8887 - review after 5 months

Excellent review Keal!

I have had my 8887 since February (coming up on 7 months, wow how time files).

Basically, like you I do everything on it - even the "serious work" in addition to games, music, etc.

I type quite a bit as well, but do not have long fingernails, so the keyboard has no noticable wear anywhere.

I have monkeyed with it via driver installs (video) and software RAID, HT-enabled/disabled, etc. and it's a good workhorse.

Similar to you, I have never used the TV Tuner, the Sony Memory Stick slot, or the external VGA/parallel ports.

I have used the serial, firewire and USB ports extensively. I also use the PCMCIA slot (just one, though) and have only used the front panel AudioDJ thing once or twice... about as often as I used the crappy internal speakers.

I do use the s/pdif out for audio (4.1 setup) and the Infrared port to sync my Palm Tungsten-T, as well as send my wife files (just for experiment, as the wifi network is much faster).

The internal wireless (802.11b) has worked flawlessly, I tried to upgrade to 802.11g via Kramer's post, and Windows recognized the miniPCI card but I do not think it was compatible with the internal antenna (it didn't work, I'm back on 802.11b).

I have burned many CD's and DVDs (external Sony all-in-one for DVDs) and regularly use the firewire port. USB devices: optical mouse (matching paintjob) and sometimes an external HD (when I was comparing firewire to usb2).

I rip/encode mp3's a lot (have over 40GB, and about 10% of my CD collection ripped - it's a painfully slow process when you have almost 1,000 CDs).

Use it for financial bookkeeping (both personal and for the two non-profits that I'm treasurer for), do the typical letters, spreadsheets, etc. in addition to the websurfing (1.5/768 DSL baby!).

But mostly: Battlefield 1942 w/ Desert Combat mod. That's the app that gets the most attention. Nothing like kicking back in the la-z-boy and blowin' stuff up!

I do not use the battery much at all, so my battery life is just over 1 hour when I do use it to condition it. But I do not condition it regularly enough, so it's pretty bad. I accept this, and will have no problem when the time comes to buy a new battery...

I've also added a second HD (see my .sig below) and that went off w/o a hitch (basically).

The mp3 player that came with mine was a lemon, but Sager replaced it w/o any difficulties. It works, but I use it for an SD card reader/writer and not a source of audio (I have an iPOD for that).

One stuck pixel (red) but it's in the lower left and is hard to notice (except on a "black" screen).

Overall, I am really happy with it. My kids love it (especially the color) and I would definately buy one again (w/o the tuner, but with the mp3 player/card reader).

I've only lightly traveled with it, so it's in prem-o condition; and I am pretty anal about taking care of my stuff, so I do keep it as cherry as possible.

-myrkat

Great reviews guys, nice to see what people think of them/how their holding up after having them for a while.

8886

I got my 8886 end of last year. I absolutely love it. I do CAD work and its my main machine. And yes, I do heavy lifting CAD as I use a unique 3D modeling technique in my architectural practice. I use the machine for just about everything you can. CAD, spreadsheets, word processing, net-surfing, video and audio. Its never let me down. I don't play games much.

As for the facilities I don't use, the main items are the front panel CD dj, like Keal, I have it all in mp3 on my hard drives, and the Sony memory stick. I haven't used the PS-2 ports either.

The stuff I do use are the USB and PCMCIA (extensively), the parallel port (until I networked my old Canon BJC 4559, but its still useful when I travel and need to use other people's printers) and the MP3 player. Sure, its not an award winner, but its convenient as I can change what I want to hear by just dropping other stuff onto whatever card I have in it at the time (have the original 32 mb, 2 - 128s and 3 - 256s) or I can change cards. Its also great for quick file exchanges. I travel some so it means carrying one less gadget with me. I also use it with a cassette converter to listen to my music in cars, both my own, other peoples' and rentals, which is nice. The sound is as good as the system in the car.

The TV tuner I am mixed on, yes, I use it, even occasionally to watch TV while traveling. Its clunky and I don't like that it essentially controls the audio line in port. That's a mistake. It does work though, and I've used it to archive stuff off my Panasonic RePlay (Tivo, but better) as well as catch some stuff on a particularly busy TV night (3 vhs and the Panasonic busy). However, on the next machine, I would probably pass on the TV Tuner and opt for an external one.

That's sort of my feelings with the front panel DJ. Rather have an Indigo I/O which I intend to do when they are available and I have the spare cash (daughter getting married in September so there is no such thing as spare cash right now)

For Sager/Clevo, my suggestions would be to delete the DJ player, the floppy drive, the memory stick port and separate the TV Tuner from the line in port. A better sound card would be nice but with the Indigo I/O, who cares.

