Computer Upgrade King?

The ASUS N56VZ is a good reliable and popular laptop but it wouldn't be my first choice in terms of value. If you are looking for a lower cost laptop for gaming, I would actually recommend the Lenovo IdeaPad Y500. It starts for less than $1,000 and comes with dual NVidia 650M SLI which ranks above NVidia 670MX and just below 675M according to notebookcheck.net benchmark driven rankings and a recent tomshardware review. One thing to note is that the Lenovo Y500 has greater than a 5% rate of jumpy trackpad due to anti-static tape not being properly applied to the bottom of the trackpad. Reseating the tape resolves the problem. There is currently a Lenovo Y500 sucks thread that comes up on page 1 google search for Lenovo Y500 mostly because of this trackpad issue which Lenovo refuses to check for. We recently got 70 refurb Lenovo Y500 and more than half had the issue which told us that more than half of Lenovo's returns for Y500 are because of this issue. Also, it told us that Lenovo is using a service center that is not fixing the problem. Lenovo refuses to let any partners become ASP for their consumer line (not even Best Buy) and instead opts to use a national repair depot because of cost. I would recommend Lenovo Y500 on the basis that once the trackpad issue is checked and fixed then it is reliable laptop and one of the best values on the market for cost versus gaming performance. The Lenovo Y500 was voted best gaming laptop by CNET. Max upgrade-ability is i7-3940XM CPU, 16GB 1600MHz RAM, 240GB mSATA SSD + 1TB 7200rpm HDD, dual 2GB NVidia GTX 650M SLI and Blu-Ray Writer. In latter June, we will have a Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p with 4th generation Intel Haswell CPU and dual 2GB NVidia GTX 750M graphics.

 

Thanks to your great answers regarding my future purchase. It's great to have these answers in the forum. In fact, this was the reason I joined the forum: Having people like you, very helpful in my concerns it's great.

I'll wait until later june, in order to get the newest hardware coming from your costumer oriented company.

 

i've been looking at the y500. will the trackpad issue be resolved in the y510p and what's the starting price?

 

Hey Rob,

I'm curious about something and hope you can clarify. In your Amazon listing of this: Amazon.com: Lenovo ThinkPad W530 243857U 15.6" 2.70GHz i7-3740QM 2GB Quadro K2000M Laptop: Computers & Accessories it says the ram is 4gb. But the base ram that Lenovo provides on their website is 8gb. Did you guys get the Thinkpad from Lenovo and took out 4gb of ram

 

Sorry for the delayed response, I encourage anyone who wants additional information to contact us directly here - https://computerupgradeking.com/support/. You will get a significantly faster response to your question as I do not frequent these forums often (as you can see).

Haswell is only recently out. Currently we have a few HP Envys and a lot of MSI notebooks that have Haswell. I would wait a bit longer as more models will appear on the market.

We have not received our Y510s, so I cannot confirm anything for the Y510 at the present moment. We managed to fix the trackpad issue on the y500, so if it occurs on the Y510, we should hopefully be able to resolve all the issues. I can tell you that our prices will be in line with our competitors, but I do not yet know what the price will be.

We never downgrade our systems. In some cases taking a component out could make the value of the item go up because we have to charge for the labor involved (if the labor costs more than we would resell the component). Lenovo makes configured and CTO (configure to order models) W530 models. The number after W530 (in this case 243857U), designates the model number relative to the configuration. This assists users in locating the specific model for sale, searching for specific drivers, etc. Typically these configured models are sold with the cheapest components they can use to keep the price down for consumers. Hope this helps.

 

Hi Rob.
"It just so happened you bought the most unreliable computer possible." - You talk about a specific model, or about all the laptops HP?

I also want to clarify about the line of HP Elitebook 8570w:
1. Why you offer the HD 1600x900 display and there is no FHD 1920х1080?
2. Why all the Laptops is have same P/N B8V72UTR even having a different configuration?
3. You HP authorized resellers?

