After months of should/shall I buy a new PC, I took the plunge, I decided "what the hell" after a few beers. Obviously I had to get permission from the Mrs, we agreed a price, but that didn't include include the amendments after the order was placed.:whistling: Ordering was a breeze, great website for spending hours altering spec, reading the forums and generally changing your mind umpteen times. Placed the order on the 30/4/12 and went into the dreaded preproduction the following day and sat there for what seemed like an eternity.
While in preproduction I took the opportunity to change my specification again, and again and again. Changed the case twice, GPU twice, power supply, HDD and motherboard. This was to accommodate a gtx 670 without breaking the bank. Changing your specification after your order is placed is ridiculously easy and must account for lots of minor upgrades that add up to a fortune. After about 12 working days in preproduction I finally rang PCS and asked the same question they must hear 50 times a day, "what's happening with my order, please". Its always pays to be polite, it cant be a pleasant job answering the phone. I was assured my order was virtually at the top of the queue, bar the usual fasttrack queue jumpers. True to their word it entered 'building' the next day, I was virtually willing it along. 'Test' and 'QC' followed quickly and was dually dispatched on the 21/5/12.
Delivery was great, the hourly time slot is fantastic. No more waiting around all day with your face stuck against the window, and your heart rate leaping every time you hear a diesel engine. Large box arrived within the time slot given, PC was very well packaged with the PC on its side so the weight of the graphics card isn't fighting gravity. The internal packing is very well thought out, I presume it moulds to the inside of your case before it hardens? Well done PCS on going the extra mile to minimise damage in transit. I installed my own retail copy of Windows, which went without a hitch.
Now to my new PC...
Case COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770 (3.4GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk 120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling INTEL SOCKET LGA1155 STANDARD CPU COOLER
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
I like the more understated case, first thing I did was turn the blue led fan off.
Plenty of room for upgrades, SSD looks tiny but its once you experience one as your primary drive, you will never want to go back.
Bought the monitor separately, finished off with a wireless keyboard and mouse. Needless to say the PC storms through anything I care to throw at it and is a pleasure to use. Internals are very neat, the case is great for cable routing. All in all I'm very happy with my experience with PCS and their willingness to have a forum where happy and disgruntled customers are free to post. The only regret is that I didn't choose the quiet CPU cooler, but I will change that myself at a later date. Thanks to the guys who built and tested it....
Built By Adam Kirby
Tested By Garnet Heller
QC'd By Anthony Cunliffe
Packed By Anthony Cunliffe
While in preproduction I took the opportunity to change my specification again, and again and again. Changed the case twice, GPU twice, power supply, HDD and motherboard. This was to accommodate a gtx 670 without breaking the bank. Changing your specification after your order is placed is ridiculously easy and must account for lots of minor upgrades that add up to a fortune. After about 12 working days in preproduction I finally rang PCS and asked the same question they must hear 50 times a day, "what's happening with my order, please". Its always pays to be polite, it cant be a pleasant job answering the phone. I was assured my order was virtually at the top of the queue, bar the usual fasttrack queue jumpers. True to their word it entered 'building' the next day, I was virtually willing it along. 'Test' and 'QC' followed quickly and was dually dispatched on the 21/5/12.
Delivery was great, the hourly time slot is fantastic. No more waiting around all day with your face stuck against the window, and your heart rate leaping every time you hear a diesel engine. Large box arrived within the time slot given, PC was very well packaged with the PC on its side so the weight of the graphics card isn't fighting gravity. The internal packing is very well thought out, I presume it moulds to the inside of your case before it hardens? Well done PCS on going the extra mile to minimise damage in transit. I installed my own retail copy of Windows, which went without a hitch.
Now to my new PC...
Case COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770 (3.4GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk 120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling INTEL SOCKET LGA1155 STANDARD CPU COOLER
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
I like the more understated case, first thing I did was turn the blue led fan off.
Plenty of room for upgrades, SSD looks tiny but its once you experience one as your primary drive, you will never want to go back.
Bought the monitor separately, finished off with a wireless keyboard and mouse. Needless to say the PC storms through anything I care to throw at it and is a pleasure to use. Internals are very neat, the case is great for cable routing. All in all I'm very happy with my experience with PCS and their willingness to have a forum where happy and disgruntled customers are free to post. The only regret is that I didn't choose the quiet CPU cooler, but I will change that myself at a later date. Thanks to the guys who built and tested it....
Built By Adam Kirby
Tested By Garnet Heller
QC'd By Anthony Cunliffe
Packed By Anthony Cunliffe
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