Hardware & Technical UK: Overclockers or PCspecialists - Pre builds

[Vekt Ey'doom]

These companies are going to be getting parts from the same people, so what you really need to look at is customer testimonial about support and especially product detailing. Things like how they package their PCs for shipping, whether or not they configured the PC BIOS correctly (It's really common to just ship with JDEC memory standards instead of XMP, meaning you leave a bit of performance on the table)

Current recommendation is to go with AMD and Nvidia build. Intel's 11th gen is a huge disappointment, their 10th gen is super good, especially the 10700's and 10850/10900, but for roughly the same, you can get something really nasty like a 5900X that'll run circles around those processors outside gaming, and they trade blows while gaming.

Intel Alder Lake is due out by the end of the year, but I think they're going for a heterogenous structure (Big/small like the apple M1), and I have no idea how that's going to translate into gaming performance. It'll probably just fine for desktop applications, but gaming is very latency sensitive, and any scheduling issues that creep up with the OS trying to assign the proper threads to the proper cores might cause problems early on.

 

[colprice2002]

I bought my last (5 years ago) PC from Chillblast.
You can buy a stock pc or have it customised.
The fact that my i5 based rig runs Odyssey at 35-90fps ( capped FPS), gives an indication that the components were well chosen.
Wherever you purchase, I'd recommend that you get a good cooling system for the CPU (not stock) and a pc case with plenty of ventilation and fans...

 

[Stikkit]

Iv'e used both over the years, OCUK was my latest pre-built. A friend just had one from PC specialist and was very happy.

 

[Sleepyman]

I'm not a fan of Overclockers, especially since recent events where they showed their true colours (in regards to GPU sales).
Ever increasing prices to scalper levels, cancelling products and orders for them to be put back on listings at higher prices, taking ongoing orders, creating huge queues without any information given to customers, basically trying to "lock in" saless, when there are no products to sell.
Every other retailer marked them as unavailable, coming soon or clearly listed what was going on.. etc etc etc

I had the same experience with Overclockers. They do not answer emails or their phones or web contact forms. In the end I went onto their forum and said either return my money or I will sue. Got my money back within the hour.

I had a good experience after the OcUK debacle earlier this year with box.co.uk properly configured bios, met the delivery time.

 

[Rabziggy]

Just another 2p in the tin. Having worked for a pc builder in the early 90's (long gone bust), I've always built my own to the budget I have at the time. My last build was April 2017, where I bought a pre-overclocked and tested bundle of motherboard, cpu and aio cooler from Scan, and bought the rest of the parts from them as well. I love the actual process of configuring and building, and also the enjoyment of knowing I built my rig every time I switch it on. I've used both Overclockers and Scan for parts, and also Novatech, but they don't seem to be able to compete with the big 2. I tend to stay away from the big manufacturers, as they tend to lock down their pc's so their support is easier for them. The only thing I'd say about pre-built is that it is so easy to get carried away with adding bits in.

Enjoy!

 

[Jezzah]

I used PCspecialist in the past they were absolutely fine for me.
Last big build I did was with ChillBlast and they certainly topped PCSpecialist.

 

[westtra]

Built my own after speccing from other places. Was lots of fun and have since pretty much rebuilt it with new parts to upgrade to what I should have built first time.

Bought my sons from PCspecialist as reviews say they are reputable and they had the best price for the spec I was looking for. The reason I went with a company for his is I work away from home and if there is any issues they will support him in self fix/return to base repair. It did arrive broken(CPU had come loose during shippping) but retun to them and us withing a week.

 

[CMDR ZerØ]

I've got experience with both Overclockers and Scan, and they've both been excellent for me in the past. Overall I'd say Scan's customer support and communication during the build were miles ahead of OC.

 

[CMDR ZerØ]

It's really common to just ship with JDEC memory standards instead of XMP, meaning you leave a bit of performance on the table

It's pretty common for them to just slap in a single stick of RAM and call it a day too, rather than going dual channel (I've seen two sticks in the wrong slots before too ). 100% agree with checking customer reviews for that kind of thing.

 

[Crank Larson]

OCUK are overpriced, and I don't trust them based on several interactions (particularly the recent GPU launch which they used as an excuse to hold on to a lot of people's money, and lied about what they were able to source). I've not had any problems with Scan.

Though these days, if I am after parts I'll often get them from Amazon, simply because the after-sales service is much better. A motherboard I bought failed after 18 months, and Amazon refunded as they couldn't replace (which I used to get a later edition of the motherboard with better chipset). Good luck getting that from any PC part supplier (you may do, but it will be a fight).

 

[CMDR ZerØ]

OCUK are overpriced, and I don't trust them based on several interactions (particularly the recent GPU launch which they used as an excuse to hold on to a lot of people's money, and lied about what they were able to source). I've not had any problems with Scan.

I hadn't heard about this, can you elaborate? I'd agree with Scan > OCUK though.

Also worth noting that as well as full systems, Scan offer just Mobo/CPU/RAM combos, which is what I have bought from them before - ensures that the core components are tested and working, then I'll just buy other components from wherever I can. I have had bad experiences ordering from Amazon though, particularly with HDDs. Had one come in pretty minimal packaging, just dropped through the letterbox. Needless to say, that didn't do the drive any good...

 

[Crank Larson]

I hadn't heard about this, can you elaborate? I'd agree with Scan > OCUK though.

I won't elaborate on the two occasions that OverClockers have failed to replace faulty products (they weren't DOA - good luck in getting anything not DOA replaced). The GPU debacle can be read from their forums. I pre-ordered as OC were promising that they had hundreds on order and they'd arrive within a couple of weeks. They took all the money for the preorders (not just a deposit). In the end, very few GPUs turned up (they were coming in in max. 50 batches, and there were weeks between these batches). I cancelled my preorder after being given the run-around for a month. Really I don't know why I fell for it at all given my previous experiences with them.

 

[CMDR ZerØ]

I won't elaborate on the two occasions that OverClockers have failed to replace faulty products (they weren't DOA - good luck in getting anything not DOA replaced). The GPU debacle can be read from their forums. I pre-ordered as OC were promising that they had hundreds on order and they'd arrive within a couple of weeks. They took all the money for the preorders (not just a deposit). In the end, very few GPUs turned up (they were coming in in max. 50 batches, and there were weeks between these batches). I cancelled my preorder after being given the run-around for a month. Really I don't know why I fell for it at all given my previous experiences with them.

Ahh, actually I think I did hear about something like that. I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt that it was just shortsightedness from them, but it is definitely pretty shady.

In regards to replacing components, I've never dealt directly with their customer support but have not heard good things from some friends who have. Likewise, never had any issues with Scan though (including replacing components that died somewhere down the line).

 

[GuruNot]

I tend to buy my parts for my builds from Scan rather that overclockers as Scan generally seem to be cheaper.

When It comes to pre-builds I cannot comment, but a few mates have had 3XS Systems and they could not sing Scan's praises enough. Nicely built systems.