Opinions on new 15.6 from PCSpecialist

philboy · 01-11-2012 1:02pm #1

Hi,

I'm thinking of getting the following laptop from PCSpecialist. I will be using the laptop for web development, programming, internet, watching movies, virtual machines and other general day to day things. It won't be used for gaming. No OS as i'll be putting Linux on it.
The total for this build is £867 inc VAT.

Is there anything you would change? I definitely want the matte screen and 240GB+ SSD. Standard CD/DVD drive is fine, don't care about blu-ray.

Thanks

Torqay · 01-11-2012 1:37pm

Kingston RAM will save you £21.

As for the 240 GB Intel 520 Series SSD, i'd rather order the basic 250 GB HDD. This will save £150, You'll get the 256 GB Samsung 830 Series for €156 at Hardwareversand. German compu mag CHIP has a test chart for solid state disks, the Intel 520 is ranked #27 (access times are terrible), the Samsung 830 #4. The new 840 Series (the 256 GB version is second in the chart) costs around €190.

And you'll have a spare HDD you can use as external storage in a caddy.

Four of a kind · 01-11-2012 1:47pm

Torqay wrote: »

Kingston RAM will save you £21.

As for the 240 GB Intel 520 Series SSD, i'd rather order the basic 250 GB HDD. This will save £150, You'll get the 256 GB Samsung 830 Series for €156 at Hardwareversand. German compu mag CHIP has a test chart for solid state disks, the Intel 520 is ranked #27 (access times are terrible), the Samsung 830 #4. The new 840 Series (the 256 GB version is second in the chart) costs around €190.

And you'll have a spare HDD you can use as external storage in a caddy.

Is it a difficult job to take out the hdd and replace it with another drive like you suggest? I'm not familiar with doing stuff like that.

Torqay · 01-11-2012 1:56pm

Four of a kind wrote: »

Is it a difficult job to take out the hdd and replace it with another drive like you suggest? I'm not familiar with doing stuff like that.

Not at all, just clone the HDD to the SSD and then swap the drives, access is easy through the service hatch.

Edit: forget the cloning part, you order without OS anyway.

imitation · 01-11-2012 2:35pm

Here is a review of a slightly different variant of the same laptop from notebook check.

It rates pretty well, your getting a lot of graphical grunt you won't really use (unless your doing some kind of CUDA programming?) though.

My hard drive vote would be the momentus XT, its a great little hybrid, has lost some of its lustre now that SSD's have dropped so much though.

philboy · 01-11-2012 3:45pm

Torqay wrote: »

Kingston RAM will save you £21.

As for the 240 GB Intel 520 Series SSD, i'd rather order the basic 250 GB HDD. This will save £150, You'll get the 256 GB Samsung 830 Series for €156 at Hardwareversand. German compu mag CHIP has a test chart for solid state disks, the Intel 520 is ranked #27 (access times are terrible), the Samsung 830 #4. The new 840 Series (the 256 GB version is second in the chart) costs around €190.

And you'll have a spare HDD you can use as external storage in a caddy.

Good info on the SSD, that's what I was looking for. I'll definitely take a look at the SSD chart you've linked and go the external storage in a caddy route too.

philboy · 01-11-2012 3:53pm

imitation wrote: »

Here is a review of a slightly different variant of the same laptop from notebook check.

It rates pretty well, your getting a lot of graphical grunt you won't really use (unless your doing some kind of CUDA programming?) though.

My hard drive vote would be the momentus XT, its a great little hybrid, has lost some of its lustre now that SSD's have dropped so much though.

Nice thorough review, cheers. I'll be sticking with the SSD and staying away from hard drives (even hybrid ones). The last 2 issues I've had with laptops both concerned hard drives, too much moving parts for a device that is moved around a lot

philboy · 01-11-2012 4:37pm

Torqay wrote: »

As for the 240 GB Intel 520 Series SSD, i'd rather order the basic 250 GB HDD. This will save £150, You'll get the 256 GB Samsung 830 Series for €156 at Hardwareversand.

I can get the Samsung 256GB 830 SSD for €163 on Amazon. This would save having to do a bank transfer with Hardwareversand and pay for delivery as it would be free with Amazon. Is that the same SSD you were referrring to?

Torqay · 01-11-2012 4:44pm

Yes, that's the one. Komplett has them in stock again for €174.95 delivered.

philboy · 01-11-2012 4:56pm

Torqay wrote: »

Yes, that's the one. Komplett has them in stock again for €174.95 delivered.

