CrowTech
03-12-2011, 01:15 AM
It's a big first post, but the people at XoticPC.com earned every single word of it. Read if you're on the fence about purchasing from them; read if you don't mind reading a retarded long post about how well I was treated. Otherwise, you can just pass this by as me being one absolutely satisfied customer!
Primer
First and foremost, I hate laptops. I honestly hope that the new machine doesn't get a sense of this as that attitude comes from the past and not from what I hope is a bright future. Most of the reason has always been that you just can't get what you want unless they have it already configured. All of those options were high priced, from manufacturers I didn't want and not really what I wanted by way of overkill to slightly less than I could accept under the hood. I hate to have to settle and, for what it's worth, I had never really had the need for one. I like my desktops and they work fabulously. I'm probably a bit spoiled as such. Now, however, I need a laptop and because I have silly tastes in specs, the laptop I want would not be easy to find. Impossible, probably.
The Find
It wasn't easy to find. Not at all. I must have considered a few dozen laptops. Some of which were excellent machines, but none that had all the things I was looking for. In fact, it was starting to get a little too easy to find flaws in the configured machines that are widely available. Even with the additional choices you have now, even being pleased that there was so much selection, I still couldn't find that exact right thing or get it to be within or not too far out of the budget if it was close enough. A few things went my way so that I was able to increase the budget, but I was still having issues because, for me, those large laptop screens are a bit much. Sure, they're great; no doubt. I just couldn't bring myself to get one and I probably would have if not for wanting a bit more than the stock setup was offering. Getting the extras put the bigger screen out of the picture.
I started digging around to try and find somebody; some place that could do up some extras without having me shell out A.LOT. We all know, when it comes to laptops, it can get even crazier than desktops! I need not mention some of the names that came up besides one. So, after a bit of digging around and being astonished at some of the prices for customization, I landed on XoticPC.com and started wandering. Well, holy s***! There is the exact laptop I'm really wanting with a beautiful little button that reads, "Build Yours". I click. I Love to click!
Customization
I'm presented a pretty decent screen that shows what I found to be a very competitive (stock) price. Very close to what I would pay elsewhere and based on all the good things I've read so far about XoticPC, I'm pretty impressed that's it is less than some, a bit more than others, but very reasonable. Then again, I need to tweak this thing, so I should just hold my breath while I do that and hope it doesn't get out of hand.
I could have gone crazier, of course; there are so many options! Only one isn't available; the video card, but I like what's in it already so that's not a big deal. You have to pick other manufacturers to get a video card option so you can get it if you need it. Every other option was there with some of special note to me: thermal redo, Win7 Pro and full testing! I wish there was no bloatware and I probably could have asked for Xotic to tone it down, but it was very minimal anyway. I probably need most of it and I just don't know it yet!.
It was really hard not to get carried away; I do that. I buckle down and build exactly what I wanted, with a few extra nice things like the thermal upgrade, etc. Remember, I was holding my breath doing this, so I'm literally about to pass out. The price revives me! Wait a second, I did something wrong...nope! With Win 7 Pro?! Wow; I'm looking at serious savings even with the shipping and taxes.
Just a Bit More Digging
With all due respect to Xotic, I had to do this. It's just how I roll. I couldn't find anything at any other places that really totaled up as well as XoticPC did with this build and a lot of places were only offering stock setups. After looking around at some reviews of what Xotic offers, I was able to put myself in a better position to buy from them except for one problem. Delivery. Oh, and they've had issues with this exact thing in the past. I hate it when this happens! I did come to find out that, after reading and reading; many of the problems were basically a result of bad luck, slow shipping methods or payments. Excellent, I can mostly dismiss that, let's ask someone who knows. To the live chat...
J.P. Flaherty
What a nice guy! Seriously. Easy to get along with and quick to jump to task for you. I needed special time requirements, so we chatted this through for quite some time. After about 30 minutes or so, we've come to the conclusion that, conditionally, the time line can be met, but just. I have to act fast; a good salesman he is, but "no pressure". Wink, wink; nudge, nudge. Say no more. Give this guy a raise!
