It's a shame you're having such tough luck with xVx. Without being devils advocate, this was one of the things I was going to mention in the forums - always be wary of small unknown places offering out-of-this-world merchandise! I don't think all the other vendors are like this though, so I would definitely keep trying and look around. Maybe you should post your experience on the forum for others to know as well.

xVx may have gotten scared of all the sudden attention lately, but it is no excuse to run off chicken. I was worried that you paid and never received the goods, but if it is defective, you should fight for your money back. Always read the return and dead pixel policies - plenty of research beforehand will save you lots of headaches later!

I checked out the ISTNC site, they have the same units as Sager, even the model numbers match. THG did a review way back when Sager first began selling the clevo. At that time it was fitted with only P4 and had a Go6800 gpu. Check with them if they offer the Go7900GTX as an upgrade for later.

Incidentally, if you're worried about the screen, www.screentekltd.com offer replacements for the clevo that can be user installed. If you cannot get anywhere with vXv, you can always keep it for a year and then replace the LCD if that dead pixel becomes annoying.