 

We track refund and return rates per model and for sealed in box unopened condition, the DV6 did have one of the highest return rates. For the units we inspected and tested because we installed upgrades, we had a very large rate of ones with issues that could not be sold as new even though they were brand new sealed in box. We have gotten return rates down to acceptable levels now for DV6 but we are selling the majority with upgrades and of those, we are testing and inspecting them to prevent most with issues from shipping to customer with issue unresolved. HP has generally had very reliable computers. The Envy dv6 and dv7 were being shipped by HP up until about 1-2 months ago with a very high rate of cosmetic blemishes and defects. It seems HP has since improved their QA as we do see slightly fewer issues with the shipments we've received for these models over the last 1-2 months. Apart from these 2 models, there have been some other HP models with high return rates when sold brand new sealed in box. For example, in the last 30 days, the HP ENVY 23-d065 TouchSmart All-in-One Desktop had 3 refunds on just 5 sold sealed. The HP Envy 20-d030 TouchSmart All-in-One had 4 refunds on 12 sold sealed. The HP Pavilion p6-2330 Desktop had 4 refunds in the last 20 days. In contrast, the HP ENVY DV6-7214nr had 4 refunds on 76 sold and the HP ENVY DV7-7212nr had only 1 on the last 93 sold in last 30 days. The rates for dv6 and dv7 would be much higher had we sold them all without upgrades sealed but since the majority were sold with upgrades we were able to get the problematic units pulled aside and artificially get the refund rates to a more acceptable level.

Regarding the HP EliteBook 8570W, we have run out now, but looking back the B8V72UTR was a refurbished model so we were limiting its upgrade options. For the new 8570W we were selling, we were not limiting the options and FullHD was available. It was just a sales choice we made and in hindsight we could just as easily offered the FullHD screen upgrade as it did support it. We can sell multiple configurations since we can upgrade CPU to i7-3940XM, RAM to 32GB, hard drives to combination of mSATA SSD and standard 9.5mm, and optical drive to Blu-Ray. One of the best services we provide is our customization of performance enhancing component upgrades. We try to provide as options any upgrades we feel add value to the computer. We are authorized by HP both as a Reseller and also as a Micro Reseller Service Provider which means we are authorized for servicing the consumer models like Pavilion and Envy. We have a dedicated rep in HP HHO we order through for any consumer models whether they are quick ship pre-configured or configure to order. For the business models we can buy from any of our distributors or buy on clearance ones marked down because they were aging inventory. In order to provide the best value to customers, it is primarily new aging clearance inventory that we sell for HP business models as we are able to receive massive discounts of 50% or more at times on those models. The downside is that we cannot keep a consistent HP business line card but for those HP business models we do sell, our price is significantly less than what you would see elsewhere.

Thanks,
Rob

 

Hi,

Just wanted to put in a good word for ComputerUpgradeKing.
I have purchased a Clevo P170EM with 7970M from their Amazon store.
I have been using this laptop for around 8 months now, and I am really happy with it.
ComputerUpgradeKing has always been prompt and courteous in their replies.
I highly recommend this reseller for anyone looking to buy a laptop for gaming.

Rob,

I had recently contacted ComputerUpgradeKing in regards to getting a set of replacement screws for my 7970M (they are close to being stripped). I was told that you did not have any in stock and that I should contact clevo. I have sent an email to clevo but I have not received any response yet.

Do you have suggestions for me to buy a set of replacement screws for this laptop.

Thanks,
Karthik

 

How does computer upgrade king upgrade the sony vaio VPCF23JFX up to 16 GB RAM, what do I have to do, change only the CPU or what please a really need to boost it UP, any one that can help, I even offer computer king upgrade to boost my laptop and I pay the money they requested.
What can I do?

 

I recently purchased an Alienware 18 i7-4700MQ 2.4GHz 8GB 750GB 4GB 780M SLI W7HP Gaming Laptop from CUK, the item has extended shipping but seems reasonable considering the laptop's pricing/ specs. Hopefully I will be back with a good review!

 

Hello guys. I want to by a custom MSI laptop and I find this "Computer Upgrade King" online store. Their prices compared to XoticPc and GenTech are much lower.
Did you have any experience with them and are they trustworthy?

