You wanted a Sager P4 laptop vs. Voodoo Envy m:855 Athlon 64 review? Here it is....

[alexruiz]

Well, I remember that in Andrew's Athlon 64 laptop review from VoodooPC, a lot of people complained that the inspiron 8600 was not the machine to match against an Athlon 64. Suggestions were written about a sager 8890, or any other using a desktop P4 3.2C with dual channel DDR.....

It seems the review at anandtech was so widely seen, that the big media took notice of it.... In an effort to take advantage of the fuss created by Anandtech, extremetech.com (puppet of ZDNet, so you are warned) posted a review of the now well known VoodooPC Envy m:855 (Athlon 64 3200+) against a machine called the Panther 4HR (By specs and looks, another rebadged Sager 8890).

The results? Predictable if you ask me, but you can check them by yourself....

Keep in mind that the panther is using a raid array, hence the win in the business aplications test.

Link in the post below this one......


Comments??

 

[manko]

Your link doesn't work for me, here's one that does:

Attack of the Mega-Notebooks

 

[alexruiz]

Originally posted by: manko
Your link doesn't work for me, here's one that does:

Attack of the Mega-Notebooks

Well, let me take it out of my post, and refer to yours......

 

[manko]

 

[Pandaren]

The m:855 is just too heavy to tote around all the time, yet doesn't have enough functionality to truly substitute for a high-performance desktop PC. The Panther has the performance, but it's only marginally mobile ? "transportable" is probably more accurate. Both are noisy in full-speed operation, fairly heavy and tend to get pretty warm, too

Hmm the results were what I expected - Pentium 4 crushed the Athlon 64 in media encoding and 3D applications. Athlon 64 left Pentium 4 in the dust in games. Both machines were powerful, but ultimately big loosers as far as portability.

I guess these would be good as space saving all-in-one machines that would sit in one place all the time, but I'd take a Compaq X1000 or ThinkPad R50p if I needed a mobile workstation.

 

[alexruiz]

Originally posted by: Pandaren

The m:855 is just too heavy to tote around all the time, yet doesn't have enough functionality to truly substitute for a high-performance desktop PC. The Panther has the performance, but it's only marginally mobile ? "transportable" is probably more accurate. Both are noisy in full-speed operation, fairly heavy and tend to get pretty warm, too

Hmm the results were what I expected - Pentium 4 crushed the Athlon 64 in media encoding and 3D applications. Athlon 64 left Pentium 4 in the dust in games. Both machines were powerful, but ultimately big loosers as far as portability.

I guess these would be good as space saving all-in-one machines that would sit in one place all the time, but I'd take a Compaq X1000 or ThinkPad R50p if I needed a mobile workstation.

In my original thread I said "extremetech, puppet of zdnet, you are warned" Anand's review painted a different light of the voodoo machine. Calling a machine that is 8 pounds "too heavy" is not exactly accurate. And the phrase "the voodoo doesn't have anough functionality, but the panther has the performance" is just a joke..... Isn't the AMD acknowledged to be better for everyday, gaming and scientific applications?

By the way, the very often asked question of "64 MB vs 128 MB" was answered..... it didn't matter, the CPU was the difference. Sorry to disagree about the "3D applications" but AutoCAD (still the most used CAD program in the world, and not very often used as benchmark) runs quite faster on AMD hardware.

And calling an 8 pounds machine "too heavy", well, maybe for the wimpies.... My Presario 2100Z (7 pounds) feels at home when I carry it..... the only time I think is big when I place it over the airplanes lunch trays (at least it feels inmense in an Airbus A319 lunch tray) Definition of 9 pounds? Only heavy. A 12 pounds does qualify as "really heavy"

Well, despite the poor review the debate of "what is the fastest gaming laptop" is clear now.....

 

[manko]

Originally posted by: alexruiz
By the way, the very often asked question of "64 MB vs 128 MB" was answered..... it didn't matter, the CPU was the difference.

Well, I'm not sure it completely answers the question and it doesn't really address next-generation games, which is what people are usually asking about. I would be very interested to see how much better the Envy m:855 would do with a 128MB M10.

We used the Envy for several days, including some extended gameplay sessions. The system felt responsive in most gaming, though we did notice some frame-rate stutter that could be attributed to the 64MB of frame buffer on the mobility Radeon 9600 becoming saturated or limitations in the audio subsystem.

Using the Panther 4HR

The one glitch we did encounter, though, was some noticeable stuttering during gameplay. This was similar to what we observed in the Voodoo and can only be attributed to the host-driven audio subsystem. The Mobility Radeon 9600 worked quite well, though, as with the Voodoo, we played with antialiasing turned off due to the lack of memory bandwidth.

As we noted, the audio subsystem is based around Intel's integrated audio and is connected to the outside world by a Realtek AC97 codec. We wonder if some of the stuttering issues could be attributed to the Realtek driver. We've used the AD1985 series codecs on Intel-manufactured motherboards, and the stuttering was less noticeable in those cases.

