I've had the pleasure of having this lappy for 5 months now so I suppose it's time for a quick review. */ I shall add things and pictures after I've upgraded to the final spec (HD7970M)
Spec
Chassis & Display
Vortex II: 15.6" Matte 95% Gamut LED Widescreen (1920x1080) (£79)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2670QM (2.20GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
1.5GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560M - DirectX® 11 (15.6" Vortex II)
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
*Corsair Force 3
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 (£9)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N130 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 180W AC Adaptor
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
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)
Delivery
2 - 3 DAY DELIVERY TO REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (£19)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1
PCS Experience
Thumbs up! Everything went smooth despite a bit of hassle initially transfering the funds, but it was solved eventually. Everyone has been very helpful on PCS side with helping me with the order and now with the upcoming upgrade possibility. Cudos for keeping testing stuff and making us Vortex II people happy.
Build
A very solid laptop even for someone coming from the Levono side of things. The only thing to add would be the Lenovo type screen bezel that protects the screen and keyboard when laptop is closed. But that's up for Clevo to do. Absolutely no complaints for the builders in PCS, the laptop has been running great and temps are well within specs. No screws have dropped off and everything sits tight, expect for a bit noisy DVD drive that I've almost forgot about now since I haven't used it after initial installation. I'm sure it's something quite easy to fix, and I just haven't had the reason to do it since I don't really use CDs and DVDs at the moment. Perhaps I'll ask PCS to look into it when I send in the lappy for the GPU upgrade.
Performance
The performance of the laptop is very solid and quite balanced, despite the GPU being just dat bit weak for my taste but back in time I didn't see much point in the premium for GTX580M or hd6990M. However, it has done me well by running Crysis, Warhead, Crysis 2, BF3, Just Cause 2, ME2, Deus EX HR, Aion, all with native resolution and reasonable details. The CPU is drop dead gorgeous performer despite being the cheapes i7 quad and runs very cool and silent. I've never seen it have a hicup in anything - no problems even in BF3. I did order the laptop initially with a 250gb Hdd but it was just because I was set on installing my own SSD the moment I got hands on the laptop. The 95% gamut screen is identified as the Lenovo model and is again gorgeous - when I have time and resources I'll need to check if I can try to calibrate it for even better color reproduction but so far I haven't had any headaches at all with the default profile.
// In progress // More 2 come after upgrade with possibly some comparisons between the two cards if I feel up to it
Spec
Chassis & Display
Vortex II: 15.6" Matte 95% Gamut LED Widescreen (1920x1080) (£79)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2670QM (2.20GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
1.5GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560M - DirectX® 11 (15.6" Vortex II)
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
*Corsair Force 3
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 (£9)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N130 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 180W AC Adaptor
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
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)
Delivery
2 - 3 DAY DELIVERY TO REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (£19)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1
PCS Experience
Thumbs up! Everything went smooth despite a bit of hassle initially transfering the funds, but it was solved eventually. Everyone has been very helpful on PCS side with helping me with the order and now with the upcoming upgrade possibility. Cudos for keeping testing stuff and making us Vortex II people happy.
Build
A very solid laptop even for someone coming from the Levono side of things. The only thing to add would be the Lenovo type screen bezel that protects the screen and keyboard when laptop is closed. But that's up for Clevo to do. Absolutely no complaints for the builders in PCS, the laptop has been running great and temps are well within specs. No screws have dropped off and everything sits tight, expect for a bit noisy DVD drive that I've almost forgot about now since I haven't used it after initial installation. I'm sure it's something quite easy to fix, and I just haven't had the reason to do it since I don't really use CDs and DVDs at the moment. Perhaps I'll ask PCS to look into it when I send in the lappy for the GPU upgrade.
Performance
The performance of the laptop is very solid and quite balanced, despite the GPU being just dat bit weak for my taste but back in time I didn't see much point in the premium for GTX580M or hd6990M. However, it has done me well by running Crysis, Warhead, Crysis 2, BF3, Just Cause 2, ME2, Deus EX HR, Aion, all with native resolution and reasonable details. The CPU is drop dead gorgeous performer despite being the cheapes i7 quad and runs very cool and silent. I've never seen it have a hicup in anything - no problems even in BF3. I did order the laptop initially with a 250gb Hdd but it was just because I was set on installing my own SSD the moment I got hands on the laptop. The 95% gamut screen is identified as the Lenovo model and is again gorgeous - when I have time and resources I'll need to check if I can try to calibrate it for even better color reproduction but so far I haven't had any headaches at all with the default profile.
// In progress // More 2 come after upgrade with possibly some comparisons between the two cards if I feel up to it