tom_gr7
Life Serving
My PC Specialist Review!
Here’s my review of my experience with PCS! I spent months researching into pc’s when my old hp laptop died. I didn’t know if i should go for the laptop again or back to a desktop PC. So did loads of research and eventually came to the idea of a desktop, due to the fact i wanted a beast of a machine and I’m not so concerned with the portability of the machine. Then came the decision over which Cpu. Amd or Intel. This again was a massive amount of research on my part, (although i find it kind of interesting) I decided to go with Intel as they are the market leaders, however, i was considering Amd Phenom, but wanted the newest technology i could get, and wasn’t up for waiting till bulldog arrives, so opted for Intel, also i wanted to keep clear of overclocking as i didn’t think the use of gaming, music, internet browsing and movies would really utilize it very much.
I won’t go into detail for the decisions for each components, will keep it basic. So here’s the spec.
COOLERMASTER CM STORM SNIPER BLACK EDITION
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core
ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK
60GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SERIES SSD
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Titanium
CORSAIR 750W PRO SERIES (HX750) 80+ MODULAR PSU
COOLIT ECO A.L.C
I found the website really easy to use and simple to understand. Also the forums provided me with a substantial amount of knowledge.
I made a few amendments during pre production, originally had the titan fenrir, but switched to the Eco Alc due to the titans size, and the removal of the side fan which i really wanted. Also had the 8gb of Samsung ram, but switched to 8gb Kingston when wozza the spotter noticed it was the same price (cheers wozza).
My order took 12 working days, would have been a few days less but failed in testing, however, i was not made aware of this, i actually called up to find out what was happening. I did however keep checking to see what stage she was in, especially near the end! So as soon as i received the email that it was going into packing, i called up again, checked it was ready to pickup, and then jumped straight into the car for the hour drive. Was not risking the delivery guys, as i live up of old bumpy lane, im sure the dhl/yodel guy would not take it slowly, I knew for a fact because dhl delivered a small package to my house a few days previously, in a hired transit van, poor packages were strewn everywhere when he opened up the back.
Anyway back to the pc, got it home, and set it up.
Things i wanted to set up/do
Extra 140mm Noctua NF-P14 FLX
Install 2 Akasa vipers 120mm in push/pull
A bit of cable tiding inside the case.
Set up the 60gb SSD caching drive.
Obviously install games lol
Installing the 140mm fan was relatively easy, however, if anyone is getting the sniper at the bottom of the case either a 140mm fan or 120mm fan can be fitted. The NF-P14 what i got fits both120mm and 140mm fittings. But if you do want to do this, just get a 140mm fan that fits standard 140mm fittings, as it will just clip straight in, all you will have to do is connect it up. Easy peasy.
Had to tidy the cables behind the motherboard as they were all bunched together, and the side of case had not been fitted correctly. Tried my best to tidy the cables up was a little better.
Now the annoying part was setting up the SSD caching. I followed the z68 manual to the letter and i could still not figure it out, one problem i was the vertex 2 was connected to the sata 3 port not the sata 6, so i changed that over once i realised. Here i became stuck so i posted on the forums, and called up pcs, which I was informed what i needed to do. The raid had to be had set to raid mode, so went into the bios and changed it, tried to reinstall windows two or three times. I still could not get it to work, so i abandoned the caching, and just reinstalled windows to the SSD. Which i must say is miles faster than using the caviar black! And quieter!
Now the push/pull config. I thought the biggest problem that i would encounter would be finding the screws, but actually not too bad, thanks to my dad, who is a complete book of knowledge about all sorts of random infomation. The screw that coolit say they use is 6-32, but miss off the important bit, and mention that this size is the thread size and is “6-32 UNC”. I couldn’t find the exact screw but it’s pretty similar. Will find the name and place it in my profile somewhere, all i did was take out a screw and visit maplin. Now the screw is a thumb screw, and the same length, and same thread (6-32 unc) as the Coolit ones. So i just had to file down the viper fans slightly to allow the thumb screw bit to fit. My problem came when i tried to connect it up using the “Gelid PWM Y Cable” i got off Amazon. As only one fan seems to work, which i can’t figure out why? I think a faulty cable, so going to test the electrical continuity of it to check. Unless anyone else has any suggestions?
Im really happy with my rig from pcs,!
10 out of 10! Service, technical and the product is spot on.
Thanks for everyone help on the forums!
with reference to pics, how do you get them on here?
Edit - with reference to temps, my cpu idles around 35 degress, and gpu around 40 degrees with the case fans at 50%. I have not yet fully tested at full load.
