Mobile workstation needed

B

1) What is your budget? (INR or USD) - upto 1.2 lakhs/ $2000

2) What size & weight consideration (if any) would you prefer?

At least 15 inch screen but lightweight

3) What are the primary tasks you will be performing with this notebook?
Will be used for software development using Visual Studio intensively and running a number of VMs. Will be dual booting Windows 7 and 8.1.

5) Any typical configuration in your mind you're eying for ?
Quad core i7 and minimum 8gb RAM. Screen HAS to be alt least 1080p, graphics card is not a priority as this will not be used for gaming. Touch screen will be good to have but not compulsory.

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
a. Like: Lenovo ThinkPad (1st preference), HP, Dell, Apple
b. Dislike: Asus, Acer

6) Anything else you would like to say?
Screen resolution ( 768p (HD) / 900p / 1080p (Full HD) ) - minimum 1080p
Battery back up ( normal (3-4hrs) / extended (5-7hrs) ) - Higher the better
Purchase place ( Online (eg - flipkart, infibeam) / Local / Abroad (do mention the country) ) - no preference, wherever I can get it quickest.

Customise this: XOTIC PC | Sager NP8268-S (Clevo P150SM-A) - 15.6" Gaming Notebook

or this: XOTIC PC | Sager NP8651 (Clevo P650SE) - 15.6" Gaming Notebook

as per your need.

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SaiyanGoku said:
Customise this: XOTIC PC | Sager NP8268-S (Clevo P150SM-A) - 15.6" Gaming Notebook

or this: XOTIC PC | Sager NP8651 (Clevo P650SE) - 15.6" Gaming Notebook

as per your need.

Do they ship to India? Also, since this will be a work machine, ASS has to be good.

bikramjitkar said:
Do they ship to India? Also, since this will be a work machine, ASS has to be good.

count ASS out for Xotic. You won't get warranty in India. Go with Thinkpad if GPU is not required in your line of work.

S

Thinkpad W series, W540 to be precise. Although it will be hard to get that one in India. At the same time, you can look for Thinkpad T series(T540p), you will not get Quadro, but then again, graphics is not your main concern.
For HP, you kinda have to wait, since they usually don't keep ZBooks in stock(Quad core models).
For Dell, you can have Latitude E6540 or the workstation moniker M2800 of same machine.

For VMs, as far as I can remember, you can pass through the graphic queues/calls natively through Quadro/Firepro drivers/GPUs. (Although I am pretty sure that you need vSphere or Xen)

However, if you need a desktop CPU in a laptop go for Origin EON 15 X. You can upgrade it with Intel Core i7 4790K Quad-Core 4.0GHz (4.4GHz TurboBoost). No ASS however.

I like the latest refresh of Thinkpad series might get one for my DAD.

B

Only models that I can find locally are the Lenovo y50 and Alienware 14. The y50 has a crappy TN display and slow 5400rpm HDD while the Alienware is small and bulky. Flipkart has some MSI models too, but am not sure of their quality. Think I'll just get a good Thinkpad or Dell Precision from the US. No point paying a ton of cash for inferior stuff just for the warranty.

bikramjitkar said:
Only models that I can find locally are the Lenovo y50 and Alienware 14. The y50 has a crappy TN display and slow 5400rpm HDD while the Alienware is small and bulky. Flipkart has some MSI models too, but am not sure of their quality. Think I'll just get a good Thinkpad or Dell Precision from the US. No point paying a ton of cash for inferior stuff just for the warranty.

If you don't care about warranty :thumbs:

get any of the clevo models I mentioned. 2nd one has an option for 3k-4k display too instead of FHD one.

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SaiyanGoku said:
If you don't care about warranty get any of the clevo models I mentioned. 2nd one has an option for 3k-4k display too instead of FHD one.

Yeah, I'll look into those too. Thanks for the suggestions.

bikramjitkar said:
Only models that I can find locally are the Lenovo y50 and Alienware 14. The y50 has a crappy TN display and slow 5400rpm HDD while the Alienware is small and bulky. Flipkart has some MSI models too, but am not sure of their quality. Think I'll just get a good Thinkpad or Dell Precision from the US. No point paying a ton of cash for inferior stuff just for the warranty.

If you're getting from USA, get EON 15X with desktop CPU.

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seamon said:
If you're getting from USA, get EON 15X with desktop CPU.

