So you think I should just grab the Y540/Y7000 SE because their pricing is below RM6k even though they come with RTX2060?

If I choose lenovo, I think I might go for the Y7000 SE because I would like to have the 144Hz screen + customisable SSD size + red-lit keyboard.

This post has been edited by foxfaisal: Aug 22 2019, 05:32 PM

I have 3 questions regarding the physical stores:
1) If I take the premade model, it might be difficult for me to upgrade the RAM and SSD, right?
2) The 'premade models' means the Y540, right? Based on my observation on Lenovo's website, I think the Y7000 SE might only available in the custome-made version (but I might be wrong).
3) Does this discount thing also applies to the physical stores? If yes, I would like to purchase the laptop from the big stores like Harvey Norman etc. to enjoy the 0% credit card instalment facility.

All right. I think I will consider the Y7000 SE just because of the red-lit keyboard (the Y540 keyboard is too plain for me ). If Y7000 SE is only available in custom-made version and can only be bought online, I will send an email to Lenovo Malaysia online asking whether they do provide the 0% credit card instalment thing or not (because Dell Malaysia online does provide the 0% credit card instalment).

I think red-lit keyboard might still be acceptable and does not attract as much attention as the RGB keyboard :-)

This post has been edited by foxfaisal: Aug 23 2019, 02:53 PM

Sorry, I would like to ask one more thing. How about Lenovo? Is the quality also OK nowadays? Beside Acer, I also hear some of my friends told me about their bad experience with Lenovo.

Btw, I just notice that Lenovo provide a student discount. I customise both the L540 (15) and L7000 SE based on the following spec to check the price for the student discount:
1) Processor: Maxed-out to the Intel Core i7-9750H Processor (2.60GHz, up to 4.50GHz with Turbo Boost, 6 Cores, 12MB Cache).
2) Operating System: Maintain with the Windows 10 Home Single Language 64.
3) Total Memory: Maxed-out to the 32GB (16+16) DDR4 2666MHz SoDIMM.
4) First Hard Drive: 1TB Hard Drive, 5400RPM, 2.5", 7mm (the L540 (15) can be maxed-out to 7200RPM but the L7000 SE can't).
5) Second Hard Drive: Maxed-out to the 1TB Solid State Drive, M.2 2280, PCIe-NVMe, TLC.
6) Display: Maxed-out to the 15.6" FHD (1920x1080), LED-Backlight, IPS, 300nits, Anti-glare, 144Hz.
7) Graphic Card: Maxed-out to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB GDDR6 192bits.
8) WiFi Wireless LAN Adapters: Maxed-out to the Lenovo Wireless 2x2AC, Bluetooth Version 4.1.

Below is the price: for the laptops based on the above configuration:
1) L7000 SE: RM6,677.00 (Normal Price), (RM5,875.76, after RM801.24 student discount), (RM6,343.15, after minus RM333.85 PCDEAL coupon).
2) L540 (15): RM7,484.00 (Normal Price), (RM6,585.92, after RM898.08 student discount), (RM7,109.80, after minus RM374.20 PCDEAL coupon).

I have sent an email to Lenovo to ask whether if it is possible to get 0% credit card instalment. I might proceed if I can use the 0% credit card instalment.

This post has been edited by foxfaisal: Aug 26 2019, 11:03 AM

Understood, thank you.


I think they have already fixed it. The 144Hz screen is available for the customisable version when I checked it last night. But now the Y7000 SE have no option to go for the 7200 RPM HDD and I have sent and email to Lenovo online store to ask whether they are going to add/fix it or not.

Hahaha. I just maxed out everything for fun. Anyway, I have contacted Lenovo Malaysia website through their chat service and found out that there is no 0% credit card instalment.

