Vortex II. UK. Built by PC Specialist

Finally got round to do a review of my Clevo P170HM or Vortex II as they call it in the UK which was built by PC Specialist who seem to be the only UK supplier of Clevo/Sager Gaming Laptops at least for a reasonable price and professional service. I usually try and pick up second hand gaming models and imports but my old model was stolen last year so decided I would use the insurance money and get a new model. I was overall very happy with my build from the options available to the service and the price not to mention upon receipt its build quality and performance.

The Purchase:

Chassis & Display - Vortex II: 17.3" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) - Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2760QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) - 8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card - 2GB AMD® Radeon® HD 6990M - DirectX® 11 (17.3" Vortex II)
Hard Disk - 120GB KINGSTON HYPERX SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
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 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities - GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD INC. BLUETOOTH 3.0
USB Options - 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery - Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor - UK Power Lead & 220W AC Adaptor
Laptop Cooling Stands - Zalman ZM-NC3000S Ultimate Cooler, 220mm fan, upto 17.3inch (£35)
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 5 to 7 working days

Price (excluding VAT) £1,247.50
Price £1,479.00

I chose the finance option which is very good. You pay around £45.00 a month for 12 months and then are given the chance to either pay off the remaining £700 odd left over or carry on for a further 2 years and pay interest. If you clear the 700 odd left you dont pay a penny extra.

The Build:

Very important was the build time, I decided not to pay any extra for the speedy service and glad I didn't as I was very pleased with the fast build and despatch times. You are given order status updates and also a lead time guide to the current last 7 day despatch times for all different types of models being built, this really helps keep your nerves calm as you can watch the build every step of the way and meant I had no need to bother them with questions.

Processed Date - 28-11-2011
Pre-Production Date - 29-11-2011
Build Date - 02-12-2011
Test Date - 02-12-2011
Awaiting Dispatch Date - 02-12-2011
Dispatch Date - 03-12-2011

The Laptop's Arrival:

Build quality with these models is superb and I was very happy with the alluminium coating and the fact it was not labelled. One of the biggest factor's for me was the touchpad which I am very pleased with coming from the G73JH which had numerous issues and was never really 100% fixed it was a vital part of the model and it pulled through very nicely. The keyboard is comfortable although not the greatest, it could really do with being backlit which is why I think the newer models will do very well however as I did not need a backlit keyboard I was happy to pass on this. The screen I went for is glossy because I have no need to game by a window and find that the brightness/contrast and general visability a beautiful thing to behold in glossy, for my work and internet usage I have my netbook with a matte screen and the two go hand in hand. The one worry I had was the size of these things and again I was very pleased to see like most Clevo/Sager models it was nowhere near as heavy or bulky as I expected or saw from my friends 18 inch model, I think this is due to the single card setup but it can still house 2 HDD in RAID an optical drive and excellent cooling facilities all shown in the pictures below. Click to enlarge.

The only reason PC Specialist did not get a 10/10 from me was because of a couple of problems which reared their ugly heads shortly after arrival. Firstly a stuck pixel got through their testing and although this is the screen manufacturers problem it appeared as soon as I fired it up and not soon after so should have really been caught at their testing stages. Secondly my GPU temps skyrocketed as soon as I pushed it through a stress test and I noticed that I had only received the paid for Thermal Compound on the CPU and there was a thick layer of stock paste on the GPU DIE which meant that I saw temps of 115oC within around 10 seconds of the test, I reapplied ICD which was very simple to do with the ease of access on these models and have not seen above 80oC on any part of the DIE since.

Even so the RMA was quick and successful and luckily I chose the 1 year pixel guarantee so it was all paid for and dealt with free of charge. One thing I will say is that it may seem quite expensive to people viewing in the US, we suffer in the UK from high taxes on imported goods and so the UK sellers can charge us what they like. At release an Asus G74SX with a 560M was near £1800 which made Pc Specialist a very good option to be able to get one of the high end cards at release which are pretty much non existent from most sellers over here.

