Vortex III build advice needed!

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swiftstep

Active member
Hey guys. Have been on this forum many times recently and have decided to go for a Vortex III laptop so here I am with my first post asking for some advice on my build. It is listed below and basically what I would like to ask is is it worth me getting the Nvidia 680m over the Ati 7980m graphics card? I am wondering if there are any problems now with the 7970m on this laptop, I have heard the HDMI port doesn't function with this card? And also enduro problems? Would I be better off just going for the 680m, paying the premium for it just for piece of mind that it will work....o and PhysX would be sweet on the 680m.

so here is my build below (I am planning on getting my own ram upgrade, £50 for 16gb and will sell the 4gb that comes with the laptop for atleast £15-20, also I plan to get 128gb SSD for OS and apps which will set be back around £60).

Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3630QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
AMD® Radeon® HD 7970M - 2GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
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 (£9)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
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 & 180W AC Adaptor
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,016.00 including VAT and delivery.

Now if I add the 680m it comes to around £1206, I just wanted to know what you guys think of the build and my plans as well as if there's ANY WAY I could reduce the price further without taking too much of a performance hit, such as the i7 processor, could I get a cheaper i5? or would it make a big difference to performance.

Or is it worth getting the 17.3 inch Elite with a 7970m crossfire for £300 more? would that make a huge difference?

I do a lot of 3D modelling and photoshop work if that helps you to answer my questions :)

Thank you :)
 
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waynedance

Gold Level Poster
I have just had the Vortex with the 7970m and all seems well. The Enduro works as should and gives the option for of what graphics to use for each game/program.

I did a lot of comparisons of the 7970m vs 680gtx and the slight gain was not worth the extra money.

I would stick the the Quad core i7, nore future proof when games start using it.
 
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swiftstep

Active member
waynedance said:
I have just had the Vortex with the 7970m and all seems well. The Enduro works as should and gives the option for of what graphics to use for each game/program.

I did a lot of comparisons of the 7970m vs 680gtx and the slight gain was not worth the extra money.

I would stick the the Quad core i7, nore future proof when games start using it.
Click to expand...

Hey. Yeah I agree, but I am REALLLYYY tempted by the crossfire 7970m's and am wondering how much better they really are?
 
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waynedance

Gold Level Poster
Not really that heavy in to gaming so no idea about crossfire set up, not researched it.
 
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Fawkon

Active member
Crossfired 7970m's are great. No issues with drivers or any games from my end. Fully recommend over a single 680m for the price. You will not regret.
 
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swiftstep

Active member
Hey, does HDMI work properly with this laptop because I heard there were problems with the 7970m???? Please clarify if anyone can... Really important that it works! :(
 
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atomsmasher

Member
Hmm, looking at those tests dual 7970m seems to spank the dual 680m for various titles, is that as clear cut as the figures? Will the 680m choke up sooner than the 7970ms with high max settings?
 
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AJ_

Active member
ive got the vortex III with the 7970m - no issues with HDMI at all the only thing is i recently read that with the vortex III you can't output to a 120hz monitor (can't do it with the 680m either). As for the processor, if you do a lot of photoshop work and 3D modelling (and rendering) you want the fastest processor you can afford :)
 
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M3zxu

Silver Level Poster
swiftstep said:
Bump, still wondering if HDMI works. I'm assuming it does as I haven't spotted any threads about it!
Click to expand...

It does work in all the new laptops. Vortex II - (previous chassis without enduro/optimus) is the one that loses its HDMI capability if upgraded to hd7970M.
 
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