Sager 9752 or Alienware 15

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Climber

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Looking at both but really know little about Sager. What little googlefu skills I have seems to turn up nothing but fanbois of one brand or another.

Both are equally priced at around $2300 with 980m and the 4k sharp monitor. I'm just going to be using this for gaming while traveling as well as work related tasks, mostly spreadsheets and presentations. Work gave me a $1500 budget and I pay the rest.

Either computer is more than enough for the work side but specifically for gaming is the 4k screen overkill? Would the 970m be enough for gaming ( @ least 30fps) at 4k resolution or should I stick with the 980m?

Spending this kind of money on a mostly gaming machines I'd ideally like to keep the machine for at least 4 years. The Sager appears to be upgradable while the Alienware has the graphics adapter so not sure which one wins in that area, probably the Sager but how about longevity? Is Sagers quality comparable to Alienware?

Thanks in advance
 
I have the NP9752 (actually looking to sell it as work just provided me with a Latitude laptop that I can take home as well). But anyways, the NP9752 is pretty decent. The build is better than past Sagers, even the base model 1080p screen is nice, and the 980M has lots of power and should be fairly future proof.

With the Alienware, you do get an arguably better warranty as they will send a tech onsite if parts need to be replaced. However, for many warranty related work Sager will optionally mail you a replacement part if requested.

The biggest difference between both machines is that the Sager lacks optimus, so the battery life is only about 2 hours of light usage. The Alienware should be able to get 5 hours or so on light usage.

As far as problems goes, I think the Sager had some quality control issues related to GPU whine (similar to the GTX970 on desktop side) and the CPU/GPU might need a repaste if a poor job was done at the factory. The Alienware seemed to have an issue with LCD screen quality on the 1080p panel. It also will likely take some experimenting with drivers to get a stable setup if you are using the Graphics Amplifier.

As far as 4k on the 980M, I don't know how well it performs. However my NP9752 w/980M does fine driving a 2560x1440 27 inch external display for most recent games. I went with the 1080p screen on it because I also have those external displays that I connect to and Windows / Linux still can't gracefully scale with both of them hooked up at the same time.

Hope this helps!
 
Actually that helps alot win32asmguy! I appreciate the info. I do have a 2560x1440 display as well for my home gaming rig so might not really need the 4k display, just thought it might be worthwhile for spreadsheets or watching 4k netflix on the road.

Did you have any problems with overheating or temps on your Sager? Did you opt for the IC diamond thermal upgrade?
 
Well, mine is kind of a special case. It is actually a barebones model (i.e. only mainboard, GPU, casing, battery, screen) and I added the 4790K and other parts myself. I used AS5 for pasting. If you don't want to bother repasting it yourself then get the ICD upgrade. There isn't much margin for an inefficient heat transfer on this machine so plan on getting the better stuff one way or another.

There are plenty of folks who have the 4k display and are happy with it. If you aren't bothered by scaling issues then go for it. It is a better panel than the 1080p option and closer to the quality you would get on a desktop display.

You might want to consider waiting a month or so until the new Broadwell quad core processors are released. In theory all the NP9752 needs is a bios update for them to work. I wouldn't be surprised if this is already in the works and Sager will start selling them with the new processor as an option soon. A 65W part would be a nice option for this machine. I almost regret not trying something like the 4970S in mine.
 
I can speak to the Sager 9752 as well. I've had mine for about two months and so far it has been a solid machine. I got the 9752 as a desktop replacement and threw in the extra money for the Samsung XP941 NVMe SSD which is stinkin' fast, even with Bitlocker (974 MB/sec sequential reads & 812 MB/sec sequential writes). I just replaced the 1 TB 7200 RPM drive with a 1 TB Samsung 850 EVO SSD and this thing rocks with VirtualBox. Running virtual machines feels like I am running the guest OSes at full speed.

I also got the nVidia 980M and it rocks for the limited gaming that I do (mainly Borderlands 2). I also did a play through of Wolfenstein: The New Order and the video handled it without issue and game play was great.

I am driving two 24 inch 1920x1200 displays via the displayPort to DVI adapters and using the laptop display as a 3rd monitor (which isn't very effective as the text, even at 1920x1080 is too small to see when I have it sitting on the desktop at a distance). I can expand to a third display via HDMI and still drive the internal display on the laptop so that is pretty nifty.

The only issue that I have is when I need to occasionally do a reboot I'll get a message of "insert proper boot media." Powering down the machine and bringing it back up hasn't been an issue. It doesn't occur with every reboot but it does pop-up occasionally. I don't know what the real issue but I suspect it is something to do with the XP941 being new technology with the UEFI BIOS (but it is only a hypothesis and nothing more). So far it hasn't been a major issue.

