Advice on reseller and specs

Hi,

I've been reading (not posting) these forums for a bit now since I'm interested in purchasing a new laptop. After a ton of reading and deliberating, I think I've settled on getting a P150HM. The following are the specs I'm toying around with.

-15.6” Full HD 16:9 Wide screen (1920x1080) LED-Backlit Display with 95% NTSC Color Gamut Matte Screen
-AMD Radeon HD 6990M 256bit w/2GB GDDR5
-Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM (2.2~3.1GHz, 45W) w/6M L3 Cache - 4 Cores - 8 Threads
-IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
-8GB (2x4GB SODIMMS) DDR3/1333 Dual Channel Memory
-120GB Intel® 510 Series SATA III Solid-State Drive (includes FREE Battlefield 3)
-750GB SATA II 3GB/s 7,200RPM Hard Drive in ODD Bay

A few things I'm still unsure of are:

1) Would the 160ish USD upgrade to obtain the i7-2760QM be justifiable? Playing strategy and FPS games would probably be the most taxing activity I plan to run the laptop through besides the occasional 3D software rendering activity.

2) Would temperatures under load be a huge concern? I live in Malaysia and it can really get hot here 33 to 34 degrees C on average for about half the year.

3) Does the 95% NTSC Color Gamut Matte Screen still have ghosting issues cropping up in current purchases? I've read some threads about red/green ghosting and returning the laptop is going to be a long and expensive process from where I'm at.

4) Would it be a better idea to skip the stock Intel SSD and purchase an aftermarket model of another brand (Crucial?). That would definitely bring total costs down but one of my concerns would be compatibility and reliability in the long run.

5) Finally, I'd really appreciate your input on resellers and their support and services for international purchases.

Thanks!

 

Just get the i7. It's futureproof and you can't go wrong with it.

 

1. In my opinion, yes. Get the Core i7 2760QM. Then again, I'm a performance junkie.
2. Clevo is renown for having some of the best cooling around. You should be fine. If you're really worried, you can look into getting a notebook cooler.
3. I don't know. Maybe someone else can chime in.
4. Stay with the Intel SSD. You won't regret it. The high price premium is there simply because you are paying for reliability. It is very unlikely to fail. If it does fail, then Intel will have you covered.
5. You'll have to look into that yourself. What I can say is that you should research every reseller who actively posts on these boards: Malibal, Mythlogic, XoticPC, Logical BlueONE, PowerNoteBooks (PNB), etc. E-mail them, call them, etc. Get different quotes, shipping estimates, international warranty coverage, etc. Ultimately, the decision is yours.

Hope that helps you out.

 

1) For gaming? Probably not. Most games won't need more than the base 2670QM I7. If you want to use it as a workstation, it might be worth it.

2) If you have high ambient temps, yeah, they could cause cooling issues. There's another frequent poster here that lives in the tropics and says there aren't any issues as long as he keeps the back elevated and the fans cranked up. I can't recall if he has the upgraded paste, but it will help.

3) They shouldn't. After the issue cropped up, QA was ramped up for that specific issue.

4) This is always an option as it's a super simple DIY install. Intel is always highly recommended for reliability and dependable performance though. Sandforce based drives have had some hiccups in the past on this generation of Clevo's.

5) Not allowed to comment on this as per forum rules, but you'll get plenty of input I'm sure

 

1. It depends, IMO I went from a 920XM and really enjoyed having the higher speeds for my day to day work on my laptop, not to mention it is pretty much a jump from the 2670QM to the 2920XM from the performance benchmarks going from 2670QM to 2760QM so I decided it was very much worthwhile as I did not intend to upgrade the CPU later on only the GPU.

2. Although you have high ambient temperature and the 6990M is a hot beasty it will not be anywhere near the point of worrying, remember mobilty cards can handle temperature of upto 110oC and 100oC manufacturers still say its nothing to worry about it can handle it. You will probably see high 80's 90's but nothing too serious and these models are so easy to repaste you can apply some ICD or the like if you are worried.

