I has a sager 5791 v.review when it comes

[Boogieman117]

Thanks Justin, I'll wear the company hat proudly.

17" WUXGA "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy Screen (1920x1200)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
Standard Dead Pixel Policy
Intel® Core™2 Duo T7500 2.2GHz w/4MB L2 On-die cache - 800MHz FSB
512MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce 7950GTX w/GDDR3 (User Upgradeable)
2,048MB DDR2 667 PC2 5300 (2 SODIMMS) Dual Channel Memory
NP5790 Orange Frame Trim Color
Combo 8x8x6x4x Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW 5x DVD-RAM 24x CD-R/RW Drive w/Softwares
100GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA 150)
Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader (MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS Pro Duo/SD/Mini-SD/MMC/RS)
Internal Bluetooth 2.0+ EDR
Built-in Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965 802.11 a/g/n
Built in 1.3Megapixel Camera
Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
Integrated System Speakers - Included
Basic Black Business Case - Included
Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
110/220V 120W Auto Switching AC Adapter - Included
Integrated Fingerprint Reader
None Standard - Drivers & Utility Software Only
Sager 3 Year Parts & Labor Warranty w/ Lifetime Toll Free Customer Service

I bought this knowing about the 8800GT coming out, here's my logic as to why I got it.

1) The 5791 can be upgraded to the 8700GT, for DX10 games.
2) The 5791 is being rumored to be able to support the 8800GT/GTX; Sagers tenedencies from what I remember and have seen, the popular machines sometimes have the option to be sent back to the factory for an upgrade aka the 9860 from the 7800 to the 7950, if memory serves me correctly.
3) I got a 15 month 0% APR card from Chase, this gives me time to make smaller payments on the laptop, then use the sale of my 8790 to cover the rest of the balance, so I don't have to drop $2K in one fell swoop.
4) The warranty on my 8790 ran out this November.
5) I just plain wanted a new Sager!

So, 5791 owners, where you guys at?

[Boogieman117]

It's here! Typing on it now... I plan on creating a full review on this sometime next week.

I still have my good ole' 8790 and ran 3DMark06 on it... 494 3DMarks.. I've installed the programs I need, and will install the games I have later on.

I only have one problem, one device (the card reader) isn't showing up correctly in the Device Manager, any advice?

[MegaBUD]

Ill get about the same thing... except 4gig of ram, 120gig SATA300 and the 8800m gtx

AND! m571ru... ahhh sexy silver trim!

[Boogieman117]

Originally Posted by MegaBUD

Ill get about the same thing... except 4gig of ram, 120gig SATA300 and the 8800m gtx

AND! m571ru... ahhh sexy silver trim!

Shoot for the stars much?
Justin should learn not to keep his IM open late at night, and he got to help me figure out that the CIR driver needed to be installed.

[zfactor]

the cir driver is simply the ir port on the front...

this is what you need to install...ftp://ftp.clevo.com.tw/M57xRU/Optional/CIR.zip

do not update the driver. go to the device manager and make sure there is no driver installed. if so uninstall it.
now go to the downloaded file and set it up from there.. worked for me and a bunch of others that way

[zfactor]

also here is the actual clevo download page..

http://www.clevo.com.tw/en/e-services/Download.asp

[Boogieman117]

Small update, I have downloaded all of the demos, fraps, and installed many of the games I own and 'have', and will be reporting (hopefully) within the month.

[zfactor]

i have a full review thats been ready ive just been to busy to check it over. ill get to it tonight or tomm.. it will be nice to compare a few reviews now

[Boogieman117]

Hi all,

Here's my review of the 5791. Please make any formatting or recommendations so that it is easier on the eyes... I just wanted to get the pics, numbers, and other info out there for all to see.

With that said ...


Boogieman117's Official 5791 Review

Overview and Introduction
This review is about my new Sager 5791, purchased from Justin Nolte at XoticPC. Specs are as follows:


• 17" WUXGA "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy Screen (1920x1200)
• Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB
• 512MB PCI-E nVidia GeForce 7950GTX (User Upgradeable)
• 2 1GB sticks of PC25300/DDR667 RAM
• Stock Black Paint Job w/ Orange Trim
• DVD+RW Drive
o TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-L632D
• 100GB 7200RPM HDD
o Hitachi HTS722010K9SA00
• Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader
o MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS Pro Duo/SD/Mini-SD/MMC/RS
• Internal Bluetooth 2.0+ EDR
• Built-In Intel 4965 802.11 a/b/n Wireless
• Built-In 1.3 Megapixel Camera
• Windows XP Professional


