iBUYPOWER’s OptiBoost Aims to Add Flexibility to OEM Notebooks

A frustrating aspect of purchasing a notebook at retail or etail is not being able to customize it. Sure, there are sometimes more than one variant of a particular model, but it’s unlikely that either of them are going to be “perfect” in your eyes. There always seems to be a compromise somewhere.

That’s a problem iBUYPOWER hopes to remedy with “OptiBoost“, a program that allows people to purchase OEM notebooks but tweak the specs more to their liking. GIGABYTE is the first partner to join in, with ASUS and MSI support to come soon.

Previously, it was just not possible to buy your favorite notebooks and have it built your way. Graphics cards, processors, SSDs, and other components, were all luxuries belonging to the gaming desktop. Now we’re bringing those possibilities to the fast-growing mobile platform.

As great as that sounds, the reality is that we’re still dealing with notebooks, which are not modular like desktop PCs. Even so, the first models iBUYPOWER offers gives us hope that this could improve further down-the-road, especially if such vendors begin building their notebooks with modularity in mind.

At the moment, only one GIGABYTE model is shipping, but two more are coming next month. All of them offer tweaking of the storage, memory, and Wi-Fi. Don’t like the standard 802.11 chip? You can upgrade to a Killer 1202 solution, or an Intel AC 7260 one.

The quote I posted above mentions processors, graphics cards and “other” components, but at the moment the main options that can be tweaked are the storage, RAM, and Wi-Fi. One exception is with the P35Wv2, which allows you to downgrade to a GeForce 860, from its stock 870, and save $100 in the process.

A solution like OptiBoost is a good one, and could become “great” down the road, if even more modularity becomes possible. As it is, if you want a truly customizable notebook, boutique vendors are still the way to go, such as with iBUYPOWER’s own options. And speaking of that, it must be said, it’s quite an interesting development to see iBUYPOWER beginning to offer competitor products, but as someone who loves ASUS notebooks, I welcome it.