P4 1.8 Mobile or P4 2.4 for Laptop?

[StevenF]

I am going to order the Sager NP5620 (I think that is the company that actually makes them). Alienware also sales them along with a few other companies. The question: should i go the 1.8 mobile route or the 2.4? The Mobile is supposed to be a lot cooler, and I can't see how a laptop could cool a 2.4 in that small of space. I'm not concerned with battery life as I will use the AC adaptor most of the time. Also, they cost about the same. So will the heat make a difference, cause if not, I'm gonna go the 2.4 route.

If I do go the 2.4 route, which company should I buy from? I'm leaning towards powernotebooks.com, but alienware seems to have more ventillation and cooling from the pictures I have seen. Also, powernotebooks sales the exact same thing for about 300 less

Thanks guys for all your help.

 

[GFORCE100]

I just orderded a Sony GRX series with a mobile P4. The thing to remember is a desktop version will run hotter and also reduce battery life, both meaningful in notebooks.

Your best bet is to read all sorts of customer reviews about many products including notebooks at Eopinion's

 

[Athlon4all]

P4-M always.

 

[SteelCityFan]

I think of the laptops with desktop P4's to be hack jobs. It would be a no brainer for me. Get the P4-M.

 

[GFORCE100]

On top of that those with desktop versions are from small companies which in turn offer poor plastics and quality of LCD panels. Go for big brands like Toshiba, Compaq, Dell or Sony. Sony is for style, Toshiba is for looks and an odd touch such as bitmap changable touchpads, Compaq is your usual business work dog and Dell is good if you want to have more freedom in configuring it.

In my opinion Sony and Compaq have the best chassis designs.

 

[MWink]

Sager does not make laptops. They rebrand laptops from two other companies. IMO, Sager's are not very good. The one I have experience with has been nothing but problems since day one.

As for the P4 vs. P4-M I would get the P4-M no question. I don't care about battery life but I do care about heat. Also, I just read a review that compared laptops with the faster P4 (2.2GHz I think) vs. the slower P4-M (1.7GHz) and there was not much difference in speed at all. Get the P4-M, you won't regret it.

 

[GFORCE100]

Pentium 4-M chips run at 1.3/1.2V............Destop variants run at 1.5V (Northwood core). For this reason they give out less heat naturally.

Secondly whether a battery lasts longer or shorter isn't just down to the CPU. It's down to things like the 3D card too, HDD, CDRW, LCD size etc.

 

[Mojonba]

A sager with a dektop northwood is almost $1000 less than a similar equipped dell inspiron 8200. So in my opinion it is something to consider. You also get more mhz for the money. Regarding battery life, Many users have their laptops connected to AC 90% of the time. It also weighs almost 10 lbs, but some users leave their laptops on a desk mpost of the time. One thing to be careful is about chassis and lcd quality but they should perform the same mhz for mhz since they are both using the same chipset and ddr memory.

 

[MWink]

Not necessarily. They run a bit hotter, but i recently read a few reviews on laptops' using standard northwood , and battery life is just as good/ a little better...? Thats something to think about :S

Out of curiosity what SIZE batteries do they have??? That makes a HUGE difference. Yea I saw a review with a Winbook that used a desktop CPU and ran longer than some with the P4-M. The thing to remember is it's battery was a 100W/hr battery! :Q That's HUGE. It probably makes it weigh a ton.

A sager with a dektop northwood is almost $1000 less than a similar equipped dell inspiron 8200. So in my opinion it is something to consider. You also get more mhz for the money. Regarding battery life, Many users have their laptops connected to AC 90% of the time. It also weighs almost 10 lbs, but some users leave their laptops on a desk mpost of the time. One thing to be careful is about chassis and lcd quality but they should perform the same mhz for mhz since they are both using the same chipset and ddr memory.

BTW, comparing Dell's price thingy to Sager's is comparing apples to oranges. If you are smart you can engineer Dell's to a MUCH MUCH lower price. Just don't buy everything from Dell. EX. Dell wants $200 to upgrade from a 20GB to a 40GB HD. Just buy a 40GB HD for $150 from Newegg and sell the 20GB or put it in the multi media bay. Do the same with RAM. Dell will rape you on upgrades. Get the most basic config possible and upgrade it yourself. (Note: this goes for the Inspiron's only, not the Latitudes)

 

[MWink]

Here I did all the work for you. Here are the real prices to compare:

Sager NP5620:
15" SXGA+
P4 1.6GHz (NOT mobile)
ATI Radeon 7500 64MB
512MB DDR
40GB HD
8X DVD/CD-RW Combo
Floppy
V.90 Modem
10/100 NIC
IEEE1394 FireWire
Win XP Home
3 Year Warranty

Total - $2100

----------------------------------
Dell Inspiron 2650:

15" XGA
P4-M 1.6GHz
Nvidia GeForce 2 GO 16MB
128MB DDR
20GB HD
8X DVD/CD-RW Combo
Floppy
V.92 Modem
10/100 NIC
IEEE1394 FireWire
Win XP Home
3 Year Warranty

Subtotal - $1850

2 X 256MB DDR SODIMMS (from Crucial) $100 each = $200
1 X 40GB IBM Travelstar (from Newegg) $150 = $150

Total - $2200

------------------------------------------------------
Dell Inspiron 8200:

15" UXGA
P4-M 1.6GHz
Nvidia GeForce 4 GO 32MB
128MB DDR
20GB HD
8X DVD/CD-RW Combo
Floppy
V.92 Modem
10/100 NIC
IEEE1394 FireWire
Win XP Home
3 Year Warranty

Subtotal - $2075

$150 Rebate = $-150
2 X 256MB DDR SODIMMS (from Crucial) $100 each = $200
1 X 40GB IBM Travelstar (from Newegg) $150 = $150

Total = $2275



So in the end the price difference is only $175. Not to mention the fact you will have the original HD and memory left over from the two Inspiron which you could sell to make up the difference. BTW, the Inspiron 8200 will probably significantly outperform the Sager. The GeForce 4 GO is supposed to be a good bit faster than the Radeon 7500. I can't tell you how the Radeon 7500 runs but the GeForce 4 GO is extremely fast.

