Unforgiven
Member
Like a lot of people I've only ever had shop bought standard spec laptops, however I decided this time would be different so searched for a more custom feel. After a lengthy search and comparison of whatever custom laptop sites i could find i settled on a few, i then "built" pretty similar laptops on each and found that PCS was by the far best (couldn't find anywhere that gave specs like my new beast for a similar price). I also found the information on the site about each part useful but I did use other sites to compare performance of individual parts before deciding on my final choice.
Then came the few months of changing my mind over and over again as to what i wanted exactly, this was helped by a fair bit of researching the parts available. In the end i finally decided on what i wanted and set in motion the order which contained:
Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3610QM (2.30GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
AMD® Radeon® HD 7970M - 2GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
750GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
750GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BD-5750H 6x BLURAY WRITER & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE (£79)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1102 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11N NETWORK CARD
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Firewire
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 220W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Laptop Cooling Stands
Zalman ZM-NC3000S Ultimate Cooler, 220mm fan, upto 17.3inch (£35)
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
PCS EXTRA-CARE DIAMOND DELIVERY - MON-FRI, PRE-NOON (£9)
Build Time
FAST TRACK 3 WORKING DAY DISPATCH (£59)
Quantity
1
Price: £1,746.00 including VAT and delivery.
With this i opted for fast track delivery but wasn't expecting how quick it would be. As most I was constantly checking the status of my build from the word go even though i know it should be 3 days later that it shipped. However after ordering on the Monday evening i was pleasantly surprised when by Tuesday evening my order had been built tested and shipped and arrived on the Wednesday. This definitely added brownie points for PCS onto the reasons why i would continue using them (I've never been impressed that much by delivery times).
Upon looking at the main packaging there were a few dents and holes from the delivery process but nothing that overly concerned me as other people have had. The laptop and cooling stand inside were well protected in their individual boxes inside surrounded by packaging so the individual boxes themselves having no marks or dents. (I was however quite surprised at the size of the box)
Now onto the important stuff.
First impression/ Looks
Some people may want a fancy looking machine but that can come at a price of what it can actually do. My first gaze on this showed it to be a simple yet quite sexy looking beast. It may be plain but the metal finish on top and the wrist rest parts look stunning (although i have now covered the top part with a skin just to add my own style to it but the original looks good as well). The metal finish on the wrist rest part also gives a nice cool feeling when using for occasional typing without your hands constantly heating it up. As another reviewer has said this minimalistic look is also good as at first glance some people wouldn't think its anything more than a standard laptop so therefore could deter thieves wanting abit more. I have actually had people comment "is that it" until i show them what this thing can actually do.
Size wise it is quite chunky but if you want a 17" plus laptop it@ not for sticking in your pocket and carrying everywhere, I occasionally move laptops as i work away from home but its only about once a month. So if you do want to carry yours around a lot think of how you will do it and if you want to have something this size as its got a decent weight to it.
As well as the laptop itself being chunky the AC Adaptor is also the biggest i have ever seen for a laptop being over twice the size of the one i had for my old HP but again anyone getting something this size won't being constantly on the move with it. The other strange thing is cable lengths, as most people have sad it's the opposite from every other laptop I have owned. Normally a short cable to "brick" then long cable to laptop, it's alot easier having it this way but the backwards lengths of cables with this don't cause much hassle for me personally.
Screen
This took me awhile to decide upon. I've always had glossy screens so I'm used to the reflections but debated over a change but after awhile kept with what i knew. Some might prefer Matte but I will say the glossy look fantastic, yes it does have reflections with light from certain angles but as I said I'm used to it so hardly notice it. The colours are amazing and had to turn the brightness down a tad after turning it on as it was so much more vibrant than my previous laptop. As well as colours the resolution mixed with the other bits I had put in this make all the games I've played so far look so good I spent a lot of time just looking at things instead of playing.
