Dealing with vendors: my experience so far

I'm from Canada and looking to get the Sager NP8170 S1 right now. I've had extensive conversations with Malibal, XoticPC, Powernotebook, and Alienware.

Here's my experience with them so far:

AVADirect: Does not ship to Canada, next.

Malibal: they didn't have the S1 so the build came out a bit more expensive than if you started with the S1 as your base system. All info was provided including shipping, which is important for me because I'm in Canada.

XoticPC: They have the S1 so pricing wise they are the same as the others. All questions were answered promptly and honestly, no up selling me on parts. This is my most likely candidate to purchase from.

Powernotebook: What started as a simple request for shipping costs became a heated exchange between me and the owner, who wanted my credit card info just to give me an estimate for shipping.

After a voiced my apprehension for this 'unusual and somewhat sneaky' tactic, the owner then accused me of soiling their good name, and still wouldn't give me a simple shipping estimate even after I gave him my full build list for the system.

So I've given up on ever doing business with them considering their prices are the same as the other vendors and without the attitude.

Last but not least Alienware: Their sales staff seems to just pull pre-written lines from the system and when I asked a specific question such as which brand of RAM do they use they couldn't answer. Considering they were going to charge $600 extra for 16GB of RAM upgrade, I should at least be given a justification for the insane price markup. So they are out of the running.

I'm very close to making my final decision on components for my Sager and will probably order in a couple of days.
Still trying to decide between getting i7-2820QM and nVidia GeForce GTX 470M or getting i7-2720QM and GTX 485M, which would be ultimately faster?

If anyone else has suggestions for where to buy or what parts to get please share.

 

Hi, there is an S1 configuration on our website for this model. It's under the "DEALS" link at the top of any page.

 

Deciding between the two CPUs and GPUs depends on how you plan to use your laptop. What tasks and/or games are you planing to use on your laptop?

 

@cc3chan,

You can always try a Canadian reseller

 

If your gaming or doing graphical work 2720 and 485M all the way!

BTW, thank you for your kind words, I appreciate the feedback.

 

Thanks for the replies.

I'm going to be using it for gaming and doing computer animations in Maya, 3D Studio Max and Cinema 4d.

So would I be better served with the best video card and slightly lesser CPU?

 

For gaming I would definitely recommend the 2720 + 485m over the 2820 + 470m, the increase in gpu powa is BIG and totally worth it.

 

2720QM and 2820QM performance is almost identical. 2820QM is 100 MHz faster.
Much bigger performance jump from 470M to 485M. Go for the best GPU

 

Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely spring for the best GPU then.

 

We will also ship into Canada if you would like, PM us for more information or if you have any specific questions.

 

This is correct. For the time being the 100Mhz upgrade will not warrant a major difference ... in 3D Studio Max at least. The GPU upgrade would be better (albeit not needed) it would make for nice eye candy though in games; and of course faster rendering in applicable applications.

We are also a Canadian retailer for Sager notebooks.

Have a pleasant day.

 

very intrest .

People in other country buy Sager or other series/brands should choose a dealer in their country .

In China there is 2 brands that use the CLEVO's mold , just like Sager .

but there is another way to get the No-Brand CLEVO notepad , it is :

the dealer just go to the CLEVO factory which in China JiangSu Province / KunShan city .

My w860cu has nothing about brand/logo except the CLEVO CO. on the C board .

And the guarantee is 1 year supported by CLEVO's Kunshan factory .

Last I hope cc3chan will buy a SnB platform P150/170hm , and a suitable GPU for more efficient work .

Chinese Poor English sorry .

 

I would speak to Larry(BabyHemi) at LPC-Digital as well.

They ship worldwide, and i was really happy with my purchasing experience.