PlasticTastic
Bronze Level Poster
Well, here's my first review! Back around November, I decided that I had enough of my terrible old Packard Bell and wanted something for games. I opted for the 15.6" Vortex III after plenty of research. I wanted the portability of the 15.6" (I'd be taking it to school every day) with the power of the 680m. I finally decided on this spec:
Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3630QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (4 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680M - 4.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1103 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11N NETWORK CARD
PRICE
£1,335.00 INC VAT
I saw the average time from order to delivery was 14-21 days, and I was in no rush. It came as a great surprise then, when 10 days later, I had an email saying my laptop was ready for dispatch. The next day, I had my new laptop! I don't have any pictures from the unboxing time, but I do remember it was extremely well packaged. My first worry was the power pack, as I had heard (and seen pictures) that it was massive, which would be a worry for taking it to school every day. But, as you will see in the pictures, it was surprisingly thin, and it fits in my bag, along with my mouse (Sharkoon fireglider) with ease! The laptop is actually really light. I was wondering what weight a gaming laptop would be, and I was guessing by my friends' laptops (Optimus II and an Alienware of some sort) and mine was by FAR the lightest!
I turned the laptop on (after taking forever to find the power button xD) I was pleased to hear the noise wasn't as bad as I had feared. I set up my own copy of Windows 7 and installed all the drivers. One small problem here is that the Killer Wireless driver wasn't included on the disc. I had to plug in my internet wire and download the driver manually, which for me isn't a problem, but for someone else who may have no access to the internet without wireless, it could be a problem. I set up my keyboard lights, which look really awesome, and are actually extremely useful in the dark! The keyboard setup is really easy to use, and although I was expecting more options, I only use the 3 still colours option anyway
I find the build quality of the machine pretty good, apart from one very insignificant panel (behind one of the screen hinges) which came off once, but I clipped it back into place and it hasn't been a problem since.
The screen is really good. My friend has an Optimus II with a gloss screen, and the Matte makes such an amazing difference, even when there's not too much light. I don't seem to notice the colours being bad at all.
Performance-wise, this thing is absolutely mind-blowing. It has maxed EVERYTHING I have thrown at it, given 3 exceptions (Crysis, Far Cry 3, Battlefield 3) which I can still max out the settings, but the AA needs to be halved. First world problems I haven't done any real benchmarks, but on those 3 games I've mentioned I get around 40-60fps, dropping to 30 when intensive stuff is happening. The CPU and RAM is amazing too. I can play those games at those FPSs while having Minecraft, LoL, Chrome (with 3458034503 tabs), Skype, Steam, Origin, so many background apps going on.
I have gamed for hours straight on this thing with no sign of any problems. The heat isn't bad, and the noise is no problem either. The speakers are relatively good, but not amazing. The subwoofer, to be honest, may as well not be there, it is absolutely useless to be honest.
Now as for PCS themselves, they could not be faulted in any way. They were absolutely brilliant. I received texts an emails about how far the laptop was in the build, which was very useful. As there was a day near the end when I would not be at home, I gave them a call and spoke to a very friendly man (Can't remember the name exactly, sorry!), who told me he'd make sure the laptop was delivered outside that date.
Picture time!
This is it just as I use it, with my own mouse (Sharkoon Fireglider)
This is the size of the laptop and charger, compared to a standard Pepsi can
This is the thickness of the charger compared to the can
This is the thickness of the laptop compared to the can
Also attached at the bottom (I don't know why it's there, but I can't move it?) is a picture of the backlit keyboard in white.
Here are the dated of the order, so people can see how fast this thing was actually done:
Production Dates
Processed Date 18-10-2012
Pre-Production Date 23-10-2012
Build Date 30-10-2012
Test Date 30-10-2012
Awaiting Dispatch Date 31-10-2012
Dispatch Date 31-10-2012
In short, this thing is an absolute beast. 9/10.
Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3630QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (4 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680M - 4.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1103 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11N NETWORK CARD
PRICE
£1,335.00 INC VAT
I saw the average time from order to delivery was 14-21 days, and I was in no rush. It came as a great surprise then, when 10 days later, I had an email saying my laptop was ready for dispatch. The next day, I had my new laptop! I don't have any pictures from the unboxing time, but I do remember it was extremely well packaged. My first worry was the power pack, as I had heard (and seen pictures) that it was massive, which would be a worry for taking it to school every day. But, as you will see in the pictures, it was surprisingly thin, and it fits in my bag, along with my mouse (Sharkoon fireglider) with ease! The laptop is actually really light. I was wondering what weight a gaming laptop would be, and I was guessing by my friends' laptops (Optimus II and an Alienware of some sort) and mine was by FAR the lightest!
I turned the laptop on (after taking forever to find the power button xD) I was pleased to hear the noise wasn't as bad as I had feared. I set up my own copy of Windows 7 and installed all the drivers. One small problem here is that the Killer Wireless driver wasn't included on the disc. I had to plug in my internet wire and download the driver manually, which for me isn't a problem, but for someone else who may have no access to the internet without wireless, it could be a problem. I set up my keyboard lights, which look really awesome, and are actually extremely useful in the dark! The keyboard setup is really easy to use, and although I was expecting more options, I only use the 3 still colours option anyway
I find the build quality of the machine pretty good, apart from one very insignificant panel (behind one of the screen hinges) which came off once, but I clipped it back into place and it hasn't been a problem since.The screen is really good. My friend has an Optimus II with a gloss screen, and the Matte makes such an amazing difference, even when there's not too much light. I don't seem to notice the colours being bad at all.
Performance-wise, this thing is absolutely mind-blowing. It has maxed EVERYTHING I have thrown at it, given 3 exceptions (Crysis, Far Cry 3, Battlefield 3) which I can still max out the settings, but the AA needs to be halved. First world problems
I haven't done any real benchmarks, but on those 3 games I've mentioned I get around 40-60fps, dropping to 30 when intensive stuff is happening. The CPU and RAM is amazing too. I can play those games at those FPSs while having Minecraft, LoL, Chrome (with 3458034503 tabs), Skype, Steam, Origin, so many background apps going on.I have gamed for hours straight on this thing with no sign of any problems. The heat isn't bad, and the noise is no problem either. The speakers are relatively good, but not amazing. The subwoofer, to be honest, may as well not be there, it is absolutely useless to be honest.
Now as for PCS themselves, they could not be faulted in any way. They were absolutely brilliant. I received texts an emails about how far the laptop was in the build, which was very useful. As there was a day near the end when I would not be at home, I gave them a call and spoke to a very friendly man (Can't remember the name exactly, sorry!), who told me he'd make sure the laptop was delivered outside that date.
Picture time!
This is it just as I use it, with my own mouse (Sharkoon Fireglider)
This is the size of the laptop and charger, compared to a standard Pepsi can
This is the thickness of the charger compared to the can
This is the thickness of the laptop compared to the can
Also attached at the bottom (I don't know why it's there, but I can't move it?) is a picture of the backlit keyboard in white.
Here are the dated of the order, so people can see how fast this thing was actually done:
Production Dates
Processed Date 18-10-2012
Pre-Production Date 23-10-2012
Build Date 30-10-2012
Test Date 30-10-2012
Awaiting Dispatch Date 31-10-2012
Dispatch Date 31-10-2012
In short, this thing is an absolute beast. 9/10.
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