Deciding over a laptop

[nightshade]

Now I'm no fan of Laptops, but due to my situation I have no choice other than purchasing one. Its basically going to be a desktop replacement, so I could care less about weight and battery backup. Now the thing is most of the high end laptops are considerably costlier in UK when compared to other countries, so I either have to order one from US (guess I'll have to pay the VAT before delivery in this case) or get one from a German Clevo reseller like Hawkforce.de or notebookguru.de

So here are the three choices I've narrowed upon

1) Get this manufacture refurbished Alienware M17x R2 (International warranty with next day service, I guess I can extend the duration for an increment in price)

2) Get this Clevo X8100 based laptop from either of those two German resellers. (standard European warranty, guess this means I'll have to ship it myself if I want to claim the warranty someday)

3) A lesser option would be to get mid end laptop like the GX660 for £950


What do you guys suggest ? Also I'd like to know about the build quality of Clevo laptops vs Alienware. And is buying a manufacture refurbished laptop a good idea ? Also if you can think of better alternatives then please feel free to mention them

 

[Davros]

you say it has to be a laptop could you not get a dirt cheap one and a desktop

 

[MfA]

Careful with ze Germans ... they tend to have qwertz keyboards and changing around keys on a laptop keyboard can be a bit fiddly.

Unless you just want to mess with other people who use your laptop and don't care about it.

 

[nightshade]

I'll be heading back to my home country for nearly 2 months after I'm done with my semester exams, and I don't think I will be bothering with the hassle of carrying a desktop with me while traveling (Due to my situation I will be required to take all my belongings back home).

Careful with ze Germans ... they tend to have qwertz keyboards and changing around keys on a laptop keyboard can be a bit fiddly.

Unless you just want to mess with other people who use your laptop and don't care about it.

They provide you with the option of installing a keyboard with qwerty layout.

 

[Davros]

go for the desktop and have it dhl'd if you cant be arsed carrying it

 

[Grall]

My dad recently bought himself a HP AMD laptop. It came with discrete DX11 graphics and everything (runs WoW just great turning almost everything to max), pretty decent stuff actually apart from those crappy fragile pop-out DVD drives - and the screen, unfortunately. Glossy TN isn't a good idea on a laptop.

You angle the display to try and get rid of the reflexes, and then you can't friggin' see what's going on because the angles are so bad that all contrast goes away if you don't look at the screen dead-on... Ugh, death to TN!

Other than that, I rather like his lappy.

 

[nightshade]

go for the desktop and have it dhl'd if you cant be arsed carrying it

In which case I'll also have to consider custom duty/import taxes...I guess ?

 

[Davros]

tell em you bought it in your home country
what 2 countries ?

 

[nightshade]

India's my home country and I'm doing my education in UK.

 

[Blazkowicz]

what about carrying your hard drive and maybe graphics cards with your personal belongings, then build some micro-ATX box back in India.

 

[Simon F]

what about carrying your hard drive and maybe graphics cards with your personal belongings, then build some micro-ATX box back in India.

That reminds me of last night's "Come fly with me" episode.

Customs officer Roberts: "When you pass through customs you are required to either pass through the red channel, which means you've got goods to declare or...."

Customs office Stewart:"the green channel, which means you've also got goods to declare but you are going to try to get away with it"

 

[Blazkowicz]

those ebay stores selling electronics from Hong-Kong have it right, they send me "game parts" as a "gift" with value of 20 US$ or 100 HK$ from a "hotel room" . (no cheating on the price)

there are seriously bad-ass stuff, amplifiers made on the tripath ta2020 chip. (very small, high power efficiency, ultra cheap, few watts but seems to actually qualify for "Hi-Fi", thanks to no-bullshit use of modern electronics)