VORTEX IV ELITE - customised, advice before buy.

[jackeet]

OK so after a week of fiddling about, tuning it up, a few phone calls to PCS, I think i've finally found my laptop of choice. What do you guys think of the spec? The laptop is purely for gaming purposes only, maybe work here and there, but I don't do any photo editing or anything like that. I will be purchasing a cooling stand for the dual 780m's. Any advice on changes before purchasing?

Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4700MQ (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
2 x NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 780M - 4.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD7500BPVX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)
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
Sound Card
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1103 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11N NETWORK CARD
USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
Vortex Elite 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,800 mAh/89.21WH)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 330W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Carry Case
Trust 17.3" Notebook Carry Bag Classic
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Intel Anti-Theft Technology
FREE 90 Day Intel Anti-Theft Trial - Prevent Data Access upon Theft
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 11 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

 

[keynes]

How much is it? It is pretty high end but I would probably get a single gtx 780m and upgrade after a couple of years rather than going straight to a SLI set up on a laptop.

 

[jackeet]

It's £2,190, and ye i've heard these cards are MXM, so they can be upgraded in the future yes? and why do you not recommend the 780M sli?

Thanks for reply mate

 

[keynes]

It's £2,190, and ye i've heard these cards are MXM, so they can be upgraded in the future yes? and why do you not recommend the 780M sli?

Thanks for reply mate

A lot of heat on a laptop, more noise and a single GTX 780m is going to max most games anyway.

 

[vanthus]

Very nice laptop,enjoy.

 

[jackeet]

A lot of heat on a laptop, more noise and a single GTX 780m is going to max most games anyway.

Ok, when speaking to two different guys from PCS, they said this laptop will be designed with sufficient cooling, I understand it may get hot, I do have a cooling stand on hand. However I just like the idea of the dual 780M's. Noise wouldn't be a problem for me. I really do feel like I want to go ahead with it.

 

[jackeet]

Very nice laptop,enjoy.

Thanks very much mate! Excited to say the least haha

 

[SlimCini]

It would certainly perform insanely well, and hot... But given the single 780m Vortex in the review section would be £750 cheaper I struggle to see the value for money in going for the second gpu for that much extra money.

 

[jackeet]

It would certainly perform insanely well, and hot... But given the single 780m Vortex in the review section would be £750 cheaper I struggle to see the value for money in going for the second gpu for that much extra money.

Thank you for reply slim, I purchased the laptop last night, the dual 780m. I understand what you are saying and I did consider that as the specs were pretty much the same except the extra 780m. It was a lot of money to fork out however I am certainly happy with the purchase ! I have just recieved a little offshore bonos so was happy to pay the extra cash. I did finance but I'm paying the full wack over 12 months so it's interest fee. So it's £160 a month which I'm happy to pay.

I'm excited to try these cards with games such as watch dogs and AC black flag

 

[darsmi]

Thank you for reply slim, I purchased the laptop last night, the dual 780m. I understand what you are saying and I did consider that as the specs were pretty much the same except the extra 780m. It was a lot of money to fork out however I am certainly happy with the purchase ! I have just recieved a little offshore bonos so was happy to pay the extra cash. I did finance but I'm paying the full wack over 12 months so it's interest fee. So it's £160 a month which I'm happy to pay.

I'm excited to try these cards with games such as watch dogs and AC black flag

Hi Jackeet........I was in a similar situation as you as whether to get 1 or 2 gpus's. I have the previous model which i bought earlier this year.

My laptop is.....Vortex III elite.....i7 3840QM (8MB Cache) 2.8ghz-3.8ghz......16GB Kingston Ram......2 x 680m's in SLI........120GB Kingston SSD..........750GB WD Black HD. I had the money at the time and wanted to future proof myself for as long as possible, so thats why i wanted the 2x gpu's.

The laptop performs fantastically and runs everything ive thrown at it with ease. Temps do worry me slightly.....For example, playing tomb raider 2013 at max details it gets to 93 degrees at certain points(im using a cooler master stand too)

Saying that, there has never been an issue in a game or its never shut down on me. From what ive been reading.....low 90's is ok as long as they are max temps, and not average.

Let me know how you get on with your new beast, and as i have a similar setup to you and you want to know anything, then just PM me or write in forum.

All the best.

 

[jackeet]

Hi Jackeet........I was in a similar situation as you as whether to get 1 or 2 gpus's. I have the previous model which i bought earlier this year.

My laptop is.....Vortex III elite.....i7 3840QM (8MB Cache) 2.8ghz-3.8ghz......16GB Kingston Ram......2 x 680m's in SLI........120GB Kingston SSD..........750GB WD Black HD. I had the money at the time and wanted to future proof myself for as long as possible, so thats why i wanted the 2x gpu's.

The laptop performs fantastically and runs everything ive thrown at it with ease. Temps do worry me slightly.....For example, playing tomb raider 2013 at max details it gets to 93 degrees at certain points(im using a cooler master stand too)

Saying that, there has never been an issue in a game or its never shut down on me. From what ive been reading.....low 90's is ok as long as they are max temps, and not average.

Let me know how you get on with your new beast, and as i have a similar setup to you and you want to know anything, then just PM me or write in forum.

All the best.

Hello mate, nice to hear from someone with a similar system. I've heard the temps can be quite high. But PCS assured me they are designed for high temps and that they wouldn't make laptops with 2 GPU's if they posed a problem. So am eager to try it out. Glad your system is performing well.

Where did you get the master cooling stand? Would you recommend me getting one mate?

 

[darsmi]

Hi again....to be honest, it hardly makes any difference to my temps. But its always good to have the laptop raised a little so it can breathe.

The coolermaster i got was the one with movable fans, so you can place the 3 fans exactly where you want them...i.e where the cpu/gpu vents are underneath. Cost me £28.

If you wanna know anything else, just let me know.

Cheers