Sager NP5793 REVIEW

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frozenlead

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Well, I needed a new machine, and I decided on a laptop, considering all the places I'd taken my worn out athlon machine. Here's what I got:

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Customized Sager NP5793
OS
Windows Vista Home Premium, 64 bit

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 @ 2.1GHz, 3MB

RAM
4GB DDR2-667 (two modules)

GPU
nVidia 8800m GTX 512MB

Display
17" WUXGA 1920x1200

HDD
250GB 5400RPM

Optical
Standard DVD-RW

Other
An extra battery!

Expense: $2573.94
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Now I'll start off telling you what I thought about every aspect of the machine I can think of. Enjoy!

Packaging
I felt pretty good about this machine unpacking it. The first box it was in was undamaged. Inside of it, I found another box surrounded by packing peanuts. Inside that box, I found the unit, wrapped in pink plastic and protected by mold-fitted Styrofoam. Just below the notebook was the carrying case that comes with the unit (free!). Inside that, I found another box, which contained the following items:

-Power supply
-Windows Vista Quick Start Guide
-Recovery CD's! (imagine that!)
-Device driver CD (Equipped to handle all versions of vista, as well as Windows XP 64/32 bit.)
-One year warranty policy
-Nero and PowerDVD OEM
-Notebook manual
-Extra battery
-Carrying case

The carrying case itself doesn't really fit the notebook...in fact, it's a bit too large. I rolled up a small shirt and put it in the case to take up the extra space. I'm getting a backpack soon. The case has one large pocket on the outside, and one slim one on the inside. Other than that, it's really bland. Many threads have already come loose, after use in school for only 2 days. It's not high-quality...but it was free.

Initial physical impressions

--Weight--
Picking up the thing made me realize how heavy it was. I'm going to guess it weighs close to 15 pounds, and with it's power supply, probably 17 or so. Either way, carting it around school was a chore, but I got what I payed for, and I'm not complaining. Just know this notebook is a heavyweight.

--Style--
Looking at the notebook, I was impressed. Most of the machine was covered in protective sticky plastic when it first arrived. The back of the LCD is a low-gloss black aluminum. The orange trim adds a great, advanced looking touch. The screen is gorgeous, being a 17" high-gloss type. The machine is void of stickers, other than the windows Vista product key, nVidia, intel, and SRS WOW stickers. The black matte plastic on most of the rest of the machine is sturdy and thick - the machine doesn't bend at all. The bottom touts the machine's computing muscle with the words "Extreme Edition" blaring from the black plastic. Around the keyboard is a texturized carbon-fiber feeling frame about half an inch wide. My brother actually asked me if it was real carbon fiber once. The notebook looks sharp, clean, and very modern. I like it. I am dissappointed, however, in the lack of hardware volume and wireless controls...but there are Fn+ controls, so I suppose it makes up for it.

Using the beast

The machine booted really fast the first time I powered it up, and the battery had been charged and installed for me. Booting normally takes 45 seconds.

--Preconfigured stuff--
I almost don't know what to put here. This notebook was free of bloatware. It had Nero OEM installed, and a trial version of Office 2007, but that was all. I didn't have anything to fix, uninstall, reconfigure..nothing. It was ready to go from the first second.

--keyboard--
The keyboard is a bit different than my desktop's G15, but I found it very likable. The keys are springy, feel thick and solid, and give great feedback. They aren't loud at all. Very different from a typical laptop keyboard. I didn't like the reworking of the keypad to a 3 column instead of a 4 column one, but it only takes a few minutes to adjust.

--touchpad--
The touchpad isn't too slick, and isn't too rough, it's just right. The vertical/horizontal scroll controls work well, and I haven't had any fights with them. The mouse buttons feel thick and solid, and are a little bit hard to push. In between the mouse buttons is a biometric fingerprint reader, which is actually a very good quality one. Though one would think it's placement between the mouse buttons would screw you up, I actually haven't ever accidentally pressed the fingerprint reader instead of the mouse buttons yet.

