Razortec’s Sager 9860s
I have been using computers since 1981 & Building my own & networking since 1988 so configuring a PC & knowing what I wanted in one is not new to me till I needed to step up to a more mobile computer.
For the past year I have been in need for a laptop PC to help do my work in the shop “GM & Subaru information” as well as for work that I do on the side with my bud Logan & sometimes my wife, but my specks for a laptop was not for one that would be OK on the mobility & office apps but lacking in everything else, I needed a portable desktop PC that can do it all.
I had did some shopping & as a stop gap till I found what I really wanted I purchased a Emachines M6811 notebook, but reading reviews & testaments of every one here & looking at prices, specks, & warranties I finally decided that the machine for me was the Sager NP9860s notebook & the place to get it from was PCTorque.
My specks:
Display17" WSXGA 1680X1050
Processor 3.6g P4 (660)
Graphics Card ATI Radeon X800 w/GDDR3
RAM1024mb 533DDR2
Primary Hard Drive 80gb SATA 5400rpm
Secondary Hard Drive not at this time
Bay 1 Media Drive 8X DVD-RW dl
TV Tuner not at this time
Operating System Windows XP Pro
Raid not set up at this time
Extra AC Power AdapterYes
Wireless Network802.11G internal
Warranty Now with the 1 year extended w/ ADP
At the time of my order the TV Tuner card was on back order & I did not want it to delay my order so I opted not to include it in my order “I can always purchase it later & install it my self” & I figured that later I would get a second 80gb SATA drive for Raid 0 “when my wife finally calmed down from this purchase” but till then a single 80gb SATA will be suffice.
I made my order on 03/20/2005 & the next day I was curious of my possible mistake “not sure if Raid was already built in & just need configuring like many high end desktop boards, or did I needed to have it done then” “new to laptops” I call PCTorque up about the Raid & after my conversation I was pleased with my order & assured that it would ship out within the week, so Kudos to PCTorque for understanding my questions & surprising me with the quick turn around. 03/24/2005 I received my shipment email & on 03/29/2005 I had my new toy in my hands.
Let me tell you guys-n-gals this thing was packaged RIGHT, the box looked as though it could nearly hold up to me standing on it & the PC with the carrying case was packed to be very snug for the trip to me & lots of protective film on the PC “to prevent scratches I guess,” with 2 power adapters, the 9860, floppy drive, & other accessories this whole package weighed in at almost 25lbs.
As many have attested this machine is a marvel to be hold, beautiful lines, Awesome sound from the built in speakers, speed that would rival most desktops & the best looking computer screen I have ever laid my eyes on, the fit & finish is very professional & the whole machine just feels SOLID.
The front DJ panel is an awesome touch & will definitely come in handy on those long business trips, & the DVI connector is great when I get a LCD panel to replace the CRT in my office.
My wife took one look at my new 9860 & she said “you are not going to carry that HUGE thing every day are you?” Well I must admit that the size is a bit intimidating for daily carrying but then again I didn’t want a tiny PC that had maybe half the abilities that this one has either & besides it’s not that heavy to me.
After doing some basics & getting started, the WiFi 802.11G was a breeze to set up & surfing the net was quite instant, I even was able to still get a good signal out to the middle of my back yard which is very comparable to my wife’s Toshiba. My work programs installed very quickly as well as a few games & benchmarking programs so time sitting & waiting to use this machine was not that long conciddering, I will give a few benchmarks later.
After installing all my programs I used BootitNG to set a swap partition & make a image of my work partition on DVD, I then ran PCMark04, 3DMark03 & UT 2003 & was impressed with my stock results “I’m not certain as of yet if I will ever OC this machine, maybe after the warranties are over,” the card reader is great using it to access my SD & CF II cards was quite nice, although being that it is right over the exhaust of the video card I’m not certain as to how long I would leave any of them attached being that they could get a little warm & I’m not sure what the temps could do to them but time will tell if the actual temps from the exhaust would have any affects on the flash cards.
Although I do not have any 8X DVD media yet the DVD-RW performed flawlessly at 4X speeds burning a few of my shows in Divx & reading all of my disks was quite impressive so Kudos for this drive so far “I’ll later get some dual layer media to try out.”
