The following is short review containing my thoughts on my new PH170M (Vortex II 17.3" from PCSpecialist)
Specification
Laptop: Vortex II 17.3" (Clevo PH170M Chassis)
CPU: i7-2760QM
RAM: 16GB 1333MHz
GPU: Nvidia GTX580M
HDD1: OCZ Vertex SSD
HDD2: WD Scorpio Black 500GB 7200rpm
Screen: Matte Full HD (1920x1080)
Network Card: Intel 6300
Thermal Paste: Arctic Cooling MX-3
Service from PCS
I was very happy with the customer service recieved from PCS (Special thanks to Matthew Griffin & Jack Turner for the constant order updates that they dealt with for me
), Every question I asked was answered accurately, truthfully and politely - I can now see why there are so many good reviews about them online.
Delivery/Packaging
I choose to collect the order rather than risk any potential problems with couriers, plus I live reasonably close (about 30 miles away) so it was a nice drive over the edge of the peak district. Upon seeing the building that PCS is located in I started to have my worries as it is not exactly the newest or best looking location for a company with such a good reputation, however after ringing the bell at the front desk I was met by a chap and invited in to sign some paper work, and within 5-10 mins I was on my way home again with my package.
The Laptop was packed well - it had all the usuall protective sheets on the laptop itself (covering the screen and the top lid and other bits and pieces). The Laptop itself was then contained within a plastic bag and then it had the usuall polystyrene holding each end of the laptop firmly inside the cardboard box. The only slight niggle I have with the packaging is that the battery was wrapped in one layer of bubble wrap and then just placed into the box on top of the laptop - this meant that there was a lot of free room for the battery to move about in and cause potential damage to the laptop, however it did not matter to me as I opened the package before leaving the PCS carpark to check everything was OK and at this time I removed the battery from the box for the car journey home.
The Laptop (PH170M)
So far I have installed my own OCZ Vertex SSD into the machine and moved the 500GB to the secondary HDD bay. Being an Electronic and Electrical Engineer I gave it a quick inspection whilst the covers were off and everything seemed to be perfect (im very impressed). After installing my own copy of Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit I set about installing windows updates and loading my software - everything installed lightening fast (although this was expected with such a powerfull processor and an SSD). Since finishing the installation I have only used the Laptop for generaly web surfing and to produce some HD videos FX, this was done in Adobe After Effect CS5. I have used AE on a number of machines before and never has it felt so responsive as it does on my PH170M - the render was about 6 times quicker than on my old laptop (P9600, 4GB RAM). Also note worthy of a mention is the temperature at which the CPU got to during this render - none of the cores got above 76 degC during a 1:15 render that was using all 8 threads all at about 80% load, the fans never once spinned up to their maximum speed as it was running mighty cool with them on low. For an experiment I did place the Laptop on my NC2000 cooler and set it to its maximum fan speed, I also set the Laptop to run perminantly to its maximum fan speed (Fn+1) and rerendered the same composition for the first 30 mins and the maximum temp reached was 66 degC!!!! As you can imagine there was a big grin on my face after this result
I have found only one niggle with my laptop so far, and that is that there seems to be a small eyelash size hair/dust on the inside of the screen (its only noticable when the screen is black/off but is annoying knowing it is there) PCS - is there anything I can do about this? Is it easy to take apart the screen? Would this void my warrantee? - PCS has now informed me of how to safely dismantle the screen to remove the piece of dust/hair and that this will not void my warantee
The Screen is amazing, I ordered the Matte 1920x1080 option and am extremely happy that I did, it is by far the best screen I have seen on any laptop (and I have had quite a few).
Benchmarks
So far I have not ran that many benchmarks as I have been to busy working or playing on the laptop! Here is a list of a few benchmarks and heat recordings that I ran:
3DMark06: 20452
Skyrim Ultra Settings: Average about 30fps @1920x1080
Skyrim High Settings: Average about 45fps @1920x1080
I have played skyrim for a total of 21 hours now and spent about 30 hours creating & rendering HD videos (in Adobe After Effects and Premier) the recorded temps are shown below:
GPU Max Temp: 84degC (the GPU has only once gone above 80 degC)
CPU Max Temp: 76 degC
All of the above temps are with an NC2000 cooler set at about 80% fan speed and the laptop cooler set to automatic (i.e. it spins the fans up when necessary). I will also add that I have never ever heard the laptop fans spin up to anuwhere near full speed (even under heavy load) because the laptop runs very cool - this makes it extremely quiet.
