My PC/Experience

Rbaut

Bronze Level Poster
Hi All,

Thought I’d share my somewhat comprehensive end-to-end experience. Now having received my PCS build and having passed the agonising wait where I endlessly lurked the forum and hoped to see more reviews and peoples own experiences to reassure myself that everything would be fine! Hopefully this will serve that purpose for others to come!

Firstly, for context, my last PC was a low/mid-range build, built in 2012 – only with a GPU upgrade once along the way. I built this myself and enjoyed the experience massively, but time moves on and whilst then could spent the time on this; the luxury and ease of having this arrive to my door and good to go out of the box spoke deeply to me. Crunching the numbers, the price difference between sourcing and building myself with comparable specs was honestly not much cheaper (if at all frankly – difficult to gauge as some of the items PCS offered seemed out of stock/very inflated elsewhere – i.e. the case in my instance). Although this may speak more of the dire time to be building a PC at the moment, with all things COVID and BREXIT.

I am a light gamer, with essentially one evening a week dedicating to playing some games with a close group of friends. Type of games vary week on week but I wanted the option to be able to play anything the group suggested on a whim with a decent experience.

Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERCASE H500M GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® STRIX B550-F GAMING (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 520 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 5000MB/R, 2500MB/W)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 665p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 2000MB/sR | 1925MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i RGB PRO XT Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler

My Production dates are as followed. Throughout which, I had good communication from PCS, with three Status Update emails during the course of my order, giving me an estimated time of build. In the end, this estimation was only 2 days off, and this was due to a stock issue with the case, surprisingly the CPU & GPU were not blockers in this at all.

The only downfall in all this was towards the end, in being told my PC has been dispatched and left the PCS site on the 30th; and then hearing nothing for 2 days from PCS, nor DPD. Leading me to think it has fallen off the back of a lorry somewhere… for me to have to hang on hold for a few hours to customer service to then be updated that it has only just left. A minor gripe, annoying - yes, but forgivable!

Processed Date 28-12-2020
Pre-Production Date 05-01-2021
Build Date 30-01-2021
Test Date 30-01-2021
Awaiting Dispatch Date 30-01-2021
Dispatch Date 03-02-2021

Whilst I wanted to properly document how the PC was packaged… the missus (at this point having had to sit through my constant status checks and forum lurking for the past month was now just as excited as me) and instead wanted me to tear it open straight away! I did however keep everything in the box for safekeeping (as PCS recommend if you ever need to return it), which in itself, gives you a decent idea of the how well it is shipped.

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The PC itself was immaculate, no damage from shipping, very neat inside – cable management was great as expected. The GPU I received was a Gainward 3060 Ti Phoenix, I don’t know what I was expecting, but this felt a nice surprise nonetheless. Excuse the watch in the photo as I tried to add something to scale when showing my friends to appreciate the size of the thing!

The top fan placement somewhat irks me (the Corsair logos not the same direction), which I did try to change but they were cabled tied down in such a way it would mean undoing their good work to fix.

The only thing I’m not sure about, and would appreciate some feedback on – is there any issue with the PSU cabling into the GPU?

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All set up, I have a very low-key gaming set up, and despite such a beautiful machine, it is hidden away (I’m a minimalist at heart). Although rest assured for those horrified, there is PLENTY of air flow, as the door is always left open when using, and the back panel has been removed. There is also some creative messy side vents in the cabinet.

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longdog42

Bronze Level Poster
Great detail in the post!

Just curious about the AIO configuration, the first picture seems to show the tubes running towards the front of the case but the results are fans at the top in other pictures, is the radiator configured to be at the top or the front of the case?
 

Stephen M

Author Level
Nice little den and a good write up. I remember setting my room up, moved into the smallest spare bedroom and made a slight mistake.

Though it was ok to get everything in, including a quite large glass to desk, into room and keep the small single bed just in case it was needed. Wrong choice.

By the time I realised this the easiest way to get the bed out was with a saw. One dead bed later the PC was much more comfortable and I could get in to work.
 

Rbaut

Bronze Level Poster
Great detail in the post!

Just curious about the AIO configuration, the first picture seems to show the tubes running towards the front of the case but the results are fans at the top in other pictures, is the radiator configured to be at the top or the front of the case?
Just a trick of the camera, AIO is top mounted. Looks like the pic just cuts off as it loops upwards.
 

Woodsie

New member
Thanks for this. My friend is just about to have a new (PCSP) build and I will send your comments over to him.

Also nice set up similar to mine. I am also considering a PCSP build at the moment but unfortunately the Ryzen 9 5900 and the Rog Strix 3090 are not available. Hopefully soon, as like you my last PC was PCSP build 2011 and also like you just one GPU upgrade since new.
 

Otone

Gold Level Poster
Haha grats! I feel you on that. I'm day 26 pre production for a 5900x and 3060ti build. Can't wait for the excitement when I comes. Probably a very long wait still 😭😭
 

longdog42

Bronze Level Poster
The only thing I’m not sure about, and would appreciate some feedback on – is there any issue with the PSU cabling into the GPU?
I think it’s perfectly fine, the 3060 Ti is a 200W TDP card, there’s 1 PCIe power cable there which draws 150W from the PSU and the PCIe slot on the motherboard draws 75W.

You’re good if its operating within spec.
 

longdog42

Bronze Level Poster
Just ordered 2 Samsung G5's to go with it. 😅
I don't think the monitor is well received by reviewers, they cheaped out a LOT compared to the g7 - if you're looking for 144hz1440p displays there are better one out there.

 

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
I don't think the monitor is well received by reviewers, they cheaped out a LOT compared to the g7 - if you're looking for 144hz1440p displays there are better one out there.

Have a G5 and it's incredible, the early monitors had some problems but I believe they've been ironed out
 

Rbaut

Bronze Level Poster
I don't think the monitor is well received by reviewers, they cheaped out a LOT compared to the g7 - if you're looking for 144hz1440p displays there are better one out there.

We'll see... this was mostly based off recommendations on this forum, so hopefully they haven't steered me wrong!

By all means, there are of course better monitors out there in the 144hz 1440p category, the G7 being a fine example, but this is like double the price. Duel set up is pretty important for me, so dropping £600 odd instead of £1k plus is a big difference. :)
 
We'll see... this was mostly based off recommendations on this forum, so hopefully they haven't steered me wrong!

By all means, there are of course better monitors out there in the 144hz 1440p category, the G7 being a fine example, but this is like double the price. Duel set up is pretty important for me, so dropping £600 odd instead of £1k plus is a big difference. :)
Price is always the factor in why the g5 is recommended so much. For the price it's unbeatable and for 1440p gaming is a fantastic, however theres better monitors out there but you looking at spending £450+ for them.
 

speedbird3000

New member
Aside from the awesome PC, I must just say I love your little office and desk. The setup is really clean and minimalist. In fact I aspire to have a home office like that one day, succulents and all! :)
 

Rbaut

Bronze Level Poster
Aside from the awesome PC, I must just say I love your little office and desk. The setup is really clean and minimalist. In fact I aspire to have a home office like that one day, succulents and all! :)

Thank you😊. It has only really taken shape in the last year or so, lockdown to thank I think! The new G5's are in so it has a bit more of a gamer vibe than before!
 

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longdog42

Bronze Level Poster
Thank you😊. It has only really taken shape in the last year or so, lockdown to thank I think! The new G5's are in so it has a bit more of a gamer vibe than before!
Looks great, hope they serve you well. The large 1000R curve actually looks really nice when it's like that, very cozy.
 
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