Palicomp warranty

[JonDylan]

On the basis of the review on PC Pro and it being the most powerful PC I can reasonably afford on my meagre salary, I’m looking at getting the Palicomp Phoenix Hydro-X Core i7 2600k, overclocked to 4.7Ghz. As it is such a big investment for me – with custom options it will be pushing 2 grand and unless I win the lottery I won’t be getting another computer for a good few years afterwards – I want to make sure everything goes to plan as far as possible and that all contingencies are taken into account. I’ve done my research on the system side of things and I haven’t found anything better for the same money, and I’m happy that reliability shouldn’t be a big concern over the life of the system, but I do have some concerns regarding warranties that I would appreciate some advice on if possible.

 

On the Palicomp website it states that the systems have a 7 day collect and return warranty, whereby Palicomp will pick it up for your for free if you report a fault in this time and then send it out to you again. This sounds pretty good (although 7 days doesn’t seem like a very long period of time to get the free return and repair, does it? I’m sure I read somewhere that when buying things over the internet you had 30 days to return it, regardless of whether it was faulty or not?). After the first week is up then it says you are covered by a 12 month return to base warranty where I would need to send it back to Palicomp by recorded post for them to fix it.

 

My question is whether it is standard for the obligation to pay for the postage and packaging to fall on the customer (i.e. me) for any problems that occur during this period. The Palicomp website says that all carriage charges would be my responsibility. I know this isn’t normally an issue for smaller items, but for a large item like a computer which also weighs a lot courier charges are expensive. To get it picked up, sent there and back with insurance for a valuable item would cost me a fortune (the TNT quote I got said it would be £150! but I’m sure I could probably get it done for slightly less than that by shopping around). If I had a problem or two with the unit whilst it was still in its guarantee period it could end up costing me an arm and leg through no fault of my own. Is that just how warranties work with online retailers, the flip side of buying your PC for cheaper in the first place? I’m sure that when I’ve returned things like faulty TVs to Amazon that they have covered the costs of getting it picked up and brought back again – is that just Amazon being nice or is it the industry standard and are Palicomp the exception?

 

They do offer either a 1 year or a 3 year “carefree” warranty as an option on the system, which appears to include unlimited free collect and return with a local rate phone number for their technical support team. The 1 year option is £60, with the 3 year version at £108. Bearing in mind the potential cost of postage and packing if something goes wrong this doesn’t seem like a bad deal, but I wasn’t sure whether to go for it if I could get another company to pick up a faulty unit for nothing rather than the return to base option.

 

My other question is what happens with the warranty in the event that Palicomp go out of business before the guarantee period has elapsed? Would I still have the warranty for the different components of the system or would the overclocking invalidate the warranty for the processor etc? I’m guessing that other parts, like the screen, hard drive and memory would be unaffected if this was the case. Is there any way of getting a third party warranty or insurance for the computer, as you might do for a car? If they are available which would people recommend and are there any particular pros and cons with going with such a solution?

 

In my experience most of the things that have gone wrong with my previous computers tend to have gone wrong earlier rather than later, so it may be that the warranty issue is never a problem for me – fingers crossed the computer will probably (hopefully!) not faults of any kind - but with the system being a lot more expensive that I’ve bought in the past I’m erring on the side of caution.

 

Many thanks,

 

Jon

[perplexity]

My question is whether it is standard for the obligation to pay for the postage and packaging to fall on the customer (i.e. me) for any problems that occur during this period. The Palicomp website says that all carriage charges would be my responsibility.

 

 

Not only is it the standard obligation of a trader, to pay for the postage and packaging, it is a strict liability criminal offence, for a seller of goods to mislead about it.

 

c.f Section 5(4)(k) of The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, "the consumer’s rights or the risks he may face".

 

Section 48B of the Sale of Goods Act is is clear enough about the obligation:

 

2) If the buyer requires the seller to repair or replace the goods, the seller must—

 

(a) repair or, as the case may be, replace the goods within a reasonable time but without causing significant inconvenience to the buyer;

 

(b) bear any necessary costs incurred in doing so (including in particular the cost of any labour, materials or postage).

So is Section 14 of the Distance Selling Regulations:

 

(6) Paragraph (5) [which allows a supplier to charge a buyer, to recover goods when a contract is cancelled] shall not apply where—

 

(a) the consumer cancels in circumstances where he has the right to reject the goods under a term of the contract, including a term implied by virtue of any enactment,

or

(b) the term requiring the consumer to return any goods supplied if he cancels the contract is an “unfair term” within the meaning of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.

[locutus]

If an item is faulty it is the retailers responsibility to repair the item.

 

I will say I find this situation strange. If you "Overclock" a PC that voids the manufacturers warranty. For those not in the know, "Overclocking" is essentially operating PC components at a faster speed than they were manufactured, which causes more heat and less stability in the system, however as this is how it ships, I'm pretty certain they have to deal with your issues, including carrage.