I was checking that out too, but with a 4790k and 16 gigs of RAM, it is well exceeding the $2000 mark. This machine will be paid for by my company, so I will have a hard time justifying the extra cost.

The Sager ones look good though.

bikramjitkar said:
I was checking that out too, but with a 4790k and 16 gigs of RAM, it is well exceeding the $2000 mark. This machine will be paid for by my company, so I will have a hard time justifying the extra cost. The Sager ones look good though.

Origin EON 15 X is a laptop originally made by Clevo.

Clevo makes the barebones for custom laptops and retailers rebrand them as Clevo or Origin.

If you want it below 2k then buy directly from Sager(best retailer for Clevo notebooks).

J

I am planning on getting a Sager 9752 with 4K Sharp display (< $2000), in the next couple of weeks.
Waiting for a little feedback on it.

One thing to mind though, this will be a 3+ Kg laptop and will not have too long a battery life,but has AMAZING processing power.

Xotic PC is a good reseller in my opinion.

K

seamon said:
Origin EON 15 X is a laptop originally made by Clevo.

Clevo makes the barebones for custom laptops and retailers rebrand them as Clevo or Origin.

If you want it below 2k then buy directly from Sager(best retailer for Clevo notebooks).

Xotic's Support is way way better than Sager itself.
Plus Xotic offers free laptop tracking guaranteed so that you never loose it.

kunalgujarathi said:
Xotic's Support is way way better than Sager itself.
Plus Xotic offers free laptop tracking guaranteed so that you never loose it.

Xotic is just a reseller. They don't provide support. When I asked they said that if I wanted to claim warranty on a Sager laptop bought from them, I'd have to ship it to Sager. If I ship it to them, they'd ship it to Sager.

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seamon said:
Origin EON 15 X is a laptop originally made by Clevo.

Clevo makes the barebones for custom laptops and retailers rebrand them as Clevo or Origin.

If you want it below 2k then buy directly from Sager(best retailer for Clevo notebooks).

That looks great on paper but I'm afraid using a desktop cpu in a notebook will increase the weight quite a bit and decrease battery life. Also, there may be thermal throttling. No reviews out on these things yet.

Jayanth.M.P said:
I am planning on getting a Sager 9752 with 4K Sharp display (< $2000), in the next couple of weeks.
Waiting for a little feedback on it.

One thing to mind though, this will be a 3+ Kg laptop and will not have too long a battery life,but has AMAZING processing power.

Xotic PC is a good reseller in my opinion.

Xotic PC is one of the best out there for customizations especially for Sager laptops. Sager laptops are the real deal. No BS crap, pure power.

Another good option for you is Aorus X5 from Xotic but it'll be expensive.

- - - Updated - - -

bikramjitkar said:
That looks great on paper but I'm afraid using a desktop cpu in a notebook will increase the weight quite a bit and decrease battery life. Also, there may be thermal throttling. No reviews out on these things yet.

There's no point in using Sager laptops on battery. They are meant to be used on AC power. Yep, the battery life will be very poor. But don't expect much better battery life from mobile quad cores(core i7 4710MQ) either. Also, while on battery these processor(desktop and mobile quads) will not be able to perform at their full power due to power throttling. No battery will be able to provide enough juice for them.

Don't worry about Thermal Throttling on Sager laptops. It will never happen. Sager laptops run the coolest among competitors.

For a reference, a previous 18 incher had half an hour battery life with a Ivy Bridge Xtreme desktop proccy.

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seamon said:
There's no point in using Sager laptops on battery. They are meant to be used on AC power. Yep, the battery life will be very poor. But don't expect much better battery life from mobile quad cores(core i7 4710MQ) either. Also, while on battery these processor(desktop and mobile quads) will not be able to perform at their full power due to power throttling. No battery will be able to provide enough juice for them.

Don't worry about Thermal Throttling on Sager laptops. It will never happen. Sager laptops run the coolest among competitors.

For a reference, a previous 18 incher had half an hour battery life with a Ivy Bridge Xtreme desktop proccy.

That makes sense, but I'm looking for a balance between portability and power as I may have to travel around with this thing. The MSI Ghost looks pretty good. Any opinions on that?

bikramjitkar said:
That makes sense, but I'm looking for a balance between portability and power as I may have to travel around with this thing. The MSI Ghost looks pretty good. Any opinions on that?