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The Performance:

The speed is only really comparable by seeing it yourself, coming from a 1st Gen 920XM and a SATA II SSD I noticed a severe jump in performance, responsiveness and boot time so if you are coming from less it will be a very worthwhile upgrade. I cannot see why I would need anything more than what I have at the moment for a good few years at least and the only reason I went for a better CPU was because it was on deal otherwise I would have stuck with the 2670QM at stock. My jump from the 5870M to the 6990M was huge and not only that I was running on a 900P screen so the jump is even bigger. Temperature wise the max temps are pretty much the same as my G73JH although the bottom end temps are much lower as I use to idle around 50oC for both and now I am between 30-40oC.

3DMark06 - 20221
Vantage - 14797
3DMark11 - 3583

Windows Experience Score \ Idle Temps \ Load Temps

Conclusion:

I was overall very pleased. As earlier mentioned I could not give the entire process a 10/10 however from puchasing to building to recieving and general usage it earns its 9/10. I got exactly what I wanted with only a few slight issues which were quickly corrected and I now have a perfect setup which I intend to use until my finance deal is up and then I will see how long I can last before upgrading again

The 2760QM paired with the 6990M is fantastic performance wise and is all you really need to be able to game in the comfort of your own home without having to sit at a desk or table. I only showed my stock results above but also have an image of my overclocked results here, which reap the full glory of the ability of the 6990M.

PC Specialist were very good throughout the entire process and their customer service is next to non, I was kept fully if not a little over zealously up to date of exactly what they were doing when they were doing it and the website is so well laid out and accessable the next step could only have been to have webcams showing me what the technician is doing as he does it.

The RMA was very quick and easy within an hour of applying for it online it was approved and they would either collect it next day or I could drop it off which I did. I was put into a queue and kept upto date and then it was despatched and returned next day in pristine condition with the problem solved.

PROS:

- Excellent options, customisation and features available
- Excellent Performance and capabilities, more than enough input/outputs
- Excellent customer service
- Easy to read and understand website with plenty of information
- The Quality is the best I have seen in a laptop
- The cooling for high end components is top notch
- Upgradability / No warranty stickers

CONS:

- Still have to say the price is too high the UK needs to up its game
- Sadly it should have had a backlit keyboard too little too late for me to wait for the 270HM
- The keyboard feels a little cheap even for a chiclet
- Dead/Stuck pixels at despatch should not be included
- Technicians should be testing the GPU for gaming capabilities in terms of heat before despatch

Will I consider going back to Asus with their mid range hardware with high end looks for a high end price? Not a chance.

9/10

 

great review. thanks for posting.

 

indeed, a very great review. was actually looking at PC Specialist, which is expensive due to VAT in the UK, but guess what, it's even worse in the DK, but a slightly better in GER (mySN) oh god, so many choices, better off waiting for the newest Clevo line.

Still wondering if you've had any problems with the 120GB HyperX SSD?

 

Thank you I knew I missed one thing in my review racking my brain trying to think of it. Its a pro mind you

All of the BIOS and Firmware was all updated before my laptop was dispatched another thing I was quite impressed with so not one BSOD with the hyperx it has worked flawlessly since arrival!

 

Great review. Prices in the UK are damn expensive though but your P170hm is maxed out so I think that's a more or less fair deal.

Note: 7.8 Graphics WEI is reached only with a ~high overclocking, 7.6 default otherwise.

Good temps also.

 

whats the performance of games like on 6990m?
im soooo stuck whether to order with amd or nvidia 580m or wait for refresh. but i did speak to one for pcs forum members who said as long as its th eright gpu and heatsink they would upgrade gpu if i wanted!

 

7.7 actually a mistake I will correct.

It goes back to the old saying if you choose to wait you will be waiting forever because once the IVY is out people will be waiting for the refresh of the IVY just like they did with the Sandy and then you will want to wait for HASWELL and then BROADWAY and before you know it its 2014

The 6990M is a better choice for bang vs buck and the price drop will happen for both cards so it will always stay like this because the 580M is overpriced. The new 270 Clevo model is only going to have a refresh of the CPU to begin with so there is really no point in waiting, you are going to be paying release price on something that will not make anywhere near a big enough difference for gamers because the I7 is more than enough for any game. 1st Gen I7's still game perfectly fine.

If you can wait and have the money to get a new model at release good for you, personally I will just wait till they drop in price and release the newer IVY models as they did with the SANDY 2760QM/2960XM etc. I dont think I have ever paid release price on anything, its good to wait and see how the model develops and the problems associated with it. The G73JH was a prime example I waited a year after its release when all of the issues had finally been addressed and by that point it was dirt cheap.

