Gaming Laptop Roundup

Sager NP9262 - Features and Specifications

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Our test system shipped with the now "outdated" E6850 (3.0 GHz, 4 MB cache, 1066 FSB).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.