Desktop PC Photos and Full Review
- Thread starter RS2OOO
- Start date
RS2OOO
Gold Level Poster
The top right USB 2 port in the picture doesn't appear to be working. Not tested it as such, just plugged mouse in and it didn't work, then plugged it into the left port and it worked fine. (EDIT - All USB Ports are now working fine, possibly I didn't give it enough time to install Mouse driver).
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RS2OOO
Gold Level Poster
Looks perfect, exactly what I wanted. Size, Colour, and everything else about it matches other furniture as I have a Piano Black and Beech theme going on:
Hotswap bay is so handy...rather than having to rebuild and reconnect old PC to format the drives, was just a case of slotting them in and reformatting them, completed in under 5 minutes....
That old router was only there whilst setting up a hard wired connection but its a trusty old thing and performs better than a lot of modern ones....
Hotswap bay is so handy...rather than having to rebuild and reconnect old PC to format the drives, was just a case of slotting them in and reformatting them, completed in under 5 minutes....
That old router was only there whilst setting up a hard wired connection but its a trusty old thing and performs better than a lot of modern ones....
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RS2OOO
Gold Level Poster
The final spec:
Case
COOLERMASTER SILENCIO 550 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770 (3.4GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPERX BEAST DUAL-DDR3 1866MHz X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD7770 - DVI,HDMI,DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Extra Case Fans
1 x 12CM Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof) (£5)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)
USB Options
2 PORT USB 3.0 INTERNAL PCI-EX CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Case
COOLERMASTER SILENCIO 550 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770 (3.4GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPERX BEAST DUAL-DDR3 1866MHz X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD7770 - DVI,HDMI,DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Extra Case Fans
1 x 12CM Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof) (£5)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)
USB Options
2 PORT USB 3.0 INTERNAL PCI-EX CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
RS2OOO
Gold Level Poster
Thanks for the reps guys..... I strangely take the view that if my rep is lower than my post count, my input isn't of a good enough quality! I'm flying now!
Now for the Reviews.... I'm going to split this into 2 posts, one specifically surrounding PCS service and one on the PC itself.
Review of PCS from initial website visit to delivery of the machine
First impressions of the website were positive. Having already looked at competitors sites and being close to buying a PC, I found PCS' site clear, concise, well laid out and very much streets ahead of the competition..... just don't get complacent guys, the competition will catch up eventually so you need to keep innovating.
The online 'configurator' is also excellent and I easily found answers to every question I could think of. On the basis that the whole online experience is pretty much perfect, its easier to talk about what wasn't perfect.....
1) Issue with adding memory card readers which could have lost my custom, but has now been resolved by PCS - See this thread for full details: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...rated-SD-card-readers-amp-minor-support-issue
2) When I was getting close to making my purchase on another website, I spotted a PCS advert on the web page, this advert had a £15 off discount code. When I first completed a quote on the PCS site, the discount code box was on the screen ready to accept the code, but I did not proceed with the sale at that time. When I came back to accept the quote having now set up an account with PCS, the discount code box was nowhere to be found. When I eventually completed the transaction I forgot to inquire about how to get the discount and ended up losing out on it. That was a shame.
On making the purchase the website advised me of an approximate 7 to 9 working day standard build time. This was perfect because I needed the PC within 11 working days. Unfortunately, and despite a few phone calls chasing, I didn't receive the PC until the 13th working day despite assurances I'd receive it earlier. The PC sat in the building stage for 6 working days, but it had been confirmed on the phone it had already been built on the 1st working day, so it appears there was a back log and my PC sat somewhere for 5 working days before going into testing and QC.
On further chasing I was told they would make sure it gets tested and QC'd immediately in an effort to get it delivered to me on time. The next day, status was still showing in building so I phoned again to be told it had been tested but not QC'd and the only way I could now get it on time was through agreeing to it not being QC'd. Under the circumstances I had to say Yes. However, 10 minutes later I received a phone call back saying he just went to shut down the PC to prepare for dispatch and it BSOD'd so would now definitely have to be re-tested and properly QC'd.
