Asus ROG Strix GL702ZC / G702ZC / S7ZC with Ryzen 7 1700 8-core CPU and a Radeon RX580 GPU

5 months its alot for me i cant keep a notebook just for browsing, i dont even play games so well on it, i have big fingers and for games mostly i played on a 34" fhd ultra wide monitor, huge difference.

What would you recommend for me?

Gamble and keep it or simple return and take something else?

In my country its 2000usd, its not like pocket change for me

 

Maybe ask the seller? Where did you get it?

Tell them you found this is missing, but supposedly coming soon, will they let you return it later than the normal return date if it doesn't arrive... pick a date 60-90 days away...

Or return it and get it or another Ryzen laptop when the VM issue is resolved and new BIOS / firmware arrives.

That was my decision - return the Acer then wait for a VM enabled laptop Haswell make/model to be released.

Asus released their Haswell G750JW with VM support (+ options) in the BIOS!! I eventually upgraded to the G750JZ and finally to the G750JH, all with VM support

 

If I'm not mistaken, Asus confirmed that VM support will be enabled in the next BIOS release.
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?97241-G702ZC-AMD-V-virtualization-possible/page4

"I'd really rather wait to have a solution before saying anything in case there are any complications, but HQ finally sent me an update last night and mentioned

"Will enable CPU Virtualization/Hyper-V at next BIOS version.

ETA will be two or three weeks"

Dunno if it will actually happen or how long it will take.

I hate the fact that OEM's lock laptop bioses... they should be unlocked.


Given this development (or lack thereof), it might be prudent to return the laptop and get your money back and wait until Virtualisation is supported, or buy a laptop that's all AMD, but with Ryzen and Vega refreshes (on 12nmLP) next year when we know that VT is supported/enabled.
I have little use for VT as my uses are for 3d animation etc.

The laptop has great (and efficient) hardware, but I think the machine was poorly executed.
Battery life is garbage (and has integrated battery), cooling is REALLY inadequate for the (efficient hardware) that's inside with excessively loud fans, and BIOS is of course locked, which makes it impossible to take any real control of the hardware.

My GL702ZC ended up back at Asus for repairs just over a month of using/gaming on it because the control hardware for the fans apparently ended up damaged during gaming forcing them to run on maximum from boot-up.

Asus advertises this as a gaming machine, which can't even sustain maximum loads on both GPU and CPU for long periods of time... that's nonsense.
I'm not paying a premium price for Asus incompetence, especially because they have laptops with much higher TDP requirements that easily handle maxed out loads.

I hate to say it, but I might have been better investing in a Ryzen and Polaris desktop and getting myself a laptop with 12nmLP Ryzen/Vega refresh.
I doubt I can request my money back at this point - but I'll give Asus a chance and wait for the repairs to my laptop to finish and see how they hold up before evaluating on how to proceed.

Way to go for Asus to completely mess up a machine with decent AMD hardware.

 

CL-Albert has been reliable in the past, and he does say it's not official - he is just passing on what he heard, and the 2 - 3 weeks might be the time the new BIOS with VM changes is released into "testing", not an immediate customer release:

" 11-21-2017 05:14 PM #39
cl-Albert Super Moderator

I'd really rather wait to have a solution before saying anything in case there are any complications, but HQ finally sent me an update last night and mentioned

"Will enable CPU Virtualization/Hyper-V at next BIOS version.

ETA will be two or three weeks"

which I suppose I should share in case it actually happens.

I'm a bit of a worrier and don't expect this is an official reply or guarantee, so a good idea to be prepared for delays or changes of plans, but at least it sounds like we are planning to have a solution in the near future if you want to check back.

If you want to be safe and have the option to return the system without a restocking fee before your return window expires, it may be a good idea to do this and wait until solution is confirmed.

Apologize for the delay. Thanks for your patience and understanding."
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthre...virtualization-possible&viewfull=1#post687871

It's been about 2-3 weeks now, but there isn't a new BIOS:
https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/ROG-Strix-GL702ZC/HelpDesk_BIOS/

Version 300 2017/10/27 5.49 MBytes
BIOS 300 Optimize system performance

 

Bios 300 is the same one I installed a while ago. If they hadn't changed it, then vt is still not enabled.

What's there to test for exactly? Its basically just flipping a switch inside Bios for Asus to enable a hardware feature that exists already.

Poor execution.

 

That was unfortunate, but it's good Asus decided to disable it rather than have people waste time with VM before it was fully tested.

It's also the reason Acer gave me for why it didn't ship with VM enabled, as they didn't have time to test before release, so they shipped with it disabled.

Haswell and Ryzen were in the total unknown stage when both those laptops released, they needed to be made, and they needed to ship, but everything was new and there are always problems with totally new products. You need to expect it, not be surprised by it.

Cutting edge releases are often this way. You probably shouldn't buy such releases from now on, you don't seem to have the understanding or temperament for it.

Wait for 6 months after initial release, better yet wait 6 months after the 2nd version of a new product is released before buying. That way the bugs have been worked out, and you can get a refined version instead of going through the bleeding edge issues.

It's really a matter of timing, and when buying something like this you really have to not be so critical, roll with the problems, and get them worked out over time.

You should be excited to have an opportunity to own one of the first of a new generation of hardware, it's exciting on so many levels. Getting bogged down in the bugs and hyper-criticality sucks the joy out of it all.

Remember, this is supposed to be *fun*.

