"This review is for PowerNotebooks, and not the savage laptop they built and delivered; Sager NP8130 for the curious. There's plenty of reviews for such a laptop, and so far it's a very good investment and lives up to other reviews that speak favorably of it. So Google “Sager NP8130 review” if you want to read about the machine.

After about 30 minutes of placing my order online I received a call from PowerNotebooks customer support to verify my selection and options, especially my choice for NOT choosing to have an OS installed (I wanted to install a Linux distro with a few WinXP and Win7 installations in virtual machines mainly for Internet Explorer testing). The lady, with what sounded like a Southern accent, was friendly as people with Southern accents tend to be, and she put me in touch with Donald who further helped alleviate any concerns I may have had about configuration options. I wish Dell would have called to confirm my purchase when I bought their laptop I'm replacing after only a year and a half with the PowerNotebooks one. At least Donald was able to listen to my use-case scenario (web site development), make recommendations / suggestions and help confirm the choices I made for this new purchase would suffice. So far it's surpassed expectations.

Donald let me know that since the laptop would be shipping from Nevada to Colorado, I could save some coin by going to 3-day ground rather than the 2-day air shipping I chose without much difference in delivery date. Thanks Donald. He also mentioned I could save some more coin by paying the invoice in cash via bank transfer rather than using the credit card I paid with. I didn't even know that was an option for the cash payment route. Thanks again Donald. Again, the personal touch provided by PowerNotebooks was welcome and refreshing considering this was an online purchase. Not many places do that.

With payment confirmed, I received notice that the laptop would hit their Sager production line and take around 7 – 10 business days to build, burn / test in and then ship. I'm a pretty impatient person. Waiting for this new laptop was painful; each day brought to light how my current laptop I was using was a third-string under performer. But in all honesty, after you throw down a couple of grand for a computer, do you really want it to be slapped together and shipped off willy nilly? The answer is “No you don't.” Suffice to say, the laptop arrived on schedule. With a tip of bottled water, 5-hour energy shot and a pack of M'n'Ms to the UPS dude, I brought in an almost immaculate box that contained my new laptop. Side note: Be nice to those who deliver you stuff so they don't get grouchy and beat the crap out of the packages they handle.

Care was obviously taken to package the laptop. Bubble wrap was around the inner box that housed the laptop and carrying case. The lid and screen were additionally wrapped in protective plastic. The entire ensemble of cardboard, foam and wrapping helped alleviate fears there might be some shipping damage. Which there wasn't. Everything arrived pristine and in working order. Even though I'm not a gamer, I've been trying to punish this laptop for the past 24 hours; simultaneous software installations from the network, gigs transferring from an external HD, and MS Windows installing from the DVD drive all at once and this thing won't flinch. It's fast, built solid, and I'm having a hard time finding noticeable heat signatures coming from anywhere on it.

With that, I had a great experience purchasing from PowerNotebooks and the product they delivered has so far met my expectations. And after experiencing the personal phone / email help during the process it'd make no sense for me to purchase future machines from another reseller. "

"My old Acer finally gave way and I placed an order for a PowerPro R 11:36 laptop (August 4th, 2011) and after a brief discussion with their extremely friendly and helpful staff members it was on it's way within the day due to the urgent nature of my order.

The laptop itself was very cheap for it's level of performance, and PowerNotebooks offered plenty of customization options that helped fine-tailor it towards my needs and save me money in the process.

Minutes after placing the order I was contacted by Donald Stratton who patiently and knowledgeably answered all my questions and doubts regarding the laptop's specifications and gave helpful suggestions in the building and finalization process.

Even after placing the order any questions I asked via e-mail were answered lightning fast with professional detail. There were slight hiccups in the delivery but the staff at Powernotebooks made sure that there were no inconveniences on my end, which was a Godsend.

Now, apologies if I rant on about this but I honestly believe you can't find companies with this level of service anymore, and you can't purchase that for a price. They've proven themselves capable and willing to go the extra mile to get the job done properly.

Thanks to this I have no hesitations in recommending PowerNotebooks to others and will definitely go back to them should I require another laptop in the future.