3. UK offer different screens I think we are stuck on 70% gamut gloss your lucky.

4. I decided on the cheaper HyperX Kingston SSD and I see around 520mb read and 220mb write. I dont understand why I should pay more for the same speed when the performance is similiar and I have never had a problem with Kingston. I cant comment on Intel or Crucial but Intel normally gets the best reviews but at that price so it should. But then again free BF3 haha.

5. Malibal FTW.

Go for it you wont be disappointed, my setup sig should keep me going for many years to come and I still have 2 spare RAM slots and a spare HDD slot that I cannot justify filling.

 

Thanks for the replies, guys.

1) I've decided to spend that little extra for the 2760QM as I do dabble around with some rendering and would like better workstation capabilities.

2) Thanks for the input. I'll go ahead and make the purchase and see if I need a good cooler down the line if temperatures start getting out of hand. 100 degrees C sounds pretty crazy though Yiddo!

3) Thanks MALIBAL #2!

4) After some brief price research, there aren't many cheaper aftermarket alternatives in Malaysia that I know of (besides OCZ) so I think I'll stick to the 120GB 510 Intel model.

This is what I've decided on (I think).

Display: 15.6" 1920 x 1080 FHD LED AUO B156HW01 V.4 95% NTSC Matte Display
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-2760QM, 6MB L3 Cache, 2.4-3.5GHz
Memory: (8GB) 8192MB, PC3-10660/1333MHz DDR3 - 2 SO-DIMM
Graphics Card: AMD® Radeon HD 6990M 2GB GDDR5
Hard Drive: 120GB Intel® (510) SATA III 6Gb/s SSD2 Drive
Optical Drive Bay: 750GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium; 64-bit
Wireless: Intel® 6230 Advanced-N 802.11A/B/G/N LAN and Bluetooth Card
Cooling: IC Diamond 7 Thermal Compound, CPU & GPU
Build Time: Standard Option
Warranty: Standard Option

I made a comparison of prices between MALIBAL, PowerNotebooks and XoticPC as they seem to be the 3 most active posters on these threads. Also looked into Mythlogic but they are a bit out of my reach as they price themselves at a premium. Placed an order with PowerNotebooks to obtain a shipping quote as they did not have international shipping prices on the site.

MALIBAL came to a total of 2246.11 USD after shipping and 3% cash rebate.
PowerNotebooks - 2176.68 USD.
XoticPC - 2272.71 USD.

All shipping options were standardized for the sake of this comparison - USPS Express Mail International, 145.15 USD on average. (136.45, 140.00 and 159.00 for MALIBAL, PowerNotebooks and XoticPC for those who are interested).

PowerNotebooks- adds a rather attractive option for shipping internationally IMO. 195 USD (from Donald's shipping quote via e-mail) for UPS Worldwide Expedited (2-3 days delivery according to the site), very nice. Having said that, I am probably not going to be in a huge rush to get the notebook though I'm sure this will change once I've actually placed the order (Would probably crave it during the wait).

MALIBAL- has an option to include a localized power cable for 9 USD which would save me the trouble of looking through my stuff for a spare or going to the store. I'm not sure if Battlefield 3 ships with the Intel 510 120GB SSD here. Their quote for UPS Worldwide ExpeditedSM (not sure if this is exactly the same as PowerNotebooks' offering) stands at 360.27 USD while choosing purchase options, a pretty huge step up I'd say.

XoticPC - UPS International (Again, might not be the same offering) is priced at 249.00 USD from purchase page. Offers a variety of additional peripherals and accessories which may be interesting to some.

Have not made up my mind yet on which reseller to go with though it's great to have MALIBAL actually reply to my thread and put some of my hardware fears to rest. I've heard great things about these three resellers and may have probably missed out a number of other great options. If so, do let me know and I'll look them up as well! Some resellers price match and I've not actually checked but it would be great if they decide to when I'm making the purchase. I've read about discounts offered to NBR members. This account is really new though and I wouldn't be terribly bothered if they insist on me hitting a required post count first.

I hope the information above proves helpful for someone also looking into making an international purchase!