So, all in all, I received the PC on the 13th Working day which was 1 day too late for when I really needed it and did cause me some problems (had to set up my work from a friends house for a day).
Please don't see this as a complaint as such because the BSOD was out of anyone's control, basically bad luck, but even without the BSOD I wouldn't have received the PC within the estimated time. I appreciate the T&C's contractually state up to 30 days but I do wonder if the estimated times may be a little optomistic.
The delays aside, all phone calls were answered promptly by knowledgeable and helpful people who were pleasant to speak to, the website is brilliant, these forums are excellent with some incredibly knowledgeable and helpful people, the fact you can very easily upgrade your PC even during the processing period is also brilliant and I wouldn't be surprised if that facility alone adds significantly to PCS' revenue.
I found DPD's service very good and the parcel arrived bang on time, completely unscathed without a mark, crease or dent anywhere.
As for the way the PC was packaged, well, all I can say is I wouldn't like to be the recipient of Anthony Cunliffe's Christmas presents.... you'd spend most of Christmas day trying to open them! ;-)
Overall the whole PCS experience, the clarity of everything on the website, the clarity of pricing, and the service overall has been over and above any other company I've dealt with in this sector of the market, although I appreciate this post was aimed more at pointing out what wasn't absolutely perfect.
I would definitely use PCS again.
Now for the Reviews.... I'm going to split this into 2 posts, one specifically surrounding PCS service and one on the PC itself.
Review of PCS from initial website visit to delivery of the machine
First impressions of the website were positive. Having already looked at competitors sites and being close to buying a PC, I found PCS' site clear, concise, well laid out and very much streets ahead of the competition..... just don't get complacent guys, the competition will catch up eventually so you need to keep innovating.
The online 'configurator' is also excellent and I easily found answers to every question I could think of. On the basis that the whole online experience is pretty much perfect, its easier to talk about what wasn't perfect.....
1) Issue with adding memory card readers which could have lost my custom, but has now been resolved by PCS - See this thread for full details: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...rated-SD-card-readers-amp-minor-support-issue
2) When I was getting close to making my purchase on another website, I spotted a PCS advert on the web page, this advert had a £15 off discount code. When I first completed a quote on the PCS site, the discount code box was on the screen ready to accept the code, but I did not proceed with the sale at that time. When I came back to accept the quote having now set up an account with PCS, the discount code box was nowhere to be found. When I eventually completed the transaction I forgot to inquire about how to get the discount and ended up losing out on it. That was a shame.
On making the purchase the website advised me of an approximate 7 to 9 working day standard build time. This was perfect because I needed the PC within 11 working days. Unfortunately, and despite a few phone calls chasing, I didn't receive the PC until the 13th working day despite assurances I'd receive it earlier. The PC sat in the building stage for 6 working days, but it had been confirmed on the phone it had already been built on the 1st working day, so it appears there was a back log and my PC sat somewhere for 5 working days before going into testing and QC.
On further chasing I was told they would make sure it gets tested and QC'd immediately in an effort to get it delivered to me on time. The next day, status was still showing in building so I phoned again to be told it had been tested but not QC'd and the only way I could now get it on time was through agreeing to it not being QC'd. Under the circumstances I had to say Yes. However, 10 minutes later I received a phone call back saying he just went to shut down the PC to prepare for dispatch and it BSOD'd so would now definitely have to be re-tested and properly QC'd.
So, all in all, I received the PC on the 13th Working day which was 1 day too late for when I really needed it and did cause me some problems (had to set up my work from a friends house for a day).
Please don't see this as a complaint as such because the BSOD was out of anyone's control, basically bad luck, but even without the BSOD I wouldn't have received the PC within the estimated time. I appreciate the T&C's contractually state up to 30 days but I do wonder if the estimated times may be a little optomistic.