The 9752 is great for expansion. It has two M.2 interfaces and two SATA slots for 2.5 inch drives along with the aforementioned ability to drive multiple displays concurrently at the full speed of the 980M.

The downside is that the laptop is heavy for what it is (which isn't bad for a true desktop replacement, to be honest) and the power brick is extremely heavy as well. It's not an ultrabook by any means, but it is a true desktop replacement. Mine sits on my desktop almost full time but it is nice to be able to throw it into the laptop bag when I travel or meet with a group of friends at a LAN party.

I was really happy that I didn't have to get a new speaker system. The 9752 is capable of driving my old 5.1 speakers without issue (I have all three 1/8 inch jacks plugged into the machine).

All in all, I recommend the 9752. The build quality is decent but probably not up to the same class as an Alienware but for the money it is pretty decent.
 
I love my Sager NP8278, the cooling is awesome and better than anything else, next to Asus ROG series laptops i saw.

Me i would go for Sager vs Dell.
 
Thanks all. I can probably wait another month or two before buying if the Broadwell quads are that close to release. As far as weight I was expecting it to be fairly heavy but I'm not going to be carrying around a lot like I would if I was back in school. Mostly I'd be at a job site or back at the hotel room or at home.

I guess in the meantime I'll just keep looking and I'll see if sager offers the new Broadwell option soon.
 
Climber, what's up buddy!

I've got the 15 with the 970M (see sig), and it's an excellent machine in terms of build and performance. You can't exactly run the latest and greatest at 4K max, obviously, but could easily do 4K with some of the settings turned down. That being said, getting the 4K panel is the way to go, it's excellent in terms of display eye candy, and the touch portion is great to have too. I play my games in 1080P since it's a multiple of 4K, and it scales excellently.
 
Long time BiH how you doing man? Took a new job last year as a project manager and haven't been home to even think about gaming which is why I'm looking at getting a gaming laptop. We'll have to catch up and get some game time again.
 
I use the same approach 1920x1080 gaming res and turn down settings if needed from there.
 
Climber said:
Long time BiH how you doing man? Took a new job last year as a project manager and haven't been home to even think about gaming which is why I'm looking at getting a gaming laptop. We'll have to catch up and get some game time again.
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Doing alright, I think we're buddies on steam if I recall? Nice on the job!

I'm still doing my work at home gig, and working on my 2 startups, so it's been hectic, but getting some game time in is kind of my "vaca" so to speak. :cool:

Anemone said:
I use the same approach 1920x1080 gaming res and turn down settings if needed from there.
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Exactly, it's still excellent looking since the screen is vibrant and gorgeous.
 
win32asmguy said:
With the Alienware, you do get an arguably better warranty as they will send a tech onsite if parts need to be replaced. However, for many warranty related work Sager will optionally mail you a replacement part if requested.
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This is a really good point. Just the other day a displayPort died in my Sager 9752 and I will be mailing it back to Sager so that they can replace the 980M. Having onsite tech would have been real nice so as to avoid the loss of time with the machine.

I am making a backup of my machine right now before I pack it up to send it back to Sager tomorrow. I don't know if this failure is attributed to Sager or nVidia. Either way, it's under warranty but still a hassle to deal with.
 
I've continued to read up on the various options here and to be honest I'm quite concerned about the lack of Dell support. It seems that Dell has just let Alienware languish and has done nothing with the BIOS issues plaguing the machines, mostly due to throttling and fan control. They aren't supporting their customers by playing hardball with sending out updated power supplies to support the 980m and i7 specced Alienwares. Too be honest it is why I haven't purchased the 17 from the Microsoft store yet.
 
Idk man, I know quite a few people with the 15 and 17 models, and there haven't been any issues on the support front. They're solid machines, but if the verbal majority scares you, may as well go with another brand, it's understandable to be afraid of landing in their shoes with all the supposed issues.
 
If I buy from the MS store does alienware still offer their tech support or does it come through MS?
 
That's a good question - I have no fucking clue! I would hope that Dell would honor the warranty for their own products, especially if bought brand new. I know you can purchase the advanced warranty any time from Dell. I'd honestly get the Alienware from their own site, you can haggle the price pretty aggressively, and get discounts.
 
They offered me 2% off. They wouldn't price match MS because they are a partner store. $40 off doesn't seem too aggressive.
 
Optimus = = Onboard (non-upgradable) graphics. I can tell you where my money would go.
 
Climber said:
They offered me 2% off. They wouldn't price match MS because they are a partner store. $40 off doesn't seem too aggressive.
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Did they recently make any modifications to their laptops, maybe an incremental bump? When I got mine back in January I got quite a few hundos off the retail price, plus got some warranty thrown in. Did you call when you haggled?
 
