Ordered my Vortex III!

T

Turtle

Active member
Hello! I'm new to pc specialist and computer custom building in general. I have been lurking like gollum around these forums and love the fantastic community you guys have. For a long time i struggled between getting a ******** pc and pc spec, but through word of mouth and lurking I found the parts sold here to be one of the cheapest around!.

Anyway, on to the laptop i ordered. I always wanted a laptop that would last me at least 3-4 years before i think of moving on. That's why i had a budget of £1400. Luckily, I came under budget with this pc. Let me know what you think :D.

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

Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3720QM (2.60GHz) 6MB
Change to: Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3610QM (2.30GHz) 6MB

Memory (RAM) 16GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (4 x 4GB)
Change to: 8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)

Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Change to: AMD® Radeon® HD 7970M - 2GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

2nd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - Change to: 750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
2nd Hard Disk NONE
RAID NONE
SSD CACHE DRIVE NONE
1st 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 (£9)
Sound Card Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® ADVANCED-N 6235 (300Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options 3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Firewire 1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Battery Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor 1 x UK Power Lead & 220W AC Adaptor

Please let me know what you think/advise on. Regarding the memory, i previously chose a 1tb Scorpio Blue 5400rpm hardrive, but changed this to black after hearing one in person. The acoustics are not as loud as some would make it out to be. I'm not particularly interested in SSD memory just yet. I think i'll give it a few years when its cheaper before I add one in (my brother is a whizz at all this pc building business :p).

Anyway, let me know what you think. I'll post pictures when it arrives, as I believe pictures of the vortex III are seriously lacking in these forums!
 
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Benadiction

Benadiction

Bronze Level Poster
From advice give to many others on here by people far superior than I in the hardware world, I would drop your CPU down to the 3610QM as there isn't a lot of difference in that one and the 3720.

Also swap the 675 for the 7970 as it out performs it by 40-50%.

If you're just gaming too then 8GB of ram is overkill, unless you're doing a lot of 3D rendering work or something I'd drop that down too.

Nice rig though buddy, I've ordered one myself except I've been waiting since April the 30th for the 7979 to come into stiock, should be tomorrow apparently!!
 
T

Turtle

Active member
Benadiction said:
From advice give to many others on here by people far superior than I in the hardware world, I would drop your CPU down to the 3610QM as there isn't a lot of difference in that one and the 3720.

Also swap the 675 for the 7970 as it out performs it by 40-50%.

If you're just gaming too then 8GB of ram is overkill, unless you're doing a lot of 3D rendering work or something I'd drop that down too.

Nice rig though buddy, I've ordered one myself except I've been waiting since April the 30th for the 7979 to come into stiock, should be tomorrow apparently!!
Click to expand...

Thank you for replying! I want to use it primarily for games.

I did think about it. If I downgrade to 3610qm and upgrade to AMD 7970M it would roughly be the same price. However i am still unsure about the reliability of AMD/ATI. I have had bad experiences with them in the past.

Also, will downgrading to 3610m sacrifice performance in future games? Much appreciated.
 
Benadiction

Benadiction

Bronze Level Poster
Just going on advice provided by others on here about the same subject, glad I can help.

Aye I had a cheeky look and you're well below you're £1400 limit with it. I've been gaming since building my first PC back in the late 90's and have always used ATi cards in any of my systems and never had a problem. So personally I'm happy with ATi but I am aware that people prefer Nvidia for their drivers, as they are more reliable apparently? Like I said I've never had an issue.

Far as future proofing? As there is little difference between the 3610 and 3720 I would imagine it's neither here nor there, meaning the 3720 is no more future proof than the 3610.
 
T

Turtle

Active member
Hmm ok. I just had a look and tried to change the graphics card but i can't see the amend option for it! i can still downgrade the CPU. Am i too late now :'(?
 
Benadiction

Benadiction

Bronze Level Poster
Errrrr depends what state your build is in mate, try calling PCS direct and see if they can do it for you over the phone. The bottom left hand corner of each post there is a little star mate, click that. Thank you :)
 
T

Turtle

Active member
I've called them over the phone, and the awesome guy changed it right away for me. I've Downgraded to 3610qm and upgraded from 675 to HD 7970m.
 
Benadiction

Benadiction

Bronze Level Poster
Winner, thought they might. Been pretty impressed with PCS and thier customer service, seems to be a dying attribute these days.
 
Craigsup

Craigsup

Silver Level Poster
That's a good build! I have a very similar one in production at the moment, except I chose a Matte screen and opted to supply my own SSD!
 
T

Turtle

Active member
Updated my rig with some amendments. Love pcs for making me do these :D. I downgraded my ram as 16gb is overkill thanks to advice here and google. I saved 50 pounds, which i am going to use to buy a sexy case :p
 
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