2. Whitebooks: Notebooks To Customer Specs, Continued

Smaller PC dealers also stand to benefit. Resellers, for example, can serve notebook OEMS, such asFirst International Computers (FIC), to resell a smaller number of units while offering value-add kit systems. These kits consist of a barebones notebook, a selection of matching boxed mobile CPUs, SO-DIMMs, 2.5" hard drives, a WLAN module and, last but not least, a service and support package that the dealer buys with the notebook.

The advantages of these "whitebooks", as they're known, for dealers are obvious: It means they can better cater to customer configuration wishes and, given that they assemble the devices themselves, can target a higher margin. The addition of new offers in the mobile segment also results in enhanced relations with existing customers and the potential to win over new ones. Added to which, the products can easily be labeled with a store's logo and so create a kind of "store brand".

For customers, buying a whitebook entails no drawbacks. They benefit from buying a notebook tailored to their needs from a trusted dealer - and not some preconfigured system purchased anonymously from one of the numerous large retailers. And, theoretically at least, there should be no trouble with support and services.

Do whitebook notebooks really live up to their sellers' claims? Are they really that easy to assemble, and can they match the performance of an A- or B-brand manufacturer? THG put them to the test, using the MB02, a Centrino whitebook, as our guinea pig. Read on and find out.