Edit http://imageshack.us/g/836/cdc10436.jpg/
Here’s my review of my experience with PCS! I spent months researching into pc’s when my old hp laptop died. I didn’t know if i should go for the laptop again or back to a desktop PC. So did loads of research and eventually came to the idea of a desktop, due to the fact i wanted a beast of a machine and I’m not so concerned with the portability of the machine. Then came the decision over which Cpu. Amd or Intel. This again was a massive amount of research on my part, (although i find it kind of interesting) I decided to go with Intel as they are the market leaders, however, i was considering Amd Phenom, but wanted the newest technology i could get, and wasn’t up for waiting till bulldog arrives, so opted for Intel, also i wanted to keep clear of overclocking as i didn’t think the use of gaming, music, internet browsing and movies would really utilize it very much.
I won’t go into detail for the decisions for each components, will keep it basic. So here’s the spec.
COOLERMASTER CM STORM SNIPER BLACK EDITION
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core
ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK
60GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SERIES SSD
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Titanium
CORSAIR 750W PRO SERIES (HX750) 80+ MODULAR PSU
COOLIT ECO A.L.C
I found the website really easy to use and simple to understand. Also the forums provided me with a substantial amount of knowledge.
I made a few amendments during pre production, originally had the titan fenrir, but switched to the Eco Alc due to the titans size, and the removal of the side fan which i really wanted. Also had the 8gb of Samsung ram, but switched to 8gb Kingston when wozza the spotter noticed it was the same price (cheers wozza).
My order took 12 working days, would have been a few days less but failed in testing, however, i was not made aware of this, i actually called up to find out what was happening. I did however keep checking to see what stage she was in, especially near the end! So as soon as i received the email that it was going into packing, i called up again, checked it was ready to pickup, and then jumped straight into the car for the hour drive. Was not risking the delivery guys, as i live up of old bumpy lane, im sure the dhl/yodel guy would not take it slowly, I knew for a fact because dhl delivered a small package to my house a few days previously, in a hired transit van, poor packages were strewn everywhere when he opened up the back.
Anyway back to the pc, got it home, and set it up.
Things i wanted to set up/do
Extra 140mm Noctua NF-P14 FLX
Install 2 Akasa vipers 120mm in push/pull
A bit of cable tiding inside the case.
Set up the 60gb SSD caching drive.
Obviously install games lol
Installing the 140mm fan was relatively easy, however, if anyone is getting the sniper at the bottom of the case either a 140mm fan or 120mm fan can be fitted. The NF-P14 what i got fits both120mm and 140mm fittings. But if you do want to do this, just get a 140mm fan that fits standard 140mm fittings, as it will just clip straight in, all you will have to do is connect it up. Easy peasy.
Had to tidy the cables behind the motherboard as they were all bunched together, and the side of case had not been fitted correctly. Tried my best to tidy the cables up was a little better.
Now the annoying part was setting up the SSD caching. I followed the z68 manual to the letter and i could still not figure it out, one problem i was the vertex 2 was connected to the sata 3 port not the sata 6, so i changed that over once i realised. Here i became stuck so i posted on the forums, and called up pcs, which I was informed what i needed to do. The raid had to be had set to raid mode, so went into the bios and changed it, tried to reinstall windows two or three times. I still could not get it to work, so i abandoned the caching, and just reinstalled windows to the SSD. Which i must say is miles faster than using the caviar black! And quieter!
Now the push/pull config. I thought the biggest problem that i would encounter would be finding the screws, but actually not too bad, thanks to my dad, who is a complete book of knowledge about all sorts of random infomation. The screw that coolit say they use is 6-32, but miss off the important bit, and mention that this size is the thread size and is “6-32 UNC”. I couldn’t find the exact screw but it’s pretty similar. Will find the name and place it in my profile somewhere, all i did was take out a screw and visit maplin. Now the screw is a thumb screw, and the same length, and same thread (6-32 unc) as the Coolit ones. So i just had to file down the viper fans slightly to allow the thumb screw bit to fit. My problem came when i tried to connect it up using the “Gelid PWM Y Cable” i got off Amazon. As only one fan seems to work, which i can’t figure out why? I think a faulty cable, so going to test the electrical continuity of it to check. Unless anyone else has any suggestions?
Im really happy with my rig from pcs,!
10 out of 10! Service, technical and the product is spot on.
Thanks for everyone help on the forums!
with reference to pics, how do you get them on here?
Edit - with reference to temps, my cpu idles around 35 degress, and gpu around 40 degrees with the case fans at 50%. I have not yet fully tested at full load.
Edit http://imageshack.us/g/836/cdc10436.jpg/
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