I ordered the Vortex IV LE on Saturday 14th on 5 day fast track, it was built on the 18th, tested 18th until 19th, marked as awaiting dispatch on 19th at 1pm and dispatched 20th 4pm. Thanks to all the people involved in my order for making it go smoothly, I got the laptop today just as expected. The Laptop build I ordered was the base model with the following differences:
CPU: i7 4700mq
GPU: 765m 2gb
RAM 4gb 1600mhz
500gb WD HDD 5400rpm
Intel N-6235 300mbps+BT
No OS or office
Silver warranty
Fast track
Total I paid was 835 with a discount code.
PCS experience
As I said, the build was done in perfect time and PCS honoured their 5 day dispatch I paid for so that is a positive. For the questions I had I messaged PCS through my account and received a reply all time within a few hours which is great service in my opinion, I expected a day or two turnaround but a few hours is fantastic so again I am very please and give the service a 10/10.
Laptop Setup
I received the laptop today at 11am to find an inception of packaging, a box within a box. The laptop was in an anti-static bag and in a shock absorbing foam padding which I thought held the laptop and other things in place nicely. There was a user manual and another book from PCS included in the pack along with 2 drivers disks (Win 7 and win 8 I guess) and nero trial. The battery and PSU were in yet another box within the box within the box. I was very pleased with packaging. So once I savaged the packaging with a fish knife (safety first), I installed my Samsung 840 250gb SSD in place of the 500GB I ordered and then used a windows 8 boot USB to install the OS. I had an OS by 11:30 and then went on with the drivers. The disk included about 17 or 18 drivers, the ones I remember are:
Intel chipset
Intel VGA
Nvidia Graphics
AMD graphics
LAN
WIFI
Audio (realtek)
Pointing device
Hotkeys
Bluetooth combo
Fingerprint
Soundblaster audio
Then a bunch of intel ones for rapid start and so on that I didnt bother with because of the SSD. IF you want the full list comment below.
The drivers were installed 2 at a time with reboots in between and by 11:45 I had them all installed but Soundblaster wouldnt detect the speakers as "supported" so I ended up going back over that a couple of times and after re-installing it under Win7 compatibility and Admin mode, the next reboot everything worked. Before 12pm I had a fully working laptop. This was very straightforward and although there was some faffing around with SoundBlaster, as I am familiar with windows 8 and diagnosing these issues from past experience I give the setup procedure for a no OS system a 10/10, meaning it was relatively easy and if you got stuck, a quick google would handle it.
Laptop Quality
This is my favourite section. I was expecting sub-standard quality given all the things I have read so far from other people saying it is plastic and it is cheaper than the vortex IV and it is obvious and blah blah. However, I came to this from a Toshiba L500 which was really flexible plastic, it was a great laptop while I had it but it was still poor. For an £800 laptop this definitely feels the part. The laptop is a hard plastic which I can say is comfortable to hold with one hand and not fear anything will break, given the substantial weight this thing has. When I tap on it, I am reminded that it is plastic, but it also feels really dense and robust. The hinge is great with enough resistance to know it will hold up but doesn't feel too tight that you have to go into beast mode to open the laptop. The plastic has a grainy finish which I think is very similar to the Logitech G700 mouse, but for a more general view one could say it is the same texture as the xbox 360 control pad but grainier, more abrasive. You won't end up with stubs if you use it too long though, it is comfortable to me. The screen is an absolute joy at full HD on a 15.6inch screen, very crisp and clear, the colours are great and to me I think the colour saturation is fantastic, very vivid colours in my opinion.
Though the speakers arent going to win any awards, they have a really robust software behind them with SoundBlaster Xfi mb3. It has really good options that are more advanced than Realtek audio software, with levels for bass and voice isolation and even environmental effects. I think the quality is good, possibly even great given they are 1inch speakers that probably don't cost an aweful lot to make and sure Dynaudio on the MSI laptops is amazing but I find having amazing speakers on a laptop is an oxymoron, just buy sennheiser headphones or a gaming headset with virtual surround. The USP of this laptop has to be they keyboard though. The chiclet keyboard is amazing, I literally see no flex at all and the keys have a great amount of travel and fantastic response. I have to say I am thoroughly impressed, it is comparable to Apple's chiclet keyboards, the metal ones, Kudos to Clevo and more Kudos to PCS for having this as part of their range. 10/10 though I wish I could give more!