Reasons for Buying
I purchased a Sager 8790 about three years ago, and fell in love with the fact that NO ONE knew what a Sager was, so I seemed to feel special for a while. I enjoyed the fact that I had a machine that was capable to play games (that at the time were the best) and be portable with it. The reason I spent another $2,000 and change three years later were because:

• The Sager 5791 had the option to upgrade the GPU
o So, I can buy the 7950GTX for running DX9 games at the best I could and upgrade to the 8700/8800 for running DX10 games/Vista down the road.
• The look of the 5791 was extremely appealing, the ‘carbon fiber’ around the keyboard and the orange trim against the black paint made me really cement the idea that this Sager will again turn heads amongst my peers.
• I recently noticed that the warranty on my 8790 would expire on November 11, 2004.
• I started crying when I saw how puny my 8790’s GPU was getting in comparison.
• I received a 0% APR for 15 months Chase card that would allow me to make decent payments over time instead of watching my bank account drop like a rock.

Where and How Purchased
I’d been speaking to Justin Nolte at XoticPC for about 6 months now, off and on about the newest laptops coming out from all of the companies he sells for. I also threw his name around to customers I did side work for, and they liked his prices, so I was a bit of a mini-salesman for the guy. He was so honored, he sent me a hat.

I bought the machine for $2037. This included the what I call the “Sager Sale”, which included the 1920x1200 screen, 3 year parts/labor warranty through Sager, and 100GB 7200RPM HDD. This was an excellent deal, considering I paid $2200 for my old machine and seemed about right for the technology out right now.

Build and Design
The design of the laptop is to be portable, yet stylish. I compare the style of this laptop to the import tuners of this generation; flashy looks with the black/orange color combo and curiosity about what was under the hood. The hard plastic case and metal lid gives the feel of strength, while the screen lid feels extremely sturdy. I took my fingernail and placed just enough pressure on my nail that turns the color from pink to yellow and ran it across the screen, no ripples. I tried gently twisting the screen to feel for flex at both the top and the bottom of the screen; the top bent very little and the bottom made the base of the laptop shift.

Screen
The 1920x1200 screen is extremely bright and sharp when leaned back a bit, if the screen is at its strongest at a ‘right angle’, the screen is sometimes too bright to see, but to me it’s a non-issue. This Sager came with no dead pixels, different from my 8790 which had one white dead pixel. I inspected the sides of the screen for any light leakage or bleeding, but couldn’t find any at this time.


Speakers
I was extremely concerned 24 hours after pressing the “Buy Now” button on XoticPC’s site and started reading the forums about the 5791’s internal sound. To add to my paranoia, my 8790 had five speakers, located to the left/right of the keyboard, the left/right of the audio jacks on the front, and the subwoofer on the bottom of the laptop. To my surprise, some were unhappy and even disappointed with the 5791’s sound. Upon receiving the laptop, I listened to the speakers and was pleasantly surprised at the crispness of 64Kbps streaming audio and my ripped CD’s at 320Kbps.

Processor and Performance
Again, comparing apples to apples, the 5791 is a step up from the 3.2 P4/2GB of DDR400 I had with my 8790. The Core 2 Duo T7500 at 2.2 GHz I have inside my 5791 is performing exactly as I expected; with multiple IM’s windows open, 2 Microsoft Word documents open, and Mozilla Firefox with 5 tabs open, the laptop floats around like a dream. The 2GB’s of 667MHz RAM definitely seem to assist with the day-to-day activities and the games I play and will be playing.

Synthetic Benchmarks
SuperPi:
1 Million - 22 seconds
2 Million - 1 Minute


Transfer Rate
Minimum: 2.2 MB/Sec
Maximum: 58.7 MB/Sec
Average: 42.4 MB/Sec

Access Time:
16.0 ms

Burst Rate:
85.0 MB/sec

CPU Usage:
6.8%


wPrime
1 Million - 45 seconds


PCMark05
5403

3DMark06
5344


Resolution: 1920x1200
Detail - Maximum Quality
HDR: Full:
AA: 8x
AF: 16x
94.6 FPS


Resolution: 1600×1200
Ultra quality option
Antialising: None
Anisotropic filtering: 4×
HDR: disabled
Score: 100.75 FPS

Resolution: 1600×1200
Ultra quality option
Antialising: 8x
Anisotropic filtering: 16×
HDR: Level 7
Score: 50.39 FPS



Video Quality: High Quality
Screen Size: 1600x1200
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (16:9)
Fullscreen: Yes
HQ SFX: Yes
Shadows: Yes
Specular: Yes
Bump Maps: Yes
Vertical Sync: No
AA: Off
2007-12-17 20:36:16 - Quake4
Frames: 9086 - Time: 154389ms - Avg: 58.851 - Min: 6 - Max: 63