[JonDylan]

Thanks for your input Locutus. Having looked into it more and been in correspondence with Palicomp, it appears that you are correct; the overclocking would invalidate the manufacturer’s warranty on the processor, so if it went wrong inside the first year then Palicomp would have to replace it (would be tricky to repair!) and they would have to cover the cost of this themselves, which they confirmed they would do. I suppose one benefit of this is that it creates a strong incentive for them to make sure that the overclock is stable and that it is cooled adequately for long-term reliability, as I would expect that if overclocked machines were regularly going pop on them it would become very expensive, very quickly.

 

Re: the cost of returning a faulty computer after the initial 7 day free return warranty period, speaking to Palicomp they say that I would have to get the machine back to them and that they would then fix it and send it back to me free of charge as per their Return to Base warranty. They also said that this is standard in the industry, and having looked at the terms and conditions of several of their competitors this does seem to be the case.

 

However, I’m still not really sure what the rules are on returning faulty goods and whether or not the return to base policy is in line with them. I found a copy of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 online, which I have heard Martin Lewis from Money Saving Expert quote several times when he has been on television, but I couldn’t make head nor tail of it as it is written in legalese rather than plain English (which I should probably have expected what with it being a legal Act – doh!).

 

What I did find though was the Office of Fair Trading’s Guide for Businesses on Distance Selling (I would put the link in to the document in question but it won't let me), which is a summary of the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 and is much more readable. This states that “If the goods are faulty or do not comply with the contract, you [i.e. the business selling the goods] will have to pay for their return whatever the circumstances.” If this is the case, then I can’t see how a return to base warranty that requires the customer to pay return postage fees can fall within the regulations. If I have misunderstood the guidelines or if anyone knows of exceptions to the rule then I would be interested to know them.

 

I think that confusion over return to base warranties may arise from the part of DSR that says “If you want the consumer to return the goods and to pay for that return, you must make it clear in the contract and as part of the required written information.” However, this appears to just be for orders which have been cancelled, and would have no bearing on the return of a faulty item which (as above) should be paid for by the seller.

 

Looking at the DSR and Sale of Goods Act (what little I could understand) it does look like there is quite good protection for consumers if you know which bits to quote; for example, if an overclocked processor failed (even after the first year) and the cause of the failure was the fact it was overclocked, it looks like you would have a case for there being an inherent problem with the product in the first place and be able to get some money back. Madness really, and I wouldn’t like to test it personally, but there we go – the legislation is stacked in the consumer’s favour in most instances.

 

I had a look for third party insurance schemes on the internet but I was not able to find anything suitable (none seemed to cover overclocked machines) or be offered for a reasonable price, so going with Palicomp’s own cover and trusting that they won’t go out of business before the end of the warranty looks to be the best and cheapest option. In all fairness, they do appear to have been trading for a number of years so there shouldn’t be any cause for undue alarm.

 

So I am in two minds now; whether to kick up a fuss and dispute the Palicomp warranty conditions before I’ve actually placed an order or had anything go wrong, or just press on and place the order and if my machine has a fault within the first year then raise the issue of carriage costs at that time and see what they say. I’m leaning towards the latter option; seems a bit silly to pick a fight for no reason – particularly when I’m not certain I’m in the right. Decisions, decisions.

[locutus]

OK as I see it, you are in the right here, HOWEVER if you have to get a repair done, you're gonna have an argument on your hands AND with an overclocked machine there is more chance of things going wrong.

 

re: their extended warranty. If you are concerned that things may go wrong with the machine that is your fault (viruses, software problems, you drop the system) this may help you. If the machine overheats and blows a chip, or the hard drive develops a fault, you're covered by the sale of goods act. ie things need to be durable and last a reasonable length of time (and this is your statutory rights under UK law, it overrides their T&C). As that is how they are selling the item, they need to cover any postage costs for a "reasonable length of time" (ambiguous I know, but thats how the SOGA is phrased. Personally I'd say if it lasted under 3 years that would be unreasonable).

 

Now you know that, it's up to you.

 

Keep us informed

 

If you have got your heart set on this machine, even knowing the above, then that's your choice.

[perplexity]

As that is how they are selling the item, they need to cover any postage costs for a "reasonable length of time" (ambiguous I know, but thats how the SOGA is phrased. Personally I'd say if it lasted under 3 years that would be unreasonable).

 

 

You must be on another planet, or another page.

 

The phrase "reasonable length of time" does not so much as appear to be a part of the Sale of Goods Act.

 

What does is what I quoted before, from section 48B. For good measure, here it is again:

 

If the buyer requires the seller to repair or replace the goods, the seller must—

 

(a) repair or, as the case may be, replace the goods within a reasonable time but without causing significant inconvenience to the buyer;

 

(b) bear any necessary costs incurred in doing so (including in particular the cost of any labour, materials or postage).