 

ill prob not wait if im honest the diffference with upgrades on the gpu surely will be minimal. i cant see amd or nvidia managing squeezing any more power and if they do im sure the cost will be high.
if you manage to game on it (as that is prob the main thing for myself) let me know how 6990m performs. settings on games etc. the price of this gpu is the biggest seller for me. drops the price by over a £100 from the 580m.

 

The 6990M will max out any game at 1080p dependant on how well you deal with FPS the majority of games will run at 60fps, aside from some of the latest ie Battlefield 3 and Skyrim if you intend to run it maxed out at 1080p you will need to accept 35-45fps which is what I see.

As a desktop replacement it is fantastic and once overclocked it pushes boundaries, the refresh is going to be focused on releasing a CPU that can run at lower temps from a lower power consumption at higher performance but as this laptop is made to be plugged in around the clock and has excellent cooling the only thing left is performance and the Sandy bridge is way ahead of the curb in that area so there is little point spending a whole lot more money for little gain unless you are doing something solely focused on the CPU.

The Cedertrail on the other hand is going to be awesome!

 

thats all i want is to max out games. i understand about skyrim lowering certain aspects of details.
the clips ive seen of the 6990m in action the performance looks excellent

 

i just ordered mine!!
2.2ghz
80gig ssd
500 hdd
8 gig ram
and took a gamble with 6990m!!!

 

Nice Same model 170HM? ENJOY!

 

yeah the 17 inch vortex. just lowered cpu and put hdd in. cant wait to start playing games on it. from what ove read cooling and temps seem reall good for a laptop.
coming from alienware m14x i really shouldnt of brought. to say how much the clevo/sagers are and what i paid for m14x is unreal. plus nowhere near the performacne of new laptop.
you think the 6990m was a good choice

 

Oh I see you are based in the UK? hope the process goes smoothly for you I was very happy with PC Specialist will definetely use them again.

The best thing about the temps is that if you are not happy the repaste consist of 8 screws and that is it, as per my pics there are no warranty stickers and tabs to pull the heatsink off Clevo couldn't have made it anymore straight forward.

Fella the 6990M is without doubt my best laptop purchase to date and I do not regret it for a second 144gb/s bandwidth from a mobile GPU is eyewatering IMO It will be interesting to see how the newer 7 series will compare with a smaller die and lower power consumption I think they will struggle to really out do the 6990M for a good while and the proper high end models are a good 6-12 months away.

 

cheeres bud. cant wait to hoping to play the witcher 2. i think i spent too much time reading 6990m vs 580m threads

 

They compete pretty much the same it really does come down to price at the end of the day and when 100's of $/£ compare to 2-3 more FPS there is no question, I was very pleased with its performance playing Witcher 2 I think even at Ultra 1080P with Ubersampling on I was able to get 20fps haha. But it is easily able to handle 40-50fps at ultra. Witcher 2 is a hardcore game on the GPU though.

 

tell em about. on my m14x gt555m it pretty much pulled its pants down and left me for dead. plus i gave up tweaking it to get it playing. but high settings no ubersampling is more than good enough. cant wait to get it. plus never had ssd getting my stopwatch ready for boot times lol

 

I agree. But the temperature difference still bothers me, but hell, something gotta bother one another right? Either way, nothing is left to regret, these 2 cards are the top of the line (now that is).

Personally that 6990M is really dragging me in, but I'll rather wait for the next gen Clevo still wondering if I should get the 15" or 17", can't decide for good!

 

The fact they manage to get a 6990/580M into a 15" is special If I was going to be taking mine out of the house I would certainly have gone 15 even with the additional heat.

How do you mean the difference in temperature? I dont see above 80's even with a furmark test on mine but I have played around with different compounds and settled on PK1 Thermaltech which does an amazing job.

The biggest thing for me would not have been the IVY it would have been the backlit keyboard, but then looking at the image of the new model I think its a lot uglier than the 170HM so I am happy I went for this one.

P.s are you still on that 8600M GT? you are going to see a slight increase in performance haha golly I remember my 8700M GT SLI. Old skool!

 

Ah yes. What I mean with the temperature? Oh well, the 580M runs SLIGHTLY cooler, yes slightly nothing more.

