garamo
Bronze Level Poster
I already have a pretty fast desktop (also from PC Specialist) but I needed to replace my ancient work laptop and decided I'd like something that I can also run my DAWs with and easily plug into the TV in the lounge or to take round friends houses and enjoy my game library wherever I please. I'd have liked to get the 780m but I already stretched the budget with this build so settled on the 8970m as it seemed best bang for buck after looking at some benchmarks. I've also used AMD cards exclusively for years now (just because they have always been the best option at the time for me, not because I'm a blind fan boy) and never had a problem.
Chassis & Display Vortex Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4700MQ (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card AMD® Radeon® HD 8970M - 4GB 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)
Memory Card Reader Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Network Facilities GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® ADVANCED-N 6235 (300Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Dead Pixel Guarantee 1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Delivery
If only I could stretch to affording a fast track but alas, I'd blown the budget. It came in 12 working days though which was only slightly outside the estimate and the PCS staff and their excellent system kept me well informed of progress the whole time. It arrived in a huge box with lots of padding from a courier I know to be very reliable (DPD) so very happy with everything here.
Build Quality/Aesthetics
Very happy with how it looks and very much fits in with the sort of understated style I like. Matches my Fractal Design desktop case perfectly. I love the slightly rubbery material too, no more excessive finger prints from horrible gloss plastics. The chassis feels very sturdy and the screen holds firmly in place when open. The screen also clicks down nicely and I love that there are no pesky clips to slide when opening it.
The keyboard feels very nice and solid, doesn't flex at all for me which is fantastic. The back lighting looks slick, is handy for gaming in the dark but most importantly it is going to be invaluable when I use it for gigs. The trackpad is as functional as any other I've used and does the job. I like that it blends in with the chassis material too. I tend to use a mouse where possible though, I despise trackpads in general. The finger print scanner is very good too, I was suitably impressed with just how effective it is. I imagined swiping my finger over it again and again but it works flawlessly.
Performance
First off I have run some of my finished projects in both Cubase 5 and FL Studio with stacks of various soft synths and effects and it handles them in it's stride. I'm not doing huge classical scores or anything but my projects are large and busy plus I don't bounce anything down to audio or freeze channels much so the processor is obviously very capable.
Games next and the HD 8970m performs admirably. It doesn't quite stack up to my desktop GPU of course but I was running GRID 2 and Tomb Raider on MAX settings with no problems at all. Crysis 3 and Metro LL needed the AA notched back a bit and a few tweaks (as expected) but I was running on a mix of high/ultra with fantastic frame rates. Very happy indeed.
Here she is:
Here she is alongside my PC Specialist desktop:
Here she is running Tomb Raider hooked up to my big TV in the lounge:
& here is how pleased my dog was with the performance:
Production Dates
Processed Date 16-07-2013
Pre-Production Date 23-07-2013
Build Date 29-07-2013
Test Date 30-07-2013
Awaiting Dispatch Date 30-07-2013
Dispatch Date 31-07-2013
Who Worked on This Order?
Built By Ben Alderson
Tested By Mark Bradley
QC'd By Mark Bradley
Packed By Anthony Cunliffe
So far so good then. PCS are yet to let me down and this is the 4th machine I have purchased through them. Keep up the good work and thanks to all the staff.
Chassis & Display Vortex Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4700MQ (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card AMD® Radeon® HD 8970M - 4GB 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)
Memory Card Reader Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Network Facilities GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® ADVANCED-N 6235 (300Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Dead Pixel Guarantee 1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Delivery
If only I could stretch to affording a fast track but alas, I'd blown the budget. It came in 12 working days though which was only slightly outside the estimate and the PCS staff and their excellent system kept me well informed of progress the whole time. It arrived in a huge box with lots of padding from a courier I know to be very reliable (DPD) so very happy with everything here.
Build Quality/Aesthetics
Very happy with how it looks and very much fits in with the sort of understated style I like. Matches my Fractal Design desktop case perfectly. I love the slightly rubbery material too, no more excessive finger prints from horrible gloss plastics. The chassis feels very sturdy and the screen holds firmly in place when open. The screen also clicks down nicely and I love that there are no pesky clips to slide when opening it.
The keyboard feels very nice and solid, doesn't flex at all for me which is fantastic. The back lighting looks slick, is handy for gaming in the dark but most importantly it is going to be invaluable when I use it for gigs. The trackpad is as functional as any other I've used and does the job. I like that it blends in with the chassis material too. I tend to use a mouse where possible though, I despise trackpads in general. The finger print scanner is very good too, I was suitably impressed with just how effective it is. I imagined swiping my finger over it again and again but it works flawlessly.
Performance
First off I have run some of my finished projects in both Cubase 5 and FL Studio with stacks of various soft synths and effects and it handles them in it's stride. I'm not doing huge classical scores or anything but my projects are large and busy plus I don't bounce anything down to audio or freeze channels much so the processor is obviously very capable.
Games next and the HD 8970m performs admirably. It doesn't quite stack up to my desktop GPU of course but I was running GRID 2 and Tomb Raider on MAX settings with no problems at all. Crysis 3 and Metro LL needed the AA notched back a bit and a few tweaks (as expected) but I was running on a mix of high/ultra with fantastic frame rates. Very happy indeed.
Here she is:
Here she is alongside my PC Specialist desktop:
Here she is running Tomb Raider hooked up to my big TV in the lounge:
& here is how pleased my dog was with the performance:
Production Dates
Processed Date 16-07-2013
Pre-Production Date 23-07-2013
Build Date 29-07-2013
Test Date 30-07-2013
Awaiting Dispatch Date 30-07-2013
Dispatch Date 31-07-2013
Who Worked on This Order?
Built By Ben Alderson
Tested By Mark Bradley
QC'd By Mark Bradley
Packed By Anthony Cunliffe
So far so good then. PCS are yet to let me down and this is the 4th machine I have purchased through them. Keep up the good work and thanks to all the staff.
The speakers are my beastly Adam A7X monitors, unfortunately they show off how bad the sound quality is in far too many games! 