 

This laptop came with a broken fan (not sure if the mistake was made by manufacturer/USPS/or CUK) but i quickly replaced it for $13. Although not mentioned the laptop i got came with a 60gb msata disk which i now use to hold my OS, if compensation of fan noise i gladly accept it. This laptop holds 2 hard drives unlike its m18x counterpart which holds 3.


Overall I'm happy with their service. their prices are amazingly low, i also purchased a 2.5" 1tb harddrive from them and its working to perfection.

 

Update on the Laptop: I found out that the ODD and Msata run @ SataIII speeds, which is completely amazing. After a month or two of owning the laptop I haven't found any other problems besides the fan, i hear they are known to break every once in a while. The 1TB hard drive is also still working great.

 

Edit Dec 2016: Two-and-a-half years later the refurbished Dell Latitude is still running great, have had no probs besides replacing the SSD myself, didn't rma it. They would have rma'd, but i needed the computer *now*. There are still no bad pixels, amazing, and it benchmarks right where it should considering it is old. It's been a fast, reliable laptop and no more issues. I'll buy from CUK again.

Edit July 2014: SSD Failed after 3 months. The 250GB SSD in the refurbished Dell Latitude gave an "overheat warning, data could be lost". I replaced the hard drive.

OP

I had the same question and luckily found this old thread with different viewpoints. CUK has very good ratings on Amazon and eBay and I liked the owner comments of their process and costs for building and refurbishing computers.

Most reviews were good-to-great, so I just ordered this Dell refurb from CUK, at www.amazon.com/Dell-Latitude-E6530-i5-3740QM-Refurbished/dp/B00E0MN1RS/ref=lh_ni_t?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2TC87EJKQMY9O. One thing about the amazon ad though, in the title it listed the "i5 3740QM" chip, but in the specifications it was listed as the "i7 3740QM". The only 3740QM i found on the Intel site was the i7, so that answered that. I'm really looking forward to this laptop's power and speed, and thanks to the owner for clarifying questions that we all had.

 

:thumbsup: Good! My laptop from CUK was shipped cross-country and arrived in nine days - a snowstorm delayed it. It looks good, a medium-ruggedized case with no mars or scratches and fired right up. The SSD they installed makes for a fast startup *whew*. There was little pre-installed, just the OS and a few utility apps. I like the Win7 Pro, and it accepted the transferred data from my XP machine with no problem. Very nice machine and FAST.

 

I would love to write a fantastic feedback, but I just cannot. The computer configuration looks great for me that I paid for (HP Envy 17t 5th Generation 17.3-inch i7-5500U 12GB 500GB SSD NVIDIA GTX 850M 4GB Full HD Blu-Ray Windows 8.1 Laptop Computerm and Bluetooth), especially with this price (~$1200). The seller had a stellar feedback on Amazon, so having no reviews on this item before, I decided to take the risk and invest into this computer as my B-day gift. I am also a teacher and to prepare my online videos, I needed a better computer. So, I paid for this item on 5/11/15. It was advertised that ships within 6-10 days, so I said OK, I will have plenty of time to work on my videos. Then I saw that shipping label was created on 5/22/15 with a UPS tracking number stating that I can expect it anywhere between 5/26/15 and 6/3/15. I anxiously kept checking every single day both on Amazon and UPS when it arrives and wanted to make sure that I am home (since signature was required), and the time of starting my class was fast approaching. It was yesterday, 6/1/15, when I realized that no advancement has happened since 5/22/15, and that was caused by nothing else but the seller (I blamed it on the long weekend first, then flooding that took place in the south, etc.). I contacted them on 6/1/15, they replied on 6/2/15 stating that the tracking information was entered by mistake (sorry, I am too long enough to know what it means...), and that the 500 SSD will arrive on Friday (6/5/15!), and it "if the wait has been too long" they can cancel the order, so I cancelled. Yeap. This is how simple and easy was for them. Just cancel it! Never mind guys that people and their work might depend on you! What can I expect from a seller that has not taken any step to notify the buyer about the delay? What can I expect from a seller that under false pretensions created a shipping label when the item was not even built yet, just to satisfy the description requirement on Amazon that the item is shipped within 6-10 days? This is misleading business practice. My head is livid, because I am behind my work, and I have to wait days to get back my money and purchase a new one. More time lost. I understand that this is not the most expensive computer on the Earth (hence still not Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing!), but not the cheapest one either. Sadly, not all buyers comes forward with the negative feedback, and if there is, a bad feedback can be edited later after negotiation with sellers. IMHO, it should not be allowed. I did not have many issues before with sellers, but when I had, we were able to work out with the satisfaction of both parties. And this company just lets people to cancel. I don't think they are interested in customer retention, or doing a great business with anyone. Sorry, as I wrote before, my head is living (as I have now less than one month left to work), and I am very disappointed. Do a favor yourself: look for someone else, and don't be allured by the seemingly great price.

