If you couldn't get a sager

I refuse to vote on this poll, on principle!!!!

Why not:
If you had to throw away your money, where would you throw it?

In a garbage can.

In a river.

On the side of the road.

Give it to our politicians.

IBM is good...no doubt

Let's set aside the fact that Sager is not an option. He is asking a question and needs some help.


Hands down go for the Dell.

Fastest video card at the moment

WUXGA option. This is a preference , but I love these type of screens. Great for watching DVD's

If warranty type coverage is a key for you. Dell has completecare which is an add on plan to their standard warranties. It basically covers accidental damage which its hard to explain how valuable a plan like that is, until you really need to use it. For example, if you somehow manage to break your LCD screen , instead of Dell telling you that "it isn't under the warranty" because you have complete care you would actually get it replaced free of charge or they would give you another laptop if they couldn't fix the problem.


Despite what alot of people say, I like the style of the Dell 8500. If you are picky and don't like the blue borders, get the d800 which is all grey and much better looking. It has snap on color choices so if you change your mind about a color you can just snap it on.


Up to 2gb of ram. Why you would want that much, and why you would pay Dell to do it is beyond me, but having the option is nice.


All in all, I am only recommending Dell because you said Sager is out of the question. Personally, you are throwing your money away unless you feel somewhat more secure in sticking with "name brands" which is silly because there isn't really such a thing as we know as name brands.


Finally, if you can WAIT. Too many new things coming soon it isn't worth buying now.

We have tons of Dells at work.. and part of my job is supporting them. From my experience I wouldn't necessarily rank them all that high. My biggest complain is of rom drives that vibrate everything when spinning up. It's not that they fall apart... just get enough problems popping up that I'd want to check out other brands first.

I'm not overally happy with Dell's service/support, but I can't say I've dealt with much of any other laptop companies for support so it's hard for me to compare.

Personally, I'd still look at IBM or maybe Toshiba. Though really I don't see why not go with Sager.

Apple is not bad either...

It would certainly please her dad show him a shiny Aluminum/Titanium laptop with a 17" screen..

Buy it for her and keep it yourself...thats a great deal in anyone's book..

I do love my Dell inpirion 8200 though. Has the 64mb gf4 440go. 1.8 384mb of ram. 40gb hd dvd/cdrw. 15.4" screen. xuvga. firewire, svideo 2 usb ports. Runs 3dmark 2001 at 5700. I play ut2k3 on it, more than my desktop. I run ut2k3 at 1600x1200 full vid settings, and it runs smooth as butta. But like the others, my money would get thrown at a sager first. That is my next laptop, soon as the m10 comes out. Im hoping for a June or July breaking in, and review of the sager. Ill be going with the 8887 full blown. Im getting every option.( company is paying for it muhahaa) Just waiting to see what breaks in June or July. But second I would get a nice new dell 8500 if I couldnt have the sager

It would be a toss up while I would wait for enough money to get an Apple.

Seriously, from what I've heard, the Dell 8200's have tons of problems. I know 3 people that have them and they've all had to send them back for repairs. One guy, multiple times. And their "award winning tech support" is just some guy who learned English last week. A tip if you're buying a Dell is get the least ram you can, because, damn, they like to rip you off on ram. The 8500 looks really nice, especially the refurbished ones for their lower price. Can't comment on its reliability however.

IBM is too expensive, imho. My roomate got one a few months ago for about $1700 and my Sager absolutely smokes it, plus has a much nicer screen. His is a 1.8ghz with a radeon 7500 mobility.

For under $2000 I would get a Compaq or an HP. I was very close to purchasing one before I discovered Sager. The price is great, I like their keyboard layout more than my Sager and my old laptop was an HP so it would make sense to buy them again. The thing that really put me off was when I emailed them asking a question about shared memory and they sent me an email back saying "in under 24 hours we will send a reply to you". 3 seconds after that first message came another, they just have some program to check for keywords in the text and send a reply based on that. Guess it's in beta stage, 'cuz you guys missed the word "notebook" in my email!! I'm not interested in a Pavilion desktop!! That was the only thing I heard back from them.

