KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
The Windows Experience Index shows a final score of 5.2, held back by the graphics. The SSD scores well, at 7.9 points.
We certainly couldn't claim that PC Specialist have loaded this system with a multitude of crapware and bloatware. A very basic driver and software setup, leaving the end user in full control of his or her choices. You may notice ‘Start 8' in the installed Applications list which brings back the missing Start Menu. We installed that ourselves, as it makes Windows 8 much easier to use. You can grab it here for yourself – although sadly it isn't free. Microsoft are you listening?
An overview of the system courtesy of CPUz. The system is based around the very powerful Intel Core i7 3630QM processor which has 6MB of cache and can turbo up to 3.4ghz (from 2.4ghz). PC Specialist are using 8GB of Kingston DDR3 memory (2x4GB) which is running at 1,600mhz with 9-9-9-27 timings.
It is worth pointing out that the systems below have all been running Windows 7 – so there will be minor variables between Windows 7 and Windows 8. That said, in offline testing we have found Windows 7 and Windows 8 to report very similar results.
Comparison Systems (for specific synthetic test compares):
MSI GX60 (AMD A10 4600M)
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (featuring Core i5 3427U)
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge S430 (featuring Core i5 3210M)
PC Specialist Vortex III HD72 (featuring Core i7 3610QM).
Asus G74SX-91013Z (featuring Core i7 2360QM).
Dell XPS 14z (featuring Core i7 2640M).
AlienWare M18X (featuring Core i7 2960XM Extreme Edition).
MSI CX640 (featuring Core i5 2410M).
Intel Core i7 2600k desktop processor.
Intel Core i5 2500k desktop processor.
Software:
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
PCMark 7
Cinebench 11.5 64 bit
FRAPS Professional
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 11
Cyberlink MediaEspresso
World Of Warcraft
Battlefield 3
Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Asus USB BluRay Drive
Lacie 730 Monitor (Image Quality testing)
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Extech digital sound level meter & SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter
Nikon D3X with R1C1 Kit (4 flashes), Nikon 24-70MM lens.
Game descriptions are taken with courtesy from Wikipedia.
Well this is rather daring from PC Specialist. never heard of them before, but thats a heck of a move. I know a lot of people who would love this, even with a bit of extra heat.
Only issue I could see would be a long term fan dust clogging issue, and this machine would overheat very soon. I suppose many laptops are like that however so nothing that big a deal.
Thats a great little system, id probably opt for a slightly lesser CPU though to keep down temps.
I really like this too, great price. Shame they dont ship outside UK.
@Mannacua, while they don’t personally ship outside the UK I have heard of people getting the confirmation from PCS that it is ready (and arranging for them to hold onto it) and then sending in their own couriers to pick it up and ship it out as self pickup is an option!
So far heard great things about this and having owned a Viper III from PCS am sorely considering getting this as a travelling companion!
Any way to adjust the fan speed on this? I have the same one and my fans dont show up on any software.