[KewlToyZ]

http://www.agearnotebooks.com/asus-ensemble-series-17--lcd.html?gclid=CPLvheDOjK4CFUHc4AodVD58fA

Pretty badass systems

[KyadCK]

Yaa... no, Asus laptops are both not the highend (even for laptops), and, well, they're laptops.

If you're going to drool, atleast do so on something you built yourself.

[KewlToyZ]

I've been building since 95. I'm bored with it lol!
I just like the cooling system design on the ASUS laptop's for the hardware.
I got into SFF's for a long time, but for the sake of portable workstations this is a pretty cool chassis for the money.

[Nuke]

i owned an asus laptop once, it up and died a week after the warranty ran out, despite being in pristine condition. one day it booted and the next day it was dead. id avoid them like the plague at this point. ive generally had more failures of asus hardware over any other brand.

[Mikes]

Well this ain't for gamers... but productivity tools can be soooo droolworthy too:  http://www.motioncomputing.com/products/tablet_pc_J35.asp

Meets MIL-STD-810G and IP52 specifications, i.e. you can drop it, use it in rain, sandstorms, etc.

[KewlToyZ]

Yeah I have had a 50/50 success rate with ASUS products, the 650 chipset was horrible for reliability.
At the same time, the same hardware costs twice as much from HP and other shops laptop workstations.
So yeah I would probably rather have one run for two years and get the next level than stuck with the same tech for 4 years at the same cost. The Sony I got with similar specs is the most obnoxiously loud cooling system and shuts down from heat in a perfect setting running graphic intense apps. I think ASUS has less bloatware than Sony too.

[KyadCK]

The 3GB on the Asus's 560M is wasted: 3GB is for Eyefinity/Surround, on a single 1080 it's useless.

All else equal, the Sager comes with MS Office, A 120Hz 3D display (with two glasses), and a 580M 2GB. If you want a 6990M instead (and drop 3d with it) you can cut off about $500. I forgot to upgrade the Bluray to 8x and wireless card, but both can be had for under $100.

Oh, and this isn't Sager's Top-Of-The-Line. There's a whole other laptop class above it. Asus is not the king. 

[BloodEagle]

That's one freaking expensive processor.

[TwentyPercentCooler]

Dear god. I'm not entirely sure why anyone would pay for something more than an unlocked i7 2600K at this point.

[KyadCK]

Dear god. I'm not entirely sure why anyone would pay for something more than an unlocked i7 2600K at this point.

It's a laptop, what unlocked CPUs?

[KewlToyZ]

I'm betting the Sager suffers the same problem as my Sony though, the fan system whistles like hell.
The ASUS cooling system has better porting which ends up lowering the pitch and less annoying.
Nice systems though.

[KyadCK]

I'm betting the Sager suffers the same problem as my Sony though, the fan system whistles like hell.
The ASUS cooling system has better porting which ends up lowering the pitch and less annoying.
Nice systems though.

Heat and Noise
When it comes to gaming laptops, it's extremely important to not only have the notebook "feel" nice and cool, but to have it actually be cool temperature wise, for the sake of the hardware. So, did this power-hungry notebook provide enough cooling fans and vents to keep the internal parts safe? For the record, the bottom of the notebook is scattered with vents, including four main exhaust vents. The backside has two large vents as well.
When we used our IR gun during the synthetic benchmark (and also during 3 hours into Crysis gameplay), we showed the highest temperature as 90 degrees F...and I almost couldn't believe it. That's an extremely low temperature reading for these high-end specs, so bravo to the designers. The lowest we measured was 78 degrees Fahrenheit.

Under stress, the two vents on the backside can be heard slightly, meaning you can hear the notebook running. It should not pose an issue, though, it's a lower murmur that is almost to be expected considering the size of the fans in the system.

And reviews disagree. The review is for the same model shown above.

[Mikes]

I'm betting the Sager suffers the same problem as my Sony though, the fan system whistles like hell.
The ASUS cooling system has better porting which ends up lowering the pitch and less annoying.
Nice systems though.

I had a Sager once...  the NP5something.

It ran fine and stable and delivered good performance in game.... but was practically unusuable due to the Jumbojet taking off in your living room everytime you started a game...

That system had the worst/loudest fan noise I ever had the misfortune of hearing in my lifetime.
Calling it "whistling" would imho be the understatement of the month


As far as gaming laptops go I would recommend to completely forget any of the "barebone" kits as the cooling solution in those is pretty much inevitably utter crap.