One sleepless night later, I'm on his back again the next morning. We chat briefly to check stock levels and build times and we decide that I can press the magic button. Yeah! Magic button pressed! I seriously Love clicking buttons that produce awesome laptops! Now, don't get me wrong, J.P. and company were absolutely great the whole time I'm bugging about all this customization, how I want to buy from them, but have a strict time line that cannot be broken. I wish it weren't true, but that doesn't make it so. Still, I'm terrified by what I've done. I've never dealt with these guys and I've just dropped quite a bit of change on a laptop that may not be ready in time. Worse, it has happened before and, with a last name like I've got, you prepare for the worst at all times. I was taking a huge chance on my end; if anything goes wrong: delivery or operationally (even if I get the machine in time), I'm toast.
The Stages
I don't want to foreshadow too much, but the stages really reminded me of the South Park underwear gnomes. Step 1: Payment Clearing Process, Step 2: Build, Test and QA process, Step 3: ?, Step 4: Shipped. Maybe it's not always like that, but it was for me and I got a giggle out of it. Step 3 doesn't even show up in the order history.
Being the freak that I am, I'm basically wearing out the refresh button on multiple windows (email, XoticPC.com). It's futile, I know, but it allows me to go back to what I'm doing for a couple of hours before frantically pressing those buttons a few more times. A freak, like I said. I gotta get out of the house; it's driving me crazy. Oh; the phone! NICE! It's XoticPC asking me about all the things they need to. B.e.a.utiful. Back to my browser refreshing...but nothing. Even at bed time....ugh!
It wasn't until I got up the next day, though I'm not sure how I slept (the phone call helped I think), that I found the email. Payment confirmed, off to stage 2. Awesome. It's Friday though and now I have to ride the weekend and hope for a couple of things. Maybe they'll get it built and set it up for testing over the weekend. Hmmm, that's probably a bit much considering. Well, they can do a lot in a day and then we'll see what happens Monday.
On Monday, the whole day goes by; nothing. Stage 2 has a lot to cover. Build, test, burn and QA. In times of plenty, I would be thrilled having all that done, but time is tight. It needs to be done though or other risks come into play. All that testing is important to me (and should be to you!). It's okay; we have all day to kick it into gear for testing overnight. Tuesday morning was rough. It's getting to a critical stage where it needs to ship or it's a next Monday delivery. It just can't be that way. I held on for as long as I could, but it was time to try and find the man.
J.P. and I get into a chat again, mid-afternoon. He's no sooner in the chat than off to production to "see". Of course, I needed good news and while it could have been tomorrow (Wednesday) and still had a chance to make it on Friday, he came back with the best news ever! It's ready to ship!
The Arrival
No, not the movie; the laptop! Here it is; thank you UPS for holding up your end of the deal. The next part is for Canadians, specifically those in Ontario:
While we do not pay duty on these kinds of things, we do pay taxes. We should anyway. I'm still baffled as I think UPS is going to be giving me a call or sending me a bill. They charged me NOTHING on delivery. NOTHING. Now, I paid the highest premium shipping and it is supposed to save the brokerage charges. Depending on how much you dropped at Xotic, that could be a significant savings. I would say that going way North of two grand is probably going to start saving you big time. That's why it costs so much more. But, I still don't understand why I didn't have to pay tax on delivery. That's usually the case. Maybe I'm just having a really, really lucky go of this. That's very unusual for a guy like me, but I ain't complaining!
</ontario></canada>
So, it's hard to be at all upset with UPS right now even though their tracking system freaked me out in just about every way that it could. You would think, after being in the business so long, that UPS would have the sweetest tracking system in the World. Don't get me wrong, it is pretty sweet, possibly too sweet. It rots your brain! There was a moment of concern about an exception that had occurred about "Power of attorney" documentation being missing. Having spent the extra dollars for UPS to handle things, clearly I was upset and concerned. I didn't even know what that meant, but apparently it meant that UPS needed this documentation in order to process the package on my behalf as it goes through customs. It's an anomaly as well. The power of attorney documentation is actually attached to the package. What that status really means is that the package is on the belts somewhere. It has been import scanned, but technically not actually received. So, when you see that; don't panic, it's normal for that to happen. The worst part is, the error message comes from, in my case, a UPS office in another city. Another province actually! It was total panic as it appeared that my laptop when out East for a visit to New Brunswick. !!!!
