JamieRIOT
Bronze Level Poster
Hi everyone,
I was looking to replace an aging Dell laptop with a new, powerful one that could handle games on medium-ultra settings and for using 3D art programs, such as Maya, zBrush and Unreal Engine 4.
I got my Vortex IV 17.3" laptop almost two weeks ago now and wanted the chance to use a variety of programs and tests on it, before I wrote up a review. I have now had the time to do that, so here's an in-depth review.
Enjoy!
Why PCS?
I spent many hours over about three weeks researching different branded laptops in varying price ranges, learning what you get for what sort of budget. I eventually decided I wanted to invest in a very good 17" laptop that would future-proof itself for ~5 years. After all this time browsing the web, I settled on going with PCS due to the fantastic configurator, competitive pricing, great reviews, build quality and good financing options.
My build:
Vortex Series: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4710MQ (2.50GHz) 6MB
16GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 870M - 6.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
250GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1202 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11N + BLUETOOTH 4.0
Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Bullguard Internet Security (free 90 day trial)
CoolerMaster Ergostand II Quiet Laptop Cooler
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Standard delivery
Total: ~£1400
Forum support:
The PCS forum is a great tool for anyone thinking of buying a PCS setup. Everyone has been very informative and helpful to myself and others, giving advice on creating the best setup for your budget and needs.
Ordering process:
The PCS website and configurator is laid out really nicely. It's very easy to scroll through the list choosing which laptop you like the look of and choosing the parts. Only a fairly basic knowledge of computer parts is needed, but if you're not sure, just pop on to the PCS forums and there is always someone to help you out. Paying for your order is easy and clear, so there shouldn't be any confusion.
Finance options:
A big thumbs up for me was PCS's financing options. I could not afford to pay for my Vortex IV laptop in one chunk, so seeing that there was a 12 month, interest-free finance option was awesome. There is just a small £29 settlement fee if paid back in full with the 12 months. Great for anyone without huge amounts of savings or students for their education.
Delivery process:
I put my order in on the 22nd April with the standard delivery. I noticed through the forum that PCS have been especially busy around this time and others have been experiencing waits of up to ~5 weeks to get their orders through, when it states that standard delivery takes between 7-9 working days. This has been the only real negative for me, it should have been clearer to people ordering that there is a considerable wait. After 11 working days, with my laptop still stuck in pre-production, I decided to pay £39 to upgrade to the 5 day dispatch option. My laptop was dispatched on the third working day after this upgrade and with me on the fourth. Definitely worth considering the upgraded delievry if waiting for expensive new gadgets is not your strong point!
Packaging:
The laptop is here! The packaging your new toy comes in is very discrete, a brown box inside of a larger brown box. The laptop is housed in two supportive foam pieces, floating away from the sides of the box to prevent any movement and avoid any knocks to the outer box hitting the laptop (or accessories) itself. The battery and charger is in it's own carboard compartment next to the laptop, wrapped in plastic. Manuals, recovery discs, cleaning cloth etc is in another small plastic packet in the laptop box too. All is good here, nothing damaged or scratched.
Now to the juicy bit, the Vortex IV 17.3" laptop itself!
Chassis:
The chassis of the Vortex IV is very nice indeed! A blend of sturdy, matte black plastic, black brushed aluminium lid, wrist rest and touchpad, with glossy black plastic trim. Mmmmm. The air intakes and exhausts on the Vortex IV is another plus point, as this really helps cool the laptop during intensive use with great airflow. I really love that PCS don't brand their laptops, so there is no ugly logos to annoy you or advertise your expensive beast if in public. It's almost like something Batman would use.
Screen:
I am a 3D artist in the games industry by trade, so for my laptops I want a nice big screen with very good colour display, so I see everything as best as it can be seen on screen. For these reasons, I opted for the 17.3" model with a glossy screen. I very rarely find myself working on the laptop with strong sunlight, so the shiny surface is fine for me to work with. Although the matte display is said to display colours quite nicely, it does give a slight graininess and does not stand up to the glossy version (£29 upgrade well spent!). The colours are vibrant, blacks display as blacks, not washed out tones of grey, gaming and working on the display is a joy.
