.Several Questions

even tho im kinda new myself let me give it a whirl first before people come and start yelling that i'm wrong.



1) I have heard the 8887 usually ships within two business days after receiving payment for the laptop. So if you add 2 days to the ups shipping you choose, you will get your total delivery time.

2) I believe you mean battery conditioning maybe. You get longer battery life if you drain the battery then charge it and repeat the process a few times. Your battery life will also be significantly shorter if you leave it plugged in all the time and never "condition" it.

3) I believe a port replicator is a device which is helpful if you wish to attach several external devices to your laptop , but you do not want to have to plug each indiviual peripheral in each time you take ur lappy mobile and return it. This allows for external mouse, keyboard, monitor , and the like and is plugged in to your laptop via a usb cable.

4) The tv tuner will be able to record movies and shows off the cable, but I have heard the quality is not great. It also depends greatly on the software you choose to operate the tv tuner.


5) I have asked the same question before and have gotten loads of responses from people who claim they rarely ever turn their laptops off. As long as you dont block the vents, you sahould have no problem with leaving the laptop on. And if you do happen to burn something up unexpectedly, I have heard sager's warranty is great. So its a win win.

6) Currently there are no internal 54g cards so the other wireless option is most likely 502.11a or 502.11b which are both slower than 502.11g. In the new models there is claimed to be an internal 54g card, but not in the 8887. If you are going for 8887 then get a pcmcia external 54g.

7)no idea
8) no idea


p.s. you ask a lot of questions

only a couple of things to add to ryanniedz

2. the first set of laptops to ship will be approximately one week after they are available for pre-order. After they start shipping, it should be as ryanniedz says.

8. if you're worried about weight, look at the 5680. It's significantly lighter in weight. It's cheaper too and has longer battery life. It won't have a tv tuner, but with the money you save, you can probably get a better one for the pcmcia card slot. I don't know for sure if the last sentence is true, but i imagine you can get one for less than $300 or so in price difference.

you did have a lot of questions, but that's what a forum is for.

3) Many laptops have a wide connector in the back or on the bottom for plugging into a port replicator or base station. I don't believe the 5670 or 8890 have this connector, so I'm dubious as to whether real port replicators even exist for them. In any event, you can plug an external mouse, keyboard, monitor, printer, hard drive, optical drive, whatever into the port replicator and gain access to them with one simple quick connection at your desk, while one quick disconnect frees the laptop for travel.

You can get a USB port replicator, but given the limited bandwidth over a USB connection, I'm not sure how useful it would be. (For reference, most port replicator connections have over 100 pins in order to support the bandwidth necessary for running several devices, including a monitor, at the same time.)

4) External TV tuners are available as well, which you could hook to the cable in your room, and just connect the tuner to the laptop when you want to be connected to TV. This isn't that different from plugging the cable directly into your computer, you just lose the ability to connect to TV elsewhere - unless you bring the tuner with you.

6) First, PCMCIA vs Integrated. A PCMCIA card is a little card you plug into the PCMCIA slot in the side of your computer. First disadvantage is that it takes up that slot, which you could conceivably use for something else (usually no big deal, because there's not much else you'd use a PCMCIA slot for these days). The wireless antenna has to be clear of the laptop chassis, what with a the metal and electromagnetic activity going on in there. So the antenna sticks out of the side of your laptop on the end of the PCMCIA card. It's usually in a hard case contiguous with the card and sticks out maybe 3/4" from the laptop. This creates another problem, because a protrusion like that can catch on things and break the card, or, worse, damage the PCMCIA slot on your laptop. You must remove the card whenever you travel with the computer, in order to prevent such damage. Removing and replacing the card is an annoying inconvenience. Finally, the antenna itself just isn't very big. This means poor reception and poor range.

Compare to an integrated solution. The card is safely tucked away in the bowels of the machine, and the antenna runs in a loop around the outside edge of the screen. Your PCMCIA slot remains free, there ar no additional components to damage or proect, and, with the longer antenna, you get better signal strength and range.

Both the 5680 and 8890 will support integrated 802.11g systems.

7) I'm sure you'll get a dozen reasons for going with the M10P, but I would try as hard as possible to get it, because I believe it's DX9 hardware support will make it last a lot longer before going obsolete.

The GeForce4 Ti is a desktop-only card, unless nVidia's site is mistaken. The GeForce Go 4200 is the only laptop graphics card to support 8x AGP other than the Radeon 9600 and 9200 series and the GeForce FX Go series. (So the 9000 is 4x AGP.)

8) Weight with a shoulder strap depends a lot on the strap and the balance of what you're carrying. I don't know what the bowling ball bag is like, but most computer bags have a nice broad strap with pad for your shoulder. Also, the notebook will rest closer to your body than the bowling ball, making it less unwieldy. And if one shoulder strap isn't enough. you can always get a backpack. But weight vs power is definetely a tradeoff, and a lot of people simply prefer lighter weight. It also matters how big you are - I'm over 250 lbs, so a 15-lb bag isn't that much to me, but my housemate is under 100 lbs, and it would be a lot to her.

-phubar

6) Currently there are no internal 54g cards so the other wireless option is most likely 502.11a or 502.11b which are both slower than 502.11g. In the new models there is claimed to be an internal 54g card, but not in the 8887. If you are going for 8887 then get a pcmcia external 54g.

Can someone confirm this? As i plan on getting integrated wireless only and was wondering if it is going to be the 'G' card

Refering to wireless cards, G is the best right. Can somone explain this.

I can try. I only know a little about 502.11b and 502.11g. 54G is rated to transfer data at 54 mbits/sec. 502.11 b has a max speed of 11 mbits. I believe the range of the two is dependant on the size of the antenna used at both the router and the laptop because they both use the 2.4 ghz frequency. Integrated g wireless cards do not exist yet. In a couple of weeks there will be an option to have them installed on the 8890 and the 5680. So either wait for the new modelsor go with a pcmcia slot. From experience I can say I just used a 54g linksys router and laptop card. I took the laptop up to my bedroom (2nd floor when the router is on the 1st floor) and I still had an "excellent" status for connection. Those little pcmcia cards are all you really need if you just plan on being around the house.

There are three speeds, a, b, and g. Any 'g' card is also compatible with 'b' networks, so 802.11a+g cards can operate on all three protocols.

Internal 'g' cards do exist, they're just not offered in current Sager models. People have obtained 'g' cards (usually by dismantling a router) and installed them in their Sagers. Other vendors (such as Eurocom install miniPCI 'g' cardsin the same Clevos as Sager sells.

-phubar

Depends on what your wireless network supports. If the base stations only support 'b' protocol, then having 'g' does absolutely nothing for you. Even if the base station supports 'g', you're still limited by the bandwidth available on the network behind it. So, for example, if your basse station is connected to a dial-up modem, there will be asolutely no performance difference between 'a' and 'g'.

A lot of schools have old ethernet systems, and if you plug your base station into the wall, during peak hours, performance will be worse than 'a' protocol can handle. On the other hand, a few schools have high-speed wireless setups spanning the campus, and during off-peak hours you may be able to take advantage of 'g' protocol.

-phubar