PC Specialist Custom PC Review
Received my custom built pc specialist pc on Wednesday this week and I have to say it is the best pc I have ever owned but ironically not the most expensive. The Pc was ordered on the 20th of May 2011 and was ready for collection on the 07-06-11 which was 12 working days (I think) so right on schedule for the 11-13 working days. As we live about 13 miles from PC specialist HQ and this was my birthday my dad decided to surprise me by picking the pc up during his lunch hour. This was handled very well by PCS who despite my dad not knowing the order number but was able to give the payment info and the address info over the phone PCS agreed to release the PC to him. The surprise went well until I check the online tracking at 1:15 to find out it had been changed to ‘Order Collected’ as I was in lessons all afternoon I had to wait till 3:30 to ring PCS to find out who/why they had released the PC. Luckily my dad rang as I dialled the number and I asked him about it and he said he had it ‘wipes brow’. Any way enough about the collection and more about the PC:
The PC Purpose: Video and Photo Editing
The Budget: £650 - £700
The Finished Spec:
Case: PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU): Intel® Core™i5-2400 Quad Core (3.10GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard: ASUS® P8H67-M LX SI (NEW REV 3.0): M-ATX, USB 2.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, 2 x PCI
Memory (RAM): 8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card: 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 440 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk: 1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st Hard Disk Partitions: 80GB, 120GB, 800GB
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive: 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader: INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply: 450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling: SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card: ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities: ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)
USB Options: 4 PORT USB 2.0 EXTERNAL HUB + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software: FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus: BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty: 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery: STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI) (WAS ACCTUALLY PICKED UP)
Build Time: Standard Build - Approximately 11 to 13 working days
Total Cost: £679
The Pc Itself is very well built and the blue LED’s on the side fan do not detract from the pc’s environment. When rendering video the pc can manage YouTube quality HD in about 1.5X the length of the video is: 10min Video takes about 15mins to render. Using power director 9 ultra 64. Having never owned a pc with a graphics card I was unsure of what one would do so I bought a low end 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 440 and am amazed by what it is capable of not doing much gaming myself (Only game I own is Roller Coaster Tycoon 3) and I have to say the difference over my Laptop ( A HP Compaq 6720s) is staggering after using RCT£ on the desktop despite not playing a graphic intense settings I was able to have seem less game play on even the most detailed of parks.
The video below contains over 100 images of the pc and the entire contents of the (oversized) box it came in:
[video=youtube;_yogGv6nWxM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yogGv6nWxM[/video]
The PC arrived in the 11-13 days suggested on the website and was kept informed at every stage. With emails and updates online the pre-production stage was the longest and took 7 working days although credit is due that when I rang the helpline they were able to give me more info than what is online maybe this is a point to improve on the already excellent buying experience. The Production Dates Were:
Processed Date: 21-05-2011
Pre-Production Date: 24-05-2011
Build Date: 03-06-2011
Test Date: 06-06-2011
QC Date: 06-06-2011
Awaiting Dispatch Date: 07-06-2011
Collection Date: 07-06-2011
I am also impressed by the openness of the PCS website with regard to who built the PC this I feel made my mum and dad (who were at the time very nervous about spending the guts of £700 with a company they had never heard of) feel much better about the situation as it give PCS a human face. So my thanks to all the PCS team and especially: Darren Holdsworth, Garnet Heller, Craig Whiteley and Anthony Cunliffe who Built, tested, QC’d and Packed my pc respectively. My thanks also to Mathew Griffin on the telephone support team who answered my call on 2 occasions when ringing up the help line during my build. Sorry to anyone else who answered but I could only remember Mathews name.
One of the main things that impressed me most about PCS though is the forums these have proven to be a wealth of knowledge both before during and after my build so my thanks to: Meds, PhilF, PaulH, Pcdan, xire01, fluffy bunny, Teaz, Fear, LinearHD, F3AR, Gorman, MrShteeeve, DeadeyeDUk and The Underdog.
The PC I am incredibly impressed with the new pc and with the help of those above my dream pc spec was turned into a reality. Below is the Window experience Index for the new machine:
The PC itself boots up to the desktop in 36 seconds which when compared to my HP laptop looks like Usain Bolt vs. a snail my HP out of interest boots up in a little over 2mins so this seems to be like a superfast boot up I know though that some of you will have much faster boot ups.
Overall I would and already have recommended PCS to my friends and family.
PCS Website: 4.8/5 (Add more info to the tracking page please, basically so that preproduction doesn’t seem so long.)
PCS Staff: 5.0/5.0 (Weather or not online and the forums or in person at the collection your service has been faultless.)
The PC: 5.0/5.0 (Cannot Fault in any way exceptional value for money and great performance)
The Only thing I have been asked to add by my dad is:
Would it be possible to have a sign outside even small saying PCspecialist as my dada drove passed you 3 times before having to ask at another unit.
