Dan the man
Member
My laptop arrived yesterday 
I’ve upgraded from a Dell XPS M1330.
Specs:
Chassis & Display: Optimus Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor: Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3630QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
RAM: 4GB Samsung 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (1 x 4GB)
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
HDD: 500GB WD Scorpio Black, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
DVD: 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Thermal Paste: ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Warranty: 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
No OS or software.
9-11 working day standard build.
£689.10 Inc VAT & delivery
I've installed my previously used 250GB Samsung 840 SSD (£109.99 Delivered Amazon) as the primary drive and I'm using the 500GB as storage for games/music/picture etc
I'll be increasing the RAM to 8GB soon - possibly 12GB if I dare to open the chassis and pry up the keyboard to access the 3rd DIMM slot.
Ordering and experience with PCS:
Initial payment was declined – NOT PCS fault – a quick call sorted this. Payment accepted!
Confirmation email received.
Processed Date 02-04-2013
Pre-Production Date 09-04-2013
Build Date 09-04-2013
Test Date 11-04-2013
Awaiting Dispatch Date 11-04-2013
Dispatch Date 12-04-2013
As you can see no real delays, I do have previous experience ordering with PCS before (I ordered for a friend) however, previously the order progressed quicker than my experience this time round.
My biggest disappointment was the fact that my laptop was awaiting dispatch on the 11/04/13 which was a Thursday, if my laptop had been dispatched that day it would have got to me by the Friday (as the email said “the order will be dispatched ASAP and will more than likely be dispatched today”)
Ho hum I had to wait until the Monday 15/04/13 to get it.
Un-boxing and Initial impressions:
Laptop was VERY well packaged however, once I’d opened everything up I noticed some of the boxes, CD-ROMs etc looked like they’d been opened previously – It looked like a used item had been sent to me by mistake but I proceeded to open the rest of the laptop and I was pleased to find it nicely wrapped and there were plastic coverings protecting the screen and bezel. I then noticed some finger prints in the battery bay (you can tell by now I’m nit picking) I’m putting this down to it being a custom build and I guess some things would have been opened during the QC stage?
The laptop itself feels very well built, it’s not a heavy as I was expecting, and one can quite comfortably sit with it on ones lap for hours watching DVDs or playing games. There is no give in the bezel, the keys are nicely spaced out and all keys are in the right place so you don’t even have to think about where you are putting your fingers!
WOW WHAT A SCREEN! Even when in the BIOS this thing is incredible, I’ve never seen such vibrant colours on a laptop screen before – I was expecting it to be good but this thing beats my 40” 1080P LED TV for brightness and contrast – VERY IMPRESSED!
Booted up, installed all drivers in no time and ran the Windows Experience Index Test.
Processor: 7.6
RAM: 5.9
Aero: 5.2
Gaming Graphics: 7.1
Hard Drive: 7.9
I am a little disappointed with these scores, I was hoping I’d get at least 7’s in all departments. I think upgrading to 8GB RAM so that the memory runs in dual channel might increase the RAM score but I’m shocked that the aero score doesn’t even use the 660m, it uses the HD4000!
Now, the speakers, they work. That’s probably all I should say about them.
The web cam appears to be a little jittery but it takes a nice photo and for what I will be using it for its fine.
Benchmarking and Gaming
I’ve not had chance to do much in this department yet.
I’ve ran 3DMark03 and got 35000 odd points.
Will do 06 and Vantage soon
I’ve played Skyrim for approx 30 minutes and not a single stutter – running at 1080 on ultra.
Overall
I’m very impressed with the build quality, the keyboard is lovely to type on, the screen is probably the best thing about this laptop, it really is superb.
So far the only draw backs are the WEI score, the feeling of opening a second hand product (I’m putting that down to this being a custom build laptop and so the driver disk and certain compartments within the box may have had to have been opened for it to pass QC) and the delay in receiving my laptop - just one day would have meant I would have had an entire weekend to play with my new pride and joy!