Wearwise, its done well. No dead pixels and everything works. I do wish they would use a better quality paint on the case and better decals on the keys. The paint is really weak, scratches easily and wears quickly. For some reason, my sweat (I live in Hawaii) cuts through that paint like thinner. It would be better to use a color impregnated plastic rather than rely on paint or use a real enamel. When my warranty is up, I will probably paint the bugger right myself. I like the idea on the 40xx with the acrylic wrist rests, that would be a good universal feature to add. This is a complaint I've had with all of seven my Sagers. And as Keal mentioned, the decals on the keys wear badly. I am losing the "m" and the "<". On my older machines, its good I can touch type.

I do travel a bit and I use the machine at least 12 hours a day no matter what with few exceptions. I take it to the beach, I take it to client's offices and homes, I take it to construction sites. It travels extremely well. Yes, the battery life isn't amazing. I condition it regularly and its gnerally good for 90 minutes with moderate use. Yes, its a bit heavy and I have a bad hip. So I just use a wheeled bag to carry it in. Its a nice natural leather one (US Luggage, CompUSA, $150) with a telescopic handle. Its got plenty of room for peripherals and even lunch and some wet stuff and it looks quite snazzy. I also have a heavy duty travel system that includes a car starter/power supply, inverter, etc all on a monster fold up trolley. I am thinking of someday making the whole affair self-propelled and maybe get it licensed for the road. Add in some ducted fans and I could be air-borne.

Until I found this forum, I rarely met anybody that even knew what a SAGER is or had heard of them. Nearly everybody that sees it, particularly in action (clients love being able to see what I am doing to their plans on their TV sets rather than crowd around the LCD), are simply amazed. When I tell them the price, well, some have needed resuscitation.

I am hoping to make this 8886 a secondary machine next winter when I will hopefully be able to get one of the new 8890s.

Two thumbs up on the reviews!!!!
After reading them I can't wait to get my 8890!!!

Interesting neither is using the tv tuner. That's one of the reasons I was interested in the 8890.
Now that I think of it, I have two ATI All In Wonder configured desktops. And I don't use the tv tuner in either of those. (Both in rooms with tvs in them.)

Ah, but just knowing I CAN, makes it worthwhile.

I was wondering, Keal,
Did you do anything special to get your battery to go from 90 min to over 135 minutes. Or is that just from regular battery usage/cycling?

Well, I have Satellite and TiVO (RePlay, but worse? ). I cannot stand watching TV or movies on computers in general, so I don't really use it for that. I will be experimenting with S-Video Out soon, though. I want to have BF1942 playing on the big screen TV to entertain the kids!

I would definately skip on the TV-Tuner and Memory Stick port. Heck, mine could be broken and I never knew!

They are great workhorses, and deserve all the praise they get. Sorry about the paint jobs... mine is custom-painted and hasn't shown any signs of wear anywhere... it is pretty solid paint/clear coating.

-myrkat

I've played with tv-out (s video) quite a bit. Be ye warned the resolution on tv (standard definition tv) ain't nowhere as good as a computer display. Don't know about HD tv - don't own one.

BTW Myrkat, I saw the photo posts of your machine. Man, WHAT A BEAUTY!

I keep hoping that along with the release of the 8890s
there will be a surprize announcment that COLOR has once again returned to the Sager realm.

About the TV tuner: I have had my 8887 since February and never even installed the tv tuner until a few days ago. Since installing it I have actually used it quite extensively. It's really great to set a dual monitor system, with tv in the background, on the CRT and playing counterstrike on the laptop LCD.

Great reviews! I've owned my 8887 for 5 months and I pretty much concur with everyone.

Would love to boost my battery time, though I don't use it much. I get 1hr45 of "normal" computer use, and a dismal, HOT , 45 minutes if gaming. I'll try conditioning more.

I do use the parallel (printer), VGA (monitor), and PS2 (keyboard) ports at home (love the extended monitor capabilities).

I don't use the MP3, but like having it on standby as a 64MB floppy.

I also don't use the TV Tuner hardly at all, but it works, records, and ain't it a gas!

As a desktop it's a real workhorse. I've used it extensively at work, all day long, running multiple apps, and it keeps on tickin'.

I'm a little disappointed in the gaming, still getting intermittent pausing, but I'm sure it's nothing that can't be cured by an upgrade to an 800FSB MBO with M10 ATI and 2GB RAM pretty soon.

Portable? Lots more than the two desktops I got rid of. Love having it all on one machine and taking it whereever I go. I haven't tried to haul it on a plane yet, and open it in a coach class seat for that 1hr45 x 2, but I take it everywhere else. I just wouldn't go jogging with it. (Hmmm, can I get TV reception at the top of a fourteener?)

All in all, a great machine.