Go for MSI GS 30 Shadow. 13 incher with core i7 4870HQ. It's more powerful than any processor found in Sager(except desktop and extreme one). Also it does not have a dGPU. It's one of the lightest and thinnest laptop.
It also comes with a dock to house a desktop GPU(upto GTX TITAN Z SLI card---->compatible as told to me by Xotic guys) should you ever feel the need to play games.

- - - Updated - - -

MSI GS 60 Ghost is pretty good too.

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seamon said:
Go for MSI GS 30 Shadow. 13 incher with core i7 4870HQ. It's more powerful than any processor found in Sager(except desktop and extreme one). Also it does not have a dGPU. It's one of the lightest and thinnest laptop.
It also comes with a dock to house a desktop GPU(upto GTX TITAN Z SLI card---->compatible as told to me by Xotic guys) should you ever feel the need to play games.

- - - Updated - - -

MSI GS 60 Ghost is pretty good too.

Alright man, thanks a lot for your input. I have a bit of time on my hands to make a choice, let's see what my manager has to say to this!

bikramjitkar said:
Alright man, thanks a lot for your input. I have a bit of time on my hands to make a choice, let's see what my manager has to say to this!

Yes, GS30 with docking is really made for this purpose. It's an old concept but technical capacity has the product well-made only now. Hope you enjoy it if you decide to go for this.

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rhyansy said:
Yes, GS30 with docking is really made for this purpose. It's an old concept but technical capacity has the product well-made only now. Hope you enjoy it if you decide to go for this.

Hi, is MSI planning to launch any models with the GTX 900 series in India anytime soon? Also, what is your global warranty policy?

bikramjitkar said:
Hi, is MSI planning to launch any models with the GTX 900 series in India anytime soon? Also, what is your global warranty policy?

It's already released with Amazon India. (Online Shopping: Shop Online for Mobiles, Laptops, Cameras, Books, Watches, Apparel, Shoes and More - Amazon.in) You can check them out.

Global warranty is 1 year, local 2 years.

B

Ok, if I HAVE to buy locally, I think I'll keep it under 1 lakh. I have narrowed it down to either the Lenovo Y50 (75K) or MSI GE60 2PG Apache (92K)

Is the screen on the MSI a big improvement over the Lenovo, or am I better off saving the extra money and upgrading the Lenovo with an SSD and extra RAM?

bikramjitkar said:
Ok, if I HAVE to buy locally, I think I'll keep it under 1 lakh. I have narrowed it down to either the Lenovo Y50 (75K) or MSI GE60 2PG Apache (92K)

Is the screen on the MSI a big improvement over the Lenovo, or am I better off saving the extra money and upgrading the Lenovo with an SSD and extra RAM?

Lenovo Y50 + a screen replacement + SSD + Extra Ram >> GE60 2PG Apache

and still would cost around the Apache. Apache has 850m for 92k compared to the 860m on Y50 :facepalm:

bikramjitkar said:
Ok, if I HAVE to buy locally, I think I'll keep it under 1 lakh. I have narrowed it down to either the Lenovo Y50 (75K) or MSI GE60 2PG Apache (92K)

Is the screen on the MSI a big improvement over the Lenovo, or am I better off saving the extra money and upgrading the Lenovo with an SSD and extra RAM?

Yes, screen is anti-glare FHD. All the components are first class with gaming features for gamers optimization. MSI might be priced higher than Lenovo, but you get a world class product without any downsizing.

B

SaiyanGoku said:
Lenovo Y50 + a screen replacement + SSD + Extra Ram >> GE60 2PG Apache

and still would cost around the Apache. Apache has 850m for 92k compared to the 860m on Y50

True, but I need a good screen out of the box as my company won't pay for screen replacement. Gaming is not a priority, but the screen quality has to be good, which is quite poor on the Y50 from what I saw.

rhyansy said:
Yes, screen is anti-glare FHD. All the components are first class with gaming features for gamers optimization. MSI might be priced higher than Lenovo, but you get a world class product without any downsizing.

Well, the Lenovo is also a matte FHD screen, but it's a TN panel with bad color reproduction and viewing angles. Does the MSI have an IPS display or is it TN as well? Also, is there any reseller of MSI laptops in Kolkata? I need to see it in person before buying.

