PCS order in testing - whats involved? also will it be ready to use "out of the box"

[skylineboy2002]

i;ve placed order, including some very helpful info from here. and the PCS guys on email. getting my spec right.
its in testing and showing on my account dashboard who built it and whos tested it (very cool, kinda like a bespoke nissan GTR or aston engine build or something ha).
just wondering, what do they do when "testing" - from memory of an old old order years ago, they stress test it? but how exactly. it'd be interesting to know what my system has been through.
also i've ordered win11 Home as part of the build. will this be useable out of the box? or is a fresh install best? i read some conflicting stuff as to best practices and some seemed to suggest the windows it comes with is only a testing build not the build / version to use etc.
thanks guys, and gals.

 

[SpyderTracks]

This takes you through the full process

When you receive it, windows will be in the OOBE (out of box experience) so you have to configure your account, region and language settings. But other than that it comes fully ready with drivers installed, unless you've ordered without windows in which case you'll need to configure it yourself.

 

[Rakk]

also i've ordered win11 Home as part of the build. will this be useable out of the box? or is a fresh install best? i read some conflicting stuff as to best practices and some seemed to suggest the windows it comes with is only a testing build not the build / version to use etc.

If you order it with Windows it will have a full build on there, you will have to go through the OOBE (out of the box experience) thingy where you set your language and preferences when you boot it up for the first time.
And after that you will want to run Windows Updates (multiple times) as PCS's version is probably not completely uptodate.

If you order it without Windows then it may well be an incomplete/trial/test version of Windows which may be what you've read elsewhere, but since youve ordered with Windows you will have a full version of Windows

 

[skylineboy2002]

thats great thanks guys.
yea i understand the windows updates
do i just let windows handle most of the drievrs etc, or go to manufacturers for graphics etc and go from there?
also what about stuff like firmware for drives or bios? or just leave as is?

 

[Steveyg]

thats great thanks guys.
yea i understand the windows updates
do i just let windows handle most of the drievrs etc, or go to manufacturers for graphics etc and go from there?
also what about stuff like firmware for drives or bios? or just leave as is?

Graphics drivers you'll get from either Nvidia directly or AMD directly depending on which GPU you went with

As for the firmware/BIOS related stuff. I go with a don't touch it unless I encounter an issue that I think it can help with, which pretty much never happens

 

[SpyderTracks]

thats great thanks guys.
yea i understand the windows updates
do i just let windows handle most of the drievrs etc, or go to manufacturers for graphics etc and go from there?
also what about stuff like firmware for drives or bios? or just leave as is?

If you've ordered with windows all drivers will be installed.

 

[skylineboy2002]

Just from experience of my previous system: Check the graphics card driver as it may not be the absolute latest (not saying it won't be, just it might not be)...I bought my system in January, it had a November driver when there had been a December update. It still worked fine and all, just wasn't the most recent driver.

thanks, yea graphics being the main one alongside win11 updates. all personal stuff is ready to go.
are there any general windows settings to change or optimise? (although i know this is mainly personal preference stuff)
it'll be my first time using win11.