Are there any PC shops in Tokyo that sell American-made gaming laptops?

TokyoJoeblow

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I'm specifically looking for brands like MSI, Alienware, Razer, etc.

I know there is a Dell shop, but not really what I'm looking for...but are there any powerful gaming laptops made by Dell?

I noticed these shops listed on Google maps:

Tokyo PC, RT International, PC Shop Ark and a handful of Dell shops.

I'm checking out these websites now and it looks like there might be some decent gaming laptops available and these places...anyone buy a good gaming laptop in Tokyo before?
 
Alienware is Dell... why wouldn’t you just buy direct from the manufacturer and cut out the middlemen? My experience has been they will negotiate - over the phone of course, not if you just click and order via the interweb.
 
I don't own a gaming laptop, but I've paid attention to the market and know a few people that own various MSI models.
MSI seems to have a good grip on reality and the build quality of the ones I've seen and used in person are quite nice.
Shops in Akihabara have a lot of display models you can touch and use before pulling the trigger on one.

If you go through with getting one (from whatever brand) I'd be curious to hear what you got and why at the end of the process.
 
Alienware is Dell... why wouldn’t you just buy direct from the manufacturer and cut out the middlemen? My experience has been they will negotiate - over the phone of course, not if you just click and order via the interweb.

Yes, I should have known that but never actually owned an Alienware or Dell before, but heard good things about their performance. I heard they are overpriced, but so are MSI which are what I usually buy. MSI have worked really smoothly for me and my current MSI GT70 2PC Dominator has lasted me about 6 years.

I also heard that Sofmap and Tsukumo sometimes have decent gaming laptops too.

The manufacturers are willing to negotiate a reasonable price if I called them directly to purchase one of their laptops and have them deliver it to Japan?

I assume the cost to send the laptop here would be almost as much as the laptop itself though...
 
I don't own a gaming laptop, but I've paid attention to the market and know a few people that own various MSI models.
MSI seems to have a good grip on reality and the build quality of the ones I've seen and used in person are quite nice.
Shops in Akihabara have a lot of display models you can touch and use before pulling the trigger on one.

If you go through with getting one (from whatever brand) I'd be curious to hear what you got and why at the end of the process.

It will be a few months at least to save up since I just started this new full-time job and my first salary isn't until a month from today. But I can already see small signs that this laptop is starting to reach the end of its days.

I would be surprised if I could get another year out of it. I know 6 years isn't long, but I'm a hardcore PC gamer and really put the mileage on this baby. Its battle scars are starting to show haha.

I will provide information on here about what I end up buying, why and where I bought it from in the future for sure.
 
I also heard that Sofmap and Tsukumo sometimes have decent gaming laptops too.
Well, the shop names really don't matter - they don't make the PC/Laptops they sell. You can get the model selection from most shops that sell laptops.
The manufacturers are willing to negotiate a reasonable price if I called them directly to purchase one of their laptops and have them deliver it to Japan?
Buying outside of Japan and importing will net you a nice import surcharge when you receive it in Japan (usually you pay it on delivery). The cost comes out about the same or more when you factor in shipping.

MSI laptops are built in China and Taiwan, so a custom order would come pretty quick to Japan.
 
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Let’s say you would order from Dell Japan for example. It’s very possible they would need to ship from overseas depending on what you want but your cost would not increase. The origin is purely at the manufacturer’s convenience. This has been my direct experience. And I was also able to negotiate a better price and extras by giving them the order on the spot. Sales is sales - they are hungry to get that order ASAP.
 
Let’s say you would order from Dell Japan for example. It’s very possible they would need to ship from overseas depending on what you want but your cost would not increase. The origin is purely at the manufacturer’s convenience. This has been my direct experience. And I was also able to negotiate a better price and extras by giving them the order on the spot. Sales is sales - they are hungry to get that order ASAP.

Now did you order a gaming laptop or PC or just ordered parts and customized everything yourself?

I don't know if you are a PC gamer, but I'm just guessing you are or at least were at one point.
 
AFAIK, there's no such thing as an American-made laptop.

Acer, ASUS and MSI are Taiwanese, and AFAIK manufacture there. Apple, Dell/Alienware and HP are American, but their machines are built by contract assemblers like Pegatron (a spin-off of ASUS) and Foxconn in China or Taiwan. Samsung's South Korean and Fujitsu's Japanese, but I don't know where their systems are made. Toshiba sold their laptop division off; I forget who owns it now. Same with Sony. Then there's your Clevo/Sagers, which are white-labelled under all kinds of brands.
 
AFAIK, there's no such thing as an American-made laptop.

Acer, ASUS and MSI are Taiwanese, and AFAIK manufacture there. Apple, Dell/Alienware and HP are American, but their machines are built by contract assemblers like Pegatron (a spin-off of ASUS) and Foxconn in China or Taiwan. Samsung's South Korean and Fujitsu's Japanese, but I don't know where their systems are made. Toshiba sold their laptop division off; I forget who owns it now. Same with Sony. Then there's your Clevo/Sagers, which are white-labelled under all kinds of brands.

Are you a PC gamer by chance?

I will most likely purchase another MSI as my current one took years of heavy gaming abuse like a champ, but I like a lot of the new Razer models I'm seeing online.
 
Now did you order a gaming laptop or PC or just ordered parts and customized everything yourself?

I don't know if you are a PC gamer, but I'm just guessing you are or at least were at one point.

