Skyfire II - delivered, this is my story

[Yevad]

Today was the day that my new Skyfire II laptop was delivered. And all I can say is that this is one very happy Customer.
The laptop was delivered on the 8th working day of placing the order and I like to thank those involved at PCS who put the laptop together, tested and packaged the laptop.

Built By Ben Alderson
Tested By Carl Auckland
QC'd By Carl Auckland
Packed By Anthony Cunliffe

I was impressed with being able to "watch" the whole process unfold. I was a little nervous with the delivery after reading the problems that some people have had. All I can say is that the laptop and box were delivered in good condition, within the time allocated for the delivery. It was a nice touch to receive an e-mail and text message.

At the moment I am still getting "used" to the new machine, but will post my thoughts on it in a few days time. So far, really happy with it. One small niggle is that the CD/DVD draw does not seem to open very easily and I have to go into Window's pane to eject the disc. Not sure if i am doing something silly, or missing something at the moment, or there is a problem.

 

[ellspeedy]

For the cd drive, you need to use the S-bar (think its called that). The little bar of touch-keys above the keyboard. On the right hand side one of them is 'eject cd'. But to get this to work you need to install the software (via cd), bit silly right?

 

[Yevad]

So I began my journey with PCS back in December 2011, when I started to look for a replacement laptop for my Dell XPS13. I have had this laptop for around 5 years now and due to its size and weight has been excellent for mobility as I used to do a lot of traveling in my job, and I could very easily fit this with my work laptop in one laptop case. The main drawback with this Dell as many people may know was the overheating, and although the laptop was small, I had to also carry a laptop cooler as well (which was not so convenient). But it did it job (just) as it still met the minimum spec levels for Skyrim and Total War, but these games were played on the lowest setting possible and were still “slow” and movement was a bit clunky.

At the time my budget was enough for an Optimus II 15inch laptop, but the graphic cards did not really sell the laptop to me, but budgets are budgets so I tried sticking to it. After posting the configuration on the forum, it was mentioned that I should hold out for the Skyfire Laptop. But I was a little concerned going from a 13 inch to a 17 inch laptop due to reduced level of mobility (thought a desktop was not option really).

Over the next few months, my budget increased (thanks to a Tax rebate) and so did a number of new upgrades and releases such as the next generation chassis (Vortex III) and graphic cards and Intel chips etc, and my dilemma to which laptop to pick increased and so did the overall cost of the customization of the laptop. It got to the point where I was torn between the Skyfire and the Vortex III 15inch. In the end decided to pick a budget that I was comfortable with in buying what is really a bit of a “luxury” item and the Skyfire became the only real choice I had based on that budget and the specification I was looking for.

The specification I picked was as follows:
Chassis & Display SkyFire:17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3610QM (2.30GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 670M - 1.5GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Network Facilities GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1102 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11N NETWORK CARD
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

My budget restricted me a bit on the hard drive as I wanted the 750GB MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, or a 120GB INTEL 330 SERIES SSD and a 500GB SATA HDD (5,400) combination, so I settled for the 750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK

So, now my impression on the Skyfire II laptop.

I knew that the laptop was going large (from Alexaroth excellent review on the forums) and I have to confess, the Skyfire chassis does not disappoint on that score. Even when I checked the dimensions out, one only does appreciate the thickness of this laptop when it is sitting there in front of you. And I think I am going to have a bit of a search to find a laptop sleeve or case that will fit this monster.( any suggestions will be greatly received).

The black plastic casing is really nice, and although I have been used to having a anodized metallic finish on my work and home laptops, I am starting to like the overall finish on the laptop. The shape and the rounded edges are really nice. On the whole the laptop has a real solid, robust feel to it, though I was a little worried about the laptop hinge on such a large laptop and the flexing of the screen when opened and closed. However I must admit so far (early days I know) everything feels secure.

The touch pad has a rough texture to it which is very different to the silky smooth finish that I am used to. However, as I use the pad, I am getting more used to it and to be honest I am starting to like it. I was a little surprised how firm the touch pad buttons were on this, especially the left hand side. I am not sure if it is just this model, but after and hour of surfing the net I found I was having to use thumb pressure to double click and I was holding the edge of the laptop to get sufficient pressure. I am hoping that this will become a little softer as it ages, but in the end I had to plug in a mouse, because it was causing my fingers to hurt!

