Slight price discrepencies for clevo M570U

Hello, ive been looking through a few sites for the m570u and i configured all of them to the same specs (all other sites besides rjtech had the arctic 5 paste):

Display: 17 WUXGA w/SCGF
Video Card: nVidia 7950 GTX 512MB
CPU: T7200
DDR2 Memory: 2GB DDR2/667 - 2
Memory Brand: Major
HDD: 100GB SATA 7200rpm
CD: 8x DVD+/-RW DL
2nd HD: None
RAID: Disable
External FDD: None
Battery: 8-Cell Li-Ion Battery
Network Adapter: Integrated GBLAN
WLAN: Intel 3945ABG
OS: Windows XP Pro w/Vista Coupon
Software: None
Carry Bag: Included
TV Tuner: None
Warranty: 1 Year
LCD Protection: None
Installation: Install
Ship Schedule: Regular
(copied from RJTech's site)

and the following prices for different vendors were(prices not factoring in cash discount at some sites):

sager $2769
pctoqrue $2718
rjtech $2554
discountlaptops $2854
powernotebooks $2779

Has anyone ordered from RJTech? the average price for the above configuration is around 2750 but rjtech's price is quite lower. Does RJtech use cheaper components for the harddrive or ram or something? Also, i would be ordering from canada, would that make a big difference? thanks guys!

 

you forgot to price Hypersonic-PC and Pro-Star.

I have worked with RJtech, they are one of the best sites around to buy barebones (as well as fully configured notebooks)... and they have a good reseller rating .

RJtech does not re-brand any notebook, they leave them exact way the manufacturer sent it to them, that could explain the slightly cheaper prices.

I built my notebook out of barebones to save money since I couldnt buy a fully configured notebook.

The prices are not too big of a difference, some will markup a bit, the others will not.

 

Ah, i checked out hypersonic and prostar. hypersonic seems to be quite a bit more expensive with a similarly configured system (although they seem to do more thorough system checks before shipping) and prostar was about the same price as the rest.

Thanks for the clarification about rjtech, yea ill probably be getting it from them since their pricing is the best ive found for it so far i was jusr worried if they used lower quality components than other vendors.

 

eh

there's also

www.xoticpc.com

 

Nice
thanks!

 

email the guys at flawlesscomputers.com I believe that setup will come to around 2300

( feel like a flawless spokesperson)

 

Most vendors (re-sellers) of Clevo use pretty much the same stuff, brands for RAM are usually up in the air though (but not a big issue since a performance difference cant be noticed).

RJtech will give you Kingston or Corsair for $10-20.

Hypersonic gives you default low latency Mushkin.

 

to Gophin
is there any difference in brand Mushkin v Kingstone v Corsair

 

not really, they are all good and reputable brands for notebook and desktop memory.

Including Crucial and OCZ.

Probably Cosair and Crucial are known to be the best of the best

Mushkin and Kingston are considered the solid performers for the price

 

I haven't read or experienced any RAM related problems with clevo laptops (nor do you read about RAM problems with other laptop sellers). You can't really over clock a laptop and increase the ram frequencies, so "high quality" ram is pretty useless. You're really spending money for peace of mind and bragging rights, since you won't be able to push the RAM chips that hard in a laptop.

Some clevo resellers use transcend ram, it's not a name brand but no one has had any issues with them.

 

Kingston and Corsair are my two favorites...but that is simply because I have never had problems with them.

and rickster....I do a lot of graphics and 3d modeling. so can you explain why/how Im not pushing my ram that hard?

Im not trying to sound like an ass, but what is the difference between doing high end graphics on my laptop vs. high end graphics on a desktop? Heck, I have photoshop docs and studio max docs that are over 600mbs in size....

 

Does the word " overclock" mean anything to you?

 

ah, thank you, i understand what you mean now.

but just for reference, you can overclock a laptop just as easily as a desktop. you just need to think of more things..... its also quite easy to make a laptop liquid cooled

 

Unless I'm mistaken, the base price for the m570u dropped at RJTech.com today (I'm pretty sure it used to be above $1500). I'm now able to configure the machine that I want for under $2500 from them.

I've been going through the same comparisons that you're doing over the past week or so, trying to weigh the benefits of highly-rated service vs. a fair difference in price (now $162 less from RJTech than PowerNotebooks, and that's w/ PN's cash discount).

I've seen Gophn and others talking about how great PN's support is, and that's quite appealing, but is it really $160 better than the warranty/support one would get from RJTech?

I'm getting close to pulling the trigger on my purchase, and appreciate all these discussions that help to make the decision a good one.

 

Weak, try liquid nitrogen cooling.

I don't think anyone here has bought $2000+ laptops from both resellers within the year or so, so it would be hard to get an unbiased opinion.

Not too many people who post here have purchased rjtech laptops. As far as I know rjtech doesn't even have a representative here. While powernotebooks does.

Then again i suppose if you are very computer literate, then you won't need the best support around and can settle for above average support, you could save yourself $160.

It's your call.

 

nitrogen....listen here guy....im not THAT cool (oh look at my pun...i rock)

 

I am very computer literate but i know that with a laptop there are some things (vid cards, etc...) that i cant fix on my own. Due to that i ranked customer service very high on my list of things i wanted. For me $160 isnt worth going with a unknown company. I am glad i went with PN and Sager in the end myself. I may have paid a little more for the computer but the level of customer service i received when my video card went bad was outstanding. That little freak incident alone made me happy i went with PN and Sager.

 

Good points... As this will be my first notebook, what am I looking at in terms of things potentially being/going wrong? Dead pixels... anything that would make other parts of the hardware fail more than a desktop component? Do any of these places allow for shipping just a replacement component if it goes rather than shipping the whole machine?

Aside from the price difference, the other thing in RJTech's favor (for me at least) is that they have options to ship it with Windows MCE w/ upgrade to Vista Home Premium. Ron Baird from PN was very nice and offered to include MCE at the XP Pro price (they don't normally do MCE on the 5760), but apparently no upgrade coupon for Vista...

Sigh, what fun would these decisions be if they were straight-forward and easy?

 

It's not that common to have problems out of the box. Use Dead Pixel Buddy to check for (you guessed it) dead pixels when you get it. The manufacturing process for LCD screens has vastly improved over the years and it is very unlikely that you will have a dead pixel. Remember that Sager machines have a 30-day money-back guarantee:
http://www.sagernotebook.com/pages/company_profile.html

 

I do find it amusing (though very nice) that PN actually charges less (assuming one goes with their cash discount) than getting it from Sager themselves. Now if only I could get what I want (including Vista) from them in the $2500 range, we'd be golden. Anybody know if PN (or others) do any sales around (after?) the holidays?

On another matter, aside from the little logo, is there any difference at all between a Sager-branded notebook and the straight-up Clevo (as one would get from RJTech)? I'm thinking specifically about the less visible things like the thermal paste or something like that.

And one other question... Am I better off ordering it with just 1GB of RAM and adding a second stick from NewEgg or something? Should I be looking at PC2 5300 or PC2 5400?

Thanks...

 

I used flawlesscomputers.com but this info may be helpful anyway...

actually, jcq I looked at how much the site charged for the ram extra, and then checked to see how much ram sticks were going for. It turned out that getting the ram from the site was cheaper then buying it separately. Now, this isnt always going to be the case, but sometimes it is cheaper to get it all at once.

but, assuming you are tight on money, you can always get 1 gig now, wait a few weeks and pick up the other gig.

its all about how you want to do things.