My Quest for a Notebook PC
Almost as soon as I posted the last blog article, I received a phone call from a friend that wanted to know more about the PC I just ordered. The discussion went down the path that I had researched prior to purchase and he said I should put it up for everyone to see. Uh, well – Ok.I started out witnessing the awesome game play on an Alienware notebook computer. I was blown away by the power and performance in a portable package. The benchmarks defeated all but the most robust gaming desktop systems and I was sold. This was about 18 months ago.
As I started my research on purchasing one of these little beasties, I came across some interesting information in one of the geek forums I frequent. They were talking about how there are literally a handful of manufacturers in the world that actually make notebook computers; the rest of them are just re-branded.
I was skeptical (big surprise) but I pursued. I thought surely that names like Sony and Toshiba would be manufacturing their own equipment, right? Not necessarily, as I found out. Here is a sort of run down of manufacturers (ODM) and brand names (OEM):
- The primary ODM (Original Design Manufacturers) consist of Quanta, Compal, Clevo, Mitac, Asus, Aopen, Uniwill, and TwinHead.
- Toshiba notebooks are largely produced by Compal, Clevo, and Mitac although they do actually build very few themselves.
- HP (Compaq) is largely supplied by Mitac but also have contracts with TwinHead
- IBM buys from Quanta and Arima, but recent news states that IBM will be getting out of the notebook and PC market altogether.
- Dell buys most of their systems from Aopen (Acer), Compal and Quanta.
- Sony and Sharp have/had contracts with TwinHead.
- Sager, Hypersonic PC, Alienware, Hollywood PC and other high-end gaming companies use Clevo machines.
Some of these little jewels of information really made me laugh, such as some of the Dell PCs being re-branded Acers. What did all of this info mean to me? Well, I traced the computer I wanted from Alienware down to the Clevo ODM. From there, I found that Sager was the best brand name alternative for the same equipment and ultimately chose a company called discountlaptops.com as the vendor that got my business. Why, you ask? Read on.
I did a head-to-head comparison between the Sager 9750 and the Alienware Aurora m7700 from their individual web sites. I was shocked to find a price difference of more than $500!! I would encourage you to also do comparisons if you are in the market. The amazing part of all of this is that the machine is identical, with the only differences being in the painted panels of the finished product and the ‘bloatware’ that seems to come standard on several of the Alienware systems.
Ultimately, I located another forum that discussed another issue regarding my purchase – customer service. Apparently, buying direct from Sager doesn’t afford you the greatest customer service experience in the world. They rely heavily on their resellers for service issues and extended warranties. One of the resellers of choice for Sager is discountlaptops.com. To my surprise, when I configured the same system as before, my savings increased by another $120 – and the shipping was cheaper! The order process was a breeze I had a tracking number within a day of the initial order. So long as the machine comes to my door in tact, my experience with this company so far has been stellar.
The moral of the story is: You can save hundreds of dollars buying the identical equipment in brand name systems if you do your homework. There are resellers out there for nearly every brand name laptop on the market for much less.
Relative Links:
Alienware PC: www.alienware.com
Sager Notebooks: www.sagernotebook.com
Discount Laptops: www.discountlaptops.com
posted by Bonzai @ 12:36 PM
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