.

 

and this would last for six years, according to the Limitations Act, 1980.

 

The Distance Selling Regulations would only apply before the cooling off period expires, not to goods already accepted.

 

The problem would rather be with regard to what should reasonably count as fit for purpose, because it would not be reasonable to expect a seller to replace or repair what had already lasted as long as is par for the course. A well informed judge would probably find that an "overclocked" computer is not to be expected to last as long as the real deal, but the relevant inference of that is not so easy to predict.

[JonDylan]

Thanks again for the advice. My main concern is anything major going wrong hardware-wise rather than any software problems or viruses, which would be more of an inconvenience (and probably my fault anyway) than anything else. I suppose buying an overclocked machine is a bit of an unusual case, because as you say there is an inherent increased risk of something going wrong when components operate outside of their normal safety margins set by the manufacturer.

 

The argument could be made that I knew it was overclocked when I bought it and so could have anticipated a shorter life span than a non-overclocked product. That said, nowhere on the Palicomp site does it say that reduced lifespan or reliability is likely with the computers so as a consumer I should really expect the “reasonable length of time” rule to apply as it would with any other computer (although if it overrides T&Cs anyway I don’t suppose it would matter if they said it might blow after a week). I am still of a mind to go for an overclocked PC, and as I haven’t found one more suitable for my needs than the Palicomp Phoenix Hydro-X system I think I will go for it.

 

Having looked into it now, it’s surprising how common these Return to Base warranties are, and I’m clearly not the first person to question the practice – on another forum I came across a debate among technology company owners who’d had a customer raise the same issue (for a component rather than a complete computer). The consensus there seemed to be that the customer was in right and they would have to pay up, although it was not unanimous and a few were adamant that their T&Cs covered them, despite what the Sale of Goods Act said. RTBs appear to have their origins in things that are intrinsically difficult to get back to the place of purchase, e.g. cars, but I don’t think the argument really washes with a PC in the days of couriers, and definitely not for something like a graphics card or memory.

 

Now I’ve got it all a bit clearer in my head I’ll get in touch with Palicomp and proceed with the order. Thanks for your opinion on the matter (I find it's always really useful to get someone elses thoughts on stuff like this) and I’ll let you know how I get on.

 

Cheers,

 

Jon

[perplexity]

I subscribe to the complaint that the wording of The Sale of Goods Act is deplorable, must have been drafted by an idiot on a bad day. An entire paragraph without a verb is not the correct way to use the English language, and in several places the intention is otherwise ambiguous!

 

If in doubt, refer to the EU Directive 1999/44/EC, that Part 5a of the SOGA is supposed to implement. Article 3, Rights of the Consumer is a good bit clearer, e.g.

 

4. The terms "free of charge" in paragraphs 2 and 3 refer to the necessary costs incurred to bring the goods into conformity, particularly the cost of postage, labour and materials.

[DES_1001]

Hi Jon, just checking on palicomp they trade as Megapc on ebay can't post the link not enough posts yet.

their feedback is good but they do have a few negative ones too.

Just giving you a little heads up on palicomp, have you thought about a self build?

Des

[JonDylan]

Hi Des,

 

Many thanks for the tips. I thought about a self build but decided against it in the end. It is something I have done before, way back in the mists of time (90s) and I priced a few things up, but I didn’t find I would be making a massive saving like I did the first time around (although perhaps I wasn’t looking at the right retailers?). Another thing was I’m not quite so au fait with current computing technology any more, so rather than researching exactly which bits I needed to get for a machine that runs perfectly and without any bottlenecks I thought it was probably worth avoiding the hassle and letting someone else worry about it.

 

Perhaps the biggest reason for going with a professional assembler though is the overclocking aspect; I have never overclocked a computer and as it will invalidate Intel’s manufacturer guarantee I would be frightened of messing it up and being left with a very expensive, smouldering door stop and no means of recourse apart from giving myself a talking to! At least if I get it from Palicomp I will have their warranty should the worst happen and the CPU gives up the ghost, but I think that’s probably less likely to happen with a properly configured system from an overclocking company that knows what it’s doing anyway.

 

Cheers for pointing me towards their MegaPC / Palicomp eBay profile; I’ve read through a lot of the feedback on there and as you say it is generally very good and most of their customers seem to be happy. There are a few pretty alarming comments in the negative feedback, but in the context of 3,000 customer feedback ratings, having around 10 negatives doesn’t seem too bad. I don’t think I’ve ever bought anything from a big eBay seller which didn’t have similar stuff on their feedback profile to be honest, and the fact there is only 1 negative for the last 6 months is encouraging – maybe they have had some issues but managed to sort them out. I’m intending to pay by credit card, so I should have some protection if I don’t get exactly what I order, which seems to be the complaint a few people have had (e.g. lower RPM hard drive than was originally ordered).

