What I Wanted
Four and a half years ago I bought my first custom built laptop from PC Specialist as a present to myself for having got my first full time job and clearing my student overdraft. The machine I bought back then was a Defiance II with pretty much the highest available specs, it was an amazing machine and never game me a bit of bother, working just as well the day I got rid of it as it did the day it was delivered. Unfortunately, good though it was, it was just no longer meeting my needs.
I now travel a lot more for work (or at least I did… Thanks Covid!) and found that I needed something a little smaller, lighter and more subtle than the massive hunk of metal that I had before but something that could still play a few games when wanted. Whilst amazing in its own right, my old machine just wasn’t very portable so I had a look around and what was available and in terms of price/spec ratio I found again that PC Specialist were likely the best option.
My Build
After a bit of contemplation I decided to go for the 15.6” Cosmos X. Ideally I’d actually wanted a 14” Laptop but I found that trying to get the spec I wanted in that size of laptop for a decent price was nigh on impossible. Looking at the options though the Cosmos seemed to be a lot smaller and lighter than I was used to whilst keeping With that in mind I found that the Cosmos seemed to be lighter than I was used to whilst maintaining the 15.6” screen. A little bit of a compromise from what I actually wanted but it seemed a reasonable compromise for the extra spec over PC Specialist’s 14” models. In terms of spec, I have gone with:
Look and Feel
First impressions were fantastic, it was love at first feel. As the courier handed over the parcel, I could immediately tell the difference in weight from my old machine. The machine was well packaged and set up was a breeze. Build quality is fantastic but both the laptop and the power brick feel much smaller and lighter than I’m used to which is exactly what I needed. As it happens, I’m glad that I went for the 15.6” option as with the tiny bezels it’s a really good size and definitely portable.
The design is pretty safe, it’s not going to immediately turn any heads but personally I like it. There’s a slight speckled effect on the outer lid that you can only see in certain light conditions, and you’ve got a PC specialist logo in the centre. It can be opened with one hand, the hinge feels sturdy and on opening the first thing you’ll notice is the slightly odd looking keyboard. With white key surrounds and a slightly angular font this is the first hint you get that this is a higher-spec gaming machine. It’s less subtle on the inside but again, not too over the top. The keyboard is backlit, and you can choose from several different colours which is nice. When powering on it switches between blue, red and green. In use though I can find no way of adding such effects and can only seem to light it in one set colour, a little odd and rather disappointing – perhaps I’m missing something?
The keyboard has taken a little getting used to, it feels a little more cramped than a full-size keyboard though the inclusion of a number pad is helpful. Though the size takes a little getting used to the travel is good and the keys feel nice to the touch. I practically always use a mouse rather than the touch pad but still, a quick play with the touch pad later it seems fine. It will never be my preference but if you need to use it, I’m sure you’d have no problem with it.
Performance
Well, it’s only been two weeks but so far so good. It’s a very fast machine as you’d expect. One of the big differences between this and my last machine is that on this one I have a large SSD rather than a small SSD and large HDD and you can really tell the difference in performance. For daily tasks it goes without saying that there are no issues at all.
As for gaming I don’t play anything that’s too graphics intensive but the games I have played have worked well. I’m generally into sim games (think Cities Skylines, Train Sims and such) and they perform without issue. The fans are effective if a little on the loud side and sound quality is fine, clear but not the loudest. Whilst it’s not going to run absolutely everything on the highest possible settings if like me, you just want something that can play games on reasonable settings on the go then this machine is perfect.
Service
Honestly, at this point I don’t think I’d even bother looking elsewhere for computers at this point. I ordered amid the Coronavirus lockdown and lead times looked to be about two weeks though I was fully prepared for it to take a little longer in the circumstances. Despite that I went from ordering to having my new laptop in my hands in the space of 6 days and 22 hours. Throughout that time I had regular email updates on progress to let me know when it was being built, entering testing and when it was awaiting dispatch. Delivery is through DPD who gave a one-hour time slot for delivery which was met without issue. I’ve only had to contact PC Specialist once about the order, on arrival the keyboard backlight wasn’t functioning properly which turned out to just be a piece of software that had gone missing somewhere, a quick download from my PC Specialist account fixed this and it’s been working fine ever since.
Conclusion/Recommendation
This is my second laptop from PC Specialist and I honestly can’t imagine ordering from elsewhere now. Service has been great on both occasions and the laptops have been the best price I could find for the spec I’ve wanted. I’d honestly recommend PC Specialist any day and if you’re looking for something that balances portability with the ability to do a bit of light gaming I’d say that the Cosmos IX is pretty perfect. There's a few images below and as you'll notice my cat also quite likes it which is a plus.
