Laptop Review:
Date ordered: 03-06-2014
Date recieved:11-06-2014
Specs:
Chassis & Display: Optimus V Series 13.3" Matte Full HD LED IPS Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU): Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4810MQ (2.80GHz) 6MB Cache
Memory (RAM): 16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card (GPU): NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 860M - 2.0GB DDR5, 640 CUDA Cores - DirectX® 11
Memory: 240GB Kingston SSDNow mS200 mSATA (upto 540MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
750GB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD7500BPVX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)
Memory Card Reader: Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Thermal Paste: ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card: Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless: GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-7260 (300Mbps, 802.11BGN) + BLUETOOTH
OS: Windows 8.1
Chassis: Upon delivery it seemed well built and solid. Some days later I noticed that a few of the plastic trims around the keyboard are a bit wonky
and move slightly. nothing that bothers me, the deviation is at around the 0.5 mm range. The hinge feels specially firm and solid, good points here.
I can't say much about wear and tear as this is not even two weeks old yet, but should I see something wrong, I will update. Otherwise assume its flawless
It bothers me a bit that the microphone and headphone jacks are separate, I think it should be unified, but im not big on audio so I dont know much.
I find the black colour of the lid very nice and wish the rest was the same colour instead of the gun-metal gray, but its taste, each to their own.
The trackpad seems alright but coming from a mac, nothing feels as smooth so I got myself a nano wireless mouse from MS.
The LED indicators are not too bright, I like them that way as they are non intrusive. the DC adaptor is L shaped but plugs in firmly, I like it.
The USB ports are shallow, such that my wireless usb mouse dongle does not sit flush to the chassis, whereas it does on other systems.
Display: The display is crisp and I quite like it. the colours are not too bright and vivid, but I find them more than good for a matte display.
Speakers: The volume and quality of the speakers I found the be the real let down of the system, they are subpar, specially compared to the quality of the rest of the package.
The speakers also crackle if the volume is high but the problem is that you can only ever hear it well enough at that volume.
CPU:* The intel i7 is very good and I have put it through the paces with Autodesk Inventor and 3Ds Max. I did a stress simulation and rendered a frame on some high
settings and it just went with it. Of course it takes its time, but I was pleased with it and found no hiccups even as I did some other tasks while the simulation was
running. I found it to idle at around 0.6 to 0.7 GHz, jumping to 1.4 or 1.5 when doing some daily activities such as browsing. during normal usage I found the package
to be using anything from 4 to 7 Watts(while watching youtube stuff) going up to 12 when opening office and such, which is great and much less than the supposed
30W average in normal usage. Strangely once I plugged in the DC power my CPU jumped straight into turbo boost at 3.7GHz and I have no idea why, plus the fan went
into full speed. I turned the laptop off and back on and that solved the issue. I should investigate.
GPU:* I havent had much of a chance to test this yet as I am a bit busy to play games but in 3DS Max I rendered the same frame using Nvidia IRay rendered with and without
the CUDA cores activated (so pure CPU vs CPU + GPU) but both took the exact same size and tho the GPU was active (forced through Nvidia control panel) it wasnt
being used for rendering even tho it was supposed to be. investigation is necessary here. I tried using Valley 1.0 but the scores and FPS were weird as it seemed to flip
flop between the intel GPU and the NVidia GPU and I couldnt find a way to sort that out.
RAM: Not much to say here, some fast RAM and a lot of it, the laptop never even got near the limit so I'm happy with it. I found my system using 1.6 GB after startup and
about 3GB of RAM while writing this review, having the monitoring software open and having chrome open with about 9 tabs on(youtube, IGN, facebook and some
others). plenty to spare there. Interestingly enough, PC specialists say 16GB is the maximum available and that its a 2 socket package but windows task manager tells
me I'm using 2 of 4 sockets. I havent opened it up to investigate but I am curious.
SSD drive: the OS and other software are all in this drive. The system boots in 12 secs(after installing all my software and antivirus(BitDefender). Loading applications is very
fast. Office is basically instantaneous, Photoshop is almost the same and 3Dmax takes around 14 seconds (used to take a good 40 to 50 on my old HDD system)
I have yet to experience a OS hiccup.
HDD drive:* Its a normal 5400 RPM drive, not fast but its used exclusively for data such as documents, music, images and videos, thus it suits my needs fine. I havent transferred
much into and out of it yet but it suits my needs of large storage thats reliable (+ I have a 1TB external)
Battery life: One of the great things about newer laptops is the NVidia Optimus tech. Switching between the integrated GPU and the dedicated GPU on an as-needed basis (app to
app) is a godsend, as it saves tons of battery power. Normal usage tests with browsing and watching youtube videos and occasional office use gave me a drainage of
about 20~23% per hour. I havent had a chance to continuously use it for the full battery life but extrapolating I can expect something between 4 and 4.5 hours of
battery life. Considering the powerful CPU, the amount of RAM and the fact that there are 2 hard drives taking power from it, I was pleased with the battery life,
specially seeing that the battery is actually very very small(plus my old laptop had a bad battery that lasted me 1 hour max, hehe). Please note that when conducting
battery tests I left the LCD backlight at around 50% brightness. I could've easily be lowered without compromising viewing but I like it a little bright.
