aleene
New member
I have just taken delivery of the below laptop and here are my thoughts after a couple of hours of use...
The laptop took exactly 11 (calendar) days to arrive, which is pretty impressive I feel, seeing as the laptop is custom built.
There are a few things I am confused about after using the laptop for a few hours.
All PCs and Laptops from PCS are tested before being dispatched, however this does confuse me as my Windows install wasn't complete, plus a shed load of updates were needed to be installed prior to being able to use it. The May 1903 update of Windows 10 was then needed to be installed after all those updates, so this took quite a few hours.
Then...all the appropriate drivers from the PCS website needed to be installed as the sound wasn't working...Then, when this was installed the sound was all crackly, so I had to change the sample rate of the sound card to fix this... This isn't ideal especially if someone is computer savvy, and couldn't fix on their own...
So... my only real gripe is, if the laptop underwent the rigorous testing, why isn't any of the drivers installed and little issues like this identified and fixed prior to being dispatched?
I would have preferred my laptop to have the latest Windows version, all drivers installed, so I could just switch it on, and use, straight out of the box (obviously this is the case, as I could use it, but it would have been updating in the background and needed restarting etc to install the updates, which would have stopped any work being carried out). So I do feel sorry for people who aren't tech-savvy as they would need to spend time on the phone to tech-support to sort these problems out.
But, apart from this, I'm an very very pleased with the laptop!
Love the fact there is no bloat-ware on the system. I requested, when setting up the system on the website, for Google Chrome to be installed, and that was there...
This laptop is replacing, my now outdated, Sony Vaio VPCF12Z1E (https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/laptop-pc-vpc-series/vpcf12z1e/specifications), which I purchased in 2010. At the time this was top of the range with an i7 740GM processor, 8GB ram, nVidia GeForce 330M, 1gb Graphics, and a Blu-Ray burner.
I have selected the above spec, as having my Sony Vaio last a few months shy of 10 years, I wanted a top of the range laptop which could last time same amount of time.
I spec-ed this up with the best i7, 8th Gen processor going, and with 32Gb of RAM, so that it can handle all the work I throw at it for a long time to come. The nVidia GeForce 1660 Ti with 6GB RAM, should also be powerful enough to carry out complex video rendering at both 1080p and 4k (fingers crossed).
Also, I've not really played games on a PC since the heady days of Half-Life 2, I'm quite intrigued to see how this laptop will perform when I throw a couple of games at it.
I have recently started intense video production and graphic design using Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Premiere. Occasionally using Adobe After Effects too.
Despite all programs running fine without issue, I have started to notice lagging when using some of the tools in Lightroom and Photoshop. Video rendering is now becoming a joke with a 2 minute, 4k video taking roughly 4 hours to render! (This is software render only as the CUDA drivers for my card not being supported in Adobe anymore).
So it's now time to upgrade.
The first thing I did with the laptop once it was fully updated, was to install Steam, and download Assetto Corsa (Racing Sim).
I enjoy playing mostly Fifa and Driving games. The last driving game I played on the PC was Grand Prix 4 which came out 15+ years ago, so I was very interested to see how driving games had evolved.
I have a PS3, XBox 360 and Xbox One, so have played Gran Turismo, Forza and the Formula 1 games on the consoles.
I did some research on YouTube and various gaming sites and decided that Assetto Corsa, would be the best driving game to unleash on my new laptop.
So installed the game and headed straight for the Graphics setup. It was amazing to see all settings set at 'Epic', however how would this look when being played....
Headed straight for the track, and simply, "WOW"! The game plays amazingly, fast with no frame rate drop at all... I'm extremely happy.
When playing, the fans do speed up, however you can't really hear them much so it doesn't distract from playing, and to be honest, when the sounds of the games are playing, you can't hear the fans at all.
Also had a little play around with Adobe Premiere, and the rendering of a 10 minute, full HD 1080p video, with some colour grading and sharpening took just over 2 minutes! A similar render on my old laptop would have taken 3 hrs+ at least !!
The general aesthetics of the laptop are very pleasing also. The laptop a brushed mental top over the screen which is very nice. 2 Mini display ports, and a single HDMI out, 3 USB ports, Card reader, Mic and Headphone jacks, and Ethernet port. The power plug is on the back on the laptop which is very handy when putting the laptop on a stand.
After using the laptop for a few days, I can say I'm very pleased with my new laptop, and the only gripe is what I mentioned above regarding the installing of Windows and all the updates, drivers etc.
I am in the process of Launching a gaming channel on youtube, so just do a search of my name 'Alex Eneas Gaming' and there will be content coming soon.
