PC Specialist I want your babies

So after my well documented Kobalt saga, I ordered a machine from PCS. And wow, what a machine this is.

Positives - Customer Service is great, staff on the phone are knowledgeable and friendly.
Prices are great value for money.
This thing is like a tank, I ordered the Vortex II (P170HM I think) and it's huge - only just fits in my bag! Strangely though it's much lighter than you think it would be given it's size.
It's fast, it's quiet, and it plays Crysis on Very High (well, on the levels I've played so far)

Negatives - I did have to chase a little for updates as my chassis was out of stock which isn't something that showed up on the website. But the website does a generally good job of keeping you up to date.

I was so impressed that I ordered the wife a laptop for work, and they delivered it in four working days. Next time I buy a PC I know where I'm going. Unless of course I want months of hassle and no machine, in which case I'll give Kobalt a cal. Oh wait, can't call Kobalt - phone lines still down after ten months, and with any luck they'll be bankrupt by the time I decide to upgrade.

Once again, PCS - superb!

 

Ordered below spec at 07-Oct-2011 @ 17:58:00 from PC Specialist. I'll let people know progess. My current laptop (W860M) was from Kobalt. and to be fair it was delivered within 3 weeks, and has been very good. The one technical issue (Optical drive failure) was sorted out very promptly However I can't take the risk going with them again. Their slowness in refunding would indicate cash flow problems, and it is a lot of money to lose if they go under.

Chassis & Display
Vortex II: 15.6" Matte 95% Gamut LED Widescreen (1920x1080) (£79)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2760QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
2.0GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 580M - DirectX® 11 (15.6" Vortex II)
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 510 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 450MB/sR | 210MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)

 

gonna post here rather than make a new thread.

Compared to my experience with kobalt, pcspecialist was very good. They had the laptop (P170) built within a few days. Unfortunately the matte screens they had (AUO B173HW01 V.5) were bad and didn't pass testing and they've had no eta on when auo would send them new ones. I waited for about 3 weeks to see if it would change, but it wasn't happening so I called them and had it changed back to a the auo v.0 glossy, which shipped two days after that, and they even upgraded my delivery to pre-10am free of charge because of the wait.

The laptop works fine, I was concerned a little about the temps (6990m) which were around 65 idle even with the AS5 paste option, but they've dropped down to 55C now, which I guess is down to the apparent 'curing' time of thermal pastes I've heard of. Quite happy with it, pcspecialist also now have a 'spare parts' section for purchased orders, and if they put any spare matte screens they get in the future there I may consider changing the screen if the gloss bothers me (not much at the moment, but I haven't had time to use it for gaming/long periods)

Specs:
17.3" glossy AUO B173HW01 V.0
2760qm
8gb ram
6990m
500gb 7200rpm hd

 

I noticed they'd actually updated their new order page to reflect that the matte screens are presently unavailable with no ETA when I was pricing up a laptop yesterday. Nice to see the honesty really!

 

Hey guys - would you recommend pcspecialist? - im in the same sort of situation with threads - but just wondering if it is worth buying from pcspecialist - is there good customer support and pricings?- Ive checked and it doesn't seem bad - especially with a gtx560 for £1040 inc lots of others

But would you guys buy a product like this from pcspecialist without any worries? - or is it better to look elsewhere?

 

Hey guys - would you recommend pcspecialist? - im in the same sort of

Google them you won't find much criticism - they have a good reputation, they never advertise things until they have them in stock and they are easy to contact.... And they sell Clevos what more?

 

Thanks =) - im just a bit weary because its the most costly thing ill probably ever have bought for me, although - the website doesn't look as well designed as overclockers.co.uk - for example - although I wouldn't mind getting that laptop - but have you ever had any problems with their products - if so did they solve it quickly or be slouchy like other companies? - in your opinion? =)

Edit: Okay maybe I just found a website with 6k reviews that review it overall as: 9/10 with verified buyers and accounts =D - woot - i might just get this at christmas

Another edit: Is it worth paying £1k for the Vortex II 15.6"?

Thanks again =)

 

Yes I recommend PC Specialist, but as with all things research what you want/need carefully so you know you're happy with your order. As for is it worth paying £1k for the Vortex II 15.6" - that's a subjective question, had PCS offered dual GPU systems I would have happily dropped £3k+ on one like I tried with Kobalt (may they burn in hell) but many people would think me mad for doing so.

Lastly - make sure you buy the PC with a credit card (even if you pay it off) that way if things go wrong you have all the protection of Section 75 to back you up. With any large purchase it's the only way to go.

 

Well, first I agree with everything Powernerd says specially the CREDIT CARD.. (you have to understand we are Kobalt sufferers.....)

I personally never used PC Specialist although I had my eye on them from the day I registered with this forum.... I went with Kobalt because PC Specialist didn't make a song and dance about Sandy Bridge. In retrospect that was really good of PCS they said nothing until they had working computers in their place. Kobalt were taking money for SB computers upfront before they had them..... So learn from my mistakes I reckon....

