PCS - Laptop Build Quality

[chrhil]

1. Buy in reasonably priced, mostly preassembled chassis' from China.
2. Rename it to something flashy.
3. Charge a reasonable amount of money for offering different CPU, RAM and drives (everything else comes in pre-assembled)
4. Have items in 3. thrown into chassis.
5. Pretend laptop has been rigorously tested and inspected.
6. Dispatch and repeat.

 

[Oussebon]

Did you buy one and experience an issue? If so it would probably help forum users and potential customers to have an idea of what the problem was and what happened to resolved it / whether it wasn't resolved.

Or are you mostly annoyed that many of the most most popular enthusiast customisable laptops from vendors in the UK, Germany, USA, and many other places are built on Clevo Chassis?

 

[chrhil]

Bought an expensive one, now on 2nd RMA (would be 4th RMA if it where not for the fact I built computers). First issue was an absent screw, second issue was a blatantly faulty screen. We are now on the second RMA because PCS (or Clevo) failed on the thermal paste application or just didn't adequately stress test or both.

 

[Stephen M]

Had you stated that in your first post your complaint would be more believable. I accept you have had problems but by starting with a random rant you have raised out suspicions, remember there are a great many satisfied customers here who have bought several PCS machines and not had problems. Which screw was missing and some pictures, if you took them, of the poor pasting would be interesting, incidentally, the pasting would be PCS fault, not Clevo they only supply the chassis and do not assemble the laptops.

 

[chrhil]

Some of the blame is with Clevo and their inadeqaute bios configuration. However PCS have been somewhat lacking in chasing up known issues which only a BIOS update would remedy.

 

[chrhil]

I merely bullet pointed facts, that was hardly a rant!

 

[chrhil]

 

[Oussebon]

When you said an expensive one, is it an Octane with a desktop i7 CPU by any chance? What was the spec?

 

[Stephen M]

Comments such as the failed McDonalds interview are more rant than serious complaint and PCS machines are clearly not thrown together. You have been unlucky that is all.

 

[chrhil]

that was one injection of humour, in an otherwise mundane and factual list.

 

[chrhil]

Octane Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-6700k (4.0GHz) 8MB Cache

32GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)

NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 980 DESKTOP - 8.0GB DDR5, G-SYNC - Geforce GTX VR Ready

NONE

Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)

1 x UK Power Lead & 330W AC Adaptor

ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND

Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack

GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0, vPRO

4 x USB 3.0 Ports + 1 x USB 3.1 Port with Thunderbolt

Octane Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (82WH)

OCTANE SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD

NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED

OS installed: Microsoft® Windows 10

United Kingdom - English Language

NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED

NO OFFICE SOFTWARE

NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Firefox™

INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE

INTEGRATED 2.0 MP FULL HD WEBCAM

3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs

STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days

 

[chrhil]

 

[Oussebon]

There have been quite a few reports of high (as in, far too high kind with thermal throttling) CPU temps on the Octane chassis. I've seen some comments about poor paste jobs, though even when repasting a lot of people have found that they had to undervolt the CPU to get temps they were happy with. Quite a few people on the forums seem to have gone for -150 to -200mv undervolting without having to downclock just because the CPU by default wants a lot more voltage than it actually needs in most cases.

That's not to imply that PCS did their job with the pasting or that there isn't another fault with the laptop - I'm not passing judgement one way or another, I'm just mentioning that in case you get it back in working order and find that the temps are still very high.
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?52069-Octane-Tips-Tricks-Info-and-Experiences

 

[chrhil]

The 6700K got far too much juice at stock, which is why I am convinced PCS did not throughly test this particular chassis.
The only way to undervolt was using XTU, but, following a BIOS update and after a reboot the -150mV undervolt became a 150mv overvolt on every reboot. I had been chasing PCS for a BIOS change for months and they forgot.

 

[chrhil]

You should not need to rely on a 3rd party application (XTU) to enable a laptop to run at safe temperatures, through the process of setting a negative core voltage offset. Clevo got round this in the default settings by lowering the turbo boost wattage, so if the CPU was pushed to 100% it downclocked to 3.0Ghz.