Everything returned to green within the UPS tracker once it got off the belts and someone was able to actually scan the physical package at the customs throughput area. There were a lot of stops along the way; tracker junky! So, the laptop was delivered within 2 business days of it being shipped (including the day I received it). Good job UPS, just fix those weird warnings that dummies like me freak out about. It's not a user friendly message. For such a good tracking system is says some extraordinarily weird things. I actually got to wondering how many support calls they have to float due to these cryptic messages.
Unpacking
Ah, the moment of absolution. One full week, 7 days, and here she is in front of me. Let's open her up!
Oh.my.goodness. There is so much to unpack! And there she is; wow. Almost stunning really. Not a week ago she belonged to no one and now she belongs to me. Annika, welcome home. Install battery; let it juice up. Time to press the mighty button. I press....it's magical. I'm like a small child filled with wonderment. I can't wait to play and it shows, the big smile that crosses my entire face. Nothing like pristine equipment in perfect working order. But, here we go; updates, tweaks to the UI...a couple hours of this no doubt. And, hey! Only one program on the list for removal. I got other things in mind for an AV product. Gonna give the MSE suite a try; it's free!
Usage
It's outstanding. Extremely fast, comfortable and not hard on the eyes one bit. One thing did get me as giddy as I had been when I was powering her up for the first time though. Intel, why you so crazy? There is this little desktop widget and it shows you clock speed. Yeah, yeah; I will get better tools running soon enough; Steam first for God sakes! Anyway, this little guy is flapping up and down, saying what now? 3.xGHZ??!! Are you kidding me? I don't know about you, but these i7 CPUs are insane. Insane. I would be pleased with it operating at just North of 2.0GHZ, but oh no. That simply won't do will it? Not for an i7, no way. To the moon! She doesn't even get all that hot doing it either; crazy chips. Given time, I will probably get in there and do some manual settings to just settle on a nice middle of the road clock, but it's fun to watch her get all crazy when stuff needs to be done.
Steam
I haven't had a lot of time with this yet. It's only been a few hours of (user) up time (after updates; etc). So far so good. High resolution, no problem! Maximum settings, no problem! Quick and dirty, but I've written plenty and based on how the machine has been operating for the last few hours, I don't see any problems. She seems really stable even though I have yet to really take the hammer out. Got to keep an eye on things. The first few days/weeks are critical. Like a new motor, a decent break in period is warranted. Bring it up slowly.
Did some L4D, L4D2 and JC2 for starters. I've got my lists, but it takes time to load up the games. I consider myself lucky to have those three already going really. It was only a meager 20GB *cough*. Anyway, it will take a few weeks before I'm comfortable kicking the machine as hard as she can take it. The true test will be mobility. Not that I expect the machine to game like mad while off the boat anchor, just that durability is important. She seems very tank like, so I'm not too worried. This is Canada though, we get some pretty messed up weather (not that we have any kind of exclusive).
Final Thoughts
Thank you XoticPC. I'm not really that hard to please and most of the time I would never be such a pain about delivery and build times. Things worked out very well here in any case and I couldn't be happier. I'm extremely impressed. Blown away really. Please keep up the great work! I really should have gotten some gear thrown in there (a couple shirts), but I was to the mat with the purchase as it was. I'll take care of that soon enough. I certainly don't mind being a walking billboard given how outstanding my whole experience has been.
So, there it is. At least one person's experience with XoticPC. Yes, I obviously got things going at the right time in just the right way, but that doesn't discount how easy it was to move forward with the purchase. Professional, courteous and attentive sales staff backed up by a build crew that doesn't mind doing a bit of extra work for those that would be in such dire straights that a week was too long to wait.
To everyone at XoticPC, many, many thanks!
