Who to go with? Power notebooks/LPC-Digital/Mythlogic??

Greetings everyone,
Just signed up with this forum after reading quite a few threads, and I was hoping to get some of your honest feedback on who to go with when I purchase my new laptop.

First let me tell you a bit of background:

$2500 budget and looking to make the laptop last around 5yrs if I can. Also, I plan on going the credit option as I would like to have that support in case the worst happens...

Main purpose of the laptop is for gaming (RTS games for the most part), standard Office applications, watching movies, and web surfing.

I need the laptop to be mobile, for deployments and such, so I decided to go with the 9758 (I looked at ASUS and MSI, but they just didn't have anything in the 15in size that I was hoping for).

For the rough specs: i7 6700K GTX 980M 16GB DDR 1TB HD 256GB SSD M.2 or 256GB SSD PCIE

Quick side note - I have heard differing opinions on M.2 vs PCIE, as its about a $100 upgrade and from what some say is that its not really worth it for what I am going to be doing to get PCIE.

I have looked a quite a few of the sites out there that are resellers as well as custom builders for the Clevo/Sager laptop line (XOTICPC, PowerNotebooks, LPC-Digital, AVA Direct, Mythlogic, Origin PC). I have removed XOTIC PC and AVA Direct from the main running is that I have just seen enough stories that make me a bit gun shy for those.

So for my main point, I am having some issues with deciding what the best company to go with...

LPC - Digital : I have talked with Larry, very nice and knowledgable, as well as he gives that max discount.

PowerNotebooks : Talked with Donald as well, awesome guy, but seems to be the highest price when going with the credit option.

Mythlogic : I haven't really had a chance to talk with them yet, besides a quick phone call, so I don't have a good feel for their customer support.

Now LPC and Powernotebooks have great reseller ratings and rave reviews on the forums from what I have seen. LPC seems to be a bit smaller or new to the game though, but they both seem to offer the same product in terms of customer service, and after market warranty.

Mythlogic is the wildcard. I like the fact that they custom build the system put it through their QA testing, and they seem to have a good warranty as well as upgrade plan. However, they don't offer the same dead pixel policy as the other two, and their tech support phone isn't 24/7 like the others as well. Also, their reseller rating is pretty low (somewhere in the 5's), so that gives me a bit of pause.

I guess I was just hoping to see what you guys thought in terms of where to end up, as they all seem relatively on par with each other, and are within $20-50 of each other.

Appreciate the help in advance!

 

First, I'll say that I went with Mythlogic recently. When I read that they had a 5 on Reseller Ratings I was very surprised because it wasn't that low two months ago when I purchased. I had to check it out. Now I understand why it dropped. They have a total of 29 reviews there in a 10 year period. The newest review is a 1 of 5 stars. There is one 4 star and 27 5 star reviews. Nobody's perfect.

A side note: how can one bad review impact the total score so much on ResellerRatings?
Edit: I found the answer.

My experience with Mythlogic is new but very good, so far. I don't expect that to change. I wouldn't hesitate buying from them again or recommending them.

I chose them because of something you wrote about. Their QA testing is the best. If it doesn't pass, it doesn't ship. I wanted it ready to go when it arrived. You won't be getting a bad factory paste job, as, unfortunately, has been the case with some Sagers, at no fault of any Sager resellers here on NBR. More than likely, it was the result of the Rush Service that is offered.

Other advantages to Mythlogic: I sent my SSD and RAM for the build. Now that's custom! They are a @Prema partner. Their BIOS is custom too.

A negative about Mythlogic would be speed. The QA testing takes time. I knew this, so it was not an issue to me. If you need it faster, go with a Sager reseller.

I went with 2.5" SSDs for the OS drive and storage. Eventually, I will add M.2 SATA SSDs for storage. I don't believe PCIe would benefit my workload, at it's price point, at this time. A little more here on the differences between drives available now. http://forum.techinferno.com/clevo/8226-2016-17-clevo-models-what-do-you-want-11.html#post146783

 

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are gun shy on us

You may read more posts on us as we are the largest sager reseller so more people go through us resulting in possibilities of more bad reviews, although as you mentioned our reseller rating is very high because we do value every customer that we have.

It sounds like you are looking into an awesome system. We would love helping any way possible.

Feel free to PM me if you need anything or anything that I can help with.

 

Most complaints about Xotic actually stem from problems with Sager. Sager builds the machines, the warranty is through Sager, and Sager does any advanced tech support and Sager can be hit or miss (my most recent experience was a big miss but the first one was excellent, the second was a little more of a struggle but had a better than expected result - I'm still annoyed about this last experience but the machine works). As Alex mentioned, Xotic is the largest reseller for Sager and as we all know, people tend to complain more than give praise. The bottom line is that if you go with any reseller, Sager is always going to be involved with the machine.

Mythlogic builds and supports their own machines which is reflected in their pricing but as mentioned above they do full QA testing before a machine leaves and Sager does not, not with the volume they move.

Really in the end, it's all about what matters to you. Every company has good and bad reviews and most of them in the US are Sager resellers rather than direct Clevo importers. Just buy what you want, prepare to replace the stock paste job if it's from Sager (they always put way too much and it definitely affects temps), and make sure you get the extended warranty. Outside of that, go with whoever you feel most comfortable with as all the machines are the same at the end of the day (other than specific customizations that some offer) and the only difference is the post purchase experience.

