Done with Del, Alienware, I want a Clevo D901C

Okay, I am very confused I was hoping to get some help from you guys. I am seriously in the market for a desktop replacement. After asking lots of question on this forum and reading allot of posts. This is the base I am after, I would like SLI GPU, but have decided to just go for one card right now, and upgrade to two when better dx10 card come out:

Whats confusing me is the vast price differences between the various reseller of Clevo D901C out there:

To compare apples to apples this is the base I'm looking at:

Clevo D901C
17" WUXGA 19200x1200
Intel Core 2 QUAD Q6700 2.66 Ghz w/8MB L2 Cache - 1066Mhz FSB
512MV PCI-Express nVidia GeForce 7950 GTX
4GB DDR2 800 Memory
Combo 8x8x6x4 Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW 5x DVD-RAM 24x CD -R/RW Drive
100GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA 150
100GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA 150
Raid 0
OS: Windows Vista Ultima 64-Bit

I looked Xoticpc: Around $3258

http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np9261-ultimate-custom-laptop-built-clevo-d901c-p-1932.html

and xtremenotebooks: $5000

http://www.xtremenotebooks.com/inde...&model_id=1269&include_type=16_inch&category=

I found xoticpc due some some great post from Justin@xoticpc ... all good info.

We talking a serious price difference here, I am maybe a bit of a noob as far as notebooks go, but surely both are just Clevo D901C at heart?

Any advice where its best to buy a Clevo D901C?


Thanks!

 

XoticPC and PowerNotebooks.com seem to be the best resellers for now putting a large markup on the price. You're correct, though, both of these systems are Clevo D901Cs, and they are likely using exactly the same parts (with a possible exception of brandings on memory and hard drives).

 

Go for XoticPc, great service, powernotebooks.com is the same as Xotic, but they only sell in the US.

Good luck hunting!

 

get the q6600, the q6700 is not worth the extra cash, so you can save more money.

 

Just markup on the Clevo D900C. Xtremenotebooks is just fishing for fools.

 

go through xotic i used them and they were great

 

If your willing to go with the faster core. At least get a "160GB Segate Momentus 3GB/S SATA 300 7200RPM Hard Drive (9260) ( + 125)" Thats the exact quote of the upgrade on Xotic. It's not going to help battery but nether will quad core or being 17 in, but shouldn't hurt it against the other ones, as there both 7200rpm. You should see a good amount of performance off those compared to the other hard drives.
Also just as a laptop recomendation for fast cores. Get a 2GB SanDisk($25 at BestBuy yesterday [Same as 1GB stick LOL]) (Or other brand) ReadyBoost compatable stick. Let Vista use the whole disk for ReadyBoost (1.8-9gb). On my crap desktop (3.2Ghz P4 HT) It half's my boot time. And that is with a 3Gb/S drive. I'd imagine the extra read spead of the stick on a faster processor especially the slower laptop drives like if you get the 100's should increase boot significantly along with a few other applications as from what I can see it dose cache them. The first time booting with ReadyBoost will take a while but after that!
I'm basing this off that the HDD's are ushualy the main bottleneck in modern PC's.

PowerNotebooks.com is great but they don't really update you on if somethings going to take a long time for some reason with the company who makes it or what ever is going on with the 1680x1050 screens in the PowerPro j 10:15 (IFL-90)

 

Thanks for the great input guys. It looks like Xotic will get my order, sent them a couple small questions. But their reputations seems excellent.