Note: I didn't mention the model of laptop on purpose. It doesn't really figure into the scope of what I'm talking about. Xotic sells a variety and I'm sure the one you want will be just as awesome as mine.
Primer
First and foremost, I hate laptops. I honestly hope that the new machine doesn't get a sense of this as that attitude comes from the past and not from what I hope is a bright future. Most of the reason has always been that you just can't get what you want unless they have it already configured. All of those options were high priced, from manufacturers I didn't want and not really what I wanted by way of overkill to slightly less than I could accept under the hood. I hate to have to settle and, for what it's worth, I had never really had the need for one. I like my desktops and they work fabulously. I'm probably a bit spoiled as such. Now, however, I need a laptop and because I have silly tastes in specs, the laptop I want would not be easy to find. Impossible, probably.
The Find
It wasn't easy to find. Not at all. I must have considered a few dozen laptops. Some of which were excellent machines, but none that had all the things I was looking for. In fact, it was starting to get a little too easy to find flaws in the configured machines that are widely available. Even with the additional choices you have now, even being pleased that there was so much selection, I still couldn't find that exact right thing or get it to be within or not too far out of the budget if it was close enough. A few things went my way so that I was able to increase the budget, but I was still having issues because, for me, those large laptop screens are a bit much. Sure, they're great; no doubt. I just couldn't bring myself to get one and I probably would have if not for wanting a bit more than the stock setup was offering. Getting the extras put the bigger screen out of the picture.
I started digging around to try and find somebody; some place that could do up some extras without having me shell out A.LOT. We all know, when it comes to laptops, it can get even crazier than desktops! I need not mention some of the names that came up besides one. So, after a bit of digging around and being astonished at some of the prices for customization, I landed on XoticPC.com and started wandering. Well, holy s***! There is the exact laptop I'm really wanting with a beautiful little button that reads, "Build Yours". I click. I Love to click!
Customization
I'm presented a pretty decent screen that shows what I found to be a very competitive (stock) price. Very close to what I would pay elsewhere and based on all the good things I've read so far about XoticPC, I'm pretty impressed that's it is less than some, a bit more than others, but very reasonable. Then again, I need to tweak this thing, so I should just hold my breath while I do that and hope it doesn't get out of hand.
I could have gone crazier, of course; there are so many options! Only one isn't available; the video card, but I like what's in it already so that's not a big deal. You have to pick other manufacturers to get a video card option so you can get it if you need it. Every other option was there with some of special note to me: thermal redo, Win7 Pro and full testing! I wish there was no bloatware and I probably could have asked for Xotic to tone it down, but it was very minimal anyway. I probably need most of it and I just don't know it yet!.
It was really hard not to get carried away; I do that. I buckle down and build exactly what I wanted, with a few extra nice things like the thermal upgrade, etc. Remember, I was holding my breath doing this, so I'm literally about to pass out. The price revives me! Wait a second, I did something wrong...nope! With Win 7 Pro?! Wow; I'm looking at serious savings even with the shipping and taxes.
Just a Bit More Digging
With all due respect to Xotic, I had to do this. It's just how I roll. I couldn't find anything at any other places that really totaled up as well as XoticPC did with this build and a lot of places were only offering stock setups. After looking around at some reviews of what Xotic offers, I was able to put myself in a better position to buy from them except for one problem. Delivery. Oh, and they've had issues with this exact thing in the past. I hate it when this happens! I did come to find out that, after reading and reading; many of the problems were basically a result of bad luck, slow shipping methods or payments. Excellent, I can mostly dismiss that, let's ask someone who knows. To the live chat...
J.P. Flaherty
What a nice guy! Seriously. Easy to get along with and quick to jump to task for you. I needed special time requirements, so we chatted this through for quite some time. After about 30 minutes or so, we've come to the conclusion that, conditionally, the time line can be met, but just. I have to act fast; a good salesman he is, but "no pressure". Wink, wink; nudge, nudge. Say no more. Give this guy a raise!
