XoticPC - yay or nay?

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Mizugori

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 25, 2004
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*edit* see build specs below in my latest post*

I'm thinking about buying a decent laptop. My research has basically led me to Sager, which in turn led me to XoticPC. Has anyone bought from them, and how was your experience? Pros/Cons?

Has anyone dealt with their support and/or warranty service? Comments?

Thanks!
 
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Have bought from them four times over the past couple years. All around excellent experiences. Have had good experiences with Powernotebooks and Mythlogic as well.

To be clear, they only facilitate the warranty through the manufactuer, so if your Sager, MSI etc. has an issue, they will work with the manufactuer to issue you an RMA. Think of it like if Best Buy worked with you to make sure your LG TV got the right repair service, instead of you just having to deal with LG.
 
Do you think Sager is the best brand they offer? I have had very mixed experiences with MSI products so I am a little hesitant about their laptops. I have only ever used Asus motherboards so unsure about them as well.
 
I bought an MSI GE40-2OC 218US aka Dragon Eyes from XoticPC. Great customer service and the box arrived without any damage on it. It works wonderfully too.

14" laptop weighs less than 4.5 lbs. It's great at gaming with the 1600x900 screen with only a 760M.
 
Slow service compared to Amazon/Newegg but pretty awesome customer service.
 
Bought my Asus G55VW from XoticPC. Can vouch for them.

Fast communication, good on customization requests, product arrived on time and as expected.

10/10 will buy again.
 
Xenth said:
Slow service compared to Amazon/Newegg but pretty awesome customer service.
Click to expand...

That's because a) they customize pretty much everything you can want and b) many of the models e.g., Sagers they order per spec from the manufactuer
 
Mizugori said:
Do you think Sager is the best brand they offer? I have had very mixed experiences with MSI products so I am a little hesitant about their laptops. I have only ever used Asus motherboards so unsure about them as well.
Click to expand...

I'd say they're are advantages/disadvantages to both brands:

Sager
  • Most models are less "game-y", more business-like design
  • Better cooling on most models
  • A bit less expensive

MSI
  • Better keyboard, hands down
  • Better "slim" models e.g. Ghost Pro
  • Some have screens are higher-than-1080p
Generally, I prefer the Sager models mostly for their better cooling and lack dorm-room chic designs. If I was going for a "slim" design, I'd definitely go with the Ghost models, however.
 
harmattan said:
I'd say they're are advantages/disadvantages to both brands:

Sager
  • Most models are less "game-y", more business-like design
  • Better cooling on most models
  • A bit less expensive

MSI
  • Better keyboard, hands down
  • Better "slim" models e.g. Ghost Pro
  • Some have screens are higher-than-1080p
Generally, I prefer the Sager models mostly for their better cooling and lack dorm-room chic designs. If I was going for a "slim" design, I'd definitely go with the Ghost models, however.
Click to expand...

Thanks - MSI actually seems cheaper in general. But I have had a couple of bad experiences with MSI products in the past so I'm not exactly dying to give them a chance on a major purchase at this point. For me the more businesslike look of the Sager is a huge plus.

When you guys are saying MSI has better keyboards... in what sense exactly? Are you talking about purely looks/ascetic appeal or is there some kind of functional/quality/durability difference?
 
Only reason I didnt do business with them is because they don't accept International credit cards or Paypal. They only wanted a wiretransfer which is a big no-no for me.

Its a shame because they are so helpful.
 
I will say one thing, I looked at a TON of options, including lenovo, dell, samsung, asus, mythlogic, digital storm, razer, others... and xotic seems to have the best options and pricing hands down.

One thing that kind of surprised the hell out of me is how many brands don't offer a larger screen size than 15.6". Wtf is up with that? Do people seriously play games on these 13, 14, and 15 inch jokes? I'm probably going with a 17.3, (mainly because only a couple options exist in 18 and I don't particularly love them) and I feel like even that is on the small side.

Pretty much debating between the NP8278 and NP8298 at this point.
 
harmattan said:
That's because a) they customize pretty much everything you can want and b) many of the models e.g., Sagers they order per spec from the manufactuer
Click to expand...

Sure, but it's something to be aware of. There is a big difference between receiving a laptop in 2 days vs 2 weeks.
 
Okay here is the final build, any last-minute suggestions before I take the plunge??

