It's on order!!! D901C from notebookguru.de !

I've ordered the notebook in my signature from www.notebookguru.de in Germany.

Now this is the first time I've ordered a complete system because I had built my desktop myself.

As soon as I get the D901C I'll be checking the bios then after installing Vista I'm going to run CPU-Z to check the processor, RAM type, brand, speed and latency. Then I'll run SIW and Everest Ultimate to check out all the other stuff is present as per specs.

(As you can see I'm a wary type... I happen to go to Germany next September and if something is not right I'd take the two-hour train trip straight to the shop! )

I have some difficulty about components I've never had before, namely the raid array and SLi.

- How do you check that your disks are effectively running in RAID 0?
- How do you know that SLi is enabled (short of running a benchmark, though a low benchmark might be indicative of other problems)?

Hmmm, what other stuff do you suggest I check... just in case I'm missing anything out?

Lol I wish I could sleep and not wake up before my notebook is on my doorstep... :cry: I'm going to tear my intestines with worry as to whether it's going to arrive, whether it's going to be damaged, and whether it's going to have the same specs I ordered...

 

You can check Sli status from control panel.

Welcome to the family.

 

Congratz man... rest assured that I'm just as eager to get mine as you are to get yours!

 

Other than the nVidia control panel, you can use RivaTuner (fantastic program) or GPU-Z to check the status of your video cards. Speedfan should be able to tell you the status of your hard drives.

 

Kongratuliere!

This machine will get you going!
Notebookguru has very good prices. Please keep us posted about their performance!

 

I'm really pleased so far with the way the transaction was conducted on the seller's part so far. He always replied to my emails, made effort to write in English even though I told him I was using google translate to read German, when I asked him whether he had a CPU better than the Q9300 he offered me the Q9450 even though it wasn't in the choice originally, and agreed to ship to my country even though originally it wasn't in the list of countries he normally ships to.

I made the bank transfer on Tuesday 8th July. Money got through today. Notebookguru.de are going to ship tomorrow.

I should get my notebook within 3-5 days. Early/mid-next week!!!

 

Thanks for that link! I am looking at one of these for a DAW and all the UK companies will only sell it with the dual, SLI Gfx and miss other options I may want. Price is reasonable, just slightly more than specing a machine similar at Eurocom.


Still a little bit more than I currently want to spend but by the time I've finally made up my mind for certain and got the money ready I think I'll be checking them again

Anywhere else in Europe who do a good choice or upgrade from the barebones? I don't want SLI but do want good processor, RAM and HDDs.

 

Congratulations man, mine gets in tomorrow!

 

You had me re-checking!

Eurocom is more expensive than notebookguru.
You have a mistake somewhere! Be careful to choose the correct currency on the website.

I configured a notebook with exactly the same specs as the one I ordered.
The only difference is that Eurocom do not have CL4 (ie higher speed) RAM available but only CL5 so I had to choose that, and with Eurocom you have to pay extra to get 2 years warranty whereas with notebookguru they give you 24 months warranty included in the price.

For this configuration:
-Core2 Quad Q9450
-4096 MB DDR2 800 MHz
-17" WUXGA TFT Display 1920x1200 glossy
-Vista Home Premium 64 bit.
-8800M GTX in SLi (2 graphics cards)
-DVD Burner R/RW
-2x160GB 7200rpm hard disks in RAID0
-300MBit LAN module
-Internal Bluetooth
-2.0MP webcam
-24 months warranty

To be exactly fair I reconfigured a notebook with exactly the same specs from notebookguru.de (identical to the one I'm getting but with the slower CL5 RAM since Eurocom don't have 4GB CL4 RAM available). I also chose the 2 year warranty from Eurocom since a 1 year warranty isn't available from notebookguru. Notebookguru also gives the carry-case free.

The total from Eurocom is 3984 Euros. (And they don't even mention the RAM brand whereas notebookguru ships Kingston.)
That is with all components alike for both companies.

The total from www.notebookguru.de came to 3114 Euros.

That means for exactly the same notebook model and configuration you will pay 870 Euros more if you purchase from Eurocom rather than from notebookguru!

