Best price for Clevo P170EM/Sager NP9170?

So I asked a similar question in what notebook to buy, but now I'm fairly convinced that I'm going to get a P170EM/NP9170 (they are the same unit right?) and figured that someone in this forum might know better where the best price can be found.

I want to get a P170EM/NP9170 with the following specs:

i7-3720QM, i7-3820QM or i7-3920XM
1920x1080 screen, matte preferred but not for increased cost
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650M, GTX 660M or GTX 680M (yeah I know the 680 isn't out yet, but it's almost June) or Radeon 7970M
8GB or more, PC3-12800/1600MHz DDR3 or faster
backlit keyboard
BD-ROM/DVD-R optical drive
bluetooth built-in
Hard drive and OS not required (HD I could use for secondary would be bonus)

I'm looking for the best price possible and will take the least expensive option mentioned in each category unless the upgrade is VERY cheap or free. And correct me if I'm wrong but the builders/resellers really don't do any discounting other than what you see directly on their website? I mean no hidden coupons or codes, prices only offered over the phone or anything like that?

 

PM/email/call the resellers

 

Make sure you do your groundwork first - know what you want and how much it costs, and stay open to other options such as purchasing upgrades such as RAM modules, HDD/SSD upgrades and installing them by yourself. Applying thermal paste by yourself is a very easy way of saving up to $30, but make sure you know what you are doing to avoid damaging the components.

Also, find out what prices they offer on their site and their 'competitors' sites, so that you have a price to start from. Some resellers may offer freebies or free shipping or other discounts to get you to upgrade parts that you might not need, so you need to know what upgrades are essential and what gives more value for money.

 

Here's my configuration for a p170em I plan on purchasing shortly:
90% Color Gamut Screen
60 day no dead pixel guarantee
i7-3610qm
IC Diamond Thermal Compung CPU + GPU
7970m
8gb ddr3 1600mhz
750gb 7200rpm hdd
DVDRW
Bigfoot Killer Wireless N
Windows 7 Home 64bit
Standard One Year Warranty

Comes out to $1904 (1846.88 with 3% cash discount) on powernotebooks, xotic pc, prostar and sager website. Avadirect, eurocom, rjtech, mythlogic are all more expensive for identical set up (Except mythlogic offers the "free" screen calibration with their price, but that costs $75 from most vendors, and if added to the $1904, will still be cheaper from the other vendors)

Xotic also offers a $50 Notebook Review member discount. I'm not sure if this can be stacked with the 3% discount, but if so then xotic will be cheapest for my configuration. If you're planning on paying with a credit card, then xotic will definitely be cheapest.

I'm not sure of any other perks the other vendors may offer. But if I am correct, looks like cheapest goes:
1.Xotic
2. Prostar, Sager, and Powernotebooks
3. Everyone else

I believe if you configure yours on these four companies' websites, they will all come to same/very similar price except Xotic also offers the $50 NBR member discount. That's not to say one of the other vendors might not price match, it's worth asking.

Another thing to take into consideration is the company's location. I'm based in Chicago, and would like to go with a more local company in the rare case that I have to send the notebook for repair (shipping costs). I'd take either Mythlogic based in Ann Arbor, MI or Xotic based in Lincoln, NE. Both are relatively close to Chicago, but I will take Xotic for the lower overall price.

I also plan on installing my own SSD and OS. Pretty sweet deal on the Crucial m4 128 and 256gb at tiger direct right now, $120 or $240 respectively.

 

This guy doesn't know about lpc digital. Got $85 off my order in all paying with card, which came to $35 savings compared to the rest with their discounts offered.

 

BuyDig.com has the Samsung 830 256GB for $235 right now -

BuyDig.com - Samsung 830-Series MZ-7PC256B/WW 256GB 2.5" SATA III MLC Internal SSD Single Unit Versn

I bought this for $240 earlier this week from them and it reached me the next day.

 

Dang, that's pretty good. Think the Samsung 830 is better overall than crucial m4, might go with that instead.

 

Unfortunately lpcdigital's base price for my config is $20 more. If they were to offer me $85 off the cash discount price, then they will definitely be cheaper than xoticpc.

Xoticpc: $1909 - $50 nbr discount - cash discount $55.37 = $1803.63

Lpcdigital: $1929 - cash discount $57.87 = $1871.13

OR if Lpcdigital normally offers $85 off stacked with cash discount

$1929 - $85 Souman discount - cash discount $55.32 = $1788.68

Or better yet, if Lpcdigital will match base price of xoticpc:

$1909 - $85 Souman discount - cash discount $54.72 = $1769.28

 

LPC will beat Xotic's price no problem.. I just got a quote from him just to see where I'd be at, and he was quite bit cheaper than I was expecting tbh.

lpc-digital.com

 

Ended up purchasing my p170em from Lpcdigital yesterday. They definitely had the best price.

 

I have already submitted my order from xotic pc. do you think they will match the discount if I mention the lpc's discount?

 

I'm not sure. Might depend how far along the order process is. I also ordered from Xotic, cancelled the next day while it was still in phase 1 without any problem. I didn't ask them if they would match LPC Digital's price. Who knows, maybe they would have and I could have saved even more, so you should give it a shot. I decided not to order from them out of principal since I was lied to when placing my order. It would be in their best interest to match the price you were given from LPC Digital, because otherwise you can probably just cancel the order.

 

I'm getting ready to order mine and I've pretty much locked it into this spec:

And based on what my research has found I'd really like to buy from Mythlogic but Malibal has the exact same spec for like $165 cheaper.

