SonicWind's 8790 Review

I like these reviews so much, I think I'll post my own. They do help in deciding to buy and how to configure and maintain. And they are just fun to read.

PCTorque Sager 8790-S


Summary
Ordered online: .... Tue, Jul 6 (early morning)
Order Confirmed: ... Tue, Jul 6 11:21 AM
Payment Method: .... Credit Card
Received Tracking: . Thu, Jul 08 10:25 AM
Scheduled Delivery:. Tue, Jul 13
Delivered: ......... Tue, Jul 13

Specs
Display ............ 17" WSXGA+ LCD (WideScreen 1680 X 1050)
Color: ............. Standard Factory
Processor: ......... P4 3.4GHZ Northwood CPU
RAM: ............... 1024MB 400DDR Dual Channel(2-512MB)
Main Hard Drive: ... 60GB 7200RPM
Media Drive: ....... 4X DVD+R/-R/RW/CD-RW
Bay 2 Hard Drive: .. Bracket for 2nd hard drive
TV Tuner/ Battery: . 12 Cell Li-Ion Smart battery
Floppy Drive: ...... External 3.5" Floppy Drive
Operating System: .. No Operating System
Spare AC Adapter: .. Spare AC Power Adapter
Car Adapter: ....... No
Port Replicator: ... No
Spare Battery: ..... 12 Cell Li-Ion Smart battery
Bluetooth: ......... Internal Bluetooth
Software Bundle: ... No
Office Software: ... No
Warranty: .......... 1 year warranty, lifetime tech support
Transit Coverage: .. 1 Year Shipping Coverage to Sager (US only)
Export Coverage: ... No
--------------------------------------------------------------
.................... $3022.00
UPS Ground: .......... $28.29
Total: ............. $3050.29

Waiting game is right. However, they did get my order out quickly, and my experience is UPS is always on time.

There are several reason I chose to buy this system.
1.) I haven't bought a notebook in nearly 9 months, and I just like to do that.
2.) When I first bought my existing Compaq x1000, noone else in my office had one, now there are many. (Although mine is the only one with a 1.7ghz and 1 gig of memory.
3.) RAID. This is the first notebook that I've come accross that I would consider buying that has RAID. (no offense 88xx owners) Harddrive access is got to be the #1 reason why notebooks are slower than desktops.
4.) 17inch screen. I saw the Sony 17 inch, that's sweet! I do wish the 8790 came in WUXGA, though.

Here are some reasons why I considered NOT buying an 8790:

• I'm not sure of the build quality or Sager's customer support.
  This forum and the 30 day guarantee are why I chose to give Sager and PCTorque a my business.
• The notebook is really large. I don't really care that much about weight.
  Basically the widescreen and the RAID options are why I chose to accept that.
• Battery life. Truth is I almost ever NEED more than 2 hours. On a plane. I'm hoping, once again, I can down clock the gpu, cpu and screen and stretch this out, but I don't have any expectations there, because it didn't work for the 5680 I tried out. I'd buy a Pentium M version if they had one, I'd sacrifice some cpu power to get longer battery life. I do a lot of just browsing and writing on my own time (he he, and at work a little) where I don't need processing power.

Now about my configuration.
I chose not to paint, because I'm just not that rich. The painted ones look so great, at least they do in the pictures.

I chose the Northwood 3.4 for a balance of speed and heat/power efficiency. I'm planning on attempting to severly underclock it to see what kind of battery efficiency increase I can get. I WILL have the fastest computer at work (desktop or notebook, maybe not server considering multi-processor). My bro just got a Smell Stinkeron 9100 with a 3 ghz. He wants to do a performance comparison. Heh, heh He will have the fastest notebook at work until Tuesday.

I chose 1 gig of ram, because that is really the minimum. I am a software developer and will be using this computer to develop and test applications. I ALWAYS have 10+ windows open at a time and several that are memory hogs like development programs and virtual machine windows. I'd prefer the 2 gig and hope to upgrade to that at some point, I just couldn't foot the bill right now.