Also during the tests I left the power mode in Balanced, still having the option in running windows in Power Saving mode (disclaimer, I don't know what that does).
Temps: This is something that I have to go sort with PCS still and a low point of the build. I found that with the low usage (again, same as above. browsing and whatnot) the
CPU was hovering around 47 to 52 degrees celcius going up to 57 while youtubing, which I find hot for such low activity. Please note that the temperatures were
recorded while the laptop was on a flat wooden desk and disconnected from the power supply. I then plugged in my laptop cooling pad (by Targus) and temps dropped to
around 42 to 46, but thats still pretty hot and leaving the laptop to idle didn't lower it any more. I expected something around the mid 30s.
When I put it through the paces with 3Ds Max and CPU was 100% used, it easily went to the 98 to 99 degrees, which I find dangerous but than CPU throttling kicks in
and stabilizes the temps at around 96 degrees. GPU temperature is a non issue during normal usage as the intel graphics is running the show but when using Valley 1.0
benchmark, I used EVGA Precision X software to monitor temps and found it to run at around 60 degrees celcius, however due to the flip floping between GPUs, i suspect
temps will go higher,but it seems fine still.
Conclusion: I am pretty happy with it. Some things are not perfect out of the box, but they got sorted, the only thing not yet sorted is an issue with high pitched sounds form my TV
when using the HDMI output but thats a known driver/windows issue and not at all on PCS or my product. Moreover, the laptop costed roundabout the same price as a
mid-range 13 inches macbook pro but has better specs than even their best laptop on offer(even after ordering all the top specs), plus it came wit ha second battery and
a few other items that would not be included on a mac. I say that as I came from an apple product, thus it is easy to compare.
I will give it a 9/10, deducting 1 point for the slight wobbly plastic finishing that are not perfectly aligned, the speakers that are kinda rubbish, the USBs that I hoped
were flush and the temperatures that seem high out of the box.
* The star represents items which I feel I have not fully tested, thus do not take it as the final review.
EDIT: talked about the temps with PCS and they said this is standard for a laptop, specially my CPU, so thats all sorted
top of laptop
usb sticking out
slight alignment defect
the laptop, open and running plus its extra battery
Date ordered: 03-06-2014
Date recieved:11-06-2014
Specs:
Chassis & Display: Optimus V Series 13.3" Matte Full HD LED IPS Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU): Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4810MQ (2.80GHz) 6MB Cache
Memory (RAM): 16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card (GPU): NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 860M - 2.0GB DDR5, 640 CUDA Cores - DirectX® 11
Memory: 240GB Kingston SSDNow mS200 mSATA (upto 540MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
750GB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD7500BPVX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)
Memory Card Reader: Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Thermal Paste: ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card: Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless: GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-7260 (300Mbps, 802.11BGN) + BLUETOOTH
OS: Windows 8.1
Chassis: Upon delivery it seemed well built and solid. Some days later I noticed that a few of the plastic trims around the keyboard are a bit wonky
and move slightly. nothing that bothers me, the deviation is at around the 0.5 mm range. The hinge feels specially firm and solid, good points here.
I can't say much about wear and tear as this is not even two weeks old yet, but should I see something wrong, I will update. Otherwise assume its flawless
It bothers me a bit that the microphone and headphone jacks are separate, I think it should be unified, but im not big on audio so I dont know much.
I find the black colour of the lid very nice and wish the rest was the same colour instead of the gun-metal gray, but its taste, each to their own.
The trackpad seems alright but coming from a mac, nothing feels as smooth so I got myself a nano wireless mouse from MS.
The LED indicators are not too bright, I like them that way as they are non intrusive. the DC adaptor is L shaped but plugs in firmly, I like it.
The USB ports are shallow, such that my wireless usb mouse dongle does not sit flush to the chassis, whereas it does on other systems.
Display: The display is crisp and I quite like it. the colours are not too bright and vivid, but I find them more than good for a matte display.
Speakers: The volume and quality of the speakers I found the be the real let down of the system, they are subpar, specially compared to the quality of the rest of the package.
The speakers also crackle if the volume is high but the problem is that you can only ever hear it well enough at that volume.
CPU:* The intel i7 is very good and I have put it through the paces with Autodesk Inventor and 3Ds Max. I did a stress simulation and rendered a frame on some high
settings and it just went with it. Of course it takes its time, but I was pleased with it and found no hiccups even as I did some other tasks while the simulation was
running. I found it to idle at around 0.6 to 0.7 GHz, jumping to 1.4 or 1.5 when doing some daily activities such as browsing. during normal usage I found the package
to be using anything from 4 to 7 Watts(while watching youtube stuff) going up to 12 when opening office and such, which is great and much less than the supposed
30W average in normal usage. Strangely once I plugged in the DC power my CPU jumped straight into turbo boost at 3.7GHz and I have no idea why, plus the fan went
into full speed. I turned the laptop off and back on and that solved the issue. I should investigate.
