looking to buy an asus z70v

after reading a lot of reviews of a lot of laptops i think i have settled on the asus z70v
this is going to be my first laptop and i am rather nervous

it has a combination of all im looking for, performance, design, mobility

i was looking to buy from proportable.com as ive read justin is very helpful and thier service is great but ive come across 2 problems

i dont want to buy it with an operating system, as i own my own copy of xp pro, i really dont want to spend the extra money, proportable offers this except without an OS its considered barebone and thus there it is not returnable

the other problem is the dead pixel policy on the regular lcds, although this really doesnt have anything with proportable, as all sites seem to have this policy, now i know that the notebook will not leave without a deadpixel but im just very paranoid about this and am afraid of getting it with a dead pixel

but yea those are the things holding me back from ordering one right now

this might sound dumb, but though the barebone is not returnable, the 2 year warrenty would still apply correct? so if it had to be returned to be fixed some reason, i would still be able to do this?

and one more question, performance wise how big of a difference is there between 7200rpm HDD and a 5400 rpm HDD, is the extra $150 or so really worth getting the 7200?

also i saw that there is a place to put coupon codes at proportable, any chance anybody would know where i can get my hands on one of these coupons?

thanks in advance for help

 

I'm sure Justin and the guys from ProPortable will check your screen before it's shipped for Dead Pixels, but Dead Pixels can appear out of the blue right after.

As for the HD, it depends on what you'll be using it for. There will be a difference but you may not even notice it!

As for the coupons, I think I read somewhere that people who buy from them before gets a code, or something.

 

I'm selling my three-week old Z70v on eBay, if you'd like to get one at a good price. You can see my listing in the Buy, Sell, Trade section here on NotebookReview.com.

 

Jack can I ask what in particular is bothering you with your laptop?

 

The so-called 'refresh'?

Even with the x600, it's still a beauty with a great price!

 

Two things......

1. The "barebones" that aren't returnable are strictly a barebone system that people want to build themselves..... those are special orders through phone and email only..... everything on our website (system wise) follows the same return policy... that's not supposes to be some hidden thing..... the term "barebone" however HAS to be used as a legal identification of what you're buying.. any system without an OS is a barebone. A "notebook" leagally implies that an OS is present..... a neat little tidbit of information for you guys..... Lets put it this way... if you bought a system without an OS and on your invoice we called it a "notebook" and you went and put an illegal copy of windows on your system and got caught... if you said, look, I got it here...... we could have a problem on our hands....... that's the big reason behind it. We offer that option for those who have their own legal copies or for our large Linux customer base.

2. We our standard pixel check for every custom system we build regardless of OS or not...... If the unit has even one bad pixel we swap the screen for another and use that screen for RMA purposes...... It doesn't mean and no one can guarentee that it wouldn't get to you and you find 1 or even 2 bad pixels....... but our warranty is pretty simple and very good..... but you could get a bad pixel from so many different things that it's impossible to guarentee something like that. However, our pixel check is really more to obviously help guard against you getting a screen that would already be replaceable under warranty.... something that you would be sending back for warranty work regardless.... We do just happen to try a bit harder and make sure everything leaving is perfect...... no charge, no guarentee... but it's something we do becasue we can.... I don't know anyone who would offer more without charging for it, but Asus' screens are very good and rarely have issues anyway......Ususally a "pixel check" will cost you about $100 and still never come with a guarentee.... we can't see the point in that.

3. Coupon codes.... nothing... sometimes we use those around Christmas time, but we have nothing now. All we use those for is customer referral codes...... basically as a customer of ours, you're entitled to a 2% commision for I think it's 5 years or something for every and any customer that you happen to refer our way. You make sure they mention your customer code and you'll build up a stash... A couple college kids a little more than a year ago happened to pay for their computer within a year using this...... it's just a cool little thank you we set up.

Hope that answers some of your questions.

 

Actually, nothing is bothering me about it. My agency offered to supply me with a Thinkpad X43...FREE! I'd have returned my Z70v, but it's too late. I even tried to talk the boss into just reimbursing me for my new notebook, but that was shot down. The refresh is interesting, but if I end up buying something, it'll be something like the W2v, later this year.