Optimus V vs Vortex IV, dual-monitors and illum. keyboards?

[d4005]

I'm hoping some kind person here can tell me what I want. I configured both an Optimus V and a Vortex IV and the Vortex is about 500 quid more expensive for as near identical spec as is possible. I'll happily pay 500 quid more if I'm getting that in value, but I'm not sure where that value is. It seems like the more "gamey" a laptop gets, the higher the base spec, but even when you up-spec a lower model to almost the same, the prices don't come even close to the gamey laptop. I'm not sure where the extra hidden value is. That's just a general observation, anyway, down to it ...

I think I'd like to just go ahead and order the Optimus V except it doesn't offer a backlit keyboard (as far as I can tell). That's the only reason I started looking at the Vortex IV, because it does offer one.

Is it in anyway possible to go backlit on an Optimus V ? If it's not, then that makes my choice for me :wacko: I work far too often in far too dimly lit situations and can't be un-backlit.

One more question. I've been tied to a desk[top] computer for the last 3 years (with a backlit keyboard of course), and very much enjoyed my dual monitor life. I don't think I could go back to single monitor mode except when I'm properly mobile and willing to put up with it. But when I'm home, next to my two monitors, then I want to use them both as I'm used to. I know that both the laptops in question offer a VGA output and a HDMI output, which right now is what I need, I've got a 27" LG that takes HDMI and an older 19" Samsung that takes only VGA. One day I'll probably switch to both HDMI though. So my question, can I have dual monitor mode (or even triple, if I leave the built-in LCD on) with the Optimus V and/or the Vortex IV? I'm guessing the answer is more likely a yes with the Vortex IV because I noticed it has two graphics cards. If this isn't why you would want two graphics cards then I'm at a loss to imagine why. What about down the road when I'm running dual HDMI only monitors?

 

[Sberca]

The 13.3" Optimus V and the 15.6" Optimus V have a backlit keyboard. I'm 100% percent sure about the 13.3" version and if the 15.6" is really a Clevo W355STQ chassis it should be backlit. I think one of the sales guys at PCS confirmed that to me a while ago, but you should check with them.

You can see the W355STQ a.k.a. 15.6" Optimus V with the backlit keyboard in this video. PCS' website says that 15.6" Optimus is a W355STQ so it should be backlit although I think the pics they uploaded display an older non-backlit version of the W355 chassis.

 

[d4005]

Thanks Sberca, I considered whether I should mention it's the 17" models I'm looking at but I didn't think it would make a difference. Now I think more about it of course, it would make a difference due to the 17" having a full-size keyboard (with numeric keypad on the right).

I do hope it's backlit and just not well photographed. I was gonna ask them but the livehelp was offline (out of hours).

Can anyone confirm that you can have a dual monitor setup with either of these laptops (or even triple in the case of the Vortex with its two graphics cards) ?

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Thanks Sberca, I considered whether I should mention it's the 17" models I'm looking at but I didn't think it would make a difference. Now I think more about it of course, it would make a difference due to the 17" having a full-size keyboard (with numeric keypad on the right).

I do hope it's backlit and just not well photographed. I was gonna ask them but the livehelp was offline (out of hours).

Can anyone confirm that you can have a dual monitor setup with either of these laptops (or even triple in the case of the Vortex with its two graphics cards) ?

Multi monitor output is dependent on the gpu, and all will support dual certainly. If you want triple, it may be worth opting for the extra vram cards.

 

[keynes]

I am not sure the chassis offers support for 3 monitors. I would suggest contacting PCS for an official response. £500 difference? That's a lot, what did you spec?

 

[d4005]

Multi monitor output is dependent on the gpu, and all will support dual certainly. If you want triple, it may be worth opting for the extra vram cards.

Thanks SpyderTracks. I'm happy with dual monitor setup, where the built-in LCD (if left on) shows the same as what's on one of the external monitors, but with a Fn key the internal LCD can normally be turned off. The triple setup was only a "I wonder if ...." kind of thought. It's certainly not a requirement.

