hi carbonytte,

Just wanna check with you since you purchased the laptop from U.S. I have 3 questions for you and I hope to get some answers

1.
The USPS shipping cost covers till which part? a or b?
a) U.S. to Malaysia then in Malaysia, from KL to your staying place.
b) U.S. to Malaysia only but there will be extra cost from KL to your staying place

2.
The tax that you need to pay to release your laptop in U.S to be exported to Malaysia.
Is it included in the shipping cost that you pay for USPS or you need to pay extra and how much?

3.
Is there any import duty and sales tax charged on you when you receive the laptop? I can hardly find a list of items that are tax and duty free from Malaysia Custom website.


Thanks in advance for answering :]

Thanks kahjye and carbonytte for the quick reply.

I think it is good to include such information regarding the shipping cost and tax free information in the main post for reference.

Oh yea, This is a lamp, I came across one of your topic in xoticpc regarding making payment from one country, but sending the laptop to another country.
In your case, you made the payment in Australia and requested the laptop be sent to Holland.
How did that work out? Did they allow you to do it in that way?

And is the shipping cost flat rate across the world? No matter you are shipping to Holland, Malaysia, Australia or any part of the world, the shipping cost is still the same?

Thank you. Forgive me for throwing lots of questions, just wish to get some answers for my doubt before placing an order

Ouch..., 200 Euro for the tax, that's really a lot! Actually, I'm a Malaysian working in Singapore. I had done research on various models of laptops as well as the tax thinggy. Importing laptop to Singapore will charge me 7% Goods & Service Tax, so might as well send it back to Malaysia and I can save that 7% for my return air ticket to Malaysia lol.

I am a Dell Inspiron 1420 laptop user for 3 and a half years. My 3-year laptop warranty had already expired. It was my first laptop. As I wasn't familiar with laptop and didn't dare to disassemble the whole thing, who knows I might crack the whole thing, or lost one or two of the many screws in it or forgot to connect some of the cables back.
Because of that, my laptop went busted for twice due to overheating and Dell sent technician twice to fix my laptop. Apparently, I could see the thick dust accumulated at the air vent.
After my laptop warranty period was over, I looked into youtube for example to disassemble my 1420 and managed to even clean the fan in it and preserve my laptop in a fine state till today.
One thing I don't like 1420 is the fan is not easily accessible, I need to disassemble the whole thing to get to the fan.
Somemore, the graphics card and the processor are sharing the same fan, so not really recommended for games which require high graphics settings.
Similar to those Dell XPS models which I had seen the inner part of it, there is only 1 fan in it for those models I came across, not sure whether there are XPS laptops that come with 2 fans.

Recently thought of buying a new laptop. Similar to Keenxlimit's case, leaping from 1420 to something close to high end.
I initially looked into Dell Alienware, but it's too expensive for me. Surely the outlook looks appealing with flashy LED's but not too sure if those LED's are gonna drain more power/generate more heat.
I always believe that more kinetic energy and less heat energy is effective because heat is always seen as a waste in any electrical products.
Of course dealing with heat, alienware m15x has 2 fans which can be easily accessible by taking off the bottom panels.
m17x has 3 fans which only the middle fan is easily accessible, the other 2 fans can only be accessible by disassembling the whole thing.
Main constraint of getting an alienware is the cost although Dell offers one of best warranty packages and services,
However, with the money I spent on alienware, I can use the same or lesser amount of money to get a laptop with better specs than what alienware offers except the dual SLI thinggie that alienware has.

Then I went on looking into Asus G53 and G73 series. Yea, can get very good specs with cheaper price.
But, I watched some videos and noticed that it is not easy to access the fans in it in order to clean them.
I went on looking into Sager, a brand which I had never heard of in the past. Surprisingly, Asus G series only has one USB-3.0 port and no eSATA port while Sager NP8130, 8150 and 8170 has 2 USB-3.0 port and 1 eSATA port.
Somemore, Sager laptops can be easily maintained, the fans and other hardwares are accessible by removing the bottom panel only, same as the alienware m15x.
And the price of Sager is more or less the same as Asus or maybe cheaper.
Good thing about Asus is that it has 2 years global warranty while Sager......hahaha, you guys know better than me.

However, since I am not a rookie like how I was 3 years ago, I believe I can take good care of my laptop given that it is easy to access all the parts especially the fans from the bottom in Sager's laptop.
Despite of the dull outlook, but I am impressed with the parts in it. So, I am looking forward in getting a Sager laptop :]

This post has been edited by jimmykvt: Apr 7 2011, 05:12 PM

Won't regret as long as the thing arrives in good condition and no problem of using it for years under proper care :]

Well said carbonytte, the following are the reasons why I choose Sager:
1) Good price, looks dull but can perform close to or as good as the other affordable high-end laptops out there.
2) Easy to access to the parts from the bottom especially the fans for cleaning and maintenance.
3) Customizable laptop parts

HD 6970 is better than GTX 460m a lot
GTX 485 is slightly better than or almost the same as HD 6970

I'm currently eye-ing on Sager NP8170-S1 with HD 6970

This post has been edited by jimmykvt: Apr 7 2011, 08:46 PM

Hey everyone, I got another constructive question over here.