- Paul"

"Greatest company ever!
Didnt find a better deal in any other place, the laptop rocks!
A lot of features, really good features (CPU, GPU, screen, memory) at a really low price, I will be buying my next laptops from them.

And the customer service is top notch. I ordered my cpu on monday with a 2-day bussiness shipping (I needed it on friday because on saturday a friend would pick it up for me), made the payment on tuesday, they were not able to send the laptop on wednesday because it missed the delivery truck and then they upgraded the 2-day bussiness shipping to a 1-day shipping, and didnt charged me a dime, so that my laptop would arrive by friday and so it did. I really appreciate the gesture, I hope that all companies would be as customer friendly as PowerNotebooks.

I will recommend them to everyone, Im sure doing it here."

"They do everything right. They have a good product, great (and very responsive) support, they are courteous, work from start to finish with the buyer, and are an example of an exceptional business."

"This may sound corny - but happens to be true .
I wanted to purcahse an ASUS G73SW-A1 laptop , and ship internationally . I emailed a few places , and at PowerNotebooks , was assigned to Donald Stratton .All of my questions were answered promptly , professionally and thoroughly - no messing around . This was the main reason I decided to buy here . This service continued all the way , up to , and even after delivery - a rarity in today's world - and very refreshing to see that there are still some sales people out there like this .
I was hesitant about international ordering , but everything went smoothly - zero glitches - the laptop working perfectly so far . I can sincerely recommend Donald to anyone looking to buy one of the laptops , PowerNotebooks is selling ."

"Ordered online and everything well done. The connection between the company and customer is friendly. So far no dissatifaction."

"I had a great experience with PowerNotebooks. This is the second time I've ordered a laptop from them and I've had no problems either time. I ordered a custom PowerPro laptop 11:36 on July 25th. It shipped in a couple of days and arrived in perfect condition. Throughout this process, PowerNotebooks let me know the status of my order every step along the way. I'll definitely order from them in the future."

"These guys are doing indeed a great job. I am a guest in The US and sometimes we have a lot of problems with our European credit cards here. Many internet sellers do not like them at all and do not accept payments through PayPal as well if billing address does not much shipping address, what is pretty common if you buy anything being on business journey. PowerNotebooks.com is one of such sellers. But those guys not just rejected my request but did everything to help me to buy a new notebook and even to save some money. I really appreciate their job."

"I have owned my laptop for almost six months and have had very few problems with it. As always though nothing is perfect so I would like to point out things I liked, and the problems I have had.

My laptop costed around $4000 and was bought primarily for gaming. Some games it performs amazingly well such as Crysis 2 which even on maximum settings it just won't lag. Then there are others where it just seems to constantly stutter and have audio loops. Games where I have encountered this have included games like League of Legends, Rift, even Portal 2. I have spent hours researching and trying our various fixes but none have worked. From upgrading the drivers, to playing with graphics card settings, and trying various little things for each game. I'm going to assume that something is off in the laptop or the games aren't compatible with this kind of technology.

Another problem I have had is the sheer heat this thing produces. It can actually manage to heat the entire room up. Now I don't know what kind of temps this thing was hitting before, but even with a laptop cooler and the fans working as they should this thing can still hit 80 Celsius during peak performance and idles around 50-60 Celsius. If you are going to get get a high end laptop such as my model which is a Sager NP 7280 then a good laptop cooler seems required. I can't imagine how fast this thing can fry itself out.

The design I find to be fairly sleek. My laptop is black and covered in various blue lights. The fingerprint scanner makes things fairly easy and I can even program it to depending on what finger I scan it will open a specific program. I can also set it to auto fill in passwords when I scan a finger. My biggest complaint though with the laptops design is I have been using it for less than six months and it already is missing the paint from where my left hand sits on the laptop. I feel they need a better paint job for something as pricey as this.

My laptop came with several features that I also enjoy. Things like Bluetooth, being able to turn into a wireless access point or a mobile hotspot, the various usb ports (though if you are planning to hook up an astro blaster A40 headset to the thing it has to be plugged into a 3.0 usb port or else it simply doesn't work well)and a very large selection of audio ports which is good since I work as a DJ and will use this to host parties.