I’ve upgraded from a Dell XPS M1330.Specs:
Chassis & Display: Optimus Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor: Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3630QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
RAM: 4GB Samsung 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (1 x 4GB)
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
HDD: 500GB WD Scorpio Black, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
DVD: 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Thermal Paste: ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Warranty: 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
No OS or software.
9-11 working day standard build.
£689.10 Inc VAT & delivery
I've installed my previously used 250GB Samsung 840 SSD (£109.99 Delivered Amazon) as the primary drive and I'm using the 500GB as storage for games/music/picture etc
I'll be increasing the RAM to 8GB soon - possibly 12GB if I dare to open the chassis and pry up the keyboard to access the 3rd DIMM slot.
Ordering and experience with PCS:
Initial payment was declined – NOT PCS fault – a quick call sorted this. Payment accepted!
Confirmation email received.
Processed Date 02-04-2013
Pre-Production Date 09-04-2013
Build Date 09-04-2013
Test Date 11-04-2013
Awaiting Dispatch Date 11-04-2013
Dispatch Date 12-04-2013
As you can see no real delays, I do have previous experience ordering with PCS before (I ordered for a friend) however, previously the order progressed quicker than my experience this time round.
My biggest disappointment was the fact that my laptop was awaiting dispatch on the 11/04/13 which was a Thursday, if my laptop had been dispatched that day it would have got to me by the Friday (as the email said “the order will be dispatched ASAP and will more than likely be dispatched today”)
Ho hum I had to wait until the Monday 15/04/13 to get it.
Un-boxing and Initial impressions:
Laptop was VERY well packaged however, once I’d opened everything up I noticed some of the boxes, CD-ROMs etc looked like they’d been opened previously – It looked like a used item had been sent to me by mistake but I proceeded to open the rest of the laptop and I was pleased to find it nicely wrapped and there were plastic coverings protecting the screen and bezel. I then noticed some finger prints in the battery bay (you can tell by now I’m nit picking) I’m putting this down to it being a custom build and I guess some things would have been opened during the QC stage?
The laptop itself feels very well built, it’s not a heavy as I was expecting, and one can quite comfortably sit with it on ones lap for hours watching DVDs or playing games. There is no give in the bezel, the keys are nicely spaced out and all keys are in the right place so you don’t even have to think about where you are putting your fingers!
WOW WHAT A SCREEN! Even when in the BIOS this thing is incredible, I’ve never seen such vibrant colours on a laptop screen before – I was expecting it to be good but this thing beats my 40” 1080P LED TV for brightness and contrast – VERY IMPRESSED!
Booted up, installed all drivers in no time and ran the Windows Experience Index Test.
Processor: 7.6
RAM: 5.9
Aero: 5.2
Gaming Graphics: 7.1
Hard Drive: 7.9
I am a little disappointed with these scores, I was hoping I’d get at least 7’s in all departments. I think upgrading to 8GB RAM so that the memory runs in dual channel might increase the RAM score but I’m shocked that the aero score doesn’t even use the 660m, it uses the HD4000!
Now, the speakers, they work. That’s probably all I should say about them.
The web cam appears to be a little jittery but it takes a nice photo and for what I will be using it for its fine.
Benchmarking and Gaming
I’ve not had chance to do much in this department yet.
I’ve ran 3DMark03 and got 35000 odd points.
Will do 06 and Vantage soon
I’ve played Skyrim for approx 30 minutes and not a single stutter – running at 1080 on ultra.
Overall
I’m very impressed with the build quality, the keyboard is lovely to type on, the screen is probably the best thing about this laptop, it really is superb.
So far the only draw backs are the WEI score, the feeling of opening a second hand product (I’m putting that down to this being a custom build laptop and so the driver disk and certain compartments within the box may have had to have been opened for it to pass QC) and the delay in receiving my laptop - just one day would have meant I would have had an entire weekend to play with my new pride and joy!