I bought the Hitachi 7200 the week it came out as a public release. (Paid a premium for it.) This was the best upgrade I've ever made to a notebook. I can see not getting the 7200 if you're going RAID, but might as well go all out. I didn't see any heat increase or battery life degradation from this drive over another, either.

I wasn't initially going to get the DVD burner, because I have an external, but I decided it was just too cool to have it. I rip movies and am also doing back ups of other things like mp3 files.

I didn't buy a second 7200 rpm drive, because I already have one.

I went with the 12 cell battery because I do work unplugged regularly. I don't watch TV on my laptop and I don't care that much about having a subwoofer.

They also you MUST have the floppy to load the RAID drivers.

Spare AC Power adapter. I take my notebook to and from work everyday and use it both at home and at work. This will be a nice luxury I haven't had in a while.

Spare battery. Is it true I'll have to use a screw driver to change the battery? You know they don't let you bring screw drivers on airplanes anymore. I had a whole set confiscate one time. That sucked. Anyway, I plan to figure out something for this, maybe I'll get a tooth filed into the shape of a phillips head.

And speaking of tooth. Based on recommendations from this board, I've got one of those Illogitech bluetooth mice on order. So that's why I got bluetooth.

I wavered on that repair transit coverage. The thing that locked me in was that you can use it if you do the 30 day return thing. I've got some weird logic going on that if they know they have to pay for all shipping costs for repairs they'll be more sure to send me one that won't ever need any repairs!

Lastly, I shipped ground because I already over-spent myself! I used a credit card because I didn't want to wait any longer for cash to go through AND now I have a month to pay for it!

Well that's enough on the buying decision thing. Between now and Tuesday I plan to build one of those unattended install things to install the RAID without the floppy. If I get it to work, I'll post the steps. It just kills me I actually have to use a floppy for something!

I'll be posting pics after I get it, but I really can't compete with some of the great pictures that have been posted. I am going to try to get some that really help to get an acurate feel for the exact size of the notebook, including up against some other notebooks currently on the market.

Did you really read all that? Thanks!

First Impressions

Well, I got selected for jury this week, so I wasn't there when my 8790 arrived at work today. When I strolled into my office around 5:30 I hear my co-workers laughing. As I round the corner I see my boss's head sticking out of my cubicle and as I approach I see a crowd around my cubicle. I know they are planning something. Then I see one of my coworkers rushing out of the cubicle area with a curious box in his hands. He looks at me with a bland look like he's just running a usual errand. I have to hand that to him, it was a great poker face. I proceed to my cubicle as I say, "Josh, bring that here right now, or I'll kill you." I figured that was appropriate being that I was just returning from court. I arrive at my cubicle to find my boss stuffing the outer Sager box with phone books. It's fun catching people in the act! "Ah sh*t, he caught us."

Now for the actual first impressions. Well, it's BIG. I wasn't really sure how this would impact me. I'd seen the Sony 17 incher and looked at all the 8790 pictures online. I would say the actual impression of size was in between as large as I imagined it could be and as small as I'd wished it would be in terms of slimness and overall impression. It's really wide. I'm looking forward to working with such a larger screen.

It IS HEAVY. I don't really care that much about heaviness. It's a nicety to have a light laptop, but one I can do without.

OK, holy sh!t, I just got the display drivers installed and the display set properly. This is like having a an IMAX screen in your lap! Yes, I am using it in my lap. It doesn't seem to be too hot. Lucky for me I guess, my 8790 seems neither hot, nor loud.

This thing is bad-@ss. Everybody who has seen it says so. But I'm afraid it is just too hot too work with. Funny thing is, the back and bottom don't seem that hot, even with it on my lap, it's the area around the mouse pad and parm rests that make it unbearable. It kills me, because it is so great in so many other ways, screen, speed and multitude of features, but I'm going to have to return it. The other major fault for me, though not most of the rest of you, apparently, is the battery being screwed into the notebook. I knew about this before hand, but I didn't realize the 2 of the screws were deeply recessed (about 3/4 inch). This means I can't change the battery on an airplane because they don't allow screw drivers on planes. I've had surrender mine before.