Below is the upgradable item together with the price:


Memory (the default is 8GB DDR4 2666MHz SoDIMM):

Upgrade to 12GB (4+8) DDR4 2666MHz SoDIMM:
Y540: +RM120 (before student discount) and +RM105.60 (after student discount)
Y7000SE: +RM82 (before student discount) and +RM72.16 (after student discount)

Upgrade to 16GB (8+8) DDR4 2666MHz SoDIMM:
Y540: +RM230 (before student discount) and +RM202.40 (after student discount)
Y7000SE: +RM158 (before student discount) and +RM139.04 (after student discount)

Upgrade to 32GB (16+16) DDR4 2666MHz SoDIMM:
Y540: +RM680 (before student discount) and +RM598.40 (after student discount)
Y7000SE: +RM458 (before student discount) and +RM403.04 (after student discount)


Hard Disk (the default is none):

Upgrade to 1TB Hard Drive, 5400RPM, 2.5", 7mm:
Y540: +RM210 (before student discount) and +RM184.80 (after student discount)
Y7000SE: +RM198 (before student discount) and +RM174.24 (after student discount)


SSD (the 256GB Solid State Drive, M.2 2280, PCIe-NVMe, TLC):

Upgrade to 512GB Solid State Drive, M.2 2280, PCIe-NVMe, TLC:
Y540: +RM190 (before student discount) and +RM167.20 (after student discount)
Y7000SE: +RM115 (before student discount) and +RM101.20 (after student discount)

Upgrade to 1TB Solid State Drive, M.2 2280, PCIe-NVMe, TLC
Y540: +RM560 (before student discount) and +RM492.80 (after student discount)
Y7000SE: +RM286 (before student discount) and +RM251.68 (after student discount)


Screen (the default is 15.6"FHD (1920x1080),IPS, 250nits, Anti-glare, 60Hz, Narrow):

Upgrade to 15.6" FHD (1920x1080), LED Backlight, IPS, 300nits, Anti-glare, 144Hz:
Y540: +RM330 (before student discount) and +RM290.40 (after student discount)
Y7000SE: +RM286 (before student discount) and +RM299.20 (after student discount)


GPU (the default is NVIDIA GTX1660Ti 6GB GDDR6 192bits):

Upgrade to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB GDDR6 192bits:
Y540: +RM410 (before student discount) and +RM360.80 (after student discount)
Y7000SE: +RM286 (before student discount) and +RM344.08 (after student discount)


Based on the price listed above, I think it might not be cheaper to upgrade the memory, SSD, and hard disk on my own (but feel free to inform me if I am wrong). If the price of the 32GB memory and 1TB SSD is too much, I think the 16GB memory and the 500GB ssd might be a balanced setting (again please advice if I am wrong).

Sorry, there is a typo with my sentence. I should write " ... I think it might be cheaper to upgrade the memory, SSD, and hard disk on my own ... " (but I accidentally add the word 'not' in front of the word 'be').

So this means that it is worth it for me to upgrade the memory and storage during the customisation and not after the laptop is purchased?


Does anybody notice that the background wallpaper for this thread becomes the advertisement for illegear? I'm not sure whether this is just a co-incident or purposely set by the admin of this forum.

This post has been edited by foxfaisal: Aug 26 2019, 11:22 PM

All this time I didn't look at the Level 51 in detail until 3 days ago and I notice that the Forge 51 Pro might be the cheapest laptop with RTX that I've ever seen so far. I will also consider this if the build quality, cooling system etc is ok. Unfortunately, they also don't accept the 0% credit card instalment.

Thank you. I will read it in a few more hours (because I am doing my university assignment right now)

Hahahahaha. I also start to notice about it last night. I think that Forge 15 Elite might still be new and not yet available by the time I started this thread. Unfortunately, so far the screen for Forge 15 Elite is only 120Hz and not customizable to 144Hz. I think that 120Hz screen is one of the ways they reduce the price (instead of 144Hz screen).

This post has been edited by foxfaisal: Aug 28 2019, 06:02 PM

I went to the Malaysia I.T. Fair and Electrical Appliances Expo at Mid Valley Exhibition Center (MVEC) yesterday and visited the Level51 booth to take a look and touch the Forge 15 Pro. One of their staffs told me that one of the reasons why they manage to sell their products at a lower price is because they don't bundle their laptops with other accesories like bag, mouse, etc. In addition, their operational cost is a little bit lower because they don't have too many staffs at the moment - the same staffs that do the technical related tasks are also required to do the sales, marketing etc related tasks.

The staff also told me that their service centre provide free lifetime service (replacing thermal paste and cleaning dust) whenever we send our Level51 laptop(s) to their service centre (even if the warranty is over). That might be the reason why we see the word 'lifetime' at the thermal paste section while customising their laptops at their website. The brand of the thermal paste that their service centre uses is Thermal Grizzly.

