New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Another 8890 Review

post #1 of 16
9/5/03 at 4:13am
Thread Starter 
since there are only 3 reviews of the 8890...i decided to post another one. right now i'm installing windows xp. my initial reaction was "holy mother of god its big". but after that shock i fell in love. i believe the keyboard is fixed because when i depress the keys on the right and left side i don't get the depression/sound. i won't post any pictures since ayasin covered it so well. however if anyone wants any i'll be glad to. i'll probably put up a pic of the dual monitor setup.

more to come...
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 16
9/5/03 at 5:37am
Thats what I said when opened the box.
For a laptop this is one hell of a size and weight.
The screen is amazing as well.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 16
9/5/03 at 5:45am
welcome to the world of SAGER.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 16
9/5/03 at 6:21am
Indeed.
Best 2500GPB I ever spent.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 16
9/5/03 at 7:19am
Thread Starter 
yeah..i love it. however, i came into a problem with my network. took me about an hour to figure out what was wrong. for some reason my router couldn't detect my laptop. eventually i had to manually switch the network card to work only in 10mbps instead of "auto negotiate". when it was in auto mode it would default at 100mbps but for some reason the router couldn't detect it. 10mbps is fine for internet, however, i have a lot of files saved on another computer...at least 10gb of music and whatnot. trying to update the drivers so i'll see what happends.

after that hiccup, everything else installed smoothly and quite fast. i have installed the video drivers and i don't notice any of the blotchyness that others have seen. maybe i'm blind...i dunno. i'll post up some benchmarks when i get everything else installed.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 16
9/5/03 at 8:59am
Quote:
Originally posted by Jebus
i don't notice any of the blotchyness that others have seen. maybe i'm blind...i dunno. i'll post up some benchmarks when i get everything else installed.
It is only visible in certain areas & even then it's no big deal.

I see it when using this wallpaper(XP Pro)

http://www.pbase.com/image/20888888

This shot shows my 8890 running alongside my Dad's Dell 8000 which has a Geforce2Go video adapter. On both the 8890 & my previous 8887v, the blue BG looks sort of like it's running in 16 bit(it's not)

When I switch the Dell from 16 bit to 32 bit, all the sort of swirly look to the blue BG disappears, on the Sager it looks better in 32 bit but not perfect, which leads me to believe it is an ATI driver problem.

This does not show at all in most apps or games, so I don't really worry about it.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 16
9/5/03 at 9:34am

Install Guide

Is the manual that comes with XP Pro fairly easy to understand? I Have never installed an OS, but I think I am going to try it.

You also mentioned installing Video Drivers. Does the 8890 come with some sort of "Check List", for what needs to be installed? Does it all come with the computer, or will I have to go online?

I did a search on "Install" in the forums, and printed out 20 or so pages, where Adam dealt with the TV Driver installs for the 8886. That looks helpful.

Does anyone remember a good message thread for everything that needs to be done if you order your laptop with no Operating System?

Thanks--Mike
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 16
9/5/03 at 10:02am
Thread Starter 
for windows xp, all you have to do is go into the bios (press f2 during memory check) then go to the "boot" tab then select the cd-rom to be booted first (use the + and - keys on the numpad to move the selection up and down - there will be instructions on the sidebar for each menu selection). then press esc and select "exit and save changes". place the windows xp cd into the drive before doing this so it will boot up. then follow the on-screen instructions. after the initial setup (formating drive and copying xp)...ur computer reboots...then u'll have go back into the bios and select "removable drives" to be booted first followed by "hard drives"...then again select "exit and save changes" then windows will continue to install...u follow more instructions...restart one more time...and ur all done with that part.

as for the installation of drivers...with in the manual (section 4-page 9) they'll give u an order in which to install the drivers. u'll get a cd that has all the drivers that u require. the manual is pretty thorough on where they r located so i don't think u would have a very hard time in finding them.

if any of these instructions seem confusing feel free to pm me.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 16
9/5/03 at 10:17am

Thank Jebus!

I appreciate that response. Thats the kind of thing I'm gonna need. I don't know about PM, but these boards are awesome. No one has even flamed me for my blatant rookie questions. (He knocks on his head).
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 16
9/5/03 at 2:38pm
Quote:
Originally posted by Jebus
for windows xp, all you have to do is go into the bios (press f2 during memory check) then go to the "boot" tab then select the cd-rom to be booted first (use the + and - keys on the numpad to move the selection up and down - there will be instructions on the sidebar for each menu selection). then press esc and select "exit and save changes".
You probably don't even need to do that. When I got my 8890 with no OS, the BIOS was already set so it would boot from the CDROM.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 16
9/5/03 at 4:42pm
Thread Starter 
ur right...i didn't even think that "removeable devices" meant the cd-rom too. i'm still a laptop newbie.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 16
9/5/03 at 7:39pm
Thread Starter 

Benchmarks

System: sager 8890 - p4 3.0 w/ht, 1gb ram, 1 60gb at 5400 rpm (no raid)

Sandra version 2003.7.9.73

CPU ALU - 9228
CPU FPU - 2594
CPU SSE - 5768

Multi-Media
Integer - 13845
Float - 20766

Memory Bandwidth
Integer - 4063
Float - 4062

File System
17405

3dMark 2003 w/patch 330
(default settings - no o/c)
2993

pcpitstop - 1565

during the 3dMark testing the fan was on the whole time and the computer was warm, not hot at all. some numbers are different than what i posted in other threads becuase i ran the tests again. overall i'm pretty happy with the performance of this beast.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 16
9/7/03 at 3:02am
Thread Starter 
got dual view setup..its pretty cool. on the monitor i have the usual desktop stuff. on the laptop screen..i put winamp and aol instant messanger. the only thing i'm trying to figure out is how to setup different wallpaper for both screens. so far i can only set one..and it shows up on both. is it possible to have two different wallpapers?

the only gripe i have so far...is the sound. the quality is good..however..on my desktop comp, when i play mp3s..sound would come from all 4 speakers. now it just comes from the front two only. i tested to see if all 4 speakers were working with the test thing and they do. i guess surround sound is only for games.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 16
9/7/03 at 4:18am
I've seen different wallpapers on different screens in a *nix environment and it looks darn cool. I remember one that was dual Apple 23" wide screens with the left and right halfs of the Golden Gate on each screen making on huge panoramic image.

I have seen photos of it done in windows . . . but I dont think you can do it without modifiying something. ( Starts searching web for answer ).
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 16
9/7/03 at 4:53am
Here is what I've found.

Apparently you can use a software program called Ultramon, but it isn't free.

Some people said that if they set the resolutions to the same size, that they could just stretch it across, but other people said this didn't work.

Another option I saw people doing was using the an HTML page for their desktop, and positioning the images using CSS absolute positioning like so:

PHP Code:
<html>
<body>
<img src="LeftImage.png" style="position: absolute; left: 0px">
<img src="RightImage.png" style="position: absolute; left: 1024px">
</body>
</html> 
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 16
9/7/03 at 5:32am
Thread Starter 
sweet...i'll check it out...thx man
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Sager & Clevo Notebook Reviews