Quick 2 week review
Chassis & Display Change to: Optimus Series: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4800MQ (2.70GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 12GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (3 x 4GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 765M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 240GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Wireless/Wired Networking GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1202 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11N + BLUETOOTH 4.0
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee 1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Delivery SATURDAY DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (BEFORE 12 NOON)
Build Time FAST TRACK 5 WORKING DAY DISPATCH
approx £1250
Ordering
Website is very easy to use, I called them 2 times to edit my order both times my call was answered under 4 minutes (compared to a bank which can be over 10 minutes) and the staff who answered were very helpful. I changed to fast track dispatch which if you can add it to your budget then do highly recommend. DPD texted and mailed me that my order would be delivered between 8.30am and 9.30am and at 8.38am it was delivered.
Laptop Performance
It is the most powerful laptop I have ever owned, a beast compared to my old Acer 5553G. I know a lot of people are having fan problems with the laptop which I have to, I did the firmware upgrade which is on the forums and it has helped a bit. I notice when the CPU goes up to 70⁰C it kicks in and brings the CPU down to below 50⁰C. It is a bit loud but you do get used to it, that it becomes unnoticeable. I am not a major gamer the most stressful thing so far I have done was played Rise of Nations in a VM which it has flawlessly.
Speakers
To me they are fine I installed sound blaster and they output pretty good on a par with my previous laptop (maybe they were **** also). But please note I usually have headphones on but the odd occasion I don’t I have no problem with the speakers.
RAM
I first put 24GB ram on my order (3x 8GB) but I came to my senses, and went for 12GB (3 x 4GB). And to be honest I think 8GB would have been fine. I use 4GB in a VM and turned off my page file and the most it uses is around 6GB.
NITPICKING
As the laptop is 2 weeks old I have a few little things (none are deal breakers). USB ports were a bit stiff at the start but soon loosened out after a few memory keys went in and out. The driver CD that was supplied the USB 3 driver would not work and had to be downloaded from Intel website. I upgraded the thermal paste but I read on one of the forums that the paste will only be applied to the CPU not the GPU, paying £9 for the paste I would expect both GPU and CPU to be repasted.
I know I already mentioned the fan and it’s like buying a Ferrari and complaining about the fuel consumption, but I think PC Specialist could ether apply the firmware fix or better inform people about the current course of action.
Summary
As the laptop is still relatively new I will update my review in a couple of months when I will have a chance to put it through its paces, so far so good and I am very happy with my purchase. If anyone is sitting on the fence about buying the laptop and has any questions ask and I will try to help.
Chassis & Display Change to: Optimus Series: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4800MQ (2.70GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 12GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (3 x 4GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 765M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 240GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Wireless/Wired Networking GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1202 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11N + BLUETOOTH 4.0
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee 1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Delivery SATURDAY DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (BEFORE 12 NOON)
Build Time FAST TRACK 5 WORKING DAY DISPATCH
approx £1250
Ordering
Website is very easy to use, I called them 2 times to edit my order both times my call was answered under 4 minutes (compared to a bank which can be over 10 minutes) and the staff who answered were very helpful. I changed to fast track dispatch which if you can add it to your budget then do highly recommend. DPD texted and mailed me that my order would be delivered between 8.30am and 9.30am and at 8.38am it was delivered.
Laptop Performance
It is the most powerful laptop I have ever owned, a beast compared to my old Acer 5553G. I know a lot of people are having fan problems with the laptop which I have to, I did the firmware upgrade which is on the forums and it has helped a bit. I notice when the CPU goes up to 70⁰C it kicks in and brings the CPU down to below 50⁰C. It is a bit loud but you do get used to it, that it becomes unnoticeable. I am not a major gamer the most stressful thing so far I have done was played Rise of Nations in a VM which it has flawlessly.
Speakers
To me they are fine I installed sound blaster and they output pretty good on a par with my previous laptop (maybe they were **** also). But please note I usually have headphones on but the odd occasion I don’t I have no problem with the speakers.
RAM
I first put 24GB ram on my order (3x 8GB) but I came to my senses, and went for 12GB (3 x 4GB). And to be honest I think 8GB would have been fine. I use 4GB in a VM and turned off my page file and the most it uses is around 6GB.
NITPICKING
As the laptop is 2 weeks old I have a few little things (none are deal breakers). USB ports were a bit stiff at the start but soon loosened out after a few memory keys went in and out. The driver CD that was supplied the USB 3 driver would not work and had to be downloaded from Intel website. I upgraded the thermal paste but I read on one of the forums that the paste will only be applied to the CPU not the GPU, paying £9 for the paste I would expect both GPU and CPU to be repasted.
I know I already mentioned the fan and it’s like buying a Ferrari and complaining about the fuel consumption, but I think PC Specialist could ether apply the firmware fix or better inform people about the current course of action.
Summary
As the laptop is still relatively new I will update my review in a couple of months when I will have a chance to put it through its paces, so far so good and I am very happy with my purchase. If anyone is sitting on the fence about buying the laptop and has any questions ask and I will try to help.