"Star Laptops powered by Asus"

Hi, I'm trying to buy a customized Asus w3 Notebook.

I understand a popular place to purchase is agearnotebooks.com. I found a place which is about a hundred dollars cheaper- star tech.

However they label the w3 as "Star tech(ASUS)" Note the Asus in parenthesis, "STAR built on Asus," and as the title reads- Star Laptops powered by Asus.

Is this still an Asus notebook... but the company who does the customizations renames it slightly? If I bought from them would my laptop say "Star" on it?

I just wonder if anything else would be different about the notebook. All I want is an Asus w3 with a faster HD and 1 gig of RAM. I don't want anything else done to this laptop or it missing major components from a non-customized Asus w3. And on agearnotebook.com it is customizable but they do not slap another name on it, it remains "Asus W3"

Has anyone here had any experience with star tech? Is it "safe" to buy from them or are these(Star built on asus, and Asus ensemble) 2 totally different notebooks with the same cover?

Here is a link of reference:

http://pc11.flashecom.com/startech/showpages.asp?pid=1080


:asus: :centrino:

 

It is an Asus for sure. However, by customizing, you lose the Asus global 2 year warranty and Star gives you their 2 year warranty - which might even be better because you deal with a smaller shop locally instead of a huge company.

I believe the Asus logo is permanent on the case, so that would remain. I would contact Star to see if they stick their logo on as well, and if you have the option of leaving that off. I bet they will do what it takes to make you happy. They seem like down-to-earth honest guys.

 

I just bought a custom W3 from Star and they (John) was great to work with (so far - you reading this, John? - ).

It seems to me there are 3 types of W3s. There is the Standard W3V "Ensemble" that comes pre-built from Asus, w/ the Asus warranty. The only options on this are the software packages and accessories. Then there's the 'Built-On' which are the Z63A's, but don't have the ATI graphics, but will be warranted by the dealer in combination with Asus. Then there are the 'custom' W3Vs, like I got and you're looking at, which are just that, custom W3Vs that are also warranted by the dealer, but I think have thier Asus warranties completely voided due to the fact that they're disassembling the 'Ensemble' units to make these. The three options from Star are best viewed from this link:
http://pc11.flashecom.com/startech/system_dept.asp?dept_id=SD-024

Personally, I didn't need a global warranty. Star seems to have been around a while, and was mentioned favorably here. I also checked out Star w/ the BBB and found no issues with them, and made sure to purchase my laptop on a credit card. But, so far (it's been less than a week), I have had no problems with either the laptop or the service from Star.

-Lee

 

Thanks a lot you two.

Yes, that is right about loosing Asus' global warranty, but then from what I've seen you are provided with atleast a 2 year warranty from the folks who customize it.

I'm not sure if these warranties are included in the price but 2/3 year warranty is great. I did notice there doesn't seem to be any type of "Accidental Damage" warranty that ther companies offer so hopefully I don't accidentally damage this thing.


lmychajluk-

#1- Did your laptop come with any star logo on it?? I guess I should e-mail the company just to make sure before I purchased.

#2- Your notebook was the grey laptop pictured on star's website under the w3v right? Rather than a black one like this:
http://store.agearnotebooks.com/asusw3vphotos.html

(I heard the black ones are Asus w3a's. But dealers picturing 2 different color notebooks under the same name of w3v is kind of misleading to buyers.)

Ps- Upon checkout- did you have to pay for the w3 all at once? Or was there the option of only allowing them to take out a certain amount of money a month? When I bought my Dell it asked how much they were limited to take out each month.. Just curious!

 

No 'Star' logo... from all outward appearances, it's a W3V, complete with Asus logo on the cover. I didn't ask about a lay-a-way plan.

Just a thought, though... If you want just a faster/bigger HD and a little extra RAM, why not just buy the "Ensemble" W3V and swap in your own HD and add a little extra RAM from Crucial/Kingston/Etc/??? It's fairly easy to do, and may not cost you much more than the upgrades themselves. You could pick up an external HD enclosure and use the pre-installed HD as a backup drive / extra storage. You can even leave the default installation of the OS on there in case you need to swap it back in to send for service.

You may also want to check with your Credit Card company...my card offers theft/accidental damage protection on all purchases for a couple of months, and extends the manufacturer's warranty by 1 extra year. They'll also allow you to pay whatever you want a month, provided it's over a certain minimum.

Edit - Yes, as far as I can tell from the pictures, mine is the darker grey of the W3V with the metal lid, not the lighter silver of the z63a.

-Lee

 

Oh hmmm weird. But your mouse is the lighter colored one, right? I read some people were expecting the color pictured and received something different. I don't want that to happen to me.

There are two reviews on this site for the w3 that I have seen and both seem to have a dark lid but be grey on the inside with the white mouse. I really wish I could see this in person but I'm not sure if any store here carries it and I don't want to call 100 stores just to perhaps find it.