74 photos are avalible on my flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/59496628@N04
Thanks Again
Andrew Seeds (Seedsy)
Received my custom built pc specialist pc on Wednesday this week and I have to say it is the best pc I have ever owned but ironically not the most expensive. The Pc was ordered on the 20th of May 2011 and was ready for collection on the 07-06-11 which was 12 working days (I think) so right on schedule for the 11-13 working days. As we live about 13 miles from PC specialist HQ and this was my birthday my dad decided to surprise me by picking the pc up during his lunch hour. This was handled very well by PCS who despite my dad not knowing the order number but was able to give the payment info and the address info over the phone PCS agreed to release the PC to him. The surprise went well until I check the online tracking at 1:15 to find out it had been changed to ‘Order Collected’ as I was in lessons all afternoon I had to wait till 3:30 to ring PCS to find out who/why they had released the PC. Luckily my dad rang as I dialled the number and I asked him about it and he said he had it ‘wipes brow’. Any way enough about the collection and more about the PC:
The PC Purpose: Video and Photo Editing
The Budget: £650 - £700
The Finished Spec:
Case: PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU): Intel® Core™i5-2400 Quad Core (3.10GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard: ASUS® P8H67-M LX SI (NEW REV 3.0): M-ATX, USB 2.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, 2 x PCI
Memory (RAM): 8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card: 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 440 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk: 1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st Hard Disk Partitions: 80GB, 120GB, 800GB
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive: 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader: INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply: 450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling: SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card: ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities: ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)
USB Options: 4 PORT USB 2.0 EXTERNAL HUB + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software: FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus: BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty: 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery: STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI) (WAS ACCTUALLY PICKED UP)
Build Time: Standard Build - Approximately 11 to 13 working days
Total Cost: £679
The Pc Itself is very well built and the blue LED’s on the side fan do not detract from the pc’s environment. When rendering video the pc can manage YouTube quality HD in about 1.5X the length of the video is: 10min Video takes about 15mins to render. Using power director 9 ultra 64. Having never owned a pc with a graphics card I was unsure of what one would do so I bought a low end 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 440 and am amazed by what it is capable of not doing much gaming myself (Only game I own is Roller Coaster Tycoon 3) and I have to say the difference over my Laptop ( A HP Compaq 6720s) is staggering after using RCT£ on the desktop despite not playing a graphic intense settings I was able to have seem less game play on even the most detailed of parks.
The video below contains over 100 images of the pc and the entire contents of the (oversized) box it came in:
[video=youtube;_yogGv6nWxM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yogGv6nWxM[/video]
The PC arrived in the 11-13 days suggested on the website and was kept informed at every stage. With emails and updates online the pre-production stage was the longest and took 7 working days although credit is due that when I rang the helpline they were able to give me more info than what is online maybe this is a point to improve on the already excellent buying experience. The Production Dates Were:
Processed Date: 21-05-2011
Pre-Production Date: 24-05-2011
Build Date: 03-06-2011
Test Date: 06-06-2011
QC Date: 06-06-2011
Awaiting Dispatch Date: 07-06-2011
Collection Date: 07-06-2011
I am also impressed by the openness of the PCS website with regard to who built the PC this I feel made my mum and dad (who were at the time very nervous about spending the guts of £700 with a company they had never heard of) feel much better about the situation as it give PCS a human face. So my thanks to all the PCS team and especially: Darren Holdsworth, Garnet Heller, Craig Whiteley and Anthony Cunliffe who Built, tested, QC’d and Packed my pc respectively. My thanks also to Mathew Griffin on the telephone support team who answered my call on 2 occasions when ringing up the help line during my build. Sorry to anyone else who answered but I could only remember Mathews name.
One of the main things that impressed me most about PCS though is the forums these have proven to be a wealth of knowledge both before during and after my build so my thanks to: Meds, PhilF, PaulH, Pcdan, xire01, fluffy bunny, Teaz, Fear, LinearHD, F3AR, Gorman, MrShteeeve, DeadeyeDUk and The Underdog.
The PC I am incredibly impressed with the new pc and with the help of those above my dream pc spec was turned into a reality. Below is the Window experience Index for the new machine:
The PC itself boots up to the desktop in 36 seconds which when compared to my HP laptop looks like Usain Bolt vs. a snail my HP out of interest boots up in a little over 2mins so this seems to be like a superfast boot up I know though that some of you will have much faster boot ups.
Overall I would and already have recommended PCS to my friends and family.
PCS Website: 4.8/5 (Add more info to the tracking page please, basically so that preproduction doesn’t seem so long.)
PCS Staff: 5.0/5.0 (Weather or not online and the forums or in person at the collection your service has been faultless.)
The PC: 5.0/5.0 (Cannot Fault in any way exceptional value for money and great performance)
The Only thing I have been asked to add by my dad is:
Would it be possible to have a sign outside even small saying PCspecialist as my dada drove passed you 3 times before having to ask at another unit.
74 photos are avalible on my flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/59496628@N04
Thanks Again
Andrew Seeds (Seedsy)
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