Want to buy P750DM-G / NP9758 (& have it by the 22nd/earlier), but where? (desired config in post)

Hi all...

I've posted another topic or two elsewhere while I was still deciding what model notebook to get, but now that I've decided ... I'd welcome recommendations on places to buy.

The configuration I would like is...
Display: 15.6", 1080p, Matte
CPU: Core i3-6100. (If I wasn't planning to upgrade later to a Kaby Lake or Cannonlake (depending on socket compatibility) i7-K later, I'd be more apt to go for the i5-6400 or 6500.)
GPU: nVidia GeForce GTX 970M. (I was wanting the 965M which Eurocom has (and their i7-6700 is the same price as their 6600K which is the lowest tier CPU they have), but after looking at prices of buying a newer GPU separately, compared to how much RJTech takes off the price for removing the GPU, etc, I decided to spring for the 970M and wait longer before replacing it - maybe with the 12xx or 13xx generation.)
RAM: Still undecided between 8GB (1x8) or 16GB (2x8) DDR4-2133. Preferred brands include Kingston, Crucial & G.Skill. I'm leaning toward 8GB cause I plan to install Linux, but am wondering if 16GB would be better since I'm not getting an SSD yet.
HDD: Samsung (Seagate) Spinpoint M9T 2TB
WiFi: Intel, either 726x series or 8260.
OS: Linux - probably the latest Ubuntu Studio LTS, I think 14.04.

I'm hoping I can use the card reader to boot Linux and install it, or at least use an external card reader, since I already have that and can temporarily repurpose an SD card for installation media. Another possible option to consider is temporarily plugging the HDD into my main desktop, putting an install partition on it leaving the rest empty, then using that in the laptop to make a boot partition and install Linux.

I'm not planning to get an SSD for now, so the OS will be installed on the main 2TB hard drive, in a separate partition. (Because of that, I'm almost wondering if I should spring for 16GB of RAM.) I briefly considered getting a USB Flash drive like a Sandisk Ultra Fit, but after seeing reviews in which it gets absolutely *destroyed* in IOPS compared to an SSD, I'm thinking that's not a viable option. Hopefully later I can get an SSD, as well as get Windows 10 Pro and make a dual-boot. (I'd also move Linux to the SSD then, hopefully it'd complain less than Windows would.)

One place I'm considering is a combination of RJTech.com (for a barebones) plus Newegg (to get components). So far they're the only place I've found that I can get that combination. Also they're in southern California, not far from me, and when I called them last Friday or so they said they weren't in the holiday rush just yet. Also it looks like I could get the combination for under 1500 (barebones with GPU from RJTech; CPU, RAM (8GB), HDD, WLAN from Newegg), although CA sales tax would bring it up over that somewhat.

But, RJTech's warranty is only 1 year parts & labor. A couple other places I'm still considering are XoticPC and LPC Digital, which by default have a 2 year parts and lifetime labor warranty, but at least on their site they don't offer less than the 6600K, and the lowest price I could get configured on both of their sites (with the 6600K, 2TB hard drive & Intel WLAN card being the main changes I could make) was a fair bit more. I'm still considering them, though, especially if I could downgrade some things, or get barebones and add my own parts, depending on how much I could save doing it that way.

I also checked with a few other places, but they are mostly out of the running, for reasons including custom configurations not available (Pro-Star, PowerNotebooks, Mythlogic), or their holiday schedule means I won't get the laptop until January (Mythlogic), etc. Ava Direct may still be in contention (configuring their custom P750DM-G gets me a bit over 1500, and they offer several flavors of Linux as options), but after looking at some comments about them I'm having second thoughts, even though their reseller rating is pretty high. (I never considered CyberPowerPC even though their version of the P750DM, branded as something else, is the only place that has the i3 CPU selectable in their configuration.)

I'm planning to contact a couple places later this morning (during business hours - it's not yet 7am now on the west coast) and primarily inquire about estimated processing/ship time, maybe also custom configs.

In the meantime, does anyone have recommendations, or experiences to share? And for company reps on the forum, would I be able to get a custom configuration like described above, and what's a reasonable quick way to get a laptop to near San Diego, CA? I'm aware that Sager is based in CA, so maybe if I had it shipped directly from them and paid the CA sales tax that might make it quicker? (I'd have to pay CA tax anyway per state law - if not sales tax at point of sale then use tax next April.)

 

So I've talked with a couple Sager vendors, and also with RJTech and Newegg yesterday. It looks like my best bet is to go with a barebones from RJTech (Larry from LPC Digital suggested it as well), with the GTX 970M, plus parts from Newegg. If I order them today, I should hopefully have the parts in a couple days and the laptop barebones in about a week. I plan on ordering later today, but hopefully before noon PST. Both RJTech and Newegg are in the Los Angeles area, east of L.A. (I'd even consider driving up there and picking it up if I could, but I'd pay more for gas even in a Civic (maybe it'd help if I didn't go 80+) than I'd save on shipping.)

