Considering a Sager NP9150 with 680m

[ProRacer753]

I’ve been lurking around NBR for a good while now, but I haven’t bothered to create an account until now, so hi all!

So after lots of deliberation I’m pretty sure I’ve decided on the configuration I’m going to get from XoticPC. I’m looking for the best performance I can get in the $2500-3000 price range (slightly over is ok), with the primary purposes of the machine being HD video editing/motion graphics with Adobe CS5.5 and 3DS Max 2012, as well as gaming with intensive current and future games such as BF3, GTA IV, V, Crysis 3, etc.

1. I need as much color accuracy as I can get, so I’m going for the 95% Gamut screen. I currently have a glossy screen on my Asus G73 which I really like, so I’ll probably go with the glossy screen on the new Sager as well (which from what I’ve read also has better color accuracy/vibrance opposed to matte). But I was wondering if anyone has compared the 95% gamut matte and glossy screens first hand... I have seen the stock matte MSI GT783 screen in person, and I noticed that the screen had an overall grainy surface texture, which I wasn’t a big fan of. I ask this because I own a Sony TV that has a matte screen with a completely smooth surface texture, and I wouldn’t mind having a matte laptop screen if it was like that.

2. I’m planning to use the mSATA SSD as my primary C drive – good idea or not? Mainly because I want to have a large secondary hard drive (like 750GB) - a 250GB SSD on its own won’t suffice for me. The only thing I’m worried about is space, as 80GB isn’t much. But I guess that can be upgraded later.

3. And as for the GPU - I was close to getting the 7970m, when the 680m was finally announced. I think that when it comes to video editing, I will see a better advantage with Nvidia’s CUDA, and based on most benches so far, it appears that the 680m will be slightly better than the 7970m. That combined with my less-than-stellar experience with AMD drivers in the past, I would quite comfortably opt for the 680m over the 7970m. ETA says late June, but I HIGHLY doubt that. Hopefully it won’t be too long though…

4. I also love backlit chicklet keyboards, and I’ve heard many good things about the Steelseries keyboard so I decided to go with that. I’ve read that the only problem with it is that the FN key functions don’t match up. Is there a fix for that?

5. Out of curiosity, how much battery life do you think will this get me? I get about an hour and a half on my G73 lol.

Sager NP9150 / Clevo P150EM
- 15.6" FHD 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen w/ 95% NTSC Color Gamut (1920x1080) (SKU - S1R301)
- 60 Day No Dead Pixel Warranty (On any screen)
- Sager - 3rd Generation Intel® Ivy Bridge Core™ i7-3820QM (2.7GHz - 3.7GHz, 8MB Intel® Smart Cache, 45W Max TDP) (SKU - S2R203)
- IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- nVidia GeForce GTX 680M 4,096MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 with Optimus™ Technology [User Upgradeable] (ETA: End of June) (SKU - S3R406)
- 16GB - DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (4 SODIMMS) (SKU - S4P761)
- Sager Branding
- Standard Finish
- 80GB Intel 310 Series mSATA SSD - Preconfigured as an OS Drive ( Operating System – Drive C: )
- 750gb 7200rpm (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache) (SKU - S5R306)
- 6x Blu-Ray Burner/Reader / 8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive (SKU - S7R556)
- Internal 9-in-1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD/Mini SD/SDHC/SDXC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo)
- Sager - Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 (3x3) - BACK-ORDER (SKU - S8R056)
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- Steelseries™ Chiclet Backlit Keyboard (adds 4-7 business days)
- Windows 7 Professional Premium 64-Bit (64&32-Bit CD Included) + MS Office Starter 2010 -[ Upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $14.99 (Directly through Microsoft) ]
- Sager 2 Year Parts & LIFETIME Ltd Labor Warranty w/ Lifetime 24/7 DOMESTIC Toll Free Customer Support (SKU - S9R206)
- 2 Year - Two Way Ground Shipping Coverage for Warranty Repairs (Canada) (Must be Combined with Sager 2 Year Parts & LIFETIME Ltd Labor Warranty)

$3,218.00

And finally, I live in Canada so the free shipping doesn’t apply, and I’ve read that USPS is the way to go to avoid large brokerage fees courtesy of UPS. Along with the 3% cash, are there any other discounts that I qualify for?

[MeekleMish]

With something as powerful as the 680 I dont think the battery life will be too incredible. But the build sounds awesome! (Im a newbie too)

[ProRacer753]

True, even with Optimus I doubt it'll be very good. Not that it really matters to me tho, I'm used to carrying around the power brick.

[surjl0827]

As a fellow Canadian, I would seriously recommend that you purchase from a Canadian Reseller. For valid reasons of course.

If you buy from the US, you will be responsible for shipping and brokerage.
Since you are in Ontario, expect nearly 200$ for shipping and another 80$ or so for brokerage. You can select the UPS options with brokerage included, but that will also add up to be around 200$.

Speak to Xoticpc. Unless they can help you out with that part, expect an additional few hundred bucks to your bill.

Reflex Notebook on the other hand covers all of that. Their prices may seem higher but really it's cheap if not the same.

[ProRacer753]

Thanks I'll look into it.

[maverick1989]

Kepler CUDA performance has take a huge hit over Fermi's. I would suggest you wait to see how it performs in compute power. Also, many are moving towards the OpenCL industry standard.

[Rejexted]

Hey man! I'm in literally the EXACT same position as you are. I have an Asus G73 and I'm looking to upgrade to the NP9150. I hate the keyboard & touchpad on the G73, everything else is great. Also my specs are pretty much the same as yours. Did you end up buying? How do you like it compared to the G73?

[ProRacer753]

Hey man! I'm in literally the EXACT same position as you are. I have an Asus G73 and I'm looking to upgrade to the NP9150. I hate the keyboard & touchpad on the G73, everything else is great. Also my specs are pretty much the same as yours. Did you end up buying? How do you like it compared to the G73?

No I haven't made the purchase yet. Even if I ordered it now, it still wouldn't arrive until the 680m is available, so I'd expect it would take a few weeks after placing the order, that is if the 680m arrives "late June" as expected.

Kepler CUDA performance has take a huge hit over Fermi's. I would suggest you wait to see how it performs in compute power. Also, many are moving towards the OpenCL industry standard.

Hm, I'll have to do some more research. You're right though, the only way to really tell how it will perform is to wait.

[Prasad]

Kepler CUDA performance has take a huge hit over Fermi's. I would suggest you wait to see how it performs in compute power. Also, many are moving towards the OpenCL industry standard.

True. And if you believe gaming/video editing alone to be your primary priority, thus not fully (if at all) utilizing those horrifyingly overpriced CUDA cores, then save the cash and go for the comparable AMD 7970M GPU.

[pbmacros]

Thats an incredible budget you have there.

Choosing the mSATA as primary drive is good. I will do the same when I get my P502 from Schenker. Maybe you should consider buying the HDD yourself. With a Samsung Spinpoint M8 you get 1TB of space at a good price. Although it has only 5400 rpms its speed is quite good because of the high data density. Only access times arent the best, but that doesn't matter if you use it mostly as data storrage. You could upgrade your mSATA to a bigger one.

I would recommend to use 2x8GB of RAM. It allows you to upgrade later, provides the same speed and saves a little energy.

Your graphics card shouldn't affect your (best) battery life, cause optimus and enduro allow to turn the dGPU of. So I guess that you can reach 4+ h.