 

At the end of the day they are all similiar prices but from the support on this forum and from what I have seen others say about resellers the name that keeps standing out is Malibal.

Make sure you look at the support and warranty and assistance as well because you may think you may never need it but I thought that and BOOM my laptop showed up with 1 tiny dead pixel so at some point I am going to have to send it back. Luckily I thought for an extra 20 quid the added warranty and pixel policy I might as well do it for an extra year. Very very worthwhile because I am enjoying it too much at the moment to send it back so I have a year to RMA it.

Xotic and Malibal are the only two I would personally use if I were in the US and that is just from what I have seen on the forum you may get a cheaper price elsewhere yes but you pay for what you get remember that!

Glad to hear you took the advice on the 2760QM it is a worthwhile upgrade and you wont need to worry about upgrading again in the future. People say it is not visible to the eye but I disagree, just turn on the Turbo Boost Monitor hehe that 3.5ghz looks soooooo good looking when it says it on screen!

 

malibal will look better, xotic pc will be slightly cheaper . both are good companies. skip the ssds get 750gb momentus xt its down to $209 on amazon. 2670 is plenty ( now that it comes free with the build! ) i got 2630 yo! i recommend ic diamond, works for me, i also suggest a cooler

 

One thing I had never read here in the forums - the 'power cable' that plugs into the AC adapter for these laptops is a standard desktop power cable. If you work in the IT industry or know somebody who does, you can probably get a hold of this cable for free.

I paid an extra $9 for an Australia power plug in addition to the North American one - and the cable is the exact cable that Aussies use to plug their desktops into the wall. The AC adapter isn't a one piece....it uses a local desktop power cable to connect to the standard brick.

 

Ah alright, thanks Hubris2!

 

Malibal hands down, they seem to be better initially after all those reviews I've read

 

I cannot comment on their "international sales", but AVA-Direct offered one of the most configurable Clevo's I could find. Highly recommended.

 

Oh stop your fanboyism, please. MALIBAL are awesome guys and are really helpful on this forum to everybody. There are also a lot of people that bought from XoticPC here as well. They put in a lot of time and effort to actively participate on this forum and give great advice. Customers of those companies typically dominate this forum and other reseller get overlooked. However, from what I've heard there are zero complaints about PowerNotebooks and everyone praises their customer service as well.

Pick whoever you like more or try to get the best deal out of them. They all have price matching, so mention to them that another reseller is offering a sweeter option to haggle some prices down or get some extra upgrades

 

Really, any of the resellers who aren't afraid to pop their heads into this forum are fine (MALIBAL, XoticPC, PowerNotebooks, LPC-Digital, Mythlogic, Reflex, etc.). Even the ones who don't are often okay.

 

Huh?

thornduck asked a question, I don't think anyone should feel shy sharing their experiences in answering.

 

Without reviews and opinions on the service they recieve and the item they buy want to know what would happen>?

We would all be playing Command and Conquer 4 and be $50 out of pocket.

Fanboy away people

 

Well that's a good point. What I meant to say we all had good experiences with different resellers.

 

The thing is, the average person will typically recommend whichever seller they bought from, assuming they had a positive experience.

There is no objectively best answer.

I've bought machines from Pro-Star, RJTech, and a Sager through Xotic PC, and can say nothing negative about one of them. I lean towards sending my friends to Pro-Star, because of a very specific situation where they looked out for me when they didn't have to, but you really can't go wrong with any of the major dealers.

I also wouldn't be quick to judge the merit of a business by its amount of activity on this forum, but that's a discussion for another thread, i think.

 

Just an update.

I've had questions both forum and on the website answered promptly by MALIBAL. Donald from PowerNotebooks has also been answering my questions fairly quickly. I have yet to bring up price matching but with the NBR discount from MALIBAL, it seems to be no contest. XoticPC seems to be a bit pricier and I haven't gotten word from PowerNotebooks about further discounts so we'll see.

The sharing of experiences is welcome as it gives a rough idea how consistent service is. While this is based off a small sample of NBR forum members, I have more information to go on now than when I started out (nil).

I'm curious as to why none of them will accept PayPal for international transactions.