The laptop I've chosen is the Clevo P750DM-G - the 15.6" model, with the 1080p Matte-finished screen, with the GTX 970M GPU. Also I'll be getting the standard 230W AC adapter.

For the CPU, I'm planning to get the i3-6100. I was considering the i5-6400 (or 6500 if it was on sale), but I'm already near the upper end of my limit - I estimate that I'm right at $1600 total, including sales tax and not including an RJTech cash discount.
Also that doesn't include a carrying case - I do have a backpack with a laptop compartment that'll fit a 15.6" laptop and I'm hoping that'll suffice. If necessary I could probably pick up something at Fry's.
For RAM, I'm going with G.Skill 8GB (1 stick) DDR4-2133 SO-DIMM. (I was considering 16GB of the same (2x 8GB sticks), but I'm hoping since I'll be running Linux, I could get by with 8GB.)
For storage, I'm getting a Samsung (Seagate) Spinpoint M9T 2TB hard drive. I'll also be installing the OS on this drive.
For the Wireless LAN card, I'm going for the Intel 7260.HMWWB.R Wireless-AC 7265 M.2 card.
For the OS, I'm going with Linux. My current choice is Ubuntu Studio 14.04 LTS, but I may consider another distro like Mint, Lubuntu, or something else. I tested on my desktop PC ( partlist here), and I was able to boot a 2GB SD card that had an older version of Ubuntu on it, with the card reader plugged into a USB 3.0 port. I didn't get all the way booted though - it hung on the Ubuntu splash screen. I think it's an older 32-bit version of Ubuntu probably, so I should load a 64-bit current version on the card and test again.

I put a parts list on pcpartpicker - the site's intended for piecing together desktop computer hardware, but I tried to make it work for keeping track of this.

I do anticipate upgrading some things later, probably after a couple years or so. Possible future upgrades include adding an SSD (probably 500GB), more RAM, upgrading the CPU to an i7-7xxxK or i7-8xxxK, depending on which is the last one to use LGA1151 (I wish I could put a Xeon in without the iGPU, but I've read elsewhere that it doesn't work right in this laptop), and upgrading the GPU to something between a GTX 1170 and 1380. (Chances are I won't do all those at the same time, and I'm not likely to put in a GPU that's more than about 3 or 4 years newer than the newest CPU I could install.)

Hopefully this laptop will last me a good 6 to 8 years or so. (My dad's Dell D830, which is 7+ years old, may have bicked the kucket - the display's gone out. My dad's hoping it's just something with the internal connector though, but I'm thinking it's time for him to get a new PC - I'm thinking something like this.)

Thanks to everyone who has helped out in the search in other threads & PMs/emails.

 

Just ordered. It went a little over $1600 cause RJTech calculated CA Sales tax as 9% (there are places it is that high, yes) whereas I thought it was 7.5% (what Newegg has been charging me.)

Hopefully I'll have it within a week, then get it up and running.

 

You may not be able to upgrade the cpu to the next generation, only the workstation chipset get two generations of support normally.

 

As for the tax part, that may be based off of the tax for your city. That is usually how we have to calculate that.

I hope you enjoy the system when you get it. Congrats on getting that on the way!

 

That's possible, Pat. There's different tax rates for California. The city of El Cajon is, I believe, 8%, or it could be 9% I'm not sure. Statewide, or outside city limits (I'm outside city limits) I believe it's 7.5%. Some places in L.A. area (where RJTech is) it's more like 9%. (I think Newegg, based in Whitter or City of Industry or someplace like that, has been charging me 7.5%.) Also it'll apparently be a week before I get the stuff from Newegg, as they're shipping the parts from Indiana. (I didn't order rush production from RJTech, so hopefully they'll both arrive around the same time or within a day or two of each other.)

And thanks! I'm looking forward to it.

Meaker, I'm hoping as long as it uses the same socket, it may be upgradeable. I remember seeing online that desktop sockets often need a bios upgrade to support newer chips, so we'll see what happens. At any rate, if I do end up just upgrading to the 6700K instead of a 7000 series i7, I plan on waiting until it's around $300, like the 4790K was around Black Friday this year (and last year). I think I read somewhere else that Kaby Lake may be supported on the Z170 chipset, not sure about Cannonlake (the die shrink). Usually Intel does a die shrink before they change sockets, but we'll see. I don't plan on upgrading the CPU until either the next socket comes out, or I find that the newest one can't be supported by just a bios update, then I'd get whichever is the best one that would work.