 

[Mojonba]

$1000 dollars was perhaps too exagerated. I compared the fastest processors and the 64mb graphics and came out with this. Yeah, the Geforce 4 go is slighty faster the the mobility radeon 7500. One thing is for sure, you get more mhz for the money with Sager.

Sager NP5620 SUPRA

15"SXGA+
40Gb HD
512Mb DDR
Floppy, Modem, Nic
8x dvd/8x cdrw combo
Win Xp Home
3 year warranty
$40 carrying case

2.2ghz -- $2104
2.4ghz -- $2264

Compaq 2800T

P4-M 1.8ghz
128mb ddr
20gb hd
8x dvd/8x cdrw combo
15" sxga+
Ati mobility radeon 7500
3 year warranty
Win Xp Home
nylon carrying case

$ 2057 + 256mb Crucial + 40gb Hd newegg = $2407


Dell Inspiron 8200

P4-M 1.8ghz
128mb ddr
20gb hd
8x dvd/8x cdrw combo
15" free uxga upgrqde
Geforce 4 Go 64mb
3 year warranty
Win Xp Home
nylon carrying case

$ 2599 - $150 rebate + Hd and memory from newegg/crucial = $2799

It all comes down to brand name. Personally, I'll take the compaq for its power/size ratio. It is 3lbs lighter than the dell. I also prefer the metal look of the compaq not to mention it is cheaper. Here an analogy. Take for example a Chevy Impala with 200hp for say 20k or you can take a Toyota Camry 4 banger or Nissan Altima with a 170hp 4 banger for the same price. Toyota and Nissan have very good brand name recognition and good reliability while chevy doesn't have that same recognition. I really don't know is Sager compares to Chevy. It could compare to a Yugo if they are Pos that overheat and lock up.

 

[Soulkeeper]

this is a great comparison
i am in the same boat have had my browser open to dell gateway compaq powernotebooks.com and a few other sites
good battery life is important to me that is why i am not gonna get the desktop cpu in a notebook i am considering the sager with the 1.8ghz P4-m and the radeon 7500
the idea to pick up parts at newegg was great
guess i'll look around some more

good imput people
--Soul_keeper

 

[MWink]

i am in the same boat have had my browser open to dell gateway compaq powernotebooks.com and a few other sites

When I was looking at them I found the Gateway 600x and the Dell Inspiron 8200 looked the best. The only reason I got the Dell was because I couldn't find Gateway's return policy. Something I later learned was some of the Gateways are made by the same company that makes the Dell Latitudes. The Gateway 200 and the Dell Latitude X200 are the same exact computer.

One thing is for sure, you get more mhz for the money with Sager.

Yea, and they'll throw in more headachs for your money absolutely free. WOW! What a hot deal.
I'm just trying to save you from some major problems. I used to love the idea of a Sager. I finally convinced someone else to buy one (the exact model I would have bought) and it was nothing but problems. I was SOOOOOO glad I did not buy it.

 

[Mojonba]

Thats a nice one, when you are not sure about something, make a friend buy it. Waste his money, not yours. What are friends for

Mwlink - What kind of problems did your friend have with his Sager ? Was it the one with the desktop nortwood ?

 

[Soulkeeper]

yeah i read the reveiws over at resellerratings.com and couldn't find one legitament complaint about the actual hardware and quality of the powernotebooks.com products
but here i have noticed that a few people have said they aren't all too good
i'm a bit curious as to what issues people have had with these laptops too
i'm most likely gonna get one

 

[StevenF]

Soulkeeper, I was going to do the same thing. Most likely I was gonna get the NP5650?(the mobile processor version). I modified the Supra version and it came out to 2604 including the UXGA, 512 MB ram, an extra battery ground shipping, and XP professional. The exact specifications are in my other post I made a half hour ago. It seems like a steal at powernotebooks.com. I tried configuring the same setup at other companies and they were all 3000+, Dell was the winner at over 4000. Way to go dell!

Would anyone be kind enough to post what problems they had with their Sager Notebooks?

 

[Soulkeeper]

Bump + Smack + Pop
for users' experiences

 

[MWink]

Since everyone seems to want to know what problems Sager notebooks have I guess I'll share. The one I worked with is a 2 year old Sager with a desktop AMD K6-2 CPU.

From day one it had problems. For absolutely no reason sometimes when just sitting there charging the LCD (status LCD, not the screen) would go crazy and the system would not turn on until the battery and AC were removed/disconnected. Fast forward 2 years to now and the battery no longer charges or discharges properly. The battery is in good condition there is just a problem with the curcitry that causes it to just stop charging or discharging. If you play with it enough you can get it to work for a while.

Another problem it had was the CD-ROM died. Not just once but twice. The first time it was under warranty and was fixed. The second time it was not. Also, the fan was too loud (or so the owner said). It had to be sent back to have that replaced. I'm not sure if she still thought it was too loud.

My biggest complaint is the horrible battery life. I got to test the unit when it was brand new and it only lasted 1:45 on battery. The worst part is it had been upgraded from a NIMH to a Li-Ion battery! :Q

Now maybe you have a better idea of why I don't recommend Sager notebooks. BTW, for those who are wondering this unit was mfg by Clevo.