GPU:* I havent had much of a chance to test this yet as I am a bit busy to play games but in 3DS Max I rendered the same frame using Nvidia IRay rendered with and without
the CUDA cores activated (so pure CPU vs CPU + GPU) but both took the exact same size and tho the GPU was active (forced through Nvidia control panel) it wasnt
being used for rendering even tho it was supposed to be. investigation is necessary here. I tried using Valley 1.0 but the scores and FPS were weird as it seemed to flip
flop between the intel GPU and the NVidia GPU and I couldnt find a way to sort that out.
RAM: Not much to say here, some fast RAM and a lot of it, the laptop never even got near the limit so I'm happy with it. I found my system using 1.6 GB after startup and
about 3GB of RAM while writing this review, having the monitoring software open and having chrome open with about 9 tabs on(youtube, IGN, facebook and some
others). plenty to spare there. Interestingly enough, PC specialists say 16GB is the maximum available and that its a 2 socket package but windows task manager tells
me I'm using 2 of 4 sockets. I havent opened it up to investigate but I am curious.
SSD drive: the OS and other software are all in this drive. The system boots in 12 secs(after installing all my software and antivirus(BitDefender). Loading applications is very
fast. Office is basically instantaneous, Photoshop is almost the same and 3Dmax takes around 14 seconds (used to take a good 40 to 50 on my old HDD system)
I have yet to experience a OS hiccup.
HDD drive:* Its a normal 5400 RPM drive, not fast but its used exclusively for data such as documents, music, images and videos, thus it suits my needs fine. I havent transferred
much into and out of it yet but it suits my needs of large storage thats reliable (+ I have a 1TB external)
Battery life: One of the great things about newer laptops is the NVidia Optimus tech. Switching between the integrated GPU and the dedicated GPU on an as-needed basis (app to
app) is a godsend, as it saves tons of battery power. Normal usage tests with browsing and watching youtube videos and occasional office use gave me a drainage of
about 20~23% per hour. I havent had a chance to continuously use it for the full battery life but extrapolating I can expect something between 4 and 4.5 hours of
battery life. Considering the powerful CPU, the amount of RAM and the fact that there are 2 hard drives taking power from it, I was pleased with the battery life,
specially seeing that the battery is actually very very small(plus my old laptop had a bad battery that lasted me 1 hour max, hehe). Please note that when conducting
battery tests I left the LCD backlight at around 50% brightness. I could've easily be lowered without compromising viewing but I like it a little bright.
Also during the tests I left the power mode in Balanced, still having the option in running windows in Power Saving mode (disclaimer, I don't know what that does).
Temps: This is something that I have to go sort with PCS still and a low point of the build. I found that with the low usage (again, same as above. browsing and whatnot) the
CPU was hovering around 47 to 52 degrees celcius going up to 57 while youtubing, which I find hot for such low activity. Please note that the temperatures were
recorded while the laptop was on a flat wooden desk and disconnected from the power supply. I then plugged in my laptop cooling pad (by Targus) and temps dropped to
around 42 to 46, but thats still pretty hot and leaving the laptop to idle didn't lower it any more. I expected something around the mid 30s.
When I put it through the paces with 3Ds Max and CPU was 100% used, it easily went to the 98 to 99 degrees, which I find dangerous but than CPU throttling kicks in
and stabilizes the temps at around 96 degrees. GPU temperature is a non issue during normal usage as the intel graphics is running the show but when using Valley 1.0
benchmark, I used EVGA Precision X software to monitor temps and found it to run at around 60 degrees celcius, however due to the flip floping between GPUs, i suspect
temps will go higher,but it seems fine still.
Conclusion: I am pretty happy with it. Some things are not perfect out of the box, but they got sorted, the only thing not yet sorted is an issue with high pitched sounds form my TV
when using the HDMI output but thats a known driver/windows issue and not at all on PCS or my product. Moreover, the laptop costed roundabout the same price as a
mid-range 13 inches macbook pro but has better specs than even their best laptop on offer(even after ordering all the top specs), plus it came wit ha second battery and
a few other items that would not be included on a mac. I say that as I came from an apple product, thus it is easy to compare.
I will give it a 9/10, deducting 1 point for the slight wobbly plastic finishing that are not perfectly aligned, the speakers that are kinda rubbish, the USBs that I hoped
were flush and the temperatures that seem high out of the box.
* The star represents items which I feel I have not fully tested, thus do not take it as the final review.
EDIT: talked about the temps with PCS and they said this is standard for a laptop, specially my CPU, so thats all sorted
top of laptop
usb sticking out
slight alignment defect
the laptop, open and running plus its extra battery
Last edited:
