Chillblast laptops not fit for purpose?

Carefulspender1

I purchased a Chillblast Phantom Laptop for £2100 in August 2022 with a 5 year warranty. The first 2 years included collection, parts and labour, the final 3 years are labour only. After 21 months, in May 2024, my laptop black screened and I sent it back – I was told it was the motherboard and that the laptop was unrepairable, therefore, they sent me a replacement. However they had stopped making the Phantom and sent me a Chillblast Defiant instead. 22 months later the Defiant has also black screened.

I phoned Chillblast and explained and the customer service chap said that despite it being a new laptop 22 months ago it does not qualify for a replacement as my warranty ran from the purchase of the first laptop in August 2022 and so I am only covered for labour. I was told my only option is to send it to them at a cost of £40 delivery for them to look at it, which might take up to 4 weeks judging by recent reviews, and if it’s unrepairable they will return it to me.

I took it to an independent repairer to get their opinion and within an hour they told me that the motherboard was dead and only Chillblast could replace it as it is one only they can source. A new motherboard would cost in the region of £1000 and in my mind, judging by my experience of their goods, is unlikely to last 2 years.

I was just going to put this down to bad experience as I need a laptop/desktop replacement so that I can continue with a project I’m working on, but I live on a tight budget and the more I think about it surely my consumer rights give me leverage with regards to the laptop given to me as a replacement 22 months ago? Both motherboards failed in what I consider to be a short space of time – surely these goods weren’t fit for the purpose? Before I go back to Chillblast to complain I would really appreciate any advice any of you good people can give me on my rights. Many thanks.

Exodi

Carefulspender1
I purchased a Chillblast Phantom Laptop for £2100 in August 2022
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my laptop black screened and I sent it back

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they had stopped making the Phantom and sent me a Chillblast Defiant instead

That's pretty fortunate, I don't know about the Chillblast range, but I see online the Phantom is their beginner-mid range laptop, and the Defiant is their mid-high range laptop.

Carefulspender1
I phoned Chillblast and explained and the customer service chap said that despite it being a new laptop 22 months ago it does not qualify for a replacement as my warranty ran from the purchase of the first laptop in August 2022 and so I am only covered for labour.

This is likely correct, you are working under their warranty (of which the rules they can set as they like) and to be honest you would have had the use of a laptop for over 3.5 years, and they are still honouring the original warranty.

That said if it's another mobo issue, I can't say I'd be keen to replace it. I've never heard of Chillblast but two mobo issues in two separate laptops is quite alarming. I'd consider a more reputable brand with renowned build quality (e.g. Lenovo, HP, etc). I'm surprised about the price you paid in 2022. I bought a Lenovo Legion Pro with a Ultra 9 275HX, Nvidia 5070 Ti and 32gb 6400mhz RAM for £1750 a couple of months ago.

Carefulspender1

surely my consumer rights give me leverage with regards to the laptop given to me as a replacement 22 months ago? Both motherboards failed in what I consider to be a short space of time – surely these goods weren’t fit for the purpose? Before I go back to Chillblast to complain I would really appreciate any advice any of you good people can give me on my rights. Many thanks.

Well first is to be clear whether you are exercising your rights under the CRA or warranty, and not blurring the two.

Please don't say 'not fit for purpose' this a pet peeve of mine due to the overuse of the term (just like calling every company which someone has a bad experience with a scam). You used the laptops for years each, they're obviously suitable for what they were designed to do.

To return under the CRA, you'd need to prove the fault was inherent (usually done by an independent inspection - however this will be challenging, as you don't have the original laptop). You would then seek pro rata remedy based on their life expectancy. So if you would reasonably expect a laptop to last 5 years, and you've had it for about 3.5 years, you might expect 20% of the value you paid to be returned (~£600). You would not be entitled to a full refund, as you had over 3.5 years of use from the laptop (and the benefit of a better laptop half way through).

Aylesbury_Duck

There are a couple of potential challenges here. It's typical that warranties don't re-set when a replacement is provided, the 'clock' continues to run from the original purchase date. The warranty in this case was designed to provide collection, parts and labour in the first two years and it fulfilled that commitment.

Where did you buy it from? Chillblast themselves, or another retailer?

Having got a warranty replacement, you no longer have the laptop you paid for. Ordinarily, to exercise your consumer rights after this length of time, you'd ask that independent repairer to write you a short report confirming the problem and that it's an inherent fault and not one caused by overuse/abuse. The retailer would then have to provide a remedy. The trouble I see is that you no longer have the laptop you purchased. It's worth a try with the retailer, but they might have an easy 'out' on that basis.

