Why are MS-1651 barebones<$350?

lol that was not my point. i guess what i mean was if the theft was of that magnitude it would be all over the place regardless of if they wanted to keep it quiet or not... otherwise id guess internal

 

Yeah the only thing that could make all this understandable to me was MSI maybe "forgetting" to lock up one night and came back and a whole shipload of phased out models being "stolen" a few days before their new stock started selling/shipping.

I guess it just happened to be a coincidence that it was all soon to be discontinued items that were taken.

At least MSI has insurance which will take the hit for the MSRP of all the items stolen.

So its a blessing in disguise for MSI. Robbers find a way into their secure wharehouse and take phased out merchandise and insurance company gives them full value for all items taken which is probably more then 40% higher then they could of got selling the units now that the new models are here.

 

None of the stolen models are phased out............


They are ALL still current barebone notebook models and selling at the same cost. If you look at the msi site for these barebone notebooks there are no "New" models:

http://www.msicomputer.com/NB/product_index.asp

 

Lol...

Come on guys, lets be more reasonable. The sales not knowing about this heist? Maybe upper management still haven't issue a formal notification? It's not on the news? Maybe its not news worthy? I don't see stolen Mercedes on the news everyday.

 

So what's the GT725 and the new 4850's? Not lending credence to conspiracy theories, but there are new, similar, better models on the market now in retail format and the GT725 sure looks like a much upgraded 720/1722.

For the price of a GT725, it is going to be awfully hard to move the older 1722s/720s imho in configured models.

For example, this: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10009866&prodlist=froogle

$1349.00 for that config w/ the 4850. That is clearly an upgraded 1722/720 chassis ID2.

A similar 720 w/ 9600 on Xotic lists for ~$1700.00+.

I just don't see the 1722/720 competing with that and it is, or should, be marked for EOL.

 

I'm sure if you saw a theft of 100's of them all at once, you'd find something on it though.....

But it also makes sense not to blast this all over the news. That does nothing except introduce damaging PR.

 

Like electrosoft said the new models are out at ~ the same price as the older models so it doesn't make much *plausible* sense for an end user to purchase the old units when the new ones are in the same range and can fit quad cpu's.

I could be off based but thats just the way it feels to me.

Also I hope they will stop telling people the units are fine if they are indeed stolen.

It leaves people like me out to dry. The guys who bought some to make a small profit and contacted MSI prior to selling the items and I was told the units where fine.

That was back about 5 weeks ago.Several others called around the same time (actually more recently then me *about 3 weeks* and were told the same thing.

 

double post

 

When I found out my 1722 was stolen, I filed a complaint with paypal and mailed it back to the seller. I did not want stolen goods.

 

Paying more than $400 for these barebones is a rip-off anyway. Notice how the GX620 used to be $1349.99? Now you can find it for around $999.99. Once the GT627 was launched, these became dated and overpriced. Anyone who pays more than $400 for these barebones (assuming no DVD-Drive) is getting ripped off.

MSI made a huge mistake by not updating the MSRP for these things. Paying $600 for a barebones like this is such a bad deal especially when you can buy a GX630 for $799.99 which includes an OS, Hard Drive, Memory, CPU, DVD-ROM Drive, etc...

 

have to agree with most of that angel. imo these are way overpriced now that the 627 and 725 is out

 

THAnk you all for the pm's... unfortunately there are so many i don't have enough time to give individual replies...

here are some replies in a single post...

1 i appreciate those that are sharing my pain in buying this stolen unit... it took every bit of my budget to buy this item and i was very much looking forward to owning it...

2 no, i won't phone you or give you my contact info---it's just not necessary to discuss this issue in any more depth than here on this forum...

3 no i don't feel that i should return the pm's that are asking the idendity of the ebay seller...

4 no i didn't get a "smokin fire sale 50 cent on the dollar price" i bought the barebone and the seller completed it as shown in my signature for right at 900... i felt that i was getting a good fair deal but by no means stealing (pun) the notebook...

5 yes my local police, the sellers local police, ebay, and msi are all working on this together and cooperating with each other...

6 no i will not share any "inside info" about this---and this is directed at the person that pm'ed me 3x's wanting "juicy details"---please stop pm'ing me...

7 no---i do not feel the seller/builder had any idea that this was a stolen unit as they are almost as upset about this as i am...

i think i hit answers to the pm's i have been getting on the most part...

thanks,,,

 

sorry nevermind

 

I hope at some point you are able to maintain your signature unaltered or the opportunity for an upgraded legit replacement when the budget allows.
That is if you still desire the msi build.

Glad to hear things seem to be going ok
Situations like this for the morally grounded person can cause the loss of sound rest and it can be an unhealthy stressful scenario.

 

it'd be a nice gesture on MSI's part to help NOTAGEEK out and let him purchase one from them at a similar price he got his for on ebay. By him doing the right thing and reporting it, its the least they could do as a sort of "reward".

 

For those who paid with CC/Paypal, you are afforded some protection which is nice. Initiate a chargeback/contested charge and mail it back.

For those who paid with MO's/checks, you are really left with no recourse unfortunately.