EDIT: Just a small bit of information on the keyboard, I noticed some laptops like Sony Vaios leave keyboard marks on the screen because the chiclet keyboard is quite elevated and everytime the lid is closed the keys touch the screen. This is never going to be an issue as the screen is set in approximately 2mm, and the keyboard is set about 3mm into the laptop and the trackpad 1mm in. With the rubber feet around the screen, there is no way keyboard will ever screen. I think that is a big positive whether it was intentional or not, and the design is awesome.
First proper use and gaming performance
The first thing I did was install Steam and Origin and download Skyrim, GTA4, Fifa12, NFS Shift, Crysis Warhead. The intention to give you a nice balanced review with an open world adventure RPG, a sports games, a racing game, an FPS and something that combines other aspects but is known to be quite CPU bound (GTA4). All games were tested at 1920 x 1080 and Fifa was maxed with 60fps constantly, zero lag on max settings including vsync. NFS Shift also with full settings 4x AA and everything in max ran smoothly with 50+fps, Skyrim ram in Ultra High with max everything but no FXAA at 45fps with rare dips to 36fps still smooth as silk, 60fps in dungeons. GTA4 I had issues with because of Games for Windows Live and Windows 8 issues (How do they make that mistake with their own platform?!) but fixed it with win7 compat + admin and I think the settings were all maxed except draw distances which were in the 40's and nigh shadows were high. A happy 50+fps for that. Crysis warhead hates something on the machine as it refuses to run, as does crysis. I will find a way to make these work soon. My intention was not to give you the latest and greatest games benchmarks as that is done by pretty much everyone, but to give you older but still quite demanding games to see the rate of progression. If you are interested in other games let me know and I will post a list of what I have. With sufficient demand I will do some video benchmarks too. The performance both met and in some cases exceeded my expectations so 10/10 again.
Temps, Noise, Fans, emissions
Granted I didn't play the most intensive games out there, my GPU temps maxed at 65 and CPU at 69 after a couple of hours playing. I will do a more intensive benchmark soon and report back is people are interested but my fans were probably on the 2nd setting up from being off. They spend most of their time in setting 1 and if I idle the machine the fans go off completely which is promising for OEM paste. I don't think I will repaste. Max fans override is FN+1 and to give you an idea it sounds as loud as your car air conditioning on setting 4. If you dont have a car then I would say it is as loud as a mid pitched whistle, which I just "confirmed" using a decibel-meter on my phone. Another way I think of it is when you are at the seaside and the waves come crashing in from about 50cm to 1m, its about that loud. Hopefully you either have a car, whistle or have fond memories of the seaside so you can use that as a comparison for max fans on Vortex IV LE. I have not yet managed to get my computer to hit max fans. 10/10 again.
I am very impressed, and I am happy I chose this laptop over the Vortex IV. I am a regular gamer but have many other uses such as CAD design and computer programming, report writing and a lot of calculations so this machine is fantastic for me. Also as someone who does have a pretty limited budget, I don't regret not having a 770m because although it is 30% faster, the 765m is also in Razer's main gaming laptops, the top GPU in the Alienware 14 which I think is comparable to this as the Alienware 17 is more P170sm competition, and also in many MSI laptops and all these manufacturers (as well as Clevo) wouldnt choose it by coincidence, it obviously shows itself off really well. It is definitely entry level desktop performance and having done a 3d Benchmark test with Passmark, this GPU landed above the GTX 550Ti so on a budget I recommend this laptop for sure.
EDIT 2: I am currently having some difficulty accessing under the keyboard and the main vents, the screws are pretty tight and being so small I cannot get enough torsion behind them to lift the keyboard or open the main bottom panel. This could be because I do not have a comprehensive set of screwdrivers. The precision screwdrivers fit nicely but I cannot get enough grip to turn, and the only other one I have is a medium sized screwdriver which had started to strip one of the screws so I stopped before lasting damage was done so I can still try again later when I have more to test with.