You mention a project you're working on. If the laptop is used for business purposes, you don't necessarily have consumer rights, so be careful how you approach this. Again, if the retailer knows it was purchased for business use, that gives them another route to knocking back any request you make under consumer rights.

MattMattMattUK

Chillblast stopped making laptops at the start of the year so that probably complicates things somewhat. The build quality of their desktops are pretty well regarded.

The warranty running from the original purchase date is standard, no warranty resets if they replace the product.

They do not make the motherboards in themselves, the buy them in from manufacturers and then fit them into custom chassis, add other parts etc. Is the CPU Intel 13th or 14th generation K chip by any chance?

Carefulspender1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81921244#Comment_81921244

Thanks so much for your response @Aylesbury_Duck . What you say makes sense - I purchased the laptop from Chillblast direct and they are sticklers for their warranty no matter what the situation. I didn't overuse the laptop and the project I'm referring to is a photographic one not a work one. It looks like I'm just learning a very expensive lesson here.😑

My beef is that I only used the laptops for 21 months and 22 months respectively. I wonder if I am looking at laptop purchases through rose-tinted glasses as the last two I had prior to this lasted me 7 and 9 years respectively, although it's fair to say they weren't made by Chillblast. I just thought laptops had a life longer than 22 months. As an aside I've learned today that Chillblast went into administration for the second time in 2024 and I've read elsewhere they have quality control issues as well as their customer service becoming poor. It sounds like they are going the way of so many other small tech firms after takeover, such a shame.

Carefulspender1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81921250#Comment_81921250

Thanks for your response @MattMattMattUK yes in normal circumstances I can understand sticking to the warranty without a reset if the product is replaced but replacing it with another laptop with the same motherboard issue just didn't seem right…more of a quality control issue. I appreciate Chillblast will stick with their warranty terms I just really wanted to double check with the forum in case I was missing something so thanks for clarifying.

I think on the first laptop the CPU was an Intel i7-12700H. On the second one I don't have the information in writing and of course I can't look at the laptop to find out but I think it was a 13th generation i7. It looks like I'll just have to bite the bullet and buy a new machine. I've decided to go for a custom build desktop from a local supplier because then if something goes wrong the part can be replaced and I can talk to someone face to face. I do know now that given Chillblast's recent history I certainly wouldn't go to them.😊

MattMattMattUK

The 13th and 14th gen Intel chips suffered chip rot because of overly aggressive overvolting on the K chips, usually less of a problem on laptops but it was for some.

What kind of spec are you going for or what do you want to play and at what levels? Have you thought about building your own? It is not a difficult task, is cheaper and puts you in a much better position to fix things if/when they go wrong.

Carefulspender1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81922757#Comment_81922757

Thanks @MattMattMattUK that's interesting to know about the Intel chips as I'm now looking at getting a local computer shop who seem to have good reviews to build a desktop for me…I'm going to give laptops a wide berth from now on! I don't have any I use my machine mainly for photography, using Photoshop, Bridge and ACR so this is the sort of spec I was looking at:

1. Nvidia Graphics Card – GeForce RTX 4060ti or RTX 3080ti) with ideally 12GB Vram Needs to be Studio Drivers.
2. 32GB ram possibly 64GB – 2 or 4 slots?
3. Intel i7 14th generation 14700k/Ultra 7 series DDR5 support (perhaps I need to look at AMD given the issues with Intel 14th Gen chips
4. Storage 1TB SSD (512 GB budget option) for operating system and scratch disc. 2 or 4TB SSD for storage and all files.
5. Wifi and Bluetooth enabled
6. 2 sterio speakers, microphone
7. Windows 11
8. Ports – HDMI; 4-6 USB and 2-4 USB C (Thunderbolt); SD card reader; Headphone/Microphone jacks; Do I need an Ethernet connection?
9. Monitor: 2560 x 1440 24/27 inch preferred; IPS or QHD for colour accuracy - I'm looking at an Asus
10. Cooling - I've been told to go for liquid cooling Corsair.

If you've got experience of using photography machines I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this set up.😊

MattMattMattUK

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81924009#Comment_81924009

Those specs seem hugely overkill for photography and Photoshop, unless you are editing huge images, with dozens or even hundreds of effects rendering on top of each other. You also need to decide how much you really want to spend, 32GB of RAM is going to cost around £300-350 at the moment, so obviously twice that is doubling it and for very little performance gain.

