ShutterBug365
Bronze Level Poster
So, this is my first review for a desktop from PC Specialist, up until now it has always been laptops that I have purchased from them.
Spec wise:
The computer arrived from PC Specialist as you would expect in the massive brown boxes associated with these things. All looking perfect with no signs of any damage.
On opening the tower unit was well packed inside to prevent anything happening with the welcome box sat on top. This is one of the things that I have to say is great about PC Specialist, had I gone and bought all the parts and built it myself I would be left with manuals, leaflets, offer bits and pieces, cables, screws and all manner of items from the various components. With other manufacturers you do not get any of this stuff but with PCS there it all is – for me this is a massive plus plus point.
First thing on standing the computer you and having a look around shows again no signs of damage and a very smart and substantial case with a massive A4 sheet of paper stuck to the side advising that there is a foam insert inside the case to help support the components in transit.
Removing this was simple and to be honest is a great idea, especially with the size of some of these graphics’ cards and coolers these days.
A quick visual check to see no obvious loose components from transit and a quick check on the graphics card to see what was installed.
First time I have had a Seagate hard drive in years, have been a Western Digital fan for over 10 years. Out of all the drives I have had in the past it has only ever been Seagate that have failed. However WD seem to be hitting the headlines with messing around with their drives more and more so as I needed a 3.5" drive in this machine for ripping DVDs to temporarily and other stuff I thought well its not mission critical let me get one and try it out. Have heard nothing but praise for the NAS drives which is my next project, my home server needs more storage space so I thought before I jump in and buy something large for that I would see what their smaller counterparts were like.
First Boot
First boot and quick test to make sure everything was in place, what was ordered and working ok was passed with flying colours and then it was a restore as I ordered without operating system.
The computer initially was out from under my desk so seemed a little noisier than old but then there is something like 5 fans in the case, then the 3 on the GPU and then one massive one on the CPU. (under the desk the noise is fine, am in a home office so not a problem).
Tests etc
Now for the bits that everyone wants to know the answers to:
Working all day logged into work via RDP, a couple of browsers open, outlook, makeMKV doing its thing the CPU sent me a message saying wake me when you want something doing….. ok – it did not but this thing is powerful and responsive. Click – its there…… Temperature wise doing this it was running at 30 – 35 degrees!
Games wise, sorry folks not a big gamer, but loaded up EuroTruckSim 2 and set everything to Ultra max settings and resolution of full screen (4k) and it was smooth and reporting 60FPS constantly with no drops in game. Same with Civilisation 5.
In terms of FPS this is maxing the screen out as it is a 60fps screen, Viewsonic VP2768-4K. Bought for content creation more than games, I very rarely play games on my PC it is mainly photo editing which I will come onto next.
Photoshop is never a fast program to open but it opens very quick and editing full size RAW photos is a breeze. They also look stunning on the screen (running at 125% scaling). Lightroom again is so very responsive it just opens and responds straightaway.
I do use additional software within these Topaz DeNoise and DXO Nik Collection and the respond instantly and any updates are very quick. Coming from a 11 year old 1st generation i7 they took a while but with this monster it is a couple of seconds.
Overall
Is the machine overkill for what I need, yeah it is at the moment certainly but with each new iteration of Photoshop and Lightroom getting more and more demanding then it will come into its own down the line and am looking forward to working though a serious backlog of photographs that need editing. Like everything just never seem to have the time and Civ5 keeps calling me saying “play me on this screen”.
Am I pleased with it, oh yes most definitely! My old machine is looking very forlorn in the corner having served with only a single PSU failure in 11 years which is great going and since March this year has been on 8 hours a day whilst working from home and has never faltered or anything and would probably still be in use if it was not for Photoshop & Lightroom no longer working with it anymore. That was the final kick to replace it.
Happy to answer any questions if I can.