The delays aside, all phone calls were answered promptly by knowledgeable and helpful people who were pleasant to speak to, the website is brilliant, these forums are excellent with some incredibly knowledgeable and helpful people, the fact you can very easily upgrade your PC even during the processing period is also brilliant and I wouldn't be surprised if that facility alone adds significantly to PCS' revenue.
I found DPD's service very good and the parcel arrived bang on time, completely unscathed without a mark, crease or dent anywhere.
As for the way the PC was packaged, well, all I can say is I wouldn't like to be the recipient of Anthony Cunliffe's Christmas presents.... you'd spend most of Christmas day trying to open them! ;-)
Overall the whole PCS experience, the clarity of everything on the website, the clarity of pricing, and the service overall has been over and above any other company I've dealt with in this sector of the market, although I appreciate this post was aimed more at pointing out what wasn't absolutely perfect.
I would definitely use PCS again.
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RS2OOO
Gold Level Poster
Review so far of my new COOLERMASTER SILENCIO 550
See post 6 if you need reminding of the spec.
With the PC I received all driver discs, instruction manuals, spare parts for the case and a PCS welcome booklet which is actually worth the read as there are a few good tips in there and even RMA return address labels which are quite a thoughtful addition.
The PC starts and runs quickly and perfectly and its refreshing to have a new PC that isn't loaded with bloatware.
The performance of the PC is impressive and scores top marks in Windows 7 "Windows Experience Score" on everything except for the GPU which comes in at 7.5 out of a possible 7.9, this being fully expected as a Radeon HD 7770 is adequate for my needs.
Transferring data to a (Kingston) SSD is so unbelievably quick. Dragging 10Gb of data from one partition to another was practically instantaneous, and also very fast dragging from HDD to SSD. Love it.
The HDD hot swap bay on this Silencio case is also brilliant. I needed to reformat some drives I have lying around, popped them in, reformatted, pulled them out..... brilliant and saved so much time.
Because it essentially runs and operates perfectly with all drivers working perfectly, I'm going to focus the rest of this post on whats not perfect:
1) The rear top left USB 2 port that comes directly off the Mobo does not work. The one next to it works fine. I've no idea how to investigate or fix this so any tips would be appreciated, though I do have more USB ports than I'm likely to ever need so its not an issue for me, but if you know something isn't quite right you want to fix it if you know what I mean. EDIT - THIS IS NOW FIXED, I Probably didnt give it enough time to load my mouse drivers.
2) The Silencio 550 is marketed as a silent case. It is not silent, probably the loudest PC I've ever had, albeit the highest spec. The standard 800 rpm case fans are almost silent, but I opted for an additional rear fan. One of the fans is noisy but I can't tell if its the additional rear fan or the PSU fan (EDIT - Pretty sure its the PSU fan), baring in mind the PSU is a "quiet" one. Although not 100% sure, I think it is the PSU fan that's noisy. Play this with the volume on low to understand exactly what it sounds like:
[video=youtube;K8E_zMLCRNg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8E_zMLCRNg[/video]
3) Windows 7 was already installed on my machine, but I noticed by default it was scheduled to defrag my SSD, whether it would actually attempt it or not I do not know, but I disabled that sharpish.
Other problems I've had which are not related to PCS but worth mentioning in case anyone could help with solutions:
I like to have Windows (7) on one partition and anything thats changeable such as documents, settings, downloads, pictures etc on another partition or another drive. So I changed the location of all of these folders to F: drive. But on the F: drive they all showed up as "Contacts" folders with a V Card of my own profile inside. Couldn't find anything online to explain what was going on so I went to properties on each folder to move the location back to the C: drive. However, on applying this an error message came up saying something like "The following error occurred: Failed to build the list of known sub folders".
From what I could make out, all of those folders were now inaccessible despite all permissions being set. After searching MS tech support I found a couple of instances where others have had the same problem and MS were unable to resolve the issue, even after having users modify and re-write loads of registry entries.
In the end I gave up, did a system restore, deleted the partition on that drive, extended the C: drive partition and decided to just leave all those folders in with the OS.
