Why KillerNotebooks.com is building a D901C for me

Go ahead; doesn't sound like you've got too much to lose. Who knows, perhaps you'll end up dropping out of college and becoming a billionaire like ole B.G.

Just remember, the Devil's always in the details!:wink:

 

The mods may not be hard but try doing coming up with that set fbs program that Mark has which increases the PCIE slot of the CPU and GPU separate. Also he has his bios reworked a little bit differently so that it runs better with the OS.

 

We are still waiting for tests.

PL

 

We are still waiting for our lottery numbers to hit

 

" Default Why KillerNotebooks.com is building a D901C for me "

ok...

 

Huh?

 

lol, thats what i was thinking

 

Now we know what this thread is about....Thanks!

 

All I have to say about warranties and modifications within the scope of KN is said here. I created a new thread becouse in order not to populate this thread with info that can be applied to any "clevo shop".

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=287689

Most people seam to forget that by painting a system (or order it painted) the only company that will honor the warranty the is the shop. In other words, the ODM will not honor his warranty neither will most possibly the distributor. Indeed the most "expensive" part of a Clevo is the barebone. So if any Sager reseller goes out of business, the only company that is required to honor the part warranties is whoever supplied them to the shop. This irrespective of some company policies they have to honor the warranty attached to any of the products sold by them!

Having said this, whatever the boutique chargin an extra comparable value over their products under my buying radar, I would require proof that the system is indeed mofified as stated and that the advantages of such modifications does match the extra money on the price list.

I had a look to the KN Odachi (d901c) and I can't really tell why their price is way above average since aparantly the standard Clevo spec is not enhanced by any means as far as I can see in the site.

As for the Executioner they seam to have modded it to fit the 9800M GTX. But did they? Nevertheless I think the cost/advantages of such mod is not competitive. For instance if I configure the system with a 9800M GTX, 200GB HD, T9600 CPU and everything else standard the price is $3534. This is around $600 more then the average just to buy s system configured according to the Clevo spec (just check on RJTech, Powernotebooks or RJTech to get a sense of the average price).

Now I've read people arguing that the price is premium to cover the the shop risks by loosing the ODM/Supplier warranty over the chassis, motherboard plus the 9800M GTX (the modified parts). I don't know what is the OEM price of these things but I bet is very close to a total of $1300. I don't think the extra price covers the risk or failure of a single unit, so KN must be pretty confident over their modification.

Irrespective of this honest try out, from a consumer point of view in the end of the day one is paying $600 to have a mod with dubious benefits over the standard Clevo spec. Is it really worth it? That is something for you to answer.

It seams that KN is the very definition of boutique shop! Congrats KN but better correct those price/benefit ratio as I'm not buying it Your mod + software costs more then an iPhone with far more advanced achievements and benefits then you offer.

Way too much for me. Again I'm the kind of man that even if I had $10.000.000 I still would not have disposable cash unless for charity

Trance
PS: I wouldn't buy any notebook from KNs so called competition (VoodooPC AW etc) either

 

People can always speculate about something that they do not own. A comparison (temperature and performance) is required. Regarding the price is anyone choice if they pay or not. For the best price/quality one should buy Athlon XP or at least a desktop computer.

PL

 

DFTrance

You are only guessing and speculating. You have no idea what he does or doesnt do to the system. It would seem to me if you took the time to go to the site and then post a rather long rant you may have at least called or reached out to Killer to find out the answer to your quesiton prior to drawing conclusions. That is of course assuming you were looking for the right answer vs just a chance to rant.

 

Huh? A warranty generally only runs to those to whom it is made, or implied as a matter of law and, in terms of components purchased by one business from another business for incorporation into another product to be further sold by the purchasing business, any warranty extended by the selling business to the buying business may not be applicable to the end-user who ultimately purchases the finished product from the buying business. Hence, if an OEM such as Sager were to go out of business, end-users who bought Sager systems would most likely have little or no recourse to Clevo or to any component vendor under the terms of the warranties they extended to Sager.

 

For $3500, you could buy a nice desktop setup for $2000 and buy an extra 15" notebook with a 9600m GT for $1500. You can play hardcore games on the desktop and use the XPS for portable use. Best of both worlds

Now thats better than having a single 17" gaming notebook thats big and heavy. Plus its better gaming on a desktop rather than a notebook (which are designed to be portable)

 

Amen brother.

 

That all depends on what your needs are and what constraints you have to work within. For those of us who cannot have a desktop sitting around, this doesn't work; the 9262 does.

 

Regarding Warranties,

Well in all my desktops I have warranties statements to the CPU, RAM, Video Cards, etc etc. It happened to me that a RAM simply burned with no missed used after a year. I tryied to contact the shop in Portugal but was no longer there. I knew their supplier (not personally) so I went to the supplier and guess what ... they actually gave me a new one. The same happened to my brother with its sound card. For Intel CPU I'm absolutely sure about this too.

My Clevo comes with warranty for all its internal components except for the video cards (I don't know why but anyway it is covered by the shop). I actually know the time each component in my system is under warranty. For instance my RAM has a 5 year warranty even though the warranty to the entire system given by the shop is only two years. My CPU has a manufacturers warranty of 1 year (Intel).

