New Order for Vortex III

Seb.F

Seb.F

Member
Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3630QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
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
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
4x BLURAY ROM, 8x DVD ±R/±RW & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE
Sound Card
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N135 802.11N (150Mbps) + 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 (£79)
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Intel Anti-Theft Technology
FREE 90 Day Intel Anti-Theft Trial - Prevent Data Access upon Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days

Above is the spec I 'ordered' however it has been amended to remove the Blu Ray drive as I never keep any optical storage any more, removed the OS as I have spares of Win7 and I despise Win8 at the moment, removed the second HDD as I just didn't need it, added on Express Build Time, added the 300Mbit wireless adapter and adjusted the warranty to 1 year collect and return (Silver I think).

Should hopefully be done by the latest next Tuesday I would hope!

My desktop is a decent machine, i7 3930K @ 4.2Ghz, 4GB GTX 680 SLI and 2 x 256GB Crucial M4 in RAID0, 3x 24" surround monitors, just hope this laptop will serve me well as I've sold the old Dell laptop and one of the 680s to fund it! (Don't get the use of the SLI any more really).
 
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SlimCini

KC and the Sunshine BANNED
The review Vortex I presume? How much did it come to after you'd done the adjustments?

I also ordered the Vortex 17" with a few amendments and this is how long it took mine (on non-express build):

Ordered and Processed: 3rd May 2013
Pre-production: 7th May 2013 (3rd working day)
Built: 9th May 2013 (5th working day)
Tested: 10th May 2013 (6th working day)
Quality Controlled: 10th May 2013 (6th working day)
Dispatched: 13th May 2013 (7th working day)
Delivered: 14th May 2013 (8th working day)

So mine arrived yesterday and it really is a wonderful piece of kit (though you might not be so wowed with it as me given that you already have a desktop that's very powerful).

Anyway, with express build you might be able to get it by Tuesday I suppose.
 
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Seb.F

Seb.F

Member
Yesterday at around 10am!

Received an email at 9.36 stating: Your order has now been built and is awaiting testing and configuration.
 
Seb.F

Seb.F

Member
Your order has now entered the testing and configuration process.

Might even be sooner than I expected!!
 
Seb.F

Seb.F

Member
This email is to confirm that your order (number ****) is now awaiting dispatch.

It most certainly is!
 
V

visioncat

New member
Are you enjoying your new machine? I really hope you're doing better than I am.

I got my vortex III today and I think I have no choice but to return it because of the chassis design, in particular the trackpad. I'm gutted and have to admit that I've even had a cry about it (I'm allowed to, I'm a girl).

The trackpad positioning is all off - far too much to the right. I'm lefthanded and it is unusable. Because it is flush with the chassis rather than slightly inset, as well as wrongly positioned, it's nigh on impossible to type without getting in the way of the pad, even on full sensitivity against palm brushing. It's tiny, the buttons are SO stiff, it's a joke.

The chassis is such poor quality and so unergonomic, I can't help but wonder about the quality of what is inside...

I can't even write this on my new machine - it's too difficult and too uncomfortable/verging on painful. I can't believe that I sunk £2000 into something so unfriendly to use.

really hope you enjoy your machine more than I am. (goes off for another cry).

VC
 
Seb.F

Seb.F

Member
That is very odd.

I assume we are talking about the same machine here? My trackpad is not far off dead centre (admittedly it is 2cm to the left), from my point of view I would say that's equally fair for both right and left handers? I haven't typed on it just yet however I am yet to use a laptop that I can truly 'rest' my palms in the centre of the machine without interfering with the typing. I always raise them slightly above. My last machine was a Dell XPS L702X and previous to that was a Studio XPS 1645. The L702X was a mile better than the 1645 but still not fantastic. I think it's just luck if you find one that you can rest on while typing without interfering!

Saying that though, these are marketed as gaming machine and while I'm not saying by any means that is an excuse, the majority of games will involve your right hand being on a mouse, if you can play well with a touchpad I commend you!