Does the Y50 have an mSATA port?

bikramjitkar said:
True, but I need a good screen out of the box as my company won't pay for screen replacement. Gaming is not a priority, but the screen quality has to be good, which is quite poor on the Y50 from what I saw.

Well, the Lenovo is also a matte FHD screen, but it's a TN panel with bad color reproduction and viewing angles. Does the MSI have an IPS display or is it TN as well? Also, is there any reseller of MSI laptops in Kolkata? I need to see it in person before buying.

Does the Y50 have an mSATA port?

No mSATA slot in Y50

*i.imgur.com/nES8b2U.jpg

bikramjitkar said:
Does the MSI have an IPS display or is it TN as well? Also, is there any reseller of MSI laptops in Kolkata? I need to see it in person before buying.

GE60 screen is Samsung PLS, similar to LG IPS.

No official MSI physical shop in Kolkata yet. Aside from online shops Flipkart and Amazon, the other most direct way is to contact with our official disty, Acro Engineering in New Delhi and Mrig Technologies in Bangalore. Sorry for the inconvenience.

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rhyansy said:
GE60 screen is Samsung PLS, similar to LG IPS.

No official MSI physical shop in Kolkata yet. Aside from online shops Flipkart and Amazon, the other most direct way is to contact with our official disty, Acro Engineering in New Delhi and Mrig Technologies in Bangalore. Sorry for the inconvenience.

hmm...well, thanks for your input. I guess I will have to go for the Y50 if I have to buy it in India. If I can get it from the US, I'll go for Sager or maybe the MSI Ghost.

That's your best bet.

S

If you are buying an laptop from us u can go with dell xps 15. Any one of your choice. They have 3yrs ADP. Also u can opt for retina macbook. You can always install windows via boot camp. Plus u will get arround 7 hrs of battery life.

S

U can go with macbook pro retina. I5, 8gb, 512 ssd. Plus 7hrs of battery life. U can install windows via bootcamp.

B

Well, after much thought and research, I have decided to get a Thinkpad W541 from the US for around $1800. Since this will be a work machine, reliability is more important than gaming performance.

Config:

Processor
Intel Core i7-4810MQ

Operating System
Windows 7 Professional 64 preinstalled through downgrade rights in Windows 8.1 Pro 64

Display
Thinkpad W541 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080), with WWAN

Graphics
W540 NVIDIA Quadro K1100M 2G

Memory
16GB PC3-12800 DDR3L (2 DIMM)

Keyboard
ThinkPad New Precision Backlit Keyboard with Number Pad US English

Pointing Device
Thinkpad W541 Fingerprint Reader, 3+2BCP

Camera
720p HD Camera

Hard Drive
256GB Solid State Drive Serial ATA3 OPAL2.0

Optical Device
DVD Recordable

Battery
9 Cell Li-Ion Cylindrical Battery 99.9Wh

i would still say HP zbook15 or 17

bikramjitkar said:
Well, after much thought and research, I have decided to get a Thinkpad W541 from the US for around $1800. Since this will be a work machine, reliability is more important than gaming performance.

Config:

Processor
Intel Core i7-4810MQ

Operating System
Windows 7 Professional 64 preinstalled through downgrade rights in Windows 8.1 Pro 64

Display
Thinkpad W541 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080), with WWAN

Graphics
W540 NVIDIA Quadro K1100M 2G

Memory
16GB PC3-12800 DDR3L (2 DIMM)

Keyboard
ThinkPad New Precision Backlit Keyboard with Number Pad US English

Pointing Device
Thinkpad W541 Fingerprint Reader, 3+2BCP

Camera
720p HD Camera

Hard Drive
256GB Solid State Drive Serial ATA3 OPAL2.0

Optical Device
DVD Recordable

Battery
9 Cell Li-Ion Cylindrical Battery 99.9Wh

This is the best you can get. This will surely be a kickass config.

S

bikramjitkar said:
Well, after much thought and research, I have decided to get a Thinkpad W541 from the US for around $1800. Since this will be a work machine, reliability is more important than gaming performance.