CPU: i7 4700mq
GPU: 765m 2gb
RAM 4gb 1600mhz
500gb WD HDD 5400rpm
Intel N-6235 300mbps+BT
No OS or office
Silver warranty
Fast track
Total I paid was 835 with a discount code.
PCS experience
As I said, the build was done in perfect time and PCS honoured their 5 day dispatch I paid for so that is a positive. For the questions I had I messaged PCS through my account and received a reply all time within a few hours which is great service in my opinion, I expected a day or two turnaround but a few hours is fantastic so again I am very please and give the service a 10/10.
Laptop Setup
I received the laptop today at 11am to find an inception of packaging, a box within a box. The laptop was in an anti-static bag and in a shock absorbing foam padding which I thought held the laptop and other things in place nicely. There was a user manual and another book from PCS included in the pack along with 2 drivers disks (Win 7 and win 8 I guess) and nero trial. The battery and PSU were in yet another box within the box within the box. I was very pleased with packaging. So once I savaged the packaging with a fish knife (safety first), I installed my Samsung 840 250gb SSD in place of the 500GB I ordered and then used a windows 8 boot USB to install the OS. I had an OS by 11:30 and then went on with the drivers. The disk included about 17 or 18 drivers, the ones I remember are:
Intel chipset
Intel VGA
Nvidia Graphics
AMD graphics
LAN
WIFI
Audio (realtek)
Pointing device
Hotkeys
Bluetooth combo
Fingerprint
Soundblaster audio
Then a bunch of intel ones for rapid start and so on that I didnt bother with because of the SSD. IF you want the full list comment below.
The drivers were installed 2 at a time with reboots in between and by 11:45 I had them all installed but Soundblaster wouldnt detect the speakers as "supported" so I ended up going back over that a couple of times and after re-installing it under Win7 compatibility and Admin mode, the next reboot everything worked. Before 12pm I had a fully working laptop. This was very straightforward and although there was some faffing around with SoundBlaster, as I am familiar with windows 8 and diagnosing these issues from past experience I give the setup procedure for a no OS system a 10/10, meaning it was relatively easy and if you got stuck, a quick google would handle it.
Laptop Quality
This is my favourite section. I was expecting sub-standard quality given all the things I have read so far from other people saying it is plastic and it is cheaper than the vortex IV and it is obvious and blah blah. However, I came to this from a Toshiba L500 which was really flexible plastic, it was a great laptop while I had it but it was still poor. For an £800 laptop this definitely feels the part. The laptop is a hard plastic which I can say is comfortable to hold with one hand and not fear anything will break, given the substantial weight this thing has. When I tap on it, I am reminded that it is plastic, but it also feels really dense and robust. The hinge is great with enough resistance to know it will hold up but doesn't feel too tight that you have to go into beast mode to open the laptop. The plastic has a grainy finish which I think is very similar to the Logitech G700 mouse, but for a more general view one could say it is the same texture as the xbox 360 control pad but grainier, more abrasive. You won't end up with stubs if you use it too long though, it is comfortable to me. The screen is an absolute joy at full HD on a 15.6inch screen, very crisp and clear, the colours are great and to me I think the colour saturation is fantastic, very vivid colours in my opinion.
Though the speakers arent going to win any awards, they have a really robust software behind them with SoundBlaster Xfi mb3. It has really good options that are more advanced than Realtek audio software, with levels for bass and voice isolation and even environmental effects. I think the quality is good, possibly even great given they are 1inch speakers that probably don't cost an aweful lot to make and sure Dynaudio on the MSI laptops is amazing but I find having amazing speakers on a laptop is an oxymoron, just buy sennheiser headphones or a gaming headset with virtual surround. The USP of this laptop has to be they keyboard though. The chiclet keyboard is amazing, I literally see no flex at all and the keys have a great amount of travel and fantastic response. I have to say I am thoroughly impressed, it is comparable to Apple's chiclet keyboards, the metal ones, Kudos to Clevo and more Kudos to PCS for having this as part of their range. 10/10 though I wish I could give more!