Unfortunately none of the other clevo builders seem to have the 660M (I'd rather have the Kepler 660m than a Fermi 670m or 675m) so it looks like I'm stuck with either Malibal or Mythlogic. Before I make my decision I'll see if Mythlogic will price match but I'm guessing they're going to be pointing towards their value add services (ie monitor calibration) towards why they can't pricematch. If anyone has any advice or alternatives for that build I'd love to hear it.

 

I went with lpc-digital cause they offer me good pricing than XoticPC. If you want the Kepler 660M go with Malibal. Their price is way cheaper than Mythlogic, all depend on your system.

 

What do you plan on using the laptop for? If it's for gaming and you're on a budget I'd scrap the blue ray and the 3720, go with 3610 and use the $240 you save for a 7970m (+$200). Otherwise if sticking with your specs, I'd go with Malibal. I do hear good things about Mythlogic, owners seem satisfied with their service. You also get the calibration, and I think they also do other things that Sager resellers might not like custom bios/drivers (someone correct me if I'm wrong)?? I considered them for the p170em, but I'd rather have better parts for the same/best price, and can do the calibration on my own later. With Malibal you are getting twice the storage space and paying over $160 less.

 

LPC-Digital easily can get you the best bang for your buck.

 

Some gaming but not much really. Bluray is definitely mandatory so thats not an option and I think the 660m will be plenty from a GPU horsepower point of view for my limited needs. I'm also not using the HDD from either for main drive; I have a 190gb SSD waiting for the laptop to come in. I wouldn't even get a HDD or OS if it wasn't for the fact that buying those gets me the $15 Win 8 upgrade.

 

Another thing to take into account is their customer service track record. Tantrums in public = No

I'd advise going with Mythlogic, their record here is a lot better than Malibal's and they have a lot of other good stuff going for them. They also offer a lot of advanced services, though I don't know if you would have a use for them. After I spec'd out my config on multiple resellers, Mythlogic was still about $100 more expensive, not counting shipping, than the other resellers, but that was a premium I was willing to pay to get their Phoenix upgrade plan. Their customer service was great, too. One more thing, those config's aren't the same: the Malibal 660m has 512MB lass memory than the Mythlogic one.

The thing is, Mythlogic's 3720QM and 3820QM are ~$120 cheaper than the other resellers. If you're ordering from them anyway, would you really want to pass that up?

 

Yeah Mythlogic is my first choice in terms of opinion of company. Everything I've seen about them and especially what I've seen of their reps behavior here leads me to believe that they're a good company to work with. But the phoenix upgrade plan means nothing to me, the calibration I could do easily and probably better (I'm an AV guy by trade and display calibrations aren't new to me) and the only other thing I've noticed they do differently is the IC thermal compound which if I thought really mattered that much I could do myself just like Mythlogic does (and would if I found higher than desired temps running). Plus I'm an ex-IT person who hasn't lost all my skills yet so I doubt I'd ever need tech support unless something failed and then it would just be an issue of calling in and telling them what had failed.

So like you said, I don't know if I'd have much use/benefit from their added value services. Hopefully they'll price match; I'll give them a call on Monday.

You know I saw that. Is that even possible? Are there multiple size of the same card? I kind of assumed one was a typo.

 

No. There are multiple sizes and builds of the same cards, it's true.

Take the 650M.. there are several others always double check!

 

I haven't really seen this in the forums myself, but I did cancel my order with Xotic because I was lied to about availability of parts.

Well, this isn't an apples to apples comparison. Mytholgic's base charge is higher to begin with, so even though the CPU upgrades on their website appear to be cheaper, the system will overall be much more expensive. For example, I configured two identical systems with powernotebooks and mythlogic. Only difference is you get the calibration from mythologic, a $75 value from most resellers.

Stock screen, 3610, 670m, 8gb 1600mhz, 500gb 7200rpm, stock wireless card, stock dvd player, no os. Powernotebooks: $1369, Mythologic $1610.

Change processor to 3720. Powernotebooks: $1529 Mythlogic: $1656.

Change processor to 3820. Powernotebooks: $1719 Mythlogic: $1835

So the price gap does start to close and you get the calibration with Mythlogic, but still more expensive.

 

Man I wish other builders were using the 660m. Get some competition out there for the same spec notebooks.

 

I'm looking at the P170em as well and came across this site. One thing I've noticed is Mythologic is cheaper for the higher end configurations with SSDs. But the discounts offered by LPC-Digital are pretty amazing.

 

?!?!?! Now on the Mythlogic website the 660m has 1gb:

Intel HD3000/HD4000 Graphics AND NVIDIA 660M 1024MB GDDR5 DX11 Compliant with Optimus Tech

That was a copy and paste from before so I'm guessing that it WAS a typo and the mistake was made by Mythlogic.

I'd really like to go with Mythlogic but they won't pricematch at all or offer any free upgrades at the same price or anything. And to be honest though I know it shouldn't bother me, that change to their website really annoys me.

Crap now the 670m is more enticing. I really didn't want to go with the older Fermi. Sigh

 

For example, ASUS is known for placing exorbitant amounts (3GB) of memory on their G series cards.

I wasn't saying that it will be overall cheaper if you get 3720QM from Mythlogic, but if you are buying from them already it's a much better upgrade.

Well I'll be. I'm sure it wasn't that way before... The amount of memory on the GPU doesn't actually make that much of a difference, as long as you have at least 1GB then things like shader count are way more important. O by the way, the 680m is going to be revealed really soon, (though not up for sale), you might want to wait to see what it looks like.