One sleepless night later, I'm on his back again the next morning. We chat briefly to check stock levels and build times and we decide that I can press the magic button. Yeah! Magic button pressed! I seriously Love clicking buttons that produce awesome laptops! Now, don't get me wrong, J.P. and company were absolutely great the whole time I'm bugging about all this customization, how I want to buy from them, but have a strict time line that cannot be broken. I wish it weren't true, but that doesn't make it so. Still, I'm terrified by what I've done. I've never dealt with these guys and I've just dropped quite a bit of change on a laptop that may not be ready in time. Worse, it has happened before and, with a last name like I've got, you prepare for the worst at all times. I was taking a huge chance on my end; if anything goes wrong: delivery or operationally (even if I get the machine in time), I'm toast.
The Stages
I don't want to foreshadow too much, but the stages really reminded me of the South Park underwear gnomes. Step 1: Payment Clearing Process, Step 2: Build, Test and QA process, Step 3: ?, Step 4: Shipped. Maybe it's not always like that, but it was for me and I got a giggle out of it. Step 3 doesn't even show up in the order history.
Being the freak that I am, I'm basically wearing out the refresh button on multiple windows (email, XoticPC.com). It's futile, I know, but it allows me to go back to what I'm doing for a couple of hours before frantically pressing those buttons a few more times. A freak, like I said. I gotta get out of the house; it's driving me crazy. Oh; the phone! NICE! It's XoticPC asking me about all the things they need to. B.e.a.utiful. Back to my browser refreshing...but nothing. Even at bed time....ugh!
It wasn't until I got up the next day, though I'm not sure how I slept (the phone call helped I think), that I found the email. Payment confirmed, off to stage 2. Awesome. It's Friday though and now I have to ride the weekend and hope for a couple of things. Maybe they'll get it built and set it up for testing over the weekend. Hmmm, that's probably a bit much considering. Well, they can do a lot in a day and then we'll see what happens Monday.
On Monday, the whole day goes by; nothing. Stage 2 has a lot to cover. Build, test, burn and QA. In times of plenty, I would be thrilled having all that done, but time is tight. It needs to be done though or other risks come into play. All that testing is important to me (and should be to you!). It's okay; we have all day to kick it into gear for testing overnight. Tuesday morning was rough. It's getting to a critical stage where it needs to ship or it's a next Monday delivery. It just can't be that way. I held on for as long as I could, but it was time to try and find the man.
J.P. and I get into a chat again, mid-afternoon. He's no sooner in the chat than off to production to "see". Of course, I needed good news and while it could have been tomorrow (Wednesday) and still had a chance to make it on Friday, he came back with the best news ever! It's ready to ship!
The Arrival
No, not the movie; the laptop! Here it is; thank you UPS for holding up your end of the deal. The next part is for Canadians, specifically those in Ontario:
While we do not pay duty on these kinds of things, we do pay taxes. We should anyway. I'm still baffled as I think UPS is going to be giving me a call or sending me a bill. They charged me NOTHING on delivery. NOTHING. Now, I paid the highest premium shipping and it is supposed to save the brokerage charges. Depending on how much you dropped at Xotic, that could be a significant savings. I would say that going way North of two grand is probably going to start saving you big time. That's why it costs so much more. But, I still don't understand why I didn't have to pay tax on delivery. That's usually the case. Maybe I'm just having a really, really lucky go of this. That's very unusual for a guy like me, but I ain't complaining!
</ontario></canada>
So, it's hard to be at all upset with UPS right now even though their tracking system freaked me out in just about every way that it could. You would think, after being in the business so long, that UPS would have the sweetest tracking system in the World. Don't get me wrong, it is pretty sweet, possibly too sweet. It rots your brain! There was a moment of concern about an exception that had occurred about "Power of attorney" documentation being missing. Having spent the extra dollars for UPS to handle things, clearly I was upset and concerned. I didn't even know what that meant, but apparently it meant that UPS needed this documentation in order to process the package on my behalf as it goes through customs. It's an anomaly as well. The power of attorney documentation is actually attached to the package. What that status really means is that the package is on the belts somewhere. It has been import scanned, but technically not actually received. So, when you see that; don't panic, it's normal for that to happen. The worst part is, the error message comes from, in my case, a UPS office in another city. Another province actually! It was total panic as it appeared that my laptop when out East for a visit to New Brunswick. !!!!
