Box.co.uk Trusted?

Hey guys, Im from the UK and I'm looking at ordering the Clevo P150EM/ Sager NP9150

The specs I'm after are:

CPU: 3610QM
GPU: 7970M
RAM: None if possible (I have my own 8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz )
HDD: 250GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
Disc Drive: 8x SATA DVD(TM)R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Wireless Card: GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL(TM) N130 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
OS: None (I have my own)

I was looking at ordering through box.co.uk as their prices seem very competitive. The above specs cost around £953

I'm basically here to ask if anyone has used box.co.uk for a custom laptop and what their experiences where like (good or bad).

Cheers for the read!

 

I haven't had any experience with them, but pwnpcs have been good to me - check them out also and see which ends up cheaper. You can also specify no hard drive among other things.

Also there's PCSpecialist (Vortex III = P150EM = NP9150).

MySN in Germany have had good reviews as well if you want to go for that option (their XMG P502 Pro = P150EM).

 

never heard of them. have you got a link as cant find a clevo on there. but there are 24 pages of laptops.
compare prices with PCSPECIALIST - Laptop-computers, Laptops, Custom Laptops, Gaming Laptops, Buy Laptop

 

Firstly Cheers for the speedy replies!

I've looked into both of those re sellers, pwnpcs seem pretty pricey compared to box.co.uk, same goes for PC Specialist, my budget is around £950 so I cant really jump out of that (i'm a student) Do you know if either of these companies do any kind of student discount or price match? I cant really find much out about student discounts

Yeah here you go Custom Built Laptops | Box.co.uk

 

easiest way to find out is shoot of an email to them.
i know they do in america but im not sure about here in blighty.

just configured one and shocked to see 95% matte screen and upgrade for thermal paste.
looking at the site it looks like a general store sort of thing that sells lots of makes. most clevo resellers sell just that, clevos.
other thing is i couldnt see anything about warranty so i guess its for 1 year and then your buggered if anything goes wrong.
i dont think you will find many that have heard of them though so the choice is entirly upto you.

 

Yeah that's the thing, the options seems fairly... educated? At first I assumed it was a standard pre-built laptop seller that jumped on the custom built laptop bandwagon however, after looking into their options and after giving them a call they seem pretty wise to how the whole custom laptop scene works. As for warranty I'm unsure! Might do what you said and shoot out a few emails. Cheers for the help tho!

 

I've ordered my 150em from them and they've been pretty good relaying details of the 7970m delays and even offered me an alternative upgrade (170em) free of charge due to the delay of 2 weeks for the 15" model. I declined the klarger system but can say that box have been the cheapest offer by far and when talking to them they also upgraded my warranty free of charge to 2yrs service and parts and 3rd yr service.

 

WOW Jonny T your great cheers for that info mate, really set my worries at bay!!!

 

No probs dude - good luck, i'm still going through the process at the moment and hope to have my 150em with 7970 within the next two weeks - a slight delay but a REALLY competitive price with people happy to talk to me when I have called to find out details of the delay. I was meant to have a call from them today to hear more, but have not heard from them, I don't mind too much though as I have been treated very well up to now anyways and will most likely drop them a call to see if they have any news tomorrow. Let me know how you get on!

 

I know this might be abit cheeky but could you give me a full run down of how u got offered a free upgrade and extension on the warranty, kinda want the 170em if I can get it for free haha

 

Came across Box.co.uk today too when looking for the Clevo 170EM

Seems a bit too good to be true but they seem like a top outlet by looking at reviews.

Would definitely be interested to find out about the warranty as it's the only thing holding me off from placing the order

 

You seem to be in the same position I am, Currently it has the best deals certainly when (based on my own research) none of the UK Clevo re-sellers do price matching. Imo I reckon they have such good offers because custom laptops aren't their only source of income.

Hopefully Jonny T can enlighten us!

 

I am yeah I was going to sign up and start a thread about Box then I came across this ha

I was going to go for pcspecialist and someone on another forum pointed me in the direction of saveonlaptops which are Box.co.uk. owned by the same people.

I might fire them an email about the warranty. I live in Ireland so really want to make sure of it before I put my money towards it

Box is about €200 cheaper then the same spec on Pcspecialist for me. so really is a no brainer if I can have my mind put to ease on them

 

Yeah same, luckily for me my girlfriend lives in Birmingham (which is where their store is) so if I have any problems I could actually go there and get face to face assistance ha

Depending on how Jonny T got that free upgrade option we both might be looking at getting the P170EM for the same price as the P150EM

 

Haha - point of note - I don't want to burn my bridges with these guys and have everyone else requesting free upgrades because of some guy on a forum... But I don't blame you for asking! It was offered to me because I had ordered a while ago - I just made sure that I was polite (I have no clue if that has any baring on it - more likely that I have been waiting for a while for it), I have turned it down anyway in favour of the 15" model - the 17" is only £20 more from what I can tell?!?

