Sager NP6350 vs ASUS N56VZ -S4329D

masquenoire

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Mar 15, 2013
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Hey guys, I am new to this forum, actually i made the account just so i can ask about this because i found this forum to be very helpful in this matter, so please excuse me if anything in this thread is wrong in some way.

I'm looking to buy a laptop for working and gaming purpose, i'm an animator and graphic designer so i probably gonna use softwares like 3Dsmax 2012, Maya, ZBrush, Mudbox, TVPaint, Adobe CS6's After Effects, Photoshop, and Premiere. So 3D stuffs like animating, modeling, and (probably not so massive, because i can use my university lab's PCs) rendering are gonna put into my consideration.

As for games, i'd love to play Crysis 3, ACIII, Metro 2033, that new Tomb Raider, and Skyrim, not necessarily in ultra settings since i'm not that hardcore gamer. But i would love to have it at high settings.
I've been asking around whether to build a PC or a laptop, and i found that mobility is quite important for me. So i'm going with laptop, but i want my laptop to be able to replace a desktop in most ways, i know desktop will be more powerful.

I'm gonna use this laptop for works about 12-16 hours a day, probably can give it a rest at some point, but the laptop will probably stay on that long in a day.
I'm from Indonesia, and the price is probably different here since it's quite far from US or Europe. So my budget is around 900 - 1200 $

After looking around, my choice is ASUS N56VZ - S4329D with the following specs :

15.6" Full HD (1920x1080) Display
Intel Quad Core i7-3630QM (2.4GHz) Processor
8GB DDR3 1600MHz Memory
1TB Hard Drive
DVD Combo Drive
NVidia GeForce GT 650M 2GB GDDR3 Graphics Card
DOS
USB 3.0 / Bluetooth V4.0 / B&O Icepower Audio Ready, Instant Onr
2 Years Asus Warranty

The price is (according to google currency converter) about 1135 $
link to the product in my reseller's site : http://

But then i was told there's a sager with better specs and better price, i was never heard of sager before, so i really put a lot of thinking on this one. The sager reseller in my place is pretty well known and they delivered really good service in my experience.
Here's the sager NP6350 spec after customized here in a sager reseller in my country :

15.6" (16:9) Full HD (1920x1080) LED-Backlit Display with Super Clear Glare Type Screen
Intel Core i7-3610qm (6MB l3 cache, 2.3 GHz)
8GB DDR3 1333MHz
NVidia GeForce GTX660M 2GB DDR5 Optimus technology
500GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
DOS
DVD Multi, 2.0MP Camera, WLAN 802.11bgn
Card reader, 2xUB3.0,THX Tru/studio Pro,1x eSATA
2 Built-in Speakers made by ONKYO, Fingerprint Reader
Standard Thermal Compound

The price is about 1124 $ just a little bit cheaper but i think the spec is better.
link : http://

ASUS G-series is off the table since it cost more in my country, and so does MSI and Lenovo, especially Alienwares. As for the Macbooks, the price is just beyond my reach.
Also, i know ASUS have better customer services and it's not so hard to find their service centers. But sager, i'm pretty sure there's only one reseller in my city, or sadly in my whole country.

So let me know what you guys think. Any suggestion and opinions will be highly appreciated
 

xenot7

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Feb 2, 2013
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well, the sager is has very great specs for that price, and the graphics card is much better (because the 650m in the asus has only ddr3 instead of gddr5 VRAM, which makes it much worse than the gtx 660m) and therefore, the gtx 660m will better suit your graphics needs. But the sager has only 1333mHz RAM but it's hard to notice the difference.
Also, could I ask where are link for the laptops? (cos i live in indonesia too and is interested in that sager)
 

masquenoire

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Mar 15, 2013
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Yes the gtx 660 is really teasing me for days now. I've heard that 650m is not that much different from gtx 660m IF the 650m is DDR5. Sager can customize the RAM to 1600 mHz but with a little extra cost. Would it make great different from the 1333 one in 3D rendering ? I know it won't be barely noticeable in gaming purpose.

you can just click that http:// link above, but just go to pemmz.com/sager-oem-xenom-np6350.html if it doesn't work.
The store is in Tanjung Duren if you ever heard of it.

Hey, glad to find another Indonesian mate ! And if you really gonna buy the sager, at least i know someone from this country who use it lol :D
 

xenot7

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Feb 2, 2013
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Now according to http:// , the GTX 660M is better than the bothe the GDDR5 and DDR3 version of the GT 650M. But the chips inside both (660m and 650m) are the same (GK107) and if the asus have the GDDR5 version of 650M (which it doesn't have) the 650M could be overclocked to higher speeds and match the 660M. But the ddr3 650M in the Asus can't be as fast as the 660M (because of its ddr3 memory) and also lost abut 15-20% of performance to the gddr5 version of 650M. So clearly, in this case, the Sager laptop is the winner. also, upgrading the RAM is better and i suggest you do that. About me getting the laptop, well, I'll wait what will happen in 3 months, then I'll decide (naik kelas dulu). BTW the reseller is also a bit far from me, cos i live in Tangerang.