I never really looked into the other laptops too much so I can't comment on those.

It's a real shame that your girlfriend isn't allowed to get a Sager. When I first discovered them, I sent a couple emails to powernotebooks.com. They're really on top of the game and I highly recommend them. Then I discovered these forums and pctorque and went with them based on their lower prices and the fact that they also give top notch customer support. When I ordered from them, it was kind of strange since I knew *nobody* who had even heard of these computers. But I'm extremeley satisfied with my decision and must've told at least 10 people about how great Sagers are. When I tell people about what I got and for how much, their jaw drops! I think this is the best computer I've ever owned.

Dell or a Toshiba.

Toshiba Satellite laptops had a price drop recently and they are now just as good a deal as a HP/Compaq, only you won't be stuck with HP's infamous tech support and lousy FSB speed.

IBM would be good except for the price.

Sony laptops are also really expensive, but unlike a Dell or IBM I don't see anything that justifies the expense.

Gateway apparently has great tech support, which is good because you would need it badly to try and keep the lousy thing working.

I have spent way too many hours over the last 3 months pricing laptop computers... both in terms of quality, which can cause expense later, and outright cost of the system. Anyway, this is what I have found:

Compaq: Good quality machine for very few bucks-I am writing on my girlfriends presario 2500 now ($1200)-but it sucks hard for graphics and games. This is just a simple work machine. The same goes for all other compaq models I checked out.

Dell: You can get a great deal on an inspiron 8200 with a warranty on ebay, but they don't make them anymore. They replaced it with the 8500, which I have seen, and would never buy. The screen is 15.4 inches in the diagonal dimesion, but only 8 inches tall! This is an inch shorter than the average 15 inch laptop. It is really a DVD machine.

IBM: I have used IBM laptops at work, and know many avid IBM fans. They are great machines, but cost way way way more than I would ever want to spend. $2000 won't get you much when compared with the Sager 56XX series.

Toshiba: I wasn't impressed with the one I have used in the lab, but I can't say that goes for all I have seen.

HP: Really the same as Compaq. The two companies have merged, and both have poor graphics capabilities as I understand them.

SAGER: I am going to buy one in the next couple of months. They are hands down the best bang for buck available. I would suggest telling her dad to spend a few minutes looking over the sagerforum, and possibly talking with someone at PCtorque. Get a Sager in my opinnion.

Good luck.

If I couldn't get a Sager?
Then I'd get a Clevo
If I couldn't get a Clevo then I'd get a Prostar failing that then I'd get an ick Alienware



Curious: Why can't she get a Sager? Is it because daddy hasn't heard of the company before?

Send him to the following link and see if he still thinks the same
about the "name" brands.

"Let's talk about the concept of 'Name Brand' as it applies to laptop computers."

even the majority of the Dells are made by a different ODM named Compal.

Or you could be sneaky and ask him if he would be interested in a Quanta or a Compal. When he says no you can say, "Ok, so Dell and Sony are out."

My friend has a Toshiba and the screen is very nice. It has 1400x1050 resolution and really looks good.

If Sager were out of the picture then I would have to take the latest and greatest from Toshiba. You can see my other comments about Sony to get my feelings about that brand of laptop.

Agreed. If he wants a name brand laptop then your only choice is IBM since they are the only brand that makes their own laptops and doesn't buy them from an ODM.

Sager has been around since the 80's the place where I work started with Sagers as laptops. They are a quality laptop.

If he's worried about support tell him there's over 1000 people on the forum willing to help. You can ask a question here and get an answer sometime seconds later. If you call Dell your on the phone for hours.

If it were a desktop it would be a different story but we're talking laptops and Dell/Sony/Toshiba/HP don't build laptops.

I agree with the tech support comments posed by beakmyn. The discussion on this site has me convinced that Sager is the way to go. Why wait for a dell tech to inadequately answer my questions when I can get great help here--I own a Dell, and have every right to make that comment by the way. I am just waiting as long as possible before making the Sager laptop plunge. The longer I wait, the more I read. The more I read, the more I want a Sager. I am only waiting for the new 56XX line or 17 incher to come out. It is starting to hurt too.