My Vortex III 17.3” order can be seen below.
Not gamed properly on a PC ever so can anyone suggest some good games for me to test out on it? Not interested in MMORPGs or rubbish console conversions where the console version is better… but anything else is fair game. Already got Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider to test out.
Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3630QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680M - 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 BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
6x BLURAY WRITER, 8x DVD ±R/±RW & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE
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 & WIRELESS INTEL® N135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Firewire
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 220W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED BACKLIT 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)
Intel Anti-Theft Technology
FREE 90 Day Intel Anti-Theft Trial - Prevent Data Access upon Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
TOTAL COST: £1370
Ordered and Processed: 3rd May 2013
Pre-production: 7th May 2013 (3rd working day)
Built: 9th May 2013 (5th working day)
Tested: 10th May 2013 (6th working day)
Quality Controlled: 10th May 2013 (6th working day)
Dispatched: 13th May 2013 (7th working day)
Delivered: 14th May 2013 (8th working day)
Pictures: Will post some on delivery and after the setup
Review:
The ordering process was fantastic. These forums are a great place where advice is well thought out and the deal I got on my Vortex was brilliant although no longer available. The ordering and amendment was very straightforward and logical. I also loved being able to check on the status of my order at all times, although for two weeks my life revolved around constantly checking the updates to see when my laptop would arrive!
Overall, it took 8 working days to be delivered which I thought was great for a non-fast-track order. As I’ve read in several other reviews, the laptop comes very well packaged. Not even sure Houdini could escape from the cardboard and polystyrene surrounding it.
Physically, the laptop is a beast. Slightly larger than I thought (I’ll be honest, I didn’t really investigate how big a 17” laptop would be… I just thought it would be similar to my last laptop which it is… almost). It’s also quite weighty. I thought my old laptop case would suffice but alas, the laptop is just too big for it. But I wanted a big screen so this isn't a complaint at all and the laptop feels very sturdy. My girlfriend came home a bit later and asked what the black brick was on the floor but a weighty power unit is also to be expected for this sort of laptop!
I had an initial frustration trying to find the Windows 7 product key, rifling through all the driver CD cases and Windows 7 CD case. I was about to ring PCS to moan when I realised it was plastered on the bottom of the laptop, doh! That was my last noob moment I promise. At some point I’m going to investigate Windows 8, but not yet.
Anyway, once the laptop was on and configured, the joy of setting up a new piece of technology overwhelmed me and I sat for an hour or so downloading all the pieces of software that I could lay my hands on that I wanted. I recently got a Galaxy Note 2 which was great fun to set up and configure, but this trumped even that. Office 2013 (downloaded and obtained from my place of work for peanuts) is awesome. Using the same internet connection (60meg) that I have always had suddenly seems a lot faster. Pages load instantly. Youtube clips in 1080p is nice! I hadn’t quite realised how much my old, bloated laptop had become the limiting factor in browsing speed. Now the limiting factor is back to being the actual websites and my internet connection. I’m even tempted to bump up my broadband to 100meg for no real reason other than puffing my chest.
The keyboard has taken some time to get used to (well, it still is). It looks amazing backlit, but the enter key is smaller than I’m used to with the hashtag key above it. So I keep pressing # instead of enter when I type. But I’m slowly retraining my right hand to be more accurate when going for the enter key. Other than that, it’s very pleasant to type on.
Given that the OS is on the SSD, I wanted to test out how quick SSD booting would be. So once all pieces of software that I wanted were installed on the SSD drive and setup how I wanted, I turned off the laptop and turned it on again 3 times to time how long it took from pressing the power button to being ‘usable’ in Windows. My old laptop could get to the Windows home screen in about 20 seconds but would then take another few minutes slowly loading up everything and it would be 2-3 minutes before it was actually usable.
This little babe was usable in 19 seconds with everything ready and running. That fact alone almost gave me a hard on.
I have very few games as yet, but Portal, Half Life 2 and Football Manager 2013 were already on my Steam account so I installed those. The GTX 680M ate them all on max settings for breakfast. It almost felt the GPU was laughing at me that Half Life 2 was the best I could initially throw at it. Football Manager 2013 was loading new games with loads of leagues in a fraction of the time my old i5 was managing. Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite and Far Cry 3 are going to give the GPU a proper workout soon. Only then will I really see how hot it gets and whether I need a cooling tray or not.
Video editing has been solid so far. Previewing footage as I go along used to be a trying procedure on my old laptop but this thing plays my draft footage instantly in 1080P (on the beautiful 17” screen too). No skipping, no buffering . Haven’t really made a proper piece of film yet to time how long things take but that will come soon.
All-in-all, delighted with the laptop and I’m having withdrawal symptoms from it at work right now as I just want to go home and do things on it for no reason other than to see it do them very, very quickly.
PCS… great job.
PS… now who can recommend a gaming mouse that is wireless for under £20?
