Hi guys,
I've now had my Optimus 15.6" Laptop for just over two weeks and thought it was about time I gave my own review of the laptop and my first time ordering with PC Specialist.
After using a tiny Acer Aspire One A0715h netbook I got shortly after my 21st birthday I decided after three years I'd treat myself to a new machine and in the process throw out my ancient desktop setup. I was originally looking at Macbooks and pondering converting but after a chat with the so called 'Geniuses' and their Apple snobbery, I decided I would rather spent close to £1000 on something I could customize and make my own.
I remember a friend talking to my about PC Specialist and how he had ordered a custom desktop setup from themselves. He didn't rate them much because when his desktop arrived his GFX card drivers were outdated and being the computer numpty that he is decided to go in a huff instead of trying to hunt down new drivers which is something we all have to do. I disregarded his complaints and set about looking.
Originally I wanted the Vortex III 15.6" with all its bells and whistles. After continually building something and then telling myself I didn't need all that, I wrote down what I actually needed as apposed to a fingerprint reader which I would never actually use.
I settled on the Optimus as it looked like everything I required. Ideal sized screen, processors etc and able to run games at a decent quality. So I set about building my system which you'll see below.
Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3630QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
128GB KINGSTON V200 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (300MB/R, 190MB/W) (Special Offer)
2nd Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BC-5550H 4x BLURAY COMBO DRIVE & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE
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)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
It came to a grand total of £923.40 and it entered production on the early hours of November 8th.
I psyched myself up for a big wait because I'd been browsing the forums I seen a lot of people talking about how long a wait they had. All in all, I waited 10 days from the beginning of production to quality control and dispatch. PC Specialist were excellent with keeping me informed minus the e-mail mix up about it being in the testing phase when really it was only in production. They text me to let me know it was being dispatched and would I like it delivered to a neighbour should I be out, which is always the case.
I received my laptop and unboxed it eagerly and wasn't disappointed. I read complaints about the AC Supply being rather on the chunky side but it's not something that really bothers me and I turned on the computer. I've used Windows since the '95 OS was around so I was absolutely terrified of Windows 8 in the beginning, although after spending a little time with it I'm settling in. I just need to get round to making the Metro system my own and doing those other little tweaks.
In terms of negative remarks towards PC Specialist themselves I only have two.
I did manage to get my Blurays playing by downloading the VLC Media Player freeware and I've quoted from another topic I had started how I got it working incase anyone ever encounters the same issue.
In terms of the laptop shell itself:
Positives -
Negatives -
Added some pics below incase anyone wants to see the Metro interface. Laptop is able to run Battlefield 3 on 'Ultra' settings but I keep it on medium to high for smoothness and I'm more than happy with that.
More pics in second post.
I've now had my Optimus 15.6" Laptop for just over two weeks and thought it was about time I gave my own review of the laptop and my first time ordering with PC Specialist.
After using a tiny Acer Aspire One A0715h netbook I got shortly after my 21st birthday I decided after three years I'd treat myself to a new machine and in the process throw out my ancient desktop setup. I was originally looking at Macbooks and pondering converting but after a chat with the so called 'Geniuses' and their Apple snobbery, I decided I would rather spent close to £1000 on something I could customize and make my own.
I remember a friend talking to my about PC Specialist and how he had ordered a custom desktop setup from themselves. He didn't rate them much because when his desktop arrived his GFX card drivers were outdated and being the computer numpty that he is decided to go in a huff instead of trying to hunt down new drivers which is something we all have to do. I disregarded his complaints and set about looking.
Originally I wanted the Vortex III 15.6" with all its bells and whistles. After continually building something and then telling myself I didn't need all that, I wrote down what I actually needed as apposed to a fingerprint reader which I would never actually use.
I settled on the Optimus as it looked like everything I required. Ideal sized screen, processors etc and able to run games at a decent quality. So I set about building my system which you'll see below.
Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3630QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
128GB KINGSTON V200 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (300MB/R, 190MB/W) (Special Offer)
2nd Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BC-5550H 4x BLURAY COMBO DRIVE & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE
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)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
It came to a grand total of £923.40 and it entered production on the early hours of November 8th.
I psyched myself up for a big wait because I'd been browsing the forums I seen a lot of people talking about how long a wait they had. All in all, I waited 10 days from the beginning of production to quality control and dispatch. PC Specialist were excellent with keeping me informed minus the e-mail mix up about it being in the testing phase when really it was only in production. They text me to let me know it was being dispatched and would I like it delivered to a neighbour should I be out, which is always the case.
I received my laptop and unboxed it eagerly and wasn't disappointed. I read complaints about the AC Supply being rather on the chunky side but it's not something that really bothers me and I turned on the computer. I've used Windows since the '95 OS was around so I was absolutely terrified of Windows 8 in the beginning, although after spending a little time with it I'm settling in. I just need to get round to making the Metro system my own and doing those other little tweaks.
In terms of negative remarks towards PC Specialist themselves I only have two.
- Driver disc I was supplied with doesn't work or isn't able to run in Windows 8.
- Cyberlink 10 (supplied with Bluray drives) is unable to run Blurays in systems that have Windows 8 installed. You have to upgrade to Cyberlink 12 which I think they want something like £35-40 for the pleasure. (I know PC Specialist cannot do anything regarding software as it's what comes in the box but I think if they are offering these drives they should make people aware that if they want to use Cyberlink with Windows 8 they will have to pay the upgrade costs
I did manage to get my Blurays playing by downloading the VLC Media Player freeware and I've quoted from another topic I had started how I got it working incase anyone ever encounters the same issue.
In terms of the laptop shell itself:
Positives -
- Feels sturdy
- Good weight to it
- Keys are nice and spaced apart - Don't feel flimsy at all
- Nice look to it
Negatives -
- Attracts grubby marks and smearing easily (especially on the top lid and where the palms rest)
- Some gapping between the keys will allow debris to gather
- Touchpad feels very unresponsive
- Speakers are ATROCIOUS - even with the THX 'TrueSudio Pro Settings' enabled it sounds like they've popped. (My cheapo netbook has better speakers and sound quality)
- The laptop gets REALLY warm around the speaker bar... I don't know if this specifically where the GFX card is located but if you touch it you'll notice.
Added some pics below incase anyone wants to see the Metro interface. Laptop is able to run Battlefield 3 on 'Ultra' settings but I keep it on medium to high for smoothness and I'm more than happy with that.
More pics in second post.