Here is the final configuration I am going with:

SAGER NP9261 Ultimate Custom Laptop (Built on Clevo D901C)
- 17" WUXGA "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy Screen (1920x1200)
- Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
- ~Intel Core 2 QUAD Q6700 2.66GHz w/ 8MB L2 Cache - 1066MHz FSB
- 512MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce 7950GTX w/GDDR3 (User Upgradeable)
- None Standard
- ~ 4,096MB DDR2 800 (2 SODIMMS) Dual Channel Memory (w/ Vista 64-Bit Only)
- Standard Finish
- ~Combo 8x8x6x4x Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW 5x DVD-RAM 24x CD-R/RW Drive w/Softwares
- ~160GB Seagate Momentus 3GB/S SATA 300 7200RPM Hard Drive (9260)
- ~160GB Seagate Momentus 3GB/S SATA 300 7200RPM Hard Drive (9260)
- Raid 0-Stripe (Combines primary and secondary hard drive)( (Requires 2 Identical Sized Hard Drives)
- ~Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit Installed (64&32-Bit CD Included) w/ Drivers & Utilities CD's

My plan is to upgrade to SLI dx10 GPU as soon as the better ones come out in another couple of months. I'm sure the 7950 GTX will do just fine till then.

Ah, thanks for the tip on the 160GB SATA 300, thats what I'll be going with.

With notebooks like these, I dont care about battery life. 30 min is fine by me I think of the battery more as a UPS really ...

 

i could be wrobg but i was under the impression that if you wanted sli you had to order it that way. i dont believe a non sli system can be upgraded to sli later. again i could be wrong

 

No...on the Clevo D900c series the board is SLi ready...I had the same question a few days ago...so I e-mail RJtech.

 

ahh gotcha wow that is def sweet..

 

One of the questions that I sent XoticPc, but I am pretty sure its not a problem. The the D901C make uses of nvidia new architecture thats suppose to make GPUs user upgradeable, XoticPC 's order form even says (user upgradeable), yet I am just making sure before I buy.

 

I have a question for every Sager owner that has purchased through Xotic:
Is it better to go with Xotic's warranty, or purchase Sager's warranty? The Xotic is a lot cheaper and they offer accidental LCD damage, does Sager offer any accidental coverage? I'm just stuck in the middle of which warranty I should go with when I purchase my laptop.

Thanks in advance!

 

Having been screwed by Discountlaptops.com's warranty provider (ATS), I can say that by choosing someone other than Sager you should know that you take your chances that 1. the reseller you use will still be in business when you need support and 2. their warranty provider won't go out of business. This is probably why Sager's warranty is more expensive seeing as how thier tech's are notoriously sloppy.

 

nothing against xotic in any way but i agree i would buy the sager one myself. just in case there was ever a problem with xotic or their warranty provider..

 

Hi if you guys want to buy the Sager NP9261 it is best to get it from XOTIC PC they are very helpfull and they have very fast service. Also note that you should order it from Justin he is the best.

 

Does Sager include accidental coverage under their warranty? Also, is it worth it to pay the $200 for the 1 year no dead pixel policy? I mean it seems really steep for just one year, and anyways, doesn't the warranty you purchase through Sager cover the LCD at all?

 

Sager does NOT include accidental coverage, and their warranty DOES cover the LCD, just not dead pixels on the LCD outside of the initial 30 days. If the LCD quits working for some reason outside of abuse/damage, the warranty covers it, likewise for if the backlight/power inverter fails, or there is a short in the LCD cable.

Honestly, having worked on an LCD with a few dead pixels, I don't find the $200 for a 1 year guarantee worth it, but that guarantee is there for a year because it is unlikely that dead pixels will crop up on an LCD if they didn't within the first year.

 

Thats the only thing that I don't like about the Sager series. If you are going to sell a laptop and a warranty with it, it should cover everything. I just don't see why they don't cover dead pixels with their warranty. Then the thing that irritates me even more is the fact that they only offer the dead pixel policy for one year and its expensive at $200. Seems like a huge rip-off to me.

 

They have a post on the Sager website regarding the $200 cost... or maybe it's the XoticPC website. Can't remember, but essentially the cost is to cover scrap rate since the defective displays are not "recycled" into another lappy that didn't buy the dead-pixel guarantee.

The price at PCMicroworks is high on the website -- but you should send them an email asking for their best price. Chances are they'll drop the price near to Xotic's without blinking.

I picked xotic based upon the great feedback and good rep they have on this site. I would choose PCMicroworks in a heartbeat as well.