As far as adding my own larger HD and extra memory myself- thought about it! I was going to do that initially until I was told that doing so would void the warranty. I know I could change things back to normal before I send it back in but it's too much trouble. I decided it's just safer to have it customized.

I don't have credit, I have debit ;D I'll have to e-mail these star tech people for some additional information though, I didn't do that initially because I assumed they would take a long time to reply (Thus the board replies being quicker) and I also wanted to talk to some people with experience from them to see if they were any good.

Hmm so sure thing these "custom" w3's dont have anything swapped? Like is it possible the dealer takes out some components and puts in other ones? (I mean, besides what you are asking to be changed..ram, processor, hd, etc..) I am not directly talking about Star tech. But, is this just a risk being taken by purchasing one of these customized w3's from one of these 'dealers'?

Because I dont know how true this is, but I read that any dealer who takes Asus laptops and chooses to customize them will be taken off Asus' official resellers list....Something along those lines. I think it was actually in the archive's of this board where I read that. Maybe I took it the wrong way, but to me when I read that I got kind of "iffy"..like it was opening up a possibility to get less than an actual Asus w3 that you're paying for.

 

Well, StarTech is still listed on Asus's site as an official reseller...

 

I got a medium-grey mouse, as pictured in Pier's W3V review. The fact that it actually requires the dongle peeve's me a bit, considering that there are Bluetooth mice out there, and the laptop has BT built in, but that's not Star Tech's fault, Asus bundles the mouse. But I digress...

Though I guess it's possible for an unethical dealer to 'downgrade' a factory component, it doesn't seem cost-effective to do so. If you look at what's 'customizable' on most laptops, it's the CPU, Memory, HD, Optical Drive, and a couple of other things that can be swapped fairly quickly. These can also be checked by the user fairly quickly against the specs of what is ordered. Other components (i.e. - a cheaper LCD) are just not cost-effective to replace. As long as they send what was specified, there's no problem. I learned a couple of years ago to check the specs very carefully when I got a European model of a fairly expensive digital camera I ordered - the 'package deal' included the US version of the camera, but the relatively cheap camera-only package was the Euro version (one letter difference in the model #), sans US warranty and NTSC video output. That being said, Star Tech was very specific about all the components included both on thier web site and in thier confirmation emails (except for the mouse color ), and the laptop arrived configured exactly as specified.

I would also suggest you get a credit card if you're going to be buying anything online. A debit card with a MC/Visa logo does not offer the same consumer protection that a credit card is legally obligated to provide. Check with your bank on that.

-Lee

 

What is a dongle and what exactly do you mean here?

Thanks for the reply!



Oh wait..you're talking about the actual mouse the computer comes with, huh? Forgot it came with one. I was actually referring to the built in mouse on the laptop. Not sure the proper name of it. So by "dongle" do you mean the usb thing that has to be inserted to use the mouse?


gaah ETA, one more thing..dead pixels! Do you have any? And is it possible for them to appear way after you've owned the laptop??

 

Yes, the mouse is grey, and it requires you use the USB dongle to use it. The touchpad is also a dark grey color with a silvery frame. The W3V reviews here have some good pictures of the laptop from various angles, and mine looks just like them.

The dead pixels were something I was worried about, because the W3V is not covered under Asus' ZBD warranty, but as far as I can tell, there aren't any dead pixels or bright dots on the screen. However, I can say, there is a bit of 'leakage' of the backlight into the screen when the screen is primarily dark (there's another thread on this for more info). I haven't decided if it's annoying enough to make an issue out of yet.

-Lee

 

Okay I emailed these people maybe 2 days ago (Or was it early yesterday morning?) Anyway, they have not written back.

How long does star tech usually take to respond or did my question just get dumped?

Um um um!

 

Really? I usually got an email reply from John within a few minutes. Try [email protected] if that's not the address you're using. If he's at his desk, the "Live Help" link will be active in the bottom left of thier homepage if you want to chat. If you don't get an email reply within a 1/2 hour, call them. John's # is 877-827-4283 x106. Maybe your emails are getting caught in a spam filter somewhere?

 

I went to the page and and clicked "Contact us" They had a form you fill out and press send... I did that.

I just asked if there were any lay away options (As I mentioned earlier in this thread- Dell's site you can select how much they are allow to withdraw a month) And something else but now I can't remember. Ha ha.

Maybe it was a dumb question but I would like to know. I need a new laptop but won't have all the money right upfront until I sell my drumset. I'll try the E-mail you provided. Thanks.

 

Sorry Lyracist, no layaway options. Sorry I didn't get back to your email immediately, I have been really busy lately with order processing.

When we configure an ensemble, there is no real room for a logo of our own, so we leave the chassis alone. We take out parts, put new ones in, that's it. Burn it in, check for defective components, box it, ship it.

Thanks for the good word Lee. Appreciate that.

 

hey this is a pretty good price for a z63a.. now its either from buying from star or assembling my own barebone.. does your z63a come built in with bluetooth startech?