Sager NP8278-S (Clevo P170SM-A) Sager NP8278-S (Clevo P170SM-A)
- FREE!!! – U.S. UPS GROUND SHIPPING (Use Coupon Code "FREESHIP" in Checkout) [U.S. Lower 48 ONLY / Restrictions Apply]
- 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Anti-Glare Screen (1920x1080) (SKU - SSC002)
- FREE! - 30 Day No Dead Pixel Warranty
- NO Professional Monitor Color Calibration
- Sager - 4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4810MQ (2.8GHz - 3.8GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache) (SKU – SPU401)
- FREE! - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 870M (6.0GB) GDDR5 PCI-Express DX11 [User Upgradeable] (SKU – GPU15X)
- No Copper Cooling Upgrade
- No Video Adapter
- No External Mobile Display
- 16GB DDR3 1600MHz [2x8GB] Dual Channel Memory (SKU - RAM04S)
- Sager Branding
- Standard Laptop Finish
- No Laptop Laser-Sketch™
- No Custom Laptop Painting
- No Custom Laptop Painting
- Non-RAID Storage
- 120GB Crucial M5 mSATA SSD ( Storage Drive ) - Stock
- NO mSATA Solid State Drive
- 256GB Crucial M550 Series SSD [SSD2 - SATA III] (SKU - SSD098)
- None Standard
- HDD Raid Settings - OFF
- 6X Blu-Ray Reader + 8X DVDRW/CDRW Super Multi Combo Drive (Sager) (SKU - ODD084)
- No Extra Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy
- No Back Up Hard Drive
- NO External USB Optical Drive
- Bluetooth Included *With select wireless cards only* (See “Wireless Network” Section Below)
- Sager - Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1202 + Bluetooth 4.0 (SKU - WIFI93)
- No Network Accessory
- Internal 9-in-1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD/Mini SD/SDHC/SDXC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo)
- Integrated Digital Video Camera
- No TV Tuner
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- No Carrying Case
- Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- No Car Adapter
- No Spare AC Adapter
- No Dock/Hub/Adapter
- Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- No Headset
- No External Keyboard
- No External Mouse
- No Notebook Cooler
- No Thanks, Please do not Overclock my system (Overclocking will add 3-6 business days to build time)
- No Operating System Redline Boost
- No Operating System [Drivers & Utility Software Only (Windows 7 & 8.1)]
- None
- No Antivirus Essentials Software Bundle
- No Back Up Software
- No Unlimited GB Cloud Backup
- - No Microsoft OFFICE Software
- No Software Bundle
- No Global Anti-Theft Protection (Options below require an operating system)
- Sager 3 Year Parts & LIFETIME Ltd Labor Warranty w/ Lifetime 24/7 DOMESTIC Customer Support - Special! (SKU - WTY097)
- * 24/7 LIFETIME U.S. based technical support
* Extreme QA testing by dedicated technicians
* 24-72 Hour stress testing and benchmarking to ensure top performance and stability
- Standard Production Time
- No Outside of US Shipping Coverage
- No thanks, standard double boxed packaging is okay with my order
- No XOTIC PC Gear
Click to expand...
 
SlayVus said:
Don't get a Crucial SSD, get a Samsung EVO.

You're not getting an OS?
Click to expand...

Really? When I first got an ssd a couple of years ago, I did a bunch of research and basically intel was the best all around but waaay overpriced, crucial was next best and very reliable, decent performance, etc. OCZ was blazing fast but buggy as hell. So I bought an M4 and it has been fantastic so I bought another Crucial SSD about 6 months ago.

Samsung... I just don't know anything about their drives and I've had mixed results with their other products.

I have extra Win7Pro licenses as I bought a few intending to build more mining rigs but then didn't keep going after the first two. So I will be putting Win7Pro on it.
 
Look at it like this, Samsung makes everything in their SSDs in-house. From the chips to the controllers, it's all Samsung. You get Trim support, hardware drive encryption, and if you use Samsung's Magician software to enable Rapid you can get speeds like this for about 1GB of ram.

Samsung also makes the biggest available mSATA drives, at 1TB strong.

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Mizugori said:
...One thing that kind of surprised the hell out of me is how many brands don't offer a larger screen size than 15.6". Wtf is up with that? Do people seriously play games on these 13, 14, and 15 inch jokes? I'm probably going with a 17.3, (mainly because only a couple options exist in 18 and I don't particularly love them) and I feel like even that is on the small side...
Click to expand...

People who are serious about playing games don't play on laptops. Also, a huge laptop kinda defeats the purpose encroaching on the only benefit--mobility. Using a laptop as a desktop replacement for gaming is not a very wise investment.
 
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