Config:

Processor
Intel Core i7-4810MQ

Operating System
Windows 7 Professional 64 preinstalled through downgrade rights in Windows 8.1 Pro 64

Display
Thinkpad W541 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080), with WWAN

Graphics
W540 NVIDIA Quadro K1100M 2G

Memory
16GB PC3-12800 DDR3L (2 DIMM)

Keyboard
ThinkPad New Precision Backlit Keyboard with Number Pad US English

Pointing Device
Thinkpad W541 Fingerprint Reader, 3+2BCP

Camera
720p HD Camera

Hard Drive
256GB Solid State Drive Serial ATA3 OPAL2.0

Optical Device
DVD Recordable

Battery
9 Cell Li-Ion Cylindrical Battery 99.9Wh

I don't know about the cost penalty, but I think you should better switch to their 3K display(IPS) or K2100M.
--And if you can live with an ULV processor, Thinkpad 550s seems to better workstation overall(Build, mobility etc).--
Personally, seeing reviews and posts(on notebookreview forums) about newer W series Thinkpad, I think Lenovo is notching the build down for price decrease, which is not justifiable(At some point of time, higher end Thinkpads were manufactured in Japan).

Another safe bet is Fujitsu Celsius H730(since you are planning to buy from US). It has same value for money aspects, and industrial design/maintenance features comparable to Thinkpad(Sans ports like Thunderbolt/Expresscard). This one is a bare bones device produced with absolutely no software/hardware frills.....so you might not get that "Workstation-esque uniqueness" factor. (Approx. 1800 USD for Intel Core i7-4710MQ CPU, 8 GB of RAM, a 256 GB SSD, Nvidia's Quadro K1100M GPU, Full HD IPS display, 3G UMTS module)

B

Siddhartht said:
I don't know about the cost penalty, but I think you should better switch to their 3K display(IPS) or K2100M.
--And if you can live with an ULV processor, Thinkpad 550s seems to better workstation overall(Build, mobility etc).--
Personally, seeing reviews and posts(on notebookreview forums) about newer W series Thinkpad, I think Lenovo is notching the build down for price decrease, which is not justifiable(At some point of time, higher end Thinkpads were manufactured in Japan).

Another safe bet is Fujitsu Celsius H730(since you are planning to buy from US). It has same value for money aspects, and industrial design/maintenance features comparable to Thinkpad(Sans ports like Thunderbolt/Expresscard). This one is a bare bones device produced with absolutely no software/hardware frills.....so you might not get that "Workstation-esque uniqueness" factor. (Approx. 1800 USD for Intel Core i7-4710MQ CPU, 8 GB of RAM, a 256 GB SSD, Nvidia's Quadro K1100M GPU, Full HD IPS display, 3G UMTS module)

Yeah, I'm not too sure of the quality of the 1080p screen on the ThinkPad since it is a TN panel and there are hardly any reviews of it. Thinking of dropping down the processor to a 4710mq and upgrading to the 3K IPS screen, but then I have heard of Windows having text scaling issues with very high resolutions (I'm a developer, so I'll be staring at text all day).

bikramjitkar said:
Yeah, I'm not too sure of the quality of the 1080p screen on the ThinkPad since it is a TN panel and there are hardly any reviews of it. Thinking of dropping down the processor to a 4710mq and upgrading to the 3K IPS screen, but then I have heard of Windows having text scaling issues with very high resolutions (I'm a developer, so I'll be staring at text all day).

Wait for windows 10 for that screen issue fix.

S

bikramjitkar said:
Yeah, I'm not too sure of the quality of the 1080p screen on the ThinkPad since it is a TN panel and there are hardly any reviews of it. Thinking of dropping down the processor to a 4710mq and upgrading to the 3K IPS screen, but then I have heard of Windows having text scaling issues with very high resolutions (I'm a developer, so I'll be staring at text all day).

Check for the review on notebook check. Also, you can try contacting Dell about their M2800 workstation. Pretty solid entry level offering near 1K.

B

Kahaani mein twist!

After seeing the new Thinkpad X1 Carbon, I'm in love. I don't really need all that raw power of a workstation most of the time and may have to travel a bit this year. The new XPS 13 also looks amazing, but the Thinkpad just looks so pro. Almost settled for the 1080p, i5, 8GB, 256 gig SSD model.

S

bikramjitkar said:
Kahaani mein twist!

After seeing the new Thinkpad X1 Carbon, I'm in love. I don't really need all that raw power of a workstation most of the time and may have to travel a bit this year. The new XPS 13 also looks amazing, but the Thinkpad just looks so pro. Almost settled for the 1080p, i5, 8GB, 256 gig SSD model.

More than a twist; this is a complete rewrite. A word of caution. You can forget virtual machines with good performance on Carbon.....and all GPGPU acceleration Firepro/Quadro can give.

bikramjitkar said:
Kahaani mein twist!