Would think that the 17" hold the temps cooler hense the better cooling and you've got a PK1 too, so obviously.

Regarding the IVY, I would love to see some battery power going here and there, not to talk about the next gen nVIDIA line (which wont be released until 2014 if everything will go according to plan )

4 years with that 8600GT and still rollin', this machine was a beast back then oh the times, I remember considering getting the 8700 GT SLI (m1730) thank god I didn't as if it would do a difference now a days, even considered the Alienware (back before it was eaten by Dell and made mainstream and money greedy). Time have changed and these machines tend to impress me day by day.
... Still wondering what screen to get, what SSD to get, what GPU, CPU.. too many choices to administrate.

But I've made my choice, I won't be starting at the university until september/october, so I chose to wait until the Clevo line gets released with the IVY and nVIDIA 600-series

 

I think your only real choices are what size, what SSD and what screen.

I personally think you cannot pair anything better than the 2760QM and 6990M for bang for buck. As long as the price is right it gives you the best of both worlds and the 2760QM is a sweet spot.

Even so the jump in performance will scare the living daylights out of you if that is what you are coming from haha yes the old 8700M GT SLI which use to idle at 68oC and run at 90oC + under general usage at stock clocks how I miss the G70S and its exhaust lights.

 

You are probably right, but I think I'll pick a nVIDIA GPU, bad memories with the ATI GPU on my desktop, oh god.

I agree that 2760QM is indeed the sweet spot, and it seems so too, I would imagine that the 3920QM perfect

And indeed, I can't wait to finalize my build and get my laptop and cruise with lighting speed, I'm literally dying thanks to the excitement that browsing upon my body at the current moment. Besides, I'm not that lucky with temps, they've been exceeding the late 90~100's the past year! Quite odd that nothing has been fried just yet.

How come you choose the 17", is there a particular reason for this, besides the obvious (you staying home 24/7 , or at least the laptop does)

 

sorry to butt in, but i chose my 17 inch when i read reports its not as hot as the 15 inch. not sure how much truth there is in that

 

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The 17 inch is really nice for gaming and like you say I literally use it for when the mrs is hogging the tv I go upstairs and chill on the bed watching tv and gaming I rarely use it for much else really as I have my netbook for lounging and when out and about, its quite amazing how quick my netbook is with an SSD these days.

You really should give ATI another chance all of the old ones I have used have not performed or functioned as well as I wanted them too, then I chose the 6990M and the heavens opened and angels fell and I wasnt even wearing lynx

Back to the IVY conversation I was just checking notebookcheck and noticed the new 3960XM come with 6 cores and 12 threads looks like I may be upgrading sooner than I thought...

Yes this is true the difference in size means a difference in the cooling hardware inside the 17 inch does cool better, it is the same with most laptops just like the Asus 53 and 73/74 the 17 inch always excelled.

 

Yep that is true, but I just imagine the 17" a little larger than what I can carry everyday... so I think I'll stick with the 15" unless the 17" does magically show some better experience besides the cooling that is as it shows right now the new line will probably have the almost identical hardware as the 17" will.

I'll try to keep that in mind, I reckon the 7900-series should be released sometime soon for the 15" to create maximum GPU power. We'll see what the difference will be, against the old 6900-series and the nVIDIA 500-series and the upcoming nVIDIA-series.

As for the IVY the new processor is supposed to one hell of a beast. SIX cores yes, that's insane, imagine the multi-tasking ! Oh well, it's going to be great and somewhere in between it's supposed to use less power when idle and maybe slightly more when under load nothing confirmed yet, all those leaks keep flying in and out.

 

im soooo glad that i chose the 6990m. cant wait till its here.

first game

crysis

 

Dont forget the price tag for that thing, it will be huge!

Just been playing number 2 with high overclocks and with Ultra, DX11, High texture mods and 1080p I was seeing between 30-35FPS. Dropping it to extreme jumps to 50fps

 

extreme is good enough for me is that under intense fire fights too?! if its good enough with ultra and high res mods this card sounds godly. cant wait.

 

Is this with your OC? Or stock clocks?

Have all the FPSs you've posted been on stock speeds or your overclock?

I haven't tried Crysis 2 yet. I haven't pushed my card yet either, though. It runs extremely cool at 800/1025 so I am hopefully expecting speeds somewhere around yours.