If you want a laptop that is a) portable b) can run games decently and c) is actually usuable without major flaws (like noise, overheating, stability issues, etc.) in todays market you have little choice but to go for a quality brand with midrange components and shell out that extra cash for well thought out design.

If you go for those abominations called gaming laptops and fill them up with the most expensive components you will always end up with something that a) performs much worse than a desktop and b) offers none of the benefits that any laptop actually should offer and c) is pretty much always shoddy crap as far as build quality goes.

Worst... for the same price you would often get a desktop with the same or better specs AND a low/midrange laptop that actually gives you some portability
So yeah... "gaming laptops" pretty much suck, period. 


Razer had a point when they boldly stated that "there are no actual gaming laptops"  (none that any sane person would use anyways).
Whether their "Blade" (http://www.razerzone.com/blade) will be any good remains to be seen of course. ... heat and noise would be the usual worries.

[KyadCK]

How many years ago? Personal use tops reviews, but you must keep in mind how quick technology moves. Even the Precision M4600 isn't that loud, and it really gets going.

I mainly ask because what you're saying is the dead opposite of a review for the notebook in question.

[Mikes]

How many years ago? Personal use tops reviews, but you must keep in mind how quick technology moves. Even the Precision M4600 isn't that loud, and it really gets going.

I mainly ask because what you're saying is the dead opposite of a review for the notebook in question.

About 3 or 4 years ago...

... and yeah I read reviews too back then... and I have come to the conclusion that most reviewers and especially Sager fanboys must be very much deaf.

Now I don't know what they changed in the last years... but their systems do not look all that radically different... and the components they use simply get way too hot for such a design to handle in general.
So.... my guess is you will either get a true jet turbine or something that overheats and has stability/throttling issues. The 580GTX with that CPU in the build linked above there is pretty much a guarrantee for that.

Also worth noting is that the Clevo barebones they use are on the very lowend of build quality. (or that was what my impression was anyways.)
(Compared to an actual business class notebook or even any regular notebook from a quality brand they are an utter joke.)
So what you'll be getting is a chunk of high grade PC components in a badly designed plastic case that is about as durable as an eggshell and absolutely unsuited for dealing with all the heat that those components produce in any kind of "sensible" manner.

Heck... even a crappy Dell/Alienware would be a step up from THAT. LOL.
And while I am definitely not a friend of Asus laptops (ugh build quality)... at least they took the cooling problem seriously (which is why their laptops look so fat at the back.)



Finally...  why get such a "laptop" at all? It has pretty much zero portability. Battery life is nonexistant in these things and the one I had couldn't even use the GPU at full power in 3dmode at all, unless it was plugged in - so you are tied to the power grid and the wheight of those monstrosities is hilarious as well.

A small desktop with a carry case/bag propably isn't really all that much less portable lol.

In any case.... my advice would be to get a desktop if portability is not an issue... and a well designed 13-15 inch laptop from a quality brand with hardware that will also be "ok" to play "most" games on, although not all of them at max settings, if portability is required. Trying to have it both ways with those socalled "gaming laptop abominations" is only asking for grief.

Besides... as said before for the 3800 bucks that this monstrosity costs, you actually can easily get both, a beefy desktop that can easily handle any game and a well designed laptop that can not only handle most games but is also portable. Depending on the specific desktop and notebook you buy, you would even have money left... and have higher quality computers lol.

[KewlToyZ]

I'm on the fence like everyone else here, there is no wool over my eyes of price in laptop vs desktop.
I like portability in my life for CAD/Revit/Rhinoceros/3DS Max/ASP.NET type work in multiple offices and consulting.
So, yeah, sorry even a LAN Party SFF has the space and cooling capacity for a liquid system to crank on a high end GPU, it isn't as simple to carry around as a 17.3" laptop with an improved cooling system and SSD drives. My Sony is out of warranty, I may end up experimenting with the cooling, but there really isn't much to be done with it at this point, too proprietary and limited by its design to fix what is in place and still maintain portability as well. I've looked at the HP Envy Pro Book work stations, Alienware, etc...
So far these laptops above seemed to be making the best effort to address cooling higher end laptop workstations.

[KyadCK]

Product discrip says brushed aluminum, which is something. and the review claims 580M so bare-bones it ain't. The Asus is plastic (need I say more?), but it would be totally badass in brushed aluminum     Also, if I understand right, the above model is Xotic, not Clevo. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding here.

As for battery, Ya, no 'gaming' class laptop will ever have good battery. It's what happens when you try to shove desktop grade hardware into a laptop. At which point, considering the laptop keyboard and lack of mouse, you must end up wondering why not get a desktop in the first place. But that's a different topic.

