Philip Coutts
Volunteer Moderator
I know a lot of people are looking to get new PC’s built so I thought I’d write a small review of my experience with Dinopc including the ordering process. I am in no way confident enough to build my own pc so that wasn’t an option for me.
Website – Clear and easy to use. You pick a base system and customise it if you want. There are plenty of options for all the component parts. It’s very easy to use and you can save quotes and print them out if you want. One tip is that I saved a quote and did nothing with it for a while and I got an e-mail with a £5 off voucher if I placed an order. I found that for a pre-built system Dinopc’s prices were really, really good.
My specification (shortened version)
i5 4670k
Corsair H60 water cooler
Windows 8
16GB RAM
128GB Plextor SSD
2TB hard drive
GTX 770 2GB
Zalman Z11 case
650w Corsair VS power supply
Overall cost was a little over £1100 including delivery.
Ordering – Dead easy works perfectly and no issues. You get an automated response when you order and then again when your payment is processed. This also has build times and reference numbers on it. The only issue I have is that they add on £15 for delivery which isn’t made clear until quite near the end of the ordering period. That said the price was still really competitive and less than the other quotes I had from other companies.
Build time – Really surprised at this one, everywhere I looked said that most custom PC builders take ages to build a system. Well Dinopc said it would take 10 working days and it did! I got an e-mail on day 11 saying the order had been dispatched to the courier and to expect next day delivery. They also give you a tracking number so you can check progress.
Delivery – It was via APC overnight and came on the day stated. No issues to report.
Unboxing – This PC comes in the biggest box I’ve ever seen. Inside this box are 2 smaller boxes. One is your welcome pack which has a lot of manuals, power lead, spare parts and driver disks. It also has a Dinopc “quick start” guide. The second box contains the pc. The large box was filled with air filled “pillows” to stop the pc moving about in transit. The pc itself came in a box supported by polystyrene blocks at each end. I was worried about damage in transit as a lot of people say that parts can be knocked about and come adrift in transit.
Starting it up – The moment of truth…….and it fired up first time with no issues! What a relief. Now I only had a couple of hours to play around with it last night but it runs sweetly. I’m waiting on a couple of games to see how the system handles them as I haven’t been a pc gamer for a long time and have nothing capable of pushing the system.
Overall – Very impressed with the service so far, the pc was built on time and delivered on time. The system looks to be well built, cabling is nice and tidy and it works. Struggling to get to grips with windows 8 but I’m getting there, it’s a big change from what I’m used to that’s for sure. Can’t wait to get some more games to tide me over until ED Alpha! Should also add I got a free Batman game (the new one that isn’t out yet) for buying the GTX 770 graphics card. This is my personnel view of Dinopc. I haven’t had any issues with them and I would use them again. As I say I only got the system yesterday so if there are any issues that crop up I'll add them to this.
Website – Clear and easy to use. You pick a base system and customise it if you want. There are plenty of options for all the component parts. It’s very easy to use and you can save quotes and print them out if you want. One tip is that I saved a quote and did nothing with it for a while and I got an e-mail with a £5 off voucher if I placed an order. I found that for a pre-built system Dinopc’s prices were really, really good.
My specification (shortened version)
i5 4670k
Corsair H60 water cooler
Windows 8
16GB RAM
128GB Plextor SSD
2TB hard drive
GTX 770 2GB
Zalman Z11 case
650w Corsair VS power supply
Overall cost was a little over £1100 including delivery.
Ordering – Dead easy works perfectly and no issues. You get an automated response when you order and then again when your payment is processed. This also has build times and reference numbers on it. The only issue I have is that they add on £15 for delivery which isn’t made clear until quite near the end of the ordering period. That said the price was still really competitive and less than the other quotes I had from other companies.
Build time – Really surprised at this one, everywhere I looked said that most custom PC builders take ages to build a system. Well Dinopc said it would take 10 working days and it did! I got an e-mail on day 11 saying the order had been dispatched to the courier and to expect next day delivery. They also give you a tracking number so you can check progress.
Delivery – It was via APC overnight and came on the day stated. No issues to report.
Unboxing – This PC comes in the biggest box I’ve ever seen. Inside this box are 2 smaller boxes. One is your welcome pack which has a lot of manuals, power lead, spare parts and driver disks. It also has a Dinopc “quick start” guide. The second box contains the pc. The large box was filled with air filled “pillows” to stop the pc moving about in transit. The pc itself came in a box supported by polystyrene blocks at each end. I was worried about damage in transit as a lot of people say that parts can be knocked about and come adrift in transit.
Starting it up – The moment of truth…….and it fired up first time with no issues! What a relief. Now I only had a couple of hours to play around with it last night but it runs sweetly. I’m waiting on a couple of games to see how the system handles them as I haven’t been a pc gamer for a long time and have nothing capable of pushing the system.
Overall – Very impressed with the service so far, the pc was built on time and delivered on time. The system looks to be well built, cabling is nice and tidy and it works. Struggling to get to grips with windows 8 but I’m getting there, it’s a big change from what I’m used to that’s for sure. Can’t wait to get some more games to tide me over until ED Alpha! Should also add I got a free Batman game (the new one that isn’t out yet) for buying the GTX 770 graphics card. This is my personnel view of Dinopc. I haven’t had any issues with them and I would use them again. As I say I only got the system yesterday so if there are any issues that crop up I'll add them to this.