 

I didnt mention any overclocks in the review all other mentions are always my overclocks which are currently 860/1130 stable. I hear this is pretty abnormally high but I am not complaining

 

Did you do anything special w/ your HyperX, it's rather odd that it runs so smooth, not that I haven't heard about the OCZ running smooth, but all that trouble makes me re-think if HyperX is really worth it.

 

I have had all types of SSD an never seen a problem occur I guess I am lucky but I see a lot of ppl having issues with the ones I have owned strangely enough.

It was sent out with all the latest BIOS and firmware from PC Specialist and I think the BSOD issues were fixed with the latest firmware. Apart from that it performs like a pro.

I am in the process of buying a second and running RAID as someone got over 1000mb/s Read with two of these, yes please

 

Would be awesome if you were to post the benchmarking onto this thread

 

Which benchmark you want?

Here is a standard evaluation of the 120GB HyperX RAID 0



Another bloke here with 2 120GB's got:

 

Ah thanks, that looks insane! I hope you enjoy when you get so far.

 

I am undecided as I could really do with game storage to be honest and am wondering if the difference would be that noticeable.

The awesomeness factor remains however

 

With the speed it already provides, I wouldn't think that it would do that big of a difference unless you really smash those files around 24/7. I hardly think that you do a lot of Photoshop work or CAD work, which really benefits from SSD's (opening those files takes ages on a normal HDD).

Don't forget that getting a some storage for games thanks to the HDD that you'll end up buying will make a lot of noise I don't know, up to you man.

 

I will never return to the dark side of a HDD fella I meant use the SSD as storage for my games haha. These hyperX drives are really cheap at the moment Amazon sells them here for peanuts.

It would also mean that I could always switch to RAID if I wanted too....Im buying it

 

pa9797 from: Kingston HyperX SSD Christmas Promo - Page 2 - www.hardwarezone.com.sg posted the above good luck mate, it's going to be legendary! btw it's the 240GB in RAID 0

 

Amazing thread Yiddo, I appologize for PM. I did not see a mention of noise levels, With the G73 I can D/C the GPU to 90/130 @ 1.15 volt and at times both GPU and CPU fans are off! My cat's purr is louder
Any way for normal use with stock clocks is your Beast quieter than the G73.
Can you easily adjust GPU voltages or is it locked like the G73? Thanks I can not wait to dump the G73 !

 

Noise is higher than the G73 that is for sure but only when it is in use as both of my fans shut off completely when it is idling or I am just browsing and the temps run a lot lower than the G73. My CPU/GPU sit in the low 30's when not in use. At full load however its louder but the 5 speaker system + sub drowns it out when BF3 is in full flow and the difference being that you are moving upto a 256Bit card compared to a 128Bit

You cannot adjust the voltages of the 6990M to increase performance but it undervolts quite easily, i believe it would need to be a hardwire job if you intended to. The 580M you can overvolt as long as you dont mind the price tag. But rest assured you dont even need to overclock this card it is powerful enough to run anything at stock and with my clocks (sig) I double the G73 stock vantage scores so there is no contest.

 

This looks like a smashing laptop. Thank you for a great review.

I was wondering whether you had attempted to play Batman Arkham City, and if so how did the laptop fare?

 

Batman Arkham City should run fine on any laptop it is not that demanding the 6990M is made for the higher end games like Battlefield 3 and Crysis 2 etc. I would recommend you go for the newer Clevo Model the PEM however with its current issues with Enduro you would need to look at the 680M which is quite costly, at least it is here in the UK. I really only use mine for Anno 2070 and BF3 so I have no reason to upgrade to the 7970M yet...

 

Many thanks for the quick response I sent you a message on eBay regarding this laptop, and I was curious whether you got it?
I'd be interested in PM'ing you but I can't seem to be able to do that...

 

You need to post more on here before being able to PM I think fella but I have received a lot of interest about it so cannot remember everyone I have spoken to so message me on ebay

 

Ok thanks for the heads up

I have actually sent you an eBay message (my eBay name is the same as this one). I offered the price you would get from eBay once you have to pay their ridiculous 10% commission. I am happy to use PayPal, and can pay you tomorrow.

Apologies if this type of talk is banned from this forum.

 

I am sure they wont ban you this once I have replied but will resend the message. I agree about the Ebay fee's ridiculous!