Vortex III 17.3".. Notebook + PCS experience & review.

[marvir]

Hey guys, decided to make a new and proper thread about my experience with PCS. My laptop was delivered at roughly 10 this morning, right smack down the middle of the 1 hour time slot that DPD gave me. I was still working (I live-in at the hotel I work at) so I just rushed it to the room, opened it really quickly (took a picture of the chaos, will upload at a later date), plugged it in, and fired it up. Here is my spec:

Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3610QM (2.30GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB) amended to 16GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (4 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
240GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BC-5550H 4x BLURAY COMBO DRIVE & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE (£59)
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 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® ADVANCED-N 6230 (300Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Firewire & Video Editing
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 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Laptop Cooling Stands
Zalman ZM-NC3000S Ultimate Cooler, 220mm fan, upto 17.3inch (£35)
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)

 

[marvir]

Anyway, here's a sum up of my experience with PCS.

Production Dates
Processed Date 03-05-2012
Pre-Production Date 08-05-2012
Build Date 18-05-2012
Test Date 21-05-2012
Awaiting Dispatch Date 22-05-2012
Dispatch Date 22-05-2012

Who Worked on This Order?
Built By Ben Alderson
Tested By Carl Auckland
QC'd By Carl Auckland
Packed By Aiden Ramsden

I ordered online on the 1st of May and decided to pay by finance. Instantly approved, although later they asked for further information, which I attached to my application, signed it (couldn't e-sign sadly, so had to print it off and take a £12 taxi to Skipton one-effin-way to the post office) and sent it straight away. Got a message the next day, then the day after that PCS confirmed everything and off we went. One issue I had though was I am going abroad for a holiday, and I needed this new laptop so I could continue my course while I was away. I'm leaving at the end of the week, so time was an issue, and unfortunately I couldn't Fast Track as there were 2 components missing the day I ordered: The Scorpio Black HDD and the SSD. I sent an email to PCS asking if I could Fast Track my order once they received the components, and they said that wouldn't be an issue. I realize now though, there's a problem with how I ordered:

I wanted to Fast Track, but couldn't, so I had to wait until stock did arrive. That is my problem right there.. I think I should've spoken with PCS and perhaps worked out a way to pay for the priority service (basically Fast Track, but not within the 3 or 5 working day period, as it was dependent on stock), so in essence I wanted to pay for priority service in regards to the components, which, in a way seems impossible with the current system, as you can only Fast Track when your spec is readily available. Also, if say all the components were to become available on another day, and it so happens that someone else ordered that day and got a Fast Track service, I would've had to have contacted them to "reserve" these parts.. Am I making sense? Basically, it was a problem for me getting it in time because I couldn't do anything to speed up my order: I was stuck in the queue like everyone else. Perhaps I should've explained this to PCS earlier, although my 1st email wasn't answered, so it was part me for waiting too long to just call. My reason for now wanting to call though is the lack of a land line that I could use, so I had to use a payphone, and calling their 0844 number is effin' expensive (called on 3 separate occasions all in all, about £14 worth of change spent, and the longest I had to wait to get through to them was around 15mins). Anyway, I got my order now so I'm happy, but it could've easily not gone my way.

I'd also like to explain that I was one of those people who didn't know how their ordering system worked.. I think that any regular Joe would automatically assume that when they ordered and payed, you would have your stuff assigned to you, and you just had to wait in a queue until it was your turn to be built, like most general products. I didn't ask and no one told me that, it's just that in general retail, that's how it goes, so I got frustrated because of the 3 times that I called PCS to ask about my order update, the components my build was missing changed each time.

