Whatthehell337
Member
So I ordered my laptop from PCS around 3 months ago, I ordered with next day build and expedited shipping and it took 4 days to arrive (ordered the Friday morning arrived Monday afternoon) which I was extreamly happy with.
The packaging which the laptop came in was what I would call overkill but i would say there was next to no risk of damage and they took every measure they could to insure that. The laptop was in a large box with accessories neatly organized, this box was inside a larger box surrounded by what I can only describe as bubble wrap on steroids. If anyone is concerned about packaging let your mind be at ease even with the notoriously bad package handlers throwing your box around your very safe.
The laptop came with the correct parts but I was disappointed to see that the ram was not put in paired slots. (something which the technical support had already made me aware of and sent me instructions on how to solve).
Once solved I turnt to booting the laptop for the first time, the m.2 ssd makes for a extreamly fast boot and as it stands today with my steam library, autodesk and various other packages it still manages to boot into windows within around 10 seconds including the time it takes to use the fingerprint scanner.
My second disappointment with the laptop so far was that drivers were missing on my first boot and I did buy the laptop with windows so I expected it to be to go out of the box, luckily once your order is shipped you get a handy tab on the support page with the download for different drivers for your computer which made installing these quick and simple.
Once I had everything set up and ready to go I slowly phased out my old gaming laptop (asus rog g750) moving things over slowly and keeping my eyes open for any issues.
Gaming on this laptop with a mouse only is an enjoyable experience but the fan noise is going to irritate you and anyone around you, luckily for me coming from the asus laptop I was more than used to this and when paired with my Astro A50s at a reasonable volume there is no noticeable noise from the fans which is fine for me who actually expects machines like this to be quiet anyway?
Onto the keyboard, this has both surprised and disappointed me.
The backlight is nice and has 3 discreet color zones allowing you to have a few different colors across the keyboard which is a step up from the white only backlight I had before but the key feel is rather lacking, my previous asus laptop had a much stiffer key stroke and a keyboard that is raised out of the frame. The new laptop from PCS is the exact opposite the keys are mushy and recessed into the laptop body in true laptop fashion, for most people I do not think this would be an issue its not the worst keyboard iv ever used and it feels sturdy and well made but I wouldn’t recommend using it for too much gaming. With the software that I downloaded from the PCS driver page for the light controls you also get what they are calling “flexikey” which allows you to remap any key to any action or macro something that has came in useful for mapping cad shortcuts this can also easily be turnt on and off using fn + backspace which has allowed me to make use of shortcuts I otherwise wouldn’t even both thinking of.
Onto the screen, I don’t have much to compare to on this front as my only other 4K device is a tv but from comparison to a 1080p ips display that I have the colors do not seem too muted and the brightness is moderately bright, i do not think this laptop will be usable in direct sunlight as the fluorescent lights in my office are bright enough to cause glare on the screen and make detail in dark sections of films and games hard to see. When in dark rooms or away from overhead lights tho the screen is truly wonderful to use, content consumption such as Netflix looks sharp and tidy and games feel smooth and rich, even spent some time trying out battlefield 5 with rtx on which looked truly amazing but ended up opting to leave it off for the improved performance.
I haven’t used the trackpad much but after I got the drivers installed it feels accurate and responsive, the fingerprint sensor is also inlaid in the top left corner which makes it easy to access, the fingerprint sensor works fast and so far iv had about 90% success rate using it.
The overall build quality of the laptop is good the chassis has a bit of flex in a couple of locations but nothing that PCS is to blame for and nothing that has me concerned, I have been getting a slight squeak from my space key when I press it in at a certain angle but I think this is due to the different style of keyboard and me still getting used to it. The IO is good with plenty of options for connectivity I would’ve liked the inclusion of a analog video output instead of only digital but this is only because of compatibility with the monitors in my office and I do not think anyone will be disappointed with the options they are given.
I am concerned by the connections on the back of the laptop as it does pump out a lot of head and having all 3 video outputs and power input in the back leads to situations where you cannot avoid your wires going across the path of your fans in certain scenarios but 3 months in and no sign of wear on any connections yet so only time will tell.
The last thing that I feel should be mentioned is that the battery life is basically non existent and this is not a laptop worth considering if you do not always have access to a plug socket so far the longest I’ve seen not gaming is around 50minutes and I haven’t even attempted to play a game without the charger connected but I suspect I would get around 20mins of play time, this will change depending on the spec of the individual laptop I would assume that this is the absolute worst it could be as lower specs should result in less power needed.
Overall I am more than happy with my laptop and the things I have picked up on are me being very picky and are all issues that can easily be overcome. I would definitely recommend this product to others and would recommend the PCS service.
Last thing I will leave you all with then is the spec:
The packaging which the laptop came in was what I would call overkill but i would say there was next to no risk of damage and they took every measure they could to insure that. The laptop was in a large box with accessories neatly organized, this box was inside a larger box surrounded by what I can only describe as bubble wrap on steroids. If anyone is concerned about packaging let your mind be at ease even with the notoriously bad package handlers throwing your box around your very safe.
