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[Hijpo]

Found this post on another site earlier:

So, I found a lot of people looking for gaming laptops here, and paying close to 1000 euro for a Nvidia gt 555m which I think is ridiculous, even for europe (I'm from the USA).

For those of you who have not heard of Clevo / Sager, they are a boutique manufacturer who has a slightly different selling process than other manufacturers like Wistron, Quanta, Inventec and Compal (the big guys who make Dells, HP etc secretly).

Clevo makes different types of contracts with people called "system builders" and other resellers. These companies rebrand the Clevo notebooks with their own logos. But, they are the same Clevo notebooks and its pretty easy to tell most of the time.

Anyway, there are a ton of Clevo resellers in Europe... and I found one selling refurb models, with 1st gen i7... and options for high end graphics, ALL options are better than the gt 555m and amd 6720 I see commonly on consumer notebooks.

They like to give you the option to upgrade yourself, so it starts with a very low i3 config, but STILL more powerful then those cheap 555m and 540m cards. And the price, only 499$ with tax

http://www.notebookguru.de/en/Notebo...u-FIRE-i7.html

Here you can see a ranking of laptop graphics cards:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-...ist.844.0.html

OK, so maybe with the 260m its only ranked at 61 3 above the 555m at 64. But, for 550 you can get the 5870m, ranked 40th among all laptop graphics cards (out of 350+).
You just can't find a better deal then that.

They are refurbished models, but again for +50 you can get a new model, probably with USB 3.0 (might want to ask them).

This is definitely the best option especially if you have ANY computer parts lying around like 2gb ddr3, an i7-720qm, hard drive etc. or an Windows 7 install CD and some computer knowledge.

P. S.
They wont scam you, I don't work for Clevo or Notebookguru, not spamming here.

[Wooster]

It's an interesting alternative anyway. 

[Thermalsig]

Sager its legendary over here in certain circles They aren't well known because they don't advertise. They don't need to. They sell everything to be rebadged. They do sell direct, but it's not their business model. They make enough volume and cash wholesale.

Sent by  Droid X while sniping squirrels from my roof.

[Cricky]

That's a good listing of the laptop cards.  Glad to see mine is still considered high end after all this time. 

[Kryten]

Sager its legendary over here in certain circles They aren't well known because they don't advertise. They don't need to. They sell everything to be rebadged. They do sell direct, but it's not their business model. They make enough volume and cash wholesale.

Sent by  Droid X while sniping squirrels from my roof.

I just did a Google search on Sager laptops.

That is an awesome laptop Therm. I have never heard of them before.

Speaking as a Mac user, the general rule of thumb is that PC users can/may convert to a Mac but it is rare for a Mac user to convert to a PC. Sager laptops is the closest thing that has me thinking of switching.

Of course, I won't. But that does not prevent me from appreciating the quality and power of their products.

What I shall be doing though is buying one as a Christmas present for my brother. I don't know which model yet (that said, it will more than likely be the top end model).

[keasy]

Speaking as a Mac user, the general rule of thumb is that PC users can/may convert to a Mac but it is rare for a Mac user to convert to a PC.

TBH if I was loaded I'd have a right good mess around on MAC's.



Nice powerful looking lappies too Hij. But again only if I was loaded. If was spending upwards of 500 smackeroonies on a gaming rig it would be a full blown desktop/tower.

[Cricky]

I don't have any objection to Macs, it's just they're so fricking dear.   If someone gave me one I'd happily try it out. 

It's just an expensive PC. 

[Wooster]

And pretty expensive to repair/upgrade as well. 

[Kryten]

Keasy, I know from a previous thread that you are keen to supplement your existing income by doing private jobs in supporting PCs. I know this because I replied in that thread.

I am now going to go into major "name drop" mode:

1. Lol Creme (ex 10cc and Godley & Creme)
2. Paul McCartney
3. Mick Jagger
4. Michael Morpurgo (children's author, one of his books has been made into a very successful theatre play and Steven Spielberg is currently making a film from that book - War Horse).
5. Simon Pegg
6. Chris Martin (lead singer from Coldplay)
7. Keith Richards
8. KT Tunstall

All of the above and many more are clients of mine. There is no way that I could even dream of mixing in their circles or even meeting them had I not set up shop providing support for Apple Macs.

For me it was an investment that has paid for itself many many times. And not only financially.

To those who make a living by providing IT support do not dismiss Macs and do not look at the perceived high cost as an expense. Rather, look at it as an investment which will pay for itself in no time.

[Hijpo]

Is there anywhere that runs Mac technician courses?

[Wooster]

That's not a bad client base.

I was thinking about getting into networked home AV, but considered that the arse might have dropped out of the market.
..still, the rich generally always stay rich, so it may not be a bad idea.


...'course, I'd have to find some way of cobbling the Apple stuff into an otherwise stable network.