My Buying Experience: XoticPC

I have just placed an order for the following notebook:

Sager NP9170 / Clevo P170EM
- Battery: Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth Included (See “Wireless Network” Section Below)
- Branding: Remove All Branding
- Camera: Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- Case: Basic Black Business Case - Included
- Dead Pixel Warranty: Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- Display: 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen (1920x1080) (SKU - S1R506)
- Exterior Finish: Standard Finish
- Fingerprint Reader: Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- Graphics Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 7970M (2048MB) GDDR5 DX11 [User Upgradeable] (ETA: Early June) (SKU - S3R155)
- Keyboard (Internal - Laptop): Standard Sager/Clevo Non Chiclet Backlit Keyboard
- Optical Drive Bay: Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive w/ Software (When selecting a Hard Drive in the Optical Bay, No Optical Drive is Included) (SKU - S7R455)
- Primary Hard Drive: 500gb 7200rpm (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache) - Default (SKU - S5R207)
- Processor: Sager - 3rd Generation Intel® Ivy Bridge Core™ i7-3820QM (2.7GHz - 3.7GHz, 8MB Intel® Smart Cache, 45W Max TDP) (SKU - S2R203)
- Ram: 16GB - DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (4 SODIMMS) (SKU - S4P761)
- Sound Card: Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Thermal Compound: - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- Warranty: LIFETIME Ltd Labor* 1 Year Parts Warranty Lifetime 24/7 DOMESTIC Toll Free Telephone Support (Labor through XPC)
- Wireless Network: Sager - Intel® Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module (SKU - S8R112)

I placed a second order, because I wasn't aware of the NBR discounting on the first order, to make things a little more convenient (I hope) for XoticPC. I will keep everyone posted on my buying experience.

Of course, I know that there will be a delay until June 11th due to the issue with the video card.

 

You should be able to talk to your sales rep and they can add the NBR discount afterwards. Thats what they did for my order

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

Oh, thanks for the advice. I need to review my emails and find out who my sales representative is.

 

Looks like my sales representative is Derek S. He's working with me in LiveChat now on my order. Everything looks great so far.

 

I'm glad you're enjoying your buying experience V1R4G3. Feel free to contact me if you have any issues pop up, thanks for the consideration with posting the second order. Normally we can just add it to the order after the fact but with the order changes we ended up making you did it exactly right. Thanks again and have a great day.

 

Im going to be buying a NP9170 from you guys (Xoticpc) in the coming months how would i go about the NBR discount and everything? I dont have a webcam so no live chat for me
Look forward to hearing more about your experience with them cause you pretty much got what im going to

 

ThwartAbyss54, you don't need a webcam for live chat. It's just like an instant messaging program which works with any web browser. For info on the NBR chat feel free to PM any of the reps and we'll fill you in.

 

I just received the confirmation email, so I am going to go ahead and send my cash payment, so that payment doesn't delay shipping at all. I know I'll be waiting for parts availability, which is fine.

Is there any difference in processing time between a bank cashier's check and a money order?

 

With either a cashier's check or money order they do take 1-2 weeks to clear. Once it has then the computer will be authorized for production. If you send a personal check that could be better. A lot of bank will post images of cleared checks online where you can see them, if yours does this what you can do is save that image they post then email it to us as an attachment. Once we see that it's cleared we dont have to wait the 2 weeks, we'll consider it cleared right away.

 

^^^ do the above. The check my wife sent for mine cleared way before two weeks but she was too dumb to check for me.

 

Unfortunately, personal check isn't a choice for me. I have what ISU Federal Credit Union calls an "eGreen Checking" account, which gives me a slightly higher interest return on my balance, in exchange for going truly paperless (not even checks). The bank manager suggest I use a Corporate Check, which he says is the same thing as a Cashier's Check. And he told me the funds are guaranteed, so it shouldn't take long for funds to clear.

I mailed it the day before yesterday, so I'll just check in a week or so to ensure that you guys have received it.

I was told mail should get there in two business days, with leaves 5 days before the parts are even scheduled to arrive.

Now I'll just wait patiently, and cross my fingers.

 

Unfortunately what your bank tells you and our policies are different. You're welcome to send any type of check you'd like but do be aware there can be up to a 2 week clearing time.
We will let you know as soon as it does clear.

 

Well, your policy being that you allow that long for payments to clear and whether or not they actually clear in less than that time are two completely different things.

What you mean is that regardless of how long funds take to clear, you aren't processing an order for that long? Is the bank able to provide me with anything that I can provide to you to ensure that funds have cleared? If not, at what point do I get in the queue for production? I was hoping to get the item sometime in June... Is that a reasonable expectation if all tentative dates hold up?

