Got my email and text this morning with my delivery slot, 15:55-16:55, its gonna be 1 long day
The spec
Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX***SPECIAL***
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 570 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX850 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£99)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
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
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
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)
Price: £1,109.00 including VAT and delivery.
Pre purchase
For about 3 months september-december I had my heart set on getting a laptop, did a load of research, settled on a final build, even had the budget sorted. Then xmas happened, we overspent, had to get the car through the MOT, and just had my sons second birthday.
I recalculated my budget, and had approx £1100 to spend. Back to the forums I went with questions, proposed builds etc, and as usual the superb PCS community stepped up with sound advise.
I sent a few emails to PCS with a few queries I did have the few days before purchase and got rapid replies assisting me with my last few queries I felt didnt warrent bothering the community with more posts about my spec.
All in all prepurchase is a 10/10. The choice of parts from PCS far exceeds anything on other competitors sites I had seen, and obviously the community is first class, without which I would of either been on the phone alot, buying a spec that just wouldnt of been good, or going elsewhere.
The production
Production Dates
Processed Date 25-01-2012
Build Date 25-01-2012
Test Date 25-01-2012
QC Date 27-01-2012
Awaiting Dispatch Date 27-01-2012
Dispatch Date 27-01-2012
Who Worked on This Order?
Built By Sam Garner
Tested By Garnet Heller
QC'd By Aiden Ramsden
Packed By Anthony Cunliffe
As I 3 day fast tracked my rig was actually built faster than planned, I was going to order some better thermal paste with it, but before I knew it the beast was built and in testing.
Willupdate this with an initial review tonight, and a more indepth one once I have played on it
Well, she has turned up, arrived at 15:50, 5 mins before the alloted time slot so all good.
First impressions were what a massive box, I couldnt get the tape off fast enough to get at my new beast.
Had a very quick scan through the p/work that came with up, but soon disgarded this to get my hands on the hardware.
First job was to open her up, as had to install my drives and wireless card.
Unfortunatly the cooler fan had come loose in transit and was swinging about in the case, easily done though, and with a quick check abut to make sure there was no noticable damage i reattached it, and booted her up.
Much faster boot time than my old PC, currently updating drivers and transferring files from my old HDD which is neatly slotted in the external sata bay on top, very neat feature. Had to change a few things in the bios so i can hot swap this but all good.
The only thing I seem to be missing which I thought I would get is the VGA holder bracket which should of come with the case. I am just about to drop PCS an email asking if I should of got this, as will be handy when I do get another 570 to support the weight, and attach another fan.
Took some pics on me phone, but is a bit dark with shoddy energy saving bulbs so will take some and put them up tomorrow.
All in all very impressed so far.
Windows experience of 5.9 thanks to the cav black HDD, but got 7.5 for processor, 7.6 for RAM and 7.9 for both graphics options, so im happy
Now to go eat, then give this baby a test run.
Well, what can I say, im a very happy man. Have been playing SWTOR for about 4ish hours tonight on max settings, have had a max temp of 71 C on the GPU, and 60 C on the CPU. It is also bloody warm in the room I am in, about 25-28 I would say, so all in all not too bad for stock.
I am however going to invest in a fan controller and a few more fans next month just to drop this bad girl down a bit.
Have uploaded(I think) some crappy low light pics I have taken on me phone, will get some decent ones tomorrow and start a thread in the pics only section to really show off my new beast
The spec
Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX***SPECIAL***
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 570 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX850 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£99)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
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
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
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)
Price: £1,109.00 including VAT and delivery.
Pre purchase
For about 3 months september-december I had my heart set on getting a laptop, did a load of research, settled on a final build, even had the budget sorted. Then xmas happened, we overspent, had to get the car through the MOT, and just had my sons second birthday.
I recalculated my budget, and had approx £1100 to spend. Back to the forums I went with questions, proposed builds etc, and as usual the superb PCS community stepped up with sound advise.
I sent a few emails to PCS with a few queries I did have the few days before purchase and got rapid replies assisting me with my last few queries I felt didnt warrent bothering the community with more posts about my spec.
All in all prepurchase is a 10/10. The choice of parts from PCS far exceeds anything on other competitors sites I had seen, and obviously the community is first class, without which I would of either been on the phone alot, buying a spec that just wouldnt of been good, or going elsewhere.
The production
Production Dates
Processed Date 25-01-2012
Build Date 25-01-2012
Test Date 25-01-2012
QC Date 27-01-2012
Awaiting Dispatch Date 27-01-2012
Dispatch Date 27-01-2012
Who Worked on This Order?
Built By Sam Garner
Tested By Garnet Heller
QC'd By Aiden Ramsden
Packed By Anthony Cunliffe
As I 3 day fast tracked my rig was actually built faster than planned, I was going to order some better thermal paste with it, but before I knew it the beast was built and in testing.
Willupdate this with an initial review tonight, and a more indepth one once I have played on it
Well, she has turned up, arrived at 15:50, 5 mins before the alloted time slot so all good.
First impressions were what a massive box, I couldnt get the tape off fast enough to get at my new beast.
Had a very quick scan through the p/work that came with up, but soon disgarded this to get my hands on the hardware.
First job was to open her up, as had to install my drives and wireless card.
Unfortunatly the cooler fan had come loose in transit and was swinging about in the case, easily done though, and with a quick check abut to make sure there was no noticable damage i reattached it, and booted her up.
Much faster boot time than my old PC, currently updating drivers and transferring files from my old HDD which is neatly slotted in the external sata bay on top, very neat feature. Had to change a few things in the bios so i can hot swap this but all good.
The only thing I seem to be missing which I thought I would get is the VGA holder bracket which should of come with the case. I am just about to drop PCS an email asking if I should of got this, as will be handy when I do get another 570 to support the weight, and attach another fan.
Took some pics on me phone, but is a bit dark with shoddy energy saving bulbs so will take some and put them up tomorrow.
All in all very impressed so far.
Windows experience of 5.9 thanks to the cav black HDD, but got 7.5 for processor, 7.6 for RAM and 7.9 for both graphics options, so im happy
Now to go eat, then give this baby a test run.
Well, what can I say, im a very happy man. Have been playing SWTOR for about 4ish hours tonight on max settings, have had a max temp of 71 C on the GPU, and 60 C on the CPU. It is also bloody warm in the room I am in, about 25-28 I would say, so all in all not too bad for stock.
I am however going to invest in a fan controller and a few more fans next month just to drop this bad girl down a bit.
Have uploaded(I think) some crappy low light pics I have taken on me phone, will get some decent ones tomorrow and start a thread in the pics only section to really show off my new beast
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