*EDIT*
Seeing the specs of the sager again, i think some needs to be added:
-Hard Drive: get the 500GB w/ the 4GB SSD (speed up loading)
-Screen: get the second option for screen (the one that costs Rp 877,500 more expensive) becos yur dealing with designing and graphics (cos that screen will show better colors)
-RAM: get the 8GB 1600MHz RAM

Total cost is: Rp12,860,250.00 (if it is too much just tell me and i'll tell wat to not include)
also keep in mind that these laptop's battery won't last long under heave usage (it will drain quickly, so don't expect 12-16 hours of usage without recharge)
 

masquenoire

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Mar 15, 2013
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Thanks dude this add more information i needed.
But yes, it's too much for me. I can only push it as far as Rp 11,200,000.
About the SSD, the sager do have the option to add some SSD later down the road, so I guess that's another advantage compare to N56VZ which can only hold the 1 TB HDD 5400 rpm. I might not gonna add the SSD now since i'm quite short on cash. I can pick the 1600 mHz RAM but is it far better than 1333 ?
And i didn't plan to use it that long without charging. I'll probably stick the charger all the time if necessary.

But all in all, the choice come down to sager instead of asus ?
considering the service centers and other aspects ?
 

masquenoire

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Mar 15, 2013
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Okay then i'll go with 1333. As for OS, i went to Binus so i got a free windows 8 as a student there :)
It's a great idea adding another 4GB by myself ! Didn't think of it. And now that you mention it, i'm thinking to look for HDD (or SSD if possible) by myself in mango two (you know the place) a friend of mine told me i might get a better price there for HDD/SSD and the guys in pemmz can assemble it later on.
I notice the Y500 while doing my searching, but can't seem to find it around here, The closest is Y580 and it seems pretty badass but it cost around 13 million Rp.
The Y500 itself uses the GT 650M Sli which according to the internet not as good as gtx 660 or even gt 650m.

Haha the np9150, really loveable, but with an i7 and more RAM, it would climb up to 15 million or so here :')
I was thinking about the sager np6370, but 17 inches is a bit annoying to carry around i'd say.

Thanks alot for your help, i think i'm gonna get the sager on monday :)
Anything you want to add before i throw my cash on the np6350 ?
 

xenot7

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"Mangga two" (very funny, you could've said mangga dua).As for the y500, the 650m sli in it is dual 650ms, and can beat even the 670m, but there are microstuttering issues as with all sli or crossfire setups (just sayin'). In my opinion, the only flaw in the sager laptop is its design. Cos it's really plain (unlike alienware) (just my opinion).
BTW why not consider a mac
 

masquenoire

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Mar 15, 2013
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Yes i've heard a lot of complains about the design, but i really don't mind since i care more about the performance. BUT i really hope sager's design won't crack open in the near future though. And another flaw is the sound quality which is not as good as asus of course.
I'm not really fancy a mac. It's rather expensive and the cheapest one here (around 11 million) is in 11 inch. A bit to small for me. Mac is quite good on colors and designing stuffs, but i was working with an iMac to do 3D animating and it just didn't run pretty well though i don't know why (i used Autodesk Maya for animating).
And further more, everyone is telling me mac is quite suck in gaming purpose. Never tried one for gaming though.
 

xenot7

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Feb 2, 2013
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Yes, your right, i have a macbook air and it sucks. I cant do anything with it (no gaming). But that's why I made a PC. So final decision is sager then. But i have to say that the asus actually looks better than the sager. BTW
it says that you'll get a gaming mouse of the purchase of the sager, any idea what the mouse is?
And as for the sager's sound, well i've never heard of it(onkyo) till seeing the sager
And dou you know that the S4 was announced a few hours ago (just sayin').
 

masquenoire

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Mar 15, 2013
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Yeah i think i'm gonna go with sager. Haha yes love the macbook-like design. Pretty stylish and slick in display. But performance wise, sager still crowned the winner.
Don't know what the bonus mouse is, but i've read somebody's testimony about pemmz and he said the mouse is quite good and by price, quite expensive. Guess i would've to wait until i buy the sager to find out.
Haha yes, everybody is talking about that baby. But damn that's a lot of money to spent now :')
 

xenot7

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Feb 2, 2013
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Well, I'm just saying, but if you want to save some cash then what you should do is to find a cheaper laptop that has a GDDR5 GT650M, cos you can overclock it. but the only models I reccommend to do that is the Y500 and Alienware m14x (or others with good cooling and meant for gaming). BTW the Lenovo Y500 is on sale for some $800 in lenovo's website.

 

xenot7

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I have to disagree becos the difference in tho processor is negligible. and the sager has better upgradability (for the ram (3 slots) and the HDD (two slots).
@masquenoire: It's good to know that you came to the right place for answers, cos the Notebook Review forum isn't giving you answers till now.