EDIT: Just a small bit of information on the keyboard, I noticed some laptops like Sony Vaios leave keyboard marks on the screen because the chiclet keyboard is quite elevated and everytime the lid is closed the keys touch the screen. This is never going to be an issue as the screen is set in approximately 2mm, and the keyboard is set about 3mm into the laptop and the trackpad 1mm in. With the rubber feet around the screen, there is no way keyboard will ever screen. I think that is a big positive whether it was intentional or not, and the design is awesome.
First proper use and gaming performance
The first thing I did was install Steam and Origin and download Skyrim, GTA4, Fifa12, NFS Shift, Crysis Warhead. The intention to give you a nice balanced review with an open world adventure RPG, a sports games, a racing game, an FPS and something that combines other aspects but is known to be quite CPU bound (GTA4). All games were tested at 1920 x 1080 and Fifa was maxed with 60fps constantly, zero lag on max settings including vsync. NFS Shift also with full settings 4x AA and everything in max ran smoothly with 50+fps, Skyrim ram in Ultra High with max everything but no FXAA at 45fps with rare dips to 36fps still smooth as silk, 60fps in dungeons. GTA4 I had issues with because of Games for Windows Live and Windows 8 issues (How do they make that mistake with their own platform?!) but fixed it with win7 compat + admin and I think the settings were all maxed except draw distances which were in the 40's and nigh shadows were high. A happy 50+fps for that. Crysis warhead hates something on the machine as it refuses to run, as does crysis. I will find a way to make these work soon. My intention was not to give you the latest and greatest games benchmarks as that is done by pretty much everyone, but to give you older but still quite demanding games to see the rate of progression. If you are interested in other games let me know and I will post a list of what I have. With sufficient demand I will do some video benchmarks too. The performance both met and in some cases exceeded my expectations so 10/10 again.
Temps, Noise, Fans, emissions
Granted I didn't play the most intensive games out there, my GPU temps maxed at 65 and CPU at 69 after a couple of hours playing. I will do a more intensive benchmark soon and report back is people are interested but my fans were probably on the 2nd setting up from being off. They spend most of their time in setting 1 and if I idle the machine the fans go off completely which is promising for OEM paste. I don't think I will repaste. Max fans override is FN+1 and to give you an idea it sounds as loud as your car air conditioning on setting 4. If you dont have a car then I would say it is as loud as a mid pitched whistle, which I just "confirmed" using a decibel-meter on my phone. Another way I think of it is when you are at the seaside and the waves come crashing in from about 50cm to 1m, its about that loud. Hopefully you either have a car, whistle or have fond memories of the seaside so you can use that as a comparison for max fans on Vortex IV LE. I have not yet managed to get my computer to hit max fans. 10/10 again.
I am very impressed, and I am happy I chose this laptop over the Vortex IV. I am a regular gamer but have many other uses such as CAD design and computer programming, report writing and a lot of calculations so this machine is fantastic for me. Also as someone who does have a pretty limited budget, I don't regret not having a 770m because although it is 30% faster, the 765m is also in Razer's main gaming laptops, the top GPU in the Alienware 14 which I think is comparable to this as the Alienware 17 is more P170sm competition, and also in many MSI laptops and all these manufacturers (as well as Clevo) wouldnt choose it by coincidence, it obviously shows itself off really well. It is definitely entry level desktop performance and having done a 3d Benchmark test with Passmark, this GPU landed above the GTX 550Ti so on a budget I recommend this laptop for sure.
EDIT 2: I am currently having some difficulty accessing under the keyboard and the main vents, the screws are pretty tight and being so small I cannot get enough torsion behind them to lift the keyboard or open the main bottom panel. This could be because I do not have a comprehensive set of screwdrivers. The precision screwdrivers fit nicely but I cannot get enough grip to turn, and the only other one I have is a medium sized screwdriver which had started to strip one of the screws so I stopped before lasting damage was done so I can still try again later when I have more to test with.
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