{"id":12423,"date":"2013-08-07T21:22:47","date_gmt":"2013-08-07T20:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pinkoddy.co.uk\/?p=12423"},"modified":"2021-01-31T00:44:32","modified_gmt":"2021-01-30T23:44:32","slug":"review-buying-a-optimus-v-laptop-from-pc-specialist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/54.155.211.39\/blog\/2013\/08\/07\/review-buying-a-optimus-v-laptop-from-pc-specialist\/","title":{"rendered":"Review Buying a Optimus V Laptop from PC Specialist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week my new laptop arrived. \u00a0It was a built to order laptop from UK based PC Specialist Ltd.<\/p>\n

Intel Haswell and NVidia 700 series<\/h2>\n

I had waited and waited for the newer Intel Haswell and NVidia 700 series chipsets to be released. \u00a0On 1st June I noticed on www.pcspecialist.co.uk<\/a> that they were accepting orders for systems with these technologies<\/p>\n

The laptop that caught my eye was the 15.6″ Optimus V<\/div>\n
\"15.6"<\/a><\/div>\n

PC Specialist Website<\/h3>\n

So on 2nd June I ordered my new laptop. \u00a0One of the great things about this website is that you can configure your new system via a serious of drop down lists to create a package for you.<\/p>\n

\"configure\"<\/a><\/div>\n

When you change the options it a little “widget” in the top right of the browser keeping tabs on the price so you can really find the balance of performance vs. price.<\/p>\n

\"price\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A real bonus was that I could choose to not have an operating system installed. \u00a0This wasn’t a problem as I had a Windows 7 64-bit retail licence that I could use. \u00a0Doing this knocked \u00a379 off the price and meant that I could increase the RAM (Random Access Memory) from 2GB (Gigabytes) to 8GB and have better thermal paste (gives improved cooling) and get the price below the from price of \u00a3770 to \u00a3736!<\/p>\n

Here is a full spec list :<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Chassis & Display \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/td>\nOptimus Series: 15.6″ Matte Full HD LED
\nWidescreen (1920×1080)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Processor (CPU)<\/b><\/td>\nIntel\u00ae Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor
\ni7-4700MQ (2.40GHz) 6MB<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Memory (RAM)<\/b><\/td>\n8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x
\n4GB)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Graphics Card<\/b><\/td>\nNVIDIA\u00ae GeForce\u00ae GTX 765M – 2.0GB DDR5 Video
\nRAM – DirectX\u00ae 11<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2nd<\/sup> Graphics
\nCard<\/b><\/td>\n		NONE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Memory – 1st<\/sup> Hard
\nDisk<\/b><\/td>\n		250GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5″ HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB
\nCACHE (5,400rpm)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2nd<\/sup> Hard
\nDisk<\/b><\/td>\n		NONE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
RAID<\/b><\/td>\nNONE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1st<\/sup> DVD\/BLU-RAY
\nDrive<\/b><\/td>\n		8x SATA DVD\u00b1R\/RW\/Dual Layer (+ 24x
\nCD-RW)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Memory Card Reader<\/b><\/td>\nInternal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC\/RSMMC\/SD:
\nMini, XC & HC\/MS: Pro & Duo)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Thermal Paste<\/b><\/td>\nARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
\nCOMPOUND (\u00a39)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sound Card<\/b><\/td>\nIntel 2 Channel High Definition Audio +
\nMIC\/Headphone Jack<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Network Facilities<\/b><\/td>\nGIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL\u00ae N135 802.11N
\n(150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
USB Options<\/b><\/td>\n3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS
\nSTANDARD<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Floppy Disk Drive<\/b><\/td>\nNONE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Battery<\/b><\/td>\nOptimus Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
\n(5,200 mAh\/76.96WH)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Power Cable<\/b><\/td>\n1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC
\nAdaptor<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Operating System<\/b><\/td>\nNO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Office Software<\/b><\/td>\nNO OFFICE SOFTWARE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Anti-Virus<\/b><\/td>\nNO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Laptop Cooling Stands<\/b><\/td>\nNONE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Carry Case<\/b><\/td>\nNONE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Monitor<\/b><\/td>\nNONE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Keyboard & Mouse<\/b><\/td>\nINTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER
\nPAD<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mouse<\/b><\/td>\nINTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Gaming Mouse Pad<\/b><\/td>\nNONE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Speakers<\/b><\/td>\nNONE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Webcam<\/b><\/td>\nINTEGRATED 1.3 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Headsets<\/b><\/td>\nNONE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Surge Protection<\/b><\/td>\nNONE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Printer<\/b><\/td>\nNONE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
External Hard Drive<\/b><\/td>\nNONE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Warranty<\/b><\/td>\n3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect
\n& Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Home Installation<\/b><\/td>\nNONE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dead Pixel Guarantee<\/b><\/td>\nNONE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Intel Anti-Theft
\nTechnology<\/b><\/td>\n		FREE 90 Day Intel Anti-Theft Trial – Prevent
\nData Access upon Theft<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Insurance<\/b><\/td>\nNONE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Data Recovery<\/b><\/td>\nNONE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Delivery<\/b><\/td>\nSTANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND
\n(MON-FRI)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Build Time<\/b><\/td>\nStandard Build – Approximately 7 to 9 working
\ndays<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Hard Disk Drive<\/h3>\n

Now I already had a 128GB Samsung 830 SSD (Solid State Drive), so I chose to stick with the basic 250GB HDD (Hard Disk Drive) that came with it. You can’t remove the HDD from the configuration on the website,. Consequently that way I’d have the fast SSD for my Windows install and the 250GB for storage<\/p>\n