--sound--
This might be the only average part on this laptop. The sound given from it's two speakers (and 2W subwoofer, located on the bottom of the machine) is tinny and high-pitched sounding. I'd say they're pretty on par with most laptop speakers. Bass doesn't come over well, and is only detectable if you listen closely. The sound is occasionally distorted and digital sounding - this depends on the quality of the file played. One thing that really, really surprised me, though, is how the speakers are placed on the sides of the notebook. I've had notebooks with speakers on the sides before, but never have they sounded so much like true surround sound before. Literally, when I first played music over them, I didn't know where the sound was coming from, it felt right in the center of my head. Overall, average quality, very good configuration.

--display--
The display on this machine is sharp and beautiful. It wowed many of my friends. Games look great, images look great, everything just looks so GREAT on this display. No dead pixels for me!

--cooling--
For a high-power beast, this machine keeps itself cool. The keyboard deck never gets warm anywhere, except slightly right below the arrow keys. The back of the unit clearly states the processing power within by showing off a heavy amount of copper that covers almost the back 1/3 of the unit. the bottom of the unit has three huge intakes to feed the copper air, and in an impressive design, the bottom front of the unit on the underside has holes in it - the unit draws cool air from the bottom and the front side. Don't worry so much about covering vents when it's on your lap. The fans are actually not all that loud - there are two of them. My desktop uses a Thermaltake Venus 12 at full speed, 5900RPM, so maybe my definition of 'loud' is a little skew from anyone elses. But honestly, it's not all that loud. It gets loud when gaming, but you don't really notice when you're pulled into the beautiful graphics.

--windows performance--
This notebook can handle anything you throw at it. Installing several things at once, surfing the web, listening to music, IM'ing...nothing slows it down. aero looks clean, sharp, and great. Programs open in seconds or less. Wonderful. Just wonderful.

--Battery/power--
The notebook's power supply is..well...big. Big. And it gets relatively warm. Also, on occasion, the connector will pop out of the back of the notebook, while still remaining connected..making you lose external power without you noticing.
As for battery, surfing the web and turning the notebook on "power saver" mode, as well as giving the LCD a 3/7 brightness brings the battery down to 10% in 2 hours, 10 minutes. Now, considering I have two, that extends things a bit. Both batteries are 14.8v, 4400mAh. For the beast it is, I'm proud of the battery life.

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Benchmarked performance

This machine can game, no problem. All the games I play on it are smooth and hardly ever lag. This machine has no problem cranking up the settings!