1280x960
Screen Percentage: Windowed
Texture Detail: 5
World Detail: 5
2007-12-05 21:49:38 - UT3Demo
Frames: 7054 - Time: 277829ms - Avg: 25.390 - Min: 16 - Max: 33

1280x960
Screen Percentage: Windowed
Texture Detail: 3
World Detail: 3
2007-12-05 21:58:14 - UT3Demo
Frames: 8612 - Time: 265254ms - Avg: 32.467 - Min: 0 - Max: 54


1024x768
Fullscreen: Yes
All settings: Medium (exception Objects = High)
2007-12-16 12:47:15 - Crysis
Frames: 47507 - Time: 1476459ms - Avg: 32.176 - Min: 10 - Max: 73



display mode: 1024x768
terrain: high
effects: high
geometry: high
texture: high
lighting: high
dyn. shadows: high
dyn. light: high
texture filtering: high
aa = 4x
visual distance scale: 100%
2007-12-03 20:39:32 - BF2
Frames: 20414 - Time: 264322ms - Avg: 77.232 - Min: 9 - Max: 101



Heat and Noise
This laptop is leaps and bounds ahead of my previous machine. Anyone who owned a Sager three years ago knows about the Turbo Mode (Fn+F11 usually) to kick on the fans to cool the P4-powered machine. These things could very easily drown out any music played on a low volume; it would be about as noisy as one of the original Xbox360’s reading a disk. This laptop however has been virtually silent since I’ve had it. If I put my head near the bottom of the laptop and actually listen, I can hear the fans hum, but normal typing I hear practically nothing.

Heat was also a massive issue with my old 8790. It was such a problem that the old message boards I hanged out on recommended a program called MobMeter (can be googled and found) and told me to watch the idle temps of the processor when idle and when gaming. The specs I went by were:

It got to the point to where I had to purchase Arctic Silver 5 and an external notebook cooler (Antec Pacific Breeze) to keep the temperatures below the 55C mark. I even learned how to apply Arctic Compound 5 to a laptop processor. Fun stuff.

The 5791 doesn’t seem to have that problem AT ALL. Right now, I have Firefox and Microsoft Word open, and the processor temperature reads 40C. I noticed when running the Crysis demo, playing it for 10 minutes, and closing it that the temperature was ~70C. I’m going to presume that 75C will be its highest and safest temperature. So my new little processor temperature chart looks like this:

Unfortunately, I don’t have anything that monitors the 7950GTX, so if someone points it to me, I’ll update this review.




Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard is much more ‘tougher’ then my 8790. Of course since its newer that is to be expected, but there was a big of flex with the 8790’s keyboard. This keyboard doesn’t seem to have any flex at all, and I personally like that. The dull, minor ‘thump’ is the auditory tick I need to hear instead of the ‘clack’ sound of old style desktop keyboards.

The touchpad is a bit new to me, as the old touchpad I had didn’t have the ‘autoscroll’ feature on the right and bottom of the actual touchpad. I will admit when I first browsed a rather large message board thread and needed to scroll, I accidentally released my finger from the right scroll and found myself at the bottom of the page  I now know to keep my finger on the scroll pads.

Input and Output Ports
The 5791 has four USB 2.0 Ports (two on the back, two on the right side). I like the fact that there are two on the right, this way I can quickly connect the mouse and anything else that I may need to quickly connect via USB instead of blindly trying to plug in devices using the back ports. The fingerprint reader between the touchpad buttons is a new addition to me considering this is where my touchpad scroll button was located before. The ability to unlock my machine via fingerprint is a nice touch. Along the right side of the laptop with the two USB ports is the ExpressCard slot (which I’ve never used on any computer), the 4-in-1 card reader (which I use a lot with my digital camera), a mini-IEEE 1394a port (see ExpressCard slot note), a telephone jack, gigabit speed Ethernet jack, and a CATV jack (I can’t think of anytime I’ll need this, but I’m glad I have it). Moving to the back of the machines, we have the S-Video out (which I’ll be using to show widescreen stuff off on TV’s); a DVI port (probably won’t use this, as the screen, a serial port (for god knows what), and two other USB 2.0 ports.

Wireless
The wireless on the laptop seems to be outstanding so far. I’ve gone about 500 feet from a G-based router and access point and have had no problems. As of this writing, I haven’t worked with a Draft-N network.