One last paragraph about what I do not like on this laptop that I purchased from this company. The fan....is amazingly loud. I took it to my biology class and it actually made the professor stop his lecture while this thing was booting up. Another problem is the AC adapter which is the size of.....I don't know, I guess a giant brick? It's seriously the biggest AC adapter I have ever seen. I'd guess it's weight around 10 pounds. My buddy had to have it on his desk cause there was no room on mine and the thing has to be plugged in or it runs out of power in 30 minutes or less from full. These are just small things though as I expect it to be big and bulky since it's for gaming.

Update: After writing this I was contacted by Donald Stratton and I'll acknowledge that this company does seem to really care about me enjoying the laptop that I bought from them. However, with that being said the laptop is still doing things it shouldn't be doing and having problems where I feel there shouldn't be any. On top of all the listed problems my speakers seem to go crazy and make a bunch of popping noises during intense areas in games. I don't know how long it's been doing this since I always have it hooked up to a tv or a headset but finding this out has greatly upset me. On top of this I can't extend my warranty even though it is currently still active. All other companies I have dealt with have allowed this as long as the warranty doesn't expire and will do this at an increased cost.

While the company is trying to make me happy, I shouldn't have these kinds of problems and it will still be inconvenient for me to send it in and replace all the parts that are now screwing up. With the speakers added onto the problem I will probably send it in and then further upgrade this review."

"I approached PowerNotebooks recently about a custom gaming laptop project and was very impressed by the customer service I received. I ran my transaction through Donald, who was very helpful and had a lot of valuable input on the project. When he suggested upgrades to certain parts of the laptop, I liked the fact that he was making the suggestions to better suit the application I mentioned and wasn't just giving me the "good old upsell" treatment and trying to nickel-and-dime me. I received the machine in good condition and with every upgrade, customization and detail perfectly in place. I definitely will be bringing my business to Powernotebooks in the future.
-Rich "

"Simply put, the people at PowerNotebooks are helpful, kind, and professional. I highly recommend this company due to their quick response times through e-mail, their friendly staff over the phone, and their super fast shipping time (I live in California).

They help you throughout the entire buying process: from choosing a laptop that's right for you, all the way to when your laptop is delivered to your doorstep. I never once felt nervous to ask a question, for my questions were always answered in a friendly, professional manner.

There was a problem that arose with my credit card company: they denied me the ability to pay my balance in full. The representatives at PowerNotebooks were very kind and understanding about my problem. Together, we resolved the issue over the phone, and I must say, It was a pleasure speaking with the representatives of PowerNotebooks. My credit card company treated me like a number, as if I were inconveniencing them. The representatives at PowerNotebooks, on the other hand, treated me like a human being. I wish more companies would treat their customers with the dignity and professionalism that PowerNotebooks treated me with.

So, to wrap this up, if you're looking for the best laptop reseller, look no further than PowerNotebooks. They're the bee's knees, and I look forward to doing business with them in the future."

"I was shopping for laptpops and came across the PowerPro R11:36 and it seemed to be everything I needed for an amazing price. I had to call and talk to sales because of the "cash discount" and ended up talking with Donald. While I was on the phone with him, I had a few other questions that he answered easily comparing this one to the MSI GT680R. He was also able to inform me that one of the two drive slots was a 12mm slot, something not shown in the specs. He was very knowledgeable about the product and even helped ensure the order was placed correctly so I could get the cash discount.They emailed me to let me know my payment processed, then again to tell me it had shipped and again to make sure I received it and everything was as expected. The laptop is amazing as expected and their customer service has been exceptional!"

"PowerPro 11:36 R - $1,600

5/26/2011 - Computer delivered. Didn't work properly out of the box, the computer kept freezing whenever I played a video game or had multiple applications running. I thought it just needed to be updated, so I ran windows updates, updated drivers, etc.

5/30/2011 - Finally decided to call their tech support. Left a voice message because they didn't pick up.

5/31/2011 - PowerPro called me back in the morning to help. They had me run a memtest. Said they'd call me back in two hours if I didn't call them back. I called back in three hours and couldn't get through. Throughout the rest of the day I left two voice messages for them to call me back. I ended up sending Donald an angry email (at 9 PM) because it had been at least six hours and I couldn't turn the computer off after the memtest. Someone contacted me saying they weren't sure what the problem was, they thought it might be the hard drive, and that they would contact me with a solution later.