 

I will keep you updated on how I get on with my order from Palicomp and if there are any developments regarding the warranty or other customer service issues.

 

Many thanks,

 

Jon

[DES_1001]

Hi Jon, i can see that you have looked at your new computer very thoroughly and have looked at all of the points, and i must say very well done.

I hope that you get a great system and wish you all of the best with purchase.

Des

[JonDylan]

OK, just to let everyone know that I’ve now placed my order from Palicomp. I haven’t gone for any extended warranties or anything, but I had a good chat with them about overclocking in general and I was very reassured by how knowledgeable they seemed to be and the level of testing they do on the systems before despatch. As a little bonus, the price had also fallen slightly from when I first looked; who says procrastination is a bad thing?

 

The technical guy who I managed to speak to wasn’t sure on the RTB warranty side of things, but he did they get very few back in for repair, particularly inside the first year. He did however confirm that if the processor went pop it would be Palicomp’s problem rather than mine and that for the CPU the guarantee was with Palicomp rather than the manufacturer (i.e. Intel).

 

I should get my shiny new PC in around a week (possibly up to two) so now I can start getting excited, clearing a space for the thing and planning all the things I’m going to do with it – it’s been far too long since I’ve had a fast machine that could run anything and everything I want.

 

So far I’ve bought Shogun Total War and The Witcher 2 for when it arrives. Anyone got any suggestions for other games to try on it? If it will show off the capabilities of the machine then all the better – preferably titles with ridiculously high resolutions and cranked up graphics settings which my old PC would’ve fainted at the sight of. Also looking forward to trying my hand on some high-end animation and graphics suites without having to wait a week between screen refreshes

[locutus]

Crysis 2 seems to be the game that people use to compare systems, so I'd guess thats gonna be a pretty demanding (PC wise) game.

[Saz1]

Hi Jon,

 

I've glad I've found this forum as I too am currently considering a purchase from Palicomp. I was looking at the Phoenix i5 Z68 Warrior system. Its a little bit less than the beast you are looking at. The Warrior is £1199.99, I've no doubt the Hydro-X is a better PC, but I don't want to spend that much, as its not going to be a gaming PC.

 

I to have selected an overclocked Core i5 2500K, as this seems to be the norm with almost all computer manufactures. My concern is that I am going to buy this PC on finance as I see they offer Interest Free for 12 months. I just wondered where I sit regarding if there's any major issues with the PC. Obviously if a problem arose I would firstly contact Palicomp and let them resolve it via warranty. I have decided to go for the carefree warranty, as this has 3 years total cover, hardware, software and all carriage costs. It would cost a fortune to start paying P+P costs to send it all over the country. My main concern is if I have to take things further, I would normally have my credit card company to back me up if I ever have to take a chargeback up with anyone - which I have done before and they are very helpful and got my money back very quickly from another online company. Obviously if I go down the finance route I would have to deal with a company called Hitachi Finance - has anyone ever had a finance agreement with this company before. Apparently its the same company that make the hard drives Hitachi, but they have branched off and set up a finance arm.

 

I may also give Palicomp a call, I was going to just place the order online as you can select the finance option on the payment screen. From what you have said Jon, it sounds like they have been very helpful with you on what is perhaps a bit of a dodgy subject. At the end of the day if an overclocked CPU does fail, then will Intel actually replace the item, as it has been stressed up to 4.8Ghz. I think I will speak to them and ask them if its actually even worth having the overclock. Maybe I would be better off just having it without the overclock as my applications aren't exactly that demanding anyway - I just want a PC that can run things at a decent rate, and doesn't take ages to boot up. I am impressed with their website thought as there are plenty of customisable options, and all other companies do also seem to be doing the same kind of thing, so maybe its just me being over cautious!

 

Would appreciate anyone's thoughts on overclocking and how safe it is and if anyone has bought something on finance before and had an issue.

 

Thanks

Saran

[JonDylan]

Crysis 2 looks like a good shout. I know that the previous one was famously hard on PCs (I think Crysis jokes are practically mandatory when discussing supercomputers, e.g. “It touches 50 teraFLOPS – almost enough to run Crysis on full graphics settings”). I had heard that the second one had been technically “dumb-down” to accommodate running it on the Xbox 360 and PS3, but looking again I can see since its release it has been patched to allow for higher resolution textures and DirectX 11 on 64-bit operating systems. As it would be a crime to have a top spec PC and not have a version of Crysis to play on it I’ve ordered a copy from Amazon for under 14 quid – bargain ahoy.