By the way before you get scared off by my comments about Sager, there are much worse companies that you could choose. I had my own personal nightmare with Dell and Toshiba both, far worse than Sager. My experience with Sager is just fresh - Dell and Toshiba were years ago. I would still choose Sager over Dell or Toshiba any day of the week as in the end, Sager did what they said they did. My next computer will likely come from Sager via Xotic again.

 

I have dealt with resellers and with Mythlogic.

It's true about Mythlogic 24/7 tech support phone, they close the shop at the end of the day and go home but what impressed me the most is that there seems to be somebody checking emails 24/7. I have had email conversations with them in the middle of the night and on weekends. I have bought parts immediately because they will send a PayPal bill over the email.

I think Bullrun, Alex, and Ethrem are exactly right. Whomever you go with, I believe the Clevo laptop to be a solid performer.

 

Mythlogic and PowerNotebooks are builder so their price is higher. LPC Digital has the lowest price in my opinion, even compare to other resellers.

If you don't mind paying some extra bucks, I'd say go to Mythlogic and their machines have cool name. Personally, I went to LPC Digital for an obvious reason. XoticPC is also a good choice and if you consider their free gamecode, they might offer the lowest price.

 

Guys, thanks for all the input. Much appreciated. I have decided to go with Mythlogic just due to the build QA and they are the cheapest to go with based on using credit and military discount.

Alex - I understand your post now and hear you. That makes sense. However with wanting to go the credit route you guys would be more expensive than Mythlogic, as well they have a solid military discount. Thanks for the reply though.

I had a couple quick questions for you regarding the laptop build.

Since I am going to be doing mainly RTS gaming on this, and I don't really see myself owning a ton of games, I had a CPU and storage question.

CPU - I was looking at the Deimos initially with the i7 6700K, but I see that for about $200 less I can get the Dia with the i7 6820HK. It weighs less, is smaller, and has a longer battery life. However, the cpu and gpu are soldered on so upgrades are not an option for that area. My question is if I am wanting this laptop to last 5-7 years to play games on high or above settings, is the 6820HK a viable option? Or is the safe bet getting the bigger and heavier i7 6700K?

Storage - I was looking to with just a single Samsung 850 EVO 500gb M.2 hard drive instead of doing the split SSD and HD option. I just don't see myself using all that space, and can add an SSD down the line if I need to. I guess I just wanted to check that I wasn't completely out to lunch on this idea.

Thanks again everyone for the replies, they helped a lot.

Mike

 

If your workload is light, the M.2 SATA should be fine.

If you go Dia, I'd get the 3 - year warranty, without question. With soldered components, you will need to replace everything, mobo, CPU, GPU, if there's a failure. $200 well spent.

 

I would just get the 6700K model but if you want BGA, get the warranty or you'll regret it OP...

 

I really wouldn't get the BGA model... Just today there was a post in the gaming section about a Lenovo that had a year old 860M that looks like it went and failed. I would never go BGA for something that you plan to keep so long. BGA machines are built to be disposable, they're not meant to be kept more than 2 or 3 years.

 

So it's not misleading:

PowerNotebooks are a Sager reseller, may build some laptops too, but their prices being higher for Sager is not excusable.

I have had endlessly and tireless support from Larry. To the point I almost think I'm a terrible customer considering the hoops and leaps he's gone for me dealing with SagerNotebook, especially on issues that are beyond warranty.

XoticPC provided me great customer service in the past and my purchase of Asus laptop went well.

If I was to buy a Sager, I would not do business with anyone else other than LPC-Digital. But if I was to get a MSI/Asus, then I wouldn't hesitate to put an order with XoticPC.

 

I would agree on any computer that you plan to maintain yourself. For ease of maintenance and cost.

Replacement costs I would think of:
- SSD Drive, $200
- CPU, $300
- GPU, $600
- MB, $250

vs

Motherboard with GPU/CPU/SSD etc soldereed on? I don't want to know what that costs to replace, essentially an entire laptop... And ease of maintenance of replacing a GPU vs an entire computer?

 

Good info! Similar position as op, and I was going to order from Xotic but since their website kept crashing this week I decided to look else where. And ultimately went with LPC due to their prices being the lowest and seeing that Larry offers awesome support reassures me even more. I also took into consideration where they were base off of, since LPC is in NV it'll get to me(socal) much quicker than ordering from a different reseller.

How many days did it take for your sager to arrive from LPC?

 

I must be doing something wrong because when I configure a NP8657 at both LPC and XoticPC, the one at XoticPC is lower by amost $100 (US), however since both say they will "price match" and are with free shipping, I'm not so sure the price would be the determining factor anyway.

 

5 days since UPS is super slow. But should be faster for you, your Sager will be shipped from CA, that is where SagerNotebook is located.

You can contact Larry to discuss pricing. Margins have been tight with Clevo lately, but Larry will do his best to offer you a competitive deal. For me it's his service that will keep me as a loyal customer if I choose to continue to buy Clevo, but I'm leaning towards building a custom desktop.

 

All Sager resellers are required to post on a website the EXACT same price for Sager products, not less for sure. If you see a higher or lower price it is most likely is a mistake on a website.

What exact item is almost $100 more? Thanks

 

@Larry -

Well, I did say that I might be doing something wrong, but thongy said that your price was lower, so I can't help but wonder how that could be if "All Sager resellers are required to post on a website the EXACT same price for Sager products"?

I wouldn't think that Sager is requiring you all to charge EXACTLY the same price for ICD, or a 500GB Samsung 850 EVO M.2, or a 1 TB 7200rpm HD, so maybe that is where we get differences?

In any case, since both XoticPC and you guys say you will "Price match", I would think it comes down to perceived differences between resellers.

Dunno.