"Build Time" explanation.

Bart-man

Member
Hi all, my first post here but I've been a PCS customer since 2017 when I bought my current rig from them. So I have returned and just ordered a new desktop from them this month. My last build was done over a Christmas period and in quick time, only 7 working days! ordered just before Christmas 2017, built between Christmas and New Year, and I received it first week of January and I didn't go for the quick build option either.

Now coming to the point of my post! I can't figure out how PCS "Build Time" estimates are calculated. I ordered this month on the 9th and all components were in stock at that time. I got a "Build Time" of 12 to 14 working day's. I'm almost on the 10th working day now and it's still in Pre-Production. Now if you check the current "Built Time" as of today they estimate 8 to 11 working days so the wait has reduced somewhat since I ordered indicating that the waiting list has come down a bit. It says if I ordered a system today I would get delivery by 4th March, only 9 working days from now! and that's if you go for a standard build and not pay extra to go for the 5 working day build time currently offered. So going back to my order I'm almost at 10 working day's and still in Pre-Production, if I ordered today, the exact same system, I would get the PC by the 4th March, which is a week Friday. But as I ordered on the 9th Feb I won't get it until probably the week after next! This doesn't make sense to me.

In regards to the "Build Time" estimate, is this the time from ordering to delivery? or from ordering to going into Build from Pre-Production?

Hopefully some of you good folks can spread a bit of light onto this rather hit and miss phenomenon!
 
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Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
It's different from build to build mate, some components are more in demand so less stock = longer lead times

As for the build time that PCS offer that's just their currently average, you can be outside of that at any time and it can change any time but it's just to give an idea of wait times currently at the very moment you ordered

As for pre-production it's entirely normal to sit in that for the majority of the build, the actual building of the system takes a couple of hours and testing usually takes another few hours but can take up to 24 hours.

Generally when PC's go into building, it takes about 24 hours for them to be ready for despatch provided no issues are found in testing
 
What components did you order? Typically from what I've seen from my own experience and others you'll go into building stage on the 13th-15th working day from ordering.
 

Bart-man

Member
What components did you order? Typically from what I've seen from my own experience and others you'll go into building stage on the 13th-15th working day from ordering.
I ordered a Fractal Meshify 2 case, i7-12700K, Asus ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming mobo, 64GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3200MHz ram, Asus ROG Strix RTX 3090, 500GB Samsung 980 M.2, 2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2, 1TB Samsung 870 SSD, Corsair 1000W RMx Series Modular 80 Plus Gold PSU, Corsair iCUE H115i RGB PRO XT Hydro Series cooler and a couple of extra case fans.

All were showing in stock when I ordered, I did in fact check on the PCS site chat to see if the GPU was actually in stock and he said yes but they only had a few left so get the order in quick! lol. I believe they did run out a few day's after I ordered, but have since had a further delivery as they have shown up on the build list again. As far as I know I'm not on any component waiting list.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
I ordered a Fractal Meshify 2 case, i7-12700K, Asus ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming mobo, 64GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3200MHz ram, Asus ROG Strix RTX 3090, 500GB Samsung 980 M.2, 2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2, 1TB Samsung 870 SSD, Corsair 1000W RMx Series Modular 80 Plus Gold PSU, Corsair iCUE H115i RGB PRO XT Hydro Series cooler and a couple of extra case fans.

All were showing in stock when I ordered, I did in fact check on the PCS site chat to see if the GPU was actually in stock and he said yes but they only had a few left so get the order in quick! lol. I believe they did run out a few day's after I ordered, but have since had a further delivery as they showed up on the build list again. As far as I know I'm not on any component waiting list.
It's perfectly normal, you the build and testing only takes a day or so, 99% of the time the status is in pre-production.

The estimates are just based on historic averages, they're not intended to be accurate in any way shape or form, that's not possible, they're purely based on the previous weeks progress.

