PC Specialist, can you help?!

[Freeley]

I Googled PC Specialists competitors today and they all have the SM961 in stock, so fingers crossed PCS get them back within 30 days as clearly they still exist. I also saw them being sold as individual components online.

I did the same but I suspect that they don't have any in stock. I rang an online parts suppliers as well this morning as it was showing as in stock with them but when I spoke to them they didn't have any and had no ETA.

 

[rajadd]

It was bang on £100 more - I paid over the phone and it should be going in anytime now!
When I say it's a bit faster I meant over the PM961 512gb.

Enjoy! Given your SDD is quite large at 1TB, are you also getting a backup HDD?

 

[Freeley]

I've got 2 x 1tb hd's in my existing pc so am going to put those in once it comes. Had to try and save money somehow!

 

[ubuysa]

The 1TB PM961 is slower than the 512GB SM961 whilst being ~£125 more expensive.

But how much slower and, much more importantly, would you notice? IMO the OP has made the sensible choice. It's wiser go with that drive now or wait for the SM961 and possibly find either price increases on other components or even find other components out of stock.

 

[Oussebon]

Another way of looking at it is that while half of the 1TB PM961 may be a bit slower than the 512gb SM961 on paper, the other half will be a lot faster than the HDD the stuff would otherwise have had to go on.

At the 1TB level the PM is about £130 cheaper than the SM.

 

[rav007]

Reading this thread just makes me wish more people had the confidence to install their own SSDs, because it means less compromise. I knew I wanted the 256GB SM961 but it was out of stock on the configurator when I went to purchase (it was in stock when I got the quote). I think I purchased on November 23rd, so the dates add up. But if I wasn't confident in installing my own parts, it seems I would have been waiting until February at least before I bought this laptop. I received it at the end of November.

 

[Scott]

Have they been out of stock the whole time? I assumed they simply ran out twice. I didn't have a problem selecting the drives on the config prior to this week (maybe late last week).

 

[Oussebon]

I too found it very surprising to hear they were out of stock since Nov. I recall them being removed from sale briefly during the TokyWoky period due to a bad batch, but then they reappeared on sale.

I did have a quick look for reviews posted on the forums including an SM961 since Nov and didn't see any. :/

 

[Freeley]

It's all a bit smoke and mirrors isn't it? We all thought that the "dodgy" SSD's had been weeded out and they had restocked with extra models, but it turns out out they never had any!
Anyway, no matter, i've had an email to say that mine has been built and is awaiting testing - not bad seeing that today was only the 3rd working day.
I'm sure i'll be delighted with it when it arrives.

 

[rav007]

I know for a fact that the 256GB was on sale around the end of september to beginning of october. Then mid october is disappeared, beginning of november it reappeared and when I ordered my laptop it wasn't an option. So I too would have thought it is in and out, especially because other companies that sell computer hardware seem to have loads in stock. But who knows, maybe Samsung is doing the dirty to PCS. Why would you do this Samsung? Do you have no shame?!

 

[rajadd]

It's all a bit smoke and mirrors isn't it? We all thought that the "dodgy" SSD's had been weeded out and they had restocked with extra models, but it turns out out they never had any!
Anyway, no matter, i've had an email to say that mine has been built and is awaiting testing - not bad seeing that today was only the 3rd working day.
I'm sure i'll be delighted with it when it arrives.

Wait... are you saying that PCS were intentionally showing that had the SM961 and other SSDs in stock when in reality, then never actually had them and instead were replacing those parts with alternatives to their customers? Sorry if I misunderstood.

 

[rajadd]

But how much slower and, much more importantly, would you notice? IMO the OP has made the sensible choice. It's wiser go with that drive now or wait for the SM961 and possibly find either price increases on other components or even find other components out of stock.

Thanks, that's an interesting perspective. So please can I ask, what would you do? Do you feel that the benefits of having the 1TB PM961 outweigh the benefits of having the 512GB SM961 due to the double size increase and relatively negligible speed difference?

 

[Freeley]

Wait... are you saying that PCS were intentionally showing that had the SM961 and other SSDs in stock when in reality, then never actually had them and instead were replacing those parts with alternatives to their customers? Sorry if I misunderstood.

All I'm saying is that they are allowing customers to put the SM series in their configurator builds even though they're out of stock, and in the case of the 512gb and 1tb versions no ETA of when they will be available. It's a bit naughty really, if they're out of stock then they should be greyed out in the configurator.
I'm sure they're not substituting them for anything else though, it just means that you pc is going to be sat on a desk in bits until you either chase them up to see what's happening (which is what I did as I had no contact from them to let me know), or until they come back into stock which is anyone's guess when that will be

 

[ubuysa]

All I'm saying is that they are allowing customers to put the SM series in their configurator builds even though they're out of stock, and in the case of the 512gb and 1tb versions no ETA of when they will be available. It's a bit naughty really, if they're out of stock then they should be greyed out in the configurator.
I'm sure they're not substituting them for anything else though, it just means that you pc is going to be sat on a desk in bits until you either chase them up to see what's happening (which is what I did as I had no contact from them to let me know), or until they come back into stock which is anyone's guess when that will be

I see your point, and I think this has been discussed before. I don't work for PCS and I have no knowledge of how there systems work, but I think there is no connection (yet) between the configurator and stock control. You might argue that there should be but AFAIK there isn't. Thus I don't believe it's possible to grey items out in the configurator when they're out of stock.

I think also that not everybody is in a desperate rush to get their new PC and would be happy to order the components they want even if they're not in stock and they have to wait.

The PC does not sit on a desk in bits either. It's my understanding that they don't even begin the build process until all the components for that build are picked and are to hand.

I'm surprised they didn't email you to tell you those SSDs were out of stock, on both of my PCS built computers I was emailed both times when a component I'd ordered was not in stock. AFAIK this is their normal practice, it would seem something went amiss with your order here. Are you sure the emails from PCS are not in your spam folder?

 

[Oussebon]

Currently (and since last night I think? maybe before that) the configurator has had a stock warning for the SM961 512gb with an ETA as follows:

512GB SAMSUNG SM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3200MB/R, 1700MB/W) (ETA: 16-02-2017)

The other SSDs seem to have no such warning. Though the PM961 512gb did briefly (and presumably accidentally) have the warning for the SM961 512gb applied to it.