Desktop Replacements Agogo(Anyone own a Sager?)

a Ferret

I'm in the market for a new desktop replacement, due to my XPS Gen 2 frying yet another MoBo and my patience with Dell wearing thin (oh nice your warrenty on replaced parts lasts long enough for the thing to burn another board), so I'm trying to find another brand of laptop to dump some money into. Currently, I'm looking at a 17" Sager 9xxx, but I have never seen much less touched a Sager before so if you have, I'd appreciate your thoughts on them. And if you know; are the BIOS locked?

Apart from Sager, what other companies offer top of the line desktop replacements(geared toward gaming)? I'm not considering an Alienware, and while I'd LOVE to throw down the money for a FalconNW, I can't swallow the huge price gap between them and other companies. Other than those two, I'm all ears.

Cyrixd

I use a Sager 2090 right now (15.4" model) and it's wonderful. Great build quality, mostly logical positioning (keyboard/extra buttons), overall a really solid laptop. If you're looking for a true top of the line DTR, I cannot recommend a Sager enough- between the 5790 and the 9260. The 5790 can use the GeForce 7950 GTX, which is the best available DX9 card, whereas the 9260 takes the GeForce 8700 GT. I believe one of them (I think it's the 9260) supports SLI too (!), but I'm not positive.

If you can wait, the mobile version of the GeForce 8800 is soon to be revealed (if not already), which would be your best bet for long-lasting DX10 usability. You can also look into upgradability, as some models (The 9260, and I'm pretty sure the 5790 as well) will most likely be able to swap their video cards with the new 8800 once it's released.

If anything though, do not waste your money with an Alienware. They buy from the same ODM as Sager does, yet slap on the Alienware name and an extra $1,000. Seriously, it is a complete waste.

To educate yourself, try www.notebookreview.com. Very informative and active forums there, you'll be able to learn and get up to date with the laptop market.

strebalicious

I bought an 8790 from Sager just over three years ago. Almost from the start I had problems. Started off minor. Neither the wired nor unwired LANs would work. Battery life quickly went out the window to where I couldn't even have it on without it being plugged in. Then, I slowly started to have heat problems. I couldn't even play flash games with it chopping it to bits. Eventually a few months ago, the video card type thing crapped the bed and now I'm getting thatch work all over the screen, and playing games is nothing but a horrible mess of artifacts.

Personally, I just wouldn't go with another desktop replacement. Even me, living on a ship with limited space, would rather go with a desktop (maybe microATX or something) before I get another laptop.