Everything returned to green within the UPS tracker once it got off the belts and someone was able to actually scan the physical package at the customs throughput area. There were a lot of stops along the way; tracker junky! So, the laptop was delivered within 2 business days of it being shipped (including the day I received it). Good job UPS, just fix those weird warnings that dummies like me freak out about. It's not a user friendly message. For such a good tracking system is says some extraordinarily weird things. I actually got to wondering how many support calls they have to float due to these cryptic messages.
Unpacking
Ah, the moment of absolution. One full week, 7 days, and here she is in front of me. Let's open her up!
Oh.my.goodness. There is so much to unpack! And there she is; wow. Almost stunning really. Not a week ago she belonged to no one and now she belongs to me. Annika, welcome home. Install battery; let it juice up. Time to press the mighty button. I press....it's magical. I'm like a small child filled with wonderment. I can't wait to play and it shows, the big smile that crosses my entire face. Nothing like pristine equipment in perfect working order. But, here we go; updates, tweaks to the UI...a couple hours of this no doubt. And, hey! Only one program on the list for removal. I got other things in mind for an AV product. Gonna give the MSE suite a try; it's free!
Usage
It's outstanding. Extremely fast, comfortable and not hard on the eyes one bit. One thing did get me as giddy as I had been when I was powering her up for the first time though. Intel, why you so crazy? There is this little desktop widget and it shows you clock speed. Yeah, yeah; I will get better tools running soon enough; Steam first for God sakes! Anyway, this little guy is flapping up and down, saying what now? 3.xGHZ??!! Are you kidding me? I don't know about you, but these i7 CPUs are insane. Insane. I would be pleased with it operating at just North of 2.0GHZ, but oh no. That simply won't do will it? Not for an i7, no way. To the moon! She doesn't even get all that hot doing it either; crazy chips. Given time, I will probably get in there and do some manual settings to just settle on a nice middle of the road clock, but it's fun to watch her get all crazy when stuff needs to be done.
Steam
I haven't had a lot of time with this yet. It's only been a few hours of (user) up time (after updates; etc). So far so good. High resolution, no problem! Maximum settings, no problem! Quick and dirty, but I've written plenty and based on how the machine has been operating for the last few hours, I don't see any problems. She seems really stable even though I have yet to really take the hammer out. Got to keep an eye on things. The first few days/weeks are critical. Like a new motor, a decent break in period is warranted. Bring it up slowly.
Did some L4D, L4D2 and JC2 for starters. I've got my lists, but it takes time to load up the games. I consider myself lucky to have those three already going really. It was only a meager 20GB *cough*. Anyway, it will take a few weeks before I'm comfortable kicking the machine as hard as she can take it. The true test will be mobility. Not that I expect the machine to game like mad while off the boat anchor, just that durability is important. She seems very tank like, so I'm not too worried. This is Canada though, we get some pretty messed up weather (not that we have any kind of exclusive).
Final Thoughts
Thank you XoticPC. I'm not really that hard to please and most of the time I would never be such a pain about delivery and build times. Things worked out very well here in any case and I couldn't be happier. I'm extremely impressed. Blown away really. Please keep up the great work! I really should have gotten some gear thrown in there (a couple shirts), but I was to the mat with the purchase as it was. I'll take care of that soon enough. I certainly don't mind being a walking billboard given how outstanding my whole experience has been.
So, there it is. At least one person's experience with XoticPC. Yes, I obviously got things going at the right time in just the right way, but that doesn't discount how easy it was to move forward with the purchase. Professional, courteous and attentive sales staff backed up by a build crew that doesn't mind doing a bit of extra work for those that would be in such dire straights that a week was too long to wait.
To everyone at XoticPC, many, many thanks!
Note: I didn't mention the model of laptop on purpose. It doesn't really figure into the scope of what I'm talking about. Xotic sells a variety and I'm sure the one you want will be just as awesome as mine.