Presumably then I'm going to be restricted (with an Optimus V) to one HDMI-connector monitor and one VGA-connector monitor. For now that's perfectly acceptable. Going forward, when I upgrade my clunky old Samsung VGA-connector monitor, I'll have to look for a new one that also has a VGA connector I guess.

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Thanks SpyderTracks. I'm happy with dual monitor setup, where the built-in LCD (if left on) shows the same as what's on one of the external monitors, but with a Fn key the internal LCD can normally be turned off. The triple setup was only a "I wonder if ...." kind of thought. It's certainly not a requirement.

Presumably then I'm going to be restricted (with an Optimus V) to one HDMI-connector monitor and one VGA-connector monitor. For now that's perfectly acceptable. Going forward, when I upgrade my clunky old Samsung VGA-connector monitor, I'll have to look for a new one that also has a VGA connector I guess.

I've got the 17" vortex which has an hdmi and mini dp.

 

[d4005]

I've got the 17" vortex which has an hdmi and mini dp.

I guess I've been out of the laptop market a bit too long, I'd never heard of mini dp. Thanks to wikipedia I read up on it. Had to laugh when I saw this Apple Blackmail:

Apple offers a free license for the Mini DisplayPort but they reserve the right to cancel the license should the licensee "commence an action for patent infringement against Apple"

 

[d4005]

£500 difference? That's a lot, what did you spec?

Here are the specs, the Optimus V against the Vortex IV. For my extra €700 (about £550) I get:
- An extra graphics card, which I don't need if the Optimus V can already do dual monitor.
- Intel 5.1 audio, which I don't care about, basic stereo is fine for me.
- An extra USB 3.0 port (OK, that's nice).
- An extra 600mAh of battery life, which I doubt will ever make a difference to me.
- A 330W power adaptor instead of the Optimus V's 120W adaptor (this seems like a negative to me).
- An illuminated keyboard.

Of all those things, the only positives (for me) are one extra USB3 port and the illuminated keyboard. I just don't think I can spend 550 quid on an illuminated keyboard, and if the Optimus V 17" turns out to not have one, then I can't be buying it because I have to have one. Catch 22. Grrrrr.

 

[keynes]

Ohh it is not near identical as I though then the additional gpu is going to be the main reason for the difference in price. Is the vortex with a single gpu not available?

 

[d4005]

Ohh it is not near identical as I though then the additional gpu is going to be the main reason for the difference in price. Is the vortex with a single gpu not available?

Sadly not. You get to choose which type of additional gpu you want, but not whether you want one.

 

[Cadwah]

How about this:

Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080) - The Vortex offers the better chassis, it has better cooling too
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4810MQ (2.80GHz) 6MB - The performance difference between this and the 4910 is minimal and not worth the price hike.
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X IMPACT 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 870M - 6.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11 - A better gfx card than the 860m
Free Item
FREE £90 IN-GAME VOUCHER with GTX 650 / 750 /7000M / 8000M Series GPUs
Free Item
FREE WATCH DOGS with GTX 660 & 7 Series GPUs!
Memory - Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW) - A Faster SSD for your OS and main programs
2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm) - Top quality HDD for mass storage
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 (12 €) - Better cooling for the CPU
Sound Card
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1202 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11N + BLUETOOTH 4.0 - Much better wireless card than the standard
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 European Power Lead & 230W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (138 €) - You chose pro? Do you need it?
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 Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
30 Day Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (16 €) - The dead pixel guarantee does not cover postage to or from EU countries, only the british isles
Delivery
2 DAY DELIVERY TO GERMANY (24 €)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 11 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: 1.852,00 € including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/vortexIV-17/cdOzUvRTut/

 

[d4005]

How about this:
Price: 1.852,00 € including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure:

Thanks. I have no idea how you did that gpu-deleting magic
The config was a bit different, after re-speccing it to what I had earlier (except it's now single gpu), it's up to 2.352,00 € inc VAT.

That's €300 better than it was, but still €400 (almost 300 quid) more than an Optimus V (for an illuminated keyboard and an extra USB port).