After seeing the new Thinkpad X1 Carbon, I'm in love. I don't really need all that raw power of a workstation most of the time and may have to travel a bit this year. The new XPS 13 also looks amazing, but the Thinkpad just looks so pro. Almost settled for the 1080p, i5, 8GB, 256 gig SSD model.

I would still insist on carbon X1 2015. Will be getting one foe my Dad as well.

B

Ok, so I got a call from Azom (AZOM SYSTEMS) today. I had almost decided upon the Thinkpad W541 cos the Carbon was a bit too light on power. The Azom guy seemed to be quite knowledgeable and courteous, and sent me the following quote for their base model:

Laptop - Exigo
Display - 15.6” Full-HD 1920x1080 16:9 Matte (anti-glare)
CPU - Intel Haswell i7 4710MQ 4C 8T 6 MB 2.5-3.5 GHz
GPU - NVIDIA GTX 870M 3GB GDDR5
RAM - Patriot Viper 2x8GB 1600MHz DDR3
Wireless - Intel Wireless-N 7260 2x2 + Bluetooth 4.0
Sound - Onkyo 2xspeaker, 1xsubwoofer, Sound Blaster Xi-Fi MB3
Card Reader - 9-in-1 MMC/SD/MS
Storage1 - mSATA 128GB SSD
Storage2 - SATA 500GB 5400rpm HDD
Optical - DVD/CD RW
Keyboard - Backlit
Camera - 2 MP HD
Battery - 8 cell

Operating System - Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit

Price - 92,600/- plus tax @5% VAT
Warranty - 1 year

Also, apparently they have their warehouse and main office in Kolkata (where I live), so replacement parts and service should not be an issue. A demo can be arranged, and I can monitor the build process too. They also do custom laser etching.

Thoughts?

^ Ask them to bump up the HDD to 1 TB without extra cost. Even 30k laptops have it as a standard.

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SaiyanGoku said:
^ Ask them to bump up the HDD to 1 TB without extra cost. Even 30k laptops have it as a standard.

They are quoting extra Rs 2400 for 1 TB 7200 rpm HDD. Anyway, I will try and get a demo this week. This system is based on Clevo P150SM-A barebones. Here's a video review of a Sager that they sent for comparison : *www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVIew-_hiUw

Clevo P150SM-A comes with a 1 TB 7200 rpm HDD by DEFAULT. Link them this page:

XOTIC PC | Sager NP8268-S (Clevo P150SM-A) - 15.6" Gaming Notebook

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SaiyanGoku said:
Clevo P150SM-A comes with a 1 TB 7200 rpm HDD by DEFAULT. Link them this page:

XOTIC PC | Sager NP8268-S (Clevo P150SM-A) - 15.6" Gaming Notebook

Yeah, that one also comes with a 970m and Blu Ray combo. Theirs is more like this one : XOTIC PC | Sager NP8268 (Clevo P150SM-A) - 15.6" Gaming Notebook

With the same config, the price is pretty close to that in US. Just need to check the build quality.

bikramjitkar said:
Yeah, that one also comes with a 970m and Blu Ray combo. Theirs is more like this one : XOTIC PC | Sager NP8268 (Clevo P150SM-A) - 15.6" Gaming Notebook

With the same config, the price is pretty close to that in US. Just need to check the build quality.

I had the previous one bookmarked.

B

Alright folks, so I met with one of the Azom guys a couple of days back. Had a good look at the Clevo barebones that they use. Good, sturdy (and pretty heavy) build quality and responsive keyboard. Nice big vents for heat dissipation. The guy knew his stuff and we spoke for more than hour about my requirements and computers, overclocking and how Tier 1 manufactures are selling overpriced stuff to Indians *cough*MSI*cough*. They are a young start up formed by some friends who worked in various IT companies and finally decided to do their own thing. After listening to him and checking out their user testimonials, I feel they are genuine guys and have ordered the following config from them today :