Cheers.

I replaced the SSD with a 500GB HD since I'll use the extra space on it and it was only £8 more than the 250GB one. I'll grab the 256GB Samsung SSD on Amazon.

I've changed the RAM to Kingston also.

I also changed the wireless from the 150 Mbps to the 300 Mbps option.

Do you know is it worth replacing the standard thermal paste with the Arctic MX-4 Extreme compound for an extra £9. Would it make much difference at all, the less heat the better but if it's barely noticeable then I suppose it's not going to be worth it.

Four of a kind · 01-11-2012 5:01pm

Torqay wrote: »

Not at all, just clone the HDD to the SSD and then swap the drives, access is easy through the service hatch.

Edit: forget the cloning part, you order without OS anyway.

If I was going to order a laptop though, I'd be getting it shipped with the OS though??

Torqay · 01-11-2012 5:33pm

Four of a kind wrote: »

If I was going to order a laptop though, I'd be getting it shipped with the OS though??

Generally a laptop comes with an operating system, very few OEMs and system builders offer their computers without OS. The vast majority charge their customers the "Microsoft Tax".

Doylers · 02-11-2012 12:09am

Nice to see someone building like . Ordered the optimus like yourself and Torqay held me hand though it

I was advised like you to get the cheap hdd got the 500GB was only like 8 pounds less credit back so I said why not. I saw some benchmarks or the intel 520 vs the 840 samsung and theres some difference in speed, plus whatever Torqay says is law and he said go samsung

IM in 4th day of pre-production at the moment the wait is killing me. oh and I emailed PCS to find out will they ship me it with win7 ultimate with no licence key so its in trial which will make life easier for me

Torqay · 02-11-2012 12:16am

Doylers wrote: »

whatever Torqay says is law

Doylers · 02-11-2012 12:19am

Torqay wrote: »

Haha had to see what you'd say if I said that

Im on amazon trying to figure out why the Samsung 840 has slower write speeds that the 830

Torqay · 02-11-2012 12:44am

Mind you, it's not all about write speed, look at the access time and latency. But really, the differences are marginal and the 256 GB 830 Series was the reference for quite some time, still a classy SSD.

Doylers · 02-11-2012 12:55am

Torqay wrote: »

Mind you, it's not all about write speed, look at the access time and latency. But really, the differences are marginal and the 256 GB 830 Series was the reference for quite some time, still a classy SSD.

Very true the only real argument I can see for the 840 is better power consumption but is that worth alot more money compared to the 830? Hard to see the benefits really of paying more

Torqay · 02-11-2012 12:59am

A laptop is a mobile computer after all so power efficiency is an important criterion for many.

Four of a kind · 02-11-2012 3:13am

Torqay wrote: »

Kingston RAM will save you £21.

As for the 240 GB Intel 520 Series SSD, i'd rather order the basic 250 GB HDD. This will save £150, You'll get the 256 GB Samsung 830 Series for €156 at Hardwareversand. German compu mag CHIP has a test chart for solid state disks, the Intel 520 is ranked #27 (access times are terrible), the Samsung 830 #4. The new 840 Series (the 256 GB version is second in the chart) costs around €190.

And you'll have a spare HDD you can use as external storage in a caddy.

Sorry to jump on board again with my questions, but it relates to this topic.

If I went ahead and done like you said here and went with the standard hdd and bought the 830 myself, how would I get the OS which I presume is already installed on the hdd over to the new ssd?

I'm looking at buying something similar and I'd like to get a decent ssd if its available, but I'm not sure of the process of what to do regarding OS installation and changing of the drives.

Torqay · 02-11-2012 9:05am

Four of a kind wrote: »

how would I get the OS which I presume is already installed on the hdd over to the new ssd?

Two options:

1. Clone the HDD onto the SSD and swap the drives

2. Fit the SSD and install the OS (Windows DVD ships with your computer).

I don't know if there's any bloat installed on PCS computers or just the OS and nothing else but option 2 will guarantee a clean installation.

philboy · 05-11-2012 1:58pm

Ordered it today - upgraded to the AUO Matte screen.

Also ordered the SSD from Amazon

Buying the caddy from PCWorld for €12 (ease of return in case I've any issues. The comments on the cheaper ones on Amazon pointed to issues of not handling > 120GB and not fitting into the caddy correctly).

