Sager NP9262 - Features and Specifications
| Sager NP9262 Configuration Options | |
| Processor | Core 2 Duo E8500 Core 2 Duo E8600 Core 2 Quad Q6600 Core 2 Quad Q6700 Core 2 Quad Q9550 Core 2 Quad Q9650 |
| Chipset | Intel P965 + ICH8-R |
| Memory | 2x1024MB DDR2-800 1x2048MB DDR2-800 2x2048MB DDR2-800 2x4096 DDR2-667 |
| Graphics | 1x or 2x NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GT 1x 8800M GTX 1x Quadro FX 1600M |
| Display | 17" WSXGA+ (1680x1050) Glossy 17" WUXGA (1920x1200) Glossy |
| Hard Drive | Three HDD bays supporting: 5400RPM: 160GB, 250GB, 500GB 7200RPM: 200GB, 320GB HDDs can be non-RAID or RAID 0/1/5 |
| Optical Drive | 8x DVDRW 2x Blu-ray Recorder/DVDRW |
| Networking | Integrated Gigabit Ethernet Intel 4965AGN WiFi Bluetooth v2.0 |
| Audio | 6-Channel HD Audio (2.0 Speakers) |
| Battery | 12-Cell 97WHr |
| Front Side | Front LCD Latches 5.1 Audio plus Microphone |
| Left Side | Optical Drive VGA Port Multi-function TV Out (S-VIDEO, Composite, Component) CATV Jack Gigabit Ethernet 56K Modem Mini FireWire 1394A ExpressCard/54 Flash Reader (MS, MS Pro, MMC, SD, xD) |
| Right Side | 4 x USB 2.0 |
| Back Side | Power Connector Dual-Link DVI TV Input CPU Cooling Exhaust GPU(s) Cooling Exhaust |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Home Premium 32/64-bit Windows Vista Business 32/64-bit Windows Vista Ultimate 32/64-bit Windows XP Professional 32-bit |
| Dimensions | 15.5" x 11.75" x 2.35" (WxDxH) |
| Weight | 11.55 lbs with battery |
| Extras | 2.0MP webcam Optional HDTV Tuner |
| Warranty | 1-year standard $200 2-year $360 3-year $200 30-day No Dead Pixel Insurance (No Dead Pixel Insurance can be bundled with extended warranty to save $100) |
| Price | Starts at $2249 for 2GB RAM, E8500, and a single 9800M GT Maximum price exceeds $5500, not counting peripherals and software |
The Sager NP9262 has plenty of customization options available, with starting models offering a moderate gaming experience all the way up through the top-end configurations that are the absolute fastest DTR notebooks currently on the market. (Yes, we know you can find pretty much the exact same laptop at other manufacturers. If you use the same components, you'll end up with the same performance.) Of course, there are all the standard items that you see in modern notebooks: wireless networking, webcam, and integrated audio. The NP9262 does support 5.1 audio output along with a microphone jack if you want to hook up external speakers (or a 5.1 headset), which is good to see. Let's talk about the other areas.
Our test system shipped with the now "outdated" E6850 (3.0 GHz, 4 MB cache, 1066 FSB). Current options are mostly focused on Penryn processors. You can get the E8500 or E8600 (3.16/3.33 GHz, 6 MB cache, 1333 FSB) for dual-core processing, or you can sacrifice CPU clock speed and move up to some of the quad-core processors. At the low end are the Q6600 and Q6700 (2.4/2.66 GHz, 2x4MB cache, 1066 FSB) using the older Kentsfield core, or you can get the Q9550 or Q9650 (2.83/3.0 GHz, 2x6MB cache, 1333 FSB) using the newer Penryn core. If you're looking to build a transportable workstation, one of those quad-core processors would definitely do the trick.
There are four graphics card options presently available: a single Quadro FX 1600M, 9800M GT, or 9800M GTX; or you can opt for dual GPUs with two 9800M GT cards in SLI. Besides having more SPs (112 versus 96), the 9800M GTX also comes with 1 GB of graphics memory. With most games still targeting 512 MB cards, however, that may not be terribly important. In terms of raw performance, the 9800M GT SLI configuration is definitely going to be faster, and it only costs $130 more than a single 9800M GTX. Again, we are unsure if the notebook is not capable of supporting two 9800M GTX cards or if that will be held off as a future option (pending further testing, perhaps). We also have to wonder about the power requirements of a top-end configuration; with two 8800M GTX cards and a dual-core E6850, maximum power draw is already very high. We have concerns that a Q9650 and dual 9800M GT cards might end up drawing too much power at maximum load. (The power brick is "only" capable of providing 220 W of power.)
