Customised Vortex IV ordered, review to follow upon delivery

M

Mingram

Member
Hello PCS forums,

Here's the spec for my build:

Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4710MQ (2.50GHz) 6MB

Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X IMPACT 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 8GB)

Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 870M - 6.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

Memory - Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
Changed from: 240GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)

2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD10JPVX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)

Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)

Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND

Sound Card
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack

Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-7260 (300Mbps, 802.11BGN) + BLUETOOTH
Changed from: GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH


USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD

Firewire
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT

Will be used for video editing and gaming - I am a media student focusing primarily on video production and video editing. Photo editing and web design also. All of this will done on with Adobe software.

Games I am planning on running as soon as I get it: AC3, WoW, BF4, Watch_Dogs, GTA4.

I have reviewed each part and am extremely happy with the build I have. With what I've read about PCS and their customer service, I am expecting great things (and won't lose all hope should something go wrong) from the laptop.

Hopefully my review will help others with their choice. I will go into everything from as soon as I clicked 'complete order'. Expected delivery, Tuesday 16th. The following 10 days are going to be the worst.

[edited for formatting & amending]
 
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keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
The v300 ssd has performance issues same with the n135 wireless card. I would look at upgrading those
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
Mingram said:
Yes, I read that the R/W speed is nowhere near what is actually quoted, and is nearer 150mb/s. Here's hoping.


Now this I managed to miss, care to elaborate?
Click to expand...

Had the n135 and it had some connectivity and speed issues, try looking in the forum you will find a lot of people complaining about it
 
M

Mingram

Member
Thank you very much for the advice, I have since changed:

Hard drive: WAS 240GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W) - NOW 250GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)

Bluetooth & Wireless: WAS INTEL® N-135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH - NOW INTEL® N-7260 (300Mbps, 802.11BGN) + BLUETOOTH

I changed the SSD to the Samsung 840 EVO, found lots of compliments for it online. Research into the Intel N-135 came up with complaints about connectivity dropping, so I changed to the N-7260.
 
M

Mingram

Member
Okay, so here's my review:

Total time taken from ordering to having the laptop: 11 days

After 5 or something processing days I just could not take it and I amended the order to include 5 working day dispatch. As soon as this was done, the next day it went through the motions of evolving from a dream to reality. Not a single hitch in this process, every day it went on to a different stage of the build and then eventually it was ready for dispatch.

The laptop arrived in a huge box, which I was extremely glad for as inside I could see the actual box containing the laptop had been wedged in the big box with 2 huge air cushion things on either end of it. I don't care how big a package is as long as the contents are safe and secure, but this easily wins best packaging in my eyes, especially seeing as I put a lot of money into this laptop.

Everything I needed was included, except for the fact I had been sent the Windows 8 driver disc.

Opening the laptop and booting for the first time, I found that a version of Windows had been already installed on the laptop and left by the engineers. I wiped this off and installed my own Windows 7 on the laptop. When trying to use the driver disc, it said 'Cannot be used on your OS' which I thought was a bit odd (didn't know it was the wrong CD at this point). I browsed through the CD and manually installed everything, but after a reboot or 2 hardly anything worked. I called PCS and got through to someone straight away. He informed me that sometimes the wrong disc does go out but all the drivers I specifically need are located on their website under my account downloads. After that, everything worked no problem.

Since then, I've not had a single problem. Not one. The laptop is a bit larger than I imagined, but that's to be expected from something of this caliber whilst maintaining portability. Seriously though, I haven't had a single fault with this one bit. The screen is ridiculously beautiful, no dead pixels at all and no glare when viewed directly. Some glare at 60', but that's no bother to the main user.

The light up keyboard is stunning and lovely to type on and use. I haven't found the problem another user had of the hands hitting the touch pad when typing, so I guess this is subjective to each person.

The Samsung SSD has blown me away, tests came up with minimum 460mb/s Read/Write speeds, which I'm very very happy with. The Scorpio drive is great.

The graphics card (GeForce 870M) has run everything I've thrown at it without a hitch, maxxed out everything. Apart from Euro Truck Simulator :( :( :(. My favourite game so far has been Batman Arkham Origins, with everything on ultra on the matte screen it's just mesmerizing.

The wireless card keynes advised me to chose instead of the N-135 hasn't had a single problem whatsoever. Sometimes if I sleep the laptop and resume work, the wifi won't connect, but that's just a matter of hitting troubleshoot and letting it do it's thing for 3 seconds.


Final opinion:
I have never been more satisfied as a customer with a customised product. PCS have been amazing, and the product itself is faultless. 10/10. Also thanks to keynes for the feedback with initial build
 
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W

[email protected]

Member
Hi,

Quick question, when you say "Apart from Euro Truck Simulator" do you mean it won't run on max settings or wont run at all?

Just wanted to check as I am looking at one of these and wouldn't want to find no more trucking!

Thanks!
 
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