I'm anticipating I'll be having a bit of fun putting it together and installing Linux. Also on RJTech's site, they have an option to upgrade to IC Diamond paste, which I chose not to do. Under that option, they say the manufacturer's paste is still provided. I'm thinking, if there's a remote possibility that the paste is *not* included since I didn't get the CPU (from them, but from Newegg instead), is there a chance, if there's some left in the tube, that the paste that came with my Cooler Master 212 Evo would work in a pinch? Or is there only so long that it lasts in the tube? (I bought it, along with the parts for my desktop, in January.)

 

Paste is applied at the factory, when other pastes are offered the factory paste is cleaned off before the new paste is applied.

 

I would think you could use that paste if you wanted. But if you want to buy IC Diamond, or something comparable, it is pretty cheap. There is no difference in the 7 karat and 24 karat versions, just the amount in the tube (if you end up deciding to buy some).

 

I'm not planning to buy any paste yet, unless it turns out I need it. Hopefully there's either pre-applied paste on the pad, or a tube of the manufacturer's paste included with the laptop. I also selected the don't install & ship as parts option, just in case I would have otherwise had to remove the GPU heatsink to install the CPU. (Figured it'd be better to err on the side of caution.)

I was looking at getting some paste a month or 2 ago, cause I was wondering if my 212 Evo wasn't seated properly on my 4790K - was getting 100C at 3.7GHz on my 4790K, using Prime95's small FFT test. But, I learned the newest versions stress something more than needed on Haswell CPUs, so i went back to an older version, and was getting 84C at 4.5GHz. (I'm still wondering if that can be improved on.)

Anyway, the laptop is apparently shipping out, according to the tracking info, and I should have it tomorrow afternoon. As for the parts from Newegg, they estimate I'll have them (CPU, RAM, HDD, WLAN) on the 15th.

 

As I said, a perfectly reasonable paste is applied at the factory.

No machine should ship without it.

 

I got the laptop yesterday. Still waiting on the CPU, RAM, HDD, WLAN. There was a tube of paste included in the package. The GPU is installed with the heatsink/pipes in place. Also the CPU heatsink is in place, but no CPU installed.
I'm hoping I can remove the CPU heatsink (to install the CPU & its paste) without disturbing the GPU heatsink. Should I assume that paste was already applied to the GPU? (I'd rather not remove it if it was, cause then I'd have to clean and reapply it. It does appear to me that they're interconnected though.)

Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting the rest of the parts (they should come on Tuesday), then getting it up and running with Linux installed. I've been trying several versions of Linux in VirtualBox VMs on my desktop PC to try to help me decide which distro to use. (And just for fun I found our old Windows 2000 CD and installed that, but I don't plan on running the laptop with that. Also found a Windows 95 CD, but it doesn't have the CD key on it.)

Of course I do need to take into account hardware compatibility and other factors, so I'll probably use something like pendrivelinux to swap various ISOs in & out from a 2GB SD card and try those. Some distros that have preliminarily passed the first round of testing include Linux Lite 2.6, Linux Mint 17.3 (Cinnamon), Lubuntu 15.10, LXLE 14.04.3, PCLinuxOS 2014.12 (KDE MiniMe, LXDE or Mate maybe), PuppyLinux Slacko64 6.3.0, Ubuntu Studio 14.04.3 LTS (this is a dual boot on my desktop), and Zorin OS. Rejects include Android, Chromixium, PCLinuxOS Fullmonty, PuppyLinux Precise 5.7.1 & Wary 5.5, ReactOS, SteamOS, TinyCore Pure64 and Windows 2000.

Suggestions for other distros to try would be welcomed, too. (I'd prefer avoiding ones that use more than 400-500MB of RAM upon bootup, since I only have 8GB for now.) Any suggestions on ones that are known to work well with the nVidia GPU, keyboard backlight, etc? Also I'm now realizing I didn't test multi-core awareness in some of the distros (except Windows 2000 which after a tweak recognized 2 cores), although I did test 4GB of RAM (w2k only recognized 3.5GB).

Another idea in the back of my mind (but not likely to do it at this point) is running a very lightweight distro and VirtualBox (or maybe a bare metal hypervisor but I've never done that before), and running my main stuff in the VM. (Is it possible to run a heavyweight OS, like Windows 10, in a VM on a host OS that's light enough to run on a Pentium-133 with 64MB of RAM or similar, assuming it can recognize/passthrough >4GB RAM and multiple CPU cores/threads?)

 

I use Ubuntu 15.10 64-Bit (with XFCE4 DE) on all of my Clevo laptops, as well as on my desktop & server - works perfectly for me.

 

You may add in latency and driver issues going VM, it will be interesting to see if you have issues.