Vortex III Review

[mountainwalker]

Hi

Ordered the following spec from PCS, the first time that I have ever used them.

Chassis & Display: Vortex Series:17.3" AUO Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080) (£79)
Processor (CPU): Intel® Core™i7 Dual Core Mobile Processor i7-3610QM (2.30GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM): 8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 670M - 1.5GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk: 320GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD3200BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 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 (£9)
Sound Card: Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless: GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-2230 (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
Operating System: NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software: NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus: NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Laptop Cooling Stands: Zalman ZM-NC3000S Ultimate Cooler, 220mm fan, upto 17.3inch (£35)
Keyboard Language: INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Notebook Mouse: INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam: INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty: 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Dead Pixel Guarantee: 1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)
Delivery: STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time: Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £1,170.00 including VAT and delivery.

Ordered on the 23rd July and arrived yesterday after a very very long wait. Although all credit to PCS for getting through a backlog of orders so quickly, this entered building on Tuesday and delivered on Friday. The emails from PCS were helpful, however I do think they can improve by sending out update emails throughout the pre-production period. I had to keep ringing to find out what was happening (i.e. stock shortages for chassis and processor and then when these arrived being 87th in the build queue).

Delivery was spot on and arrived about 10 minutes into the DPD timeslot given and all packaging was fine with no signs of any issues.

A quick unpack was done to check and again no issues, as I was awaiting delivery of the SSD drive to install (Samsung 256Gb).

The laptop

This is one of the most solid laptops I have ever handled and not only looks but feels very well made. Took only a few minutes to install the SSD drive and then it was a case of setting up on the Zalman stand.

The laptop is so quiet when compared to my old one and even with the cooler underneath running on high you can hardly hear anything. Running on slow for normal operation provides a cool laptop. One feature I did like was despite not ordering an operating system, Windows 7 Home Premium was installed and just needed activating. Sadly not on the drive I needed but a quick reformat and install whilst eating dinner soon saw it on the correct drive.

Driver installation from the CD was flawless and within minutes all the drivers were installed and the screen is simply amazing. Really sharp and bright, so much so I have turned the brightness down. The only fault with the entire thing, is one stuck pixel in the bottom left corner - stuck green. So will leave to see if it unsticks over the next few days, not really noticeable in windows.

The speed is excellent, unzipped a 2gb zip file in under a minute and installed Windows 7 Service Pack from the unzipped files in under 15 minutes. Not tried games yet as still installing all the software onto it.

Will write a more indepth review later once I have some more hours use from the laptop but so far I am really happy and will be returning to PCS with another two orders within the next year (upgrade to my HP Media Smart Server and also for a small lightweight portable laptop)

A couple of questions however:

How do you change the lights on the keyboard?
How do you make sure that the system is using the Nvidia card not the Intel one for games?

Thanks

Paul

 

[CEUOTC]

A couple of questions however:

How do you make sure that the system is using the Nvidia card not the Intel one for games?

Thanks

Paul

Hi there nice review mate, you need to while list the game to make sure the Nvidia GPU is going to be used, you can also monitor this by doing the following after white listing the games:

Select Nvidia Control Panel.
Select Desktop drop down menu.
Select Display GPU activity icon in notification area.

Regards.

C.

 

[CEUOTC]

There are plenty of video's on YouTube on how to enable/use white listing correctly.

I am sure someone will post a better guide as l am looking after my daughter downstairs atm and my M11x is upstairs lol.

Regards.

C.

 

[CEUOTC]

Here we go:

1. Right click on desktop.
2. Select Nvidia Control panel.
3. Nvidia Control panel will open.
4. Select Manage 3D Settings.
5. You will see two tabs Global Settings and Program Settings.
6. Select Glabal and select High Performance NVIDIA Processor. (This effectively turns off Optimus using the NVIDIA GPU all the time).
7. Or Select Program Settings.
8. Select Add under 1.
9. Find the game you want to white list.
10. Click on Open.
11. Under 2. Select High Performance NVIDIA Processor if not already selected.
12. Select Apply.
13. Job done, time for tea, biscuts and medals.

Regards.

C.

 

[mountainwalker]

Finally sat and done a proper review, prompted by the memory stick offer from PCS.

"Having never used PC Specialist (PCS) before I was naturally apprehensive about spending a large amount of money with an unknown company, however the pre-sales service was far better than the company I would normally use and yes I was comparing them both at the same time.

Pre-Sales

All emails and telephone calls were answered promptly and with sufficient detail to fully answer the question(s) raised the first time. They have a helpful forum where PCS take an active part alongwith many previous customers.
The website allowed for more customisation that I have ever known before on a laptop, one of the things that was drawing me to PCS. If there is anything that is unknown either the wesbite gives enough information to make a decision or the guys on the helpline can resolve.
At no time did they attempt to upsell, in fact I actually had the experience of "actually Sir for what you want to do, that is overkill. Downgrade to this and you will not notice any difference". Very refreshing to actually find a company willing to say 'don't spend extra'

Ordering

Final ordering was done online and was simple and effective. The laptop was customised, ordered and paid without any hitches. Confirmation emails were very quick.

Building Process

This is where I believe PCS could improve. I was expecting a wait as the processor chosen was one of the most popular around and something PCS were more than upfront about.

Communications whilst waiting for stock to arrive is where PCS are letting themselves down at the moment as the laptop stayed in pre-production for around 2 weeks and no communication was received from PCS instead I was having to check with them. Once the parts arrived again no communication and I was having to check with them and being told where I was in the queue, something that I think PCS could have put in automated emails. When the building stage actually started then yes regular communcations took place.

Overall, three weeks from ordering to delivery roughly with nearly two of these waiting for parts to arrive for my position in the queue. Personally I do not have a problem with this as I was getting and paying for exactly what I wanted and not something that I did not want and was simply paying for conveience.

The Laptop

The laptop is in simple words 'fantastic'. Build quality is excellent and the laptop feels the most solid and sturdy of any of my previous 5 laptops from other manufacturers. There is no un-nessary stickers or branding on the laptop. Noise wise it is the quietest laptop I have known and having a laptop cooler underneath helps keep the laptop cool and quiet. The keyboard is very comfortable to right on, however I am not sure what the designer was thinking when he/she designed the layout but it will take some getting used to (obviously not something PCS control). I purchased my own SSD hard drive to put in the laptop and found it refreshing that PCS allow you to upgrade your own laptop without compremising the warranty automatically. Yes if you are a clumsy and cause damage then quite rightly they say tough look but if you are professional then you will have no problems, alternatively I was offered the option of sending in to them and they would install as part of the build process.

The laptop is fast, and I mean fast, with boot times less than 15 seconds from passing the BIOS screen to Windows and having installed my own copy of Windows it was refreshing to find all the drivers on the enclosed CD loaded with no problems. I upgraded the screen to the best quality Matte screen PCS supply and again this was the first time not having a Glossy screen. The quality, brightness and sharpness simply blows you away. Sadly there is one stuck pixel but this is not a problem as I paid for a 'Dead Pixel Guarentee' from PCS (£19) for a year which is a bargain really. So this stuck pixel is fully covered and I just need to send the laptop in when I am ready and they will sort. As I need the laptop at the moment and the pixel is in the bottom corner I can live with it for the timebeing, but it will get sent away and I am thinking at the same time I may have them upgrade the RAM from 8gb to 16gb at the same time.

Would I Use Again?

Oh yes, nothing throughout this would stop me. I would recommend them to anyone and will be heading back for a couple of other systems next year.
"