 

[ubuysa]

Might I please remind you of the forum rules which you have implicitly accepted: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/faq.php?s=&do=search&q=forum+rules&titleandtext=1&match=all. Highlighted in there it clearly says that you ARE NOT allowed to ...

• Use the forums as a medium to tarnish the reputation or good name of PC Specialist Ltd, we value all feedback positive and negative and have support channels for this. Unconstructive negativism about the services of PC Specialist Ltd will be deleted without hesitation.

Clearly you seem to have a valid complaint if you're on your 4th RMA but you should be aware that these fora are not an official support channel, I would respectfully suggest that you contact PCS directly to discuss the issues you have raised in this thread. That's the only way you are going to get authoritative answers to some of the issues you have addressed here.

 

[Tony1044]

that was one injection of humour, in an otherwise mundane and factual list.

Came across as a childish rant. Add in the "I build computers" and it added a touch of "and I am better than them at it"

Cares given now....zero. Take it up with PCS. Let's see how helpful they are when you "joke" to them that they failed their exams at McDonalds.

 

[chrhil]

284 days ago the laptop arrived with a defective screen and also the central screw was missing from the main component base cover. When I got the laptop back from the first RMA the screen was still not perfect. PCS sent out some packing foam for me to put behind the screen bezel to prevent the 'nipping' - this avoided a 2nd RMA.

The laptop also orginally arrived with an outdated Clevo BIOS (1.05.05) when 1.05.06 had already been released by Clevo. Whilst the laptop was back for the screen swap, someone at PCS rolled back the BIOS to 1.05.01, instead of updating to 1.05.06.
We eventually got to BIOS 1.05.09, which I installed and the thermal issues were still present. The lastest (and probably last) BIOS update from Clevo was released in September and as of the beginning of January this still had not been made available through my PCS account panel.

The 2nd RMA is 'in progress'. PCS has now installed BIOS 1.05.11. Thermal Paste has been reapplied and the unit is being tested. Recently the laptop had frequently shut down during overnight rendering runs and I am concerned this may have damaged the CPU. For some reason or another the XTU forced undervolt was not persistent on my Octane II.

 

[ubuysa]

284 days ago the laptop arrived with a defective screen and also the central screw was missing from the main component base cover. When I got the laptop back from the first RMA the screen was still not perfect. PCS sent out some packing foam for me to put behind the screen bezel to prevent the 'nipping' - this avoided a 2nd RMA.

The laptop also orginally arrived with an outdated Clevo BIOS (1.05.05) when 1.05.06 had already been released by Clevo. Whilst the laptop was back for the screen swap, someone at PCS rolled back the BIOS to 1.05.01, instead of updating to 1.05.06.
We eventually got to BIOS 1.05.09, which I installed and the thermal issues were still present. The lastest (and probably last) BIOS update from Clevo was released in September and as of the beginning of January this still had not been made available through my PCS account panel.

The 2nd RMA is 'in progress'. PCS has now installed BIOS 1.05.11. Thermal Paste has been reapplied and the unit is being tested. Recently the laptop had frequently shut down during overnight rendering runs and I am concerned this may have damaged the CPU. For some reason or another the XTU forced undervolt was not persistent on my Octane II.

Do you have an information source for the changes in those various BIOS releases, it would be interesting to know? I'm assuming, since you're making a bug fuss about the BIOS versions, that you know exactly what the differences are?

Again out of interest, how did you know that PCS 'failed on the thermal paste application or just didn't adequately stress test or both'?

I really don't know what you expect the forum members to do for you, the laptop is apparently with PCS for a second time which is very unfortunate, but nobody on here can do any more for you than PCS have done and are still doing. These fora are not an official support channel and most of the members are PCS customers and enthusiasts, PCS staff rarely visit here.

 

[Oussebon]

Again out of interest, how did you know that PCS 'failed on the thermal paste application or just didn't adequately stress test or both'?

I assume because of the horrendous thermal throttling on the CPU in the AIDA graphs. Obviously something could have happened after PCS checked it to cause those issues - that said the OP may have checked for obvious things such as damage or things coming loose in transit.

It's possible the BIOS updates included adjustments to the laptop's cooling profile that would have helped address the thermal issues, though with a quick google I didn't find the release notes which might have been interesting so I'm none the wiser there.