alpha7
Member
I ordered the following PC Spec from PC Specialist about 4 weeks ago, having had some time to play with it I think it's time to write my review of the PC and the service I received from PC Specialist.
First of all I chose PC Specialist after checking several review sites comparing several companies offering similar services. No company has 100% positive reviews but PC Specialist had the best ratio of the ones I was considering.
Next I had to decide what I wanted from my new PC. A gaming PC with the speed and power to run fraps to record game play. Video encoding and editing were also important but if I'm honest a part of me just wanted to spend money for the bragging rights but I didn't have unlimited money so I had to make some compromises along to way.
My base for this build was the Xfire-ready-x1650-pc and credit to PCS for making their systems highly configurable. I saved £50 on the case by switching from the SilverStone Raven 3 to COOLERMASTER CM STORM ENFORCER. It's what’s on the inside that matters to me, so any saving on the case could be spent upgrading components.
An extra £17 upgraged the Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core to the k version. One of the fastest consumer CPUs available right now and with massive overclock potential (very cool
).
PCS only seem to offer Asus motherboards but this wasn't a problem for me as IMO they make the best boards anyway. I went with the P8P67 initially but a couple of days after placing my order I wanted to switch to the P8Z68-V PRO. One call the PCS and this was done. Congratulations to Matthew Griffin for his excellent customer service.
8GB RAM seemed about right so the big decision was:
a) buy the best graphics I can afford or
b) buy two good graphics cards and crossfire/SLi them.
Still not sure I made the right decision here but the reviews for the HD6950 generally said good bang per buck and with the option to flash them to HD6970's.
I've wanted to get an SSD for some time now but I always told myself to wait for them to come down to £1 per GB. Now I was buying a whole new system I wanted the biggest one I could find! 240GB OCZ VERTEX 3, what can I say, it's fast!
Powering this new beast is a CORSAIR 850W TX SERIES (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£99). I would have spent a bit more and upped the wattage if I hadn't spent all the money elsewhere or gone for the modular ones. PCS say the max power of my spec is 821W. I had a much lower figure than this, so I may have to be careful when upgrading or adding new component.
My final component of note was the COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£49). I like my systems as quiet as possible so a water cooled CPU sounded much more appealing than some massive CPU heat sink + fan combo.
System ordered all I had to do was wait, and wait and wait. I was fully aware of the lead times when I placed my order but was disappointed it took 14 working days from parting with my cash to the start of building. I think this is the one area where you could improve. A few extra staff on the build team might reduce whose lead times a bit. Your accountant might say why employ more staff this will increase costs, we already have the customers money, making them wait a bit has no effect. The truth is it does have and effect. Most of the negative reviews I read about PCS before ordering were regarding build/lead times.
I ordered my system late on Sunday 3rd July. Three and a half weeks later it's on my door step (Thursday 28th July). That's a long time when you've paid £1,749.
Delivery was not a problem which was a minor miracle given my previous experiences with DHL/Yodel.
The system was well packed but I did have a minor issue on first starting the PC. The internal wireless network card was not detected by Windows. This was fixed be reseating the card. I guessing I came loose in transit.
Only had this PC a few days but haven’t found anything that can slow it down yet.
PCS Component Quality 10/10
PCS Build Quality 10/10
PCS Customer service 10/10
PCS Communication 10/10
PCS Lead times 6/10
Overall 9/10
See pictures attached
First of all I chose PC Specialist after checking several review sites comparing several companies offering similar services. No company has 100% positive reviews but PC Specialist had the best ratio of the ones I was considering.
Next I had to decide what I wanted from my new PC. A gaming PC with the speed and power to run fraps to record game play. Video encoding and editing were also important but if I'm honest a part of me just wanted to spend money for the bragging rights but I didn't have unlimited money so I had to make some compromises along to way.
My base for this build was the Xfire-ready-x1650-pc and credit to PCS for making their systems highly configurable. I saved £50 on the case by switching from the SilverStone Raven 3 to COOLERMASTER CM STORM ENFORCER. It's what’s on the inside that matters to me, so any saving on the case could be spent upgrading components.
An extra £17 upgraged the Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core to the k version. One of the fastest consumer CPUs available right now and with massive overclock potential (very cool
).PCS only seem to offer Asus motherboards but this wasn't a problem for me as IMO they make the best boards anyway. I went with the P8P67 initially but a couple of days after placing my order I wanted to switch to the P8Z68-V PRO. One call the PCS and this was done. Congratulations to Matthew Griffin for his excellent customer service.
8GB RAM seemed about right so the big decision was:
a) buy the best graphics I can afford or
b) buy two good graphics cards and crossfire/SLi them.
Still not sure I made the right decision here but the reviews for the HD6950 generally said good bang per buck and with the option to flash them to HD6970's.
I've wanted to get an SSD for some time now but I always told myself to wait for them to come down to £1 per GB. Now I was buying a whole new system I wanted the biggest one I could find! 240GB OCZ VERTEX 3, what can I say, it's fast!
Powering this new beast is a CORSAIR 850W TX SERIES (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£99). I would have spent a bit more and upped the wattage if I hadn't spent all the money elsewhere or gone for the modular ones. PCS say the max power of my spec is 821W. I had a much lower figure than this, so I may have to be careful when upgrading or adding new component.
My final component of note was the COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£49). I like my systems as quiet as possible so a water cooled CPU sounded much more appealing than some massive CPU heat sink + fan combo.
System ordered all I had to do was wait, and wait and wait. I was fully aware of the lead times when I placed my order but was disappointed it took 14 working days from parting with my cash to the start of building. I think this is the one area where you could improve. A few extra staff on the build team might reduce whose lead times a bit. Your accountant might say why employ more staff this will increase costs, we already have the customers money, making them wait a bit has no effect. The truth is it does have and effect. Most of the negative reviews I read about PCS before ordering were regarding build/lead times.
I ordered my system late on Sunday 3rd July. Three and a half weeks later it's on my door step (Thursday 28th July). That's a long time when you've paid £1,749.
Delivery was not a problem which was a minor miracle given my previous experiences with DHL/Yodel.
The system was well packed but I did have a minor issue on first starting the PC. The internal wireless network card was not detected by Windows. This was fixed be reseating the card. I guessing I came loose in transit.
Only had this PC a few days but haven’t found anything that can slow it down yet.
PCS Component Quality 10/10
PCS Build Quality 10/10
PCS Customer service 10/10
PCS Communication 10/10
PCS Lead times 6/10
Overall 9/10
See pictures attached
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