Customer can get instalment facility if they use Maybank credit card at this moment, but interest will be charged based on the payment period:
1) 6-month: 3%
2) 12-month 4%
3) 18-month 5%
4) 24-month 6%
The staf said there is no other bank provides credit card instalment because most of the banks in Malaysia offer that service to the company that has been doing business in Malaysia for 2 years and above and at this moment Level51 has onle been doing business for 1 year plus.

I think the Forge 15 Pro is already enough for me.The only things that I don't like about Forge 15 so far are:
1) the air intake grill for the cooling fan is not as big as MSI GE/GP/GL series and Lenovo Y7000 SE/Y540
2) and the force that is required to press they keyboard keys are a little bit stronger than what I like (I prefer Illegear Prodigy's keyboard in terms of the force required to press the keys).

I think I would like to go for this Forge 15 Pro, but I don't want to be hasty and would like to wait until the MSI GP series available in Malaysia. I will reevaluate everything by that time.

Please take note that whatever that I've written in the first three paragraphs above might only be true by the time I write this thing and might change from time to time in the future if the situation changes (product price increase if they have to hire more staffs when their company grows/expands), more banks give credit card instalment at different interest rates (even the 0% interest rate), and the terms and conditions are revised (no more free lifetime service) etc.

This post has been edited by foxfaisal: Sep 2 2019, 12:25 AM

This is another video from the Eluktronics temselves, just in case if you are interested. If the embedded video above is not working, use the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EyamB_GxKU

This post has been edited by foxfaisal: Sep 4 2019, 11:22 AM

Understood. I still prefer the super huge air intake of the MSI and Lenovo Y7000 SE, but I think I am the one who have to get used to the smaller Level51 Forge series if I really want to buy it.

Again. I am the one who has to get used to the stronger force required to press the key (I think this thing is called 'tactile feel', right?) if I really want to buy this laptop.

So far I have shortlisted the 3 laptops:
1) Level 51 Forge 15 series (because of super value for money)
2) Lenovo Y7000 SE series (because of value for money and the large air intake)
3) MSI GP65 and GL 65 series (because of the cooling system, larger speaker, and that RGB keybaord (GP series only))

The finalised spec that I would like to go at this moment is i7-9750H + RTX2060 (because Level51 sells it at a super value for money price), but I can downgrade it to GTX1660Ti or even GTX1650 if I think I should save some money for other important things.

I just notice (from the MSI website) that GTX1650 performs better than GTX1050Ti (and GTX 1660Ti performs better than GTX1070 and GTX1060). The Forge 15 1650 Edition (i7-9750H + GTX1650) is sold at RM3699 (promo price), so I am thankful to God for not purchasing the MSI GP63 8RD (i7-8750H + GTX1050Ti) from a scammer on FB Marketplace at RM3500. If I really want to save a lot of money, then I think I will just go for this Forge 15 1650 Edition.

Lastly, MSI also has updated its website with the new GF65 series that comes with GTX1650, as shown in the link below. Unlike the GF62 series, there are 2 cooling fans for GF65 series which are blown in 3 directions (2 to the rear and one more to the left) as shown in the animated diagram in the same link below. This laptop is also tempting if I want to downgrade my requirement to GTX1650 because the laptop is thin, lightweight, and the battery can last up to 7 hours. However, I might not buy it because the keyboard doesn't have a numpad (I really need a numpad for my work) and the travel distance for each key might be shorter than what I like (the travel distance might be the same like most of other slim laptops)
https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GF65-Thin-9SX-GTX

Understood.

Understood also.

For my case, I can get the Y7000 SE cheaper than Y540 if I bought both using student/academic staff account from Lenovo Malaysia website. But the price of that discounted Y7000 SE (using student/academic staff account) is still no match for that Forge 15 Pro. If I want something with super value for money, I really have to go for Forge 15 (this statement might only be applicable if I bought it at this moment because the price from other models and brands might be fluctuating from time to time).