 

Only £20!?!? Dafuq!? Ha didn't notice that!

 

Just sent Box an email about the warranty hopefully I'll be hearing back from them in the morning

Bit confused about the warranty and what I'm covered for. Sites like Pc specialist make it more obvious with the clear option of up to 3 years collect and return,2 year parts and 3 years labour and a dead pixel option

Hopefully box have something similar

 

I've bought a p150em with a 7970m from them, similar situation, they're out of stock.

They took a couple of days to let me know about the situation, but they were courteous, they gave me the date of 17th for more stock, with 3 more days to arrive. Of course they allowed me to cancel if I wished, but there's little point when most other places are out of stock or it's a £100 premium for getting it a week earlier.

Will update when more info is available, but for the price they're pretty good (wish they'd have an option for no RAM or HDD though, have too many of them already).

 

Hey guys just had some pretty disconcerting information! I emailed pcspecialist and asked them to price match, they said it wasn't a problem but they are the sole supplier of the p170em chassis and they'd like to know who is competing with their prices?? I was abit confused by this so went through and linked them to box's site... This was their reply:


Hi Eddie,

Sad to say box have made a mistake there, they are charging less for a 7970m than a 675m – they actually get the chassis from ourselves so they simply cannot beat us on price.

Many apologies for this, we are contacting box as we speak.


Regards,

PC Specialist Support Team

I was suprised to say the least, it feels like we might possibly be forced to pay pcspecialists prices because they dont seem to want ANY competition which majourly sucks for us UK Clevo buyers.

At the moment their prices are the same and haven't been changed but surely if they do change we as consumers should be allowed to dispute this? Either that or anyone who is considering buying from box should buy it SOON before their prices change.

If the prices DO change... Then im completely sorry guys, it seems I may have screwed us all over.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/652403-clevo-resellers-european-union-v1.html#htuking

 

Well today Box have added the GTX 680m and the prices for the 7970 have not changed

Now I'm so tempted to up it to a GTX 680 and it's still under €2,000 at 1,884

definitely interested with how things go with you scatman.

If all goes well with Box I'm ready to place my order

 

As far as I know they are supposed to be owned by PC Specialist. Just the same reseller undercover

 

Well, I dont think they are 'owned' by pcspecialist however I do think they are mutual traders. From what I know pcspecialist sell them the chassis however I'd assume box supply their own hardware.

Saying this I hope box's prices don't change as I personally dont think pcspecialist should have any jurisdiction over their hardware prices if the only thing they supply are the chassis.

The other thing that confused me with pcspecialists reply was how they stated 'As we are the sole supplier of this chassis...' when I asked about a price match. Maybe someone could enlighten me on this but I thought the chassis was Clevo and any company could become a reseller if they applied?

As i've said before, the whole situation really sucks for us UK buyers >.<

 

Yes indeed it does and it sucks for Europe buyers too.

PC Specialist owns the Clevo barebon retailer/reseller which sells the stuff to Box.co.uk as I understand, making them bonded to PC Specialist

...... it's how business works

 

That is the same as the US. As far as I know there are 3 importers, and several resellers and builders. It wouldn't be unusual for PC Specialist to be the only importer.

 

But being the only importer of the chassis shouldn't mean they are allowed to enforce prices on other companies regarding hardware.

Understandibly they DO supply the chassis however (unless stated otherwise in a contract) once pcspecialist get payed for the chassis from box, box can price what they like, keeping in mind thats only based on the assumption box buy their own hardware.

I dunno... If prices do rise on box due to pcspecialist i'll be pretty annoyed at 'em ^^

 

They shouldn't, because then Box won't be able to sell anything... or so

 

They have now raised the price of the laptops
They've added about £100

 

See my signature for resellers in the UK

I see no point to buy from them then.

Two of the most reputable resellers in UK (IMO):

• PWNPC's (big reputation and respect as they as way more personal and appear on NBR forums)
• PC Specialist (they've got quite the history, sadly not so many options)

 

It seems to have gone up £50 from when I ordered, not £100.

 

For the 7970 prices haven't gone up as far as the 680 which saw a massive jump

 

Well, at the very least, the laptop arrived fine and when they said it would, seems to have been pcspecialist branded on the box and the windows install.

Works great otherwise.