6/1/2011 - They decided it was some intel drivers conflicting with my SSD. They had me uninstall them and it appeared to fix the problem (it didn't actually).

A relative then knocked the laptop 2 feet off the coffee table and the screen shattered. This is obviously unrelated to Powernotebooks.

6/2/2011 - Donald quoted me $249 for a laptop replacement. I ship it to what I thought was their repair shop. Apparently they use MSI for repairs and don't repair this particular model themselves.

6/9/2011 - MSI received computer.

6/10/2011 - Email powernotebooks to verify that everything was ok and get a time estimate. They never respond.

6/25/2011 - Powernotebooks contacts me with the shipping information. It took MSI 15 days to replace a simple laptop screen.

6/30/2011 - Received the computer back, Windows wouldn't boot. Called powernotebooks, they had me disable some settings MSI had changed. The freezing then started again, turns out as previously mentioned they had not actually fixed the SSD problem.
Long story short, after several emails and a phone call with Donald they need to update the drivers themselves. It would require me to take the laptop apart to update myself and I'm not comfortable doing this. (As a side note, I thought powernotebooks would repair the computer and fix the SSD problem at the same time. Obviously I should have called, but I just assumed they repaired and fixed computers before sending them back. If MSI does the repairs, they aren't going to make sure everything works great before sending it back and that's what happened).

7/3/2011 - Computer is shipped back to powernotebooks (not MSI this time) for repairs.

7/9/2011 - Computer arrives at powernotebooks

7/11/2011 - Powernotebooks ships the computer back to me.

7/15/2011 - I receive the computer. It doesn't work out of the box - sound doesn't work. Spend the entire day on the phone working with them, I clear the hard rive, reinstall drivers, reinstall windows, etc. Sound will work on restart, but stop working on shut down.

7/18/2011 - I ship the computer to a different repair center, but this time an MSI facility in Indiana.

8/1/2011 - I send Donald an angry email because I haven't heard anything. They claim MSI repaired the computer and shipped it 7/29/2011. Nobody told me this. They also do not provide me a tracking number.

8/2/2011 - I ask for a tracking number. They claimed that the computer would arrive either 8/2/2011 or 8/3/2011. Unfortunately I do NOT have infinite vacation days to sit around and wait for a computer that requires a signature to arrive. So I email them again for a tracking number. I scheduled vacation for both days so I was really angry it didn't show up.

8/3/2011 - Donald calls and offers me the option to receive a full refund or build a new computer. I believe this is fair, but at the end of the day it's realistically impossible to be happy. I used up three vacation days, spent hours on the phone with tech support and waiting for packages. After it all, I could have waited for a new computer, but I didn't have it in me. I'm used to them not working out of the box and I'm just way too busy for more stress.

Still... even after all that... they're still light years above and beyond Dell. And I'm pretty sure I'm just insanely unlucky. Nonetheless, it wasn't a great experience so I'm going with 4 stars. Why? Because I had a different issue but with Dell & Compaq and they didn't give me my money back. Powernotebooks gave me my money back. Nothings perfect, not everything works, but at least I got my money back.

For the record, this is my second computer from powernotebooks. My first computer still works great (purchased in 2009)."

"While carefully researching different laptops and laptop hardware I stumbled upon PowerNotebooks.com. I was intrigued by their slogan "We live to serve Him and you!" which I presumed to refer to their Christian beliefs. I found their notebook offerings to have great variety with excellent customization options. For instance, you can order a laptop with no operating system in case you can pick one up for less than they charge. Over the period of a week and a half, I called three times. Each time I waited less than a minute before being connected to a very knowledgeable sales rep. He patiently answered all my questions. The laptop arrived in one week exactly as promised. It is a powerful machine for a great price. Also, I found a great company whose slogan and beliefs are lived out in the way they do business. I look forward to buying laptops from them in the future."

"I am very happy that I made the right choice in getting my laptop in PowerNotebooks.com. They have a superb customer service that will assist you in everything including choosing the right laptop for you. I am very happy that they assist me in getting my laptop here in dubai in as quick as 2 days. I will definitely do business again with them in the future."