Review of my new PC!

[lolliver]

Hi all!

Firstly I'm afraid I was a derp and forgot to take pictures of the unboxing in all of my excitement; however I'll take some photos of the machine in situ later on and post them here.

So!

Communication with PCS: Top notch, always answered my emails within a day and always respond promptly and courteously on the Live Help thing.
Also plenty of emails throughout the build process to tell me what state my PC was in.

Build time: 16 days
Entered QC on Friday afternoon, was dispatched on the Monday and arrived on Tuesday.

Delivery estimate: Tuesday between 13:57 and 14:57
Delivery time: Tuesday at 13:59 (no joke!)

Packaging:

• The PC came in a large square box, with my welcome pack/peripherals inside of it.
• The PC was surrounded by polystyrene-ish stuff, and had a nice plastic coat wrapped around it to keep it clean and dry in transit.
• All of the peripherals/welcome pack were present, and nicely packed in the box so they didn't rattle around too much in transit.
• The PC had a nice expanding foam insert inside of the case to stop anything getting pwned in transit.

First impressions:

• My wireless card didn't work out of the box, for some reason the drivers weren't installed.. After installing the drivers it still didn't work, so I cracked open the case and reseated it in the PCI slot in case that was the issue and that seems to have solved it. I'm reasonably PC savvy though so this didn't bother me too much, and I don't count it as a negative.
• The activation code for Windows isn't written anywhere other than on a sticker on the back of the PC.. This is quite frustrating after I've just spent ages wedging my mahoosive chunk of metal into a tiny gap in my desk, just to drag it back out again to activate windows! But this is mostly my fault for not considering activation earlier so meh.
• I'm experiencing a couple of random issues with fullscreen Flash videos currently.. Every time I open a video in fullscreen the screen is covered in large black and purple squares, which disappear when I press escape and re-open the video in full screen??? =/ But I haven't really researched this too much so again, not really a negative.

Now! The good:

• I can play Battlefield 3 on High at 1680x1050, with absolutely no frame rate issues, and the PC stays quiet and cool throughout.
• Witcher 2 runs on High at the same resolution, with no stuttering etc.
• The PC is always cool, I've not ran a temperature checker or anything but I can run my hands over the holes of the PC and they're always cold, even after an energy-drink-and-Wotsits fueled 4 hour Witcher 2 session! (not my proudest moment I've got to admit.)
• All USB ports etc. work and I've not had any random crashes or restarts yet.
• I bought the Coolermaster Storm Enforcer case and it looks uh-mazin' in my bedroom!

So overall:
PC: 9/10
PC Specialist: 10/10 (I will be using you again, and I've been recommending you to my friends.)
DPD: 10/10 (PC arrived in perfect condition and at the time specified, can't say fairer than that!)

Well impressed, cheers guys!

Ollie

!!!Edit!!! Here's my spec for those who're interested: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?13863-My-new-pooter!

 

[mantadog]

The wireless card issue will have been caused in transit - almost 100% sure of that. Often happens, most often to the GPU's because they weigh more but possible with pretty much any PCI card.

Nice review, i'm sure it will help some people out in deciding to go for PCS!

When you do take pictures, it will give a better impression if you remember to clean up the Wotsit crumbs from the top of the case or am i the only one who uses my case as a makeshift food table?

 

[lolliver]

Thanks!

And yes, I'll do that; along with the assorted USB devices that sit in the little tray on top of the case too =)