Vortex III Laptop and PCSpecialist.co.uk Review

[LordGarth6]

The 17.3 inch Widescreen, Vortex III from PCSpecialist.co.uk (Service and Product Review)

I would recommend this for nearly all laptop gamers with a good budget, more general gamers I’d tell them to put the money to a desktop for better performance (even with the same spec but desktop version). This is probably not a spec/price for a console gamer that needs converting.

I would recommend PCSpecialist to anyone that wants a custom laptop as they are much cheaper than alienware. I would tell someone who wants a desktop to build it them self, but these guys are decent for someone who has no time to build their machine or is not willing to/can’t.

 

PCSpecialist.co.uk Evaluation

Pros

• They have a great forum to discuss anything, and answer any questions.
• Decent website layout, for easy navigation.
• Great range of base products to choose from, and upgrade.
• Upgrade options are plentiful.
• They are fast to build the system (results may vary per configuration).
• They show how long it took for systems in the past 5 days (from being ordered to dispatch).
• They have detailed info on each stage of production.
• Free insured delivery.
• Good laptop delivery finish protection, smothered in plastic sheets.

Cons

• They email you your spec in a pdf, but only the first config that is saved, me looking to get the best for my money had multiple configs save, and they didn’t ever email it me when I finally ordered, (small touch but good for when checking your system when it arrives).
• Charges to use credit card (2% not much but at high cost machines adds a small chunk of cost on top).
• While packaging was adequate I think it could have had a bit more to the larger box to keep the product a little safer.

Laptop Evaluation

Pros (some relative to my 3 year old HP Pavilion DV7 4150ea)

• Stays quite cool under strain and also quiet.
• Decent battery life when not doing too many intensive tasks. (at least 3 hours).
• Never going back to a non-backlit keyboard (back lit keyboard looks amazing).
• Decent choice of display output ports (DVI-I, DPORT & HDMI).
• Ample storage for files and backing up.
• USB 3 is a god send for all my USB 3 devices.
• SSD is fully optimised/utilised with this laptop.
• Nice finish that feels good and looks good.
• No branding found on the whole laptop (not good if you like to brag to random strangers).
• All components are easy to get to.
• Fingerprint scanner and its software work extremely well and can be used on websites and other programs.
• WIFI is very strong and stable has reasonable range in a brick UK house, still get a good signal outside on the other side of the house.
• Speaker quality and sound card are quite reasonable, and don’t warrant a £30 upgrade for different one, and the bundled software for it has some good features.
• No bloatware on pc at all, when first arrived.
• Screen is 1080p and is very good; the matte option greatly reduces glace on display.

 

Indifferent

• Windows 8, I like it, I updated my old machine to it and is great. A few flaws bring it down, like the big divide between ‘modern’ UI and older style desktop.
• Fingerprint scanner is not in the most optimal place, between the left and right click buttons, so left/right click takes a little getting used to

Cons (small things really)

• Not a complete set of media keys.
• Some function buttons are useless as windows key combos take their place.
• Keyboard transition is difficult (Enter key is not a large key but a long ‘shift’ like key, and right shift is cut short by the arrow keys).
• Power lead, from laptop to ‘brick’, is a little short, so may hang when cable flows is from a desk.
• Not the most portable laptop, but I’m not too bothered about that as I don’t take it that far from my house, and I prefer the power over portability.
• Finish is an absolute finger print magnet.
• Touchpad doesn’t have a uniform feel; edges aren’t as ‘slick’ as centre, (well to me).
• Mic is just above the touch pad, bad positioning.

 

Laptop Spec                       Based on a CLEVO P170EM

Chassis & Display

Vortex Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Processor (CPU)

Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3630QM 6MB (2.40GHz (3.4GHz turbo))

Memory (RAM)

8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)

Graphics Card

NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680M - 4.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

Storage - Hard Disk

500GB Samsung 840 SSD (Primary), 1TB 5400RPM/500GB 720RPM HDD (Storage)

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive

2nd/3rd HDD HARD DRIVE OPTICAL BAY CADDY

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

Bluetooth & Wireless

GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® ADVANCED-N 6235 (300Mbps) + 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 8 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence

 

Dimensions                                         (weight is approx. 4kg)

Thickness/length

45mm

Width

410mm

Depth

275mm

 

Cold boot up time is 23s, un-optimised with a few of start-up programs

Windows Experience Index of 7.2 (for the very few people that want that)

 

Bioshock Infinite Benchmark Tool, Per Scene Stats:
Scene Duration (seconds) 32.76
Average FPS 43.7
Min FPS 19.28
Max FPS 63.53
Scene Name Welcome Center

Scene Duration (seconds) 21.93
Average FPS 43.63
Min FPS 14.01
Max FPS 52.4
Scene Name Town Center

Scene Duration (seconds) 8.16
Average FPS 41.66
Min FPS 27.84
Max FPS 54.17
Scene Name Raffle

Scene Duration (seconds) 9.12
Average FPS 61.9
Min FPS 40.71
Max FPS 71.14
Scene Name Monument Island

Scene Duration (seconds) 81.64
Average FPS 47.72
Min FPS 14.01
Max FPS 71.14
Scene Name Overall

 

3D Mark (Only settings available on free trial) http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/6601501
Score P5790 with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M(1x) and Intel Core i7-3630QM Processor
Graphics Score    5654
Physics Score    7568
Combined Score    4946

 

Prime 95 Benchmark Test Results

Best time for 61 bit trial factors: 2.230 ms.

Best time for 62 bit trial factors: 2.281 ms.