One month is lost why I get the refund, order a new laptop, and start working, but I am going to devote time today to share my experience, because evidently Amazon does not allow it.

 

I am the Customer Service Manager at Computer Upgrade King, and I wanted to clear a few things up. I agree that this was not handled correctly, and I have spoken to my team regarding this situation.

In regards to the tracking uploaded on accident situation, I cannot be certain as to why tracking was uploaded as there are many departments involved with that. The Inventory Manager believes there was a problem with the upgrade; it is possible the problem was that it was one of the last components left, which could make sense, but again, I cannot be certain as to what happened as there is only a log if the unit is successfully QA’d.

As far as the rest of the communication, this is what happened: the Customer Service Associate contacted the inventory manager concerning 500GB SSD’s earlier in the day which this unit required. At no time did the Customer Service Associate mention a specific order to the Inventory Manager, so the Inventory Manager did not bring up the fact that this customer’s computer would be shipping on June 2nd with free overnight shipping in order to be on time for the Amazon estimated delivery date of June 3rd.

We were late on the estimated shipping date, but the intention was to be on time for the estimated delivery date. While the Inventory Manager was at lunch, the Customer Service Associate proceeded based on the previous knowledge of not having any 500GB SSD’s in stock and responded to the customer accordingly. Unfortunately, some mention of accommodation, partial refund, or free overnight shipping was never addressed.

I agree with the customer that this was not the proper way to retain a customer, and I had spoken to the associate before this customer had left any feedbacks on the many websites she has now posted on. The customer then asked for a cancellation, and again, the Customer Service Associate was considerably too short in the reply and took care of the cancellation without any attempt to retain the customer; I reiterate that this has been addressed internally.

I then reached out and tried to explain what had happened and that we did have the components to build her computer. If she could get a new order in that day, we would ship it out with free overnight shipping. The customer did not respond to my offer. We do not want a back and forth at this point, and we simply want to let everyone know what happened from our perspective. Essentially, miscommunication created the situation, and had this not happened, the unit would have landed on the estimated delivery date.

 

As a complete newbie I just ordered a laptop from CUK last night via Amazon after seeing that they get good ratings from customers overall. I happened on this forum today, just to check on the company's reputation etc and I have to say that I'm impressed with the personal responses here from company representatives to answer specific complaints and provide their side of the story. A misinformed or malicious customer can wreak havoc on forums for a company's reputation and consequently sales - especially a small company like CUK. It's telling that most of the customers on this forum complaining of bad service have not been back to challenge what was said by CUK. When you ship dozens of highly technical items everyday, you are guaranteed to have some problems and issues. It's how you respond to these issues that counts the most, and it seems like CUK do the right thing when there is an issue. I'm glad also that CUK have clearly defined the warranty here, as this is the one sticking point that seems to cause the most confusion. I would suggest to CUK that they more clearly set out the warranty provisions on amazon. Although it does quote what the warranty is (basically), I think it would be a good idea to define the part regarding what's left of the manufacturer's warranty and how this part works for the customer - on the item listing itself. I also couldn't find anything warranty related on CUK's amazon store page. This is definitely an issue that potential customers wonder about the most when ordering an upgraded laptop, I know I certainly did. One customer on amazon complained of receiving a box with "no warranty" written on it. This in itself should motivate the company to clearly define what you're getting in terms of warranty. After reading through the posts here, I feel more confident about my purchase. Now, just don't let me down CUK, or I will be back here! .