I guess the "Idiot Fairy" visited your house some years ago. he's like the tooth fairy and when your kid get ready for bed one night when they are between 11 and 13, they go to bed think their Dad knows everything. Then the idiot fairy comes during the night, they wake up and Dad's an idiot and the kjids on the bus know everything. Here's the deal.
Alienware made their name selling Clevo laptops ... they became a giant in the industry, and then sold to Dell ... went downhill from there. I'd be willing to bet that the youngin' thinks he knows two things:
a) He never heard any of his friends talk about Clevo so they can't be good.
b) He thinks he can name three outfits that make laptops... he's wrong.... just about every one he can name (HP, Lenovo, Apple, Acer, Toshiba, Dell, Sony) doesn't actually make a laptop. If he says MSI, then give him credit for one
Let's work backwards ...
The vast majority of laptops on the market are manufactured by a small handful of Taiwan-based Original Design Manufacturers although their production bases are located mostly in mainland China.
Major relationships include:
Quanta sells to (among others) HP, Lenovo, Apple, Acer, Toshiba,
Dell, Sony, Fujitsu and NEC
Compal sells to (among others) Acer,
Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo and HP/Compaq
Wistron sells to
Dell, Acer, Lenovo and HP
Inventec sells to Toshiba, HP,
Dell and Lenovo
Pegatron sells to Asus, Toshiba, Apple,
Dell and Acer
Foxconn sells to Asus,
Dell, HP and Apple
Flextronics sells to HP
Clevo is a maker of hi-end gaming laptops and was the actual builder of Alienware when they were sold by Alienware. If you look at one of those fancy hi end $3-4k gaming laptops, that you buy from WidowPC, VoodooPC, Falcon Northwest, those are Clevo
Clevo sells thru distributors or under their retail arm Sager. The Clevo buld process however is very different, much like you as an enthusiast would do.... pick out every single danged component in the thing. None of that 3 name brand items and everything else bargain basement. You pick a basic chassis based upon CPU and GPU level, they have the barebones chassis with cooling and power set up for that combo and then you pick everything else that goes in.
Now onto the part about none of his friends heard of Clevo.
1. Well, Clevo made every high end laptop Alienware ever sold (prior to Dell purchase). Back then, the buyer picked out each component, not with dell.
2. http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/clevo-guide-v2-0-faq-and-reseller-info.91510/
CLEVO is a large Taiwanese computer company specializing in laptops. While the Clevo brand name is perhaps not widely known, their products are re-branded and sold by known boutique brand OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers)… notably Sager, VoodooPC, Falcon Northwest, Eurocom, etc. They are also considered (by whoever knows about notebooks) to design and manufacturer the best of the best notebooks in terms of superior build quality and innovative designs.
Established in 1983, as an ODM (Original Design Manufacturer), they sell barebones ranging from laptop to portable computing solutions for both AMD and Intel processors. Clevo is one of the world's most preferred ODM partners and markets their products in more than 50 countries, and have established service centers in the USA, Germany, Britain, China, and Taiwan.
Why buy a Clevo notebook?
1.) Price (Bang for the Buck): Since Clevo notebooks are sold by so many vendors, they are usually very price competitve (along with competitive service/support) as opposed to notebook models that are exclusive to only one vendor (whom can charge whatever they want)
2.) Quality (Hard as a Rock): If you ever have a chance to try out a Clevo notebook (especially the high-end models), you will find that they have superior build quality and design as compared to mainstream notebooks.
3.) Software (No Crap/Bloat-ware): When you purchase your custom systems, you can choose whichever OS you want to install (or have installed for you) and the OS is clean installed w/o extra trial/un-needed/useless software installed along with the system.
4.) Upgradeability (Made Easy for Users): Clevo current high-end models are designed to specifically have their components (CPU, RAM, HDD, internal cards, and even the videocard) easily accessible for future upgrades.
5.) Uniqueness : Subjective to personal preference. But having a custom high-end notebook that the masses cannot identify is pretty 1337.
When I was looking for my 1st Power laptop (AutoCAD by day / Gaming by night) ... I had settled on a $3300 build from WidowPC ... I was going to be in their city (Texas) on a business trip and asked if I could order it and then get a tour and pick it up when i was in Town. The guys was tripping over his tongue trying to think of what that wouldn't work. After some web research, I found out that a Clevo distributor made every laptop they sold. I contacted one and "built" the same exact one for $2140. Now Clevo guys are not allowed to advertise prices below a certain price so if you web shop, it costs the same everywhere ... but they can negotiate discounts ... I got another $150 off and paid < $2k for my $3300 build. Today of course everything is much cheaper.... but if ya want the discount, ya gotta ask. Can also pay by 'cash' which doesn't mean crash, just w/o credit card fees. I use business check.
For the last 8 or 9 years, "Larry the laptop Guy" has been our laptop builder. I buy personal, business ((I have a consulting engineering firm) and stuff for clients and colleagues using my business account to get the cash pricing. There are others around, you can check the FAQ ink above, all over the world. With regard to the discounts that the vendors offer individually when you talk by phone, the ore ya spend, the bigger the discount. Sometmes it pays to upgrade to pass the next trigger level ... one level might be say $50, but spend $10 more might push ya to another level, so $10 more gets ya $50 extra on the discount. I don't haggle tho
... since service is good don't wanna be one of those problem customers.
BTW, I always order an OEM copy of Windows and install it myself. We don't use HDs, Depending on usage, I either get:
a) SSD + SSHD
b) SSHD
The SSHD is 50% faster than a HD in gaming... it boots Windoze in 16.5 seconds versus 15.6 for the SSD
Since ya didn't give me a budget ... this is a special bundle with several upgrades included
https://lpc-digital.com/product/sager-np8173-special-clevo-p670rs/
17.3” Full HD (1920 x 1080) Clear LG IPS MATTE G-SYNC™ Technology
Guaranteed no dead or partially-lit pixels for first 30 days
6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ (6M Cache, up to 3.50 GHz)
NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 1070 GPU with 8GB GDDR5 NVIDIA PASCAL™
16GB Dual Channel DDR4 2400MHz (PC4 19200) (2 x 8GB) - SPECIAL!
None - Drivers & Utility Software Only...If ya want Win 10, installed or not, it's $70 and it is transferable because yu aid for it as a separate item.
No Branding - you made it
SanDisk X400 256GB M.2 SSD - Primary C Drive - SPECIAL!
1 TB HGST 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive
They no longer have the SSHD on this model at least so I'd install that myself ($80) and take a $50 credit on th HD)
Intel® Dual Band Ultra -AC 8260 M.2 AC + Bluetooth 4.2 Combo Card ($15 downgrade)
LIFETIME Limited Labor and 2 Years Premium Parts Warranty (double mass market brands on parts ... and mass s market offers just 1 year period .. you get lifetime support an labor.
Free shipping
Cash Price: $1,677.13
Credit card price: $1,729.00
Add $70 for Win 10 64 (installed or not)
That's a helluva step up from that 15" alienware
I'll come back with a 15" build
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