Laptop - Exigo
Display - 15.6” Full-HD 1920x1080 16:9 Matte (anti-glare)
CPU - Intel Haswell i7 4710MQ 4C 8T 6 MB 2.5-3.5 GHz
GPU - NVIDIA GTX 870M 3GB GDDR5
RAM - Patriot Viper 2x8GB 1600MHz DDR3
Wireless - Intel Wireless-N 7260 2x2 + Bluetooth 4.0
Sound - Onkyo 2xspeaker, 1xsubwoofer, Sound Blaster Xi-Fi MB3
Card Reader - 9-in-1 MMC/SD/MS
Storage1 - mSATA 128GB SSD (Samsung 841 evo)
Storage2 - SATA 1TB 7200rpm HDD (Hitachi)
Optical - DVD/CD RW
Keyboard - Backlit
Camera - 2 MP HD
Battery - 8 cell

Operating System - Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit

Price - 99,800/- (including 5% VAT)
Warranty - 1 year

The pricing is quite fair as the exact same machine is being sold by Sager for almost the same price in US (XOTIC PC | Sager NP8268 (Clevo P150SM-A) - 15.6" Gaming Notebook). The CPU and GPU are also upgradable, so this machine can be expected to have a good lifespan. Expected build time is around 2-3 weeks and I can go to their place and see the build process. They also do custom laser etching for an extra 1500 bucks.

Thanks to everyone for their input in this thread. Will post a review when I get the system.

S

bikramjitkar said:
Alright folks, so I met with one of the Azom guys a couple of days back. Had a good look at the Clevo barebones that they use. Good, sturdy (and pretty heavy) build quality and responsive keyboard. Nice big vents for heat dissipation. The guy knew his stuff and we spoke for more than hour about my requirements and computers, overclocking and how Tier 1 manufactures are selling overpriced stuff to Indians *cough*MSI*cough*. They are a young start up formed by some friends who worked in various IT companies and finally decided to do their own thing. After listening to him and checking out their user testimonials, I feel they are genuine guys and have ordered the following config from them today :

Laptop - Exigo
Display - 15.6” Full-HD 1920x1080 16:9 Matte (anti-glare)
CPU - Intel Haswell i7 4710MQ 4C 8T 6 MB 2.5-3.5 GHz
GPU - NVIDIA GTX 870M 3GB GDDR5
RAM - Patriot Viper 2x8GB 1600MHz DDR3
Wireless - Intel Wireless-N 7260 2x2 + Bluetooth 4.0
Sound - Onkyo 2xspeaker, 1xsubwoofer, Sound Blaster Xi-Fi MB3
Card Reader - 9-in-1 MMC/SD/MS
Storage1 - mSATA 128GB SSD (Samsung 841 evo)
Storage2 - SATA 1TB 7200rpm HDD (Hitachi)
Optical - DVD/CD RW
Keyboard - Backlit
Camera - 2 MP HD
Battery - 8 cell

Operating System - Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit

Price - 99,800/- (including 5% VAT)
Warranty - 1 year

The pricing is quite fair as the exact same machine is being sold by Sager for almost the same price in US (XOTIC PC | Sager NP8268 (Clevo P150SM-A) - 15.6" Gaming Notebook). The CPU and GPU are also upgradable, so this machine can be expected to have a good lifespan. Expected build time is around 2-3 weeks and I can go to their place and see the build process. They also do custom laser etching for an extra 1500 bucks.

Thanks to everyone for their input in this thread. Will post a review when I get the system.

Great purchase. It is good to support Indian companies whenever we get a chance. Now all we need is a review.
Personally, I would have preferred Clevo P651SG for all-rounder systems, but yours will do fine too.

bikramjitkar said:
Alright folks, so I met with one of the Azom guys a couple of days back. Had a good look at the Clevo barebones that they use. Good, sturdy (and pretty heavy) build quality and responsive keyboard. Nice big vents for heat dissipation. The guy knew his stuff and we spoke for more than hour about my requirements and computers, overclocking and how Tier 1 manufactures are selling overpriced stuff to Indians *cough*MSI*cough*. They are a young start up formed by some friends who worked in various IT companies and finally decided to do their own thing. After listening to him and checking out their user testimonials, I feel they are genuine guys and have ordered the following config from them today :

