My first notebook: 5680 mini-Review!

I received my 5680 3 days early!!! I guess UPS isn't that bad after all! I received both my notebook and my Targus Sport Deluxe at the same time.

Woah... what a spectacular machine. I am truly impressed and still in shock over this notebook..

The screen is gorgeous, and the lappy is super fast. I know 3dmark03 isn't the best thing nowadays but I got 2976 stock. OCing (powerstrip) up to 361, 259 and I got a score of 3078.

Games loaded up so far:

Doom3 demo,
MOHAA (weird occasional problem where my view gets stuck tilting to the right, can't tilt left),
Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy.

This baby has been running for about 8 hours straight and no probs so far! Games run super smooth. The one thing I was amazed at was the sound. It's not as good as the Toshiba Satelites but it's very clear nonetheless. A sub-woofer would have topped it though.

Battery takes a while to charge (first cycling). It's been an half hour and my dual setup has charged approx 11%. I'll update this thread later on with a DVD battery test.


My biggest concerns were the screen (dead pixels) and the design of the lappy. I discovered a couple of dead pixels but only by an examination from 2 inches away. I'm very pleased with the screen and I would definitely not send it in (as I can't see the dead pixels from a normal viewing distance).

The design of the rest of the lappy is pretty solid. The left side gets a little warm, but not scorching. The keyboard is very sweet. No flexing or noise whatsoever. The noise from the laptop is super quiet. No complaints here. The power brick gets hot though (LI Shin model) but I doubt you can fry an egg with it. (has anyone tried this?)

Thanks PC Torque + Sager + Forum!! My first laptop purchase, so far, has been nothing but smiles!




More to come later... too busy... fragging.

Future plans: upgrading the internal/intergrated b wireless to a/b/g (don't ask me why I bought the internal b, too giddy while ordering I guess).

It has almost been a week since I received my 5680.

Problems/Quirks:

1) Every once and a while the OS does not detect my Realtek Lan card. A message pops up asking me to reinstall it. If I reboot, it recognizes it again. Strange... I think this occurs when I disconect the lan cable from my laptop.

Update: Reinstalled lan drivers to fix problem

2) Playing MoHAA... every once and a while I get stuck "tilting" to the right, and I can't tilt back left (only upright). Strange... but goes away somehow.

Update: I fixed this problem by not touching the audio DJ buttons and disabling the touchpad.

3) Artifacting in Mohaa... every once in a while this happens. Seeing a pattern here? My solution. A reboot and it goes away. I don't overclock much (only in benches) so I can't see that as a cause.

Update: Sager tech support provided my with a BIOS update (unavailable from their site), no problems since!

4) I've been waiting for my a+b+g card to arrive and I can't wait to install it. In the meantime I've been trying to connect to non-WEP routers (public places) with no luck. The signal strength is there (netstumbler and windows detects it) but nothing is getting transfered. Mmm... my car surfing isn't working.

Update: Installed the a+b+g card, works perfectly with better range than my previous wireless card. Able to pick up and surf other networks by disabling Windows network autodetection and letting the wireless util to detect.

No big problems though... Numbers 1-3 seem to occur 1 in 6 startups.

Good notes: I still happy that I am able to game/design for hours on end without problems. Those little problems must be due to the OS/hardware or something. Awesome notebook nonetheless!! So far, it has been solidly stable.

BTW... the Targus Sport Deluxe bag is awesome. It's true it doesn't hold as much as others but the notebook is well protected, bag looks spiffy, very comfortable to wear, and has lots of pockets.

Later!