PS: Beside Lenovo, there are a few other brands that give student/academic staff discount (if you buy directly from their website) including:
1) Apple (only for Macs and iPads)
2) Dell
3) Razer
4) Tech Armory

I think MSI just updated their website with the GF series that comes with RTX2060 (in the link below). Dang ...
https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GF65-Thin-9SX

Now I understand why the GF65 has 2 cooling fan blown in 3 directions while the GF63 has only 1 cooling fan blown in 1 direction.

Another review article regarding Forge 15 Pro, just in case if you are interested. Please take note that there are 4 pages in this article.
https://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/review-afte...s-gaming-laptop

All right. I think I will wait for the review for the GP65, GL65 and GF65. If it is worth it to go for the Forge 15 (or even Y7000 SE/Y540) by that time, I will go for it.

Don't forget to UGPM to me too :-)

Speaking of this Eluktronics brand, they also do sell laptops that come with replaceable desktop CPU (also Clevo barebones) as shown in the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87R3DitE5wY

There is also other brand as well shown in this video (but I'm not sure what brand):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Py3jGWGGhA&t=672s

Please let me know if this kind of laptop is easily obtainable in Malaysia at an affordable price.

Sorry for not replying for a few days. I was a little bit busy during the daytime and didn't have a good internet connection during the night time.

Thank you very much for this information. All this time I didn't realise that Tech Armory uses desktop CPUs. I did notice that the Tech Armory's laptops use i7-9700 (instead of i7-9750H) and i5-9400 (instead of i5-9300H), but at that time I mistakenly thought the CPUs used by Tech Armory were the older version compared to the other brands . Suddenly I feel itchy to buy the Commandos Glock 5 laptop with affordable Celeron/Pentium Gold/i3/i5/i7, then upgrade it with i9-9900 (used or new) after a few years if the price of that i9-9900 becomes cheaper by that time . The staffs at Tech Armory told me that the Commandos Glock 5 laptop theoretically can detect the i9-9900 CPU. However, they haven't performed any test to confirm whether installing i9-9900 on Commandos Glock 5 will give any side effect or damage to the laptop in the long term (because the i9 has a higher TDP and might consume more electrical power, so the staffs advised me not to install anything beyond i7-9700 at the moment to prevent unnecessary damage on customer's laptop. In addition, they cannot perform the test at this moment because it is still difficult to get the i9-9900 in the market.

I visited the Tech Armoury's outlet 3 days ago to touch and feel their laptop. At that time, the available laptop that was within my budget range was only Commandos Glock 5 Plus with GTX1660Ti as shown in the link below. It feels almost exactly like the Level 51 Forge 15 Pro (in terms of the feeling that we feel while pressing the keyboard, the on-screen indicator that appears whenever we activate or deactivate the num lock and caps lock, the control centre software to control fan speed, keyboard RGB light colour etc) because both Forge 15 and Commandos Glock 5 are based on the same Clevo barebones. The only difference that a beginner like me notice was Commandos Glock 5 had a removable battery (from the outside), was thicker, a little bit heavier, had bigger air intake vents than their Forge 15.
https://www.techarmory.my/v2/index.php?rout...&product_id=294

The saleswoman that entertained me at Tech Armory was very friendly (just as friendly as one of the friendly salesmen that I met at Level51). At that time she told me that another Commandos Glock 5 model with a smaller bezel and RTX2060 would be available in a few more days. Today, the same friendly saleswoman texts me to inform that that new model with a smaller bezel and RTX2060 is already available and listed on their website, as shown in the link below. This model is called Commandos Glock 5 Alpha.
https://www.techarmory.my/v2/index.php?rout...&product_id=328

PS: Maybe ZM Fong might be interested to write a review article for that new Commandos Glock 5 Alpha.

This post has been edited by foxfaisal: Sep 13 2019, 11:49 PM

Is the i9 capped by the BIOS, chipset, or other things?

Understood

Thank you for this information, I will double-check about this.

The bezel for the RTX2060 version is thinner, so I am not sure the chassis is considered the same with the GTX1660Ti version with a thicker bezel.

The saleswoman at the Tech Armory also told me that the difference between RTX2060 and GTX1660Ti for non-ray tracing game is below 10% (not sure whether it is true or not). If this is true and I don't need the ray tracing feature at the moment, do you think that I should just buy the GTX1660Ti (not just for Tech Armory, but also if I choose to buy Level51, MSI, Lenovo, Dell, etc.)