High End Multimedia & Desktop Replacement Notebook PC Options?

[Welly Wu]

I am looking for a multimedia powerhouse that can function as a desktop replacement too. I have a lot of data that I backed up over the past several years consisting of music, movies, video clips, and photographs which I wanted to put onto one notebook PC so that I can transport it around with me. In total, I am talking about 813 GB which is growing at a slow and steady pace. I currently own an ASUS N61JV-X2 which functions quite well as a desktop replacement, but I want a second one that has far more capabilities. My intended usage would be to playback Blu-Ray and DVD-Video movies, rip and compress those movies onto the hard drive, rip and encode .FLAC files for my CD collection of about 1,000.00 titles, download movies and video clips, use BitTorrent to transfer files, store photographs (I have about 88 MBs stored on DVD-R discs), edit and restore damaged photographs, and watch and record HDTV shows.
 
I will have the funds available well before the end of this year. I intend on making the purchase between Black Friday or Christmas Day.
 
I considered building my own desktop PC, but I spend most of my time on campus at New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, NJ. My schedule consists of taking two classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, working 20+ hours part-time as a Helpdesk and Support Technician on campus, reading, studying, and doing homework which takes up the rest of my free time. I usually spend my Saturdays in my home town public library reading, studying, or doing homework. I take Sundays off to listen to my high fidelity system at home and download more music, movies, and photographs. I have the fastest tier offered by Verizon FiOS Internet and I intend on upgrading to the Quadruple Play bundle when I buy an HTC Droid Incredible smartphone later this year.
 
I have been looking at the Toshiba Qosimo X505-Q898, System76 Serval Professional (a GNU/Linux Ubuntu certified laptop), Sager NP 8120, ASUS NX90Jq-A1 or -A2, and Alienware M17X. My preference is the ASUS NX90Jq-A1. The size and weight of the second laptop or its battery life are not important factors for me.
 
It is my hope that there will a lot of replies with recommendations and sound opinions. Please feel free to recommend alternatives that I have not yet considered. This second laptop will run Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 bit Edition as the default operating system or I will setup a dual-boot configuration with Ubuntu GNU/Linux 10.04 LTS (as in the case of the System76 Serval Professional).

 

[hybrid35]

I've had two Toshiba's in the past and they've BOTH burnt out on me. It might be just the things I've put through it (aka heavy gaming), but they really shouldn't burn out on me before 2 years use. A couple friends have ASUS and one seems to slow down for no reason whatsoever, even with a new reboot! But that's only one, I've seen a couple OK ones. I would just recommend building a desktop and buying a netbook for your traveling uses (and get a portable dac!).

 

[kingtz]

I really like Sager notebooks and their high build quality, as well as their upgradeability. Of your choice, I would, naturally, pick the Sager. However, do you even play PC games? If not, the Sager 8120 with its dual HD5870 will be overkill. For the tasks you mentioned, I think a very fast processor, a sizeable RAM and a very fast HDD (SSD) will be more useful than 2 top end GPUs in CF.
 
I think you should consider the Sager 8850 and upgrade the CPU, RAM, and HDD to SSD.
 
And if money is not an option and you want the most powerful desktop replacement on the planet, consider the Sager 7280, which I don't think is even out yet. But check out these benchmarks that will obliterate most high end desktops:
 
http://www.xoticpcforums.com/showthread.php?t=6970

 

[pbcustom98]

sager all the way. I had the D901C awhile ago, and it was a beast of a machine when I had it.
 
forum.notebookreview.com -> check out their sager section. they have a few e-tailers that frequently visit their forums and help out there.
 
i do highly recommend xoticpc.com 

 

[Welly Wu]

Thank you for your replies.
 
Today, I received a major source of income that is guaranteed for the next 3 years. In fact, I will be able to afford the entire purchase of whichever high end multimedia notebook PC by this Friday, October 8th, 2010 when this lump sum check clears my PNC Bank account. I still have another major check coming in next October 15th, 2010 which is guaranteed as well. I also have my earnings from my part-time job on campus at NJIT as a Helpdesk and Support Technician. Finally, I get a monthly check of a significant amount on the 1st of every month.
 