Besides the CPU and GPU(s), Sager provides a lot of options for your hard drive(s). For the primary hard drive, you can choose a 160 GB, 250 GB, 320 GB, or 500 GB 5400 RPM hard drive. If you prefer faster performance over capacity, 7200 RPM hard drives are available in 100 GB, 200 GB, or 320 GB sizes. The same seven hard drive options are available for the remaining two hard drive slots, but additionally you can select whether you want the drive(s) to be part of a RAID configuration - RAID 0, 1, and 5 are supported. Two or three hard drives are necessary for RAID 0, only two hard drives are supported for RAID 1, and RAID 5 naturally requires all three hard drive bays to be populated. It's somewhat interesting that SSDs are not listed as an option, although available upgrades tend to come and go over time. Optical storage provides two options as well: your standard 8x DVDR and upgrade to a Blu-ray recorder. Unfortunately, a Blu-ray reader/DVDR combo drive is not an option at present (which could save you several hundred dollars if all you want is the ability to watch Blu-ray movies).
Other options include two LCD resolutions (1680x1050 WSXGA+ or 1920x1200 WUXGA), and memory capacities ranging from 2 GB (2x1GB 1x2GB) to 8 GB. 4GB and 8GB configurations require Windows Vista 64-bit, which is available on this notebook although it's not explicitly listed as an option you can customize. (Our particular configuration came with 2GB of memory and Vista 64-bit.) A chipset limitation apparently limits the 8 GB configuration to 6.8 GB usable inside Windows, however, and 4GB SO-DIMMs currently carry a large price premium over 2GB SO-DIMMs. You can also select an extended warranty (up to three years) and add a 30-day guarantee that your LCD won't have any pixel defects, plus a few additional items like software and peripherals.
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Th3G4mbl3r - Saturday, August 30, 2008 - link
can you also laptop from killernotebook.com into the review as well? they are similar to the sager systems in the sense that they are also custom built based on ODM chassis by Mark from killernotebook. I am keen on looking at some head on comparisons for those with the rest of the field.JarredWalton - Sunday, August 31, 2008 - link
It's difficult to properly evaluate service and support, but since all three companies offer the same Clevo D901C notebook seen in this review, consider this configuration:1920x1200
Q9550
2x9800M GT
2x2GB RAM
3x320GB HDD in RAID 5
Blu-ray Recorder
3-year Warranty
Sager NP9262: $4538.00
AVADirect D901C: $4659
Killer Notebooks Odachi: $5174
There's no ability to select a warranty at KillerNotebooks.com (it's 1-year according to the "About Us" page), and the site layout does not instill confidence. The support section doesn't even list 8800M or 9800M drivers for the Odachi (apparently misspelled "Odach" in various locations). I'm definitely not going to recommend spending $500 or $600 more to get the same notebook with a lesser warranty.
SpacePope - Saturday, August 30, 2008 - link
Thanks for the review, this is a good start. I've been researching gaming laptops myself lately because I plan on buying one soon. From what I've seen so far, the Asus G50V-A2 seems to have the most bang for the buck. Can you add this laptop to the review?Core 2 Duo T9400 2.53Ghz
15.4" WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050)
4GB DDR2
2 x 7200rpm 200GB HD in raid
Blu-ray drive
NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GT (512MB VRAM DDR3)
All for only $1899 on newegg (and I'm sure you can find it on sale somewhere).
Personally, I think alienware is VERY over priced and a horrible value. They even use slower 667Mhz ram and last generation video cards. I've never heard anything good about their customer service. You can easily spend $1000 more on the alienware and get a worse laptop than the Asus. The gateway's are a good deal (and tempting) but I want a 15.4" screen, not 17". Finally, I don't know or trust Sager yet.
JarredWalton - Saturday, August 30, 2008 - link
I've requested a couple ASUS laptops, so we'll see. Outside of the 15.4" part, I'd rate the Gateway higher in every area. However, form factor is a pretty major consideration. I expect the 9700M GT will be around 65-75% of the performance of the P-7811, so with a lower maximum resolution it should run pretty well.As for Sager, they have been selling laptops (with a moderate focus on enthusiast models) for over 20 years - since 1985. I would have no problem recommending them as a company. As such, the NP2096 is one option (15.4" 1680x1050, 9600M GT, P9500 CPU, 4GB RAM, and 320GB HDD for ~$1550). For more gaming performance, check out the NP8660. It's more expensive than the ASUS, the the 9800M GT is about twice as fast as the 9700M GT I'd guess. It actually looks quite similar to the m15x in terms of specs, for a lot less money. $2300 for a nearly top-end config. Too bad there's no Smart Bay battery, and I don't know if you can disable the discrete GPU.