As mentioned earlier on this thread, I had problems opening up the CD/DVD draw. I tried using the "hot key" pad with the small triangle. But it would light up and nothing would happen. The only way I could open it was using the Windows screen pane to eject and open the device. Since I have done this a few times the hot key now is working, and I guess this is first and main gripe I have on the laptop. The CD/DVD draw seems really quite loose and unfortunately the only word I can find to describe it is flimsy. I guess that may be during the transportation that the draw had moved and it took a few open and close movements to free up. But when everything else on the laptop feels so solid, the CD/DVD draw just does not feel that robust and will have to be treated with the upmost care and attention as not to break it.

The other thing that did not feel right was the power cable that comes out of what can only be described as a “brick” of a power supply. I guess the reason for this is because the power supply unit is soooo big ( like 2times the size of my existing laptops power supplies) but the lead coming from the supply to the laptop has a small 10mm lead that looks like it will snap off at any moment. I am not that this is not the case, and when I have a "properly checked it" it is the same size as my work one. The power cable plugs into the back of the laptop, which is something I am not used to as my existing laptop power cables comes off on the side. No big issue, it now a matter of getting used to having a cable running down along my legs when sitting on the sofa.. And again the actual plug into the laptop seems small, but again this could be because of the whole thing is so large.

The keyboard I am still getting used to. Both my work and home laptops have a “desktop like “ keys –(sorry is the only way I can describe them) this is the first laptop I have had with the soft rubber discreet keys. So far the keys feel responsive, but occasionally I have been hitting the wrong keys when typing, especially with the “small” return key.

The quality of the speakers on the laptop was not very high on my specification wish list, mainly cause when I do play games I plug in some headphones so not to disturb the rest of the household. However the sound quality is very good, and when I have the volume up at 100% you can feel some sound vibration on the chassis, which is not a bad thing actually.

Now onto the fun part, loaded up Skyrim and Total War, and oh my word, I had to pick up my jaw from the floor! What a difference playing these games on this machine and a 17inch screen and after a while I forgot all about my worries in selecting this size screen. This is when bigger is better.Also I now like that fact that I can play the games without the laptop starting to over heat and cook my wrists was really nice. I like the extra cooling fan, cause when put it on, you really know is on. Not a major issue. But I will be getting a new laptop cooler stand to put under this beast onto, so hopefully I should not need to use this feature too often if at all.

As to the PCS service, I think it was excellent from start to finish. I had connected them a couple of times before ordering to sound out the specification and model and I have no bad things to say about any part of the ordering and delivery service.

On the whole, I am one happy Customer and would recommend PCS to anyone looking to purchase a laptop in the future.

I am more that happy to answer any questions people may have on my experience with PCS and the laptop.

 

[keynes]

Excellent review (+ rep)

 

[Lappygamer]

Hi Yevad great review I'm in the Market for a new laptop about the same price as yours : ). One thing I wish to know is what total war games are you playing and what fps do you get on average? I'm mainly buying the laptop to play shogun 2 and empire total war so I'm wondering if the gtx670m is good enough to run these games on high settings? Thanks for your time .

 

[tom6561]

One small niggle is that the CD/DVD draw does not seem to open very easily and I have to go into Window's pane to eject the disc. Not sure if i am doing something silly, or missing something at the moment, or there is a problem.

I had this problem to start with, and it turned out there was some clear protective thing still on all those buttons, which I hadn't noticed. Might be worth checking for, although I also think there might be a knack to pressing those buttons because I struggled to start with.

 

[Yevad]

For anyone interested in buying a laptop case for a Skyfire II I have just bought a Targus XL Citegear Notebook case for £27.00.

The laptop fits nicely into the case and there is still room in the next pocket for mouse, power supply etc. The only thing is that the top of the bag is not sealed, and I would be a little worried about the overall weather proofing protection of the case. The case has flap which is not zipped, and I could easy see how extensive rain could result in a leak.

However since I am not planning to do too much traveling with this laptop, the bag will be good enough to protect it from knocks etc around the household when not in use.