I recently purchased a Vortex III 17" laptop from PC Specialist and have been very pleased that I did. The ordering process was very easy and incredibly informative. Each and every selection you could make for every single category (CPU, RAM etc) was well explained. They even went as far as to give the customer in depth side by side comparisons for the different hardware, which was very useful in deed. Anyone who has ordered from Dell for example, would know that they do not give any information about their hardware choices beyond their name. The price was also very reasonable. I put a similar laptop together on Dell's website, and the price was already £1000 over what PC Specialist were charging, and Dell's hardware was of inferior spec. PC Specialist even give the option of cooling gel, which for an avid gamer is a must!

The build time for the laptop would have been around 6-8 days, but I opted for the 3 day fast track option when I ordered. The laptop was built and dispatched within the fast track period and delivery was also on time. The item was well packaged (one box inside another for extra protection) and everything was included inside. The build quality of the laptop was excellent and everything works fine (except for one small problem where Windows 7 seems to have a problem with not allowing me to create a system image through the USB 3 ports, and gives me an error code of 0x80070002). I have yet to find a solution to this problem, but do not think the ports are defective, as I am able to transfer normal data through USB 3 with no problems. I am also slightly disappointed with the laptop's sound quality when using headphones, and despite tweaking the THX software, cannot for the life of me raise the volume to an acceptable level.

As for customer service, I can only give my opinion on the ordering process and the technical support. Both were very good. Anyone who has had to call a technical support helpline will know how refreshing it is to speak to someone in the UK for once! Other companies like Dell, BT etc seem to outsource these services to India. And whilst pleasant, the Indian support staff in my experience, seem to have a hard time grasping what you are trying to say to them, which for technical support (which usually involves conveying complicated information) can be very frustrating.

Would I recommend PC Specialist to a friend or relative? Yes. Most definitely.

EDIT: I have tried a new pair of headphones (Sony) and wow, what a difference! I am now having to turn the volume down to avoid having my ear drums burst! So please disregard what I said about the poor headphone volume. If anyone else has this issue try a decent pair of headphones, as it might help.