000 (Don't all 5670's?)
Dual Battery
60 Gig 5400
512 MB Ram
DVD/CD-RW

I gotta say the HT (at least for me) makes a HUGE difference. I do web design/graphics (lots of photoshop) and the 3.06 HT feels MUCH faster than the 2.8 I had. Don't really notice much difference between the 64MB and the 128MB vid card though. The UXGA screens are truely remakable, by far the best laptop screen I have EVER seen. If you set up XP Pro the right way with fonts and icons and such, they don't look too small, not for me anyway.

Well that's my story, hope I don't bore anyone...

Quite the contrary, it was a great read! Thanks for sharing!

BTW: if you haven't already (or are waiting a bit) go to www.resellerratings.com and add your ratings to both PC Torque and the "other" merchant (good or bad, for either).

-myrkat

Okay! I have my review up! take a look!


http://sagerforums.com/forums/showth...&threadid=2789

Here is my story...

Sometime shortly after Christmas, I started to seriously consider buying a new laptop. I've currently got a Dell Lattitude LM-133ST which is 7 years old (and still working like a champ) and a Celeron 533 O/C'd to 707 for my desktop. The desktop isn't too bad - I've got a 64 Meg GeForce card in it, and it runs what I need it to. But I wanted some portable power, so...

I of course thought of Dell right away. My old lappy was still working, although horribly slow and outdated for the type of things I wanted to do (I like to game, I won't lie, but I also design gauges and panels and other sorts of aircraft/airfield mods for Flight Sim 2002 which require graphics programs and compilers). My Dell had served me well so far. I looked at the 8200. Seemed pretty sweet. I was pretty much set on getting it, when I stumbled onto the Alienware Area 51-M.

Wow! Desktop power in a laptop! But the price. Ouch. Maybe I could swing it if saved a bit longer. Hmmm... So as you can see (and this is referenced in another thread), Alienware served an advertising purpose as it led me to discover Clevo. This in turn brought me to these forums.

After the first day of lurking and reading all the back posts I could, I had pretty much made up my mind to get a Sager. So from mid January until last week, I wrestled with the 5660 vs. 8887 issues, decided on the 5660, found out the 5670 was coming out soon at some point in the future and would be HT capable, and ended up getting the 5670 from PCTorque.

Here is what I got:

2.66Ghz/512 ram/40 gig drive/dvd-cdrw/128 meg video/UXGA/XP Pro

I didn't go with the 3.06 purely due to the extra cash, but I admit that one of the reasons I was waiting to get the 5670 was for the ability to someday (I've had my last lappy for 7 years, remember) upgrade to the HT chip. So my plan is to wait a year or more, and then find the 3.06 at a computer show for a steal (it may take longer, but that's okay because the whole idea of an upgradeable laptop is just plain cool).

I also went ahead and ordered the Deluxe Targus Backpack, which is just plain huge. I absolutely love it. The pictures Adam has in the forums don't do it justice. It's beautiful and exceptionally well made.

My machine shipped the day I ordered it! I know that doesn't happen with other companies (ie Dell - who takes as long as 2.5 weeks to get a machine out the door).

The machine itself is gorgeous. I love the color and am excited to be able to give it my own touch by putting something under the wrist-rest - I've experimented and almost have a template to use for that purpose.

From the standpoint of speed, well, this thing is unreal. Of course, my other hardware is getting long in the tooth. It chews through apps. My C compiler (gcc) works fine in XP and builds programs very quickly.

And the screen! Man, it is crisp. The viewing angles are incredible. Talk about eye-candy.

I can't say enough about this computer. I'm very happy with it so far.

And PCTorque is fantastic to work with. I spoke with Troy on the phone the day I ordered my machine, and he was very helpful (even though he was the "new guy" at the time). I'm a computer guy, and this is exactly the type of company I was looking for. They're small enough to be in touch with their customers, there is no BS involved on any level, and they know what they're talking about. It was pleasure, and I highly recommend them to anyone.

--ChromeHawk

Nice post, ChromeHawk. When you get settled in with your new joy, head on over to Resellerratings.com and post your impressions (good and bad) you had with PC Torque (your reseller).

Sounds like there isn't any "bad" - so in fairness, wait a week or so, just so you aren't posting super-positive reviews based on the "high" of the moment when getting a Sager (I had my high for about a month, though).

-myrkat

I just ordered my 5670 in the Netherlands, after cancelling one because it lacked the WideView Angle.

UXGA WideView
3,06 Ghz w/ HT
512 Mb
128 Mb M9 (like all 5670's)
40 Gb (5.400) more Mb is extremely expensive at the other end of the ocean (in the Netherlands, that is)
DVD-CD/RW Combo
Single battery

They say I have to wait approximately 3 wks before it arrives!
The longest 3 wks of my life...., so far.

OK, let's start at the beginning.
The Sager 5660 is called a Promedion 5600D and the 5670 is called 5600DS in the Netherlands (www.promedion.nl, how the do I post links in a message)
It's distributed by XS2 (www.xs2.com).
Now I know two resellers that sell them at very reasonable prices, but.....
- www.de-laptopper.nl (JeeBee Systems), I cancelled my order with them because they could not deliver the 5670 with the wide viewing angle screen (You guys must go crazy, because I have mentioned this screen in, let's see...., nearly EVERY post I submitted, but hey, now you know what I think is very important).
- www.computerpirates.com
No experience with this reseller, but the same 'problem' here: no WVA screen.
- www.degreef.nl
One experience, buying an ACER TM 634LC, bad screen, they directed me to the helpdesk of Acer, I don't know if that's a good or a bad way to help your clients, you be the judges. Let's just say I wasn't too happy about it.

Now for the 'reseller' I found. www.laptops.nl (Advance Technology). This company claims to be the business-reseller of clevo in the Netherlands. Don't know if it's true, send a mail to clevo informing about this claim, I'm waiting for an answer.
They usually sell to businesses only. But I contacted the sales manager and he garantueed that they had connections with clevo so they could deliver the 400:1 contrast screen (WVA) in the 5670.
Now I placed my order there (I still have to fax the 'contract' but that's only a matter of time).
It's a bit more expensive than the other resellers but I'm getting the WVA-screen (I hope ).
They say it has a delivery time of 2-4 wks

That's my experience so far with resellers of Sager in the Netherlands. When I receive my machine I will try to post so more, maybe, if I can find the time, a small review of both the machine and the reseller.

Got my answer on the link-problem right away.......

dumb question

Any possibility of upgrading the 5660 to the 5670? I just bought my 5660, and I love it , but I need a bigger video card, 128+ coz I'm doing lots of stuff with Maya.

Man I should have waited. Oh well.

I'm with you dude

Anyway I can trade in or upgrade my 5670-s with 2.8ghz for the 5670-V with HT? I'm still kicking myself for not waiting and actually paying more than what the 5670 is now. I've only had the computer for 11 days

awesome

Oh man that's awesome. I mean don't get me wrong, I love my sager and I don't regret getting it for my birthday which was in March....don't think I could have waited for the 5670 Lol.

Yah I think I'll hold off for now, and save up some more cash. Thanks for your speedy response.

LOL when I was 12 I probably would have used a laptop as a sheild or something

still a 5660 believer

LOL , I don't feel so left out anymore...(well I do) but you 5670 guys don't have custom color paint jobs!!!!

Even If they did have the custom paint job option for the 5670, I would of stood with the default coloring.

The blue on the 5670 is one of my favorite colors, guess it's a matter of preference

silver?

I thought the 5670 is silver?

It's blue and silver, more silver though.