Sager 8880 vs. Inspiron 8200

SeeFree · July 9th, 2002, 08:49 PM

Right now I am choosing between a Sager, either the NP 5620 or 8880, and a Dell Inspiron 8200 w/2.0 P-4M. For particular reasons, a desktop is not an option, and I want to maximize speed and gaming potential. The Sagers have the 2.4Ghz processor going for them, and the 8200 the GeForce graphics card. If I go with the Dell, I am going to upgrade seperately the memory to 1GB, and if I go with the Sager I am going to swap out the hard drive for a 5400 rpm one. I have seen posts that claim the Sagers can get the same score on the 3DMark 2001 as the Inspiron, but without standard configurations (thus the 8200 with much lower RAM but faster hard drive). I can afford the Inspiron with upgrades, but only if it is significaly better than the Sager. So with the upgrades (thus both 1GB PC2100 DDR, 5400 rpm hard drive) what do you think my best bet is?

Oscar1613 · July 11th, 2002, 10:25 PM

the dell may have the Geforce4 Go, but the Sager has the Mobile Radeon 7500 (which performs on par with the GeForce4 Go, as shown here), plus the Sager also uses a desktop processor, where the dell uses a mobile one... this gives you more performance, however the downside is battery life is only 1-2 hours (but you can have a second modular battery). i personally got the compaq 2800 like the one with the 7500 in the review i linked to (although configured alittle less agressively) and very satisfied with the 7500's performance. i can play GTA3 with minimal stuttering (only when there is ALOT going on), where my desktop stutters like mad with it... if presented the coice between the dell and the sager, i would definitely pick the sager

MDdan · July 11th, 2002, 10:48 PM

Wow...I thought for sure that Oscar was going to say pass on the Sager because of the desktop processor.

I have a Dell P3 mobile Latitude and it rocks. With 2 batteries, it will go...I dunno, a very long time. 8+ hours has been my experience.

Unless the Sager is way cheaper, I wouldn't touch it. The mobile processors are great...good performance and great battery life. The bottleneck to notebook computers isn't the processor anyway, it's everything else. There is no advantage to a desktop processor in a laptop, other than cost. In every other way, it's inferior.

Go with the Dell...Definately

Oscar1613 · July 12th, 2002, 12:03 AM

heheh... nope. the dell only goes about 2.5 hours on a battery, and yet its got a mobile processor... and since he said he wants to maximize speed and gaming, the Sager seems more of an option because its only 30 mins less battery life (plus the option of a second battery), has a desktop processor, and to top it off its a 2.4GHz vs the dell's 2.0... and its cheaper too!

one other point: powernotebooks.com (the place that sells the Sager's) has a reseller rating of 10

MDdan · July 12th, 2002, 01:43 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Oscar1613
heheh... nope. the dell only goes about 2.5 hours on a battery

You just told me that my laptop only does 2.5 hours on a battery...that was very helpful Oscar.

Thanks for clarifying, I'll be sure and shut it down at 60% next time...guess the battery meter is busted.

Oscar, my whole point was don't underestimate how nice it is to have the mobile processor power saving features. I love using my laptop all day without plugging in.

Oscar1613 · July 12th, 2002, 03:17 AM

i was talking about the 8200... you know... the model HE was looking at

the mobile p4s only get about 2.5 hours per battery... i know because i'm typing on one right now (a compaq 2800T with p4-m 1.6 to be exact). and thats with the larger capacity 66WHr battery. your p3-m had far more power saving than the p4-m does.

FreakyOCR · July 12th, 2002, 03:37 AM

AFAIK Dell's come with a 88WHr battery... Am I correct?

That would explain why the dell's get better battery life.

Oscar1613 · July 12th, 2002, 04:18 AM

no... i dont know of any laptop that does come with a 88WHr battery.... the Inspiron 8200, Latitude C640, C840, and Precision M50 come with a 66WHr; Inspiron 8100, 4100, 2650, 2600, Latitude C510, and C610 come with 59WHr.

brandon184 · July 12th, 2002, 04:36 AM

My Dell doesn't fair well on battery life... (2hrs. max)

mjeweler · July 13th, 2002, 02:48 PM

I just received my Sager 6120-C and all I can say about it so far is WOW!!! I have have several notebooks before I got this one and none of them were near the class of this computer. Certainly I haven't tried everything yet, but it has capabilities that I never considered. Graphics are much better than on any of my other computers. And for what you get, the price is certainly right. Talk to Donald at PowerNotebooks.com and he will help you configure the notebook of your dreams.