Disappointed alienware customer builds monster vortex iii....

[alebea]

What I believe i have built here, is an official Alienware-killer... and is still about £800 cheaper!!
If any one sees this and thinks of anything they desperately think needs changing, please do let me know.
Btw, I needed the laptop to come to £2000+ in order to claim the VAT back, so cutting back is not an option

Chassis & Display
Vortex Series:17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080) (£79)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3820QM (2.70GHz) 8MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (4 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
AMD® Radeon® HD 7970M - 2GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
240GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
750GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BC-5550H 4x BLURAY COMBO DRIVE & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE (£59)
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 & WIRELESS INTEL® ADVANCED-N 6235 (300Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
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
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)
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
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

 

[1zikki]

You pay that extra £800 because of the name, which is why no-one should ever touch the stuff, how much did this all come to? this will better help to gauge what extras/upgrades we can throw in to help you out, but in all honesty that system is pretty much top notch, nothing you can do performance wise to increase it so it'll literally just be extras you can add on

 

[Rsaeire]

The OP's config comes to £2,108.00 inc VAT so he's already over the amount he wanted.

I'd take off the 1 month's free insurance if you don't intend to insure the laptop after that as the policy kicks in automatically after the 1st month. Other than that, the only recommendations I could make would be personal tweaks, they wouldn't be performance related.

 

[alebea]

The OP's config comes to £2,108.00 inc VAT so he's already over the amount he wanted.

I'd take off the 1 month's free insurance if you don't intend to insure the laptop after that as the policy kicks in automatically after the 1st month. Other than that, the only recommendations I could make would be personal tweaks, they wouldn't be performance related.

Thanks for that Rsaeire! I'd actually wondered that exact thing, and had sent an email regarding the order questioning it. I have now amended the order to not include the free month's laptop insurance, as knowing me I'd forget to cancel it. I really wish PCS would include an accidental warranty like Alienware's though...

The only things I did consider was 2x8GB RAM instead of 4x4GB... but seemed a waste of money for £50+ as I'm not planning to upgrade later. I also downgraded the optical drive from Blu-Ray read/write to read only (£20 cheaper) and put the £70 saved towards upgrading the processor from the i7-3720 2.6GHz to the i7-3820 2.7GHz. Seemed a better use of money?

I did also want to get a 480GB SSD primary disk... but the Intel 520 is ridiculously priced at that size, and the Kingston Hyper-x 3K (although better priced) is built of inferior quality/less durable parts. The 520 is also supposed to have the best drivers etc. So I opted for a 240GB 520 SSD and a 750GB Hybrid drive for the best of both worlds!

Can't wait for it to get here...

 

[Rakk]

I really wish PCS would include an accidental warranty like Alienware's though...

See the thing is that Alienware give you 'free' accidental warranty for a year because they've already added it into the price whether you wanted it or not, whereas with PCS you only pay for it if you actually want it

Nothing is free, even if it claims to be.