Parts are not allocated until build time by the way.
 

Cornwol

Member
Processed Date11-02-2022
Pre-Production Date11-02-2022
Build Date25-02-2022
Test Date25-02-2022
Awaiting Dispatch Date28-02-2022
Dispatch Date28-02-2022

Waiting, waiting, waiting, warp speed...that's my experience, build and test on Friday, shipped Monday.
Though it may not be typical as I left out the graphics card from the build which might have shortened the testing period.
 

wukeReacts

Active member
Processed Date11-02-2022
Pre-Production Date11-02-2022
Build Date25-02-2022
Test Date25-02-2022
Awaiting Dispatch Date28-02-2022
Dispatch Date28-02-2022

Waiting, waiting, waiting, warp speed...that's my experience, build and test on Friday, shipped Monday.
Though it may not be typical as I left out the graphics card from the build which might have shortened the testing period.
Production Dates
Processed Date10-02-2022
Pre-Production Date11-02-2022

What GPU did you order? I hit pre production the same day as you but havent moved to build yet!
 

NoverianSnowCone

Bronze Level Poster
He mentioned that he left out the GPU on his build. I started pre-production on 17/02 with a RTX 3080 in my order. I'm hoping for the average timeframe of 11-13 working days but expecting it to go beyond this, which obviously isn't PCS' fault, just got to be patient 🤓👍
 

wukeReacts

Active member
He mentioned that he left out the GPU on his build. I started pre-production on 17/02 with a RTX 3080 in my order. I'm hoping for the average timeframe of 11-13 working days but expecting it to go beyond this, which obviously isn't PCS' fault, just got to be patient 🤓👍
Oh yeah I completely missed his second sentence :ROFLMAO:

I think 20 working days is standardish at the moment from what people say
 

Cornwol

Member
What GPU did you order? I hit pre production the same day as you but havent moved to build yet!
Yeah I skipped the GPUs for now, there's already a pair of 1080s in the current machine this one is replacing so they're going in for now.
One 1080 is getting replaced but I'm not sure what with yet, toying with the idea of waiting for the 4xxx cards to drop and seeing what they'll cost and what that does to prices of the other cards.
 

Bart-man

Member
Update:

My order also went into the building phase this morning!

14 working days here, I was quoted 12 to 14 working days at order.

GPU was an Asus ROG 3090.

Production Dates
Processed Date09-02-2022
Pre-Production Date11-02-2022
Build Date01-03-2022
 

Bart-man

Member
Another update :

I received an email this morning saying the order is awaiting despatch! I was expecting it to be in Test/QA for at least a day. Maybe they run the tests overnight?. Built and tested in around 24 hrs!.

Production Dates
Processed Date09-02-2022
Pre-Production Date11-02-2022
Build Date01-03-2022
Test Date01-03-2022
Awaiting Dispatch Date02-03-2022
 

wukeReacts

Active member
Another update :

I received an email this morning saying the order is awaiting despatch! I was expecting it to be in Test/QA for at least a day. Maybe they run the tests overnight?. Built and tested in around 24 hrs!.

Production Dates
Processed Date09-02-2022
Pre-Production Date11-02-2022
Build Date01-03-2022
Test Date01-03-2022
Awaiting Dispatch Date02-03-2022
Im awaiting dispatch too! Would be amazing to get it by Friday so fingers crossed!
 

Cornwol

Member
Maybe they run the tests overnight?
From what I read some of the testing is stress testing which to me means running something for a while, or at least leaving the machine on for a period of time so I'd imagine they run overnight.

The thing I read also said the testing period was dependant on components, not sure what that means exactly...maybe liquid cooling is tested a little longer for potential leaks and GPUs to make sure they aren't duds spitting out artifacts under load.
 

NoverianSnowCone

Bronze Level Poster
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Processed Date
17-02-2022
Pre-Production Date
18-02-2022
Build Date
07-03-2022
 
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