1 Those are not really a good spec for what you are after, The RTX 3080Ti for example is a top end gaming card, more expensive, with little if any gains over a lower spec card for Photoshop, being two generations old you are going to be using more power for no gain. Unless you are editing huge images with lots of effects on multiple monitors then an 8GB will be fine for most usage. If not then I would be looking at the RTX 5060 16GB version, modern, fully supported, about the only sweet spot price vs performance wise at the moment as you are not buying for gaming. You can install the Studio drivers on any Nvidia card, in reality there is almost no difference between them and the standard/gaming drivers when it comes to Photoshop, they claim more stability, but in most real world applications the crash rate is basically the same.

2 32GB of RAM will be fine, ideally over two sticks, four sticks on consumer CPUs generally run slower, it is much harder to find four sticks that will fully match (they are sold in pairs for a reason).

3. Avoid Intel 14th Gen, either go with AMD, or Core Ultra, again what chip will depend on budget, a Ryzen 9950X will give you huge performance, as will a Core Ultra 9, but you likely do not need that.

4. Storage is now NVME (M.2) for main system drive and then you can add what more you want. Personally I would go with an 2TB main drive and then additional storage as required, you really do not need a separate scratch disc these days. Total storage will depend on how much you need to keep on fast drives, vs on potentially a large HDD for internal storage, and then external archives. With multiple drives you also need to keep an eye on bifurication, which will depend on your motherboard.

5. Standard on almost all motherboards these days.

6. Buy them off Amazon

7. Standard, you can buy an OEM license cheap online.

8. Sounds like port overkill, but also remember that USB-C is not thunderbolt, they are different things. Buy an external SD card reader.

9. Monitor - For photo editing I would really recommend 4k rather than 1440p, 24/27 inch seems tiny as well, if you have space for a 32/34 inch monitor you will really see the difference, again, buy from Amazon/Scan/Overclockers

10. You do not need an AIO water cooler, though it would mean your PC would be quieter in operation. This is again cost though, a decent AIO costs £150, a decent air cooler costs £50.

So the real question is now budget. You can spend £1,500-2k and get something reasonable, but spending more than that would be overkill unless you are editing for hours every day and beyond a certain point you will see no gains at all. You would be better off spending more on a good monitor than 64GB of RAM for example.

Do you use Photoshop for work, or as a hobby? What resolution images are you working with (RAW?)? How many effects/filters/layers are you using in your images?

Carefulspender1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81924494#Comment_81924494

Thanks @MattMattMattUK - I've already revised this today as the costs have skyrocketed. I've had a couple of quotes from the local IT shop that will build it for me and these are the suggested options:

1. Motherboard - Gigabyte B650 Eagle AMD AM5 £135
2. AMD Ryzen 7-7700X 6 core 4.6Ghz £249
3. DeepCool 240 Mystic £69
4. 32GB DDR5 5600Mhz Crucial ( 2x16Gb) DC £312
5. Storage drive Kingston NV3 ITb 6000Mbs £146.50
6. Storage drive Sata Netac £165
7. Graphics Gigabyte RTX 5060 8Gb GDDR6 £319
8. Atx Case Antec VSK-4000B-U3 £42
9. Deep Cool 660 Watt PSU £41
10. Windows 11 Home licence £49
11. Labour build and configure £60

Total cost = £1587.50 inc VAT

OR

1. Motherboard - Gigabyte B650 Eagle AMD AM5 £135
2. AMD Ryzen 7-9700X 6 core 4.6Ghz £289
3. DeepCool 240 Mystic £69
4. 32GB DDR5 5600Mhz Crucial ( 2x16Gb) DC £312
5. Storage drive Kingston NV3 ITb 6000Mbs £146.50
6. Storage drive Sata Netac £165
7. Graphics Gigabyte RTX 5060ti 8Gb GDDR6 £399
8. ATX case be quiet! Pure Base 501 ATX £79
9. Deep Cool 650 Watt PSU £54.50
10. Windows 11 Home licence £49
11. Labour build and configure £60

Total cost = £1758 inc VAT

I am a landscape photographer, but not as a job and use Photoshop to process images for exhibiting occasionally selling prints, projects and personal book projects. I shoot RAW with some images having 5 to 10 layers and image files ranging in size, some up to 1.5Gb on occasion although I do try to keep this down. I don't use the full Generative AI but some of the Photoshop tools nowadays like the select or remove tools use AI so I do use that occasionally.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on downgrading the CPU and graphics card and case in the first option. I really appreciate your help on this.

rbn

You may want to wait until late next week before deciding anything. Intel are releasing the 250K Plus and 270K Plus on 26 March with decent pricing. I think reviews are due out one or two days before. Certainly Intel’s own performance figures look good, but reviews will confirm exactly how they stack up against the AMD options. Even if you do want to go with AMD, the release may push prices down of existing models in the same performance range.