No, I did the chat with alienware rep twice. Is it better to call you think? Meh, I'll just do that and report back. Who knows, I might just order me an alienware
 
Got 5% off plus free 2 day shipping, plus a 5% dell gift card. Meh. May try again in the morning but probably just going to head to the MS store and pick it up locally.
 
Yeah I always call in when I'm shopping on their site. It's just easier.
 
5 day old thread, I know, but I'd like to point out that Dell/Alienware can be a lot closer in price to the 'cheaper' brands if you use the typical 15% discount. If you are military/government/student/whatever you can get a 10% off coupon code. Then just dig through Dell's MPP section and you'll also get an additional 5% off at checkout.

After that 15% off the price falls in line quite close with equally specced laptops, but the Alienware chassis is much better built and the Dell onsite support is handy as well if you ever need it.
 
Thanks for the info. I'm still procrastinating and haven't bought one yet. Almost pulled the trigger last night as I'm heading out of town next week for 10 days and wanted to have something to game on besides the tablet. Might look around for the MPP code but all the other codes I've found haven't worked. The agents are being pretty stingy on giving discounts when I call or chat them.

The notebookreview forums for alienware are a nightmare to read and is the main reason I haven't pulled the trigger on an alienware yet. The owners lounge over there is literally like 5% enjoy their machines the other 95% hate it it seems.
 
I have a late 2013 17 that has worked wonderfully for me. My only complaint is that this earlier model of the 'new design' didn't come with the special port for the graphics card amplifier/box thing.

It's worked great from day one, and with a vbios reflash the 780m is still a beast of a GPU for being in a notebook.

I was also originally going to get a Sager but I had been also looking at the Alienware as they had just released the new notebook design. After I applied the total 15% off my Alienware ended up being cheaper then the same model Sager I was actually looking at. Except the build quality of the chassis is way better, and I also got a deal on two years of on-site support.

If I couldn't get the 15% off I'd maybe think about a different brand, but even then.. If you ever have a problem that on-site support is going to be nice to have, it'll minimize your down time, and again the chassis quality beats everything else by miles.

The 5% off MPP pricing just requires you to call them up or dig around on the site and go through the MPP portal. The 10% coupon is harder as you'll have to 'know' someone that can get one for you. If you have any friends/family that are military they can quite easily get a code for you via Dell's website. I'd give you one but I buy from Dell often enough that I worry about giving away my code.

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This is the one with a 128gb SSD + HDD, 980M, and whatever the middle selection for CPU is. I have no idea how this compares to pricing from other brands right now but at least you know.

Oh, and the free advantage rewards account gets you a 5% gift card via email after your system has been delivered. So in total it's like 20% in savings. Further, if you make the purchase using whatever they call the Dell payment plan they give you 10% back as a gift card instead of only 5%. So you can potentially save 25% all said and done. If you work for a company with a tax exempted address you can also avoid tax as well..
 
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Putting my 2 cents in, have a 8268 Sager myself

Works fantastic and have been happy with all services provided to me.

Me: Sager
 
FYI I just configured a Sager 9752 on Xotic and with the same specs as that Alienware 17 I configured above it ended up being $2045. So unless there are any additional discounts that Xotic does or there is a different company that offers it for cheaper the Alienware is by far the better buy after discounts.

Not that there is anything wrong with the Sager (There isn't, it's a well made laptop), but it really goes to show how price competitive Dell/Alienware is these days.
 
As a veteran where are you getting that discount from? I don't see that on the website?
 
Do NOT get a new Alienware. It's BGA shit now. The older generations are great and have plenty of options for upgrades, but these new ones are not at all. I almost made the mistake of buying a new M17 before I did research. Check notebookreview forums for more info.

The Sager has 4 ram slots, the Alienware has 2.

But the main difference is the Sager has a desktop CPU socket in it. The Alienware has a soldered mobile CPU.

Dell killed Alienware.
 
Pretty sure the new Alienware 17 has four RAM slots. Two are easily accessed on the under side, two require removing the top keyboard portion.

Who cares if the CPU is BGA? You get the best CPU you can at the time w/ the chipset and that's that. Great if the Sager is a normal socketed CPU, but you are still limited to that chipset/socket which means anywhere from 1-2 years since Intel is only keeping around a specific socket for 2 years now.

I'd argue that Alienware is better then ever given their competitive pricing, category leading build quality, and better warranty.

Oh BTW you are also wrong about the CPU. The 'new' generation also has socketed CPU's again.

See - http://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/a...laptops/alienware-17_Owner's Manual_en-us.pdf
 
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That is the R1 manual not the R2.

The R2 has a BGA CPU and GPU and is limited to 2 RAM slots / 16gb total ram.