(For me it comes 3229 Euros by adding 20 Euros for CL4 RAM, 25 Euros DHL shipping and 70 Euros for a 6 month no-dead-pixel warranty).

I also doubt that Eurocom will be charging 25 Euros for shipping by DHL, and how much you might have to add to get a 6 month no-dead-pixel warranty....

 

Fair enough. I only very quickly checked to the specs of the machine I am looking at (and may of missed a couple of pints as I don't speak German) and the difference was almost negligible.

Was just trying to thank you for pointing me to somebody in Europe as none of the UK suppliers have the options I want and EuroCom is actually Canadian, despite the nake.

 

Kazakore, where are you located? I'm grateful that I received lots of help from this forum in making my choice and would love to help someone in return

Notebookguru give you the choice whether to choose the D901C in SLi or not. You can always choose to have one graphics card and maybe later add another one. You can also choose other notebooks, like the M570RU if you don't want to have the SLi possibility.

What you have to determine is what you want the notebook for. If it's just for office work and internet browsing, any P4 equivalent with an intel grafics card would suffice. The rest would be money wasted.

I remember I had checked Eurocom (I have been studying the suppliers for like a month before I placed my order!) and yes it's weird that their name suggests that they're European. If you're in Europe I don't suggest you purchase from outside the EU because then you'd have to pay customs tax (heaven knows how much!) and you won't have the same rights a european consumer has when purchasing from a european country.

 

Shall we keep the conversation in here? It's silly us both saying pretty much the same thing in both PMs and on this thread when it's nothing private...


I'm from the UK.

It took me a while to realise that Eurocom don't even have any other offices outside Canada.

Looking for a notebook for heavy audio work. For this reason I want a fast, multi-core processor, good quality RAM, external graphics (to take load of main board/processor) and very importantly the TI chipset for firewire. The D901C is one of VERY few laptops that has all this.

All UK companies that stock it aim solely at the gaming market and don't offer a single GPU option. I definitely only want one as otherwise that's another 512MB taken from my system RAM (I plan to stay XP for time-being.)

Good thing with Notebookguru is they do seem to specify their parts better than most and your experience so far sounds promising. it's going to be a little while before I actually buy and still looking but this is my most promising candidate so far, followed quite far behind by a MacBook Pro, which did stop using TI but hear they have gone back...

 

I agree we keep the conversation here because it might benefit other members as well.

I don't speak German either. I had purchased the components for my desktop from Germany and assembled it myself and got it at a very good price that's why I didn't exclude Germany from my possible purchase.

I looked at all European suppliers for the D901C... and I chose what I thought was the best deal. Obviously I'd be giving the best feedback next week when I have the notebook in hand. But so far all has been great, price and communications-wise.

Allow me to quote your pm for general knowledge please:

1) If you only want one graphics card, then www.notebook.guru.de do give you that choice.
2) It seems you're confusing dedicated graphics cards with integrated ones. Dedicated gfx cards don't "take" any memory from your system RAM, that's why they're called dedicated. It's those notebooks which have graphics cards called Intel xxxx which 'steal' RAM from your system RAM.
Since you want your pc for audio work, you don't need an expensive graphics card. You can do well with even an integrated intel graphics card... it'll be all better if you get an 8400 or 8600 since those cards are for mild gaming and more 'future-proof'. A quad-core is ideal for both video editing and audio work.

 

Yep and hence the original thank you.

No what I am referring to is the 4GB limit that XP can address. A computer allocates memory addresses to the GPU and other system devices before Windows takes it's chunk and the remaining, addressable RAM is then available for for software. If you have 4GB installed, then two 512MB graphics cards, a few system bits and a minimum for 256MB for XP (more like 512MB for Vista) leaves with you 2.75GB rather than 3.25GB. Admittedly XP can only allocate 2GB per application but I often have more running at once (and I am yet to check if this counts VSTs hosted within another program.)

Don't need an expensive one but dedicated rather than integrated is important if you want to avoid audio glitches caused by things as simple as sudden mouse movement or having a pop-up from having MSN Messenger open when composing (at least according to a lot of people I've spoken to recently.) Lowest I've seen the D901C with is 8700 but a lot of people are only offering the 8800 now. Always a possibility I may play a little CCS, but not big on gaming at all really.

