This Baby Is Awesome!!

I am in total awe over my new 8790. I just received it this morning at 9:30am but I had to wait a few hours before I could actually take it out of the box and set it up.

First, let me say that I am totally impressed with the Sager sales dept. I placed the order for this laptop online on Wednesday and asked for overnight delivery (since I will be using this for work for the time being). I received a confirmation phone call within 15 minutes. The sales rep made sure the laptop got delivered to me today - 2 days later!

Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced my digital camera, so I was unable to take any pictures from the unopened box stage (I just couldn't wait any longer to open the box). But as soon as I do find it I will post some pictures.

Everything was packed neatly inside. My AC Adapter and spare AC were packed in foam inside the laptop bag they provide. All the other accessories (CDs, remote, connectors, manual, etc.) were all in the front zippered part of the bag.

Before turning it on, I only connected two things - my Logitech Cordless MX Duo and the AC adapter.

It was pretty easy to set up and it very quickly found my wireless router connection. That was pretty cool! It also immediately recognized my wireless mouse and keyboard.

Once in Windows, I was able to setup and connect to my home network, and get right onto the Internet. I haven't had a chance to see how the TV Tuner works or to see how well it plays DVDs but I will try to do that later tonight. This 17" screen is incredible! I had a 19" monitor for my desktop and this one seems so much brighter and bigger.

This is one great machine. If there is anyone out there reading these reviews and trying to decide which manufacture or model to purchase, let me say, you won't be disappointed in the 8790.

Time to go play with my new toy .... more review posts to follow

Thanks bigbadbns,
Unfortunately, I will not be able to use this laptop for gaming until my work contract is finished in 3 months. But that will be when the real fun begins! I can't wait until I am able to really test out the gaming capability of this lappy.

UPDATED Review

Sorry it took so long to continue with this review, but here goes...

I had to take the laptop into the office on Friday to have some networking software installed for work and all the IT guys were drooling all over it. They are planning to make Sager their standard over Dell...

I got some good news though. My information was wrong on whether I could play games on my laptop or not. I actually CAN play games! Since my old desktop wasn't up to speed to play the latest and greatest, I went off to Best Buy to pick up a new game. I decided on PainKiller and played it last night for the first time. What a game! The graphics are incredible on this laptop. I didn't change any settings and gameplay was flawless.

As I have seen mentioned in other posts, the left palm rest does seem to get heated up at times, but the only time it really bothered me was when I was playing PainKiller last night. I'll probably just use the wireless keyboard during gameplay to resolve that.

Yesterday I decided to unplug the laptop from the AC Adapter when it was fully charged to bring it downstairs and see how long the battery would last. As soon as I unplugged it, I noticed the percentage dropped to 97%. I played a game while unplugged, "Once Upon a Knight", and probably within an hour noticed the battery icon flashing. I'm not complaining though - this is a desktop replacement, it wasn't made to be used solely on battery.

maniacle nerd: the specs are:

NP8790-C
P4 3.2E Ghz
1024 MB PC3200 SDRAM
80 GB (5400) HDD
External Floppy Drive
4x DVD +/- R/RW
TV Tuner with Remote and 8-cell Battery
Windows XP Professional
Extra AC Adapter
and every else that comes standard on it!

Total cost with next day shipping: $2937


Well hope this helps those of you looking to buy a new laptop. I finally found my digital camera yesterday, so I will post some pictures within the next day or so.

UPDATED Review: Pictures Posted!

I have FINALLY posted pictures! They can be found here:

http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=30984


I have had this laptop for almost a week now and I must say that I am enjoying it immensely! Wireless is working great, no problems with any programs running on it, and games are awesome to play on here.

When I took the pictures of the laptop with my digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix 3100, I took the card out of the camera and stuck it right in the slot on the side of the laptop. I opened Windows Explorer and selected the drive for the card slot and I was able to see all the photos on the card and copy them all to my hard drive. That is a great feature of this laptop that I am very happy with since I happen to take a lot of photos.

I have not done any benchmarking as I feel it has been done by some in this forum and does not need to be done again. I did however install MobileMeter on it to keep an eye on the temps. Right now, with no Fan Blast, the HDD Temp is 45C and the CPU Temp is 51C. If I put the Fan Blast on, it will usually drop down to at least the 30s.

I immediately purchased and installed ZoneAlarm, Norton AV and PestPatrol, so I have not had any issues with viruses or spyware showing up on my machine.

Overall this is an incredible machine and well worth every penny I put into it!