Cheers for all of your advice/help.

philboy · 27-11-2012 1:45pm

Got my laptop and am delighted with it. One bad thing about the PC Specialist laptops are the chargers. Dear God, it's a brick 'literally'. It's approx 3-4 times the size of my old charger and weighs an awful lot. It will be quite awkward bringing it around and even transporting it in a laptop bag. A word of warning to anyone who is buying one just so they're aware of it.

imitation · 28-11-2012 12:32am

I heard the 650m can have throttling issues due to lack of power on some laptops, so I guess they included a beefy spec power brick

Doylers · 28-11-2012 12:45am

agreedi ts fudging massive. Im on the lookout for a small one that can still deliver the performance, no luck so far.

philboy · 28-11-2012 2:37pm

I sent a few emails to about 5 online battery/adapter suppliers querying about the possibility of a smaller replacement adapter unit. This is one the replies that I received:

Hi

These are normally very large due to the massive amps. These are normally 7A upwards. So you can not get these smaller units as they just simply cant deliver the power.

So it seems it's a lost cause

Time to search for a laptop case that fits that beast of an adapter and protects the laptop from it.

Deedsie · 28-11-2012 9:21pm

Anyone know of any current promotional codes for pcspecialist? The sheckles are really tight at the moment. £15 would make a big difference for me.

Hope its ok to ask this here. Apologies if its not

The_B_Man · 28-11-2012 11:29pm

I'm sittin here on almost an identical laptop to that. I went with the SSD from PCS and a 2nd 1TB HDD for storage, rather than buying seperately from Amazon.

Its a great laptop and I'm happy with it. except for the huge power supply and the absolutely useless speakers!! Even me 2 year old phone has better speakers than this laptop. I would have happily paid extra to upgrade them to a decent set. I'd nearly look into modding them and replacing them with custom tweeters, thats how bad they are!

Its also pretty heavy, so a massive PITA lugging it over to the missus's gaf on the bus.

That sounds negative but its still a great laptop. Just that for the price i paid, i wish it had some level of decent speakers, and was a little lighter.

Tango One · 29-11-2012 12:49am

I've be debating to go for the 15.6" Genesis IV but if the speaker are muck too it I'd be put off it.

The_B_Man · 30-11-2012 3:13pm

ye they're terrible but I suppose u get used to them. Its the one downside to the whole laptop. I use headphones anyway when i listen to music. And i watch most movies/TV programmes on my tablet, which has great speakers.

Four of a kind · 03-12-2012 2:16am

Lads, how big are we talking about in relation to the power supply for these laptops? I'm seriously looking at the the genesis IV for my moving away plans next year, so what dimensions are the power supplies on these things?

Anyone upload a photo of one?

philboy · 03-12-2012 11:20am

Four of a kind wrote: »

Lads, how big are we talking about in relation to the power supply for these laptops? I'm seriously looking at the the genesis IV for my moving away plans next year, so what dimensions are the power supplies on these things?

Anyone upload a photo of one?

Hiya,
Don't have a personal pic handy of the charger, but here is a link to the actual charger with photo http://www.mini-laptop-accessories.com/liteon-pa113107-charger-ac-adapter-p-16353.html

Here are the dimensions: 165mm x 70mm x 40mm

Four of a kind · 03-12-2012 3:12pm

philboy wrote: »

Hiya,
Don't have a personal pic handy of the charger, but here is a link to the actual charger with photo http://www.mini-laptop-accessories.com/liteon-pa113107-charger-ac-adapter-p-16353.html

Here are the dimensions: 165mm x 70mm x 40mm

Ah yes. I had a Dell xps laptop a few years ago and its the same size as the above. Not ideal for travelling around with but there's no other alternative I suppose if I end up purchasing from pcspecialist.

Anyone know roughly the weight of those laptops from pcspecialist? They don't give any details from what I can see anyways. Specifically looking at the Genesis IV model.

Four of a kind · 04-12-2012 4:52am

Four of a kind wrote: »

Ah yes. I had a Dell xps laptop a few years ago and its the same size as the above. Not ideal for travelling around with but there's no other alternative I suppose if I end up purchasing from pcspecialist.

Anyone know roughly the weight of those laptops from pcspecialist? They don't give any details from what I can see anyways. Specifically looking at the Genesis IV model.

Anyone know what these laptops typically weigh?

Opinions on new 15.6 from PCSpecialist

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