Apparently, FS doesn’t have the laptop to test out in store.  I’m guessing they don’t get a lot of demand for a $1500 laptop.  That meant a lot of surfing and research to find out what was out there and what was the best deal.  First, where to buy.  That basically came down to either XoticPC or Malibal.  Prices were near identical but the options were a bit different – I went for the former.

I figured a simple search of 17″ laptops would be good but no, that gives me a list of like 30 laptops.  Gives you an idea of the market these folks run.  Anyhow, I checked the options between the Asus and the Sager (or Clevo P170) and while the Asus was $50 cheaper, it had next to no upgrade options.  The Sager has a RAID option and I can change the GPU if I want to down the road.  For now though, simple machine with a fair bit of power.  Here are the specs:

Sager NP8170 / Clevo P170HM
– SAGER Sale!!! – $100 OFF When you spend $1500* or more! (*excludes accessories, shipping, non Sager items & taxes)
Confirmation of discount will be provided after Order Processing. + Sager Price Protect & Chance for Xbox 360 Giveaway!
– 17.3″ FHD 16:9 “Glare Type” Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen (1920×1080) (SKU – S1R506)
– NO Professional Monitor Color Calibration
– No Spare 3D Glasses
– Standard Dead Pixel Policy
– 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM, 2.2-3.1GHz, (32nm, 6MB L3 cache) (SKU – S2N224)
– -Stock OEM Thermal Compound
– ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD6990 2048MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 $100 OFF (SKU – S3R151)
– No Video Adapter
– 16GB – DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (4 SODIMMS) (SKU – S4R757)
– Sager Branding
– Custom Fitted Laptop Back LCD Skin (A Surface) [Choose from our designs or your own Graphic or Logo (Details of design made after order)]
* Will add 5-13 business days on order
– 500GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 – 16MB Cache) (SKU – S5R207)
– None Standard
– HDD Raid Settings – OFF
– 6X Blu-Ray Read/8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive – Special! (SKU – S7P557)
– No Extra Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy
– No Back Up Hard Drive
– NO External USB Optical Drive
– No Floppy Drive
– Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader (MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS Pro Duo/SD/Mini-SD/MMC/RS)
– No Back Up Software
– None Standard–
– Intel® Advanced-N 6230 – 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module + Bluetooth (SKU – S8R111)
– No Network Accessory
– Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
– No TV Tuner
– Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio – Included
– Basic Black Business Case – Included
– Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
– No Car Adapter
– None Standard*
– No Dock/Hub/Adapter
– Integrated Fingerprint Reader
– None
– No External Keyboard or Mouse
– No Notebook Cooler
– No Thanks, Please do not Overclock my system (Overclocking will add 3-6 business days to build time)
– No Operating System Redline Boost
– ~Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Installed (64&32-Bit CD Included) w/ Drivers & Utilities CD’s + Microsoft Office Starter 2010 – Included with OS Purchase
– No Office Software
– No Software Bundle
– LIFETIME Ltd Labor* 1 Year Parts Warranty Lifetime -24/7 DOMESTIC Based- Toll Free Telephone Tech Support (Labor Warranty through Xotic PC)
Includes FREE Shipping Both Ways for Warranty Repairs (SKU – X9R009)
– 1 Year – Two Way Ground Shipping Coverage for Warranty Repairs (Canada) (Must be Combined with LIFETIME Ltd Labor* 1 Year Parts Warranty)
– Standard Production Time
– No Xotic PC Gear

As you can tell, I don’t much care for 3D gaming or movies and I did opt in for a custom skin job.  Final price is 1808$ + shipping.  A tad more than I was aiming for but overall, still under 2K and should give me top of the line mobile gaming for 3 years, then an option to upgrade the CPU and GPU as I need (since the CPU bridge supports i7 extreme).  I’ll put in the final order tonight and find a skin image to work.

When Rift launched last spring, it had come to mind that a laptop might be a better way to enjoy gaming yet still have mobility.  My wife had purchased a simple HP laptop for work the year previous and I had tried loading Rift onto it with no luck, so I was back to the PC.  I had to get a new video card (~200$) and since then, the system can run pretty much anything I throw at it with full settings.  The rub is that I need a complete room to store the PC and while I’m on it, I can’t move.  With my wife’s laptop I can check recipes in the kitchen, check film reviews on the couch, order items or show items when the in-laws are around or simply hook it up to the TV.  Not to mention that we’re trying for another little one, so likely the computer room is going bye-bye once that happens.

So as much as I love my desktop (and a desktop + a laptop is truly great for writing guides) I am strongly urged to get a laptop in the near future.  Since I enjoy gaming and the games I like have, shall we say heavy, demands, I need something robust that will last a while.  I looked at Dell and HP and all that crud and even if you’re getting an Alienware laptop, you’re paying through the nose.  With some research done many gamers on forums recommended Sager laptops.  They are an OEM distributor of Clevo laptops and their prices are quite impressive.

So the requirements for the laptop are somewhat straightforward.  I need an i7 core, a video card with 2 gigs of ram, 10+ gigs of ram, 500 gig hard drive, blu-ray player and wifi.  I would prefer a 17″ screen but 15″ is the bare minimum.  So let’s find a few to show you the options.  I’ll start with Future Shop (they offer the same as Best Buy really), then move along.