One downside however is that after about a week something just didn't look right and I found a nice little dead pixel towards the bottom left of the screen, at the moment I'm seeing if I can live with it as i don't have the chance of returning because I need to use the laptop. Having said that it's only really noticeable up close and with all the movement in videos and games you forget its there until there's a steady colour on that part of the screen.
Then came the few months of changing my mind over and over again as to what i wanted exactly, this was helped by a fair bit of researching the parts available. In the end i finally decided on what i wanted and set in motion the order which contained:
Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3610QM (2.30GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
AMD® Radeon® HD 7970M - 2GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
750GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
750GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BD-5750H 6x BLURAY WRITER & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE (£79)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1102 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11N NETWORK CARD
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Firewire
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 220W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Laptop Cooling Stands
Zalman ZM-NC3000S Ultimate Cooler, 220mm fan, upto 17.3inch (£35)
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
PCS EXTRA-CARE DIAMOND DELIVERY - MON-FRI, PRE-NOON (£9)
Build Time
FAST TRACK 3 WORKING DAY DISPATCH (£59)
Quantity
1
Price: £1,746.00 including VAT and delivery.
With this i opted for fast track delivery but wasn't expecting how quick it would be. As most I was constantly checking the status of my build from the word go even though i know it should be 3 days later that it shipped. However after ordering on the Monday evening i was pleasantly surprised when by Tuesday evening my order had been built tested and shipped and arrived on the Wednesday. This definitely added brownie points for PCS onto the reasons why i would continue using them (I've never been impressed that much by delivery times).
Upon looking at the main packaging there were a few dents and holes from the delivery process but nothing that overly concerned me as other people have had. The laptop and cooling stand inside were well protected in their individual boxes inside surrounded by packaging so the individual boxes themselves having no marks or dents. (I was however quite surprised at the size of the box)
Now onto the important stuff.
First impression/ Looks
Some people may want a fancy looking machine but that can come at a price of what it can actually do. My first gaze on this showed it to be a simple yet quite sexy looking beast. It may be plain but the metal finish on top and the wrist rest parts look stunning (although i have now covered the top part with a skin just to add my own style to it but the original looks good as well). The metal finish on the wrist rest part also gives a nice cool feeling when using for occasional typing without your hands constantly heating it up. As another reviewer has said this minimalistic look is also good as at first glance some people wouldn't think its anything more than a standard laptop so therefore could deter thieves wanting abit more. I have actually had people comment "is that it" until i show them what this thing can actually do.
Size wise it is quite chunky but if you want a 17" plus laptop it@ not for sticking in your pocket and carrying everywhere, I occasionally move laptops as i work away from home but its only about once a month. So if you do want to carry yours around a lot think of how you will do it and if you want to have something this size as its got a decent weight to it.
As well as the laptop itself being chunky the AC Adaptor is also the biggest i have ever seen for a laptop being over twice the size of the one i had for my old HP but again anyone getting something this size won't being constantly on the move with it. The other strange thing is cable lengths, as most people have sad it's the opposite from every other laptop I have owned. Normally a short cable to "brick" then long cable to laptop, it's alot easier having it this way but the backwards lengths of cables with this don't cause much hassle for me personally.
Screen
This took me awhile to decide upon. I've always had glossy screens so I'm used to the reflections but debated over a change but after awhile kept with what i knew. Some might prefer Matte but I will say the glossy look fantastic, yes it does have reflections with light from certain angles but as I said I'm used to it so hardly notice it. The colours are amazing and had to turn the brightness down a tad after turning it on as it was so much more vibrant than my previous laptop. As well as colours the resolution mixed with the other bits I had put in this make all the games I've played so far look so good I spent a lot of time just looking at things instead of playing.
One downside however is that after about a week something just didn't look right and I found a nice little dead pixel towards the bottom left of the screen, at the moment I'm seeing if I can live with it as i don't have the chance of returning because I need to use the laptop. Having said that it's only really noticeable up close and with all the movement in videos and games you forget its there until there's a steady colour on that part of the screen.