So, the finances are well taken care of.
 
The hard part is selecting the PC.
 
I have heard of Sager notebook PCs and their sterling reputation for excellent products, build quality, and customer + technical support.
 
I will research this company with great scrutiny.
 
I will set some rules for myself so that this thread and my research phase will be focused.
 
My maximum budget is $3,000.00 USD. I prefer a notebook PC up to 17.3" widescreen and 10.00 pounds in dimension. For me, bigger is more powerful and better suited for my desire for a hybrid multimedia and desktop replacement notebook PC.
 
This is important for me to set my search criteria.
 
I will be in a purchasing position on or about December 10th, 2010. I would like to receive shipment of my notebook PC by January 1st, 2011.
 
I will look into Sager.
 
I plan on giving my existing ASUS N61JV-X2 to my father as a Christmas gift.
 
I am telling the truth.

 

[Welly Wu]

I looked at two Sager notebook PCs: NP7280 and NP8120. These can be custom configured to become extremely powerful gaming, multimedia, and desktop replacement laptops. It will cost me a dear penny too.
 
I don't think that I could become a customer of Sager Notebooks. I really do not play games. They offer a 30 day dead pixel or bright pixel defect free guarantee for an option $100.00 USD. ASUS includes it with their combined 2 year limited warranty, 1 year accidental damage warranty, and 30 day dead pixel free guarantee with almost all of their products at no additional charge. Having two top tier GPUs is a very nice option, but I have no usage for those features. The three hard drive bays which can be configured in RAID 0/1 are quite useful for me, but not an absolute necessity since I can buy a Cavalry Storage USB 3.0 dual hard drive dock and two SATA-III bare internal hard drives for local backups.
 
After some consideration, I ruled out the ASUS NX90Jq-A1/A2 because it will not fit into my FUL Cross Fade wheeled backpack.
 
This is a confusing research process, but that's the price that I have to pay.

 

[pbcustom98]

if you want the most powerful laptop around, the Sager NP7280 has a desktop Core i7 (quad core). you could select the base configuration, with the 6x BluRay burner for $2,874. you can then add your own hard drives as you see fit. no other laptop that i've seen offers a desktop processor. hp/dell/asus offerings, are just not good enough with their mobile i3/i5 etc.
 

 

[Welly Wu]

This is true.

 
I will give Sager another look over the next few days. Thank you.
Quote:

if you want the most powerful laptop around, the Sager NP7280 has a desktop Core i7 (quad core). you could select the base configuration, with the 6x BluRay burner for $2,874. you can then add your own hard drives as you see fit. no other laptop that i've seen offers a desktop processor. hp/dell/asus offerings, are just not good enough with their mobile i3/i5 etc.
 

 

[pbcustom98]

anytime.
 
any FYI, they are geared towards high performance laptops in general, the video cards are just obviously more geared towards gaming. ya win some, ya lose some

 
Quote:

This is true.

 
I will give Sager another look over the next few days. Thank you.

 

 

[Welly Wu]

I looked into the Sager NP7280 along with the other products they have on their websites.
 
To tell the truth, I am in favor of their choices in terms of using desktop components for their DeskNote, but it is really a gaming machine which I find to be off putting. Quite frankly, I like my ASUS N61JV-X2 even though it does not hold a candle to the Sager NP7280 in its stock configuration because my laptop is so well balanced and it is designed for multimedia enthusiasts.
 
I asked one of my very good friends if he thought I should purchase a much more powerful laptop and he said no...I don't need it. I tend to concur with him.
 
I will be purchasing another laptop as a gift for my father soon. I am eying the ASUS N82JV-X1 from Amazon since he wants a laptop no bigger than 14" for the screen.
 