Four and a half years ago I bought my first custom built laptop from PC Specialist as a present to myself for having got my first full time job and clearing my student overdraft. The machine I bought back then was a Defiance II with pretty much the highest available specs, it was an amazing machine and never game me a bit of bother, working just as well the day I got rid of it as it did the day it was delivered. Unfortunately, good though it was, it was just no longer meeting my needs.
I now travel a lot more for work (or at least I did… Thanks Covid!) and found that I needed something a little smaller, lighter and more subtle than the massive hunk of metal that I had before but something that could still play a few games when wanted. Whilst amazing in its own right, my old machine just wasn’t very portable so I had a look around and what was available and in terms of price/spec ratio I found again that PC Specialist were likely the best option.
My Build
After a bit of contemplation I decided to go for the 15.6” Cosmos X. Ideally I’d actually wanted a 14” Laptop but I found that trying to get the spec I wanted in that size of laptop for a decent price was nigh on impossible. Looking at the options though the Cosmos seemed to be a lot smaller and lighter than I was used to whilst keeping With that in mind I found that the Cosmos seemed to be lighter than I was used to whilst maintaining the 15.6” screen. A little bit of a compromise from what I actually wanted but it seemed a reasonable compromise for the extra spec over PC Specialist’s 14” models. In terms of spec, I have gone with:
- Six-Core i7-10750H
- 32GB RAM
- Nvidia Geforce GTX 1650 Ti
- 1TB Samsung SSD
- Killer Wireless and Bluetooth
Look and Feel
First impressions were fantastic, it was love at first feel. As the courier handed over the parcel, I could immediately tell the difference in weight from my old machine. The machine was well packaged and set up was a breeze. Build quality is fantastic but both the laptop and the power brick feel much smaller and lighter than I’m used to which is exactly what I needed. As it happens, I’m glad that I went for the 15.6” option as with the tiny bezels it’s a really good size and definitely portable.
The design is pretty safe, it’s not going to immediately turn any heads but personally I like it. There’s a slight speckled effect on the outer lid that you can only see in certain light conditions, and you’ve got a PC specialist logo in the centre. It can be opened with one hand, the hinge feels sturdy and on opening the first thing you’ll notice is the slightly odd looking keyboard. With white key surrounds and a slightly angular font this is the first hint you get that this is a higher-spec gaming machine. It’s less subtle on the inside but again, not too over the top. The keyboard is backlit, and you can choose from several different colours which is nice. When powering on it switches between blue, red and green. In use though I can find no way of adding such effects and can only seem to light it in one set colour, a little odd and rather disappointing – perhaps I’m missing something?
The keyboard has taken a little getting used to, it feels a little more cramped than a full-size keyboard though the inclusion of a number pad is helpful. Though the size takes a little getting used to the travel is good and the keys feel nice to the touch. I practically always use a mouse rather than the touch pad but still, a quick play with the touch pad later it seems fine. It will never be my preference but if you need to use it, I’m sure you’d have no problem with it.
Performance
Well, it’s only been two weeks but so far so good. It’s a very fast machine as you’d expect. One of the big differences between this and my last machine is that on this one I have a large SSD rather than a small SSD and large HDD and you can really tell the difference in performance. For daily tasks it goes without saying that there are no issues at all.
As for gaming I don’t play anything that’s too graphics intensive but the games I have played have worked well. I’m generally into sim games (think Cities Skylines, Train Sims and such) and they perform without issue. The fans are effective if a little on the loud side and sound quality is fine, clear but not the loudest. Whilst it’s not going to run absolutely everything on the highest possible settings if like me, you just want something that can play games on reasonable settings on the go then this machine is perfect.
Service
Honestly, at this point I don’t think I’d even bother looking elsewhere for computers at this point. I ordered amid the Coronavirus lockdown and lead times looked to be about two weeks though I was fully prepared for it to take a little longer in the circumstances. Despite that I went from ordering to having my new laptop in my hands in the space of 6 days and 22 hours. Throughout that time I had regular email updates on progress to let me know when it was being built, entering testing and when it was awaiting dispatch. Delivery is through DPD who gave a one-hour time slot for delivery which was met without issue. I’ve only had to contact PC Specialist once about the order, on arrival the keyboard backlight wasn’t functioning properly which turned out to just be a piece of software that had gone missing somewhere, a quick download from my PC Specialist account fixed this and it’s been working fine ever since.
Conclusion/Recommendation
This is my second laptop from PC Specialist and I honestly can’t imagine ordering from elsewhere now. Service has been great on both occasions and the laptops have been the best price I could find for the spec I’ve wanted. I’d honestly recommend PC Specialist any day and if you’re looking for something that balances portability with the ability to do a bit of light gaming I’d say that the Cosmos IX is pretty perfect. There's a few images below and as you'll notice my cat also quite likes it which is a plus.
