Hi Guys,
I've recently received my PC Specialist Optimus VII and after about a week of use I am ready to post my impressions.
Finally I have to say I am pretty happy with the laptop and I certainly hope it lasts a couple of years at least. The only minuses mentioned were the back light bleeding in the corners (not a deal breaker) and the cumbersome process of removing the bottom cover (you won't do this that often anyway).
Thanks for making it through this pile of words. If you have any questions do let me know.
I will try and upload some pictures as well.
I've recently received my PC Specialist Optimus VII and after about a week of use I am ready to post my impressions.
- Configuration
Display - Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
CPU - Intel® Core™ i5 Quad Core Processor 6300HQ (2.3GHz, 3.2GHz Turbo)
RAM - 8GB HyperX IMPACT 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (1 x 8GB)
HDD Caddy Drive (instead of the optical drive) - 750GB WD BLACK 2.5" WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
Main Drive (installed by me from previous laptop) - Samsung SSD 850 EVO 120 GB sata III
OS - Windows 10 Pro (installed by me - I highly suggest you do this and save aroung 80 £ if you can)
- Design and build quality
First of all I want to mention the packaging used was very good with a thick bubble wrap on the sides of the laptop box keeping it firmly in place. This whole structure was then inside the main big box.
I have to say the build quality is very good for the price. The top side of the case has a nice matte finish while the bottom is normal hard plastic.
The keyboard buttons are flat but nicely spaced and they have a firm spring to them. I find the keyboard to be quite enjoyable to use although I usually use a normal desktop keyboard since I find it's what I'm always more comfortable with.
I am one of the biggest enemies of touch pads when it comes to usability and I always prefer to use a mouse but using this touch pad was not as bad. I like the fact that it is quite large, it has a matte finish (I hate glossy pads even more), and the buttons are separated from the pad (pads which have buttons embedded are made by the devil himself). It's a decent touch pad for quick use but I prefer a mouse any day.
You get 2 x USB 3.0 ports on the left along with SPDIF, microphone and headphones port.
The back houses a mini display port, power port, another USB 3.0 port and the HDMI port.
Lastly the right hand side has the SD card reader, another USB 3.0 port, VGA port and the RJ45 network port.
I found the display to be very good in terms of brightness and colour reproduction. The only beef I have with it is a bit of back-light bleeding in the bottom corners but it doesn't bother me that much.
The webcam is located on top of the display in the middle but I have yet to try it yet (I believe it is a 2.0 mp camera so it should be decent).
Another small issue was how hard it actually is to remove the bottom cover. You will have to do this in order to upgrade anything (including RAM or SSD or anything else). You basically have to remove all of the screws on the bottom and then carefully unclip it starting on the left hand side. It's not a deal breaker by any means but you have to be very careful not to break any clips in the process.
The hinge on the display seems to be sturdy as well and I hope it stands the test of time.
All in all I am pretty happy with the build quality with the 2 small issues I have mentioned earlier. I would also like to mention that the laptops feels pretty light for its category.
- Performance and guts
I won't post any benchmarks or anything like that (frankly I think they are a waste of everyone's time) but instead I am going to mention I found the computer to be very snappy.
I'm a software developer and I sometimes find myself opening several IDEs, Virtual Machines (I will probably update to 16 gb of RAM sooner rather than later) and other resource intensive applications. It seemed to admirably handle anything I threw at it.
In terms of gaming I've only played a couple of games but most of what I tried ran very well on High settings.
I so far have tried Starcraft II Hearth of the Swarm, Heroes of the Storm, GTA IV.
In terms of temperatures I have to first mention that I managed to undervolt the CPU by about 48 mv using XTU. The new Skylake CPUs are pretty impressive and most of them can be heavily undervolted. In this context I can say the laptop runs pretty cool and is quite silent. Most of the time the fans don't kick in at all.
In heavy gaming sessions you can slightly hear the fans and my cpu temp went to about 72 degrees Celsius.
I think in the end I made the right decision to not go with the i7-6700 as this one is powerful enough for me (from what I read the i7 is about 10-12 % faster).
- PC Specialist service impressions
A couple of days after I placed my order I called PC Specialist in order to request that the WD 750 GB drive be placed in the optical caddy. Everything was simple and upon receiving it unsurprisingly the drive was in the right place saving me a bit of time.
I liked the fact that you get a status update every 2 days about your order. Near the end of the build stages I stopped receiving those emails (I think it was because it was about to go in the final stage). Anyway I called again and someone easily explained what happened and what the latest status was.
In terms of delivery times (time from when the order was placed until the laptop was delivered to me) I have to admit it was a bit long (a bit more than 3 weeks). However you have to realise that they are not a huge company and I'm sure they are trying to cope with demand as best they can. I managed to keep my patience and I think you should do too (keep telling yourself any useless phone call you make is delaying someone finishing they job faster and maybe getting to your order).
Another nice thing I liked was the fact that I can download all of the drivers on their website and that the laptop has a very extensive user manual which describes how to remove and add anything in detailed visual steps.
Finally I have to say I am pretty happy with the laptop and I certainly hope it lasts a couple of years at least. The only minuses mentioned were the back light bleeding in the corners (not a deal breaker) and the cumbersome process of removing the bottom cover (you won't do this that often anyway).
Thanks for making it through this pile of words. If you have any questions do let me know.
I will try and upload some pictures as well.
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