So, I've had my Optimus VII 17.3" for nearly two weeks now and I though I'd share my impressions.
My specs:
Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 6700HQ (2.6GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
8GB HyperX IMPACT 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1st Hard Disk
750GB WD BLACK 2.5" WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive
128GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2000MB/R, 650MB/W)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
ULTRA SLIM 6x BLURAY WRITER, 8x DVD ±R/±RW & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 2
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0, vPRO
USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (62.16WH)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
OPTIMUS SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 10 (64-bit) Home DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MP FULL HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 1 to 3 working days
Total price £999
I wanted a 17.3" all purpose laptop that had to have at least an Intel i7 6700HQ PCU, an Nvidia Geforce GTX 960M GPU, 16gb RAM, 1tb HDD, some SSD for startup and games and and a bluray drive with a max budget of £1000
Having looked at lots of other options from well known brands, it became clear I wasn't going to get all my requirements for less than £1,200 and even then, it wasn't going to have some of the things my Optimus has such as a super fast 2000 MB/R SSD and 4 USB 3.0 ports, so I was amazed at what I was able to get from PCS.
OK, so I compromised a bit with only 750gb HDD, but it's worth it to have 7200 rpm. It would have been nice to have a bigger SSD and more RAM, but I'll add another 8gb RAM soon for 30 quid and can live with 128gb seeing as it's SUPER FAST!!!
And super fast it is! from turning the laptop on it takes about 6 seconds to get to the sign in screen, then after scanning my finger print it takes about another 6 seconds for the desktop to appear.
It runs a little hot sometimes, even when doing basic web browsing and I think that might be the SSD because people have given warnings about that particular model, either that or it's the GPU which I understand is normal for that model and nothing to worry about, but when I put it on my home made cooling stand (one of the kid's conveniently sized mesh toy baskets) it's perfectly cool and it's always pretty quiet, even with fans on full.
I was expecting a 17.3" laptop to be heavy, but I'm pleasantly surprised by the weight. I wouldn't say it was light, but as laptops go it's not particularly heavy either.
The laptop looks cool as hell and has what feels like a rubberised matte finish, which feels amazing and I love it. It looks completely badass with the backlit keyboard turned up to full brightness and I love that the WASD keys are highlighted with red arrows too.
I've only tried it on 2 games so far: Left 4 Dead and Deus Ex Human Revolution Director's cut, which aren't particularly new, but being a lifelong console gamer this is my first experience of PC gaming and they both run perfectly on maximum settings and look beautiful. Much better than anything I've played on the Xbox 360.
The screen is amazing. I've seen some other posts that mention backlight bleed on the Optimus, but mine is absolutely perfect. The contrast and white balance are spot on and I haven't once felt the need to adjust them (I'm pretty anal when it comes to screens and on most devices I own I often feel the need to do so).
There are only a few cons:
1) The sound is only stereo. The only option to get 5.1 output was to add an external sound card.
2) The SPDIF output appears to be coaxial instead of optical. I've never had a coaxial device before and my speaker system only has an optical digital input. I don't even think I've seen a speaker system with a coaxial input for about 20 years, so I didn't for a moment expect that the SPDIF port would be anything other than optical. Either that or it's faulty. I'm still waiting for PCS to get back to me with an answer about that.
3) The rubberised matte finish is a MAJOR finger print magnet and once it's marked it's very difficult to remove the finger prints, but I can live with that because as i mentioned earlier, I love the way it feels and when it's closed I often find myself running my hands over it for no reason.
4) When closing the bluray drive, if I push it in until it stops, it get's stuck and can only be opened by poking a pin into the catch release hole. To close it properly I have to push it in gently only until it clicks and no further. I can probably live with that too though and I expect it's just one of the trappings of custom builds. The drive works perfectly and comes with a free copy of Cyberlink Power DVD 15 Pro, which is an amazing media player that would normally cost about £100 at full price.
5) You need to remove 2 very small screws to remove the battery, which I have done to prolong the battery's lifespan as I'm mostly using the laptop plugged in on a desk at home. The bettery isn't long and thin and slides out of the back like every other laptop I've owned, but is square and comes out of the bottom of the laptop. One of the laptop's 4 rubber "feet" is actually on the battery, so when it's removed the laptop wobbles a bit when it's on a flat surface.
6) I waited nearly 3 weeks for it to arrive, but It was just after christmas so that's forgiveable.
Even taking the cons into consideration, I am overjoyed with my new laptop and wouldn't hesitate to reccomend PCS to anybody.
If anyone's looking for the best possible all purpose laptop with a max budget of £1000 I'm pretty confident that my build is the best option you'll find anywhere.