Future Shop Laptops – $899-$1899

All 2 to 2.2 GHz CPUs – fine I guess.  Only one has over 10 gigs of ram but that can be upgraded for about 150$ for 4 gigs though only 1 has 4 slots ($1699).  All have a big enough hard drive but I don’t want a 5400RPM.  3 of them do Blu-Ray.  Only one has a decent video card ($1699) with a GTX 560M.  With all said and done, I’m left with the Asus G74SX at $1699 with bag and Windows 7 Pro.

Dell next –  all the i7 2.2 GHz CPU.  The only 2 options are the XPS17 and the Alienware MX17/18.  The XPS with a 3gig card (Gt555), 12 gigs of ram, 1tb of storage with Win 7 Pro and no bag comes to 1699$.  The MX17 comes with a 2 gig card (amd 6990M), 16 gigs of ram, 1tb of storage with Win 7 Pro and no bag for $2250.  MX18 has a 1.5gig card (GTX 560M), 16 gigs of ram, 500gig hard drive, Win 7 Pro and no bag for, get this, $2650.  For all intents, this is the EXACT same laptop as the Asus and it costs $1000 more for an extra 4 gigs of RAM.  Wow.

There are no HP laptops with more than 1gig of video ram.

Sager finally.  The NP8170 is the 17″ with the same CPU as the others (2.2GHz).  1.5 gig video ram (same as MX18), 12 gigs of ram, 500 gig hard drive, Win 7 Pro and bag for $1587.  That’s US price and shipping is already calculated – which is the same price as the Future Shop one pretty much.  So this puts me in a pickle.  2 choices.  The Asus G74SX or the NP8170.  Guess I’ll have to head to FS to get my hands on a demo model.

Christmas time means cheap electronics.  It’s actually the only time I buy electronics since the discounts are so big and I can “suffer” through the old stuff for quite a while.

My current 5.1 all in one sound system is lacking any HDMI and doesn’t upscale.  This meant I needed to use component cables for everything and with a lack of inputs, I needed a switch.  After 6 years, it’s time to upgrade.  Pioneer – VSX 1020k 3D ready, 7 channels, 6 HDMI inputs, upscales to 1080p, Ipod connector, multi room capable as well.  Basically all the bells and whistles I need for quite some time.  Given that all my gear now works with HDMI, I need a better projector too!

Well actually, I just need a projector.  The Blue Hue isn’t getting bigger but it is getting stronger.  Given that it’s near impossible to find any projector with component, I needed one with HDMI.  Since I have blue ray, I figured might as well go 1080p/3D ready as well.  Here comes the Epson 3850.  Optical zoom, better contrast, great luminosity and most importantly, a larger throwing area.  It was the cheapest 1080p I could find that would throw 118″ over a 15 foot gap.

The receiver should be here in a few days, which will have me rewire quite a few things.  Projector next week and that will be that.  Oh, I need a new HDMI cable too.  Found a 16 footer for 10$.  More expensive than I’d like but eh.  People who spend anything above 20$ for digital cables are getting ripped off.  Monster makes amazing speaker cables but they make digital cables with a 1000% markup.

I love gadgets but it takes me a long time to mull the decision to buy one.  A really long time.  It took me 3 years to buy a PS3, 6 months to get a hockey net and pad and way too long for insurance.

So, the other day I picked up an e-reader.  Specifically the Sony PRS-650.  It’s third generation, 6 inches, e-ink and supports the epub format.  Third generation means a stable and fast platform.  Damn it looks nice.  6 inches is the size of a decent paperback.  It’s really comfortable in the hand.  E-ink means it takes a battery charges to change the page but not to keep the page.  So when it displays something, it’s not taking any power, which is different from an LCD screen (Nook Color, Galaxy Tab, IPad).  2 week battery life on a single charge is nice!  Also, since e-ink doesn’t use a light source, it’s very easy on the eyes.

Epub is the industry standard for ebooks.  Nearly all readers support it, except the Kindle.  You can borrow books from the library in that format and they come out great.  Oh, it’s also touch screen, which works amazingly well.  The only thing lacking is wireless but why do you need wireless in the middle of a book?  It also takes SD cards up to 32 gigs and has an internal memory of 2gigs.  A book is about 500k or less, so even the stock memory is good for 4000 books.  If you were to put audio books (yes, that’s supported too) or huge PDF files, then I guess you would need more space.

They’re on sale at Future Shop right now, so if you can find another store that stocks them and does price matching (Best Buy is where I got mine), you can get an even better deal.  If you do a lot of reading, then it might actually be worth your while.

http://www.physorg.com/news184310039.html

I don’t often post these sort of things but holy shart.  Imagine a spray-on liquid that makes any surface it touches nearly immune to bacteria, resists water and dirt and doesn’t absorb UV light.  Did I mention it’s non-toxic and breathable?  Also only 100 nanomoters?  That’s the scale they use to measure light waves!  You could put this thing on absolutely anything and be practically immune from having to clean it.  And it’s going on sale for about 9$ in the UK next year.

Amazing.

http://mediumjones.com/my-23month-iphone/249

FYI – This is essentially 1/4 the normal price.

Don’t see this type of thing every day.  Quite clear.

This stuff is just wild.

Bad video sure…but wow.  I hear it costs about 400$ US and lasts 20,000hours.  Not too shabby!