The laptop came with the correct parts but I was disappointed to see that the ram was not put in paired slots. (something which the technical support had already made me aware of and sent me instructions on how to solve).
Once solved I turnt to booting the laptop for the first time, the m.2 ssd makes for a extreamly fast boot and as it stands today with my steam library, autodesk and various other packages it still manages to boot into windows within around 10 seconds including the time it takes to use the fingerprint scanner.
My second disappointment with the laptop so far was that drivers were missing on my first boot and I did buy the laptop with windows so I expected it to be to go out of the box, luckily once your order is shipped you get a handy tab on the support page with the download for different drivers for your computer which made installing these quick and simple.
Once I had everything set up and ready to go I slowly phased out my old gaming laptop (asus rog g750) moving things over slowly and keeping my eyes open for any issues.
Gaming on this laptop with a mouse only is an enjoyable experience but the fan noise is going to irritate you and anyone around you, luckily for me coming from the asus laptop I was more than used to this and when paired with my Astro A50s at a reasonable volume there is no noticeable noise from the fans which is fine for me who actually expects machines like this to be quiet anyway?
Onto the keyboard, this has both surprised and disappointed me.
The backlight is nice and has 3 discreet color zones allowing you to have a few different colors across the keyboard which is a step up from the white only backlight I had before but the key feel is rather lacking, my previous asus laptop had a much stiffer key stroke and a keyboard that is raised out of the frame. The new laptop from PCS is the exact opposite the keys are mushy and recessed into the laptop body in true laptop fashion, for most people I do not think this would be an issue its not the worst keyboard iv ever used and it feels sturdy and well made but I wouldn’t recommend using it for too much gaming. With the software that I downloaded from the PCS driver page for the light controls you also get what they are calling “flexikey” which allows you to remap any key to any action or macro something that has came in useful for mapping cad shortcuts this can also easily be turnt on and off using fn + backspace which has allowed me to make use of shortcuts I otherwise wouldn’t even both thinking of.
Onto the screen, I don’t have much to compare to on this front as my only other 4K device is a tv but from comparison to a 1080p ips display that I have the colors do not seem too muted and the brightness is moderately bright, i do not think this laptop will be usable in direct sunlight as the fluorescent lights in my office are bright enough to cause glare on the screen and make detail in dark sections of films and games hard to see. When in dark rooms or away from overhead lights tho the screen is truly wonderful to use, content consumption such as Netflix looks sharp and tidy and games feel smooth and rich, even spent some time trying out battlefield 5 with rtx on which looked truly amazing but ended up opting to leave it off for the improved performance.
I haven’t used the trackpad much but after I got the drivers installed it feels accurate and responsive, the fingerprint sensor is also inlaid in the top left corner which makes it easy to access, the fingerprint sensor works fast and so far iv had about 90% success rate using it.
The overall build quality of the laptop is good the chassis has a bit of flex in a couple of locations but nothing that PCS is to blame for and nothing that has me concerned, I have been getting a slight squeak from my space key when I press it in at a certain angle but I think this is due to the different style of keyboard and me still getting used to it. The IO is good with plenty of options for connectivity I would’ve liked the inclusion of a analog video output instead of only digital but this is only because of compatibility with the monitors in my office and I do not think anyone will be disappointed with the options they are given.
I am concerned by the connections on the back of the laptop as it does pump out a lot of head and having all 3 video outputs and power input in the back leads to situations where you cannot avoid your wires going across the path of your fans in certain scenarios but 3 months in and no sign of wear on any connections yet so only time will tell.
The last thing that I feel should be mentioned is that the battery life is basically non existent and this is not a laptop worth considering if you do not always have access to a plug socket so far the longest I’ve seen not gaming is around 50minutes and I haven’t even attempted to play a game without the charger connected but I suspect I would get around 20mins of play time, this will change depending on the spec of the individual laptop I would assume that this is the absolute worst it could be as lower specs should result in less power needed.
Overall I am more than happy with my laptop and the things I have picked up on are me being very picky and are all issues that can easily be overcome. I would definitely recommend this product to others and would recommend the PCS service.
Last thing I will leave you all with then is the spec:
| Chassis & Display | Octane Series: 17.3" Matte 4K LED 60Hz 72% NTSC Widescreen (3840x2160) (No G-Sync) |
| Processor (CPU) | Intel® Core™ i9 Eight Core Processor i9-9900K (3.6GHz) 16MB Cache |
| Memory (RAM) | 32GB Corsair 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB) |
| Graphics Card | NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2080 - 8.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1 |
| 1st Storage Drive | 1TB SEAGATE 7mm SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 128MB CACHE (7,200rpm) |
| 2nd Storage Drive | 1TB SEAGATE 7mm SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 128MB CACHE (7,200rpm) |
| 1st M.2 SSD Drive | 512GB INTEL® 660p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 1500MB/sR | 1000MB/sW) |