Good quality 800MHz (or may wait for DDR2 PC8500 RAM or DDR3 RAM to come out on the notebooks, which is reported to be by the end of the month) is very important as VSTi use a lot of RAM and bandwidth whereas VSTfx use a lot of processor power (thus CPU also important.)

 

That's not pertinent to XP. If an operating system is 32 bit, whether XP or Vista, you will have the problem you outlined above.

Choose a 64 bit operating system, XP or Vista... and you go over the 4GB recognisable RAM problem.

 

Yeah you're right, I didn't express myself correctly. I do believe there are still as many issues with XP 64bit/X64 as there are with Vista 64. I should of said 32/64bit windows but I'm still used to thinking of XP as 32 and Vista as 64 although I know this isn't actually the case.

 

I had a little question -- on the D901C which button do you press so that I can get into the bios and check if RAID0 is correctly configured before I install Vista?

 

I don't even own one and I can tell you that

F2

Both the user and service manual are hosted on Eurocom

 

lol thanks.

It's that I'm a bit lost when I come to notebooks. I tried yesterday to disable speedstep (powersaving & cpu downclocking) on my mum's toshiba qosmio, I pressed Esc and F1 and what I got into looked like a bios but there were no clocks & voltages to be seen around lol...

I hope that by pressing F2 on this notebook I'm getting I will get a bios which looks like a bios....

 

Uh-oh; someone from desktop world is getting a rude awakening in the land of laptops. Unfortunately, to one degree or another, notebook BIOSes seem to end up being gelded versions of desktop BIOSes.

 

What a disappointment...

I just came to work and got on the internet after the weekend, and I found no correspondence, no tracking details... nothing...

I sent an email to the seller just in case he forgot me...

Since DHL is a 20 minutes drive from work, I'd prefer to do the pick up myself rather than having them come over, maybe knock on one of the other doors which would be closed, no one answers, and they go back with it again!

 

I would just go pick it up... tell us how it goes.

 

Maybe he didn't manage to ship last Friday.... in which case he'll be shipping today...

And I doubt if DHL will be giving me a parcel if I don't have a number...

Edit -- nah I just checked. They won't be able to find my parcel without a number...

 

Ufff, so far nothing. And I'm so distracted I haven't done an ounce of work either!

I tried to get in my order details on their website, since there is the status of my order there, maybe they posted the airway bill number there. It was some random password so I applied for another password, got it, and no it says my order is still 'in preparation' (inberbeitung?) Hopefully the page hasn't been updated yet. And the supplier hasn't replied to my email to give me the tracking details he said he would have emailed last Friday...

Hmmm maybe I'll call DHL... I don't know if they'd give me info without a number though...

I called -- they told me that without an airway bill number they can't trace my parcel since it's from Europe. Had it been from outside Europe they'd have managed since there won't be as many parcels from outside Europe...

Meh... as soon as I arrive home I'll send another email to the seller... or call him directly by phone...

Later on edit:

Bleh I'm jumping and going crazy (actually drinking myself crazy...) I'm comforting myself hoping that the seller didn't manage to ship last Friday and that he's going to send me the shipping details as soon as he ships...

On the other hand I'm worrying because I go a lot from place to place, that's why I wanted to do the pick-up myself. If I don't get that number I can't inform DHL of wanting to do the pick-up and they'd end up possibly trying to deliver every day (to-and-fro on our bumpy roads) and tossing the parcel around...

I've had no answer... and sent him 3 emails... (one webnote, and one email copied to two email addresses) and no reply. To be fair I didn't even get the 'read receipt' as I usually get from him. Maybe it's a holiday in Germany today, or maybe the guy in charge is on leave... who knows?

I'm itching to call them by phone, but since I'm Maltese and they're German and we don't know any common language except English I'm afraid that he'll say something I don't understand and he thinks I got my answer and doesn't reply to the emails which will be even worse...

However if I don't receive anything I will call by phone by tomorrow afternoon.

I still have a copy of the email I sent earlier today:

I'm sending him another one... the last one because within an hour I have to leave here...

I hope google translate isn't making a muck up of my words..........

