The Sager Guide. - Page 4

Which HD is right for me: the faster 7200rpm 60gig, the elcheapo standard or even none and then buy the one I want cheaper somewhere else, the 5400rpm 80 or even 100gig that's available in someplaces and is argued to be as fast or faster than the 7200rpm 60gig because of its larger platters and less head travel?
Also, is the speed gained by a Raid0 array worth the extra noise, heat, breakdown potential and increased price? I am also considering the Raid1 array which has the same problems but instead of an increase in speed, you have a decrease. However you do have the advantage of experiencing no down time if one drive crashes. Wouldn't it be better to simply buy an external drive to keep your data backed up on, because with the Raid1 array you just have a duplicate of any mistakes made on the primary drive anyway and an external is cheaper and will probably outlive the notebook?

HDs

Thanks Mayaman2
Don't know what we'd do without U!

My turn for advise from the pros

Sorry to bother, but I've been going crazy about choosing a laptop for school. I'm a computer science major who does a lot of coding and a little web development, and the time has come for me to have to bring my work to school rather than just emailing it. I've read nothing but good things about Sager so I thought I'd inquire about what you think is best for me.

Things I am looking for:
* A 17" widescreen. Decent resolution too. Just easier to code when you can see a lot of your work at once.
* A numpad a.k.a 10-key.
* Good customer service.

Things I do NOT need:
* Blazing fast processor. I really only need about 2Ghz, but all the 17" loptops Ive seem are really fast. If it will run my code faily fast I"m happy.
* Killer gaming. Needs to be a code machine, not a toy. I am working on Quake2 and 3 mods for school, but the requirements for those are pretty low.

Things that are unnaceptable:
* Loud fans. I am still in school and I've heard some laptops (Sagers I think) kick on their fans in the middle of lecture and disturb people. Not cool.
* Horrible battery life. Need to get through a class or two without plugging in to the wall. At least 2 hour life.


I've been looking at some other brands, but each has some things I don't like:
* Sony Vaio A-190. Great screen and battery life, but no 10-key and it's expensive (2300 - 2600 bucks). My #1 choice at the moment though.
* Gateway M675x. Has a 10-key, but horrible battery life and non-existant customer support.
* HP zd7000 series. Ugly and the resolution sucks.


Which Sagers, or any other brands for that matter, would anyone suggest I look into? Cheaper is better, I am a broke college student after all. Thanks

-2CanSam

Hi 2CanSam, I'm also a CSE college student(Computer Engineer to be exact). I also do lots of coding too. I really don't think you need that 17" screen. 15.4" screen is way more than enough for Crimson Editor(the C editor I use). Also, I know how coding is like.... you would not want that WUXGA... too small... hard to see my codes. So I went w/ the WSXGA.

I don't know what you mean by numpad 10-key, but my Sager NP3790 has a numpad simulated on the right side of the QWERTY keyboard.(hold down Fn key w/ left hand and punch numbers with right hand like on a standard desktop keyboard)

My opinion is that the Sager NP3790 will suit your need.

* like I say, I don't think you need 17" since my 15.4" has lots of spaces left blank with my coding.
* if that numpad I describe suits you, which I think is VERY close to an actual numpad on the desktop keyboard, then that matches.
* can't go wrong w/ PCT or DL. Or even Sagers themself.

* You can always go with the 1.5Ghz Pentium M. I personally got the 1.7Ghz.(to get comparable speed from a PM and a P4 is to take the PM speed and multiply by a factor of 1.8 and you will have a comparable P4 clockspeed.)
* It's not killer gaming, but it fares extremely well.

* Fans go on no doubt, but I don't see it as a problem. I've taken this baby to class all the time, no disturbance. Fans go on for very short bursts. Only remain on long if you do rigorous video.(i.e. gaming)
* I have the 12 cell battery and it lasts over 4 hours.

Total cost with that 1.5Ghz would be around $1500 or less depending on the options and stuff. Also 1.5Ghz should produce a lil less heat than mine so it may not require as many bursts of fan as mine.

PS: 2300-2600 is just absurd for a laptop.... imo...

I disagree with the whole integrated num pad thing, those things suck bad. Having a real 10key is almost a must for me as a coder. I'm not in school, but have been employeed by IBM as a distributed application developer and several smaller web firms. I don't know how people use the numbers along the top of th key board, I absolutely require a 10-key on my developement machines. From what I've seen the 17" are the only models that have them. And 17" isn't quite enough realestate for a full blown IDE like Vis Studio. All my past Dev machines have had a 21" monitor running MAX supported res just fit all the debug/object explorer/several code windows/etc. etc. where you can veiw them all without having to shuffle crap around. 17" would be required for me as well and will be a requirement for my DTR. However for bringing stuff to and from class and doing normal lecture notes and what not I'd say get something light w/ better battery life and save the muscle machine for a DTR, just my 2 cents.

Of course your a student and on a more restrictive budget, so something middle of the road would be in order, I'm getting a 3790 for a main mobile machine that I will take to conferences, meetings, etc. etc. and waiting for the AMD 64 + PCI-E machine for my DTR. the 3790 seems to be a popular best of both worlds machine, only a 15" screen but decent resolution to go with it, no keypad either...possibly get a usb key pad? With the Intel price drop comming up I'm guessing you could get a 2.0 Pentium M for close to $2k from PC Torque. Might check into that one.

Heating Issues

Hi folks,

I have a (now) ancient Sager NP 5620-V laptop (my 2nd Sager) with major overheating issues. It was so bad that the computer would shut off after a few minutes if I was doing anything at all that was even slightly CPU intensive. Sager sent me a bios fix which fixed the shutdown problem, but instead of shutting down, the CPU would get throttled down to a trickle. It is basically unusable at these throttling speeds. Going to standby and then powering back up clears the throttling (the throttle doesn't clear automatically even if you let the machine idle for a long time), but it doesn't take long to go back into throttle mode if I'm running a game, or photoshop or whatever.

I've always questioned the wisdom of putting all of the cooling fans on the bottom of the machine, which does nothing but heat up the surface upon with the laptop rests. After a few minutes, there's no longer an effective external hotsink to evacuate the thermal release. Even elevating the notebook a few inches from the surface doesn't prevent this. (I've also done my due diligence by opening up the access cover to ensure there wasn't excessive dust build-up or anything inhibiting cooling air flow).

I think the power/value ratio of Sager notebooks are outstanding, and I'm in the market for a replacement, but I'm very wary of the overheating issue. Chip speeds have only increased; more and more devices are being jammed into these machines making cooling a big deal. I don't want to spend 4 grand on a machine that's going to overheat, not allowing me to run it at full bore when I need to.

Anyway, I give you that backstory to ask if later/newer Sager models have had this problem? Are my concerns justified for the current product line, or has Sager effectively addressed this issue?

Thank ya!