--3dmark 2005--
11290 @ 1920x1200

11494 @ 1600x1200

12166 @ 1280x1024

--3dmark 2006--
7020 @ 1920x1200

7551 @ 1600x1200

8517 @ 1280x1024

--crysis--

NEXT BENCH RUN- 5/15/2008 13:38:57 - Vista 64
Beginning Run #1 on Map-island, Demo-benchmark_gpu
DX10 1280x1024, AA=No AA, Vsync=Disabled, 64 bit test, FullScreen
Demo Loops=1, Time Of Day= 9
Global Game Quality: Custom
Custom Quality Values:
VolumetricEffects=Medium
Texture=Medium
ObjectDetail=High
Sound=High
Shadows=Medium
Water=High
Physics=Medium
Particles=Medium
Shading=Medium
PostProcessing=Low
GameEffects=Medium
==============================================================
TimeDemo Play Started , (Total Frames: 2000, Recorded Time: 111.86s)
!TimeDemo Run 0 Finished.
Play Time: 64.99s, Average FPS: 30.78
Min FPS: 17.27 at frame 1947, Max FPS: 45.80 at frame 1751
Average Tri/Sec: 27294114, Tri/Frame: 886871
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: 1.03
TimeDemo Play Ended, (1 Runs Performed)
==============================================================
Beginning Run #2 on Map-island, Demo-benchmark_gpu
DX10 1600x1200, AA=No AA, Vsync=Disabled, 64 bit test, FullScreen
Demo Loops=1, Time Of Day= 9
Global Game Quality: Custom
Custom Quality Values:
VolumetricEffects=Medium
Texture=Medium
ObjectDetail=High
Sound=High
Shadows=Medium
Water=High
Physics=Medium
Particles=Medium
Shading=Medium
PostProcessing=Low
GameEffects=Medium
==============================================================
TimeDemo Play Started , (Total Frames: 2000, Recorded Time: 111.86s)
!TimeDemo Run 0 Finished.
Play Time: 71.48s, Average FPS: 27.98
Min FPS: 19.41 at frame 1939, Max FPS: 37.82 at frame 1746
Average Tri/Sec: 26904698, Tri/Frame: 961632
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: 0.95
TimeDemo Play Ended, (1 Runs Performed)
==============================================================
Beginning Run #3 on Map-island, Demo-benchmark_gpu
DX10 1400x1050, AA=No AA, Vsync=Disabled, 64 bit test, FullScreen
Demo Loops=1, Time Of Day= 9
Global Game Quality: Custom
Custom Quality Values:
VolumetricEffects=Medium
Texture=Medium
ObjectDetail=High
Sound=High
Shadows=Medium
Water=High
Physics=Medium
Particles=Medium
Shading=Medium
PostProcessing=Low
GameEffects=Medium
==============================================================
TimeDemo Play Started , (Total Frames: 2000, Recorded Time: 111.86s)
!TimeDemo Run 0 Finished.
Play Time: 64.62s, Average FPS: 30.95
Min FPS: 18.89 at frame 1947, Max FPS: 42.40 at frame 1738
Average Tri/Sec: 28937438, Tri/Frame: 935015
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: 0.98
TimeDemo Play Ended, (1 Runs Performed)
==============================================================
Beginning Run #4 on Map-island, Demo-benchmark_gpu
DX10 1900x1200, AA=No AA, Vsync=Disabled, 64 bit test, FullScreen
Demo Loops=1, Time Of Day= 9
Global Game Quality: Custom
Custom Quality Values:
VolumetricEffects=Medium
Texture=Medium
ObjectDetail=High
Sound=High
Shadows=Medium
Water=High
Physics=Medium
Particles=Medium
Shading=Medium
PostProcessing=Low
GameEffects=Medium
==============================================================
TimeDemo Play Started , (Total Frames: 2000, Recorded Time: 111.86s)
!TimeDemo Run 0 Finished.
Play Time: 82.35s, Average FPS: 24.29
Min FPS: 17.39 at frame 153, Max FPS: 30.39 at frame 1735
Average Tri/Sec: -25348248, Tri/Frame: -1043660
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -0.88
TimeDemo Play Ended, (1 Runs Performed)
==============================================================

--Call of duty 4--
All settings maxed, 1920x1200
avg FPS: 68.298

--Unreal Tournament 3--
All settings maxed, 1920x1200
avg FPS: 40.282


==============================================================

Well, that's all, folks. Here's my layout of pros and cons

--Pros--
Very strong performer
beautiful chassis
rock-solid chassis
cool (yes, i know, but thermally too!)
decent battery life for a notebook of it's class
great input devices
no bloatware

--cons--
no hardware volume/wireless controls
loud at times
heavyweight (but you should know this before you pick it out)
average sound
power connector pops out on you

For anyone wishing to spend 2.5k on a notebook, I don't know what else I would recommend. I'm very happy. I give it a 9.5/10.



Edit: Pictures!


http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j267/frozenlead/?action=view&current=IMG_4007.jpg
-The machine, closed

http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j267/frozenlead/?action=view&current=IMG_4008.jpg
-The machine, open

http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j267/frozenlead/?action=view&current=IMG_4009.jpg
-keyboard deck. Note the 3-column number pad.

http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j267/frozenlead/?action=view&current=IMG_4011.jpg
-Rear view. Just take a look at how much room those sinks take up.

http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j267/frozenlead/?action=view&current=IMG_4013.jpg
-Close up on the copper. CPU on the left, GPU on the right.

http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j267/frozenlead/?action=view&current=IMG_4014.jpg
-bottom view. You can see the extensive venting holes. The 2W sub lies in the upper right, just above and to the left of the battery.

http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j267/frozenlead/?action=view&current=IMG_4015.jpg
-close up of the two fans (one fan hole doesn't actually contain a fan. They put one in for SLi models.) "Extreme Edition" blares you in the face!

http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j267/frozenlead/?action=view&current=IMG_4016.jpg
-Size comparison to a AA battery and an old Quantum Fireball

http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j267/frozenlead/?action=view&current=IMG_4017.jpg
-Man, just look at that gloss.

http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j267/frozenlead/?action=view&current=IMG_4019.jpg
-PSU, compared to a AA battery and a Quantum Fireball.

http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j267/frozenlead/?action=view&current=IMG_4020.jpg
-Side shot. Kind of blurry, but you can still see the effect of the orange trim. Looks great! The silver thing is the speaker, number one.