I understand for laptop online purchase, most people use either credit card/debit card, money order or wire transfer (telegraphic transfer). But to entitle for the 3% cash discounted price for the laptop, credit card is not in the list. Only money order and wire transfer are entitled for it.

Money order is a bit troublesome as you need to go to the bank and ask them to issue money order to you then you need to send it by mail to your online reseller. Wire Transfer is the bank will do everything for you by converting the amount into USD and transfer the money to the online reseller's account.

I went through the DBS Singapore website and checked that, the commission of doing a wire transfer are 1/8 of the amount I'm going to transfer (to a maximum of SGD 100), and SGD 20 transaction fee. Now my real problem is the 1/8 commission =.="
As long as I make a wire transfer of SGD 800, surely I kena that SGD 100 commission.

Just want to check with you guys in Malaysia who are using wire transfer to make your payment. What bank are you using and what are the charges for making a wire transfer?

Thanks a bunch!

The above order confirmation came from XoticPC, so just like to highlight the few things in red colour.

In case if the bank over in U.S charges some fees for the incoming wire transfer, we will need to bear it.

It seems like they still recommend UPS instead of USPS and won't be responsible for any undeliverable or lost items by USPS.

And also the money will be transferred to Intermediary Bank before going to Beneficiary Bank. Using online foreign telegraphic transfer, it only goes to beneficiary, no intermediary. No wonder they don't recommend us to use online wire transfer?

By the way, those of you who used wire transfer (telegraphic transfer) to purchase laptop from US online reseller.

As I notice in XoticPC, there are 2 U.S. banks involved. Fund is transferred from our local bank to an intermediary bank in U.S., then only to the beneficiary bank.

Any other U.S. online reseller which you can make a direct telegraphic transfer from our local bank to the beneficiary bank without going through an intermediary bank? At the moment, I only know how the wire transfer is like for XoticPC. Not sure how others work.

As most of you might know, if go through an intermediary bank, sure got extra charges from U.S. side.

You mean for LPC-Digital, the fund doesn't go through an intermediary bank but directly to the beneficiary bank?

Just did a comparison of buying Sager laptop (whole system, not barebone)

NOTE:
1. Consider you only want the warranty package covered by Sager, not covered Mucro/CubeHub.
2. Price comparison is inclusive of shipping cost.

If buy from Mucro/CubeHub/U.S Online reseller and send to Singapore:
- Buy from Mucro/CubeHub is cheaper than U.S Online reseller.
- Buy from Mucro/CubeHub (in SGD) is more expensive than buying from Mucro/CubeHub (in MYR) and send it to Malaysia.
- Laptop bag is given by CubeHub, laptop bag is not given by Mucro.

If buy from Mucro/CubeHub/U.S Online reseller and send to Malaysia:
- Buy from Mucro/CubeHub is cheaper than buying from U.S Online reseller.
- Buy from Mucro/CubeHub, laptops do not come with Laptop Bag, but from U.S Online reseller, most laptops come with laptop bag.

I did this based on what I saw on the websites, not sure whether you actually get a bag from Mucro/CubeHub.

This post has been edited by jimmykvt: Apr 11 2011, 12:01 PM

lol, don't tell me the moment you place your laptop in it, the next second the bag's bottom burst lol

Do you wanna compare with Mucro asia?
Because I found out that if you purchase the whole laptop (not barebone), seems like Mucro has better offer :S
I already paid mine at XoticPC, then I found out that Mucro is cheaper by at most RM 300 including shipping cost

I just went to Malibal to check...

The model of Lotus P151HM1 in Malibal is actually Sager NP 8130
So, I didn't configure the spec, leave it as default which is the same for both Malibal and Mucro, both having the same warranty from Sager (parts) for 1 year. Note that I had taken away the Mucro's warranty package, only left with the Sager one. Warranty will be the same for both Malibal and Mucro since you need to bear the shipping cost to claim for warranty. The only thing I'm not too sure is whether the Labour Warranty only covers US and Canada or it covers world wide as well. Means that you bear the shipping cost within that 3 years and send it back to them and they will still repair and replace for you?

Latest Telegraphic Transfer Exchange Rate (As of 11 April 2011)
Maybank: USD 1 = MYR 3.0555
Public Bank: USD 1 = MYR 3.0590

Malibal
USD [1,163.03 (laptop) + 140 (USPS shipping)] x 3.0555 = MYR 3,981.41

Mucro
MYR 3,725.14 (laptop) + MYR 110 (POSLAJU shipping) = MYR 3,835.14

So, Mucro is cheaper by MYR 146.27.

This post has been edited by jimmykvt: Apr 12 2011, 01:09 AM

Cool..., so it's around 21 business days like they said?

For cubehub, even though I'm in Singapore, it is hard to get them because they open only from Monday to Friday and the working hours is like from 10am to 6pm, not open on Saturdays and Sundays. Unless I take half day leave to purposely go there for warranty/repair/replacement lol.

