What Gives?

I figured Alienware to be the more expensive machine. However, the whitebook on xoticpc.com is significantly more than the Alienware machine. The AW has weaker specs in some areas but I didn't expect that much of a price difference. Is there anywhere else to look up some whitebooks for sale?

 

See the sticky at the top of this forum - all options are there. Xotic also provides a 3 year warranty, overclocking doesn't void it, and good customer service/support, you wont pay tax, etc etc etc.. *shrugs* you get what you pay for.

 

IT may look cheaper at first glance, but once you add the tax it will be ridiculous. As E-Wrecked said, with xotic you get very good support and the 3 year warranty included in the price.

 

And with xotic you won't feel emarrassed to bring the lappy out into public which I hear happens a lot, me being one of them. AW looks great but it's, to me, not practical.

 

.. I got mine at Xotic, Great customer Service. + 3 yr warranty. + overclocking.

 

I got mine from RK Computers, they also offer a 3 year warranty and i see now just added a 4 year warranty: http://www.rkcomputer.net/rkcnotebooks/index.php?l=product_detail&p=95

They also host all the latest drivers, bios, etc on their site:

http://www.rkcomputer.net/rkcnotebooks/index.php?l=page_view&p=ocz_drivers


My experiance with them has been nothing but great and they are always there either email or phone.

 

yeah rob is awesome at rk, justin at xotic is great and imo shane is great also from dark smiley he is young but has been nothing but a adult about every post he makes and shows a desire to help anyone out even if they are not his customers. imo any of the three would be great to deal with.

now personally i prefer the matte finish ovr the crazy gloss of the ocz but i to dislike the sjullcap design. if they offered it in the ripley even though i know for sure i can get the ocz cheapr id prob have ordered one already. i just like the matte better but from past experiences with aw dont expect much help and dont expect the best customer service they wre not at all helpful to me last time around and it was like pulling teeth to get my refund. granted that was a few years ago so i cant speak for now but that seems to be the same way they ar currently if you read the aw forums

 

If you were ordering a high end system, Mark jsut released that he will be doing not only the hardened carbon fiber, but stainless steel and anodized aluminum.

I was thinking of getting the black anodized one myself as I think its going to look pretty awesome.

I wont link the thread but he put it up overat GoG if you would like to take a look of the prelimenary items, they are still unfinished.

 

pm me the link if you would??

 

ditto.. I would like to see link also.

Zfac, are you still on the process of deciding on the notebook or are you pretty much setting your hopes on this baby?

 

PMs sent to those requested.

 

I bought my OCZ from Rob at RK and I have to say after choosing the same specs on RK and Alienware, The RK notebook came with a cheaper price along with 4gigs of DDR3 vs. the alienware with 2 gigs DDR3.

 

If someone could pull out an aluminum job that looked like the Dell Precision M6400 I'd be more inclined to go that route but the way the custom jobs from places like KN and Xotic leave that border of glossy plastic kills it for me.

They're like those skinit stickers that dont go all the way to the edge of the lid which just looks terrible to me.

 

I originally ordered a Whitebook from AW. But after browsing their forum here for a couple of days, I had cold feet. Not that you intend to give up on a Whitebook, but AW will charge a 15% restocking fee if you return it (their policy statement says 'may' but they will). Xotic has a 15-day return policy with no restocking fee in case you get a lemon. Xotic's standard 15-day dead pixel warrantee is pretty good too. Some vendors nickel-and-dime you according to how many pixels are dead.

Also even though I placed the order before Xotic, ETA for delivery from AW was 12-15, around 3 weeks. My order from Xotic was already shipped on 12-11 (haven't gotten it yet), but they fullfilled their 3-7 day build date time.

AW has a better military discount of 5% versus 1.5% of Xotic though, and cost me $200 more, but that includes the 3-year warrantee. I'm not in North America, but Xotic will honor it.

As for RK or RJ computers (I forget), they were the cheapest, but never got a reply to two e-mails I sent. Cheapest yes, but not as good consumer policies as Xotic. You can get a longer warrantee with other vendors, but 3-yrs will cost around $300 so it pretty much makes up the price diff. Read the fine print, hardly anyone will let you return a notebook with no restocking fee. 15% on a $2700 notebook will be $405!

