X7200 Amateur Review and sales experience with Malibal

Let me preface this by saying this is the first time ever uploading a video, which I did from my iphone, only to find out after the fact that I should have held the phone in Landscape, so sorry lol. I didn't feel like redoing them (and I didn't have to do them at all . In addition, keep in mind I do not have a technical background (which becomes obvious as you watch lol). This is simply to share my experience from the moment I decided to purchase a new laptop to my first month of using it.

Background:
I have two gaming desktops, both are nothing special, single cards, one has a Nvdia GTX 280 and the other has a 550TI. Both I received for free, but wanted someone more mobile and more powerful. After a lot of research between Alienware (which I have owned in the past) and Sager/Clevo (which I had never heard of until these forums, I decided to go with the X7200. After further research, I decided to give Malibal a shot since they seemed to have a good rating with the BBB, good feedback here, and I wouldn't be charged sales tax since they are not in California.

Sales Experience with Malibal:
-The sales person here responded VERY FAST. Each time I would send him a question, he responded anywhere from a couple of hours to a few minutes and I asked a lot of questions. That was a very good first impression.
-I tried to convince them to bring the pricing down by providing a deep educational discount I would have received from an almost comparable Dell Alienware, but he wouldn't budge stating that this Notebook was superior. Perhaps, so, but I found that slightly disappointed. Nonetheless, I did some research on the benchmark sites I found here only to find that in general, he was correct, though I question whether the gap was as huge as he inferred. Anyway, he is in sales, so kudos to him. I did get a discount on the shipping (free shipping) being a forum member here.
-Without going into all of the annoying details including some sarcasm I shouldn't have received, he made a minor pricing error applying the wrong discount (which I actually caught) and then raised the price on me after I had already received the quote. Annoying, but not the end of the world considering I could care less if the price was $4,440 or $4,480, (but sometimes its about the principle ). They did throw in a minor item into the price before the error was made and the free shipping and tax did help.
-The order shipped within 4 days and I received it on the 5th day. INCREDIBLE TURNAROUND on an order. Never before had I received a computer order so fast. When I received it, everything looked in perfect condition. No scratches, no Dead Pixels, etc.
-Now, being a not so technical person (I just experiment through trial and error or reading forums), I struggled with a few things. Before I go into a couple of those things I want anyone thinking about getting the extended 24x7 support to understand something. In all my years of purchasing 24x7 support on a PC, that meant telephone support. However with Malibal, it is not. What is means is that they are available by phone during normal business hours, but they will respond to your email 24x7 in a reasonable amount of time. For the price I payed for the computer, to not have a 24x7 phone support option is absolutely absurd. However, what I will say is that when I opened tickets to ask questions at weird hours on the weekend, they did answer very quickly..even questions that they may not necessarily have to answer. However, in the future, I may do a little more due diligence when comparing vendors to include what 24x7 support means over a 3 year period.

Would I purchase from Malibal again, YES, because the most important aspects were met. Quick turnaround on pricing, very quick turnaround on the shipment, product was not defective, product meets my expectations in comparison to the price I paid (except the 24X7 3 year HW support should be cheaper since others offer the same with 24x7 telephone support), and quick turnaround on questions.

My Computer:

To make things easier, I made 5 videos. As I noted above, I stupidly filmed them with my phone in portrait instead of landscape. Since these are my first videos ever on youtube, I'll know better next time lol. A few points not in the videos:

1) The camera (built in webcam) is mediocre. Its not as good as my Logitech standalone, but I could care less. This is not why I bought it.
2) When I received it, I was surprised just how tinny the volume sounded for such an expensive computer. It was only through these forums that I figured out where to change the settings (room, rock, 5.1, etc) which helped enormously. Still not nearly enough base as I would want (maybe I am still doing something wrong), but a million times better. It would be nice if some of the settings weren't barebone when you receive it.
3) Video Drivers and Drivers in general. Without these forums, I would be clueless. In every previous computer I have owned, I would simply go to the Nvdia Website, download them, click the executable, and thats it. Now I have to worry about whether the driver has the correct Mod INI file or ask people here if it is safe. A minor annoyance even though I like to update video drivers when Nvidia posts them, not when Clevo or a Forum says its OK. In fact, I had to do a restore to an earlier time because the drivers this site recommended did not have the option for SLI which I didn't know until after I loaded them.
4) THE COMPUTER: A+, worth the money even though a little on the pricey side (to say the least). I am very happy I didn't wait for the 6990s, especially after reading some of the issues people are having. I'm glad I ignored all those threads mocking Nvidia and the 580Ms. Please refer to my unprofessional Videos for more info on my non technical testing lol.

Part 1 of 5
Clevo x7200 review part 1 of 5 - YouTube

Part 2 of 5
Clevo x7200 review part 2 of 5 - YouTube

Part 3 of 5 (bad video because I didn't use landscape lol. Change to 1080P and expand it, but it still doesn't look that great as compared to on my phone...sorry lol)
Clevo x7200 review part 3 of 5 - YouTube

Part 4 of 5 (same issue as part 3 of 5, sorry lol..but at least you can see the good FPS #s on high settings.
Clevo x7200 review part 4 of 5 - YouTube

Part 5 of 5
Clevo x7200 review part 5 - YouTube

 

Thanks Keith! Glad you are enjoying the notebook.

 

+1 rep! the power supply is a monster lol. I'm also waiting for Skyrim, as soon as I get my laptop I'm installing Oblivion. I heard its much superior then the console version which I've only played on. Also I hope my SSD boots that fast, that was quick!

 

Thank you, despite the horrible quality of the video while watching the two games, it was a lot of work for me to put this together and patiently wait enough time to give my opinion. The computer boots so fast that I find myself not relying on my iPad 2 for casual browsing when I am in the same room as the PC.

Skyrim...well..what can I say...everything I read, even from a harsh initial critic states that it looks awesome. I'm hopeful that Ill be able to play that game on settings similar to the Witcher 2 without issue. Guess we will see soon .

Oh yea..Oblivion, yes, it is better on a PC. Just do yourself a favor and make sure you patch the game, followed by the unofficial patch, and there is a Mod called Francesco’s Leveled Creatures and Items Mod. I recommend it, because I don't like how the vanilla game levels all creatures as you level. This Mod makes all of that much more realistic. However, I think like with any Mod for this game, they were created with much older HW. I noticed a couple of incompatibilities and had to disable a portion of Francesco's Mod when I noticed some anomolies. It was the part of the Mod related to adding new creatures that game didn't have and the frequency of such. You'll see what I'm talking about if you read about it. Here is the link I referred to for the Mods Ten essential Oblivion mods | PC Gamer

Thanks for taking the time to read and watch.

 

Thanks for the personnel review! Always good to watch individual opinions. Now go get yourself a camera!

 

lol, you're welcome. You have no idea how difficult it is to balance an iphone 4 on a box hehe

 

Thanks for posting this review! These reviews are helpful because I have never purchased laptops from resellers before (let alone a Clevo).

 

Thanks man, awesome video review, quick and filled with information

+ everything is maxed, OMG

 

Keithianw !!!! you cannot put a $4000 laptop on notepal u3 my friend!!!!! . That doesnt feel right, get a CryoLX , it will look better and cool better!!! nice rig you have in there, makes my laptop feel like celeron with integrated graphics!

 

Great Review! I'd suggest making those videos public so that people can view them just by searching for x7200 reviews on Youtube.

 

I can't explain how sexy the placement of the power button on the X7200 is to me.

Great review. I hope more people do videos. I may give it a go myself.

 

Great review, thanks!