Haywire23z
Active member
Customer opinion of PCSpecialist
I ordered a high-end gaming PC from PCSpecialist (pictured below) about a month ago. I've had it for a few days now and can give a fair review of the product and service which I hope will help any prospective buyers! I usually build my own computers, but as I was going into surgery, I decided to have one custom built professionally. PLUS they did a far better job than I could have done!
Case: FRACTAL MESHIFY S2 BLACKOUT TEMPERED GLASS
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT
MOBO: ASUS® CROSSHAIR VIII HERO
RAM: 32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz
GPU: Gigabyte 2070 Super (temp card until 3080ti releases, not from PCS)
HDD: 2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
M.2 SSD: 1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
PSU: CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
CPU Cooling: Corsair H115i RGB PLATINUM Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
LED Lighting: 2x 50cm RGB LED Strip
Extra Case Fans: 5x Corsair LL120 RGB LED Fan + Controller Kit
No operating System (Installed myself)
Monitor: 27" 1440p 144hz (Not from PCS)
VR: Valve Index
Product review
This system was intended as an upgrade from my old 980ti/i7-4790k buid. My old build still performed very well (no problems at 1080p), but I was beginning to see it struggle at 1440p modern games and especially with intense VR gaming. The 2070 super is a temporary GPU until the 3080ti releases. I know that planning to upgrade your PC so soon after you buy it isn't a good sign, but this is an exceptional case!
Unfortunately my cheap phone doesn't do it justice, but the build looks stunning. The expertise of the chap who built this was very apparent and the cable management was superb. I have had no issues at all with the hardware, which would usually be obvious in the first few days, and it does its job spectacularly well. Temperatures are excellent, with the CPU reaching a max of 60 degrees under full load and the GPU rarely going above 70. Achieving similar results will depend on the specification you select, as PCS will only build what you tell them to, but the forums seem like a very good place to get advice on an optimal build. Handles VR phenominally well.
Service Review
I didn't have the best experience with PCS the first time round - a few months prior to buying this PC I had purchased a laptop for work from them. However, there was a problem with the laptop and it had to go back for repair. Rather than emailing each customer directly, PCS copied every affected customer into the same email. This meant that my inbox was spammed with customers replying, and more importantly was a breach of GDPR. The representative who made this error was very apologetic and it was only human error, so I decided to use them again because the reviews were still very good. Other than the first incident, all other dealings I had with PCS were very helpful and professional. No complaints regarding the service at all.
Complaints
Purchasing from PCSpecialist is, for the most part, a transparent process. You know exactly what product you're getting and can easily check the specs/reviews of each component. HOWEVER. Arguably the most important component in your build (if it's a gaming rig), the graphics card, is left a mystery. I was considering buying my GPU from PCS, but when I enquired as to the exact make of the card I would be getting, I was disappointed to find that it was very poor quality. I believe it should be clear exactly what graphics card you are buying on the purchase menu. There is a significant difference between a high-end GPU and a poorly made one, even if they are both based on the same reference card. A cheap 2080ti is likely to be louder, slower, less efficient and hotter than a higher-end 2080ti. Of course this isn't always true, and budget cards are often very good (especially Zotac cards), but I do think customers should be made aware that they're buying a budget version of the card.
TL;DR
Excellent build quality and decent service save for a few cockups. I will be recommending PCS to folk who want a new build but don't want to build their own! But do consider building your own, it's surprisingly straight forward and saves you that cursed 1 month waiting time... If you do decide that's too much hassle then PCS is a great alternative.
I ordered a high-end gaming PC from PCSpecialist (pictured below) about a month ago. I've had it for a few days now and can give a fair review of the product and service which I hope will help any prospective buyers! I usually build my own computers, but as I was going into surgery, I decided to have one custom built professionally. PLUS they did a far better job than I could have done!
Case: FRACTAL MESHIFY S2 BLACKOUT TEMPERED GLASS
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT
MOBO: ASUS® CROSSHAIR VIII HERO
RAM: 32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz
GPU: Gigabyte 2070 Super (temp card until 3080ti releases, not from PCS)
HDD: 2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
M.2 SSD: 1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
PSU: CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
CPU Cooling: Corsair H115i RGB PLATINUM Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
LED Lighting: 2x 50cm RGB LED Strip
Extra Case Fans: 5x Corsair LL120 RGB LED Fan + Controller Kit
No operating System (Installed myself)
Monitor: 27" 1440p 144hz (Not from PCS)
VR: Valve Index
Product review
This system was intended as an upgrade from my old 980ti/i7-4790k buid. My old build still performed very well (no problems at 1080p), but I was beginning to see it struggle at 1440p modern games and especially with intense VR gaming. The 2070 super is a temporary GPU until the 3080ti releases. I know that planning to upgrade your PC so soon after you buy it isn't a good sign, but this is an exceptional case!
Unfortunately my cheap phone doesn't do it justice, but the build looks stunning. The expertise of the chap who built this was very apparent and the cable management was superb. I have had no issues at all with the hardware, which would usually be obvious in the first few days, and it does its job spectacularly well. Temperatures are excellent, with the CPU reaching a max of 60 degrees under full load and the GPU rarely going above 70. Achieving similar results will depend on the specification you select, as PCS will only build what you tell them to, but the forums seem like a very good place to get advice on an optimal build. Handles VR phenominally well.
Service Review
I didn't have the best experience with PCS the first time round - a few months prior to buying this PC I had purchased a laptop for work from them. However, there was a problem with the laptop and it had to go back for repair. Rather than emailing each customer directly, PCS copied every affected customer into the same email. This meant that my inbox was spammed with customers replying, and more importantly was a breach of GDPR. The representative who made this error was very apologetic and it was only human error, so I decided to use them again because the reviews were still very good. Other than the first incident, all other dealings I had with PCS were very helpful and professional. No complaints regarding the service at all.
Complaints
Purchasing from PCSpecialist is, for the most part, a transparent process. You know exactly what product you're getting and can easily check the specs/reviews of each component. HOWEVER. Arguably the most important component in your build (if it's a gaming rig), the graphics card, is left a mystery. I was considering buying my GPU from PCS, but when I enquired as to the exact make of the card I would be getting, I was disappointed to find that it was very poor quality. I believe it should be clear exactly what graphics card you are buying on the purchase menu. There is a significant difference between a high-end GPU and a poorly made one, even if they are both based on the same reference card. A cheap 2080ti is likely to be louder, slower, less efficient and hotter than a higher-end 2080ti. Of course this isn't always true, and budget cards are often very good (especially Zotac cards), but I do think customers should be made aware that they're buying a budget version of the card.
TL;DR
Excellent build quality and decent service save for a few cockups. I will be recommending PCS to folk who want a new build but don't want to build their own! But do consider building your own, it's surprisingly straight forward and saves you that cursed 1 month waiting time... If you do decide that's too much hassle then PCS is a great alternative.
