XoticPC vs. Malibal?

Hey there.

I am a graphic designer (or soon-to-be-designer) on a low budget (<$1400). I need a new laptop, but workstations are out of my budget, so I'm thinking of going for a gaming rig. My main use of the laptop would be working on Photoshop, with maybe some casual fantasy RPG gaming. Because of Photoshop, I was considering going for a laptop with 4 RAM slots.

*Sorry for model confusion, see edits at end for corrections*
I was initially interested in the Sager NP8235 from XoticPC based on the Clevo P151SM barebone, but it had the GTX 770M which I don't really need. But, it had RAM upgradeability to 32GB, which is perfect for me. Two mSATA slots with one HDD bay. Also has backlit keyboard and rubberized case, overall build quality is good (from online reviews).

Because of budget constraints, I next turned to the Sager NP7352, based on the Clevo W350ST. This has the nVidia GTX 765M, but the RAM upgrade is limited to 24GB. Kind of a let down, but the cost is more or less in my budget. Has one mSATA slot and two HDD bays. This is a plastic case, and even looking at the photos you can see the build quality isn't all that great.

Recently (yesterday), I came across Malibal's website. They offer the Clevo P150SM (Malibal Lotus P150SM). This, component wise, I believe is the PERFECT laptop for me - 765M with 32GB RAM upgradeability. Also, two mSATA slots and one HDD bay. Good build quality, backlit keyboard, basically the Sager NP8235 with the GTX 765M instead of the 770M. Because of this downgrade from 770M to 765M, the price comes within my budget as well.

I REALLY want to go for the Malibal Lotus P150SM, BUT I've also come across reviews where people aren't very satisfied with the Malibal customer service. I have talked to Hutsady from XoticPC, and he was always polite and willing to help.

Also, shout out to XoticPC, why don't you give the option to downgrade the GPU if Malibal does? I'm not sounding rude I hope, I just want to know the reason.

An excerpt from my chat with Hutsady,
"Hutsady: the parts that can be upgraded are the ones listed on the configuration page like there are CPU options but no video card options
Payod Panda: Even for a later stage?
Hutsady: that is correct
Payod Panda: But, why is that?
Hutsady: if we cant upgrade it now, nothign is going to change that will make it upgradable later
Payod Panda: Oh.
I thought it was a Sager restriction about not selling some other GPUs with this model.
Hutsady: thats not why"

This isn't really true if Malibal IS able to configure a build on the same barebone with a different GPU, right?

I'm really confused right now about how to proceed. Any thoughts?

EDIT 1: Sorry, the Clevo P150SM is Sager NP8265, which is even more expensive than the Sager NP8235. Sorry for the confusion. So, what is the difference between these two? The components look the same, except 8265 is capable of the nVidia GTX 780M and 4930MX. I'm guessing the 8235 has a plastic body instead of rubberized, and the keyboard isn't backlit? (Just guessing). Because otherwise the price difference baffles me.

So, since the Clevo P150SM is actually Sager NP8265 which is more expensive, I think it's safe to assume that the build quality of Malibal Lotus P150SM is better than the Sager NP8235 which is based on the Clevo P151SM1 (again, I'm just speculating here - please correct me if I'm wrong).

EDIT 2: Just confirmed from another thread,

So the Sager 8235 is equivalent to Malibal Lotus P130SM, which has the exact same differences (again, I'm just inferring. Correct me if I'm wrong) - from the Malibal website,
"There are three main differences between the P130SM and the P150SM. The P150SM has a backlit keyboard, a rubberized case and a 180W power supply which supports higher-end CPUs & GPUs. The P130SM does not have a backlit keyboard, has a plastic case and a 120W power supply."

 

Hi naracion,
With the chat excerpt you have there is when we were talking about the NP8235 (P151SM) which does not support upgrading the video card to has a higher TDP then 75w. The P150SM does support changing the video card

Hope you dont mind but here is the lines that were just above what you posted:

Payod Panda: But the RAM will prove the bottleneck before a 2GB GDDR5 clocked GTX750M would.
=)
What I mean by upgradability is, will i be able to upgrade core components later on?
I mean the motherboard, gpu etc.
*motherboard, CPU etc.
Hutsady: the parts that can be upgraded are the ones listed on the configuration page like there are CPU options but no video card options

Talking about the NP8235 at that time.

So when you're comparing their Lotus P150SM you want to compare the Sager NP8265 which does offer video card upgrades. They do offer the 765M in that model which Sager does not. Hope that clears up any confusion.

 

Hi Hutsady, thanks for the quick reply as usual. =)

Sorry for using the word "upgrade" there, but I just wanted to know (during the chat) whether I can change the card at all.

My main concern is, the Lotus 150SM ( Lotus P150SM - MALIBAL) which is equivalent to Sager NP8265, offers the GTX 765M as an option.
So does the Lotus P130SM ( Lotus P130SM - MALIBAL), which (I think), is equivalent to Sager NP8235.

I don't need a BETTER card than 770M, I need the 765M for the reduced cost (since 765M is more than sufficient for my needs and is considerable cheaper). =)
So, I wanted to ask, why doesn't Sager offer the 765M even though they're built on the same barebones?

 

Happy to help!
Havent really seen a reason why they dont offer the 765M on these models. They do have it for the NP7352 but that only support 24GB of RAM.

 

Maybe it's because when they buy the laptop barebone models from Clevo, the GTX 765M option is X dollars amount cheaper than the GTX 770M.

Because the GTX 770M is one of the top mobile cards from NVidia (with the performance to back it up), it's worth paying the X dollars to get the GTX 770M over the GTX 765M. That way, they can charge more for the laptop, therefore increasing profits.
If they had the GTX 765M, they might be making less money, and sitting on useless stock since Sager is targeted at the enthusiast, power-seeker, or gamer type.

If someone offered me 1oz of silver for $50, and 1oz of gold for $100, and the market value for 1oz of silver was $55, and the 1oz of gold was $120, I would take gold over silver any day.

Let's say you had $100 to spend. 2oz of silver or 1oz of gold? 2oz of silver would get me $10 profit. 1oz of gold would get me $20 profit.

Sure, you have more silver, and it's cheaper than gold, and theoretically more people can buy it, but there will always be people that buy gold.

If silver sold faster, and made more money for you than gold (10oz silver sold per 1oz of gold), that's when you start considering buying silver instead of gold.

Once again, Sager is targeted at the enthusiast, power-seeker, or gamer type. Will the GTX 765M make more money for Sager? No. Gold (GTX 770M) sells more than Silver (GTX 765M). 10oz of gold sold per 1oz of silver.

Hmm, probably a bad analogy.

 

Ah. Yes, that does make sense. And the analogy serves its purpose - makes it easier to understand. =D