So this is going up a little bit late as I received my new Optimus over 2 weeks ago but I was out of the country and had to wait a while to pick it up and get it going.
I spent quite a long time deciding on what laptop to buy and looked at a bunch of other sites and fiddled with loads of things tweaking my budget here and there.
After finally deciding to use PC Specialist (due to numerous reasons, the main ones being good price and great reviews of build quality and customer service) I hit the forums to ask opinions (link to my original post here if anyone cares: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?40220-Cosmos-advice-please )
I got a really quick and helpful response and after a bit more deliberating and budget fiddling I ended up going for the custom Optimus build below:
Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4710MQ (2.50GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 860M - 2.0GB DDR5, 640 CUDA Cores - DirectX® 11
1st Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive
120GB Kingston SSDNow mS200 mSATA (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-7260 HMC (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
BACKLIT OPTIMUS UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Pictures: (terrible quality, but just look at the ones on the site - it looks just like that!)
In all it came to quite a bit over my original budget but I feel like this should last my quite a long time without need for upgrades.
Firstly I will say that the customer service from PC Specialist is really really good. I had no problems and therefore no need to get in touch with anyone about anything, but I received emails throughout the build process which was great for me because I was out of the country and made me feel safe in the knowledge things were going as planned. It was built and delivered in very good time and there were no problems in having it delivered and signed for at my parents house.
In terms of the laptop itself all I can say is that I am VERY VERY HAPPY with it!!
It was basically ready to go right out of the box. Everything was pretty much up to date and only a few windows updates and restarts were needed and once the various programs I wanted were installed it was time to give it a test.
It is really quick and smooth running everything I have thrown at it so far. I don't have any super-high-end games so I can't give an opinion on those, but so far I have played Civ 5: Beyond Earth, Borderlands 2, Planetside2, LoL and Oblivion on max and it has managed everything absolutely perfectly.
The fan makes more noise when running games (which is understandable) but it isn't really that loud at all and is more than acceptable.
Another issue some people have mentioned are the speakers. Honestly they aren't great, but I would definitely describe them as good. If you're buying this laptop because you're after the world's best laptop speakers then you're going to have a bad time. But you also have your priorities all wrong.
All in all I am 100% happy with this laptop. It is everything I was hoping for and more. I would absolutely recommend this laptop and PC Specialist in general to anyone!
I spent quite a long time deciding on what laptop to buy and looked at a bunch of other sites and fiddled with loads of things tweaking my budget here and there.
After finally deciding to use PC Specialist (due to numerous reasons, the main ones being good price and great reviews of build quality and customer service) I hit the forums to ask opinions (link to my original post here if anyone cares: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?40220-Cosmos-advice-please )
I got a really quick and helpful response and after a bit more deliberating and budget fiddling I ended up going for the custom Optimus build below:
Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4710MQ (2.50GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 860M - 2.0GB DDR5, 640 CUDA Cores - DirectX® 11
1st Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive
120GB Kingston SSDNow mS200 mSATA (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-7260 HMC (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
BACKLIT OPTIMUS UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Pictures: (terrible quality, but just look at the ones on the site - it looks just like that!)
In all it came to quite a bit over my original budget but I feel like this should last my quite a long time without need for upgrades.
Firstly I will say that the customer service from PC Specialist is really really good. I had no problems and therefore no need to get in touch with anyone about anything, but I received emails throughout the build process which was great for me because I was out of the country and made me feel safe in the knowledge things were going as planned. It was built and delivered in very good time and there were no problems in having it delivered and signed for at my parents house.
In terms of the laptop itself all I can say is that I am VERY VERY HAPPY with it!!
It was basically ready to go right out of the box. Everything was pretty much up to date and only a few windows updates and restarts were needed and once the various programs I wanted were installed it was time to give it a test.
It is really quick and smooth running everything I have thrown at it so far. I don't have any super-high-end games so I can't give an opinion on those, but so far I have played Civ 5: Beyond Earth, Borderlands 2, Planetside2, LoL and Oblivion on max and it has managed everything absolutely perfectly.
The fan makes more noise when running games (which is understandable) but it isn't really that loud at all and is more than acceptable.
Another issue some people have mentioned are the speakers. Honestly they aren't great, but I would definitely describe them as good. If you're buying this laptop because you're after the world's best laptop speakers then you're going to have a bad time. But you also have your priorities all wrong.
All in all I am 100% happy with this laptop. It is everything I was hoping for and more. I would absolutely recommend this laptop and PC Specialist in general to anyone!