In the meantime, I need to buy hard drives to make local backups of my Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 through MozyHome Unlimited and my Linux Mint 9 LTS backup & restore utility. I simply can not afford to lose data because it may cost me to flunk out of either or both of my courses at NJIT.
 
I will keep shopping around to see if something else catches my fancy.

 

[Welly Wu]

I viewed both of the videos and saw the benchmarks on the Sager NP7280. This thing weighs 15.5 pounds including the 300 watt power supply and the battery lasts up to 45 minutes even with battery save mode. It would cost $5,600.00 USD for near top of the line upgrades available.
 
I ruled out the Sager NP7280. It is definitely not the right fit for my needs.
 
Thank you for posting the link so I could learn more about this specific product. It was very helpful and you saved me thousands of dollars which would have definitely resulted in disappointment on my part after the purchase.
 
Quote:

I really like Sager notebooks and their high build quality, as well as their upgradeability. Of your choice, I would, naturally, pick the Sager. However, do you even play PC games? If not, the Sager 8120 with its dual HD5870 will be overkill. For the tasks you mentioned, I think a very fast processor, a sizeable RAM and a very fast HDD (SSD) will be more useful than 2 top end GPUs in CF.
 
I think you should consider the Sager 8850 and upgrade the CPU, RAM, and HDD to SSD.
 
And if money is not an option and you want the most powerful desktop replacement on the planet, consider the Sager 7280, which I don't think is even out yet. But check out these benchmarks that will obliterate most high end desktops:
 
http://www.xoticpcforums.com/showthread.php?t=6970

 

[kingtz]

Another thing to keep in mind is upgradeability. Whatever brand/model you decide with, make sure you can upgrade at least all the key hardware. What I love about Sager is that virtually none of the hardware is soldered on and they use only non-proprietory components. What this means is that the owner is free to open up the notebook and swap out and replace the parts as necessary, and you won't even void their warranty. Other major brands, even Asus, tend to use either proprietory components which you can only buy from them, or they solder the hardware onto the motherboard so you're stuck with whatever configuration you bought the notebook in. In case you're a DIY kind of computer person, I just thought I'd mention this at the risk of sounding like a Sager-fanboy.
 
Not sure if you browsed around the xoticpc site, but there is a list of their high end PCs. You can check out various brands/models here:
http://www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-laptops-notebooks-gaming-laptops-ct-118_96_98.html

 

[Welly Wu]

In the video for the Sager NP7280, the person did not measure the core temperatures on the bottom of the laptop especially where the fans are running to cool the system. Given the modular based expandability of this Desknote which utilizes desktop components, I wonder how hot it runs.

 

[kingtz]

Core temps can be seen here:
 

 
These are temps right after Vantage was run, so you can tell how hot they will get after an intensive gaming session. If you want a CPU specific torture test, you'd need to run something like Prime95 which, unfortunately, was not run in this case.

 

[Welly Wu]

Thanks. I overlooked that.
 
I decided against buying a high end notebook PC. I intend on purchasing an ASUS N82JV-X1 for my father as a gift from Amazon:
 
 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003VWDQI2/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
 
I also plan on spending another $1,400.00 USD to purchase a round-trip plane ticket for my mother so she can return home to Indonesia by the end of this year or in early January 2011. Her side of her family have not seen her in years and they are elderly.
 
I think this is a better way of spending my money.
 
Thank you for the replies and options. I will subscribe to this thread and perhaps I will make the switch to Sager Notebook next year when I will have a lot more funds available. I expect to graduate from NJIT by December 2011 if all goes according to plan. Purchasing an ultra powerful Sager Notebook would be my graduation gift for myself.
 
I configured a custom Sager NP7280 with all of the highest upgrade options for both hardware and software plus a 3 year Sager warranty. It is $6,347.00 USD. While I could afford to buy it this Friday, October 8th, 2010 and have it shipped to my home within two weeks, I will continue to work and save up more money to buy it in a little over a year from today.