Spec wise:
- Corsair 275R Airflow Tempered Glass Gaming Case
- AMD Ryzen 5900x
- ASUS Strix X570-F
- 32Gb 3200Mhz RAM
- 8GB Nvidia RTX2070 Super (Gigabyte)
- 1TB Samsung 980 Pro
- 2TB Seagate Barracuda 3.5”
- Nocthua NH-U14S Cooler
The computer arrived from PC Specialist as you would expect in the massive brown boxes associated with these things. All looking perfect with no signs of any damage.
On opening the tower unit was well packed inside to prevent anything happening with the welcome box sat on top. This is one of the things that I have to say is great about PC Specialist, had I gone and bought all the parts and built it myself I would be left with manuals, leaflets, offer bits and pieces, cables, screws and all manner of items from the various components. With other manufacturers you do not get any of this stuff but with PCS there it all is – for me this is a massive plus plus point.
First thing on standing the computer you and having a look around shows again no signs of damage and a very smart and substantial case with a massive A4 sheet of paper stuck to the side advising that there is a foam insert inside the case to help support the components in transit.
Removing this was simple and to be honest is a great idea, especially with the size of some of these graphics’ cards and coolers these days.
A quick visual check to see no obvious loose components from transit and a quick check on the graphics card to see what was installed.
First time I have had a Seagate hard drive in years, have been a Western Digital fan for over 10 years. Out of all the drives I have had in the past it has only ever been Seagate that have failed. However WD seem to be hitting the headlines with messing around with their drives more and more so as I needed a 3.5" drive in this machine for ripping DVDs to temporarily and other stuff I thought well its not mission critical let me get one and try it out. Have heard nothing but praise for the NAS drives which is my next project, my home server needs more storage space so I thought before I jump in and buy something large for that I would see what their smaller counterparts were like.
First Boot
First boot and quick test to make sure everything was in place, what was ordered and working ok was passed with flying colours and then it was a restore as I ordered without operating system.
The computer initially was out from under my desk so seemed a little noisier than old but then there is something like 5 fans in the case, then the 3 on the GPU and then one massive one on the CPU. (under the desk the noise is fine, am in a home office so not a problem).
Tests etc
Now for the bits that everyone wants to know the answers to:
Working all day logged into work via RDP, a couple of browsers open, outlook, makeMKV doing its thing the CPU sent me a message saying wake me when you want something doing….. ok – it did not but this thing is powerful and responsive. Click – its there…… Temperature wise doing this it was running at 30 – 35 degrees!
Games wise, sorry folks not a big gamer, but loaded up EuroTruckSim 2 and set everything to Ultra max settings and resolution of full screen (4k) and it was smooth and reporting 60FPS constantly with no drops in game. Same with Civilisation 5.
In terms of FPS this is maxing the screen out as it is a 60fps screen, Viewsonic VP2768-4K. Bought for content creation more than games, I very rarely play games on my PC it is mainly photo editing which I will come onto next.
Photoshop is never a fast program to open but it opens very quick and editing full size RAW photos is a breeze. They also look stunning on the screen (running at 125% scaling). Lightroom again is so very responsive it just opens and responds straightaway.
I do use additional software within these Topaz DeNoise and DXO Nik Collection and the respond instantly and any updates are very quick. Coming from a 11 year old 1st generation i7 they took a while but with this monster it is a couple of seconds.
Overall
Is the machine overkill for what I need, yeah it is at the moment certainly but with each new iteration of Photoshop and Lightroom getting more and more demanding then it will come into its own down the line and am looking forward to working though a serious backlog of photographs that need editing. Like everything just never seem to have the time and Civ5 keeps calling me saying “play me on this screen”.
Am I pleased with it, oh yes most definitely! My old machine is looking very forlorn in the corner having served with only a single PSU failure in 11 years which is great going and since March this year has been on 8 hours a day whilst working from home and has never faltered or anything and would probably still be in use if it was not for Photoshop & Lightroom no longer working with it anymore. That was the final kick to replace it.
Happy to answer any questions if I can.
