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Virtually none of the namebrands manufacture their own laptops. The few notable exceptions are IBM, Acer, Toshiba, Twinhead and Apple. Yet, even Toshiba and Apple do not make all of their own.

All of the rest buy their laptops from what is called an Original Design Manufacturer (ODM). Then, they install the hard drive (usually an IBM, Hitachi, or Toshiba), processor (Pentium x, Celeron, or AMD) and system memory (SDRAM). Installing these last three components is very easy to do, and leaving these for "the last minute" allows for a wide range of custom configurations.

Once these companies add in these three components, they have a complete laptop. They then put their label on it and market it.

Each ODM sells its computers to several different OEMs.

For example:

• An ODM named Clevo makes the Sager NP5670 and the Alienware Area 51-M, the Voodoo MClass M550, the Hypersonic Sonic Aviator, and they are all the same computer. Clevo also makes the Sager NP8882 and NP8887 and the Voodoo MClass M600 and they are also the same computer. Of course, the Sager models have a much sweeter price tag!

• An ODM named Compal (not to be confused with Compaq) makes some of the the DELL, Hewlett Packard and Compaq line of laptops--plus some others.
• Quanta makes many of the Dell Latitude, IBM, and Sony Vaio laptops.
• GVC makes the Micron Transport Treck and Treck 2.
• Inventec makes many of the Compaq brands.
• Clevo and Kapok make certain models of the Sager Computer. Clevo and Kapok are different divisions of the same company and are among the largest and best in the world.
• Other ODM names are Mitech, Kapok, Clevo, FIC, Twinhead, and Uniwil--just to name a few.

Some call this the "Dirty little secret of the Laptop Industry."

So, what does this mean to you? It means don't get hung up on the brand name when looking to buy, because the company who owns that name probably didn't build your dream-machine laptop. Instead, focus on these three things:

• The warranty: Compare warranties among different vendors.
• Features: Does it do all you need? Don't go overboard, but don't sacrifice.
• Price: Are you paying for a name, or for features and warranty? Remember, the name does not differentiate the machine from any other.

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