Going to buy an NP8662 from Xotic, have a couple of questions

Hi all

As I understand, Justin from XoticPC posts here so I thought I'd throw my questions out in the open since the LiveChat in the website hasn't worked for me so far.


1. I live in Costa Rica, and I'm concerned about what happens if something either arrives wrong with my laptop, or goes wrong with it after I receive it. Is it always necessary to send the whole laptop back or if it's a faulty component, can I send the faulty part only? See I don't trust the mail people here, so my other shipping arrangements can usually last up to a couple of months if I were to send the whole unit (so imagine a round trip...). What are my options as far as support goes living in Costa Rica?

2. Can I pick what brand/model hard drive goes into my machine? I want a 320gig 7200rpm drive, and according to what I've read on the forums, the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 is the best one as far as the temp issue goes, so I'd want that one in my machine if possible.


3. I know this is a long shot, and won't affect my purchase decision but it sure would be nice!: can you guys slap this cpu into my laptop? http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Intel-Quad-...in_0?hash=item3a524e6ac4&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14 How much would the price difference over the base P8700 be?



Thanks in advace!! Looking forward to doing business with Xotic and owning that beast!

 

if it's faulty component you can send that back assuming they'll let you remove it, however, they do not pay international shipping for you even on warranty. The warranty takes place at Sager not at XoticPC though... which is sad because I don't like how sager's tech support has been treating me so far. XoticPC is great however.

You cannot pick what brand hard drive, however you can always replace or add in new hard drive(s) at any time you want though.

For part three, no chance. Sorry.

Note I do not work for XoticPC but I figured I could help you somehow

 

Sager does allow dropshipping. However, this is handled on a case by case basis so you will need to get in touch with Sager for the green light depending on the faulty component.

The prospective buyer does have some flexibility in choice of hard drive. Just tell them what you want and they'll put it in for you.

Yes, you can put the Q9200 in the M860TU. However, that would leave you with an unused P8700, which you can either sell, or keep for warranty purposes.

 

I don't know about the hard drive, but I think he's asking if they, the reseller, will place that special CPU in it for him, rather than the P8700. In other words, he wants them to find one and place it in on their own. I'm assuming he'd pay the extra cost, but it's still a bit... err... unorthodox to say the least.

 

Ah, I see. I was under the assumption that he was addressing us. In that case, it's a no go. No official Clevo or Sager reseller would offer a CPU that is not given the thumbs up by Clevo. Though, the option for the end-user to drop in a Q9200 is still available.

 

Yep yep that be what I said ^^

By the way, soviet, just HOW MANY FIREFOX TABS DO YOU OPEN AT ONE TIME?!?!?! (this is of course assuming you use firefox, and aimed at the idea that you manage to keep track of about 500 billion threads at once)

 

I can have anywhere from one to 50 tabs open. I'm still using Opera build 1643, haha. I better get off my lazy butt and download the official release.

 

50 tabs you beat me solidly I usually only have about 8-15 at a time lol

 

Excuse me for asking these questions (rather off-topic, actually) since I'm still a newbie for this kinda stuff, I hope you gents won't mind answering them:
- the prices shown in rsm86 posted link are cheaper, compared to ones being offered on resellers' websites (especially upgrades for prebuilt models). Any thought?
- if I were to purchase the processor from seller in that eBay site, will it come with the heatsink also, or do I have to make additional separate purchase elsewhere?
Thank you in advance.

 

The Q9200 in the link rsm86 posted is for the processor alone. All you would need to do is remove the CPU/GPU heatsink on your M860TU, swap and clean the CPU's, apply thermal paste, and close her right up.

 

Soviet Sunrise:
Thank you for quick response. So, in other words, I still can use the old heatsink for the new processor? That would be great! Anything else that I should concern regarding CPU swapping on laptops?
As for my first question, do you have any comment/thought about price difference?

 

Yes, you can use the original heatsink that comes with the M860TU. It's just a big chunk of copper that rests flat over the CPU die, or in this case, dual dies.

$300 for a Q9200 is a good deal if you ask me. It used to be lower until the M17x came out and all those greedy Alienware people bought all the QX9300's and Q9200's and drove the price up the ying yang. Again, you would still need to make the decision of whether to keep the original CPU for warranty purposes or sell it to cover some of the difference of buying the Q9200.

 

Soviet Sunrise:
Is this applicable to other laptop brands also? Based on your experience, will there be any difference in procedures involved?
It is a good deal, indeed, I was having hard time to believe that, though I should consider the site for upgrade options later on.

 

Yes, this is applicable to other laptop brands. However, some laptops may need to be further dismantled, sometimes as extensively as removing half the chassis, just to gain access to the CPU heatsink. But with our Clevo's all you need to do is remove the backpanel and the heatsink.

As for the actual CPU swap, the procedure has remained relatively the same since the invention of CPU sockets back in the 1970's.

 

Soviet Sunrise:
Will keep that in mind. Many thanks for your answers & suggestions, mate, you've been truly helpful >

 

ok thanks for the replies guys

still waiting on an official response from Justin though, about support options from Costa Rica and specific choice of Hard Drive.

I know that I can swap out the cpu for a quad, indeed what I was asking was if Xotic themselves could install that Q9200 (I would obviously pay the difference), so I could bypass the P8700 altogether. Unorthodox as D2_Ultima said, still thought I'd ask (hey you never know!). The main thing here is that a P8700 costs about $230 new (newegg), so I was kinda assuming I'd just have to pay about $70-80 difference for that Q9200 seeing how it's $300 on ebay with free shipping.

Thanks again guys.

 

Are you are aware your buying ES CPU ?

 

They will absolutely not do that. The only processors you can have are the ones offered on their site. The q9200 will void warranty I believe, because it isn't officially supported by clevo. You can try and ask for the laptop without any CPU and OS. Though I don't think they do that. Btw it is technically "illegal" to sell ES CPUs to the general population. So yeah no chance of xoticpc putting that CPU into your laptop. Sorry

You may want to consider RJtech. You can buy the laptop without any CPU, so you could buy your Q9200 seperate and not have an extra processor.

 

Yeah I was aware it's an ES chip, didn't know how "illegal" they were though.

Alright, so question number 3 is settled. I still have my mind set on Xotic. I find RJTech's price a bit too high without the CPU, plus I've heard nothing but great stuff about Xotic here on the forums.

I already mailed my questions to Joseph at Xotic who seems really helpful. We'll see how it goes.

 

ES CPU's are illegal because they breach Intel's ToS. Just don't let Sager know you put one in, which is why you should keep your original CPU.

 

I'm still a newbie when it comes down to the specifics of the laptops and all that, Soviet has a limitless fountain of knowledge about everything regarding a laptop. That being said, I can still tell you some great advice. Do NOT take warranty under Sager. Take warranty under XoticPC for your own heart's sake. Sager is currently attempting to screw me over under warranty when I had to send my keyboard and hard drive in for repairs, and I am totally convinced that they are ripping me off with the price of new parts.

I still don't know how it will end, but they do not understand english it seems, it cannot be my accent because Justin and another girl over at Xotic's sales department got everything I was trying to say clearly, even if I had to repeat myself once or twice, whereas Sager doesn't seem to listen. So if you can get your warranty under Xotic or any other good warranty offered when buying your machine @ XoticPC, that would save you innumerable amounts of stress should anything at all fail. Even moreso if you are internationally located.