Just spent my savings on an expensive laptop...did I do good?

[vmartelle]

I'm a college student and while I am saving up to eventually repay my future loans, my current laptop is literally on its last leg. I searched high and wide and came across a laptop that seemed awesome. Did I do good? I'm mainly a gamer. I was thinking about buying a Lenovo Y500 for the same price, but this seemed to have better specs.

*Sager NP6652 Overview (Clevo W650SR)*


Display: 15.6” IPS/FHD (1920x1080) Matte

Video Card: nVIDIA GeForce GT 750M (2.0GB) w/ Optimus

Processor: 4th Generation Intel® Mobile Core i7 4700MQ

Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz (Up to 16GB)

Hard Drive: 750GB 7200RPM

Battery Life: 3-5 Hours

Weight: 5.95 lbs

Cost (INCLUDING taxes/shipping) = $977

 

[VXBlade]

In a 15 inch that looks pretty sweet at that price... almost too good to be true based on my benchmark laptop of the Asus G series.

 

[vmartelle]

In a 15 inch that looks pretty sweet at that price... almost too good to be true based on my benchmark laptop of the Asus G series.

Thanks for the reply. What type of Asus G series do you have and how much was it?

 

[VXBlade]

I have the G74, so aging a little bit at this point, and it ran $1100 when I got it. But the current G series run in the $1200 range, and they have 660m's in them with Gen 3 processors as of now. Yours is pretty nice with the gen 4 and the 700 series GPU.

 

[vmartelle]

I have the G74, so aging a little bit at this point, and it ran $1100 when I got it. But the current G series run in the $1200 range, and they have 660m's in them with Gen 3 processors as of now. Yours is pretty nice with the gen 4 and the 700 series GPU.

Thanks!

 

[Prostar Computer]

Yeah, the Clevos are solid. Plus you got an IPS screen, which - as far as I recall - the Lenovo does not have.

Good job.

 

[vmartelle]

Yeah, the Clevos are solid. Plus you got an IPS screen, which - as far as I recall - the Lenovo does not have.

Good job.

How do you know if you have an IPS screen?

 

[Prostar Computer]

Well we sell the Clevo W650SR.

Also, it's in the product description.

And, IPS panels are pretty distinguishable from TN panels - mainly by their viewing angles.

 

[vmartelle]

Well we sell the Clevo W650SR.

Also, it's in the product description.

And, IPS panels are pretty distinguishable from TN panels - mainly by their viewing angles.

First time I heard of an IPS - are they really that good?

Also, the downside is that Sager comes with a blank hard drive. My school sells discounted *upgrade* windows 8 discs pretty cheap. I'm not sure if you can use an upgrade windows 8 disc as a full installation though? I've done it with windows 7 upgrade discs.

 

[Prostar Computer]

IPS = very good. You mean to say you spent near $1k without knowing what you were getting?

You could always download and install a Linux distribution for free, but there are pros and cons to that. You should be able to install Win8 with said disc though. Check to see what your school offers; Microsoft abandoned the "retail" version of Windows when they introduced 8, but you may be able to get a OEM/system builder copy from them.

 

[vmartelle]

IPS = very good. You mean to say you spent near $1k without knowing what you were getting?

You could always download and install a Linux distribution for free, but there are pros and cons to that. You should be able to install Win8 with said disc though. Check to see what your school offers; Microsoft abandoned the "retail" version of Windows when they introduced 8, but you may be able to get a OEM/system builder copy from them.

They only have the "upgrade" windows 8 thingie :\

 

[jaguarskx]

IPS panels offers better viewing angles than TN panels which are the type of LCD screen the vast majority of laptops ship with. Colors don't fade / shift as quickly the further you are away from being lined up directly with the center of the screen. TN panels are also the most popular panel in monitors because they are inexpensive.

The downside is IPS panels have lower response times compared to TN panels. Typical 6ms - 8ms for IPS vs. 2ms - 5ms for TN in monitors. They are also more expensive to manufacture especially if you get the H-IPS/P-IPS/S-IPS panel vs the much less expensive e-IPS panel that have been designed to compete against TN panel in terms of price. The vast majority of laptops have TN panels and of those laptops with IPS panels (with the exception of graphics workstation laptops) they will be of the e-IPS panel variety vs. the more expensive varieties I mentioned. This in itself is a completely different topic.

Edited.....

 

[vmartelle]

IPS panels offers better viewing angles than TN panels which are the type of LCD screen the vast majority of laptops ship with. Colors don't fade / shift as quickly the further you are away from being lined up directly with the center of the screen. TN panels are also the most popular panel in monitors because they are inexpensive.

The downside is IPS panels have lower response times compared to TN panels. Typical 6ms - 8ms for IPS vs. 2ms - 5ms for TN in monitors. They are also more expensive to manufacture especially if you get the H-IPS/P-IPS/S-IPS panel vs the much less expensive e-IPS panel that have been designed to compete against TN panel in terms of price. I would say all laptops (with the exception of graphics workstation laptops) have the e-IPS panel vs the more expensive varieties I mentioned. This in itself is a completely different topic.

I see.

 

[vmartelle]

Hopefully the delay won't be noticeable >_>

 

[jaguarskx]

I have edited my prior comment since it was a bit incorrect.

 

[bthizle1]

Honestly the sager np7370 or np7352 with the same CPU only with quite a bit better GPU (GTX 765m) for really around the same price would have been a much better deal in my opinion.......