Falcon gaming PC review

[ABuchler]

I'm not quite sure if this is the right place to post it, but it didn't seem there was a better sub forum to do it in, so here goes.

I have not received my PC but it has been shipped, so this is a review of the process and not the product itself, I will return if the PC is not entirely satisfactory.
TLDR 2.5/5 stars - Slow delivery time and confusing & misleading information on product pages.

Delivery Time
I placed my order one the 1st February at 1541 and I am due to receive the PC tomorrow. When I placed the order it stated to "please allow 8-10 Working days. Longer during busy periods", all the parts were in stock (or so I thought) at the time of purchase. I fully appreciate that with Covid-19 everything takes longer but the lack of transparency is concerning.
First off, when I said that all parts were in stock it turns out that even though they have a green dot next to their phanteks P350X case, this case is apparently "Bought to order" despite the fact that every other green dot I've checked indicates "In Stock", that's fairly confusing. It may have resulted in my PC arriving later as they had to upgrade me to a P360A as they were unable to fulfill the order with a P350X.
Second, I contacted Customer services on the 9th of February about current estimated build times where a friendly representative replied that it would be 10-15 days completion (Sidenote: I believe this may have been edited as I think it originally stated build times). To me an order is not completed until the customer has the product in their possession, but evidently all of their estimates are in fact their build times not including delivery.
I was informed later on that my PC would finish building and ship on the 22nd February (which the customer service rep also pointed out was the 15th working day), it shipped on the 23rd. It should arrive tomorrow, but as I said when a company lists a waiting time that is time until the product is with me and even though they have the "more during busy periods" caveat almost double the wait time seems excessive.

Misleading information
As I mentioned above about the confusing "in stock" green dot that didn't actually mean in stock and the "Please allow 8-10 working days. Longer during busy periods" actually meaning build time.
Another thing was the lack of information (or maybe even straight up disinformation) on the motherboard. The most detail on the motherboard I received (I did not contact customer service for more details) was on the product page where it's listed as: "MSI B550 (Socket AM4) ATX Motherboard"
however when I received my invoice (on the 23rd) it's actually a "MSI B550M PRO-VDH WiFi (AMD AM4) B550 Micro-ATX". So they have it listed as an ATX board while it is in fact a MATX board, sure it's still a MSI B550, it's just one of the absolute cheapest ones.

In conclusion
Overall, I'd still say I got a good deal from Overclockers compared to the pricing of other builders for an identical build, but the wait time (and confusing information about this) and the misleading information on the motherboard are quite big detractors in my opinion.
One more thing I almost forgot, I bought the extra insurance for 34.99£ for a year, it turns out that this insurance cover starts from the date of purchase rather than delivery date, so I have effectively lost almost a full month of my insurance cover due to the long delivery times.
Please note that I do base this rating on my system working flawlessly, I will return to adjust this review should this not be the case.

 

[pc-guy]

how much was it and what spec? i doubt it is a good deal. OCUK prebuild system is usually at least £100 more than other equivalent.

all pre-builds usually carry a fairly big mark up when compared sourcing parts by yourself. that's not even get into the realm of OEM prices for parts compared with retail prices for parts.

anyway if customer services is what you after there is a sub-forum for that. you just need to post a thread in there and OCUK staff will respond

 

[ABuchler]

how much was it and what spec? i doubt it is a good deal. OCUK prebuild system is usually at least £100 more than other equivalent.

all pre-builds usually carry a fairly big mark up when compared sourcing parts by yourself. that's not even get into the realm of OEM prices for parts compared with retail prices for parts.

anyway if customer services is what you after there is a sub-forum for that. you just need to post a thread in there and OCUK staff will respond

A good deal for a pre built, I was a bit surprised when I compared it to pc specialist and AWD IT which when I had been browsing earlier offered better value (Weirdly PC specialist seemed to always be the cheapest in spite of the fact that they offer 100% customizable parts).
Comparing it to a self built one is a bit moot, can't really argue against the fact that they charge to build it. What's surprising is how poor value things like Alienware, Legion and others are considering they should be able to produce larger volumes and save money there. However, with all that taken into consideration, if I had to get all the parts from various suppliers online I would have ended up paying roughly the same, and then had to assemble it myself. Then I would have to have found places with items in stock, which is no small task these days.
I am not looking for a response from OCUK customer services, this is a review of the entire process of ordering and the lack of transparency on their product page.

Btw, I did get my rig today and it seems to be working very nicely and certainly runs very very quiet.

 

[Nathan MacGillivray]

I'm not quite sure if this is the right place to post it, but it didn't seem there was a better sub forum to do it in, so here goes.