GPU Max Idle Temp: 40 degC
CPU Max Idle Temp: 43 degC
Cheers for now,
Andy
Specification
Laptop: Vortex II 17.3" (Clevo PH170M Chassis)
CPU: i7-2760QM
RAM: 16GB 1333MHz
GPU: Nvidia GTX580M
HDD1: OCZ Vertex SSD
HDD2: WD Scorpio Black 500GB 7200rpm
Screen: Matte Full HD (1920x1080)
Network Card: Intel 6300
Thermal Paste: Arctic Cooling MX-3
Service from PCS
I was very happy with the customer service recieved from PCS (Special thanks to Matthew Griffin & Jack Turner for the constant order updates that they dealt with for me
), Every question I asked was answered accurately, truthfully and politely - I can now see why there are so many good reviews about them online.Delivery/Packaging
I choose to collect the order rather than risk any potential problems with couriers, plus I live reasonably close (about 30 miles away) so it was a nice drive over the edge of the peak district. Upon seeing the building that PCS is located in I started to have my worries as it is not exactly the newest or best looking location for a company with such a good reputation, however after ringing the bell at the front desk I was met by a chap and invited in to sign some paper work, and within 5-10 mins I was on my way home again with my package.
The Laptop was packed well - it had all the usuall protective sheets on the laptop itself (covering the screen and the top lid and other bits and pieces). The Laptop itself was then contained within a plastic bag and then it had the usuall polystyrene holding each end of the laptop firmly inside the cardboard box. The only slight niggle I have with the packaging is that the battery was wrapped in one layer of bubble wrap and then just placed into the box on top of the laptop - this meant that there was a lot of free room for the battery to move about in and cause potential damage to the laptop, however it did not matter to me as I opened the package before leaving the PCS carpark to check everything was OK and at this time I removed the battery from the box for the car journey home.
The Laptop (PH170M)
So far I have installed my own OCZ Vertex SSD into the machine and moved the 500GB to the secondary HDD bay. Being an Electronic and Electrical Engineer I gave it a quick inspection whilst the covers were off and everything seemed to be perfect (im very impressed
). After installing my own copy of Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit I set about installing windows updates and loading my software - everything installed lightening fast (although this was expected with such a powerfull processor and an SSD). Since finishing the installation I have only used the Laptop for generaly web surfing and to produce some HD videos FX, this was done in Adobe After Effect CS5. I have used AE on a number of machines before and never has it felt so responsive as it does on my PH170M - the render was about 6 times quicker than on my old laptop (P9600, 4GB RAM). Also note worthy of a mention is the temperature at which the CPU got to during this render - none of the cores got above 76 degC during a 1:15 render that was using all 8 threads all at about 80% load, the fans never once spinned up to their maximum speed as it was running mighty cool with them on low. For an experiment I did place the Laptop on my NC2000 cooler and set it to its maximum fan speed, I also set the Laptop to run perminantly to its maximum fan speed (Fn+1) and rerendered the same composition for the first 30 mins and the maximum temp reached was 66 degC!!!! As you can imagine there was a big grin on my face after this result I have found only one niggle with my laptop so far, and that is that there seems to be a small eyelash size hair/dust on the inside of the screen (its only noticable when the screen is black/off but is annoying knowing it is there) PCS - is there anything I can do about this? Is it easy to take apart the screen? Would this void my warrantee? - PCS has now informed me of how to safely dismantle the screen to remove the piece of dust/hair and that this will not void my warantee
The Screen is amazing, I ordered the Matte 1920x1080 option and am extremely happy that I did, it is by far the best screen I have seen on any laptop (and I have had quite a few).
Benchmarks
So far I have not ran that many benchmarks as I have been to busy working or playing on the laptop! Here is a list of a few benchmarks and heat recordings that I ran:
3DMark06: 20452
Skyrim Ultra Settings: Average about 30fps @1920x1080
Skyrim High Settings: Average about 45fps @1920x1080
I have played skyrim for a total of 21 hours now and spent about 30 hours creating & rendering HD videos (in Adobe After Effects and Premier) the recorded temps are shown below:
GPU Max Temp: 84degC (the GPU has only once gone above 80 degC)
CPU Max Temp: 76 degC
All of the above temps are with an NC2000 cooler set at about 80% fan speed and the laptop cooler set to automatic (i.e. it spins the fans up when necessary). I will also add that I have never ever heard the laptop fans spin up to anuwhere near full speed (even under heavy load) because the laptop runs very cool - this makes it extremely quiet.
GPU Max Idle Temp: 40 degC
CPU Max Idle Temp: 43 degC
Cheers for now,
Andy
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