Voldenuit - Friday, August 29, 2008 - link
" this is the first laptop we've tested that includes the option to shut off the discrete graphics and use integrated graphics."Cough. A bit behind the times on laptops, are we? Several Asus and Sony models have featured this already, going back as far as 2 years ago.
The Montevina refresh to the thinkpad T series (T400, T500) allow you to switch between integrated and discrete (Radeon 36xx) graphics on-the-fly in Vista. Now we're talkin'!
JarredWalton - Friday, August 29, 2008 - link
"first laptop we've tested" says it all. I know perfectly well that others have done it, and I mention (repeatedly) that the Centrino 2 offerings are supposed to improve that functionality. Now I just need to get the appropriate companies to send laptops for review, which is always the difficult part. Still, the feature is far more useful IMO when you're using it with high-end GPUs. Switching between 8400M and IGP isn't as critical as switching between 8800M/9800M and IGP.Jumpman23 - Friday, August 29, 2008 - link
Another great "budget" gaming laptop would be the Asus G50V. The specs show the price to performance ratio is very good and comes equipped with 9700M GT. I would love to see a review on it.yyrkoon - Friday, August 29, 2008 - link
I would like to mention that the Sager seems to use close to what A 'medium power' Desktop would use for power consumption(minus the monitor). That is *if* these figures you're showing are accurate compared to my readings (or vice versa).Let me define a 'medium power' desktop system:
ABIT IP35-E
Intel E6550 @ 2.8Ghz
2x2GB A-DATA 1.8v DDR2-800
eVGA 9600GT 512MB
1x DVD/CD burner(Liteon if applicable)
4x HDDs (all Seagate if applicable)
Antec Earthwatts 500
Again, to be fair, what I measured was just the hardware in the case, so there are no LCD/CRT monitor figures counted in. At idle the above system uses 124-125W. while web surfing and doing other non intensive tasks the system above uses 128W-135W. With a full load on the CPU using orthos for an hour with 2 threads running(100% CPU load), this system uses 171-174W. In World of conflict, using the in game benchmark with everything maxed(no AA or AF) this machine has peaked up to 215W. Running the same benchmark with the game output limited to 30FPS uses only 195W peak, but mostly between 185-190W.
World in conflict I have noticed so far can use by far the most power while gaming. Games such as Hellgate: London, and FEAR use around 180-195W(everything maxed).
As a kind of interesting side comparison I checked the older card I used before the 9600 GT (eVGA 7600 GT KO edition) peak idle was 106w, while peak gaming was 168W. Much lower than I had anticipated. Granted the 9600GT is also lower in power usage than I had originally thought based on reviews, and about twice as fast as the 7600 GT in most games.
Now I am very interested in how much power the new Intel mini ITX board, with x4500HD graphics and a reasonably powered desktop CPU would use. You hearing me Jarred? Derrick ? Anand ?! Would be nice if you guys could find out for all of us ; ) Something tells me that it'll only be marginally lower in power consumption though . . .
yyrkoon - Friday, August 29, 2008 - link
Monitor I use is a 19" widescreen LCD. Native resolution of 1440x900, so that is the resolution I tend to play games in. All of my figures are based on a 1440x900 resolution(for what it is worth).JarredWalton - Friday, August 29, 2008 - link
I think Gary will have an X4500 article up next week. Don't quote me on that, as I know Gary and Anand have run into quite a few issues with the G45 testing, but it's not for lack of trying.As for power requirements, I figure the LCD is using between 10W and 20W of power, and while it might be using as much power as your midrange desktop, it also happens to be faster. You'd need 9600 GT SLI at the very least (~equal performance), or 8800 GT SLI (faster performance).
The other item that we don't know is power supply/power brick efficiency. If they're both 80% efficient, that's one thing, but if the laptop is 70% efficient and your desktop is 80% efficient, that could account for another 20W or so. Anyway, since this *is* a desktop replacement, it's not too surprising that the power requirements extend into desktop territory.