Xotic pc Sager NP8651 experience.

So after much research on these forums and online I choose to go with the Sager NP8651 from Xotic PC. I almost went with the Eurocom M5 pro because they offer a 10% student discount but I like the reputation of Sager and the fact that I could remove all branding.
I opted for the 1080P IPS screen and the IC Diamond thermal upgrades. I placed my order on Jan 21 and received an email on Jan 22 from Katrina requesting confirmation. One of the items on my order was blank and she wanted to confirm my shipping address along with the fact that I didn't choose an operating system. I told her I already called my credit card company and informed them of the shipping address per their instructions and that I didn't notice anything missing from the order. Jan 22 I double checked to find out what was missing and noticed it was the processor. Xotic recently switched from the 4710 to the 4720 and that must have been the issue. I informed Katrina I ordered with the 4720 and she said she would forward to the appropriate parties. Later (Jan 22) I received an email stating I had been moved to phase 1. Jan 23 I received an email stating I have been moved to phase 2 (Sager Assembly, Build, Technical Analysis, Stress Testing & QA). After reading previous reviews I expected this to take longer and have been quite impressed. I will update as as I receive updates and the final product.

I initially opted for the 1tb hdd but would like a ssd. I am torn between adding an m.2 pcie ssd or replacing the hdd. I've read the m.2 drives get pretty hot. Any suggestions?

Timeline at a glance
Wed 1/21/2015 - Placed order
Thur 1/22/2015 - Phase 1 email
Fri 1/23/2015 - Phase 2 email
Mon 1/26/2015 - Phase 7 email (shipment)
Thurs 1/29/2015 - Expected delivery

 

I went with the Sager NP8651 from XoticPC as well. I ordered on December 30th, so I'm not sure if my laptop will come with the 4720 or not.

My only gripe with Xotic was that the billing department was very slow in solving my issue. It took them 2 weeks from order to finally get to phase 1 on the laptop. It was a little frustrating, but the order managed to quickly move along after that phase. Looking to receive my laptop on the 28th!

If it was my money, I would opt for 2 7mm drives (SSD + HDD). M.2 Seems a bit too expensive now and the technology is still being developed for mass user consumption. I would wait until the M.2 market becomes more mature.

 

The 1tb hdd I believe is 9.5mm so I'd have to purchase two drives and toss the 1tb?

Did you upgrade the memory?

 

Yeah, I think the stock drive is 1tb 5400 RPM HDD. So I'm purchasing a 500gb SDD and a 500gb HDD (7200 RPM), both 7mm.

I think the storage enclosure for the P650 SE can take either one 9.5mm drive or two 7mm drives. There are two M.2 slots, but only one slot can be utilized for the PCIe speeds (putting in the PCIe M.2 negates the other M.2 SATA slot).

I kept the memory at 8gb - adding another 8gb in a month or so.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys. Looking forward to more updates, let us know if any questions come up!

 

I received an email stating Phase 7, the notebook is on the way and I should receive it Thursday. The whole process from order to delivery took about 1 week which is amazing. I was expecting a couple weeks from some of the other reviews I read. I just hope everything is great when I open the box and that Kat was able to make sure I got the 4720 CPU.

Hutsady: On your webpage when you click gaming computers the NP8651 is bulleted as "Intel® i7-4710HQ" but under customization it only shows "4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4720HQ (2.6GHz - 3.6GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)". And as I mentioned the CPU didn't show up on my order but I'm expecting the 4720. You guys should correct your page or change the customization page to offer both.

 

I will point this out to our web team to update it under the gaming computer section. As you mentioned it has been updated on our configuration page to the i7-4720 and that is what you will get. Sager no longer offers both, it used to be the 4710 but has changed to the 4720 only. But again I will ask them to update all parts of our site to reflect this correctly. Thanks for pointing it out. Glad to hear the whole build process went so quickly for you!