Catchercradle
New member
One reason for choosing PC Specialist for me was that I could buy a laptop without having to buy an operating system at the same time. (I resent having to pay for windows which I haven't had on a computer belonging to me this century.For reference spec of machine shown below.
Chassis & Display Genesis Series: 15.6" Matte HD LED 16:9 Widescreen (1366x768)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Pentium® Quad Core Processor N3540 (4 x 2.16GHz) 2MB Cache
Memory (RAM) 8GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card Integrated Intel® HD Graphics
2nd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - Hard Disk 120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk 500GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 2nd/3rd HDD HARD DRIVE OPTICAL BAY CADDY (9.5mm)
Memory Card Reader Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-7260 HMC (300Mbps, 802.11BGN) + BLUETOOTH
Wireless Router/HomePlugs NONE
USB Options 3 x USB 2.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 3.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery Genesis Series 32WH Battery (Up to 9.5 Hour Battery Life)
Power Lead & Adaptor 1 x UK Power Lead & 30W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language GENESIS SERIES INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD
Operating System NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Installing from a USB disk was very straightforward. And fast! Less than half an hour including downloading updates to the OS. I would advise anyone building a new machine to go for the option of putting the OS on an SSD.
You might ask, why not put everything on an SSD? Two possible reasons. The first being cost, though that was not the primary reason in my case. I run software from climateprediction.net a distributed computing project. This would in a couple of years go over the write cycle life of a small hard disk. (I have trashed a 120GB one in the past doing this on a netbook with dual core atom CPU.) With 4 faster cores I could trash a much larger one as quickly!
So what else? I love the 15.6" screen . Video is up for everything I might throw at it. (I don't do games.) All in all, the computer does everything I want at a very reasonable price. No nasty surprises with unsupported hardware which used to be a major problem with linux, particularly with laptops.
Only two very minor quibbles. The first was I didn't spot where the card reader was under the KB at the front so was on the point of phoning up PC specialist before I found it! Second, no Caps lock light on the KB. I can imagine that for anyone who needs to look at the KB while typing and doesn't look at the screen this could be a hassle!
In summary, I would go back to PC Specialist again, particularly if buying a machine to install Linux on.