Powerful laptop for under $1800 or so

[jlp0209]

I think I'm going with the Envy after all. What I've read about Sager didn't inspire more confidence in reliability than HP (reports of dead pixels seemed especially common), and apparently they feel really bulky and have horrible speakers. The Envy, on the other hand, gets rave reviews for its sound. And by all accounts, I'm going to be getting 5+ hours of battery life with the Envy, so I think the choice is pretty clear.

With taxes and shipping on the computer + the SSD + the drive caddy + the extra 9-cell extended battery I purchased off amazon, everything came out to about $1950. So expensive, but this thing is going to be a beast!! I sure hope it doesn't crap out on me.

Dead pixels plague all laptop brands. I had a MacBook Pro years ago that had one. My Sony Z has a few stuck white pixels but I don't notice them in daily use. My new Sager in my sig had 2 dead pixels and the LCD was replaced promptly and the new one is flawless. I did get the dead pixel warranty and it paid off. Envy looks awesome, if you go with that enjoy! Just be sure to read the return policy and pixel policy for whoever you buy from if you are concerned about it.

IMO build quality of the Sager is excellent. Only experience I've had with HP is the Elitebook series which also has awesome build quality.

[cowpig]

I got the crucial m4 512gb, not 256gb, haha.

And I got an Envy 17, actually. I love the big screens.

[woodz140]

go with the sager, im ordering one as well, exept sticking with stock gtx 670m, the reviews with the 7970 have been dissapointing, however by the time you order it hopefully all the bugs will be kinked out

[cowpig]

Jesus christ. HP is horrible.

I have ordered the same computer three times now, twice on different credit cards, and finally on paypal. All three times the order was mysteriously cancelled a few days after I made the order, and all three times HP claimed it was cancelled by my financial institutions. I just spoke to Paypal and they said that after my account had been debited, it was impossible for them to cancel my order, and that it had been cancelled by HP. The HP rep, when I told her this, gave me a lot of attitude, saying she wasn't interested in having an argument about who did what.

Soooooo now I'm looking into getting something else. Sucks because I bought an extra battery and a hard drive caddy at the same time I tried to buy the laptop the first time around, so that's $100 down the drain.

[Pikachu]

I would like to know whether you use specialised software applications that are optimised for professional grade graphics cards.

[cowpig]

I would like to know whether you use specialised software applications that are optimised for professional grade graphics cards.

At the moment I don't know anything about this. It's possible that I will learn, however. Do you have some reference material?

I'm debating between the Sager NP6175 and the Sony S Series right now. Leaning toward the Sager, but still not sure!!

[golfguy251]

I'd recommend a business-class model (Precision, Thinkpad, etc) if you don't care much about gaming and want it to last a very long time.

[cowpig]

I'd recommend a business-class model (Precision, Thinkpad, etc) if you don't care much about gaming and want it to last a very long time.

There's no Precision that's really to my specifications, and the markup on a thinkpad is just too high imo.

I'm about to pull the trigger on the S Series. I assume it'll be easy to stick my Crucial M4 SSD into it? Anybody have experience w/this?

[Pikachu]

Well, professional applications and professional grade graphics cards are highly optimised for each other. Consumer grade cards are for playing games whereas professional graphics cards are designed for work.

Also, I read an article in the past stating that consumer grade GPU make errors in computation, which are virtually unnoticeable when gaming but could be important when using the GPU to perform non-graphical calculations. I guess it depends on how accurate you need your results to be.

Please note that I read the article a while back so things may be different today. Although, I doubt anything has changed because by not insisting on absolute accuracy the GPU actually performs much faster which is great for gaming. I suggest checking with the relevant department about this.

[cowpig]

Well, professional applications and professional grade graphics cards are highly optimised for each other. Consumer grade cards are for playing games whereas professional graphics cards are designed for work.

Also, I read an article in the past stating that consumer grade GPU make errors in computation, which are virtually unnoticeable when gaming but could be important when using the GPU to perform non-graphical calculations. I guess it depends on how accurate you need your results to be.

Please note that I read the article a while back so things may be different today. Although, I doubt anything has changed because by not insisting on absolute accuracy the GPU actually performs much faster which is great for gaming. I suggest checking with the relevant department about this.

Interesting, thanks for the information, Pikachu.

I ended up going with the Sony Viao S series, largely because I couldn't find enough good reviews/information on the Sager NP6175, and was worried about its battery life, size/weight, and long-term durability. The S series, on the other hand, seems to get great reviews all around. Also I spoke to an XoticPC CS rep and he was ridiculously slow and didn't seem to understand (or maybe he just wasn't paying attention to) anything I was saying. The guy I spoke to at Sony, on the other hand, was awesome.

So... here are the details on the system I ended up ordering:

Product: US-SVS151190X-LBOM-2
Component: 500GB (7200rpm) hard drive this is to be replaced by my crucial m4 512gb SSD
Component: Internal lithium polymer battery (4400mAh)
Component: Black
Component: No engraving
Component: Kaspersky® Internet Security (30-day trial)
Component: No Fresh Start
Component: CD/DVD player / burner
Component: 3rd gen Intel® Core™ i7-3612QM quad-core processor (2.10GHz / 3.10GHz with Turbo Boost)
Component: 8GB (4GB fixed onboard + 4GB removable) DDR3-1333MHz
Component: Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Component: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M LE (2GB) hybrid graphics with Intel® Wireless Display technology
Component: 15.5" LED backlit Full HD display (1920 x 1080)
Component: Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter (Click More Info for details.)
Per Unit Price: $1,187.49

It also came with a free extended life "sheet battery" and with their student discount it ended up being a few hundred cheaper than I thought it would be, so I'm pretty pleased. We'll see how it goes when I actually receive the system.