About
One bench, one builder
Ochil PCs is run by one person from a home workshop in Dollar, Clackmannanshire - at the foot of the Ochil Hills, which is where the machines get their names.
I'm Fraser. I've been building, upgrading and fixing computers for years - my own first, then friends' and family's, then people they sent my way, which is roughly the point at which it stopped being a hobby. I run Linux on my own desktop, which is a fair warning about the kind of person who'll be picking your parts: I've read the spec sheet, I have opinions about it, and I'd rather explain the reasoning than hand you a number.
Being small is the point rather than a stage to grow out of. The person who specs the machine, builds it, tests it and answers your email eighteen months later is the same person. There's no sales team on commission and no support queue - there's a bench, a test rig, and me. What you save is a shopfront's overheads, which on a machine like this is real money rather than a rounding error.
The business is new, so there's no wall of reviews here yet - I'd rather have none than bought ones. Everything else is checkable: full parts lists, performance figures with their method attached, written test results for your machine, and a 2-year labour warranty.
How I work
Rules of the bench
- 01
Every part named, especially the boring ones
Anyone will tell you the graphics card. The parts that get quietly downgraded are the power supply and the motherboard, because almost nobody checks them and they don't show up in a frame rate - until the machine is three years old. Both are named in full on every listing here, with wattage, efficiency rating and chipset.
- 02
An estimate is labelled as an estimate
Published frame rates on this site are estimates from typical benchmark results for that exact hardware, and they say so. Where a figure assumes upscaling - DLSS or FSR doing some of the work - that's written next to the number, because omitting it is the standard way a mediocre result gets presented as a good one.
- 03
Tested before it ships, not after you complain
Every machine runs 8 hours of processor, graphics and memory stress testing plus real game benchmarks before it's allowed out. Infant-mortality failures - the memory stick or drive that dies in its first week - are the most common way a new PC ruins someone's month, and they're exactly what a burn-in is for. You get your machine's own results in writing.
- 04
Windows arrives clean
No trial antivirus, no preinstalled games you didn't ask for, no manufacturer utility nagging for updates. Memory profiles are enabled properly (EXPO or XMP), drivers are current, and fan curves are tuned so the machine isn't screaming at idle out of the box.
- 05
If a repair isn't worth doing, I'll say so
Diagnosis first, quote second, work third. Sometimes the honest answer on a ten-year-old laptop is that the money is better spent elsewhere, and you'll get that answer even though it costs me the job. A £29 check that ends in "don't spend more on this" has still done its job.
Visits & collection
No shopfront, on purpose
The workshop is at home, so there's no shop to wander into - collection, drop-off and custom-build conversations are all by appointment. If you're anywhere near Dollar, collection is free, and I'll set the machine up with you and go through its test results in person before you take it away.
Not buying a machine?
The bench works on yours too
The same tools and the same test rig go to work on machines I didn't build. Cleaning and servicing in three tiers, from a same-day check to a full strip-down with a benchmark report; debloating a new laptop that arrived already sluggish; or tuning a gaming setup game by game and making the desktop look like something you chose.