I'm not speaking from extended experience here just yet though, I'm still waiting for the machine to update windows (I have my own copies). I will post up a more detailed review later!
 
V

visioncat

New member
thanks for not laughing me out of the room after my emotional post! Right now, I'm typing on my old Dell XPS and I'm able to keep my wrists straight without hitting the (far larger) touchpad. The touchpad looks like it's off to the left, but when you line it up with the actual keyboard (not the numberpad), it is set too far to the right for the 'home keys' (I'm a touchtypist 85wpm) so if I'm trying to touchtype with fingers on the homekeys, I have to rotate my right wrist nearly 45 degrees to get out of the way of the touchpad. I've never encountered anything like this before! The touchpad, if ergonomical for typing ought to be centred under the B key. I do find the touchpad buttons extremely stiff with very little 'play' as well.
Yes, I do 'game' with my touch pad but to be fair, I use my laptop mostly for Second Life where I run a couple of businesses, so it's not like I'm playing point and shoot on the touchpad!

Hope you find things easier than I have when you come to use your laptop - it is a beautiful machine apart from this one (significant) thing.
 
S

SlimCini

KC and the Sunshine BANNED
I'm actually finding the Vortex III very nice to type with and it hasn't had any detrimental impact on my typing speed (in the 60s-70s wpm). Keys are quite nice to type on. I agree about the touchpad possibly being annoying with typing, but I always disable the touchpad anyway because I just use a mouse so the touchpad is not required by me on any laptop.

I'm completely in love my Vortex...
 
V

visioncat

New member
SlimCini said:
I'm actually finding the Vortex III very nice to type with and it hasn't had any detrimental impact on my typing speed (in the 60s-70s wpm). Keys are quite nice to type on. I agree about the touchpad possibly being annoying with typing, but I always disable the touchpad anyway because I just use a mouse so the touchpad is not required by me on any laptop.

I'm completely in love my Vortex...
Click to expand...

The Vortex III is a beautiful machine in terms of performance, screen etc. The keyboard in and of itself is fine, but it's telling that it's only okay for you to type on when the touchpad is disabled. For £2000, I'd expect more than that - it's taken me several minutes to write this because e ven when I rotate my right hand by 45 degrees (not ergonomic or good for ligaments etc), I can't stop my (small) hands from brushing against the touchpad (which I've set to be as insensitive as possible) and my text either gets deleted or I start typing in the wrong place and getting mangled sentences. I've been working - trying to - on the machine all day and my thumb is actually sore from tapping on the mouse button it's so stiff.

Again, for the price, this really isn't okay. Even if I manage to get used to this keyboard and don't return it, I won't be buying from this company again until they start using acceptable chassis.
 
S

SlimCini

KC and the Sunshine BANNED
visioncat said:
The Vortex III is a beautiful machine in terms of performance, screen etc. The keyboard in and of itself is fine, but it's telling that it's only okay for you to type on when the touchpad is disabled. For £2000, I'd expect more than that - it's taken me several minutes to write this because e ven when I rotate my right hand by 45 degrees (not ergonomic or good for ligaments etc), I can't stop my (small) hands from brushing against the touchpad (which I've set to be as insensitive as possible) and my text either gets deleted or I start typing in the wrong place and getting mangled sentences. I've been working - trying to - on the machine all day and my thumb is actually sore from tapping on the mouse button it's so stiff.

Again, for the price, this really isn't okay. Even if I manage to get used to this keyboard and don't return it, I won't be buying from this company again until they start using acceptable chassis.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I should be clear. I can appreciate that the touchpad would be an issue for you. But I find it an issue on most laptops I've ever used which is why I always disable them and always use a mouse. So to me, I'm not really sure if it's any worse on this Vortex than other laptops as I haven't used the touchpad enough yet while I'm typing.

So to me, the value of the laptop is irrelevant to the functioning of the touchpad. But I can appreciate that it is unacceptable to people who need the touchpad to work properly if they find it doesn't.
 
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