I am surprised to hear that most of you arent using your tv tuner cards. I am waiting for that to convert the masses of vhs tapes into dvd format. I also want to just have the bragging right that my laptop can copy all movies and shows of cable. It might even be able to pick up the in demand (pay-per-view) movies which would be neat. oh well, guess i will soon tire of it myself.

Hi,

I have had my 8887 since early May. My biggest problem with it has been not enough memory. I had that fear before I bought it but figured I would just suffer with the perfomance hit of using virtual memory. Yes I could have given Dell lots more money and had 2GB, but I was paying for it out my own pocket.

My primary application is VMWare, and my goal was to be running at least 6 to 8 operating systems simultaneously. The good news is that I no longer need that capability. The bad news is I have been told I am being laid off. The good news is the day I found out the budget cutters axe had found me that I got my security clearance (32 months after applying for it).

The second biggest problem, was getting a reliable BIOS. 3.04L has been stable. Windows XP and some combinations of applications have not played well with each other. After removing Norton Firewall, the Winternals Monitoring Tools and TCPView Pro and doing a recovery from the CD it has been stable.

Windows 2000 Pro works ok, but since it does not give the option of extending the desktop to the external display, I have it as an emergency boot option.

I installed Windows 2003 Server (demo edition). It worked. I never tried to install the various device drivers, and installing Windows 2000 onto the same partition screwed it up.

My 8887 has a TV tuner When I reinstalled the OS, I never bothered to install the drivers. I have the bracket for replacing it with a hard drive.

I use the MP3 player frequently, but only to read/write SD cards. My digital camera uses SD cards, and I also use SD cards to archive and transport stuff too large for floppies. I use the floppy drive to boot virtual machines, transfer files, and use write protected floppies to hold files that my anti-virus programs complain about. I am a security consultant and have a small collection of less than freindly software to test detection and prevention measures. I would prefer to have the upcoming 6-in-1 reader than the MP3 player.

The front panel DJ, I used it once to show someone how that feature worked. It is possible I may use it in the future. Anybody know what kind of battery life there is just playing audio CDs?

The day I got it I managed 1.5 hours from the battery. I have not bothered with running off of batteries since. I really view the battery as a built in uninterruptable power supply.

The Memory Stick slot I view as a possible means for an external antenna for wireless.

I have yet to plug anything into any of the audio ports, PC card slots or to use the modem. The Ethernet port gets used daily and the Infared is disabled.

I use the PS2 port for an external keyboard both at home and at work. The parallel port is used with a couple of printers. I have three external Firewire devices. When I left my USB mouse at work, I installed a driver for an old serial mouse I had in my junk box. I also will be using the serial port to talk to my GPS receiver.

I have external monitors both at home and at work. I'd like to have at least two external displays.

The video in and out ports may get used in the future.

The hardware has been rock solid. No dead pixels. The default settings for display are not perfect, but until I move Photoshop to this machine it is not something I am going to worry about.

B

Clevo 888ES / Sager NP8887 BIOS Update

Clevo has released a new 8887 BIOS that runs great so far on my 8887. It is version 3.06a and can be located here:

ftp.clevo.com.tw/888E/BIOS/88ES306a_128.zip

I have had my 8887 since May and I love it. I have a sony PDA so the memory stick reader is great for me. I found the MP3 player a nice touch, i use it during class and it works just fine for me.

I had planned on doing some light gaming and mainly work on my laptop but it has turned into my main system.

I have only one problem one stuck pixel but it is stuck white so it doesnt bother me at all.

This is a great system i will recommend Sager to everyone and working at a computer store i do.

My 8887 is going on four months old. My opinion of this machine is decidedly mixed.

Likes: The display is wonderful, the keyboard is nice. This message board is helpful. I like the manual lists the order to install the drivers, beats the heck out of 2 hours on the phone with tech support. Like the ports, whether I need them or not, they are there, ready for use. eg. my GPS uses a serial port...

Dislikes: The MP3 player prevents the machine from booting. (Yes I took out the stupid batteries, not that I should have to, if it were engineered properly, but it still hangs the boot about 50% of the time, therefore it no longer is used).

What is the deal with the paint. I can understand painting a computer if a customer wants a custom color, but this thing is flat black. I had erronously assumed the black was the molded color until it started flaking off in sheets. Real nice showing off your new $3k computer to your friends, and it looks like it has been through ten years of use. Any tips on sucessful touch-up techniques would be appreciated.

Cooling. Hey folks, it's a laptop. Real bright idea putting the air intake where your right leg resides, preventing airflow. Unbelievably stupid.

Four screws need to be removed in order to swap batteries? Try doing a swap on public transportation without losing at least one. This makes as much sense as garlic-flavored toothpaste.

Have not found my DVD-R (Toshiba) drive on ANY compatability list, but yet I keep looking. (Looking for software allowing me to burn DVDs, and none list the Toshiba as compatable with their programs).