What is the best way to purchase an ASUS laptop in the US?

I am looking for the best way to purchase an ASUS A8JS. I want to add 1GB of ram so it will have 2GB total. I do not want to add the ram myself. Best Buy is the only store in the United States that sells ASUS computers and they only sell the G1 model. Please correct me if I am wrong. If I have to buy it through a website, which is the best website. So far MilestonePC.com and Agearnotebooks.com are the only recommend sites. The ASUS home page lists at least 30 more websites that sell ASUS laptops. Since customizing a laptop voids the warranty, I need a website that backs up their work with their own warranty. Which website offers the best service and upgrades for the lowest prices?

Thanks for the help.

 

What is the best way to buy an ASUS laptop in the US? - with money.

For some resellers that will customize the laptop for you, you can look at BTOTech.com and MilestonePC.com (as you already know). Both of these resellers are very reputable, trusted and offer a lot of help here at NBR.

BTOTech.com will customize your notebook and offer their own warranties. I would also recommend PROPortable ( www.proportable.com), but they do not customize your ASUS laptop for you.

You can also look at XoticPC.com...I don't know them as much but they are pretty reputable as well, and they will customize for you.

 

having the site upgrade your ram will not void your warranty. i think the company can even upgrade your hd without voiding it.

 

I am not sure, but according to MilestonePC.com:
"Notice
We can customize this laptop upon your request, this will void Asus global warranty, but we can still handle your warranty service in North America."

 

Go with Btotech.com. I still haven't purchased the A8Js but plan on doing so sometime this month (hopefully). They have 24/7 online chat support and will answer all your questions. Also I've compared prices with Newegg and other websites and Btotech had the cheapest prices so far.

 

I am looking at http://btotech.com/store/products/laptops/ensemble/a8j/A8JS-4S024C.htm
and this price seems too good to be true. It is close to $300 cheaper than Agearnotebooks.com and $100 cheaper than MilestonePC.com.

 

btotech is great reseller.... i think the thing that will definitely void your warranty is upgrading the cpu. other then that, asus doesn't seem to care.

 

Thanks for all of the help. I will look into buying an ASUS A8JS from Btotech. I do not need to buy it until July. I will compare prices with the Dell D620. If I cannot get the price I want from Dell, I will buy the ASUS.

 

Well, you can get the a8jp from Newegg for pretty cheap.

From what I know, on ensembles (a8j is one of them), changing anything but the RAM will void your warranty. Of course though, if you're able to do it without them knowing and they can't prove it...how can they deny your warranty? Even changing the clock on your cpu or gpu could potentially void your warranty...just change it back to stock and clear your bios log before you send it in if you do.

 

I recently purchased an Asus S96J fron gentechpc.com, I had nothing but a good experience with them.

 

I've heard good things from Milestonepc, btotech, gentechpc, and have awesome experience with Newegg's service (as I have an F3JP).

And I have the same inquiry as who8mahrice; how would they know of a ram upgrade, if you were to simply deny it?

 

Some Websites offer Arctic Silver 5 thermal processor paste. Adding the ram might not void the warranty, but will this void the warranty? Gentechpc.com will add the Arctic Silver 5 for no extra cost. Should I get my laptop with Arctic Silver 5?

 

Because the A8JS normally comes installed with Windows XP and each company adds Windows Vista. Do they also change the DVD player in the process because the standard XP DVD player is NOT compatible with Windows Vista.

 

call ken at gentech and ask him what may or may not void warranty. also, the a8js does not normally come with xp....it depends on which model. all the new ones come with vista. asus installs this, not the reseller. and i have no idea what you are talking about with the dvd player. optical drives don't have compatibility issues with the os you're using.

 

Dell packages DVD players for XP and another set for Vista basic, premium and ultimate. The website sends a large error message if you try to purchase the ultimate vista software with the business/basic Vista DVD player. It also sends an error message if you try to purchase Windows XP with any Vista DVD player. The price remains the same. I just assumed it makes a difference.

 

Well, based on my own experience, I recommend http://www.discountlaptops.com 1000%, you simply can not go wrong with Mathew Tucker. The customer service is top notch and even though they didn't carry the Notebook I wanted (ASUS G1) they immediately resolved the problem and ended up purchasing two of them.

DiscountLaptops.com and Mathew in particular returned all my calls and emails very promptly and very patiently.

I will purchase from them in the future and recommend them to my friends.

Best regards,
RayanMX

 

I called Gentechpc and found out applying Arctic Silver 5 will void the processor warranty. They only recommend applying it if you upgrade the processor and this voids the warranty anyways. Installing more ram or a bigger hard drive does NOT affect any part of the ASUS warranty.

Sweet

 

I bought my A8Js from milestonepc.com and had a great experience. I've read that RAM does not void the warranty and that is the first thing I did was add anothe 1GB to mine (I did it myself though). It is seriously very, very easy to do.

As for the DVD drive issue, my A8Js came with XP Pro and I watched DVDs, burned CD's and burned DVDs with no problem. I recently installed Vista Ultimate (which requires a DVD drive to actually install the OS) and have watched DVDs, burned CDs, and burned DVDs with no problems. The drive is not an issue with either operating system.

 

From what I've read, the Arctic Silver doesn't offer an amazing performance boost on the notebook PC's as much as on the Desktops... If anyone's heard otherwise definitely correct me. And of course, any changes you make to HDD and RAM, just be sure to save all original components so that should you need to send it to ASUS for a warranty issue, you have the stock components installed

 

I've just recently bought an A8Js from gentech. Although it hasn't arrived yet, they definitely have an awesome customer service. I was having troubles with paypal, and Ken guided me all the way through. Not to mention, the laptop could have been shipped on the same day I ordered it customized, hadn't it not for the payment problems. Still, having it shipped the next day is still pretty damn fast. I had to wait for 2 weeks before my W3V got shipped from another company back then.

 

I emailed three of the retailers discussed here when I wanted to buy a V1 with XP installed rather than Vista. I asked if they could do that for me. Everyone replied quickly but the responses dictated who I bought from. They were:

'We have one left but if you want it you better hurry'
'You are six weeks too late.'
and
'Yes'
It was BtoTech who said 'Yes,' with no conditions so I bought from them...

 

Seems like most places dealing ASUS have good customer relations. Glad that you managed to land a notebook, rcadian

"you better hurry > too late > yes"....haha.

As for arctic 5, I've found that simply undervolting your computer with stuff like RMclock utility decreases the temperature just the same, if not more, and saves a chunk of battery. The major plus is that it won't void the warranty, being a simple, non-permanent modification.