 

I paid about $3,800 for my Xotic whitebook, which is bargain compared to the $5,100 Alienware M17 with identical configuration and 3 year warranty...

 

I paid $2100 CAD including tax and shipping to canada from AW, that's about $1700 USD.

Not that I love AW, but it has been not too bad. First M17 shipped in 8 days including holidays, so it's like 6 days. And then free overnight shipped to Canada. Not too bad I guess.

 

is that a single card? and if its dual how did you get it for that price

 

Did you check my review?
It's dual card, and it's AW, that's why it's low price for low end. And that's with Windows too, where other companies can't do it with low price.

 

i still dont see how for 1700$ with cpu and everything?

 

goto AW and config?

it's 1,674.00 with 1 year warranty before taxes.

so, are you guys still saying AW is expensive? And what laptop can you buy with 1,674.00, think about that for a moment, a gateway?

 

same thing for me is basically 2000$ (19xx) plus taxes?? for that price id order one

 

It was not our site you contacted or looked at, all our emails are answered within 1 hour and our 3rd year extended warranty is $88.00 not $300.00.

 

This is what makes me laugh when i browse through this forum. You are not comparing apples to apples. You purchased a peanut!

Your config in your signature says:

Video/Graphics Card: Dual 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870 - CrossFireX™ Enabled!
Processor: Intel® Core™2 P8400 2.26GHz (3MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Chassis: 17-Inch WideXGA+ 1440 x 900 LCD (720p)[/B]Nobody offers this but ailien.............
Keyboard Options: Illuminated Keyboard – Alienware Exclusive Design - Astral Blue-Sorry not exclusive, every other reseller has this
Operating System (Office software not included): Windows Vista® Home Premium (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
Notebook Tuners and Remotes: Without Media Center Remote Control or TV Tuner
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR3 SO-DIMM at 1066MHz – 2 x 1024MB
System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 160GB 7,200RPM (8MB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
Optical Drives : 8x Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Wireless Network Card: Internal Wireless b/g (Full Mini-Card)Nobody offers a b/g card??????????/
Sound Card : Internal High-Definition Audio with Surround Sound
Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Onsite Service and 24/7 Toll-Free Phone Support
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mesh Cap
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mousepad
Alienware Extras: Alienware® Mobile Binder
Alienware Extras: Owner Identification Card
Alienware Extras: M17 Protective Cloth Sleeve
Alienware Extras: M17 Keyboard Diagram Overlay

Your price you have $2055.00///////////////

If you compare the same system with a 1920 x 1200 that every other reseller is offering then ailienware is not even close.........

 

Maybe the LCD?

 

That 2055 is CAD, if you didn't know, and the update tells you that after tax, it's C2148.61. So yeah, AW is not even close to other reseller, because AW beats them by a huge mile, read below.



Video/Graphics Card: Dual 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870 - CrossFireX™ Enabled!
Processor: Intel® Core™2 P8400 2.26GHz (3MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Chassis: 17-Inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD (1200p) with Clearview Technology
Keyboard Options: Illuminated Keyboard – Alienware Exclusive Design - Astral Blue
Operating System (Office software not included): Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
Notebook Tuners and Remotes: Without Media Center Remote Control or TV Tuner
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR3 SO-DIMM at 1066MHz – 2 x 1024MB
System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 160GB 7,200RPM (8MB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
Optical Drives : 8x Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Wireless Network Card: Internal Wireless b/g (Full Mini-Card)
Sound Card : Internal High-Definition Audio with Surround Sound
Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Onsite Service and 24/7 Toll-Free Phone Support