EDIT:
I decided to pop the hood on this baby and look at the monster from within. Boy, was I surprised. Not only was it easy to do, all the parts inside are configured for user service! The GPU and CPU heatsinks even have instructions printed right on them for removal! Well done Clevo, what a design! One panel on the bottom gives you access to all the criticals - cpu, gpu, hard disk, ram, wireless, and even the chipset, if you so desire! Upgradability? A+. The manual states the notebook uses an MXM IV slot for the GPU, which sounds pretty good to me!

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j267/frozenlead/IMG_4021.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j267/frozenlead/IMG_4022.jpg
 

theworminator

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Aug 24, 2006
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Sounds like a nice rig! I have the Clevo m570u, aka the NP5792, the one right before yours. Just my input, I believe the rig is closer to 10 pounds than 15, so it's not ridiculously heavy.
 
Wow! congrats on your new laptop mate :) its truly a beast :) very impressive benchmark results, a very powerful machine in a package.
This makes laptop more and more appealing than desktops.

Again congrats on your laptop and i hope u will enjoy it
 
Nice right up and congrats on the purchase. How about a couple of pics so people who haven't seen the laptop before can have an idea of what it looks like.

To any mods reading this: would it be possible to get reviews like this stickied? I think more people would be willing to do right ups if their stuff was going to get noticed and it would be a nice gesture to frozenlead for his hard work. Just a thought.

edit: can't spell worth a darn.
 
Speaking of those fans, make sure you keep them clean. I just cleaned mine out for the first time in 4 months and I had dust bunnies the size of pennies coming out. My load temps while folding have also dropped at least 5 degrees C.
 


Not worth the money. We have been told by Sager and Clevo that in order to do it, we have the following options:

Sager NP5790/NP5791 (Clevo M570RU):

Option 1: Full swap out package
• Price good between Jan 15th’08 through June 30th’08
• New nVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800M GTX w/512MB
• New Motherboard
• Labor included
• $899.00 after instant $200.00 off for Sager Branded customers
• $1099.00 Non-Sager Branded systems

Option 2*: Send in to Sager for Motherboard Rework
• Available Jan 15th’08
• New nVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800M GTX w/512MB
• Sager will perform motherboard Rework needed
• $745.00 Sager Branded Systems FREE Labor Included
• $845.00 ($745.00 +$100.00 labor) for non Sager Branded systems

Option 3*: Pre-condition User self upgrade
• Available Jan 15th’08
• New nVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800M GTX w/512MB
• User understands that the system will have unable to wake from suspend to ram (S3) aka: Suspend / Sleep mode issues.
• $745.00



To me, it is not worth $700+ to upgrade when my current system is still chugging along fine. COD4 is the only thing testing it right now and it is still very playable at 1280x1024 and I'm sure I could go a little higher. At this point I would save my money for a new laptop in a few years or build a full on gaming desktop.
 

frozenlead

Distinguished
oi, that's quite a bit. I don't know much about gpu upgrades on notebooks, but there are a few sites that sell 8800m gtx boards for $500 or so. Looking at option 3, it appears that the only thing you really need is the gpu. You could pick one up for cheaper...unless i'm missing something.
 
IMO, 500 is still a lot to put into a laptop that cost me 2300 to begin with. Like I said, I'm not unhappy with it's performance to want to change anything yet. It would be nice though to see prices on mobility parts come down.
 

Irontheater

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May 26, 2011
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So how is it doing after 3 years of work? Do you still have it? Is it still going good? Do you notice any negative changes, fissures, etc... ?

P.S. : Sorry for reviving a long dead thread, but just had to know.
 
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