I was a PC gamer until a couple of years ago. I have bought both Alienware and non-gaming laptops from Dell. But the only customization I did is what the manufacturer lets you do when ordering. I did not tweak my Alienware beyond that. That being said, it was a beast. (In a good way)
 
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I’m not a gamer but I’ve bought several laptops in Akihabara over the years for other high end work. Buying used in Japan at those shops is cheaper & my experience is I’ve never gotten a messed up used laptop from them. This would not be the same in other countries.
 
If you've joined any low latency server from Japan in CS:GO, I've probably killed you at least once.
Other than Skyrim and Minecraft, I don't recognize the others you mentioned.

I just don't have the time for routine play, but I dip in to either Battlefield 4 (I have 1 and V but prefer 4) or CS/CS:GO for a few quick matches.
 
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If you've joined any low latency server from Japan in CS:GO, I've probably killed you at least once.
Other than Skyrim and Minecraft, I don't recognize the others you mentioned.

I just don't have the time for routine play, but I dip in to either Battlefield 4 (I have 1 and V but prefer 4) or CS/CS:GO for a few quick matches.

Maybe I also killed you at least once too. :dead: :cool:

I also play one player games like MegaMan Collections, Shovel Knight, classic strategy and RPG games, etc.
 
Are you a PC gamer by chance?

Yep. Started out on a Commodore PET my Dad borrowed from his school for the summer (he was a teacher), then we got a C64 and an Amiga 500, before moving to PCs. I mostly build my own desktops, though. The last pre-built PC, other than my Chromebook, I bought was also the first computer I bought myself: a Pentium 120 w/64 MB RAM, 1.6 GB hard drive, sound card, CD-ROM and an ATI Mach64. That was a slight upgrade from my Dad's 386 w/8 MB of RAM and 500 MB hard drive... :p

My current main system is an i5 7600K w/16 GB RAM, Geforce GTX 1080 Ti, 120 GB SATA SSD, 1TB NVMe SSD and 27" 1440p 144 Hz + 24" 1200p 60 Hz monitors. Then in the living room, I've got an i5 3570K w/16 GB RAM, Radeon Fury X, 60 GB SATA SSD and 512 GB NVMe SSD connected to my 55" 1080p TV.

I've also got an Xbox 360, but the last few years I mostly just used it as a video player.
 
I'm actually at a Y Mobile shop paying for a SoftBank Hikari WiFi plan for my apartment.

It will be nice to finally be able to play some games on steam again.

What WiFi plans do you all use here in Japan and how much do you pay monthly?
 
I'm actually at a Y Mobile shop paying for a SoftBank Hikari WiFi plan for my apartment.

It will be nice to finally be able to play some games on steam again.

What WiFi plans do you all use here in Japan and how much do you pay monthly?
As mentioned in other thread, partially answered. The only other devices I have are mobile phones (with hotspot/tethering) from SoftBank and DoCoMo which are just the smartphone plans.
 
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I’m not a gamer but I’ve bought several laptops in Akihabara over the years for other high end work. Buying used in Japan at those shops is cheaper & my experience is I’ve never gotten a messed up used laptop from them. This would not be the same in other countries.

I’m also not a hardcore gamer (mostly photo/video editing) but this has me thinking of maybe looking into picking up a used laptop when we get into Tokyo next week. Any used shops / laptop brands in particular you recommend? (Just looking for something to dabble in modding Skyrim with)
 
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I usually bought from Sofmap in Akihabara. They seem to check every computer.
Also note I usually want a Japanese keyboard so I’m not sure if that’s what you may be looking for if you are visiting.
 
I usually bought from Sofmap in Akihabara. They seem to check every computer.
Also note I usually want a Japanese keyboard so I’m not sure if that’s what you may be looking for if you are visiting.
I'll second this - the Sofmap shop has a basement level (b1) that has a bunch of used laptops (pc/mac) as well as really decent used pc parts.
I make a stop in there each time I'm in the area - I run into people looking for a budget laptop and that's a good shop to buy from.
They also have some gaming laptops right at the bottom (right) of the stairs when you do down. It's just a matter of timing to catch a good deal.
But each laptop I bought from them, I refreshed it and sold it to someone who needed a reliable machine for much less than a new one.

So far, no failures that I know of.... so I think they do a good check on the equipment they take in.

That Sofmap chain also has an abundant supply of used Apple equipment (iPhone, iPad, Macs) for decent prices.
 
I'll second this - the Sofmap shop has a basement level (b1) that has a bunch of used laptops (pc/mac) as well as really decent used pc parts.
I make a stop in there each time I'm in the area - I run into people looking for a budget laptop and that's a good shop to buy from.
They also have some gaming laptops right at the bottom (right) of the stairs when you do down. It's just a matter of timing to catch a good deal.
But each laptop I bought from them, I refreshed it and sold it to someone who needed a reliable machine for much less than a new one.

So far, no failures that I know of.... so I think they do a good check on the equipment they take in.

That Sofmap chain also has an abundant supply of used Apple equipment (iPhone, iPad, Macs) for decent prices.

So the basement has used laptops but I assume they also sell new, top of the line gaming laptops as well yes?

I plan to save up my money and buy a brand new, top of the line gaming laptop maybe around late spring, early summer.
 
I usually bought from Sofmap in Akihabara. They seem to check every computer.
Also note I usually want a Japanese keyboard so I’m not sure if that’s what you may be looking for if you are visiting.

No Japanese keyboard for me, but I always install the Japanese language input package and constantly switch back and forth with English.
 
So the basement has used laptops but I assume they also sell new, top of the line gaming laptops as well yes?

I plan to save up my money and buy a brand new, top of the line gaming laptop maybe around late spring, early summer.

The ground floor has new desktop and laptop gaming machines. The 2nd floor has more parts and their eSports theater where they have live shows.
 
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