 

It should arrive in time for the system itself, which Palicomp have confirmed will be with me on Tuesday. This probably means I should get some fresh air and go running or something this weekend, as the next few weeks will doubtless be spent in a darkened room hunched over my new toy (yes, I’ve booked some days off work).

 

Saran – the Phoenix i5 Z68 Warrior still looks a very nice piece of kit, but if you’re not a gamer then it’s unlikely you will need the power anyway. I’m constantly telling people who only ever browse the internet and play Farmville that they don’t need to spend a lot of money on a powerful laptop as their requirements are tiny and most of their money will be going to waste.

 

I don’t really know anything about finance agreements I’m afraid – I hate being in debt and prefer to save up for what I want before I buy something rather than worry about paying it off later, but each to their own my friend. I would assume that you would have exactly the same consumer rights buying on credit that you would if you bought it outright. Possibly more in fact, as you tend to have more power if the money is in your pocket rather than theirs.

 

Re: the overclocking, again it comes down to personal choice. I wanted an overclocked machine as I want to run the best games available as they were intended to be run, and to be future-proofed to some extent so that I can do so for as long as possible with having to upgrade. It also irks me to think that the processor in my machine isn’t performing to its full potential – many CPUs are actually underclocked by the manufacturer so they can be sold for less, so you have exactly the same processor running far slower, but I digress. I guess it depends what you want to do with your computer and which applications you want to run? If you are doing 3D modelling then you’ll want a beast of a machine, if you’re just cropping photos on Photoshop then maybe less so.

 

A faster PC will tend to boot up more quickly, but a lot of the boot up time is attributable to the operating system – if you are still on Windows XP you will get faster boot speeds even on the same spec computer, and probably quite a bit better on a new PC. Linux will boot up even faster, but it won’t necessarily run everything you want.

 

Personally, I would go for an overclocked machine because as stated earlier, if anything goes wrong inside the 1 year warranty then Palicomp would have to deal with it anyway. Being pre-overclocked means you aren’t taking quite the same risk as you would be by overclocking it yourself. Of course, it is possible that reliability will be impaired later on in the machine’s life, which is something to take into account. You might not need the extra performance from an overclock right now, but it could mean you are able to leave it longer before you upgrade, saving you some money further down the road. At the end of the day it’s your call – it took me long enough to decide myself, never mind doing it for someone else! Good luck with your purchase though, whatever way you decide to go with it. I’ll let you know how I get on with my machine once it is delivered if you like. My experience has been good so far with Palicomp, but I will be able to give you a better assessment once I have taken delivery.

 

Cheers,

 

Jon

[Saz1]

Hi Jon,

 

Thanks very much for your advice, I have decided to purchase on a credit card now as last time I had an issue online they were extremely helpful in winning my case, and did all the leg work for me and within I think it was 14 days they refunded me and the supplier collected the goods. So I think this is the best option all round for protection should things go wrong - you read about so many horror story's online so I think its best to be safe than sorry!

 

Your right in saying I wont need a very powerful PC as I'm not really into gaming, but I have a son who is, and although at the moment the games he plays are pretty basic, this is because we haven't got a PC that can cope with modern titles.

 

I e-mailed the Palicomp sales dept in the end on and got a reply within an hour which I was really impressed with, I have copied this below, as it may help with your situation re the overclock. I was so impressed that I have decided to purchase from the Phoenix i5 Z68 warrior. I decided to go without an overclock for now, as you can see in their reply as I have taken their carefree warranty, at any time in the 3 years I can contact them and they said they would tell me how to set it up if I feel the PC isn't running as fast as it used too. Who knows by the time that happens they may even have a faster overclock available. Apparently its totally safe as the CPUs have been designed to overclock, but you need to make sure it has a K in the model number. But as the PC comes with 16GB RAM I don't think it will be slow, and at least I wont be worried about any overheating issues.

 

I am sure you will be using your PC for much more intensive applications that I do. To be honest I didn't want to spend £1000+ on my PC, but looking at the specs online, there is so much more power available with the warrior at this price than some other suppliers I looked at. I even went into PC World at the weekend and I was shocked to see that they didn't have anything anywhere near as good spec for the money I have paid.

 

Please let me know how you get on with your PC when it arrives and if you have any problems with the overclock, as this may help me with my choice of when to put the overclock settings on and see if there is a speed boost and if its worth risking the downside of damaging the PC. I'm sure I'm just worrying for the sake of it, but when your spending as much money on a PC as you do on a second hand car, you want it to be good you know!

 

Below is the reply I have received from Palicomp regarding my queries from my above post....

 

Hi Saran,

 

Thank you very much for your e-mail and the interest you have shown in the Palicomp Phoenix i5 Z68 Warrior. As you already know this PC has won a PC PRO Alist award and is currently their PC of choice for this price bracket. Please find your quote below and ref number for this is in the subject bar. If you wish to proceed with the order just reply or call us on 01270 898104.