Thanks!
| Chassis & Display | Recoil Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080) |
| Processor (CPU) | Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 9750H (2.6GHz, 4.5GHz Turbo) |
| Memory (RAM) | 32GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB) |
| Graphics Card | NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1660 Ti - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1 |
| 1st Storage Drive | 480GB ADATA SU650 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 450MB/W) |
| 1st M.2 SSD Drive | 256GB ADATA SX6000 Pro PCIe M.2 2280 (2100 MB/R, 1200 MB/W) |
The laptop took exactly 11 (calendar) days to arrive, which is pretty impressive I feel, seeing as the laptop is custom built.
There are a few things I am confused about after using the laptop for a few hours.
All PCs and Laptops from PCS are tested before being dispatched, however this does confuse me as my Windows install wasn't complete, plus a shed load of updates were needed to be installed prior to being able to use it. The May 1903 update of Windows 10 was then needed to be installed after all those updates, so this took quite a few hours.
Then...all the appropriate drivers from the PCS website needed to be installed as the sound wasn't working...Then, when this was installed the sound was all crackly, so I had to change the sample rate of the sound card to fix this... This isn't ideal especially if someone is computer savvy, and couldn't fix on their own...
So... my only real gripe is, if the laptop underwent the rigorous testing, why isn't any of the drivers installed and little issues like this identified and fixed prior to being dispatched?
I would have preferred my laptop to have the latest Windows version, all drivers installed, so I could just switch it on, and use, straight out of the box (obviously this is the case, as I could use it, but it would have been updating in the background and needed restarting etc to install the updates, which would have stopped any work being carried out). So I do feel sorry for people who aren't tech-savvy as they would need to spend time on the phone to tech-support to sort these problems out.
But, apart from this, I'm an very very pleased with the laptop!
Love the fact there is no bloat-ware on the system. I requested, when setting up the system on the website, for Google Chrome to be installed, and that was there...
This laptop is replacing, my now outdated, Sony Vaio VPCF12Z1E (https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/laptop-pc-vpc-series/vpcf12z1e/specifications), which I purchased in 2010. At the time this was top of the range with an i7 740GM processor, 8GB ram, nVidia GeForce 330M, 1gb Graphics, and a Blu-Ray burner.
I have selected the above spec, as having my Sony Vaio last a few months shy of 10 years, I wanted a top of the range laptop which could last time same amount of time.
I spec-ed this up with the best i7, 8th Gen processor going, and with 32Gb of RAM, so that it can handle all the work I throw at it for a long time to come. The nVidia GeForce 1660 Ti with 6GB RAM, should also be powerful enough to carry out complex video rendering at both 1080p and 4k (fingers crossed).
Also, I've not really played games on a PC since the heady days of Half-Life 2, I'm quite intrigued to see how this laptop will perform when I throw a couple of games at it.
I have recently started intense video production and graphic design using Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Premiere. Occasionally using Adobe After Effects too.
Despite all programs running fine without issue, I have started to notice lagging when using some of the tools in Lightroom and Photoshop. Video rendering is now becoming a joke with a 2 minute, 4k video taking roughly 4 hours to render! (This is software render only as the CUDA drivers for my card not being supported in Adobe anymore).
So it's now time to upgrade.
The first thing I did with the laptop once it was fully updated, was to install Steam, and download Assetto Corsa (Racing Sim).
I enjoy playing mostly Fifa and Driving games. The last driving game I played on the PC was Grand Prix 4 which came out 15+ years ago, so I was very interested to see how driving games had evolved.
I have a PS3, XBox 360 and Xbox One, so have played Gran Turismo, Forza and the Formula 1 games on the consoles.
I did some research on YouTube and various gaming sites and decided that Assetto Corsa, would be the best driving game to unleash on my new laptop.
So installed the game and headed straight for the Graphics setup. It was amazing to see all settings set at 'Epic', however how would this look when being played....
Headed straight for the track, and simply, "WOW"! The game plays amazingly, fast with no frame rate drop at all... I'm extremely happy.
When playing, the fans do speed up, however you can't really hear them much so it doesn't distract from playing, and to be honest, when the sounds of the games are playing, you can't hear the fans at all.
Also had a little play around with Adobe Premiere, and the rendering of a 10 minute, full HD 1080p video, with some colour grading and sharpening took just over 2 minutes! A similar render on my old laptop would have taken 3 hrs+ at least !!
The general aesthetics of the laptop are very pleasing also. The laptop a brushed mental top over the screen which is very nice. 2 Mini display ports, and a single HDMI out, 3 USB ports, Card reader, Mic and Headphone jacks, and Ethernet port. The power plug is on the back on the laptop which is very handy when putting the laptop on a stand.
After using the laptop for a few days, I can say I'm very pleased with my new laptop, and the only gripe is what I mentioned above regarding the installing of Windows and all the updates, drivers etc.
I am in the process of Launching a gaming channel on youtube, so just do a search of my name 'Alex Eneas Gaming' and there will be content coming soon.
Thanks!
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