Best time for 63 bit trial factors: 2.598 ms.

Best time for 64 bit trial factors: 3.630 ms.

Best time for 65 bit trial factors: 5.326 ms.

Best time for 66 bit trial factors: 6.221 ms.

Best time for 67 bit trial factors: 6.166 ms.

Best time for 75 bit trial factors: 6.105 ms.

Best time for 76 bit trial factors: 6.132 ms.

Best time for 77 bit trial factors: 6.096 ms.

 

 

all software installed by defualt

temperatures when Prime95 benchmark tests were being conducted

 

 

 

Settings for Bioshock infinites benchmark

Version Info: 32Bit Exe - 1.0.1384116 2/28/2013 12:00:00 AM

Commandline Used: DefaultPCBenchmarkMap.xcmap -ForceCompatLevel=7  -resx=1920 -resy=1080  -nosound -norumble -noPauseOnLossOfFocus -fullscreen -runfrombenchmarkbat  -DEFENGINEINI=..\..\XGame\Config\DefaultEngineSteamworks.ini

Settings Used: [systemSettings]

StaticDecals=true                                  DynamicDecals=true                             UnbatchedDecals=true             

DynamicShadows=true                         DirectionalLightmaps=true                   DepthOfField=true

DiffusionDepthOfField=true                 Bloom=true                                          Distortion=true                        

FilteredDistortion=true             DropParticleDistortion=false                 bAllowDownsampledTranslucency=true

bUseMaxQualityMode=false                  OnlyStreamInTextures=false                 LensFlares=true                                   

OneFrameThreadLag=true                    UseVsync=false                                    VsyncTo60WhenUnder30=false

UpscaleScreenPercentage=true              AllowD3D10=true                                AllowD3D11=true                       

AllowRadialBlur=true                           EnableSoftwareOcclusion=false             EnableGPUOcclusionQueries=true

EnableDepthPrePass=false                                             bAllowWholeSceneDominantShadows=true

bForceCPUAccessToGPUSkinVerts=false                      bDisableSkeletalInstanceWeights=false

EnableScreenSpaceAmbientShadows=true                     EnableSPUScreenSpaceAmbientShadows=true

UseHighQualityLightShaftRendering=true                    EnableSM5ShadowSystem=true

EnableSM5ShadowBlur=true                                        EnableLightShafts=true

EnableFXAA=true                                                        EnableSM5FXAA=false

EnableHDAO=true                                                       HDAOHighQuality=true

DisableAOFiltering=false                                              UseLowPrecisionColorBuffer=false

UseHalfResAmbientShadows=false                               UseComputeShaderAmbientShadows=true

bInitializeShadersOnDemand=false                               bEnableParallelApexClothingFetch=false

SkeletalMeshLODBias=0                                              ParticleLODBias=0

DetailMode=2                                                               ShadowFilterQualityBias=3

MaxAnisotropy=16                                                       MinShadowResolution=64

MaxShadowResolution=2048                                        MaxPerObjectShadowResolution=2048

CullCastersSmallerThanTexels=0                                  ResX=1920

ResY=1080                                                                   UnbuiltNumWholeSceneDynamicShadowCascades=3

ShadowFadeResolution=128                                          LightFadeResolution=0

LightMinResolution=0                                                  GraphicsQualityLevel=5

DisplayMode=1                                                             MaxPrecachePrimitivesPerFrame=300

ApexDestructionMaxChunkIslandCount=2147483647            ApexDestructionMaxShapeCount=2147483647

ApexClothingAvgSimFrequencyWindow=60                 ScreenPercentage=100.000

SceneCaptureStreamingMultiplier=1.000                       ShadowTexelsPerPixel=1.273

ShadowDepthBias=0.012                                              ShadowDepthBiasWorstCase=0.003

CSMSplitSoftTransitionDistanceScale=4.000                 CSMSplitDepthBiasScale=0.500

UnbuiltWholeSceneDynamicShadowRadius=20000.000             ShadowFadeExponent=0.700

LightFadeExponent=1.000                                            DecalCullDistanceScale=1.000

SM5ShadowSunWidth=0.100                                        SM5ShadowSunWidthWorstCase=50.000

NewShadowPenumbra=8.000                                        NewShadowSplitPenumbraScale=0.500

NewShadowFilterWidth=2.000                                      ShadowCascadeScale=1.000

NewCSMSoftTransitionDistance=600.000                     NewNonCSMSoftTransitionDistance=60.000

MassiveLODDistanceBias=0.100                                   CullDistanceBias=0.100

StaticMeshLODDistanceBias=0.100                              SkeletalMeshLODDistanceBias=0.100

ParticleSystemLODDistanceBias=0.100                         DistortionFadeResolution=1.000

DistortionMinResolution=0.000                                                SM5DiffusionNearBlurScale=0.600

SM5DiffusionFarBlurScale=0.350                                 OverallTextureStreamingBias=1.500

ParticleCountHardLimitScaleFactor=10.000                   MaxDistanceToApplyOcclusionRotationalScaling=5000.000

ApexLODResourceBudget=1000000020040877300000.000

ApexDestructionMaxChunkSeparationLOD=1.000

[SteepGnomeKing]

Nice laptop, I agree with the keyboard I wish it was a bit nicer but for me it was a big increase over my last one. If it has a back light it is +10 so nice to use at night.

[LordGarth6]

Nice laptop, I agree with the keyboard I wish it was a bit nicer but for me it was a big increase over my last one. If it has a back light it is +10 so nice to use at night.

yea just a little key layout that needs changing but yea the back light makes it 100x better than previous keyboards