My main goals for this machine is Office, Adobe, & GM information gateway while at work & Video studio 7, Divx, & games at home, I know for the requirements at work this machine is more than enough for those tasks & at home with a 3.6g P4 processor, 1gb of ram, SATA Raid capable, & a ATI Radeon X800 video card this machine should come thru with flying colors & so far it has.
Playing Doom3, UT 2003 & UT 2004 is a treat with having the ability to play these games on the highest settings & still have no skips is something I never thought possible on a laptop but this one out performs even my bud’s Desktop P4 in both gaming & video editing, so far this machine is rock solid; with the exception of Over Clocking I have run this jewel thru every thing that I would normally put a PC thru & it has taken it & only asked for more, if this machine can be this good say a year from now I will definitely say that it was money well spent.
There are many that comment on the lack of battery life, well I will admit it isn’t my wife’s Toshiba but then again her Toshiba isn’t nearly as fast as this machine nor is it as upgradeable, I have used the battery twice so far & have averaged 58 minutes max till 20% running 2 IE’s & 1 to 2 Office documents & to be honest that is the reason I bought a spare power adapter, my mind set is that the battery on this machine is like having it’s own back up battery & I have just roughly an hour to get my work done before crunch time.
I’ve had this machine for 9 days & at the moment I am impressed with it’s speed as a whole & am awaiting the arrival of my new case for it, & I will be making a order for a second Fujitsu 80gb SATA notebook drive within the month.
After a phone conversation I was able to get my waranty upgraded to the latest PCTorque waranty for little extra fee Thanx guys.
I am very pleased with my purchase & with my experience with PCTorque, I will definitly recomend them to anyone looking for a new notebook PC.
Benchmarks
Stock settings
3DMark03 = 8920 = http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3863258
PCMark04 = 5231 = http://service.futuremark.com/compare?pcm04=2892972
UT 2003 = fly by – 265.7fps botmatch – 88.6fps 1024X768X32
Divx encoding = 42fps average
this picture is of my new baby, My wife's Toshiba A75-S206, & her company's HP.
I have been using computers since 1981 & Building my own & networking since 1988 so configuring a PC & knowing what I wanted in one is not new to me till I needed to step up to a more mobile computer.
For the past year I have been in need for a laptop PC to help do my work in the shop “GM & Subaru information” as well as for work that I do on the side with my bud Logan & sometimes my wife, but my specks for a laptop was not for one that would be OK on the mobility & office apps but lacking in everything else, I needed a portable desktop PC that can do it all.
I had did some shopping & as a stop gap till I found what I really wanted I purchased a Emachines M6811 notebook, but reading reviews & testaments of every one here & looking at prices, specks, & warranties I finally decided that the machine for me was the Sager NP9860s notebook & the place to get it from was PCTorque.
My specks:
Display17" WSXGA 1680X1050
Processor 3.6g P4 (660)
Graphics Card ATI Radeon X800 w/GDDR3
RAM1024mb 533DDR2
Primary Hard Drive 80gb SATA 5400rpm
Secondary Hard Drive not at this time
Bay 1 Media Drive 8X DVD-RW dl
TV Tuner not at this time
Operating System Windows XP Pro
Raid not set up at this time
Extra AC Power AdapterYes
Wireless Network802.11G internal
Warranty Now with the 1 year extended w/ ADP
At the time of my order the TV Tuner card was on back order & I did not want it to delay my order so I opted not to include it in my order “I can always purchase it later & install it my self” & I figured that later I would get a second 80gb SATA drive for Raid 0 “when my wife finally calmed down from this purchase” but till then a single 80gb SATA will be suffice.
I made my order on 03/20/2005 & the next day I was curious of my possible mistake “not sure if Raid was already built in & just need configuring like many high end desktop boards, or did I needed to have it done then” “new to laptops” I call PCTorque up about the Raid & after my conversation I was pleased with my order & assured that it would ship out within the week, so Kudos to PCTorque for understanding my questions & surprising me with the quick turn around. 03/24/2005 I received my shipment email & on 03/29/2005 I had my new toy in my hands.
