Vortex III 17.3" Ordered - So excited!

Soliloqui

Soliloqui

Member
Having had a nightmare ride with hp and the beautiful Envy 17-3002ea which never was (CPU failure after a week and 3 months in repair before they finally admitted there was nothing they could do and eventually had to refund me - would not even ship a replacement to the Channel Isles!) I'm so excited to have found pcspecialist! After reading some reviews and talking through some specifications with the lovely people on the forums over the weekend I ordered the Vortex III 17.3" and got confirmation today!
I can't wait for it to arrive so I thought I'd keep a running update on here with some pictures of the unboxing and a final review once it's here!

Here are the specs:


Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2860QM (2.50GHz) 8MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (4 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
750GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD10JPVT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)
RAID
None
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 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N130 802.11N (150Mbps) + 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
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
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) (£5)
Delivery
2 DAY DELIVERY TO CHANNEL ISLANDS (VAT EXCLUSIVE) (£19)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,447.50 including VAT and delivery.


And now we play the waiting game!
 
Soliloqui

Soliloqui

Member
UPDATE:

I got an e-mail on Thursday letting me know that my order was now out of Pre-Production and into In-Building on the 4th working day. Very exciting news!
Unfortunately my 750GB hybrid drive and my i7 processor were out of stock so I'm now waiting on those to arrive.

The very helpful customer service member I contacted let me know that it could be until this Wednesday before they both arrive (working day 8) so I was a little disappointed but this is still a very reasonable amount of time despite the small delay.

I received another e-mail today, my processor is due in today! So it's just the drive to wait for and then my order should proceed without a hitch. Good news!
 
J

Jamwllms

Bronze Level Poster
That's pretty much identical to the spec of the laptop I plan to get in the next month or two, so I'll be interested to hear how it is!

I can't resist a SSD though. :p

Good to hear they're keeping you in the loop though. When you consider other companies would just leave you stewing!
 
Soliloqui

Soliloqui

Member
Absolutely, I'll do my best to get some great photos of it when it arrives!

I really considered a SSD on the advice of another forum member but I play a lot of games so really needed the extra space, and in the end I decided the cost to capacity ratio was too steep for my budget. Was assured that the hybrid is a good compromise however and as long as it doesn't constantly overheat (like my current poor old Acer Aspire) with the arctic cooling paste and my cooling pad then I don't mind too much.

You're completely right about being kept in the loop though, as stated above I've really been through the mill with hp in the last few months so it's very refreshing to be treated so well. I'm only being impatient because I'm so excited about finally being able to get the laptop I want and can't wait to get my mitts on it :p

So are you waiting for the Ivy Bridge then Jam? I'm wondering whether I did the right thing by not waiting but I've needed a new laptop since January so I went for it anyway. Hopefully it will still be fine and if I hear news about vast improvements with the Ivy then I'll consider getting it upgraded in the future.
 
J

Jamwllms

Bronze Level Poster
To be honest, my timing regarding Ivy Bridge is entirely coincidental. At the moment I'm just putting as much money to one side as I can. I have a holiday to pay for at the same time, so it's taking a bit of time.

I don't think you've lost anything really by not waiting.. We'll find out when they're actually released, but from what I can gather the gain into Ivy Bridge isn't excessive. As I've read on here countless times.. "Sandy bridge is good.. You can't go wrong." *Shrug* I may still get a Sandy Bridge processor, we'll see!

I'm just determining whether to wait until Summer for the GTX 680M.. I get the feeling I might be too impatient.. But I've got time yet. ;]
 
Soliloqui

Soliloqui

Member
UPDATE:

Got another e-mail in the wee small hours of this morning letting me know that my 750GB hybrid drive is due in today! Yay!!
So hopefully now it's just a case of putting it all together, making sure it all works and sending it to me! :D

Can't wait!!

Oh, and I watched a video review of the Ivy vs. Sandy Bridge by the Overclockers people and the guy seemed a bit disappointed and advised to stick with Sandy unless you had a desperate urge to possess all the latest hardware, so I don't mind so much that I didn't wait now :p

P.S. Apologies for all the rogue exclamation marks, they just sort of escaped. I don't know what gave you the idea that I'm unbelievably excited about getting this laptop though :p
 
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Ub3R_aP3

Member
You've built an almost identical machine to the one I was looking at before I decided to wait for Ivy and the 7970m.

I did just run a quick build up to compare to yours and the exact same specs came to £1747 for me so I'm a little curious to how you got yours so cheap?
 
D

Dolleeh

Active member
I don't know whether it's a glitch or something to do with the Tax system on the Channel Islands, but VAT vanishes when you select Channel Island delivery?!
 
D

Dolleeh

Active member
I'm guessing there's no way to route an order through the Channel Islands and back to the mainland to reduce cost? :)
I'm sure if there was it would already have been abused and stopped... Oh well
 
Soliloqui

Soliloqui

Member
Haha, yeah guys, sorry about that, it's a tax thing. Finn has it right!
And Dolleeh, I'm afraid that that sort of behaviour is well known and the system has been very well abused for quite a few years now by play.com most notably but many others also, so that new legislation has since been put in place to prevent it happening as many smaller local UK businesses were suffering because of it!
That's not however to say that you couldn't make a friend in the Channel Isles and get things shipped to them and then visit for a holiday and collect all your VAT free goodies ;P (I'd recommend a friend in Guernsey though as Jersey have to pay a bit more import VAT if I recall correctly :D )
 
Soliloqui

Soliloqui

Member
Hahaha! Well... I didn't want to say anything, but... :p
No worries, it's not often someone wants to be your friend just because you live on a ridiculous rock, might as well squeeze this VAT advantage for all it's worth :D
 
D

Dolleeh

Active member
If I know someone who doesn't live in the Channel Islands, but has a second/holiday home thingy there, can I send my purchase for him to bring back when he goes and not break any laws/incur any massive charges?
 
J

Jamwllms

Bronze Level Poster
Ub3R_aP3 said:
You've built an almost identical machine to the one I was looking at before I decided to wait for Ivy and the 7970m.

I did just run a quick build up to compare to yours and the exact same specs came to £1747 for me so I'm a little curious to how you got yours so cheap?
Click to expand...

Yeah, the 7970m has caught my eye!

Have you got a SSD maybe? That tends to hike it up a bit.

Or maybe just the lack of VAT. ^^
 
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