I have been playing with large file transfers for game demos, so if this is helpful, so be it:

File Size Time Wireless Strength
1 GB ~ 3 minutes Excellent
5 GB ~ 15 minutes Excellent

Battery
Going from a desktop replacement to a more mobile computer now has me paying more attention to words such as Stand By and Hibernate. I drained the battery and recharged it (as I will continue to do on a bi-weekly basis to keep the battery good and strong), here are my results:

• start death: 12:38pm, fade the screen to lowest brightness, idle.
• update: 12:53pm, 85%, fade the screen to lowest brightness, idle.
• update: 2:02pm, 16%, fade the screen to lowest brightness, idle.
• update: 2:05pm, 13%, fade the screen to lowest brightness, idle.
• update: 2:07pm, 11%, fade the screen to lowest brightness, idle.
• update: 2:08pm, 10%, fade the screen to lowest brightness, idle.
• recharge start: 2:08pm, 9%, charging, screen at the brightest, idle.
• update: 2:18pm, 18%, charging, screen at the brightest, idle.
• update: 2:35pm, 34%, charging, screen at the brightest, idle.
• update: 2:51pm, 49%, charging, screen at the brightest, idle.
• update: 2:58pm, 55%, charging, screen at the brightest, idle.
• update: 3:05pm, 62%, charging, screen at the brightest, idle.
• update: 3:13pm, 70%, charging, screen at the brightest, idle.
• update: 3:20pm, 76%, charging, screen at the brightest, idle.
• update: 3:26pm, 81%, charging, screen at the brightest, idle.
• update: 3:41pm, 94%, charging, screen at the brightest, idle.
• update: 4:00pm, 100%, running on AC power, screen at the brightest, idle.

This tells me that the computer discharges at about 1% per minute, so I have a little over an hour and a half of on-time. Gaming during that time, would probably pull that number down to 40-45 minutes at the max.

I accidentally determined the about of power the computer uses while on Standby by accidentally leaving it at home for a day and a half. After swearing to never leave home without it ever again, I was blown away at the amount of power it didn’t use:


• 18 hours on stand by = 15% discharge
• 36 hours on stand by = 30% discharge
• 108 hours on stand by = 90% discharge

Needless to say, I’m extremely happy with the battery power on this laptop. One last thing that I did happen to notice is the quick release on the battery latch. My old 8790 required manually unscrewing three rice-sized screws to switch the batteries. Not this machine; just pull on the clip, pull the battery, put the new one in, listen for the click, and done! Simplicity is bliss.

Operating System and Software
I had to really think hard on the operating system that I was going to install on this laptop. On one hand, Vista would give me DX10, but would require the 8700GT or eventual 8800GT found in the upcoming 5792. Or, go with Windows XP that shows higher benchmarks with the 7950GTX on the DX9 games I’m used to playing and getting a better gaming experience.

With that, Windows XP was my choice of OS. I’m happy to announce that this is the first system that when powered off, goes from power button press to the Ctrl+Alt+Del / swipe your finger screen in less then one minute. Time to stand by is less then 10 seconds. The hardware in this laptop works great with the now six year old system.

I’ve always enjoyed Nero’s Burning ROM Series; the DVD burner works like a charm as it should. As long as it works, I’m happy. Something useful that this installation of Nero has is Home Essentials, which can stream content to, in my case, my PlayStation 3. So having a laptop with this software lets me expand my home entertainment throughout my house. Win all around.

Customer Support
The only possible bad thing I can say about this laptop is the branding on it. I know I’m getting tired of beating a dead horse, but my 8790 had a few heat problems, and I at one point, sent it to get checked out. Fortunately, I’m a computer tech by trade and have learned the technique of communicating with those with an Asian dialect. Unfortunately, Sager’s tech support is rather small and based solely in California, this it bad considering I live in Maryland, around 3,000 miles away. So, tech support from the source is good, but not great. Sager does, however, offer their drivers on their website for download, so it’s not all bad. I’d suggest funneling any problems you have through your local re-seller first before trying to contact Sager directly.

Conclusion
I will be happily supply Chase Credit with my $100/month payments to pay off this laptop over the next year and a half. The fact that I can game portability without bringing external equipment makes me smile. The fact that my new laptop is extremely quiet makes me smile even bigger. To know that it is possible to upgrade (eventually) to the best GPU out right now, the 8800GT, makes me smile even bigger, and giggle like a school girl.

[Boogieman117]

Forgot to mention that it's on it's way back to Sager.... apparently on the 29th day of my 30 day refund policy, Justin told me that I could send back my 5791, have them take the HDD from my 5791, drop it into a 5792, and ship the 5791 back to me for the price of the GPU upgrade and the shipping.

I went with it, so now I'm back to my ole' reliable (and warm) Sager 8790. The 5791 was shipped last Friday (11/28/07) and should be arriving @ Sager's CA branch tomorrow. Justin told me it would be a 2-3 day job of receiving the laptop, pulling the drive, firing up the 5792, check it out, and ship it back 2-3 day air.

Can't wait for... next week!

In other news, I got engaged for X-mas.