 

Regarding your concerns on the overclocked CPU on this PC and overclocks in general. To be honest you do not have to worry. Basically Intel now design their 2500K and 2600K CPUs with overclocking in mind, so they are not only guaranteed to overclock but also they are still in warranty if they fail. That said if you are worried that it will affect the lifespan of the PC or you don't want the CPU temperature to be as high, which also makes the noise of the PC slightly higher, then we can remove the overclock for you. This way you will get the PC at the standard clock speed of 3.3Ghz (still really fast!), then as you have selected our 3 year carefree package, you can contact us at any point in the 3 years and we will give you the settings for the overclock and you can then apply it and we can talk you though it. To be honest its a very simple process of changing some BIOS settings, but you just have to know what to tweak and to what amount. We have experts here at Palicomp who are constantly hitting new speeds, so when you are ready you can just give us a shout and we will help you with that.

 

Finally regarding the finance agreement, your rights are the same as though you are paying by any other payment method. Also as you are on the carefree cover, should you have any issues we will collect the PC and return it to you all free of charge, and to be honest we have very few issues with our PCs anyway. If you get yourself into trouble at all with the software, we can remotely log in to your PC and take control and fix any issues for you.

 

Your quote is below if you want to make anymore changes just let us know and we be only to pleased to help. Thanks again for considering us and I hope you decide to purchase....

 

Phoenix i5 Z68 Warrior @ £1199.99

3 Year Carefree Warranty @ £108.00

Delivery (P+P) @ £29.50

TOTAL INC VAT & DELIVERY @ £1337.49

 

Kind Regards,

Palicomp Sales Dept

[JonDylan]

As promised, I thought I would post a quick update on my Palicomp Phoenix Hydro-X Core i7 2600k, which was delivered this week (yay!). The system arrived as advised on Tuesday and was really well packed - I don’t think it would have been much the worse if they had dropped it out of the back of the lorry, but thankfully they carried it in for me and were polite and courteous, so no complaints delivery-wise.

 

Having lived with the PC for a couple of days now, I think the case actually looks better in real-life than in photos; it has got a quality, black and very robust look about it. The most pleasing thing though is what is inside the case – everything has been laid out very neatly, with cables all tied back out of the way so you can see exactly what goes where. Certainly much better than I would have managed. Don’t know why, but I had the impression that the case would be filled by the cooling apparatus, which it isn’t – it’s actually very spacious and roomy in there.

 

The best thing though is how it runs. Having a creaky old machine prior to this one probably helps, but the Phoenix is absurdly fast. Not only does it boot up far quicker than any Windows box I’ve ever used, it makes mincemeat of any applications I run. Have been playing around with ridiculously large Photoshop files just because I can – the sort of massive images that my old computer would think about for half an hour before deciding it would be easier to just fall over

 

Games-wise, Crysis 2 looks AMAZING on its highest settings (thanks for the tip Locutus). At times it’s so pretty that you are too busy looking at the scenery to notice you’re about to get wasted, but it’s all good. Shogun Total War also really good, but haven’t had chance to play anything else yet.

 

Thanks for the info from Palicomp Saran – I didn’t realise that the CPUs had been specifically designed for overclocking, so that’s reassuring from a long-term reliability / usage point of view. If Intel are guaranteeing them for that purpose then they must be stable enough for the purpose. The overclock on my machine seems fine – if it wasn’t for the performance and test scores you probably wouldn’t know it was overclocked – it’s not very noisy and it doesn’t seem to run very hot either, so the cooling equipment appears to be doing an admirable job.

 

In your case, the option of overclocking at a later date seems sensible and it’s one I hadn’t thought about. That way you’re not placing any needless stress on the system while you don’t need the extra power, but it’s there if you need it at a later date (e.g. if your son gets into PC gaming and wants a bit more oomph). It might also extend the useful life of your computer if you clock it once it starts struggling several years from now.

 

Cheers,

 

Jon

[Saz1]

Just thought I'd post a reply, can't quite believe it but my PC turned up earlier today. They told me 10 days when I was ordering and tried to talk me into the Q-JUMP service for £25, but even though I said no, they got the PC to me within 5 days. So I'm glad I didn't pay the extra now as that would have been a waste of money. I don't understand why they state 10 days if they can in fact do it much quicker, sounds a bit like a con to me to get an extra £25 - still i'm sure some people will pay it that are desperate to get their PC next day.

 

Anyway onto the good news, its all set up with Windows7 out of the box and the picture quality on the screen is good. But the speed is just amazing, so much quicker than my last one. It boots up in just 20 or so seconds. Before I used to go and make a brew and come back and it would still be loading all those annoying programs in the corner. I haven't had much chance to push it yet, the most intense thing I've done is install MSN lol. I was disappointed to find that you don't get Microsoft Office as standard, I would have thought that came with Windows7? When I called Palicomp earlier they told me its £100 - does anyone know if I can get it cheaper online. The PC was a real bargain but it seems when you want extras it soon adds up!