I wonder when, scratch that, the livehelp are finally online. Time to get an answer on that keyboard
Scratch that too, tried livehelp on 3 browsers and no joy on any of them. Just a blank page.

 

[rodneyy]

from the looks of it you were using a 17.3" Vortex IV Elite SE case
as far as i was able to work out the only difference between that and the The 17.3" Vortex IV is the elite SE was dual graphics card and the normal vortex was single card

there are 4 different vortex laptops listed
The 15.6" Vortex IV
The 17.3" Vortex IV
The 17.3" Vortex IV Elite SE
The 17.3" Vortex IV E3D

they are all pretty similar
a little more room in one case for a second HDD/SSD from 15.6" to 17.3"
a second graphics card in the SE
and what seems to be a 3D screen on the last one

if you only want one graphics card then going for a different vortex would probably be your best bet to cut some costs. i imagine it will always be more expensive for the vortex as i think there is better cooling and 2 fans in that case and you might not be able to get the same graphics card that might add a bit more as well but at least you wont need to be paying for a 2nd card.

 

[d4005]

details about the different vortexes

Aaah, I hadn't spotted there were different vortexes. Also, I only just now noticed that Cadwah had comments on the right side of his post giving advice/opinions on some options. Thanks guys. I'm gonna take all this into consideration and start a new Vortex config with the right starting system.

I think that better cooling is definitely worth some extra price that I'm willing to pay for. This thing is gonna spend a long time switched on each day and also have some heavy video conversion work to do, so cooling is critical. It's gonna replace my i7-2600K/16GB/SSD desktop, so I'm expecting at least a small (10-15%) bump in performance. The 4910QM is the only processor currently offering that. The 4810QM is a slight drop from my 2600K.

 

[damole]

I just ordered a 15.6" Optimus V last night with GTX860m. After reading your post I checked my spec against the Vortex LE and mine comes out about £40 cheaper than the Vortex LE. As the Optimus V has 2 hard drive bays and a backlit keyboard I can't really see any reason why someone would want the Vortex LE unless they wanted the faster GTX870m GPU. I also looked at the Vortex IV and as you can can't order this with the GTX860m I can't make a direct comparison.

I couldn't see anywhere to choose a 2nd GPU in any of these models 15.6" or 17.3" but it is available in the Vortex IV Elite SE.

 

[steaky360]

I don't think any of the laptops offered by PCS allow you to choose a second graphics card in the same way you can with the PC's. Unless you mean an alternative or choice of graphics cards. Then a couple do.

The Omega, Vortex IV Elite SE and Vortex IV Elite E3D do allow you to choose SLi cards though (ie 2x graphics cards).

 

[d4005]

I don't think any of the laptops offered by PCS allow you to choose a second graphics card in the same way you can with the PC's. Unless you mean an alternative or choice of graphics cards. Then a couple do.

The Omega, Vortex IV Elite SE and Vortex IV Elite E3D do allow you to choose SLi cards though (ie 2x graphics cards).

Oh, that's what that means. OK, I definitely need to avoid that

 

[d4005]

Finally got my configs the way I like them. Still surprised to be charged €400 (about £280) more for the following:

Vortex IV has 5.1 sound instead of Optimus V's stereo
Vortex IV has GTX870 6GB instead of Optimus V's GTX860 2GB
Vortex IV has an illuminated keyboard
Vortex IV offers a firewire connection
Vortex IV has a fingerprint reader
Vortex IV has Bluetooth 4

I'd happily switch to stereo, ditch the firewire, and ditch the GTX860 but that's not an option.

I tried asking PCS about illuminated keyboard on Optimus V but no answer

 

[Sberca]

A £280 gap is not surprising for a better chassis in terms of cooling and, most importantly, a GTX 870M. Few laptop GPUs can compete with the 870.

I am just curious about the 16 gig of RAM. Why do you think you need that much? Everybody here seems to believe that 8GB should be sufficient for almost anything. Is there a reason to upgrade?