Yet another reminder, even when using PayPal, to skip past their, "e-check/equivalent is safe!!" BS and always pay with a CC.

You can initiate a charge back with PayPal for up to 60 days, btw. So if you DO have a potentially stolen unit, NOW is the time to check your serial and go ahead and initiate a chargeback via your CC or PayPal.

 

Man, I totally disagree. These units are nowhere near outdated and still offer top market performance, you just need to find a buyer who maybe doesn't follow the minutiae as fanatically as people on this forum. Heck, they're selling rebranded gx-620 models up here in Canada out of a major vendor with 5000 series intel cpus for 1500$c (like 1200 us or whatever.) And that's with the 8600 equipped models available to us for like 300 bucks cheaper.

The reason that a barebones is worth 600$ or 900$ hundred bucks is you're saving 200 or 300$ that you can put towards better parts, and the vendor loses that margin they were making on the parts you didn't want, especially on the slightly older specced units. Why should they sell them for so little they make nothing, when people are willing and happy to pay what they're being sold for? Look at the whitebooks from ocz, they're like twice as much as an msi barebones (admittedly different.)

Yeah, you can buy a cheaper specced full model for only a couple hundred bucks more, but do you really want to bank on selling that cpu and hd (and maybe ram) to make up the difference? Would it be enough to get what you want in the unit? If an older model floats your boat you're not target market for the barebones anyway, so who cares?

About the only advantage is OS cost, but if you're careful about sourcing parts you can make up the cost for vista easy.

 

I don't particular care about Canadian pricing. I understand people who are not in the US have different obsticles, so let me just state that I speak from a US Citizen's perspective.

If we take the US Pricing, we can see just how terrible of a deal these barebones are. Lets take Xoticpc for example.

The barebones itself is $720 + Shipping. So lets just say $750.

$750 Barebones
$215 CPU
$50 Memory
$100 HDD
$40 Wireless XPress
$115 OS

Total = $1270

I can get a GT627 for that price! Plus, I get the warranty on the entire thing... Plus, you may have tax, or shipping to deal with. I just don't quite see how that barebones is worth anywhere near what it is priced at. Drop it down to $450 (With Optical) and it seems a bit better, but still overpriced IMO. Not sure how you can't say these things are overpriced, especially when the GX620 (which the barebones is built on) dropped in price over $350 from debut while the 1651 barebones stayed at MSRP. Seems pretty clear to me.

 

Besides, GT628 is coming out soon~
nVidia Geforce GTS 160M 1GB DDR3
DDR3 2GB x 2 Slots
Carbon Fiber Chassis, light as feather

 

thank you my friend... i'm an older guy (not old enough for medicare) and i'm disabled... i live on a small disability income and had to save for a long time to be able to finally get this notebook... i don't know enough about computing (yet) to even know if i got a good deal on this item... i'm thinking that perhaps something good will turn up and this whole ordeal should be looked at as part of my learning experience...

good idea---thx... that kind of luck just doesn't exist in my world !!!

yes sir that is very good advice... anybody that bought an msi in the last month or so, or is expecting delivery, or just shopping should check the serial# with msi... a legit seller should have no problem giving you a serial #... it is better to be safe than having to go through the crap i'm going through... if you find you have a stolen one get going on your recourse asap...

you had a nicely loaded id2 (less os and processor) on ebay a few weeks back... you would have installed vista hp in it for a reasonable (unmentioned here) fee... i used the "ask seller a question" in your ebay listing and asked for a turnkey price with vista and the least expensive quad core... you replied and told me that you had zero quad cores available at the time... see---i came that close to owning a legit msi... lol...

after the dust settles and i have my money back, i'll likely be back on ebay or the market place here...


thanks
NOTAGEEK

 

i do agree i have to say with angel and master

 

Heh, see, my problem is I HAVE to buy/sell to feed my tech habit. Work pays the bills, but testing and benchmarking with a lot of hardware? Ouchie....

I always have a small army of parts coming and going with all the different configurations and setups I simply MUST try!

I went from having, at one time, 5 Quad Cores (2x Q9100, 3x QX9300) to zero now.

Now, with news the new mobile 280 parts seem to be overclocked 3700M's (aka 9800gtx + 16 more CUDA at slightly faster speeds), I'm really eying the Asus W90 and its dual 4870x2.....and the WHOLE vicious cycle starts again.

 

Isn't the nVidia Geforce GTS 160M 1GB DDR3 roughly is roughly the same as a 9700m? If so, isn't that a downgrade?

Anyways more information @ http://live.msi.com.tw/marketing/09cebit/emagazine/index.htm Page 6 of the flash book.

 

Yeah, apparently Nvidia's "new cards" (even their 280m) are nothing more than current technology upclocked in some situations.

280m = Quadro 3700 (which is a 9800gtx with 128-cuda vs. 112).

Meh, and here I thought Nvidia was actually introducing a mobile version of their GTX 2XX architecture....silly me.

 

nope. lol. i reported they were going to do this last year before christmas i believe i even remember showing which cards would be renamed to what in the 200 series. this has been known they would do this for a long time now

 

Well there newer "lower end" cards have some good improvements though im interested in seeing there results. Though i still think the 4570 will reign in the lower end market.