 

There was one issue with the PC which I mentioned to them on the phone earlier, and I know its just silly but I didn't get any documentation in with the PC regarding the warranty. There was a full vat receipt and some FAQs, but nothing to say I had bought the warranty. So I called and spoke to Jay (very helpful by the way) and told him of my concerns, and within an hour their accounts dept had e-mailed me my T&C. I also wanted in writing that they would give me those overclock settings in the future, should I decide to put that on. I cant see me needing it though, the PC does almost everything instantly, everytime you doubleclick on an icon it opens the folder straight away - but its good to have that option there you know for the future. Who knows one day my Son and I may get into all this blowing up monsters and things lol.

 

Let me know how you get with your PC Jon when you start using it more and if you think that I should put the overclock on, but I cant imagine it doing much more than it already does. I have also read some horror stories online about overclocking going wrong and making PCs overheat and blue screen - sounds like its a hassle I could do without. I just want a PC to run along nicely and last me another 10 years!

 

So if anyone does know of a place I can get cheap Microsoft Office, less than £100 please let me know! I will need it as I used to use Microsoft Work for writing letters etc and Excel for keeping track of my finances and stuff. Apparently the version on my old PC isn't compatible so I will need to update to Office2010, and home and student was the version they were trying to sell me.

 

Just want to round off by saying so far I am very impressed with the speed and performance of my new PC, and bar a few hiccups, Palicomp have been very good to me and my next door neighbour is looking to purchase a PC too, but no where near the value of this one, so I've told her to call in and speak to them as they were really helpful with me. Anyone have any suggestions what she should get, her budget is about £400.

[locutus]

Students get Office dirt cheap (pugh.co.uk is where I got my partners from when she was a student) and they didn't seem to even check that she was a student. Other than that, amazon are quite good... you can run a search in google shopping to compare online prices.

 

Before you buy tho, try "open office" which is free... most people find it as good as Microsoft office... Keep us informed with how things go, and any problems and resolutions.

[Saz1]

They actually installed OpenOffice on the PC as standard, but I didn't know if it was compatible with all my existing word and excel docs etc? Also I've only just started getting my head around how Microsoft Word and Excel work. I've only had a quick look at OpenOffice and it looks pretty similar but menu options aren't called the same and aren't in the same place etc. I've just spoken to someone who mentioned software for students, the website has all Microsoft Office programs cheaper than online places and cheaper than Palicomp offered me! I don't want to purchase one and get caught by Microsoft etc, its not worth the risk. Also what if Microsoft block me from updates etc. If you can assure me that everything will be fine then I may take a gamble, you only live once eh lol!

 

The only other option is for me to get my mum to purchase a copy as she is doing a college course at the moment, does anyone know if she buys the copy if I can then install it on the PC and I can use it, like pretending it was for her? Well to be honest she would probably use it over here anyway, so I think that may be a more legit way of doing it!

 

Thanks for everyone's advice so far and as soon as I decide where to purchase this Office, I will try out the Palicomp tech support line as I get software support with them, and I'm hoping they can talk me though installing it. I'm sure it cant be that hard though, probably come with some instructions of some sort. It better had the amount they charge for it! LOL

[locutus]

OK if your mum orders it, she'll get a cd/dvd in a wallet with a serial number. Put the CD in the drive and follow the instructions.

 

P.S. if your mum has a .ac.uk email address, she can go directly thrugh microsoft which is even cheaper.

 

P.P.S. open office is compatable with office files:)

Edited August 20, 2011 by locutus

[Saz1]

Thanks for the advice, we went with software for students in the end, as that's what Palicomp suggested when I spoke to them this morning. I expected a hard sell on their software to be honest but once I informed them my mum was studying they suggested to save money that I go online and purchase direct from software for students. I've told mum to go for the Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus version as its only £37.89 !! and you get so much in the package for such a small amount. I understand the comment re OpenOffice and I'm sure if I had more time to get my head around where all the options have moved too I would be able to use this. But as the software is so much lower in price then its a no brainer!

 

Regarding my neighbour as her budget is so much lower than mine, I have suggested to her, after looking at all the options in this price bracket to go for a Core i3 530 CPU and to have it overclocked. It was difficult to explain to her why to have the overclocking option as I choose not too, but as that CPU is so much less powerful than mine at its standard speed, it will need the overclock to perform really well. There are reports online that the speed can reach over 4Ghz, but this is a lot less than the sandybridge overclocks as I see they go up to 4.8Ghz or even 5Ghz in some places. Does anyone know why this is the case? Are the i3 CPUs not capable of the same speeds as the i5 CPUs? Also if not, is there any reason why not to have an overclocked i3? I'm sure from what I see they are just as reliable I just don't understand why the clock speed isn't as high.

