New Vortex III

[rickne]

Got home from work to find my laptop cooler and printer in the hall way with two kids begging me to open it.
Began installing drivers (man this keyboard is gonna take some getting used to) and noticed in dxdiag that my CPU is the 3720QM. Now this isn't a moan as thats the chip I paid for but I was also informed I was getting it's upgrade the 3740QM as the 20 was EOL. Not to worry.

I'm also trying to work out how to turn off the damn touch pad as I can't find it in pointer settings. I bet im not the only one who manages to type gobbledy gook swiping my palm over it moving my cursor whilst typing.
Sound is clear yet as people have mentioned its pretty tinny and not as powerful sounding as my M17x from Alienware. This is with the THX and Realtek drivers installed and configured. Again I won't lose sleep over this as I have external options.

Lastly the lack of an external volume controls disturbs me slightly. I'm going to have to be quick on the draw with my mouse at work.

The screen is breathtaking and Im so glad I chose the matte option. My Alienware in the summer was impossible.




Edit: my simple mind forgot about FN+F1 to disable the mouse pad. :P

I'll get back with some shexy images and gameplay performance once I have some games installed. I doubt many would be interested in a benchmark test of Purble palace. Thank god that isn't installed

[Tom DWC]

Some good feedback, looking forward to the images.

I know what you mean about the speakers. As well as Fn+F1 for disabling the mouse pad there's Fn+F3 for speedy muting at work too.

[rickne]

Some good feedback, looking forward to the images.

I know what you mean about the speakers. As well as Fn+F1 for disabling the mouse pad there's Fn+F3 for speedy muting at work too.

Good tip. I've always overlooked the fn keys.

[rickne]

[PCS]

Great pics

We've added your laptop to the reviews section on our configurator!

[SmokeDarKnight]

Please tell us your going to hook up all those monitors to the laptop

That would be some setup

[rickne]

Please tell us your going to hook up all those monitors to the laptop

That would be some setup

haha those monitors are knackered but yeah would be pretty tight . Its a shame paid to look at those but my attention is all on the one and cheers PCS where would one find user reviews? I only see media reviews.

[dlatimer]

So if there was ever a chance to rattle bins and streak in a car-park at Southampton, now would be the time to get away with it seeing as you're too occupied?

In all seriousness, I do like the pictures. I have been thinking about getting a Vortex III for a while now, just don't know what GFX card to get with it.

[rickne]

so far tested Sleeping dogs and Guild wars 2 on the 680 from nvidia. Both run 40+ on max settings. Battlefield 3 has just finished installing.

[Jak]

Hey rickne, good to hear you're enjoying yours. I must admit, this being the first I've actually bought brand new (and the first at this kinda price point!) I'm REALLY enjoying mine. Being able to play BF3, JC2 and a range of other stuff on the laptop instead of being tied to to desktop (which is finding BF3 a real push even on medium now le sigh) is definitely a plus point. Happy that I managed to get the 72% gamut Chi-Mei panel too on my order! Only things I'm rather annoyed about, none of which are PCS' fault, are a) the audio and b) Western Digital's crappiness.

Now the former, I'd *expect* to be above par, even more so considering Clevo list the P170EM as a "media entertainment" laptop and with one of Realtek's high end chipsets (the ALC892) installed no less. The stereo speakers themselves are par for the course as far as laptops go tbh but for even headphone output to be so very crippled, that really irritated the sh*t out of me. My previous laptop was a HP G72-110SA also with a sound chipset from Realtek (can't remember the model) which was a purely stereo affair but which, partnered with a decent set of headphones, sounded absolutely gorgeous. Another thing I have found out is that Clevo went away and disabled most of the ALC892's features (for what reason I have no clue) like SRS processing, Dolby Digital stuff and a whole load of other nice bits. For a high end barebones focussed on media entertainment I'd be questioning someone at Clevo if they have their heads screwed on correctly. If I'm paying for a laptop that costs £1,600, I EXPECT to get the full feature set of the hardware contained. I don't expect to receive something that's been heavily limited and to be bribed with a free copy of THX TruStudio Pro which I have utterly no need for. Someone reading this might notice I've avoided the 'subwoofer' up 'till now. That'd be because there isn't one on the Vortex III. A driver which is marketed as a 'subwoofer' and is less than 1" across *is not* a subwoofer of any sort. As a few people mentioned, a sub driver ideally needs to be at least 8" before it's going to have enough of an effect to actually be of any use. So basically there's space used in the chassis which is a waste of space. Rant over, I'm contacting Clevo directly for an answer on the audio front anyway which I expect an answer back on pronto since this is a very large expense I've paid out on a device that they've limited and I'll also be inquiring exactly why an engineer thought it was practical to leave a couple of the grills on the rear vents unpunched with plastic still covering them...

The second issue isn't big but still rather annoying. As per usual for WD, they have a penchant for supplying drives that fail very quickly/easily and I seem to have gotten a bad egg (every now and then I'll hear the telltale metallic click from it). If anyone has any input on this I'd be grateful since I want to ask PCS if they'd be happy just refunding me the cost of the drive (since I don't mind paying to send it back in an anti-static bag and wrapped securely) so that I can just buy a different drive to stick in its place.