This brings me onto my 2nd problem.....
I'd installed MS Office 2013 Professional Plus, but having done a system restore it was gone. It then became impossible to re-install it. Searching MS tech support it turns out there is a bug with it and if you uninstall it or remove it from your PC, you are unable to re-install it without having to install a fix for it. It took around 2 hours for me to establish this so I think its well worth mentioning in case any of you guys find yourself in a similar situation... the fix itself takes a few seconds to run, but if you didn't know about the bug you could find yourself head scratching for hours!
Finally, Windows 7 desktop was not filling my whole monitor and there was around 1" of unusable black space (you can't even put your mouse there) around the edge of the screen. If you have the same problem and also have an ATI graphics card, you can fix this by opening up Catalyst Control Centre, type in "Scaling" in the search box, go to "scaling options - digital flat panel" and move the slider all the way over to "Overscan". That was a quick and easy fix through luck, but not an obvious one to suss out.
Hope this review will help others. Again I appreciate I've focused more on whats not perfect, but if I didn't there would be nothing to talk about because the machine is wonderful in the main, and absolutely perfect for my needs, which again is a testament to the quality of PCS' website in ensuring I'm buying what I actually need.
EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention. The Pioneer Blu-ray writer has an eject button that protrudes slightly. With the door of the Silencio 550 closed, if you knock the door or put a small amount of pressure against the top of it, it activates the eject button and it tries to open the disc drawer against the case door. No doubt about it, this will probably be a fairly regular occurrence as it only takes a very slight knock of the door, so I worry it might eventually break it.
See post 6 if you need reminding of the spec.
With the PC I received all driver discs, instruction manuals, spare parts for the case and a PCS welcome booklet which is actually worth the read as there are a few good tips in there and even RMA return address labels which are quite a thoughtful addition.
The PC starts and runs quickly and perfectly and its refreshing to have a new PC that isn't loaded with bloatware.
The performance of the PC is impressive and scores top marks in Windows 7 "Windows Experience Score" on everything except for the GPU which comes in at 7.5 out of a possible 7.9, this being fully expected as a Radeon HD 7770 is adequate for my needs.
Transferring data to a (Kingston) SSD is so unbelievably quick. Dragging 10Gb of data from one partition to another was practically instantaneous, and also very fast dragging from HDD to SSD. Love it.
The HDD hot swap bay on this Silencio case is also brilliant. I needed to reformat some drives I have lying around, popped them in, reformatted, pulled them out..... brilliant and saved so much time.
Because it essentially runs and operates perfectly with all drivers working perfectly, I'm going to focus the rest of this post on whats not perfect:
1) The rear top left USB 2 port that comes directly off the Mobo does not work. The one next to it works fine. I've no idea how to investigate or fix this so any tips would be appreciated, though I do have more USB ports than I'm likely to ever need so its not an issue for me, but if you know something isn't quite right you want to fix it if you know what I mean. EDIT - THIS IS NOW FIXED, I Probably didnt give it enough time to load my mouse drivers.
2) The Silencio 550 is marketed as a silent case. It is not silent, probably the loudest PC I've ever had, albeit the highest spec. The standard 800 rpm case fans are almost silent, but I opted for an additional rear fan. One of the fans is noisy but I can't tell if its the additional rear fan or the PSU fan (EDIT - Pretty sure its the PSU fan), baring in mind the PSU is a "quiet" one. Although not 100% sure, I think it is the PSU fan that's noisy. Play this with the volume on low to understand exactly what it sounds like:
[video=youtube;K8E_zMLCRNg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8E_zMLCRNg[/video]
3) Windows 7 was already installed on my machine, but I noticed by default it was scheduled to defrag my SSD, whether it would actually attempt it or not I do not know, but I disabled that sharpish.