Temps, We're back to reviews, which claim cold. Same is said of Asus.

Noise... My case fans run at 40dBa 24/7    I am not the best judge.

Size/weight... Asus laptops are massive. I'm talking wtf huge. (based on above models)
-Asus: WxHxD: 420mm x 62mm x 325mm  4.3kg
-Sager: WxHxD: 412mm x 46mm x 276mm  3.9kg
-M6600: WxHxD: 416mm x 38mm x 270mm  3.5kg   (high-end portable workstation for comparison)

Keep in mind: Asus does gaming rigs only, while Sager offers workstations as well (Quadro/FirePro cards basicly... there's probobably something I'm missing)

[Mikes]

[...]
I like portability in my life for CAD/Revit/Rhinoceros/3DS Max/ASP.NET type work in multiple offices and consulting.
[...] I've looked at the HP Envy Pro Book work stations, Alienware, etc...
So far these laptops above seemed to be making the best effort to address cooling higher end laptop workstations.

You do not want either the Sager or the Asus for that. You really don't.

The Envy might work. An Alienware might be awkward at work due to it's signature look.
Not sure how good the cooling on the Envy is however and whether it would be up for heavy duty gaming as well.
I'd recommend to research well before you buy in any case... especially try to check support forums for common issues with whatever you decide to buy.

Product discrip says brushed aluminum, which is something. and the review claims 580M so bare-bones it ain't. The Asus is plastic (need I say more?), but it would be totally badass in brushed aluminum     Also, if I understand right, the above model is Xotic, not Clevo. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding here.

Clevo makes the barebones... Sager puts the components in.

I can only recommend to somehow try to take a look at one of those in real life to see if it's really, really, really what you want,...
... or, at least make doubly sure that you can return it easily when it turns out to be utter crap as expected.

All I can tell you is that the Sager laptop I owned a few years back was without question the worst machine I ever had the misfortune of buying. If i had had the chance to take a closer look at it in a store I would never even have thought of buying this garbage. Unfortunately I was lured in by reviews and ordered it online. And while it "worked" alright, it was just an utter crappy joke as far as build quality, fan noise and general "enjoyment of the product" goes.

As far as fan noise goes I can definitely tell you that 40db would be unacceptable for my in my desktop. I had a projector once that was rated at 40db and found it intolerable to watch movies with. However... I can definitely tell  you.... the Sager machine I owned was MUCH MUCH louder (when running games) than any other piece of equipment I ever owned. (and that includes my vaccuum cleaner - and no, I'm not exaggerating... I actually tested it and could still hear the laptop over the vaccuum cleaner's noise LOL. )

[KyadCK]

As far as fan noise goes I can definitely tell you that 40db would be unacceptable for my in my desktop. I had a projector once that was rated at 40db and found it intolerable to watch movies with. However... I can definitely tell  you.... the Sager machine I owned was MUCH MUCH louder (when running games) than any other piece of equipment I ever owned. (and that includes my vaccuum cleaner - and no, I'm not exaggerating... I actually tested it and could still hear the laptop over the vaccuum cleaner's noise LOL. )

This really makes me think of a faulty part, because you're stretching the limits of believeability by this point. I've worked with rack and blade servers that a vacuum out does, so the concept that a single laptop can overpower one says either it was broken and didn't get fixed, or that I need to ask where you buy vacuums so that I may clean in peace.

[KewlToyZ]

This really makes me think of a faulty part, because you're stretching the limits of believeability by this point. I've worked with rack and blade servers that a vacuum out does, so the concept that a single laptop can overpower one says either it was broken and didn't get fixed, or that I need to ask where you buy vacuums so that I may clean in peace.

Actually its the fan and air port sizes, the whistle pitch generated by them are what drown out other noises.
If I could use larger fans with better acoustical designs it would solve these issues.
I'm sort of surprised the manufacturers haven't caught on to the concept more.
With SFF's I ran into it too with small profile turbo fans and modded the cases to accomodate some larger "pretty" LED fans resulting in a much cooler air flow and much lower pitch in air racket. Acoustic design isn't just limited to this, its in any design concept, automotive, architectural, etc.... or more predominantly aircraft particularly helicopters for stealth purposes. Blade design, volume, RPM, even a concept similar to Dysons fan rings are designed for better acoustics.
http://www.dyson.com/fans/default.asp?gclid=CKrg6K6jla4CFUFN4Aod8CGNKQ