I have not received my PC but it has been shipped, so this is a review of the process and not the product itself, I will return if the PC is not entirely satisfactory.
TLDR 2.5/5 stars - Slow delivery time and confusing & misleading information on product pages.

Delivery Time
I placed my order one the 1st February at 1541 and I am due to receive the PC tomorrow. When I placed the order it stated to "please allow 8-10 Working days. Longer during busy periods", all the parts were in stock (or so I thought) at the time of purchase. I fully appreciate that with Covid-19 everything takes longer but the lack of transparency is concerning.
First off, when I said that all parts were in stock it turns out that even though they have a green dot next to their phanteks P350X case, this case is apparently "Bought to order" despite the fact that every other green dot I've checked indicates "In Stock", that's fairly confusing. It may have resulted in my PC arriving later as they had to upgrade me to a P360A as they were unable to fulfill the order with a P350X.
Second, I contacted Customer services on the 9th of February about current estimated build times where a friendly representative replied that it would be 10-15 days completion (Sidenote: I believe this may have been edited as I think it originally stated build times). To me an order is not completed until the customer has the product in their possession, but evidently all of their estimates are in fact their build times not including delivery.
I was informed later on that my PC would finish building and ship on the 22nd February (which the customer service rep also pointed out was the 15th working day), it shipped on the 23rd. It should arrive tomorrow, but as I said when a company lists a waiting time that is time until the product is with me and even though they have the "more during busy periods" caveat almost double the wait time seems excessive.

Misleading information
As I mentioned above about the confusing "in stock" green dot that didn't actually mean in stock and the "Please allow 8-10 working days. Longer during busy periods" actually meaning build time.
Another thing was the lack of information (or maybe even straight up disinformation) on the motherboard. The most detail on the motherboard I received (I did not contact customer service for more details) was on the product page where it's listed as: "MSI B550 (Socket AM4) ATX Motherboard"
however when I received my invoice (on the 23rd) it's actually a "MSI B550M PRO-VDH WiFi (AMD AM4) B550 Micro-ATX". So they have it listed as an ATX board while it is in fact a MATX board, sure it's still a MSI B550, it's just one of the absolute cheapest ones.

In conclusion
Overall, I'd still say I got a good deal from Overclockers compared to the pricing of other builders for an identical build, but the wait time (and confusing information about this) and the misleading information on the motherboard are quite big detractors in my opinion.
One more thing I almost forgot, I bought the extra insurance for 34.99£ for a year, it turns out that this insurance cover starts from the date of purchase rather than delivery date, so I have effectively lost almost a full month of my insurance cover due to the long delivery times.
Please note that I do base this rating on my system working flawlessly, I will return to adjust this review should this not be the case.

When you say above that "I was informed later on that my PC would finish building and ship on the 22nd February", did you receive a 2nd e-mail stating this? Or did you call customer services a 2nd time and they informed you of this? I just wonder as I have placed an order on the 2nd March and was told by customer services itll be 15 days maximum hopefully, next Tuesday would be 15 max. I'm just curious whether I'll receive an update via e-mail or if you had to call again, Cheers.

 

[ABuchler]

When you say above that "I was informed later on that my PC would finish building and ship on the 22nd February", did you receive a 2nd e-mail stating this? Or did you call customer services a 2nd time and they informed you of this? I just wonder as I have placed an order on the 2nd March and was told by customer services itll be 15 days maximum hopefully, next Tuesday would be 15 max. I'm just curious whether I'll receive an update via e-mail or if you had to call again, Cheers.

I was in contact with customer service along the way, they did not reach out to me unprompted.

 

[slim01]

A good deal for a pre built, I was a bit surprised when I compared it to pc specialist and AWD IT which when I had been browsing earlier offered better value (Weirdly PC specialist seemed to always be the cheapest in spite of the fact that they offer 100% customizable parts).
Comparing it to a self built one is a bit moot, can't really argue against the fact that they charge to build it. What's surprising is how poor value things like Alienware, Legion and others are considering they should be able to produce larger volumes and save money there. However, with all that taken into consideration, if I had to get all the parts from various suppliers online I would have ended up paying roughly the same, and then had to assemble it myself. Then I would have to have found places with items in stock, which is no small task these days.
I am not looking for a response from OCUK customer services, this is a review of the entire process of ordering and the lack of transparency on their product page.

Btw, I did get my rig today and it seems to be working very nicely and certainly runs very very quiet.

A lot of the biggest companies spend shed loads on branding and being the "best" and therefore it makes sense for them to charge the most to appear the highest quality.

Obviously they're not. Local companies will often do a better job and give better service to boot.