Looking for a Powerful 15in Desktop Replacement

[Erous]

Hey all,

I posted a thread looking at the possibility of creating a mITX desktop because the era of me using a mammoth PC I think has come to an end. I've also been an advocate of the Lenovo Dual 750m laptop as well (my wife has one and it really is fantastic). After all is said and done, I've come to the realization that 1. I'm jealous of my wife and her laptop. 2. I'd like to be more mobile with my computing. If I travel, I want to be able to take my desktop with me and to me that says laptop. I understand I won't be able to replace the performance or affordability of a desktop, but I want to come as close as possible.

These are my requirements:
1. Has to be a 15in or less laptop machine. I don't want a gigantic 17in+ behemoth
2. Has to be configurable for an SSD (this is something the dual Lenovo was lacking aside from a cache SSD)
3. Has to be powerful, capable of max settings in many games if I connect to a 24inch monitor at 1080p
4. Cost isn't really a problem (my work has a PC purchase program up to 3k usd) so I'd like to stay under 3,000.00 USD

This Sager notebook is the one I have my eye on and I'm looking for thoughts/suggestions: http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.p..._name=NP9150-S

The only configuration change I made was to add a Crucial 256 M4 as the mSATA C: drive.

[stalkerzzzz]

It's a bit cheaper if you get it from here. I think it's going to be hard to find a faster machine for a lower price than the sager/clevo.

[Erous]

It's a bit cheaper if you get it from here. I think it's going to be hard to find a faster machine for a lower price than the sager/clevo.

Ah yes, xoticPC. I forgot they were also a good notebook builder. Thanks for that

[Erous]

I know this was a couple of weeks ago, and I'm still on the hunt for a laptop. Curious if anyone thinks the new Razer Blade is worth it. I like the slim, small design. I think the only negative that I've read is that the screen resolution is crappy...so let me ask, do you think it's overpriced for the power or at a sweet spot in terms of performance and design?

I don't see any other manufacturers at this time touting their Haswell lineup yet for laptops, so I'm curious if I should wait a bit.

http://www.razerzone.com/store/razer-blade

[stalkerzzzz]

The design of the notebook does look nice but you're paying a lot for it. You can check www.xoticpc.com and www.gentechpc.com. The new Clevos, with GTX 700 series GPUs and Haswell CPUs, are there and you can get the same performance for few hundred dollars less.

It's up to you if you consider the form factor of the Razer Blade a compelling feature that deserves the premium price. I would wait for some reviews of the Razer Blade to see if there are any problems with it regarding CPU and GPU temperature since you don't want your system to start throttling while gaming.

[Erous]

Thanks, I was concerned with the heating element as well because of the small form factor. The advertising campaign that showed the cooling solution really did a great job, but we know that doesn't play well IRL. I wasn't looking at Sager and didn't see their Haswell lineup yet, I always forget to check xoticpc, thanks for that.

---------- Post added 2013-06-03 at 10:09 AM ----------

Okay just configured a Sager from there and it's looking pretty good. For roughly the same price you're getting a better Video card + additional storage + a better screen resolution + more RAM + Blu Ray drive when you compare to the Razer. However, you are sacrificing the size for the additional hardware, so it'll be a tough choice. I think the better video card may be the selling point for me to go with Sager:

15.6" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Anti-Glare Sager Screen w/ 95% NTSC Color Gamut (1920x1080)
4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4700MQ (2.4GHz - 3.4GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 780M 4,096MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 [User Upgradeable]
16GB - DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS)
256GB Crucial M4 mSATA SSD - Preconfigured as an OS Drive ( Operating System – Drive C: )
750GB 7200RPM [Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache]
6x Blu-Ray Reader / 8x DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive
Sager - Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 (3x3)

Price: $1999.99 USD

The question I have is, is there a big difference between the 240GB Crucial M5 and the 256GB Crucial M4 with the exception of the additional space? Xotic gives an option to configure an mSATA as the C drive (which would allow for replacement later on) but only as the Cruicial M4. For an extra $10.00 I can make the Crucual M5 my primary HDD and have the 7200rpm disk drive as the second hard drive. Is there a preferred configuration?

[stalkerzzzz]

I would go for the Crucial M4 since it's using the mSATA port. You have a lot more options if you want to buy another 2.5" SSD later on if you feel like you need another one that's faster or just to add more space.

[Erous]

I would go for the Crucial M4 since it's using the mSATA port. You have a lot more options if you want to buy another 2.5" SSD later on if you feel like you need another one that's faster or just to add more space.

Great, thanks. That keeps the price down a bit. Looks like the Sager will be my notebook purchase. Thanks for the tips

[Deleted]

no need to spend $3000, found a winner for you for only $1170

www.amazon.com/Republic-Gamers-G55VW-DH71-15-6-Inch-Laptop/dp/B009AEW5HI/

[Erous]

no need to spend $3000, found a winner for you for only $1170

www.amazon.com/Republic-Gamers-G55VW-DH71-15-6-Inch-Laptop/dp/B009AEW5HI/

While I appreciate the help, that's unfortuntely not in the same ballpark in terms of performance I am looking for. I'm looking for a desktop replacement. The GTX660M is somewhat mid range, and falls under performance of the non X variant in the GT 750M. It's also lacking an SSD, and the display size is 17.3"...so, overall it's just not matching the specs I'm looking for as noted in the OP.

Not saying it's a bad machine, because it's good. But if I wanted something similar to the RoG laptop, I'd probably get the Y500 with the dual 750m and add increase the mSATA SSD to a larger size for about the same price.