 

I'm afraid I'm coming out as 'the irritant consumer' though I tried my best to be polite as much as I can. I can't help wanting to know where it is... I spent a little fortune on it...
Even though I'm sure the delay in replying is legitimate, it'd have been sooo much better for me if he told me he'd be shipping next month, rather than promising me shipping details for last Friday and then leaving me in the blank...

:cry:

 

Woooooot!! :smile:

 

Maybe something to do with most desktop motherboard having around 4MB of memory for BIOS while the majority of notebooks only have 512kB, or 1MB if you're lucky.

Hope you've received it now BlackPanther. I've had a little bother with DHL of late. One package got signed off as delivered then appeared in the senders reception a week later. Another I didn't even know had been sent and it arrived (I was hoping it was the other one.) You would hope to at least be told something is in the post when you've just spent £500!

 

Hmmm. Thing is that my 'DHL' shipping cost me only 25 Euros. I wasn't complaining but it does appear a tad cheapish?

Here's the update I have, no I haven't received the notebook. Didn't even manage to track it -

So I ordered this laptop from Germany, and the seller said he shipped it yesterday morning by DHL.

He gave me a tracking number. The number has 12 digits. I called DHL in Malta to instruct them to keep the parcel so I pick it up myself. They told me the number is not correct. It must be 10 digits and the last number not higher than 6. In fact I can't track the item on www.dhl.com

I emailed the seller asking him if perhaps he is shipping using some other company, like Fedex or whatever. He assured me that he is shipping DHL and gave me this link: http://www.dhl.de/dhl?skin=hi&check=yes&lang=de_DE&tab=1&xmlFile=3000571

Yesterday when I tried to track the number I got a message which I google-translated as "Data not found". This is to be expected since it was too early for any data to be found.

Today I tried to track again, and the message I got was different:

Google-translate:

Is not a foreign shipment for heaven's sake?!?

A friend on another forum gave me some curious news --

Pretty confusing isn't it?

And here's what a German (quite authoritative on the web!) friend told me:

When I told this same friend that I have already paid by IBAN transfer on the 8th July he told me-

Let's hope for the best. I hope I get my notebook.... at least this week!

 

Nice man! The entire week I was waiting for mine, I just stared at my screen at work and browsed the notebookreview forums. So the day finally came that UPS said I would recieve it. My dad and I both have full time jobs (gotta make money so I can party in college ), so I actually missed both deliverys. I had to sign for them, so they said they were going to return it to their Mesquite HQ, and if I didn't pick it up by the end of the day, it would be processed again the next week and returned to the sender. So since I saw that I had JUST missed the shipment on UPS.com I ran out of work to my car, and hauled ass back to my house, hoping to spot the guy. When I was about halfway home, I saw a UPS truck parked at a local veteranarians office. I parked there and ran inside, saw the guy waiting for a signature, walked straight up to him and asked if he was the guy that made the delivery to my house. He apologized, saying that he was not, but he knew the guy that did, and gave me his cell phone. I called the UPS delivery man (Yeah, awkward, I know) and he informed me he was about 20 mins out in the country. So I hauled ass all the way out there and met up with him. I signed for my brand new Sager NP9262 on the side of a state highway. Yeah, I freaking love this laptop.

 

Now that's determination! Didn't get any speeding tickets along the way, did you?

 

Nope, I seem to get pretty lucky with the police. Maybe there was some higher force that wanted me to get my laptop also.

Edit- Actually, probably not. If there was a god, he would be jealous that I have a Sager NP9262.

 

Sounds like you're having a bit of a nightmare BP! When I got a tracking number (wasn't sure it had been sent recorded as I trust the seller as I've made dozens of orders and spent thousands of pounds with him over the last few years) the site I was directed to wasn't DHL but was Interparcel.

They do use a 12 digit number so just in a random off-chance that it works try sticking your tracking number on the end of this url

http://www.interparcel.com/tracking.php?action=dotrack&trackno=

Somehow doubt it will be the same from Germany though...

 

Nope Kazakore the link you gave me says that my number is not valid.

I have got an update though --

Original German language

Original English version of dhl.de

German version google-translated:

As you can guess, I have no idea as to the status of the parcel!

