Overall Impressions of the Sager 8790
The Sager 8790 is the absolute best laptop we have ever laid hands on. Few laptops come with as many features or perform as well. It was quite interesting to watch the reactions of people at the LAN party when they learned that a laptop was the server. More interesting was watching each of them take turns playing on the laptop and their dismay when they had to give it up to someone else. The screen is by far the best feature, and is well worth the cost to get the larger WSXGA+ display. The desktop real estate you gain is almost tangible. The Intel P4 3.4 has hyper threading, which makes this laptop not only a gaming machine but also makes multitasking a breeze. We regularly had between 10 and 15 windows open at the same time with no slowdown or stutter when switching between windows.
As we stated earlier, the battery life has plenty of room for improvement but it is not a drawback to the point where casual use away from an AC source is impossible. We did notice that after installing the Bison Cam our benchmark scores were negatively impacted; this could be caused by drivers that are buggy or take up too much CPU time. In either case, when the cam is disabled, the scores returned to normal. Though this issue and the impact to performance was minor, it is still worthy to note.
In the end, were we to go out and purchase this same system, we would have to suggest obtaining the P4 3.2 and only 1GB of RAM (or 512MB if your budget is tight) as the cost of upgrading to the P4 3.4 and 2GB is not worth the slight performance you will gain, in our opinion. The 8790 starts at $2010 with an excellent configuration, and for only $40 more you can get the P4 3.2, which is where we feel the best performance/cost ratio is. Right now Discount Laptops is offering free shipping on all of their laptops, which will save you quite a bit on your purchases. Given Discount Laptops' reputation and vendor history, we feel that selecting them as your provider is not only a safe, but overall good choice. We were sad, to say the least, when the time came to send this system back; we were addicted to it. If you're looking to splurge, or want an extremely nice desktop replacement laptop, this would be a good candidate. It has incredible performance, features, and a beautiful screen, but poor battery life as far as average laptops go, and a hefty pricetag. With these considerations, it's probably not a laptop suitable for most typical laptop users, but a good recommendation for those who need performance, and can live without much battery life.
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