mikesaa309
Silver Level Poster
Just want to say thanks to the guys at PC specialist! Took a while for my Octane II to get out of pre-production and into building but was quickly dispatched a couple of days after and received it today and couldn't be happier. Had to do the usual driver installs but now they're all installed it works perfectly only issue is the UI is small even though I'm on max resolution but should be able to get used to it. can't fault the Octane II so far waiting for games to install so I can see what it can do but played minecraft on max settings including render distance and got 60+ fps although started to lag at first as was only allocating 1gb of ram to it so I just increased the ram allocation and now it runs flawlessly.
The screen on the Octane is pretty good a lot of contrast and though it's quite darkish at first it can get quite bright when adjusted in Nvidia control panel. The Onkyo speakers with Sound Blaster X-Fi 5 are amazing never knew laptops can put out decent surround sound until now, playing minecraft I could actually tell where mobs were just by the surround sound. Would be even better on the 17 inch model with the sub-woofer built in sadly was over my budget though.
Fan noise is very quite, haven't had chance to push the gtx 970m or the i5 6600k cpu yet but I turned the fans on max using the keyboard toggle and while it's noisy It wasn't distracting and would probably be drowned out if playing games especially with headphone on. Keyboard feels good to type on, decent amount of travel and the back lighting is cool too. Looks a lot better in person than it does from pictures I've seen online, wasn't overly keen on the look especially as the hp pavilion I have is quite slim and sleek looking but honestly the Octane II looks really nice despite being thick. Track pad is also really good no issues with it at all in fact I've had no issues whatsoever once I got the drivers installed.
Only cons about it is that it is heavy but don't notice the weight whilst it's on your lap or on desk (obviously) and the cable that comes from the power pack to the laptop is quite short compared to my pavilion laptop and it's weird having it plug into the back of the laptop rather than the side but getting used to it quite quickly. Apart from that I can't think of any other cons with the Octane II. I also like how it has keyboard shortcuts for everything like changing fan mode from auto to max or toggling the different sections of keyboard lights on and off. Was worth the wait in the end.
I have noticed quite a few people complaining on poor customer service from PC specialist, myself included after waiting about 2 weeks for it to go into building, but honestly it wasn't that bad once you understand the process of it and that people who have paid extra for the fast track service will have stock used for there laptops and pc's before those who haven't paid extra so if you're in a hurry to get your pc then might as well pay extra for fast track, either way it's worth the wait. Once it got into building then it went quickly and was emailed every time there was a status update and was even emailed after it was dispatched to say between what times it would arrive at my house. DPD were also pretty quick on delivering it too. In terms of support, the staff at pc specialist answered all emails I sent them within 2 days which is what is stated and got through to someone on the phone pretty quickly too who was very helpful and gave me the information I wanted to know. People here on the forums are excellent too I've read quite a few posts of people complaining and people just asking general questions and not once have I seen any name calling or whatever at all unlike a motorcycle forum I used to go on they'd all be calling people names and being immature but this forum and the users on it are great and are very helpful.
Would defiantly use PC specialist again.
The screen on the Octane is pretty good a lot of contrast and though it's quite darkish at first it can get quite bright when adjusted in Nvidia control panel. The Onkyo speakers with Sound Blaster X-Fi 5 are amazing never knew laptops can put out decent surround sound until now, playing minecraft I could actually tell where mobs were just by the surround sound. Would be even better on the 17 inch model with the sub-woofer built in sadly was over my budget though.
Fan noise is very quite, haven't had chance to push the gtx 970m or the i5 6600k cpu yet but I turned the fans on max using the keyboard toggle and while it's noisy It wasn't distracting and would probably be drowned out if playing games especially with headphone on. Keyboard feels good to type on, decent amount of travel and the back lighting is cool too. Looks a lot better in person than it does from pictures I've seen online, wasn't overly keen on the look especially as the hp pavilion I have is quite slim and sleek looking but honestly the Octane II looks really nice despite being thick. Track pad is also really good no issues with it at all in fact I've had no issues whatsoever once I got the drivers installed.
Only cons about it is that it is heavy but don't notice the weight whilst it's on your lap or on desk (obviously) and the cable that comes from the power pack to the laptop is quite short compared to my pavilion laptop and it's weird having it plug into the back of the laptop rather than the side but getting used to it quite quickly. Apart from that I can't think of any other cons with the Octane II. I also like how it has keyboard shortcuts for everything like changing fan mode from auto to max or toggling the different sections of keyboard lights on and off. Was worth the wait in the end.
I have noticed quite a few people complaining on poor customer service from PC specialist, myself included after waiting about 2 weeks for it to go into building, but honestly it wasn't that bad once you understand the process of it and that people who have paid extra for the fast track service will have stock used for there laptops and pc's before those who haven't paid extra so if you're in a hurry to get your pc then might as well pay extra for fast track, either way it's worth the wait. Once it got into building then it went quickly and was emailed every time there was a status update and was even emailed after it was dispatched to say between what times it would arrive at my house. DPD were also pretty quick on delivering it too. In terms of support, the staff at pc specialist answered all emails I sent them within 2 days which is what is stated and got through to someone on the phone pretty quickly too who was very helpful and gave me the information I wanted to know. People here on the forums are excellent too I've read quite a few posts of people complaining and people just asking general questions and not once have I seen any name calling or whatever at all unlike a motorcycle forum I used to go on they'd all be calling people names and being immature but this forum and the users on it are great and are very helpful.
Would defiantly use PC specialist again.