Keyboard:
When it comes to the Vortex IV, the keyboard (from what I have read) seems to split opinions, some people really like it, others think it's not great. I like the keyboard, the low-profile keys are light to press and give a quiet click sound, not once having a problem with it. The keyboard may take getting a little use to for others, as there is a couple of strange layout choices. The enter key is a single-row button, rather than the double size one that people like. The right shift key is also squashed a little to make room for the up key. Only little things really that you get used to within a week of use, no big deal. The backlit keyboard is an attractive feature of the Vortex IV to many, with a ton of colour and brightness options available through fn functions. I'm a blue kind of guy, so my setup has a nice light blue backlighting for night sessions!
Speakers:
I'm not an expert in sound, so maybe I am not the best judge when it comes to the Vortex IV's Onkyo speakers. I do think they sound pretty decent, you certainly won't get cinema-quality sound from any laptop, so these do the job well. The Vortex IV chassis come with a small subwoofer on the underside of the body, which gives audio an extra oomph. The Onkyo speakers are in one long horizontal strip under the screen and are discrete looking, which suits my tastes nicely.
Touchpad:
The touchpad is a little strange on this laptop, it is the same black brushed aluminium as the wrist rests, which while cool to the touch, it does have a slight grainy feel to it to begin with. If you are switching from a laptop with a shiny, smooth touchpad like myself, it does take a little while to get used to. The left and right-click buttons have a speckle-textured effect to the surface and give a nice, sturdy click when pressed.
The main negative on the touchpad is the fingerprint scanner. It's not great at scanning fingerprints, but maybe I'm some weird alien with no fingerprint? Also it sits in between the left and right-click buttons, making them squashed and increasing the travel distance to from left to right clicks.
HDD and SSD:
Taking the advice from users on the PCS forums, I opted for the 250GB Samsung 840 Evo SSD and 750GB Western Digital Scorpio Black HDD combination. Wow, coming from an again Dell laptop to one with the operating system installed on a great SSD makes a world of difference. My boot times (from pressing the power button the the login screen) are between 8-10 seconds, that's damn quick! I have my main programs and a couple of games also installed on the SSD and they are so much quicker to load up too. This combination gives me the storage space I need, with speedy loading. The 750GB Western Digital Scorpio Black HDD runs at 7200rpm as opposed to the standard 5400rpm of most HDDs, so that is a great addition to the setup too.
v Continued on the next post...
I was looking to replace an aging Dell laptop with a new, powerful one that could handle games on medium-ultra settings and for using 3D art programs, such as Maya, zBrush and Unreal Engine 4.
I got my Vortex IV 17.3" laptop almost two weeks ago now and wanted the chance to use a variety of programs and tests on it, before I wrote up a review. I have now had the time to do that, so here's an in-depth review.
Enjoy!
Why PCS?
I spent many hours over about three weeks researching different branded laptops in varying price ranges, learning what you get for what sort of budget. I eventually decided I wanted to invest in a very good 17" laptop that would future-proof itself for ~5 years. After all this time browsing the web, I settled on going with PCS due to the fantastic configurator, competitive pricing, great reviews, build quality and good financing options.
My build:
Vortex Series: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4710MQ (2.50GHz) 6MB
16GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 870M - 6.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
250GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1202 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11N + BLUETOOTH 4.0
Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Bullguard Internet Security (free 90 day trial)
CoolerMaster Ergostand II Quiet Laptop Cooler
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Standard delivery
Total: ~£1400
Forum support:
The PCS forum is a great tool for anyone thinking of buying a PCS setup. Everyone has been very informative and helpful to myself and others, giving advice on creating the best setup for your budget and needs.
Ordering process:
The PCS website and configurator is laid out really nicely. It's very easy to scroll through the list choosing which laptop you like the look of and choosing the parts. Only a fairly basic knowledge of computer parts is needed, but if you're not sure, just pop on to the PCS forums and there is always someone to help you out. Paying for your order is easy and clear, so there shouldn't be any confusion.
Finance options:
A big thumbs up for me was PCS's financing options. I could not afford to pay for my Vortex IV laptop in one chunk, so seeing that there was a 12 month, interest-free finance option was awesome. There is just a small £29 settlement fee if paid back in full with the 12 months. Great for anyone without huge amounts of savings or students for their education.
