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View Full Version : Sager 5720 17" WUXGA (M570A) $700


Woody
07-23-2008, 11:51 AM
Here's what I have:

Sager 5720 otherwise known as the Clevo M570A model sold under various brand names.

1920x1200 WUXGA glossy 17" upgraded display
NVidia Go 7800GTX PCI Express 16, 256MB DDR-3 Video RAM 256 bit Memory Interface
Fully Supports DirectX® 9.0C, HDTV DVI Output at 1080p or S-Video at 480p
2.0GHz Pentium M Dothan 90nm (basically a Core Solo CPU comparable in performance to a 2.4GHz Athlon 64)
Intel i915PM/GM socket 479 chipset (rev. B1) with updated BIOS
2 GB DDR2 533 200 Pin SO-DIMM (2x1GB)
80GB Samsung HM080JI SATA 5400rpm primary HDD
120GB Western Digital 1200VE-00KWTO PATA 5400rpm secondary HDD
8X Toshiba PATA DVDRW w/lightscribe
Creative SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS PCMCIA 5.1 audio with Optical, Digital, and Analogue output
or integrated 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio Chipset (AZALIA) with two integrated speakers
10MB/100MB/1Gbit PCI-Express Ethernet controller
Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG (802.11a/b/g)
integrated 1.3MP webcam
56K faxmodem
7 in 1 card reader
8 Cell Smart Lithium-Ion Battery Pack, 4.4AH
Full Range AC/DC Adapter 20V, 6.0A (120 Watts), 100~240V (auto switching), 47~63Hz
Full size keyboard (with numpad), scrolling touchpad with multifunction controls.
4USB 2.0 ports and 1 Firewire port

Apart from a little wear and tear on the "A" and "S" keys (letters partially worn due to gaming) the unit is clean. I have never found any dead pixels on the display and I've looked. The screen is mint without any scratches. I've used it to play Divx movies on my 1080i HDTV with a DVI cable and Optical Digital Audio out to my entertainment system.

There are two hard drives but the second hard drive and the optical drive cannot be used at the same time. The system must be shut down to swap. I watch all my video in DivX so I rarely use the optical but it's something to consider. The primary internal drive is SATA while the secondary removable bay is PATA so the drives are not interchangeable with each other.

The display is what's going to sell this thing. 1920x1200 can't be found in a new laptop under $2000 and for watching movies it's unbeatable. Text can be a little small at default settings. I use a larger text size in Firefox and it looks fine for me. Firefox 3 also gets around this problem by allowing you to zoom the entire page and then remembers your preferences. Other apps like Office and Adobe will allow you to set any zoom size you want also. The unit is a Clevo M570 design similar to all the Sager 57xx series in size, appearance, and weight. It's very stylish with a silver and gray metal finish. I have all the original disks and packaging and I also have a copy of the service manual and user manual in PDF.

It will play most games very well except for very recent high end games that are dual core optimized like Crysis, COD4 or UT3. I've played those games on this computer but it's limited. It will run UT2k4 maxed out at 1920x1200 and BF2 at medium to high settings very well. It runs FEAR, Oblivion, CounterStrike Source, and the Orange Box games nicely with lower resolutions. I used this machine to play Portal all the way through. The CPU is powerful enough to handle DivX movies up to 720p with no problem. It's going to struggle with 1080 DivX if you're crazy enough to encode that but 720 looks fantastic on a 17" screen so it's never been a problem.

I ordered the unit bare with no OS so I can't offer a Windows license with it. I can install a legal demo version of Vista SP1 and set up all the drivers but I can't offer you a license. It would be up to you to activate it. Although Sager never supported Vista on this machine it works fine with drivers scrounged from similar hardware that I collected and tested. I have complete drivers for 32/64 bit XP and 32 bit Vista.

It's difficult to price this thing because there aren't a lot of used high end gaming notebooks for sale to compare it to. I'm asking $700 for it right now. I paid $2400 for it two and a half years ago and have added several upgrades since including more memory, the second hard drive, and the Audigy 2ZS card. Anything less than that and it would be worth me keeping it for secondary use or parting it out. In the past six months I have disassembled it and reapplied fresh Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste and cleaned all the heatsinks thoroughly for maintenance. I take good care of my machines. I do have a Paypal account and will take credit card payments through Paypal. Shipping is your option and I'm in New York but have access to certain reduced shipping rates.

I just ordered a 9262 as a replacement but it was a tough choice because apart from playing the latest high end games this Sager is fully serviceable and still faster than most new laptops you can buy today.

dalu
08-03-2008, 07:11 AM
Hi,

Is it possible to upgrade Cpu and Gpu in future and how much is shipping charges for Bahrain from there.

Thanking you

Woody
08-05-2008, 06:29 PM
Hi,

Is it possible to upgrade Cpu and Gpu in future and how much is shipping charges for Bahrain from there.

Thanking you

The CPU can only be upgraded with similar Pentium M single cores, the fastest being 2.2GHz. The motherboard is not compatible with dual cores. The GPU can be upgraded but I believe the fastest compatible GPU is the 7950GTX which is hardly worth the upgrade. The 7800GTX it has on board is very powerful for a laptop even by today's standards and is probably comparable or faster than a 8600GT mobile part.

The box is 18lbs packed and is 18" x 17" x 11" so you could look up shipping costs from New York.

ibogames
09-18-2008, 10:09 AM
will you be able to ship this laptop to the Netherland in europe?
if so how much will the shipping cost and how will the payment work?

t-time
11-18-2008, 02:32 PM
Are you still selling the 5720?

Woody
11-29-2008, 08:59 AM
If anyone else is curious. I sold this computer on eBay about two months ago. One of the screen hinges broke right after I listed it here making opening and closing the notebook difficult. In fact, the hinge broke on the same day I pulled my new NP9262 out of the box and placed it on the desk next to my trusty 5720...it was an unbelievable coincidence.

I figured I'd drop the price and ended up selling it for $525 and a plate of homemade cookies to a local couple who planned to use it as a Linux platform. I hadn't heard back so I assume they're happy with it.