First it was the SSD and the HDD (when I first ordered). Then it was the HDD and the wireless card the first time I called, the second time the HDD's arrived that day and they said I should have my order the middle of the coming week (which was Wednesday last week more or less), called again last Monday and then I was missing the wireless card, HDD and the actual Vortex chassis was pre-sold, so to me, who didn't know how their system worked, something was amiss. I finally asked on the forums as the Live Chat wasn't quite working (I queued up twice before this, got to position 2, and 1 respectively, but never actually got through to anyone after waiting about 30mins on position 2/1) how the order system actually worked, and after it was explained to me, I got mixed feelings. I understood how they did, so I felt a bit relieved, but at the same time, I panicked more now because I didn't know when I'd actually be getting my order. So, to me, I think it's important that it is explained to each customer how their order system works, so they are fully aware. I don't have a problem with it now that I know, and I know it's an issue right now in the forums, with the PCS guys asking about how they could make it easier for customers to see what's going on. Personally, a little more (and I mean just little) detail once your order's in pre-production would be helpful, possibly a notification letting you know that you're currently in or next in line in the queue of the batch to be built (a rough estimate would do), with an update on the components statuses that affect your order. I don't quite know how that would work yet if at all, as I can't think of anything that PCS can realistically do. People can go on about stock levels, but it just doesn't really help you as it only matters if your order is about to be built.

All in all though, with regards to the ordering/ stock levels system, I think a little more communication helps a lot. It's always what people look for, as a streak of about 4 days is enough to make someone go mad, because we've all been there, waking up in the morning, first thing you do is check if you got any emails, hoping for that update. Again though, there's not much point in communicating if there's nothing to say, so I understand that PCS is in a tough position, especially over the busier periods of the year. All in all though with like an extra email here and there, customers just feel a lot more secure in their purchases.

Finally, on Friday last week, I received an email letting me know that my order was built and is now being tested, though when I logged on to the site it just said "In Building". So I tried Live Suport again (ran out of change).. Was in 6th position when I first tried, so waited, and after about 20mins or so I finally got to #1. Sadly it took about 35mins for someone to actually talk to me, although he did explain that there was something wrong with Live Support at that time. I asked my status and told my concerns about the time, he was very nice and told me that my order was indeed built and was now being tested, assured me that I would get my order in time as he'd follow it up for me. I thanked him and just said "Fingers crossed from here on out I guess." and he replied that there was no need for that at all. Got an email on Monday that it was being tested, the next day it was awaiting dispatch, and dispatched a few hours after that.

I think his name was Jack Turner, Mr. Live Support man. If that is indeed your name, or if I somehow at that moment regarded you as Jack Sparrow and Bootstrap Bill Turner put together for my appreciation, shout out to you.. Thanks very much. It arrived on the exact date I knew I would have enough time to get everything together before I go abroad, so much appreciated.

All in all, I think a lot of the customers whose orders did not go absolutely perfect would say that they would want more communication. I will lean toward this personally from my standpoint, but in general I'm very happy with everything so big thank you to the PCS guys for their work. Currently writing this on my new Vortex and so far no problems whatsoever (did have to figure out how to enable my other HDD, figured it out easy enough) and all in all very happy. Would definitely order from them again when I can physically have a desktop.

Oh and big thanks to the guys on these forums, learned loads from them , it's always the forums and the community that gives me the confidence to order from an unknown place.

 

[marvir]

Now for the actual product:

I love the look of this model. I also own the W880CU, so nearly identical in general styling, but the different stylinlg touches really make this look a lot better. Initially I was excited to get the backlit keyboard, but now that I have it, I don't know, I'll let you know once I figure out how to change the color and see if I like it over time or decide to keep it off. I'm not a huge fan of the keyboard itself though, I liked the chiclet-style keyboard from the older model. This sounds more "tack, tack tack", and the other is a bit less noisy. This also looks like a pain in the rear to clean when it comes to dust and crumbs. Few design changes as well is confusing me (disc drive has been transferred to the other side for some reason), but all in all a great look, sturdy machine.

Anyway, I'll be putting up a more thorough review of the actual machine once I get all my software in, I do have a lot of installing to do though. I'll start lagging behind my course by 1 or 2 days depending on how busy work is and how long I can stay awake downloading and installing all my stuff. I've also just removed the HDD on my older machine, stuck it in a USB enclosure and am currently transferring all my files first, then I can uninstall all my programs from my older machine to use my activation keys on this one.

Thanks for reading, to whoever actually made it this far


Martin

 

[PCS]

Thanks for the feedback, we're always trying to improve so we will take all comments into consideration.