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Alex
I got a water-colled laptop recently, and my experience has been mostly good but has some negatives too. Here are my honest thoughts on this: Ordering it: All was easy, but the configuration process it's not super friendly if you're not a tech nerd. You need to know what you're building as the parts don't give you explanations as to why is one better than the other, etc. But if you are configuring it you probably should know what you're doing and it's great that they won't let you make mistakes. If you choose a component that isn't compatible with another, you get an error explaining what is the issue, what might you need to change, and why. The website is overall what I'd expect from a PC specialist retailer that speaks to people who know what they're after. Delivery: Okay, here they really excel. You know every step in the production and get detailed updates for everything. The packaging is done at its best in terms of device safety. I'm normally terrified of getting laptops/desktops delivered because I don't trust the delivery process. Things can get bumped, kicked, dropped and shaken during transport. These guys take that into account and wrap this thing in a bunch of shock-absorbing stuff, box it then box it again with more protection. I got a 17" laptop in a box the size of a suitcase. They do everything possible to get what you bought undamaged and that deserves 5 stars. Device performance: I work in the creative industry and I use this more for rendering and editing After Effects, C4D and other Adobe software. I even tested this on Unreal Engine and handles easily everything I throw at it without even getting warm. I was editing a 4k video in After Effects and towards the end I realised I was working at full resolution and my laptop wasn't even lagging in the least. So if you're a creative, I really recommend this setup. (my main specs are below) Haven't played any games so far. Where they dropped the ball: The instructions that came with this had nothing to do with the parts I had. Here I'm speaking about the water-cooling box that connects to the laptop. The cooler pairs over Bluetooth and there are steps I had to figure out myself to get it working. The install "manual" needs updating. I did give a headache to customer service and had long chats over what wasn't okay. The good thing is that they pick up the phone, actively answer emails and you can chat even on WhatsApp. The only issue is that they didn't seem to be aware either of what you get in the box and you need to tell them. Every order should have pictures attached to what's been put in the box so that you don't have to explain. After speaking to customer support I got a next-day delivery for water pipes replacement at no cost. Thanks, Rotimi! It's been less than a month since I got this and so far I'm happy. Might return here in a year or so to give an update on how this thing lasted all the "wear and tear" The laptop: It looks and feels good/premium. The vents are big and it cools well. Overall it seems the laptop is built to last. And the most important thing is that this laptop was £1000 cheaper than the exact specs equivalent but with a brand name. The cooler: Well, It's a fan with a water pump in a box. The box looks neat. And well it needs to connect to your laptop and that makes it less mobile, but you should expect that. When you disconnect there's going to be some water. Put some paper towels on your desk before. There's no troubleshooting manual, would be nice if they'd make one. The pipes are magnetic, and they attach easily, but to me, it feels like they'd disconnect easily too by mistake but I'm not going to test it. Wish these had a locking mechanism. The cooler makes some noise but nothing to be worried about. Also, its purpose isn't necessarily to make your laptop cool but to allow to processor to operate at a higher frequency before reaching throttle temperature. So it's a performance enhancer, the device will still warm up but will perform better than without this gadget. The goal is not just to keep the laptop cool but to sustain high performance for longer periods and that means you won't see a huge temperature difference compared to a non-water-cooled laptop. Another great thing was that I got a promotional offer with the processor and the graphic card and got 2 games for free and these are worth about £100 if you buy them separately. This might not be the case for you as it was a promotional offer and these don't last forever but was a welcomed addition. Bottom line: I'd buy again and whenever I'll get a desktop I'm returning here. If you're a gamer or creative this is a smart choice. I know I sound like I'm low-key advertising but what can I say, they're not bad. I'm also an Apple hater and before I had an MSI creator that was a really really bad choice. I'm just glad I found a new alternative that ticks my boxes. Cheers! My specs: Recoil Series: 17" Matte QHD+ 240Hz sRGB 100% LED Widescreen (2560x1600) with a Liquid Series Laptop Cooler Processor (CPU): Intel® Core™ i9 24 Core Processor 14900HX (5.8GHz Turbo) Memory (RAM):32GB Corsair 4800MHz SODIMM DDR5 (2 x 16GB) Graphics Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 4090 - 16.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1 month ago
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Alice, Customer Support

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