Right now the only thing Alienware has over the competition is better warranty and build quality. The pricing is also good with the discounts but I'm still leery of purchasing one.

Notebook review forums are up to almost a 1000 pages on the new models and the majority of posts are of the negative nature. I don't really care about the lack of upgrades per say, would be nice to have the option, so the lack of Raid, the BGA CPU and GPU, and 2 RAM slots aren't big deals, but what is concerning is the lack of going past 16gb of RAM, the 180w PSU, the power throttling, the temperature throttling, and the excessive heat on the keyboards as well as lack of BIOS and driver updates for the systems.

Buying the Sager and having to send it in would likely leave me without a laptop for a month so that is a huge concern of mine in regards to buying from them. I did find a used 9752 fully decked out for $1800. Bought brand new 3 months ago but the seller had to take a new job and can't afford it. Spent almost 1k on upgrades for it, so fully loaded it would be about $2700 new so $900 off seems like a great buy.

I'm such a procrastinator because I want the knowledge that if it breaks I'm not going to be without it for long so Alienware wins big time there; however, it seems like they need that warranty support considering all the problems this generation of Alienwares are going through.

PS. My ID just sent me a 15% coupon for Dell and USAA has 3% cash back if purchasing from Dell so I'm going to price out another Alienware, either the 15 or 17 and see what that looks like. With all the cash back and coupons Dell would give me it is almost $500 in incentives if buying from them, that is hard to beat.
 
Even if that is the case I still don't see it being an issue. 16GB of RAM is enough for a gaming laptop, and again I don't see how BGA is a big deal assuming you just get the CPU you want from the start and the fact that sockets only last two years now anyways. (And if you were to buy near the end of the socket cycle there'd be nothing to upgrade to anyways.)

With the additional 5% from that July 4th coupon code I don't see why'd you spend the money on something else.

Kind of irks me that they had this additional 5% off out of no where because I just bought an Area 51 a couple weeks back.

Again, that's 15 (Coupon) + 5 (mpp) + 5-10 rewards cashback. Just through Dell that's 30% off, and then you've got whatever additional cashback through USAA.

That's a pretty good deal.

BTW my 2013 Alienware 17 has had 14 bios updates, and I've never had issues getting updates for any of the drivers. What piece of hardware are you concerned about not having updates for? Besides the alienware command center everything else gets normal updates through the specific component manufacturers. Just because Dell's download page isn't populated with driver updates doesn't mean you can't use the normal updates released.
 
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Yea the bga stuff isn't a big deal to me but I enjoy having the option to upgrade, especially RAM. I run 16gb in my desktop and have come close to utilizing all of it a few times so being able to have 32 gb on a machine I'm dropping 2k on that I expect to last at least another 3 years isn't unreasonable.

The new 15 models already have 6 Bios updates out so they are active but they keep going about it the wrong way. Instead of just giving a 240w psu they keep trying to tie the Bios to draw from the battery to reduce the throttling when the 980m starts drawing more juice then the PSU can provide. To me that just seems like they are trying to put a band aid on a mortal wound.

I've talked to two different sales reps on the phones and even gave them their own faq page on the subject but neither sales rep would include the 240w psu. One actually tried to upsale me on it when their page specifically states it is a free upgrade to users with the i7 and 980m. The other tried to tell me that was for their desktop systems (????) and that their laptops currently had zero power or heating issues. That has been what has kept me from actually buying one.
 
Climber said:
Yea the bga stuff isn't a big deal to me but I enjoy having the option to upgrade, especially RAM. I run 16gb in my desktop and have come close to utilizing all of it a few times so being able to have 32 gb on a machine I'm dropping 2k on that I expect to last at least another 3 years isn't unreasonable.

The new 15 models already have 6 Bios updates out so they are active but they keep going about it the wrong way. Instead of just giving a 240w psu they keep trying to tie the Bios to draw from the battery to reduce the throttling when the 980m starts drawing more juice then the PSU can provide. To me that just seems like they are trying to put a band aid on a mortal wound.

I've talked to two different sales reps on the phones and even gave them their own faq page on the subject but neither sales rep would include the 240w psu. One actually tried to upsale me on it when their page specifically states it is a free upgrade to users with the i7 and 980m. The other tried to tell me that was for their desktop systems (????) and that their laptops currently had zero power or heating issues. That has been what has kept me from actually buying one.
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Have you checked with lpcdigital or xoticpc? I think if you go with one of them on the Sager/Clevo (or have you checked out the MSI?) that they will help service the machine, I could be wrong, though.
 
I have checked with xotic pc. They require the laptop to be sent in for any service work. Average turnaround time from what I can gather is about 3 weeks. To me that is a deal breaker, especially for a laptop that has to be used for work about 70% of the time.
 
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