Other problems I've had which are not related to PCS but worth mentioning in case anyone could help with solutions:
I like to have Windows (7) on one partition and anything thats changeable such as documents, settings, downloads, pictures etc on another partition or another drive. So I changed the location of all of these folders to F: drive. But on the F: drive they all showed up as "Contacts" folders with a V Card of my own profile inside. Couldn't find anything online to explain what was going on so I went to properties on each folder to move the location back to the C: drive. However, on applying this an error message came up saying something like "The following error occurred: Failed to build the list of known sub folders".
From what I could make out, all of those folders were now inaccessible despite all permissions being set. After searching MS tech support I found a couple of instances where others have had the same problem and MS were unable to resolve the issue, even after having users modify and re-write loads of registry entries.
In the end I gave up, did a system restore, deleted the partition on that drive, extended the C: drive partition and decided to just leave all those folders in with the OS.
This brings me onto my 2nd problem.....
I'd installed MS Office 2013 Professional Plus, but having done a system restore it was gone. It then became impossible to re-install it. Searching MS tech support it turns out there is a bug with it and if you uninstall it or remove it from your PC, you are unable to re-install it without having to install a fix for it. It took around 2 hours for me to establish this so I think its well worth mentioning in case any of you guys find yourself in a similar situation... the fix itself takes a few seconds to run, but if you didn't know about the bug you could find yourself head scratching for hours!
Finally, Windows 7 desktop was not filling my whole monitor and there was around 1" of unusable black space (you can't even put your mouse there) around the edge of the screen. If you have the same problem and also have an ATI graphics card, you can fix this by opening up Catalyst Control Centre, type in "Scaling" in the search box, go to "scaling options - digital flat panel" and move the slider all the way over to "Overscan". That was a quick and easy fix through luck, but not an obvious one to suss out.
Hope this review will help others. Again I appreciate I've focused more on whats not perfect, but if I didn't there would be nothing to talk about because the machine is wonderful in the main, and absolutely perfect for my needs, which again is a testament to the quality of PCS' website in ensuring I'm buying what I actually need.
EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention. The Pioneer Blu-ray writer has an eject button that protrudes slightly. With the door of the Silencio 550 closed, if you knock the door or put a small amount of pressure against the top of it, it activates the eject button and it tries to open the disc drawer against the case door. No doubt about it, this will probably be a fairly regular occurrence as it only takes a very slight knock of the door, so I worry it might eventually break it.
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SlickShoes
Well-known member
Nice work on the scaling, I never even noticed my 1cm black space until I read this haha, now my desktop actually fills the screen perfectly after changing the scaling!
RS2OOO
Gold Level Poster
Due to the posting guidelines of this thread stating its for photos only, I've created a new thread as a continuation which I'll treat as an ongoing review and technical thread. The new thread can be found here: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...ation-thread-for-performance-technical-issues
RS2OOO
Gold Level Poster
Apologies for the late reply, but if you or anyone still wants to know, I can confirm the door stays in whichever position you open it to, it doesn't swing shut.
Finally, almost 1 Year on from the original review I just want to say the PC is still running sweet and working perfectly, and still seems as quick as the day I first switched it on.
I did have 1 blue screen of death event a couple of Months ago, no idea what caused it, but it rebooted itself and has been fine ever since.
The best part of the "investment" for me is the SSD.... I just love the fact I can get up in the morning, switch the PC on, walk to the kettle and fill it up, switch it on, then come back to the PC and its fired up and raring to go. Also now I've started downloading a lot of movies I love the fact I can drag and drop a 3.2gb movie from HDD to SSD and its literally instant.
I keep looking to upgrade things, but in all honesty there's nothing worth upgrading, the spec is perfect for my usage.
One final thing, the noisy fan turned out not to be the PSU, but the graphics card. PCS sent out a new one and the noise was gone.
nathanjrb
Prolific Poster
Thanks for the reply! I actually found a solution to my problem, the door on the case can be removed and swapped onto the other hinge (so it opens the other way) and it no longer swings shut. It would be annoying if you needed it to open a certain way though.
Glad you're enjoying your PC a year on