Let me tell you guys-n-gals this thing was packaged RIGHT, the box looked as though it could nearly hold up to me standing on it & the PC with the carrying case was packed to be very snug for the trip to me & lots of protective film on the PC “to prevent scratches I guess,” with 2 power adapters, the 9860, floppy drive, & other accessories this whole package weighed in at almost 25lbs.
As many have attested this machine is a marvel to be hold, beautiful lines, Awesome sound from the built in speakers, speed that would rival most desktops & the best looking computer screen I have ever laid my eyes on, the fit & finish is very professional & the whole machine just feels SOLID.
The front DJ panel is an awesome touch & will definitely come in handy on those long business trips, & the DVI connector is great when I get a LCD panel to replace the CRT in my office.
My wife took one look at my new 9860 & she said “you are not going to carry that HUGE thing every day are you?” Well I must admit that the size is a bit intimidating for daily carrying but then again I didn’t want a tiny PC that had maybe half the abilities that this one has either & besides it’s not that heavy to me.
After doing some basics & getting started, the WiFi 802.11G was a breeze to set up & surfing the net was quite instant, I even was able to still get a good signal out to the middle of my back yard which is very comparable to my wife’s Toshiba. My work programs installed very quickly as well as a few games & benchmarking programs so time sitting & waiting to use this machine was not that long conciddering, I will give a few benchmarks later.
After installing all my programs I used BootitNG to set a swap partition & make a image of my work partition on DVD, I then ran PCMark04, 3DMark03 & UT 2003 & was impressed with my stock results “I’m not certain as of yet if I will ever OC this machine, maybe after the warranties are over,” the card reader is great using it to access my SD & CF II cards was quite nice, although being that it is right over the exhaust of the video card I’m not certain as to how long I would leave any of them attached being that they could get a little warm & I’m not sure what the temps could do to them but time will tell if the actual temps from the exhaust would have any affects on the flash cards.
Although I do not have any 8X DVD media yet the DVD-RW performed flawlessly at 4X speeds burning a few of my shows in Divx & reading all of my disks was quite impressive so Kudos for this drive so far “I’ll later get some dual layer media to try out.”
My main goals for this machine is Office, Adobe, & GM information gateway while at work & Video studio 7, Divx, & games at home, I know for the requirements at work this machine is more than enough for those tasks & at home with a 3.6g P4 processor, 1gb of ram, SATA Raid capable, & a ATI Radeon X800 video card this machine should come thru with flying colors & so far it has.
Playing Doom3, UT 2003 & UT 2004 is a treat with having the ability to play these games on the highest settings & still have no skips is something I never thought possible on a laptop but this one out performs even my bud’s Desktop P4 in both gaming & video editing, so far this machine is rock solid; with the exception of Over Clocking I have run this jewel thru every thing that I would normally put a PC thru & it has taken it & only asked for more, if this machine can be this good say a year from now I will definitely say that it was money well spent.
There are many that comment on the lack of battery life, well I will admit it isn’t my wife’s Toshiba but then again her Toshiba isn’t nearly as fast as this machine nor is it as upgradeable, I have used the battery twice so far & have averaged 58 minutes max till 20% running 2 IE’s & 1 to 2 Office documents & to be honest that is the reason I bought a spare power adapter, my mind set is that the battery on this machine is like having it’s own back up battery & I have just roughly an hour to get my work done before crunch time.
I’ve had this machine for 9 days & at the moment I am impressed with it’s speed as a whole & am awaiting the arrival of my new case for it, & I will be making a order for a second Fujitsu 80gb SATA notebook drive within the month.
After a phone conversation I was able to get my waranty upgraded to the latest PCTorque waranty for little extra fee Thanx guys.
I am very pleased with my purchase & with my experience with PCTorque, I will definitly recomend them to anyone looking for a new notebook PC.
Benchmarks
Stock settings
3DMark03 = 8920 = http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3863258
PCMark04 = 5231 = http://service.futuremark.com/compare?pcm04=2892972
UT 2003 = fly by – 265.7fps botmatch – 88.6fps 1024X768X32
Divx encoding = 42fps average
this picture is of my new baby, My wife's Toshiba A75-S206, & her company's HP.