It’s worth noting that for an extra \u00a330 you could have got the 17″ version<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Tracking the Order<\/h4>\n
Once the order was processed I could logon to the website and track the progress of my order plus it also showed the average build time of systems over the last 5 working days. \u00a0They aim to get it to you in 7-9 working days but they have up to 30 days to fulfil the contract. \u00a0My delivery was estimated for 13th June (9 working days). \u00a0Now unfortunately it took longer than this, probably due to demand for the new technologies, but after the 7th day I had regular emails to keep me informed as to what was happening. It finally arrived on 17th June (11 working days). \u00a0They chose to use DPD who were great and gave me an hour time slot and the laptop was delivered within a minute of the timeslot!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Now for the actual laptop:<\/h3>\n
<\/div>\n
\"optimus<\/a><\/div>\n
\"optimus<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I kept the plastic sheet on the lid to prevent scratches. I’ll aim to keep this on as long as possible but it may look weird in the pic.<\/i><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"lid_optimus_v\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Clevo W350STQ<\/h2>\n
The laptop is a Clevo chassis which many of the built to order latops are built upon (Sager, XoticPC etc…), this one is the Clevo W350STQ. \u00a0Build quality wise it doesn’t feel premium, but it doesn’t feel cheap. \u00a0It came with a unactivated copy of Windows 8 with some testing software on it, which was great because it meant straight away that I could check it loads ok etc…<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The first thing that I noticed was the 1920×1080 display. \u00a0Having a full HD screen in 15.6″ looks mega sharp – it takes a minute to get used to the text on the screen, it looks tiny. \u00a0The images are sharp and quite importantly has good colour, it makes my old screen look really washed out.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Installing Windows 7<\/h3>\n
The next thing to do was to put in my SSD and install Windows 7. \u00a0The extra HDD drive was easy to put in (I actually moved the supplied HDD to the 2nd socket and put the SSD in the primary socket). \u00a0Installing Windows 7 was relatively painless, apart from having to disable Secure Boot in the BIOS – before I did this the Win 7 install hung. \u00a0Whilst setting up Windows 7 I had to prepare the HDD’s (delete old partitions etc…) I noticed that the supplied HDD was actually a 500GB, so I’d got a free upgrade!!!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

Once Windows 7 was installed I put in the driver CD that came with the laptop and told it to install the drivers, and was instantly told that my OS (Operating System) was not supported. \u00a0So I manually browsed the CD and managed to install most of the drivers that way, and got the rest from manufacturers websites. \u00a0But I managed to install everything there is nothing left in Device Manager to install.<\/p>\n

3DMark<\/h3>\n
Now that I was ready to go the first thing I did was install 3DMark ’06, 3DMark Vantage and the latest 3DMark. \u00a0I then ran it side by side against my old laptop (Acer Aspire 6930G with the CPU upgraded to a T9800 – which was a very good spec at the time). \u00a0I had always thought my old laptop had run well but running the benchmarks side by side just showed the new technologies strengths. \u00a0Some tests were showing over 100 fps (frames per second) more than the old laptop.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I haven’t experienced any problems with the fan, but am careful to put it down where plenty of air can get around it.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In conclusion the service from PC Specialist was very good and I definitely recommend them and the laptop has been great so far!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This post was brought to you by X86life, who will be contributing technology posts to the blog.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This is NOT a sponsored post.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week my new laptop arrived. \u00a0It was a built to order laptop from UK based PC Specialist Ltd. Intel Haswell and NVidia 700 series I had waited and waited for the newer Intel Haswell and NVidia 700 series chipsets to be released. \u00a0On 1st June I noticed on www.pcspecialist.co.uk that they were accepting … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2569],"tags":[2580,2570,2571,2572,2573,942,2574,2575,2581,2576,2579,2577,2578],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/54.155.211.39\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/optimus-v.jpg?fit=239%2C320","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/54.155.211.39\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/optimus-v.jpg?fit=239%2C320",239,320,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/54.155.211.39\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/optimus-v.jpg?resize=150%2C150",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/54.155.211.39\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/optimus-v.jpg?fit=224%2C300",224,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/54.155.211.39\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/optimus-v.jpg?fit=239%2C320",239,320,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/54.155.211.39\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/optimus-v.jpg?fit=239%2C320",239,320,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/54.155.211.39\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/optimus-v.jpg?fit=239%2C320",239,320,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/54.155.211.39\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/optimus-v.jpg?fit=239%2C320",239,320,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"pinkoddy","author_link":"http:\/\/54.155.211.39\/blog\/author\/pinkoddy\/"},"uagb_comment_info":1,"uagb_excerpt":"Earlier this week my new laptop arrived. \u00a0It was a built to order laptop from UK based PC Specialist Ltd. Intel Haswell and NVidia 700 series I had waited and waited for the newer Intel Haswell and NVidia 700 series chipsets to be released. \u00a0On 1st June I noticed on www.pcspecialist.co.uk that they were accepting…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pepM9j-3en","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/54.155.211.39\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12423"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/54.155.211.39\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/54.155.211.39\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/54.155.211.39\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/54.155.211.39\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12423"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/54.155.211.39\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27994,"href":"http:\/\/54.155.211.39\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12423\/revisions\/27994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/54.155.211.39\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/54.155.211.39\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/54.155.211.39\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/54.155.211.39\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}