Having said that the Vortex is I think more or less the same as my G150 - it is based on the Clevo P150HM and what can I say..... it is an corker if you will excuse my language I got mine with the i7 2860 + 8 gigs and I video edit - I'm not a gamer... it is very sweet.. PCS do ok deals too

There is also a good review of PCS in this forum a page or two back... pls understand I only spoke and emailed with them but observation and experience tells me it was dumb of me not to buy with them.

Hope it helps...

 

They responded promptly to a query I had about buying on credit (I'm another that's lost a large sum on money on debit due to Kobalt) and .. I'm not sure if there's actually any other UK Clevo resellers left? In all honesty I'm trying to get my financial situation sorted so I can order promptly before all the other Kobalt-abused folk start ordering from them; they're probably going to get a backlog soon!

 

I can also vouch for pcspecialist one of the best ordering experiences in a long while. After kobalt told me lead times where 1 month and iIsaw the negative reviews I went with pcspecialist and do not regret it.

Processed Date 02-09-2011
Pre-Production Date 06-09-2011
Build Date 07-09-2011
Test Date 08-09-2011
Awaiting Dispatch Date 08-09-2011
Dispatch Date 08-09-2011

and I received my working laptop on the 9th.

 

Thank you everyone for replying =) - I will think about buying from them still - But Its just where I think obviously If you buy from one of these sites you need to be protected incase things go sour - which will be payed by credit card with records stored =) - also though - if you guys seem to think its a reasonable website - sure id buy from them - thanks all ^.^ - but still though, do you think its worth dropping £1000-£1100 - for a I7-2670qm/8gb samsung 1333mhz ddr3/1.5gb ddr5 gtx560/320gb scorpio WD gb hard drive ??

It would mainly be for gaming / like crysis 2 - i know the gtx560 gives nice performance at crysis 2 - better than what a GT card would do - but ehh / for the guys who responded to my question, what do you think of that system for the price? - including windows 7 + Disc (reinstallation cd)

 

spend a bit more and get the 6690m and minus the windows 7 disc haha

 

ahh yeah but the thing is - in reviews - the GTX560 performs BETTER than the hd6990 - search it up (Non Ti gtx 560 vs hd6990 ) =/ - but ahh well i love nvidia - but well - if i like it i might change the hard drive when i get it though for an SSD - dont wanna spend more and get less storage space because i will need a internal drive for space

oh how i love my games ^.^

 

Your confusing the mobile card with the desktop versions. The 6990m is better than the gtx560m by miles. I am assuming your getting a notebook and not a desktop.

 

^ Yes I'm getting a notebook =) - But when I compared the mobile cards as above I was showed that the GTX560m outperforms the HD6990m, Maybe it was me getting confused or the results were wrong, But I agree with you, Well to be honest, In short it wouldn't matter which card I got - I guess the more you pay the better card you get, But to be honest, If the GTX560 can play crysis / crysis 2 on almost max settings, which it can on reasonable fps then I'm pretty happy =) - but yeah. I dunno =/

 

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

AMD Radeon HD 6990M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

The 6990 shows between 16-19% increase =/ - yeah I guess thats true, but my budget is around about what this laptop would cost and only be able to get the GTX560 - I know it isnt the best, but its very good compared to my HD4850 - which to be fair has lasted a really long time - glad i got it from that pc mag ^.^ hey though, I guess I could get the hd6990 - but It would stretch it almost beyond what I can get - but the GTX560 can play games I want to on reasonable settings no? - (like crysis 1 - High (maybe very high - with shadows/shaders medium/high)) - Or crysis 2 on high, Stalker, AVP 3, BF3 (when released) etc,etc =)

Although I've read some reviews on this website: Pcspecialist reviews | Customer reviews of Pcspecialist

and you can't really go wrong can you?

moreover to the cards, Yeah I guess - but If I ever decide to upgrade my Desktop PC - Then I'll think about getting one in the future - also as prices go down too, Although at the moment, the GTX560m would suit my needs wouldn't it?

Edit: I see the gameplay benchmarks - for crysis 2:

Crysis 2
high:
58.2 59.4 60.9 ~ 60 fps
ultra:
19.4 20.1 20.9 ~ 20 fps

High is 2nd, 60fps is really good (what the eye can see, the max our eyes can see) - so im happy with that- although ultra not really - although as said this isn't a GTX590 so I can't complain, all i'd like is a nice system,

 

Hey guys im just a bit confused on the protection you get using a credit card and protection using debit card. Is it more difficult to actually get a refund(less protection) if using a debit card. Thanks in advance

 

@magnus_d
Use a credit card if possible
Debt cards are similar to using cash

 

I've gone with pcspecialist since reading this thread, they can't fail any more than Kobalt did I guess ;-)

 

Debit cards offer less protection but I wouldn't say they are similar to using cash because I have been refunded by the Bank when I had any problems. Of course, a Credit card has a lot more protection and the Bank are more protective because it is their money!