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk 2

 

Hutsady@XoticPC Thanks ill do that sometime in the coming months
So i should try and pay for it through paypal or debit card or something instead of sending a check if i dont want to wait an additional 2 weeks thats good to know

 

It would be easier to create a separate thread for your experience. As a matter of fact, I think it is encouraged.

There are discounts available depending on payment method. PM someone from XoticPC for details since we aren't allowed to discuss the discounts in open forum either.

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The reason for this is once we deposit the payment we dont know if it will be returned. Once our bank presents it to the bank it's drafted on, that bank can still return it to our bank then our bank notifies us. This whole process can take a couple weeks to do. We have no way of know it has cleared the issuing bank. If you can provide us with images of a cleared payment then great we then know its cleared. You will have to ask your bank to see if there is anything they can provide to show its cleared.

When you mentioned previously you were going to send a cash payment i did let you know asap (2mins) that there is going to be a delay for clearing, I did this so you'd be aware of the wait and there wouldnt be any surprises.

With Sager computers and pending check payments we do have them build the computer ahead of time and give them the OK to release it once the clearing time is up. Since the 7970M is expected end of next week and with their current build times the clearing time will be up before the computer is ready to ship. So because of this you're not going to see any delay in shipping time.

 

No problem, Yes a card or paypal will get your payment cleared much faster but they dont qualify for the cash discount.

 

Hut that is fantastic. I truly expected production to be delayed until a clear payment. I will see if images of a cleared payment can be obtained, for both of our conveniences.

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Btw does the notebook I ordered have the required controller to setup two SSDs in Raid 0 with TRIM support? How much faster would the read speeds be with 2 SATA III SSDs vs 2 7200rpm drives?

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Great glad we could get it all cleared up
There wont be a controller to add TRIM for SSD's in RAID. While you can do RAID you'll lose TRIM, and since you mentioned it, it sounds like you are aware of how important TRIM is for SSD's.

 

I am. So I think I would be more comfortable going with dual 500gb 7200rpm drives in raid 0 and maybe at a mSATA SSD to boot the OS later.

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I always suggest a SSD primary and HDD secondary. A fast SSD like the Intel 520 series are still close to 4x faster then HDD in RAID 0 and still faster then mSATA.

 

I just emailed Heidi a copy of the cleared check, waiting for confirmation and phase update. It seems to me like an ETA may also be possible at this time.

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There is an mSATA that is as fast as SSD SATA 3 now. I'll be purchasing it once I get notice my P150EM is shipped.

 

But what is the capacity?

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Keep in mind that the mSATA port in the P150EM only supports up to SATA II; you won't be able to take advantage of most of the speed of a SATA III mSATA drive.

 

I sent the confirmed images at about 10-11am this morning and have received no response or update.

Derek says maybe tomorrow.

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Just went to Phase 2. Another couple weeks or so, I am guessing.

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Just curious, how do you guys go about testing the system if no OS was purchased?

 

They install a copy of the OS then format the drive before shipping it to you.

 

My Order #50088 shows a status of Phase 2 (Sent for Custom Building / Testing / Burn In & Final QA) since about 4 days ago, but it was mentioned earlier in this thread that a pending payment wouldn't hold up processing time, and payment was made on 6/11/12.

I am just curious if this unit is still with Sager in this phase, or if it's reached Xotic PC yet? Does Sager do the testing, or do both companies test the unit?

Forgive me for getting a little anxious, the updates are fairly sustaining when waiting on something like this, and it's been a bit since anything has changed.

Thanks in advance.

I know standard production times are estimated at 5-12 business days right now, so this is definitely not taking too long, just curious.

 

It does depend on the build you make. Most of the hardware options are done by Sager so they do build, test, then ship directly to you. If you pick other options like Redlineboost, Custom Skin, or anything that says next to it "will add busienss days" then it does ship to us first to do that, we'll do final testing then ship to you.

 

Oh ok, so this is going to ship directly to me, then. I didn't add anything that included extended production time.

 

I was wondering, after phase 2 is complete, how many phases remain and how long do they take? I am assuming that Phase 2 is shared between Sager and Xotic PC, in that they both perform testing. Does that mean shipping follows? Thanks in advance.

 

Phase 3 is only if it needs to ship to us for anything, then Phase 4 is the shipped phase so your next one will be 4.

 

Thanks V1R4G3 and Hutsady! These posts are very informative for those of us waiting for our own Sager!

 

These orders are not getting processed in the order in which they were received, obviously, because there are people on these forums who placed their orders at later dates than some of us, and have received shipping notices or have product in hand.

Is there some sort of mix-up that has occurred?

 

No it is completely normal. Here are some of the several posts I have made in the 7970M thread. Sager has been shipping far longer then any other seller and you are in good hands

 

Just when I thought I couldn't wait any longer, and started contemplating a cancellation, my order ships. Will followup with my impressions on the machine when it arrives.