If this is correct, it's too bad that a cheap audio chip is dragging down these expensive systems.

 

[Bateluer]

nm

 

[Pandaren]

Calling a machine that is 8 pounds "too heavy" is not exactly accurate... And calling an 8 pounds machine "too heavy", well, maybe for the wimpies....

Uh, from the article:

Actual weights: 12 lbs. 6 oz (Pentium 4 machine with 16" LCD) 9 lbs. 4 oz (Athlon 64 machine with 15" LCD). Thus, by your definition Alex:

Definition of 9 pounds? Only heavy. A 12 pounds does qualify as "really heavy"

,
The Athlon 64 machine is "heavy" and the Pentium 4 machine is "really heavy" (ie loosers in terms of mobility).

Throw the inevitably huge AC adapters these machines use and you've got well over 10 lbs.

I just don't like big notebook computers - it defeats the whole purpose of having a portable machine.

 

[manko]

Following-up on audio/performance issues, I just came across this thread at Talknotebooks:

Looking for better performance on your 8890

Installing these sound drivers really made a difference in general operation of my 8890. Smoother graphics (no lags), no more sound poping or cracking (sometimes). Games are running flawless now. I never thought that sound drivers would make this noticeable change.

Realtek AC'97 Audio CODECs

 

[alexruiz]

Originally posted by: Pandaren

The Athlon 64 machine is "heavy" and the Pentium 4 machine is "really heavy" (ie loosers in terms of mobility).

Throw the inevitably huge AC adapters these machines use and you've got well over 10 lbs.

I just don't like big notebook computers - it defeats the whole purpose of having a portable machine.

I guess you got me here....

I'll be honest that I am not exactly a fan of thin and light machines (feel fragile to me). When I got my presario 2100Z it felt lighter than my older presario 1200-XL119 (K6-2 500 Mhz) while having a bigger screen. I was a happy camper. I NEVER thought is was heavy, but as I mentioned, it feel BIG in the airplanes.....
At some point I contemplated the posibility to change it for a smaller machine. I tried the Averatec 3150P at first (AMD fan) but it was just too small and too light..... I also tried a compaq X1000, and it was a lovely machine, but also felt too light......

No doubt that the lighter the machine, the better, just not everyone considers it as the ultimate factor in deciding..... (if thin, light and battery life was my main concern, I would be using a transmeta crusoe 1GHz... those that last 8 hours)


Alex

PS. Maybe the fact that my school background was always public tranportation helped me to feel things lighter that what they are in reality.....

 

[alexruiz]

Golden member! I guess I am spending too much time here

Overall, I am glad that some manufacturers finally decided to use AMD CPUs in higher end machines. The Athlon XP-M only true high performance incarnation was the Uniwill N251C2 (KT333, Barton 2500+, mobility radeon 9000 and MP3 player). I got that one for my brother fro micropro (micronote pro 530) a few months ago. The machine kicks some serious @$$.... he "donated" his presario 2100Z to our sister the week after he got the uniwill.

Downsides? Not very known brand, and some minor issues with the VIA power management (hybernation). Other than that, the machine was a dream.

Back into topic, it is good to have more options according to your preferences, or even brand loyalty! But I am still confused of the different views from Andrew Ku and Lloyd Case....

 

[eastvillager]

I'd go with the sager. The relatively miniscule differences in processor performance are outweighed by being able to stripe a couple of 7200rpm hitachi drives in the sager, and still having a spindle or two left over for optical drives.

 

[alexruiz]

Originally posted by: eastvillager
I'd go with the sager. The relatively miniscule differences in processor performance are outweighed by being able to stripe a couple of 7200rpm hitachi drives in the sager, and still having a spindle or two left over for optical drives.

Your money, your choice....

 

[Pandaren]

Your money, your choice....

And your back, shoulders too The AMD system is heavy, but I'd take the AMD system over the Intel one because it is lighter, has better battery life, and is faster in games.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I'd go for price/performance... I know that Sagers generally command a pretty respectable price for what you get... Voodoo, well, no way.

And for anyone complaining about portability, yeah these laptops certainly aren't meant to bring you general on the go computer, they're meant to deliver extreme computing with some mobility. These systems are desktop replacement systems and trust me when I say that they can pretty much keep up with a high end desktop rig. You can't really get that out of an ultra lightweight lappy meant to give you computing on the move, but then again those systems aren't meant rip CDs into mp3 format while you're playing some Tribes 2 @ 1600x1200 while hosting a Teamspeak 2 server and talking to your teamates...plus having the ability to pick up the entire system and move into another room whenever you feel like it or if you need to. Try lugging around and setting up a comparable desktop rig (even a SFF system) instead and you'd understand the purpose of such laptops.

It might not be as mobile as other laptops but with respect to how much power they pack these laptops certainly are mobile for what they can do.

 

[WJB05]

bunnyfubbles, you have answered my questions regarding Sager 5680 in another thread. Two more question please: 1) Do you find heat to be a problem; 2) Have you run the 5680 at a resolution less than 1600 x 1200? Thanks