Indirectly I have made four purchases now with PCS, my original order in 2011 with my current machine which has been running without a issue since purchase. The only things I have added to the system was change out the GTX580 to a 970, and added a new SSD and moved the old one to a dedicated game drive.
The second purchase was indirectly, my Girlfriend wanted a new laptop so I specced one up a couple years ago and she made the purchase on her own account. Again no issues at all and has been working perfectly since.
The third purchase was for my Girlfriends dad, I purchased it through my account last year and was another laptop. Again nice and smooth and no issues since.
Ordering
Now to my most recent purchase, I will post the spec at the end but in short the purpose of this build was a small form factor PC with a lot of CPU grunt and storage. Sadly PCS do not do the storage I was after so I intended to add this myself later. I had a few issues with the specs, the sff section only has two motherboard options the Z170I and the Maximus VIII Impact.
The Z170I has a m.2 SSD slot but only 2x SATA ports.
The Maximus has a u.2 SSD slot and 4x SATA ports.
This gave me a dilemma as after a quick couple of messages to PCS that were answered promptly it was discovered that they do not stock any u.2 SSD's. I wanted to keep the maximum number of SATA ports free for storage so I opted to drop the graphics card I had and use a PCIe SSD.
The wait
This was the hardest part, I ordered at what seemed like a busy time. I had been through all this before so I was fine up until about 12 working days. I then started to chase, I was told the there was a mistake on the case stock and they actually didn't have any in stock and would not be able to get any for a month. This was the only case I could use, so, after some discussion on the phone with Richard who I had spoken to a few times during the whole process. We cancelled the case and I sourced it myself and had it delivered directly to PCS, we also upgraded my ram slightly as the kit I had chosen was out of stock as well.
After a little more of a wait and an extended testing session I received my Machine.
The Setup
This is the frustrating part, I wont go into too much detail as I have not had anything but good experiences with PCS so do not want to ruin it with negativity. I had some issues with the machine staying on and it got stuck in a restart loop, The drive bays were unusable due to the cabling set up and the SATA cables were looped back into the board.
I admit, I got a little annoyed and decided to ring PCS. I spoke to Tom (I think, sorry if I got it wrong my memory is useless) who I immediately warned was in for a bit of a moan. I went through the issues but said I can resolve them myself but wanted to make sure my tampering slightly wont void my warranty. Was assured it will be fine so I proceeded to sort it out. It turned out Tom was aware of my order from previous forums posts and turned out to be moosEh, so I feel a little bad about having a moan to him as we have spoken a few times and has always been polite and friendly.
Verdict
All in all I am pleased, there were a few mishaps but I got impatient and started hassling them so it is a bit of both really. All issues are sorted, my extra drives are in there and everything is moving over slowly.
It is quick, the SSD really makes a difference so I am hoping that will make a large improvement over my current set up.
Overall: 9/10
PS. I am still waiting for my chair, stock due in this week.
PPS. Sorry if I rambled
Processed Date 25-02-2016
Pre-Production Date 01-03-2016
Build Date 21-03-2016
Test Date 21-03-2016
QC Date 24-03-2016
Awaiting Dispatch Date 24-03-2016
Dispatch Date 24-03-2016
Case FRACTAL DESIGN NODE 304 Mini ITX Case
Change to: NONE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-6700k (4.0GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® MAXIMUS VIII IMPACT: Mini-ITX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM) 8GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 4GB)
Change to: 16GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 8GB Kit)
Graphics Card INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1st PCI-E SSD Drive 400GB INTEL® 750 SERIES PCIe SSD (up to 2200MB/sR | 900MB/sW)
Processor Cooling Noctua NH-L9i Low Profile, Super Quiet CPU Cooler
Power Supply CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT + WIRELESS 802.11 A/B/G/N/AC
USB Options MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System Genuine Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Gaming Chair GT Omega PRO Racing Office Chair - Black Leather
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
The second purchase was indirectly, my Girlfriend wanted a new laptop so I specced one up a couple years ago and she made the purchase on her own account. Again no issues at all and has been working perfectly since.
The third purchase was for my Girlfriends dad, I purchased it through my account last year and was another laptop. Again nice and smooth and no issues since.
Ordering
Now to my most recent purchase, I will post the spec at the end but in short the purpose of this build was a small form factor PC with a lot of CPU grunt and storage. Sadly PCS do not do the storage I was after so I intended to add this myself later. I had a few issues with the specs, the sff section only has two motherboard options the Z170I and the Maximus VIII Impact.
The Z170I has a m.2 SSD slot but only 2x SATA ports.
The Maximus has a u.2 SSD slot and 4x SATA ports.
This gave me a dilemma as after a quick couple of messages to PCS that were answered promptly it was discovered that they do not stock any u.2 SSD's. I wanted to keep the maximum number of SATA ports free for storage so I opted to drop the graphics card I had and use a PCIe SSD.
The wait
This was the hardest part, I ordered at what seemed like a busy time. I had been through all this before so I was fine up until about 12 working days. I then started to chase, I was told the there was a mistake on the case stock and they actually didn't have any in stock and would not be able to get any for a month. This was the only case I could use, so, after some discussion on the phone with Richard who I had spoken to a few times during the whole process. We cancelled the case and I sourced it myself and had it delivered directly to PCS, we also upgraded my ram slightly as the kit I had chosen was out of stock as well.
After a little more of a wait and an extended testing session I received my Machine.
The Setup
This is the frustrating part, I wont go into too much detail as I have not had anything but good experiences with PCS so do not want to ruin it with negativity. I had some issues with the machine staying on and it got stuck in a restart loop, The drive bays were unusable due to the cabling set up and the SATA cables were looped back into the board.
I admit, I got a little annoyed and decided to ring PCS. I spoke to Tom (I think, sorry if I got it wrong my memory is useless) who I immediately warned was in for a bit of a moan. I went through the issues but said I can resolve them myself but wanted to make sure my tampering slightly wont void my warranty. Was assured it will be fine so I proceeded to sort it out. It turned out Tom was aware of my order from previous forums posts and turned out to be moosEh, so I feel a little bad about having a moan to him as we have spoken a few times and has always been polite and friendly.
Verdict
All in all I am pleased, there were a few mishaps but I got impatient and started hassling them so it is a bit of both really. All issues are sorted, my extra drives are in there and everything is moving over slowly.
It is quick, the SSD really makes a difference so I am hoping that will make a large improvement over my current set up.
Overall: 9/10
PS. I am still waiting for my chair, stock due in this week.
PPS. Sorry if I rambled
Processed Date 25-02-2016
Pre-Production Date 01-03-2016
Build Date 21-03-2016
Test Date 21-03-2016
QC Date 24-03-2016
Awaiting Dispatch Date 24-03-2016
Dispatch Date 24-03-2016
Case FRACTAL DESIGN NODE 304 Mini ITX Case
Change to: NONE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-6700k (4.0GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® MAXIMUS VIII IMPACT: Mini-ITX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM) 8GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 4GB)
Change to: 16GB HyperX FURY DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 8GB Kit)
Graphics Card INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1st PCI-E SSD Drive 400GB INTEL® 750 SERIES PCIe SSD (up to 2200MB/sR | 900MB/sW)
Processor Cooling Noctua NH-L9i Low Profile, Super Quiet CPU Cooler
Power Supply CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT + WIRELESS 802.11 A/B/G/N/AC
USB Options MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System Genuine Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Gaming Chair GT Omega PRO Racing Office Chair - Black Leather
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days