$1,874.00 USD shipped.
And NONE of the other resellers do free shipping both ways for warranty to Canada, I checked.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RKC
Display-WUXGA: WUXGA 1920 x 1200 Widescreen Super Glare TFT Display
Dead Pixel Policy: Guaranteed Zero Dead Pixels At Delivery-Included
MXM Graphics Module: Dual ATI Radeon HD 3870 512MB DDR3-CrossFireX
Optical-DVD Or Blu-ray: Integrated DVD Super-Multi-Dual Layer W/Software
Core 2 Duo Processor: Intel Core™2 45nm P8400 2.26Ghz 3MB 25W 1066MHz
Compound-Heat Sink: Mirror Polished CPU Heat Sink With Arctic Silver 5
Keyboard: Illuminated Fullsize Keyboard-3 Color Mode, Red, Blue, Geen-Included
Hard Drive-1: 160GB WD Or Seagate SATA 5400 RPM 8MB Cache
Hard Drive-2: No Second Hard Drive-Click Here To Add
Raid Options: Hard Drive-2 Must Be Selected To Enable This Option
Memory-DDR3: 2GB DDR3 1066MHz PC3-8500 Dual Channel - 2 X 1GB
Wireless: Intel WiFi Link 5100 802.11 a/g/n 1x2 MIMO-300Mbps
Bluetooth: Integrated Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
NoteBook Cooler: No Cooler-Click Here To Add
Spare Main Battery: No Spare Battery-Click Here To Add
Spare A/C Adapter: No Spare A/C Adapter-Click Here To Add
Car Charger: No Car Charger-Click Here To Add
Carry Bag: No Carry Bag-Click Here To Add
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium With SP1 64-bit DVD
Microsoft Office MLK: No Software-Click Here To Add
Drivers-Utilities: RKC Customized Driver And Utility DVD (XP Pro-Vista 32 And 64-bit) V3-Included
Warranty Options: 1 Year Parts/Lifetime Labor*-Lifetime 24/7 Domestic Tech Support*


RKC is $2046.00 USD without Canada shipping warranty, and 139.75 USD for shipping to me.

Ok, the difference in Network card is not even noticeable, if you are really concern about it, get both with intel 5300, the difference is only $2 between these 2 companies.

AW (1874 USD) Overnight shipping in my case.
RKC (2046 + 139.75 USD = 2185.75)
There goes your apples, you see the difference? And that is with RKC can't provide Canadian warranty with free shipping both ways, correct me if I am wrong.


If you can find a cheaper company that provide Canada warranty support, please show me, then I will feel stupid because I checked before purchase.
If you can't, then someone else will feel stupid and shouldn't laugh again while browsing the forum. Thank you.

I know other companies does indeed offer better price, ie RKC, when you upgrade the systems to higher spec. The higher the better deal they are, because AW over charge for those. But for a poor little dude like me that just fried a dell xps m1710 in Canada, there are no better choice than AW.

PS: I am no AW fanboy, I just like facts and hate ppl jump on me without reputation and without calculator. And I would recommend buyer to look at other resellers like RFC, if you are in US and are looking for a top end whitebook.

PS 2: I am sorry if I did my calculation wrong.

 

oh i didnt see he had a wxga.. nevermind id for sure want wuxga.. i just knew for that price i could have sold off the components and been way cheaper then the barebones..lol

 

And your Alienware scored : 10941 3dmarks06

Overclocking voides that 3 year warranty. And the BIOS is locked. You rephlash it and its now unreturnable. Honestly if your looking for cheap why bother getting an OCZ rebuild?

If I were to do a barebone system or a "low end" system I would by through RK computers and spend the extra $15.00 if its even that lol

 

low end system from RK? I think RK has the lowest price in every configure. Also RK serve you QX9300 OEM version. You can got high end system from RK at 3100 no os and 3300 plus os (for vista64).

 

Did you just miss my gigantic post that compare the low end price few post above yours?
The difference is more than 15% for AW being cheaper. And even more for Canada purchase because of warranty support.

 

I rep to mhooper post not your

 

O ok,

but RK does not have lowest price in every configurations.

 

alienware is not the cheapest for me after configuring them. but if they were the price you paid with the wuxga id def grab one.. lol sell off the parts and put my own in..

and if he flashes the ocz bios simplyflash back to the alienware later??

 

Yeah, depends how you configure it. The more you want, the more expensive is AW.