Here's some pics:
The battery is on the top right of this picture
My specs:
Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 6700HQ (2.6GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
8GB HyperX IMPACT 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1st Hard Disk
750GB WD BLACK 2.5" WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive
128GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2000MB/R, 650MB/W)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
ULTRA SLIM 6x BLURAY WRITER, 8x DVD ±R/±RW & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 2
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0, vPRO
USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (62.16WH)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
OPTIMUS SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 10 (64-bit) Home DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MP FULL HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 1 to 3 working days
Total price £999
I wanted a 17.3" all purpose laptop that had to have at least an Intel i7 6700HQ PCU, an Nvidia Geforce GTX 960M GPU, 16gb RAM, 1tb HDD, some SSD for startup and games and and a bluray drive with a max budget of £1000
Having looked at lots of other options from well known brands, it became clear I wasn't going to get all my requirements for less than £1,200 and even then, it wasn't going to have some of the things my Optimus has such as a super fast 2000 MB/R SSD and 4 USB 3.0 ports, so I was amazed at what I was able to get from PCS.
OK, so I compromised a bit with only 750gb HDD, but it's worth it to have 7200 rpm. It would have been nice to have a bigger SSD and more RAM, but I'll add another 8gb RAM soon for 30 quid and can live with 128gb seeing as it's SUPER FAST!!!
And super fast it is! from turning the laptop on it takes about 6 seconds to get to the sign in screen, then after scanning my finger print it takes about another 6 seconds for the desktop to appear.
It runs a little hot sometimes, even when doing basic web browsing and I think that might be the SSD because people have given warnings about that particular model, either that or it's the GPU which I understand is normal for that model and nothing to worry about, but when I put it on my home made cooling stand (one of the kid's conveniently sized mesh toy baskets) it's perfectly cool and it's always pretty quiet, even with fans on full.
I was expecting a 17.3" laptop to be heavy, but I'm pleasantly surprised by the weight. I wouldn't say it was light, but as laptops go it's not particularly heavy either.
The laptop looks cool as hell and has what feels like a rubberised matte finish, which feels amazing and I love it. It looks completely badass with the backlit keyboard turned up to full brightness and I love that the WASD keys are highlighted with red arrows too.
I've only tried it on 2 games so far: Left 4 Dead and Deus Ex Human Revolution Director's cut, which aren't particularly new, but being a lifelong console gamer this is my first experience of PC gaming and they both run perfectly on maximum settings and look beautiful. Much better than anything I've played on the Xbox 360.
The screen is amazing. I've seen some other posts that mention backlight bleed on the Optimus, but mine is absolutely perfect. The contrast and white balance are spot on and I haven't once felt the need to adjust them (I'm pretty anal when it comes to screens and on most devices I own I often feel the need to do so).
There are only a few cons:
1) The sound is only stereo. The only option to get 5.1 output was to add an external sound card.
2) The SPDIF output appears to be coaxial instead of optical. I've never had a coaxial device before and my speaker system only has an optical digital input. I don't even think I've seen a speaker system with a coaxial input for about 20 years, so I didn't for a moment expect that the SPDIF port would be anything other than optical. Either that or it's faulty. I'm still waiting for PCS to get back to me with an answer about that.
3) The rubberised matte finish is a MAJOR finger print magnet and once it's marked it's very difficult to remove the finger prints, but I can live with that because as i mentioned earlier, I love the way it feels and when it's closed I often find myself running my hands over it for no reason.
4) When closing the bluray drive, if I push it in until it stops, it get's stuck and can only be opened by poking a pin into the catch release hole. To close it properly I have to push it in gently only until it clicks and no further. I can probably live with that too though and I expect it's just one of the trappings of custom builds. The drive works perfectly and comes with a free copy of Cyberlink Power DVD 15 Pro, which is an amazing media player that would normally cost about £100 at full price.
5) You need to remove 2 very small screws to remove the battery, which I have done to prolong the battery's lifespan as I'm mostly using the laptop plugged in on a desk at home. The bettery isn't long and thin and slides out of the back like every other laptop I've owned, but is square and comes out of the bottom of the laptop. One of the laptop's 4 rubber "feet" is actually on the battery, so when it's removed the laptop wobbles a bit when it's on a flat surface.
6) I waited nearly 3 weeks for it to arrive, but It was just after christmas so that's forgiveable.
Even taking the cons into consideration, I am overjoyed with my new laptop and wouldn't hesitate to reccomend PCS to anybody.
If anyone's looking for the best possible all purpose laptop with a max budget of £1000 I'm pretty confident that my build is the best option you'll find anywhere.
Here's some pics:
The battery is on the top right of this picture
Last edited:
. I just wanted to know if it's supposed to be optical, which would mean it's faulty.