It seems so. It might be that different shops have different charge policies. When I was shopping for a laptop in a MSI store, they gave me 2% processing fee for a GE40. In a Switch shop, they gave me 0% charge for a Ipad Mini but I need to purchase their extended warranty. In Harvey Norman, they gave me 2% charge for the same Ipad Mini.

If I remember correctly it was Maybank but they also accept any bank as long as it allows installment but this was for a GE40 I inquired in a MSI Shop at Komtar, Penang. That was four months back.

IMHO, laptops will be prone to breakdown after many years of use. I agree that usage and care is a large factor here, especially when you are using this for gaming. But being a mass produced unit, there might be instances that units will fail even when new. I'm going to receive my very first Clevo by the next two weeks and let's see how durable it is.

That is a good sign. This was the reason why I chose Clevo aside from the known name brands.

I definitely agree. My first laptop was a Compaq CQ40 with an AMD processor. It was a very hot processor and even if I have undervolted it, fair usage was going around 72-80C, even gone up to 90C! It lasted about two years plus. I had the chipset reflowed and it gave another three more months before it started acting weird again. After that I made sure to search for the ODM of any laptop (If I can). That would tell me if the laptop is probably going to last longer and be more durable. Acer and Compaq share the same ODM for some of its units as well as other brands so I just avoid them if I can.

The only known brands that I know that manufacture their own boards to this day are Clevo and MSI. Asus once manufactures its own boards but their manufacturing became a separate company known as Pegatron. So my choice of brands would be Asus, MSI, and Clevo.

I worked with my wife's office laptop, a Lenovo Thinkpad and aside from the broken LCD it is still running after six years. My former office a laptop, an HP DV4?? was still running even after eight years.

I expect to get a good life out this Clevo. BTW, I'm getting the RE-15.

I think that is expected for a netbook. I have two Asus 1005PXDs and they are both three years and six months old and counting. They don't produce that much heat compared to their laptop siblings.

Nice!

This has been common knowledge for sometime now. It's called the "Dirty little secret of the Laptop Industry" which is no more a secret. Here are some of the links I've researched before:
http://ctacs.weebly.com/1/post/2012/06/wil...n-or-clevo.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lapto...rers_.28ODMs.29
http://www.xoticpc.com/who-really-makes-la...ecret-a-47.html

This post has been edited by Josh0027: Oct 18 2013, 06:32 PM

At last it's now official. Maybe I should have also added the msata upgrade in my order as well.

It depends on how it is configured. Two SSDs in RAID0 configuration is faster than One SSD in Cache Mode.

True, that is one drawback of RAID0. If you were working with large amounts of data then you could see some benefits of RAID0, but nowadays SSDs are so fast that you might not notice the difference of SSDs in RAID0 and normal SSDs. I remember on one of my work platforms, I configured a RAID0 with six HDDs. A single HDD is roughly 40Mb/s in sequential read but on RAID0 with six HDDs it went up to 430MB/s in sequential read. Stick with normal SSDs for now.

Well maybe next year prices will continually drop. Look at the M500 which is about RM2000+/- for the 960GB and now Samsung has the 840 Evo out and might compete for pricing against the M500. Nice things to look forward to.

This post has been edited by Josh0027: Oct 22 2013, 06:54 PM

Yeah it seems so. When I first read about this TLC of Samsung I just said, WTH. I was not convinced before for SSDs to move from SLC to MLC chips but it was a decision on economics and it turned out okay. Better wait for write endurance reviews for the new Samsung.

It's better to wait till next year for prices to drop.

Darn... now I understand how you guys feel... waiting for your laptop to be delivered seems like ages...

Anyway I made an awful lot of requests to check the unit and I think the wait is worth it.

Hi Prince J,

Good afternoon! No worries. I've already told Marc to wait for Clevo on the new BIOS and EC until Monday. I can still wait.


Thanks,
Josh

I can confirm that my RE-15 lasts up to 4:58 hours in idle:
- UMA mode
- WiFi always on
- Screen off most of the time.

BTW Prince J, this is an impressive machine.

Maybe these can help you:

RU-14 Pro = W740SU
http://www.clevo.com.tw/en/products/prodin...p?productid=472

RE-13 Pro = W230ST
http://www.clevo.com.tw/en/products/prodin...p?productid=474

RE-15 = W350STQ
http://www.clevo.com.tw/en/products/prodin...p?productid=432

Reset and boot to windows safe mode by pressing F8. That should give you an idea on what is preventing you from proceeding to the installation screen.

Check also on BIOS if SATA is in AHCI mode.

Are you booting in Legacy or UEFI mode?

Is you Win7 32 or 64 bit?

This post has been edited by Josh0027: Dec 16 2013, 05:15 PM

Try to install first all of the drivers especially audio then see if the hiss is still there.

I recommend that you check everything for any hitches within 14 days so if you have any problems you can request for DOA. If you miss that 14 days then one to one replacement may not be anymore applicable.

I also have some minor issues right now on my RE-15 and I could had have a one to one exchange if I didn't miss the DOA period.