Vortex II price drop

[Hawke1]

Hey - it seems the VortexII is down in price, as well as having a 580M option. Which is odd, as I asked PCS a day or two ago and they didn't seem to have any plans for a price drop.

The spec below, which previously cost £1,000 on the dot, is now down to a cool £887

Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 15.6" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2670QM (2.20GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 2GB)
Graphics Card
1.5GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560M - DirectX® 11 (15.6" Vortex II)
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® N130 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Firewire & Video Editing
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
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED 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)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £887.00 including VAT and delivery.

Is this some sort of mix up, or is this an really awesome legit deal I should totally take advantage of right this second?

 

[Maestro]

yes, we have dropped our trousers for a good spanking on this.

 

[Hawke1]

How long is this spanking available?

 

[Maestro]

until they are gone, not may left.

 

[Hawke1]

With the 560M in them? Wow. We talking days or weeks?

 

[Maestro]

days

 

[Hawke1]

So...I should give you my custom now.

Well played, PCS. Well played...

 

[dangro474]

Just to put this into perspective for potential customers:

The Vortex II 15" in my signature cost me over £2000 when I purchased it last year.

The same spec with a Geforce 580M GTX over the 485M GTX (~10% performance improvement) and a 2760QWM over 2720QM is over £600 cheaper.

Again if it wasnt for the fact that ive been enjoying mine for a good 8 months I wiould feel extremely gutted

As far as performance is concerned I can confirm that you will be able to play all of the latest GPU intensive games in maximum settings (with generous AA/AF although noticing the difference between 2x/2x and 8x/16x on a 15" screen is a challenge in itself) at 30+ FPS.

If you want to save a little money and like the vast majority couldn't care less about a backlit keyboard, consider picking up a Vortex II w/ 580M over a Vortex III w/ 675M. You won't be sorry.

 

[Hawke1]

Dangro, would you say that the spec I have above is good for playing recent titles on med/high? I couldn't do Crysis 2 on Ultra, but reckon I could squeeze Battlefield 3 on high, or high with some stuff medium?

Also, I'm super happy with £887, but I'm willing to go just a little above - anything else you think I should change to make it a better buy?

 

[Finn]

The only change that would have a significant improvement on framerate is to go to the 580, and if that's out your price bracket then you have picked the best you can afford.

 

[tfcoulson]

When you do run out will that mean spare parts will be gone too eventually or do you keep ordering more in? Thinking mainly on battery and powerpack.

 

[Hawke1]

Yep, 580M is way out of price bracket. I'd love the 670M in the Skyfire II, but I honestly hate the Skyfire design, and think the VortexII is a genuinely good looking laptop, so I'm willing to take the slight hit in performance for something I can bear to look at.

Would a 300mpbs Network card thingy be worth it?

 

[Hawke1]

I'm very very close to ordering, so any final comments or help on my spec would be really appreciated!

 

[seafoodmix]

Tricky decision time, I love to think I am getting a bargain.

Wait for the new optimus 15" with the fast gt650 or go vortex ii.

Is the new optimus gonna have better speakers, someone please convince me the vortex ii will still be better

 

[dangro474]

Dangro, would you say that the spec I have above is good for playing recent titles on med/high? I couldn't do Crysis 2 on Ultra, but reckon I could squeeze Battlefield 3 on high, or high with some stuff medium?

Also, I'm super happy with £887, but I'm willing to go just a little above - anything else you think I should change to make it a better buy?

I can confirm the following for a 580M:

Battlefield 3
30+ FPS with the odd drop to the 20s in Ultra presets 8xAA 16xAF
60+ multiplayer medium presets 1080p

Crysis 2
30+ FPS with the odd drop in Ultra preset DX11 disabled 1080p high res textures enabled
Solid 60+ throughout in High presets DX11 disabled high res textures disabled (barely noticeable on a 15")


For your 560M i would have to refer you to notebookcheck as I do not own a laptop with a 560M.

As always i would strongly recommend spending the extra cash on the most powerful mobile GPU available, as it will be your system bottleneck in any modern game you play. As this puts your spec to just over £1k I would definitely go for it. The fact that you can pick up a system that powerful for just over £1k is nothing short of f*cking insane. Mine alweays cost around £2k ><

.... plus go for 8gb; modern games will make good use of it, as will Skyrim.

 

[Hawke1]

Big games like Skyrim I leave to PS3. Honestly, most games I play on PC now aren't too taxing, but I'll be using it a lot more so I want to prepare it for bigger games. I'b be happy with anything on high, really.

My PC at the moment, with a dual core 2.80GHz and GT 9800 couldn't play Battlefield 3 - lots of stuff was messing up, including everything being pink. If I can play it on medium, I'll be happy. If I can squeeze 30FPS or so on High, I'll be overjoyed. Notebook chock says I can do 37FPS with my processor, which sounds brilliant. Almost every other game is 30s on high, with a few being lower. Sure, I'll have to bump down to medium for stuff like Metro: Last Light, but basically, I'm looking for a computer that can play modern games, smoothly, on high if possible - not a killer machine that would murder Crysis 2.

So, 560M sounds good?

 

[dangro474]

Indeed a 560M would be fine, hits a sweet spot

Big games like Skyrim I leave to PS3.

Made me laugh though

EDIT: For clarity regarding the 560M; my 2009 gaming laptop Clevo w860CU (PCS Vortex I) had a Geforce 280M.

My cousin gaes on this laptop. He plays everything, including Crysis 2 in high, Skyrim in high presets and Battlefield 3 multiplayer in medium presets.

As the 560M is considerably faster than the 280M im sure it will be fine

 

[Hawke1]

Yep, Notebook check says pretty much everything high is 30+ FPS. Very happy with that, even my PC now is starting to struggle with the highs.

Anything else I should consider? A better Network card?

 

[dangro474]

A decent gaming mouse, surface, keyboard and headset But the mony spent on that could be better spent on the 580M.

Unless your current peripherals are falling apart id stick with them

 

[Finn]

If your just going to use wifi for internet that wifi adaptor will be fine, if you are going to copy large files across a Lan, you'll be glad of the increased speed.