 

** Boring rant warning ahead...**

Please I need this thread to whine.

Notebook was shipped on 15th June.
I was going through the emails of the seller - he told me it should arrive within 3-5 days.

Tomorrow will be day 6th day if you don't count the weekend. Or the 8th day if you count the weekend.

Maybe the seller shipped later, but he did provide me with the tracking number in this format XX.XXX XXX.XXX X the same day so I think he did ship on that date and hence isn't the seller's fault. And well... according to the tracking my notebook is in Malta, someplace...

The tracking number is traceable only through http://www.dhl.de/dhl?xmlFile=4037 which currently states that my parcel has left the "inward office of exchange" in Malta (whatever that might be) on 21st July at 8:00AM.

Trying on www.dhl.com says that the number is incorrect.
Same when I called DHL's Maltese office they told me it's not one of their numbers.

Googling the problem told me that DHL in Germany is a subsidiary of their local postal company Deutsche Post and that they distribute their items to other couriers meaning that my parcel can be delivered by local post or any courier here.

Last Thursday I sent an email both to DHL global and to DHL.de asking them if they can tell me who is making the delivery in Malta. No one replied.

I checked the local company Maltapost, Fedex, UPS, and a couple of other local couriers who have track/trace online, to no avail so far.

I swear that if I don't get it tomorrow... I'll be breaking hell on earth loose now.

I wonder if I should now....

I just saw this on the Dhl.de site:

Six days elapsed today. But as my luck would have it, their investigation inquiry page is not working right now!

Lol, as luck would have it this morning while I happened to be outside smoking.... a courier stopped just in front of me.
I though yay here we are!

She asked me where is (the name of my street). I told her this is the street. Then she said the house number.......
It wasn't mine....


Believe me I restrained myself from kicking her out of her van and searching it out myself, even though the poor lady was 3x my size!

If I'm not online tomorrow it can mean two things -

1) I'm busy installing and configuring the laptop; or
2) I'm in prison.

If I take longer than 1 or 2 days to be online, it'd be #2.

It's remote that it arrives today since it's already 4:20PM.
I hope it is not Germany's version of second class post... in the seller's words he said he sent it by "Airmail Express DHL". So hopefully it isn't.

The shipping cost was awfully cheap though. I didn't bother much - I would have readily paid 200 Euros shipping but all he demanded was 25 Euros shipping...

The reasons why I'm worried -
-- I want it now (lol)
-- on a more serious note, it cost me a small fortune...
-- on an even seriouser note which is really nagging me, the seller doesn't normally ship to Malta but he kindly said it will be no problem. I told him I can't make an account because Malta is not listed. He told me register under Italy then write your correct Maltese address. I hope he didn't make some mistake and send the parcel to Italy...

 

arent we maltese the unluckiest bunch on earth!

Seriously the best resellers dont send to malta.

Anyway have you tried to call the dhl office in germany?

 

Generally weekend days don't count - only business days, so at this point your system is only 1 day behind schedule.

EDIT: P.S., we all feel your pain, so please, rant on, I wasn't trying to stop you, or "solve" your misery (and that's partly what the forum's for - after all, misery does love company, and sometimes it seems that company loves misery, too ).

 

So, how did this story ended? Did you get your D901C from notebookguru.de?

I'm actually interested in buying from them, but after reading this, I'm thinking twice..

 

I didn't know this thread was still alive!

My D901C had arrived safe and sound on the 22nd July.

I had created a new thread for the purpose - please do check it out! There's photos and everything there...

I'm a panicky person by nature... lol 7 days from order to my doorstep is very good from Germany to Malta.

I'll definitely be recommending notebookguru.de both for the impeccable service and also for the absolutely flawless laptop they sent me!

 

There are also other sellers in Europe besides notebookguru.de. Some of them in UK with the same prices as the germans. Check the guide for more
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=264311

PL

 

EDIT: ^ Not really. I have been doing a lot of research and the best price/specs is notebookguru.de, the only advantage of for example kobalt is the European warranty with shipping both ways paid.

Good news! I will check your thread..

 

You need to check the exact configuration, not jut the starting price, besides some of them might very flexible so it is better to contact them directly.