Delivery process:
I put my order in on the 22nd April with the standard delivery. I noticed through the forum that PCS have been especially busy around this time and others have been experiencing waits of up to ~5 weeks to get their orders through, when it states that standard delivery takes between 7-9 working days. This has been the only real negative for me, it should have been clearer to people ordering that there is a considerable wait. After 11 working days, with my laptop still stuck in pre-production, I decided to pay £39 to upgrade to the 5 day dispatch option. My laptop was dispatched on the third working day after this upgrade and with me on the fourth. Definitely worth considering the upgraded delievry if waiting for expensive new gadgets is not your strong point!
Packaging:
The laptop is here! The packaging your new toy comes in is very discrete, a brown box inside of a larger brown box. The laptop is housed in two supportive foam pieces, floating away from the sides of the box to prevent any movement and avoid any knocks to the outer box hitting the laptop (or accessories) itself. The battery and charger is in it's own carboard compartment next to the laptop, wrapped in plastic. Manuals, recovery discs, cleaning cloth etc is in another small plastic packet in the laptop box too. All is good here, nothing damaged or scratched.
Now to the juicy bit, the Vortex IV 17.3" laptop itself!
Chassis:
The chassis of the Vortex IV is very nice indeed! A blend of sturdy, matte black plastic, black brushed aluminium lid, wrist rest and touchpad, with glossy black plastic trim. Mmmmm. The air intakes and exhausts on the Vortex IV is another plus point, as this really helps cool the laptop during intensive use with great airflow. I really love that PCS don't brand their laptops, so there is no ugly logos to annoy you or advertise your expensive beast if in public. It's almost like something Batman would use.
Screen:
I am a 3D artist in the games industry by trade, so for my laptops I want a nice big screen with very good colour display, so I see everything as best as it can be seen on screen. For these reasons, I opted for the 17.3" model with a glossy screen. I very rarely find myself working on the laptop with strong sunlight, so the shiny surface is fine for me to work with. Although the matte display is said to display colours quite nicely, it does give a slight graininess and does not stand up to the glossy version (£29 upgrade well spent!). The colours are vibrant, blacks display as blacks, not washed out tones of grey, gaming and working on the display is a joy.
Keyboard:
When it comes to the Vortex IV, the keyboard (from what I have read) seems to split opinions, some people really like it, others think it's not great. I like the keyboard, the low-profile keys are light to press and give a quiet click sound, not once having a problem with it. The keyboard may take getting a little use to for others, as there is a couple of strange layout choices. The enter key is a single-row button, rather than the double size one that people like. The right shift key is also squashed a little to make room for the up key. Only little things really that you get used to within a week of use, no big deal. The backlit keyboard is an attractive feature of the Vortex IV to many, with a ton of colour and brightness options available through fn functions. I'm a blue kind of guy, so my setup has a nice light blue backlighting for night sessions!
Speakers:
I'm not an expert in sound, so maybe I am not the best judge when it comes to the Vortex IV's Onkyo speakers. I do think they sound pretty decent, you certainly won't get cinema-quality sound from any laptop, so these do the job well. The Vortex IV chassis come with a small subwoofer on the underside of the body, which gives audio an extra oomph. The Onkyo speakers are in one long horizontal strip under the screen and are discrete looking, which suits my tastes nicely.
Touchpad:
The touchpad is a little strange on this laptop, it is the same black brushed aluminium as the wrist rests, which while cool to the touch, it does have a slight grainy feel to it to begin with. If you are switching from a laptop with a shiny, smooth touchpad like myself, it does take a little while to get used to. The left and right-click buttons have a speckle-textured effect to the surface and give a nice, sturdy click when pressed.
The main negative on the touchpad is the fingerprint scanner. It's not great at scanning fingerprints, but maybe I'm some weird alien with no fingerprint? Also it sits in between the left and right-click buttons, making them squashed and increasing the travel distance to from left to right clicks.
HDD and SSD:
Taking the advice from users on the PCS forums, I opted for the 250GB Samsung 840 Evo SSD and 750GB Western Digital Scorpio Black HDD combination. Wow, coming from an again Dell laptop to one with the operating system installed on a great SSD makes a world of difference. My boot times (from pressing the power button the the login screen) are between 8-10 seconds, that's damn quick! I have my main programs and a couple of games also installed on the SSD and they are so much quicker to load up too. This combination gives me the storage space I need, with speedy loading. The 750GB Western Digital Scorpio Black HDD runs at 7200rpm as opposed to the standard 5400rpm of most HDDs, so that is a great addition to the setup too.
v Continued on the next post...
Yeah, laptop is awesome, very happy with it.