 

Also as she cant afford a 3 year warranty, she will have to go with the standard 1 year. Can anyone let me know if parts fail after the 1st year if I can do anything about getting them replaced, as Intel say on their site 3 years, and what about other parts like hard drive and RAM memory etc.

 

Finally I'm just wondering if Jon has had any problems at all with the overclock on his new PC? I think you say it was 4.8Ghz, is that the actual speed they did for you as it says on the website that CPUs are not all the same and sometimes they send them out at 4.6Ghz.

[locutus]

The main difference in the i3 chipset is the lower cache memory, other than that (low cache can cause a bottleneck in performance on some demanding stuff) the i3 does overclock nicely.

 

Personally, I don't do the overclock thing. My system could go about 33% faster if I did, mobo, memory and processor and cooling are all capable, but most PCs I see that are "running slow" I find it's rarely the processor. Ballancing a system against the customers needs can be quite hard. So, the main thing in finding out what the best solution is what is your neighbour going to be doing?

[Saz1]

Hi Locutus? (is that your name?)

 

Thanks for getting back to me Low Cache is a term im not too familiar with, but im learning all the time. I've done quite a bit of research for me neighbour, and the max budget she has is £500. From what im seeing online you can get a very good balanced PC for this price, most feature an i3 CPU, that is overclocked at least to 4Ghz. Also a mid range graphics card is included so they you can do basic gaming online etc.

 

What she wants is a balanced PC so its fast and quite modern in different areas. The different types of applications she will be using vary from every day Microsoft Office Use ( I can help here purchase this cheap now!) through to online gaming on facebook etc, and watching DVDs etc. And of course she spends a lot of time on eBay buying stuff cheap, and she sells stuff on there too, so its quite important that the internet on it is reliable, but I think this is more to do with the router she has and the connection to the ISP? I think she's just after something that will run quickly to be honest, having had her current PC for I think about 10 years now, its just not up to the task anymore! lol. Its one of those beige cases with beige big massive monitors :o) I think she's more excited how her office will look with the old equipment binned and new shiny black tower unit in there and flat screen TFT. She's seen my new PC and been bitten by the bug now and wants one. But cant afford to spend as much we I did, (well my credit card did!). To be honest she knows very little about specs and upon looking around a lot of sites are very confusing and don't help people like her find a machine that would fit her needs easily enough. I've told her she doesn't need a top end PC for the type of games she plays but you never know when she sees the kind of gaming I can get from mine, she may wanna replace and upgrade, but im sure if we are getting a modern PC this is something she can look into for the future.

 

I contacted Palicomp again where I bought this PC from and they recommended their Core i3 Base unit range, but as she cant afford the software cover she's gonna need some help moving her data over etc. Can anyone tell me what's the easiest way to move over her data and programs from her old base unit to her new one? I know moving data is easy as you can just put them on a CD or USB pen etc, but how do you actually move over any programs. Or is there a program that can move all the programs and data over in one go? She has tonnes of photos on there, so they are main thing she obviously doesn't want to lose.

 

Just finally locutus, Can I just ask why if your PC is capable of a 33% increase in speed if you don't do it? Is there a downside, even if its not as much of an increase as you'd see in real terms, even if it makes it faster, is it not worth doing? I'm still contemplating overclocking mine, as I should be able to get upto 5Ghz which is a massive jump from my standard speed of 3.3ghz. But I'm still unsure if I need to do it, and my PC is performing just fine as it is.

[locutus]

"Overclocking" is running your system faster than it's designed. The downside is your system generally produces more heat (hence you need good system cooling) it also voids the warranty (although as Palicomp are selling it as overclocked, they still cover your product)

 

Moving the files is simple. You could even take the physical hard drive out of the old PC and put it in an external housing (10 year old PC will be IDE, so this would hold the old hard drive and you connect this via USB to the new computer, and copy accross the files, then this also acts as a backup)

 

Moving programs is not as simple as just dragging the files across I'm afraid, you need to install them using the original install disks

 

CPU Cache is the memory built into the processor. It is really fast memory that helps move data between the computers memory and the processor, more cache memory makes your computer able to move data to the processor faster.

 

Nothing on your neighbours list needs a great deal of memory or graphics / processor power, and if style is what your neighbour wants most of all there are other options. Things like this would perform perfectly well (about 10x better than a 10 year old PC so still will impress your neighbour) coupled with the touch screen and asthetics could put that as the favorite in your neighbours eyes. Palicomp have good prices on custom builds, but a "custom build" is for people who want to pay a little extra and get better gaming / processing power, like yourself and the Original Poster of this thread JonDylan.