Not gamed properly on a PC ever so can anyone suggest some good games for me to test out on it? Not interested in MMORPGs or rubbish console conversions where the console version is better… but anything else is fair game. Already got Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider to test out.
Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3630QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680M - 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 BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
6x BLURAY WRITER, 8x DVD ±R/±RW & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE
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 & WIRELESS INTEL® N135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Firewire
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 220W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED BACKLIT 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)
Intel Anti-Theft Technology
FREE 90 Day Intel Anti-Theft Trial - Prevent Data Access upon Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
TOTAL COST: £1370
Ordered and Processed: 3rd May 2013
Pre-production: 7th May 2013 (3rd working day)
Built: 9th May 2013 (5th working day)
Tested: 10th May 2013 (6th working day)
Quality Controlled: 10th May 2013 (6th working day)
Dispatched: 13th May 2013 (7th working day)
Delivered: 14th May 2013 (8th working day)
Pictures: Will post some on delivery and after the setup
Review:
The ordering process was fantastic. These forums are a great place where advice is well thought out and the deal I got on my Vortex was brilliant although no longer available. The ordering and amendment was very straightforward and logical. I also loved being able to check on the status of my order at all times, although for two weeks my life revolved around constantly checking the updates to see when my laptop would arrive!
Overall, it took 8 working days to be delivered which I thought was great for a non-fast-track order. As I’ve read in several other reviews, the laptop comes very well packaged. Not even sure Houdini could escape from the cardboard and polystyrene surrounding it.
Physically, the laptop is a beast. Slightly larger than I thought (I’ll be honest, I didn’t really investigate how big a 17” laptop would be… I just thought it would be similar to my last laptop which it is… almost). It’s also quite weighty. I thought my old laptop case would suffice but alas, the laptop is just too big for it. But I wanted a big screen so this isn't a complaint at all and the laptop feels very sturdy. My girlfriend came home a bit later and asked what the black brick was on the floor but a weighty power unit is also to be expected for this sort of laptop!
I had an initial frustration trying to find the Windows 7 product key, rifling through all the driver CD cases and Windows 7 CD case. I was about to ring PCS to moan when I realised it was plastered on the bottom of the laptop, doh! That was my last noob moment I promise. At some point I’m going to investigate Windows 8, but not yet.
Anyway, once the laptop was on and configured, the joy of setting up a new piece of technology overwhelmed me and I sat for an hour or so downloading all the pieces of software that I could lay my hands on that I wanted. I recently got a Galaxy Note 2 which was great fun to set up and configure, but this trumped even that. Office 2013 (downloaded and obtained from my place of work for peanuts) is awesome. Using the same internet connection (60meg) that I have always had suddenly seems a lot faster. Pages load instantly. Youtube clips in 1080p is nice! I hadn’t quite realised how much my old, bloated laptop had become the limiting factor in browsing speed. Now the limiting factor is back to being the actual websites and my internet connection. I’m even tempted to bump up my broadband to 100meg for no real reason other than puffing my chest.
The keyboard has taken some time to get used to (well, it still is). It looks amazing backlit, but the enter key is smaller than I’m used to with the hashtag key above it. So I keep pressing # instead of enter when I type. But I’m slowly retraining my right hand to be more accurate when going for the enter key. Other than that, it’s very pleasant to type on.
Given that the OS is on the SSD, I wanted to test out how quick SSD booting would be. So once all pieces of software that I wanted were installed on the SSD drive and setup how I wanted, I turned off the laptop and turned it on again 3 times to time how long it took from pressing the power button to being ‘usable’ in Windows. My old laptop could get to the Windows home screen in about 20 seconds but would then take another few minutes slowly loading up everything and it would be 2-3 minutes before it was actually usable.
This little babe was usable in 19 seconds with everything ready and running. That fact alone almost gave me a hard on.
I have very few games as yet, but Portal, Half Life 2 and Football Manager 2013 were already on my Steam account so I installed those. The GTX 680M ate them all on max settings for breakfast. It almost felt the GPU was laughing at me that Half Life 2 was the best I could initially throw at it. Football Manager 2013 was loading new games with loads of leagues in a fraction of the time my old i5 was managing. Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite and Far Cry 3 are going to give the GPU a proper workout soon. Only then will I really see how hot it gets and whether I need a cooling tray or not.
Video editing has been solid so far. Previewing footage as I go along used to be a trying procedure on my old laptop but this thing plays my draft footage instantly in 1080P (on the beautiful 17” screen too). No skipping, no buffering . Haven’t really made a proper piece of film yet to time how long things take but that will come soon.
All-in-all, delighted with the laptop and I’m having withdrawal symptoms from it at work right now as I just want to go home and do things on it for no reason other than to see it do them very, very quickly.
PCS… great job.
PS… now who can recommend a gaming mouse that is wireless for under £20?
Last edited:
sailor