So I wouldn't be "afraid" of buying from KN over the issue of warranties (needed to know their supplier and part numbers to be assured).

@Baziado,

I have not speculated anything. I have said that there is a price difference of $600 between one M570TU with a 9800M GTX provided by other sellers and the modified M570TU with a 9800 MGTX provided KN. Finally I questioned what was the benefit of the mod in comparison and if the benefit was actually worth $600 difference in terms of performance gains. It seams that you may be able to overclock the M570TU further then any other without compromising system stability (due to the better cooling solution), but have yet to see any values of notice that are worth $600 plus.

Furthermore, I said that the that the extra price is not probably due to warranty issues. Indeed $600 does not cover the price it would take to substitute the barebone (chassis + motherboard) in case of dammage due to system failure since the pictures show that this is the part that was modified. So I said that KN must be prety sure that their mod actually improves the system in every aspect.

I've seen people overclocking their M570TU (non KN) with the 8800M reaching value over the 10.000 in 3dMark06, so it is not a big deal. Myself, I overclock my two 8700M GT and reach around 10600 in SLi. I also know that it is possible to overclock the CPU in M570TU with a little program called SetFSB up to 3.0GHz with a push of a button (search the forum for the method, but granted the UI is not that pleasing).

So I'm not ranting, I'm just questioning, probably questions you should ask yourself since the initial post talks about everything but the system that was actually bought. So simply promoting the services of KN.

The website is really confusing. The only mod in the cooling system I've saw was over the M570's (TU, RU) so what about the d901c (the one that is mentioned in the initial post)? We don't know that if the CPU overclock with the push of a button works with their d901c (nothing imn the site really suggests it). For all other presented models we know thet SetFSB does the Job with a push of a button so it is not the case that KN does really that special in this context that people can't do easily with software on a non KN system!

@Zenica

Amen to you too brother

Stay cool,

Trance
PS: The cooling mod look cool. Initially I thought that the mod was over the new M860TU enhanced to support the 9800M GTX but then I saw the pic and that it was a 17" laptop. So to my dismay the mod is not that great

 

i guess all i am saying is before you decide if the extra money is or isnt worth having KN build a notebook for you, just ask him the questions you have. unfortunately posting those specific questions here at NBR wont help you because the only person who can really respond to you and answer those questions cant post on NBR.

 

That indeed is unfortunate. I'm not a potential buyer. Indeed I was just going against the wave of warranty "fear" kind of argumentation. If I was afraid of warranties given by small companies/shops I would never had bought a Clevo in Europe and most probably to Sager in the US. This since both brands were totally unknown to me in march last year and to be honest they are small in the IT ecossistem (Thinking that way most probably I would going for a DELL, HP, Toshiba or even Alienware).

IMHO the questions that are important for making a decision is regarding the value of such mods are two:

* Performance gains Vs the extra price (for the common consumer)
* How hard it is to replicate the same on a non moded system (for the geek). SetFSB does CPU overclock with the push of a button. So the complicated stuff must be in cooling system. I'm especially curious about the d901c

I wish the guy could answer these questions in this forum.

Trance

 

In addition to performance gains and increased cooling from the mods, remember that there's extra goodies bundled with the price, including a custom notebook cooler (it's bundled with the Executioner right now, the Odachi one is being released in about a month or so). That by itself represents a value of about 75 dollars at least (considering most high end coolers plus shipping will cost you about that). Just pointing that out.

 

I'll be direct. Since i'm an owner of a d901c and have seen how hard it is to overclock the CPU (there is only a HW mod that does that) I would gladly pay for a better d901c BIOS. One that would be friendlier to overclockers like some ASUS are for desktops. But that doesn't seam to be the case.

That is an enhacement that is still to be found on this forum. Nevertheless I wouldn't be available to pay more for it then the average price of a new motherboard taking into account the technical skills and material needed to build each thing.

Trance

 

That's because you're in the wrong forum. You might have better luck in a forum such as the Wim's BIOS forum.

 

Yeah I know similar services. But I was looking for a off the shelve solution. Seams that in the case of the d901c could be a shop differentiator

Trance

 

To modify a BIOS one needs to have both a license from the copyright owner of that BIOS, and the skill set to do it. At this point Clevo is the only one that has that license.

Therefore any claims that are made by someone other than Clevo that suggest they have somehow modified the BIOS on a Clevo laptop can only be untrue, or if true, then they did so by violating the BIOS owner's copyright...which is theft of an intellectual property.

 

An even better reason why DFTrance will continue to be sorely disappointed. Of course, since persistent - but polite - haranguing of Sager got a fix for the fan yo-yoing on the 579x series, perhaps a similar campaign by interested, helpful, users might get Clevo to loosen up on the BIOS a bit. You never know 'til you try!

 

I think a petition was already on going some months ago. It turned out in nothing.

Anyway that is jus me, politely pushing the envelope

Trance
PS: I really like the phrase "Credit to where it's due". That is one of my principles.