Mucro on the other hand is different, they have various service partners and their service partners are easily accessible which is always on from Monday to Sunday.

This post has been edited by jimmykvt: Apr 12 2011, 02:06 AM

@soundsyst64

Wah..., if add another RM 1,000, you should be able to get a NP8150-S1 with the extra bolded from Mucro. Since you said a standalone AMD Radeon 6970m from RJTech is already USD 550 (around RM 1,680)

Laptop Price: RM 5,219.20
Shipping Post Laju: RM 110
Nett: RM 5,329.20

Mucro Sager NP8150-S1
Screen and Screen Type: 15.6 inch FHD/GT 16: 9
SYSTEM CPU: CORE i7-2630QM 2.0 GHz
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 6970 w/2GB GDDR5
Thermal Compound: IC Diamond CPU & GPU Thermal Compound
SYSTEM MEMORY UPGRADE: 8GB DDR3 1333 SDRAM 2x4G
HARD DISK DRIVE UPGRADE: 500G 7200rpm SATA
Wireless Card: Intel Advanced-N 6230 Wi-Fi
OS: No OS (- MYR249.51)
OPTICAL DISK DRIVE | * Internal Optical Drive not included with HDD and Caddy Case purchase: 6x Blu-Ray Reader/8x Super Multi Combo
External USB ODD Drive: none
Addon Slot 1: none
External: none
Sager Pixel Warranty: none
Sager Warranty | parts: 1 year warranty(parts)
Addon Local Mucro Warranty | labour: All costs during warranty paid in full by user(not recommended) (- MYR241.60)
Microsoft Office | only with OS: Microsoft Office Starter 2010
Rush Service | This is not Shipping and Handling: none
Extra AC Adapter: none
Extra Battery: none
Car Adapter: none
Mouse Addon: none
Mousepad Addon: none
Headphone Earphone Addon: none
Notebook Cooler: none

This post has been edited by jimmykvt: Apr 12 2011, 03:43 PM

@soundsyst64

Oh..., how about this one? Manage to remove the hard disk, but cannot remove the memory and optical drive. Hmm...caddy case should be cheap although it is not included?

Laptop Price: RM 3,999.63
Shipping Post Laju: RM 110.00
Nett: RM 4109.63

Mucro Sager NP8150
Screen and Screen Type: 15.6 inch FHD/GT 16: 9
SYSTEM CPU: CORE i7-2630QM 2.0 GHz
Graphics Card: nVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M w/1.5GB GDDR5
Thermal Compound: Stock Standard
SYSTEM MEMORY UPGRADE: 4GB DDR3 1333 SDRAM 2x2G
HARD DISK DRIVE UPGRADE: no HDD (- MYR99.81)
Wireless Card: Intel Advanced-N 6230 Wi-Fi (+ MYR75.50)
OS: No OS (- MYR249.51)
OPTICAL DISK DRIVE | * Internal Optical Drive not included with HDD and Caddy Case purchase: 8X Super Multi Drive
External USB ODD Drive: none
Addon Slot 1: none
External: none
Sager Pixel Warranty: none
Sager Warranty | parts: 1 year warranty(parts)
Addon Local Mucro Warranty | labour: All costs during warranty paid in full by user(not recommended) (- MYR211.40)
Microsoft Office | only with OS: Microsoft Office Starter 2010
Rush Service | This is not Shipping and Handling: none
Extra AC Adapter: none
Extra Battery: none
Car Adapter: none
Mouse Addon: none
Mousepad Addon: none
Headphone Earphone Addon: none
Notebook Cooler: none

Well, maybe if you change it to DHL, you still can save at least RM 100 if you are buying from Mucro. hahaha

To be frank, the only thing that we don't know is how well Mucro and CubeHub can repair/replace the parts for us within the warranty period. If Mucro and CubeHub have all the parts standby all the time and can fix and replace any parts within short time, I don't see why we still need the warranty provided by Sager. So, there must be some limitation of warranty services that they can provide.
For RAM and hard disk, might be easy to replace.
For processor, GPU and motherboard, I'm afraid they will still need to send it back to Sager, especially motherboard. We are going to end up bearing the shipping cost for both ways US-Malaysia.

Still, how likely RAM and hard disk will spoil within 3 years? Hard disk maybe if you turn it on for 24 hours a day non-stop bit torrenting, there might be a 10 to 20% chance.
Usually GPU, CPU and motherboard are the one likely to spoil because of overheated due to gaming a lot without doing routine maintainence to clean up the air vent and fan which are stuck with thick dust. That's what happened to my inspiron 1420 when I was a rookie lol.

This post has been edited by jimmykvt: Apr 12 2011, 06:24 PM

3 weeks maybe considered normal gua since Intel just re-released the new chipset. I received my email from Xotic PC early this morning. So, I guess I will receive mine between the middle and end of next month.
BTW, I ordered an NP8170-S1, only differences to the default one are CPU and GPU upgrades (I7-2720QM + ATI Radeon HD 6970) and 2 years Sager warrranty.



This post has been edited by jimmykvt: Apr 13 2011, 09:53 AM