Laptop - Exigo
Display - 15.6” Full-HD 1920x1080 16:9 Matte (anti-glare)
CPU - Intel Haswell i7 4710MQ 4C 8T 6 MB 2.5-3.5 GHz
GPU - NVIDIA GTX 870M 3GB GDDR5
RAM - Patriot Viper 2x8GB 1600MHz DDR3
Wireless - Intel Wireless-N 7260 2x2 + Bluetooth 4.0
Sound - Onkyo 2xspeaker, 1xsubwoofer, Sound Blaster Xi-Fi MB3
Card Reader - 9-in-1 MMC/SD/MS
Storage1 - mSATA 128GB SSD (Samsung 841 evo)
Storage2 - SATA 1TB 7200rpm HDD (Hitachi)
Optical - DVD/CD RW
Keyboard - Backlit
Camera - 2 MP HD
Battery - 8 cell

Operating System - Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit

Price - 99,800/- (including 5% VAT)
Warranty - 1 year

The pricing is quite fair as the exact same machine is being sold by Sager for almost the same price in US (XOTIC PC | Sager NP8268 (Clevo P150SM-A) - 15.6" Gaming Notebook). The CPU and GPU are also upgradable, so this machine can be expected to have a good lifespan. Expected build time is around 2-3 weeks and I can go to their place and see the build process. They also do custom laser etching for an extra 1500 bucks.

Thanks to everyone for their input in this thread. Will post a review when I get the system.

Great. Looking forward for the review. :doublethumb:

Edit:
All of this, including VAT (and whatever shipping and customs Azom guys paid per piece) for 100k? :shock:

MSI overpricing their laptops in India isn't unheard of.

B

Siddhartht said:
Great purchase. It is good to support Indian companies whenever we get a chance. Now all we need is a review.
Personally, I would have preferred Clevo P651SG for all-rounder systems, but yours will do fine too.

Thanks. They do have some user reviews on Amazon and also their official blog - Azom Systems

SaiyanGoku said:
Great. Looking forward for the review.

Edit:
All of this, including VAT (and whatever shipping and customs Azom guys paid per piece) for 100k?

MSI overpricing their laptops in India isn't unheard of.

Yup, even I was amazed that they could manage a price of under 100k, while other big companies are offering far inferior systems for much more. They said that they had managed to get a great deal from Clevo who were trying desperately to enter the Indian market but were not finding any good partners. Reliance(yuck!) were also bidding for the Clevo contract but their bid was very low as they had either no clue about these systems or wanted to keep all the profits to themselves. Azom have also struck deals with Patriot memory and are their only partner in India. Another thing that impressed me was the confidence they had in their systems so that when I asked for an additional 1 year warranty, they said that it would cost an extra 5000 bucks but they would not recommend it since they have hardly ever had any issue with these systems. Other companies thrive on useless warranties that they don't even honor when the time comes. Anyway, since they are based out of my home town (Kolkata), finding replacement parts should not be an issue. Also, they are trying to get a good deal on GTX 970m based systems from Clevo, but right now the price of the upgrade is way too much (42k).

B

Finally got my Exigo laptop from Azom this Sunday. Arindam from Azom met me at a cafe and personally delivered the laptop to me.

Haven't got the time yet to write a full review so I'll just post my initial impressions. This thing is big and fast! Looks and feels solid and sturdy. The display is quite good for a TN panel and viewing angles are also pretty good, certainly way better than a Y50. Keyboard is really nice and responsive and the backlight colours are fully customizable via software. The finish is matte, rubberized plastic all around which feels really nice and does not show fingerprints. The power adapter is a brick.

Performance: Boot time for Windows 8.1 Pro is hardly 10 seconds. Did a bit of benchmarking with 3D mark and got around 4500 in FireStorm and 14900 in SkyDiver benchmarks, which is just a tad lower than my desktop. Got around 25-30 fps in Witcher 3 at Medium settings, again just a little lower than my desktop but still very good for a laptop. Fans are nearly silent at idle and can only be heard under load. Max temperatures were around 65 for the CPU and 80 for the GPU running 3D Mark but the laptop never felt very hot, so the cooling seems to be good. Speakers are ok but not very loud, though I've read that the sub-woofer really kicks in with external speakers.

Overall, really liking the machine thus far and feel the money was well spent. Also got a free code for Hitman Absolution for paying through NEFT.

Some pics:

*i.imgur.com/xyzhoPT.jpg

*i.imgur.com/SgacGMl.jpg

*i.imgur.com/Z7y62hi.jpg

*i.imgur.com/hJ672lK.jpg

Awesome laptop for this price! Particularly the upgradeable gpu and cpu.

Guys its been quite a while that you all have purchased this laptop.. So what are ur views now on buying this? Are you content with the built and services that Azom is providing/provided?

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