 

As far as I see it, ATi has the reign over the 64 bit and 128 bit cards. The 4570 beats the 9400M by a good amount, and nothing comes close to the 4670 in the 128 bit sector.

As for the GTS 160M, I'd like to see how it is before I judge it. Since both the 9700M GTS and 9800M GS are using the same G94 GPU, it's hard to tell if the 160M is actually a re-badged 9700M GTS or 9800M GS. Once we know how many stream processors it has then it'll become clear.

 

Were the MS-1651 and 1722 the only models stolen from MSI?

I got to say, this has me very concerned and I cant aford to buy anything that has been stolen and have to turn it over. I would really like to be able to build my own laptop, I have been building my own desktops for a long time now, and enjoy knowing that if something gives out it is easy to repair. I noticed theres a few Barbones models outt here other than these 2 and was wondering if they might have been involved in the theft as well?

Just reread the post on the first page and it says "And other models" does anyone know what these other models are? Also are the models that come with optical drives safer to purchase?

 

No and No
The only safe way at this time to purchase is get the serial number prior to the exchange/transaction and call MSI first..

 

If this is really the case, why should I ever buy any MSI product ever again ?

Seriously, there are several parts to this thing that me off at MSI;

1. They won't openly disclose on their website how many notebooks have been taken, so we don't know how big or expansive this theft is; are they missing a thousand notebooks? Ten thousand? Even more? The heck if we know!

2. They state that the ones stolen are the 1651, 1722, and "other models". They haven't said what "other models" they are talking about, so to the consumer this should mean that every single MSI notebook is potentially stolen property, and that buying an MSI product is inherently risky.

3. They won't communicate with their sales or tech support staff to tell them that this has actually happened, so people calling them get lots of different stories, and the first word of this comes from aftermarket resellers. The least they could do is post something on their website, along with a serial number range.

 

i was told by a reseller they will have something on their web site to check serials soon. but imo this should have been done over a week ago or longer if these were gone that long why this was put off for so long is imo ridiculous

 

I just wish at the very least they would ensure us that this was localized to only bare-bones models, I'm considering buying a GT725, how will I know it isn't stolen?

 

yeah when i was on the phone with them they would not confirm anything. and they said the person i had to talk with had to call me back. and they didnt confirm anything either regarding which models it was i was told "mainly 1651 and 1722" but they never said "only" this is when i was checking on my 1722 i had which was in fact legit

 

The GT725 Just arrived, the theft was at the beginning of January. None of the newer models are involved.

 

In 2004 Woot sold an MSI branded video card. http://msicomputer.com/msiforms2/stolen.aspMSI claimed that the all or some of the cards sold by Woot were in fact the stolen cards.
Woot denied the cards being stolen and Woot waranted the cards since MSI would not.
It was CRAZY!

The point I am making is that MSI has a history of poor communication and handling of this type of incident.

High value items are stolen all the time while being shipped either while in transit by truck or train or when they are in port or warehoused before being shipped. Typically what happens is that insurance covers the loss and the manufacturer is silent about the loss and does nothing to invalidate the warranty. Last thing the manufacturer wants to happen is to have end consumer wondering if they have the stolen items w/o warranty.
Even if MSI is the victim, they will only generate negative customer attitudes toward MSI if they punish the end user.

If you have reason to believe an item is stolen, don't buy it.

Hopefully MSI will provide clarity as to the status of the bare bones on Monday. From what I remember, the MSI and Woot fiasco was never clearly resolved by MSI.

 

I Agree
You have made a Good Point

 

Oh man, I got into that too. I seem to have a knack for inadvertently buying stolen MSI products. Ironically, those 7900GSes ended up being the best of all the 7900GSes, just because they came with extremely-OC friendly Samsung VRAM instead of the Hynix.

 

Since MSI is operating opaquely, you cannot assume that any Laptop they produce hasn't been "stolen", including those shipped from their dealers.

"If the price is too low, it must be a stolen laptop." Are you kidding me? I buy items all the time that seem to be priced too low. So now every "buy one get one free" really means that the second item was stolen?

It is a very sloppy way to operate a business. Maybe if they [MSI] had access better computing, they could be faster with their reporting to the public

 

I understand the standing point of the certified resellers. They are getting punished because of buying these systems at the price MSI sold to them not to be able to sell these at retail prices. MSI is not doing anything about it. It almost looks like MSI is actually happy with the situation since they get brand recognition (good or bad). I don;t believe that MSI is going to mark these computers as out of warranty at all. And the main question is since the sellers on ebay keep getting new inventory, how many computers were initially stollen? It looks like at least couple thousand was sold on ebay in recent past. RK sorry for you man. I am in the same business and it sucks to be undersold big time by thiefs etc etc.

 

I highly doubt thousands. Couple hundred at most.

 

OC by himself sold more thank 50! There are power sellers on ebay selling these in bulk outside of ebay too. So I wouldn't under estimate the scope of this issue. Mark my words, MSI will not do anything about these computers!