 

Ryzen has been out in the wild for a while now, and Asus released a lot of motherboards for it. It's a desktop CPU in a laptop after all. Asus had more than enough time to refine the laptop and workout the kinks before releasing it.
No excuse really

 

The Ryzen developments were all happening in parallel, there was little to no build up of experience with Ryzen they could refer to or rely on, and there were lots of problems for all the vendors with Ryzen when it first came out, and to a lesser extent with ThreadRipper.

Putting this new hardware into a laptop form factor so early in the release of Ryzen - it's been shown for a while before shipping in quantity, is about as cutting edge as you can get. There's no precedent for it, it's all new.

You have to expect teething issues, even given the highly experienced engineers at Asus, and Asus's core mission to do just this kind of 1st builds of their kind.

We should see new version(s) for Ryzen next year, and hopefully soon after each new Ryzen CPU series release, with each new release honing the design and execution making each new model just that much better.

 

Asus ROG GL702ZC Laptop Review - the AMD 16 thread, RX580 Freesync beast!

 

The guy almost 'trashes' RX 580.
What a ridiculous attitude... considering it's limited to 68W, is less power demanding than mobile 1060 while performing the same or better in actual games.

I do agree with his points on the noise and weak battery though (as I already pointed those out before).

On another note, Asus just informed me that my GL702ZC repairs have been completed.
They 'supplied' a DPD tracking number, which of course doesn't work and actually contains percentage with my postcode and another long number in it... needless to say I emailed Asus support about that as I'm working and need to make sure I get the laptop as I want to unpack the thing and activate it in front of the delivery guy to make sure I have everything, etc.

 

Great. Have you got an explanation what was wrong?

If they used a more powerful graphics they had to use a more powerful battery. They seems to prefer minimum specs for battery and cooling. Just enough so it will works.

 

No explanation as of yet on what went wrong.
I wrote them an e-mail asking a detailed report on what caused the problem though.

As for Asus needing to use a more powerful battery... this is a bit odd considering that other laptops with IGP's don't have this issue.
Mind you, the dGPU's do have the capacity to downclock really low and consume very small amounts of power when they don't need to be stressed... which makes me think Asus didn't necessarily optimise the system that well for the battery, plus they used a weak one.

 

Can I get a GPU-z screenie. That's some low power TDP.
They're power efficient. Too bad Prema vbios isn't there for polaris/vega then it'll be different story.

 

His point was that there is a gulf, and the FS Graphics Score in the review seems to bear that out. 10.6K is close to what a stock 980M scores on Windows 10 (10.3K), let alone a 1060 Notebook which is in the 12K range.

68W is simply not enough for an RX 580 to stretch its legs, which should be obvious by the hefty 1077MHz downclock on the core and not insignificantly reduced performance. The fact that the laptop has trouble keeping that measly 68W GPU under 80C, while being louder than my P650SG on max fans, indicates that Asus royally screwed up the cooling somewhere.

Keep in mind, my P650SG is a 15-incher, is 0.5cm thinner and 1lb lighter, and somehow manages to keep an overclocked 980M that uses 150W (according to HWiNFO64) at 70C or lower under sustained full load. It scores 12.1K in FS under W10.

I also find it inexcusable that Asus cheaped out on the amount of VRAM at this asking price, given that at $1500 USD, one can expect 1060N 6GB, and is even starting to encroach upon 1070N 8GB territory.

So all in all, I'm gonna have to agree with the reviewer's assessment. The 8-core Ryzen is the star of the show here and makes it a great mobile workstation with decent gaming chops. But for pure gaming or graphics performance, there are better options at this price.

 

Maybe you got a gem of a GPU 980M 150W. Mine simply doesn't break FS score 10k. Mine maxes out at 9k. You can see in my signature.

 

I don't disagree that asus made a royal mess out of the cooling considering how efficient the rx 580 here is (and the cpu for that matter). I even called them out on this. But the performance differences in benchmarks do not readily translate to games. In actual games. Performance between this rx 580 and mobile gtx 1060 limited to 80w are not as big. They are more closely matched together or rx beats 1060 by a nice margin in dx12 and vulkan (and no, those aren't insignificant).

So the machine is more than capable for gaming. My point is the AMD hardware here is not to blame. It's OEM execution that was downright inexcusable. And I agree on the not offering higher performing ram at 32gb (dual channel).
Asus did cheap out on several points... Battery included while asking £1600 for the laptop.

But most laptops with i7/1060 and less or equal ram were/are offered for the same price

 

ASUS ROG Strix GL702ZC (AMD Ryzen 7 1700, Radeon RX 580) review – a really good workstation with ROG’s branding on top?
http://laptopmedia.com/review/asus-...y-good-workstation-with-rogs-branding-on-top/

 

Little 'snag'.
Asus advertises it as a gaming machine... which is a bit absurd given how they dropped the ball on cooling, but it is STILL a very capable gaming machine... that can easily be used as a workstation of course.

 

My 980M gets 9.9K FS Graphics at stock, but I'm on Windows 7. FS is 4-5% faster under W8.1/10, so over 10K is typical for a stock clocked 980M with an unthrottled vBIOS on those OSes. The P650SG's BGA 980M is overbuilt compared to a typical MXM 980M, hence the power draw and voltage I'm able to stably run at when overclocked.

Putting the CPU and GPU so close to one another seems like a serious design flaw. Even if they are only 65W each, having that heat spill over to the other component can't be good.

Spoiler

Well the nice thing about Fire Strike is that, unlike many AAA games, it doesn't favor any particular GPU brand or architecture. You can't always count on AMD-favoring games, or games utilizing DX12/VK, to paint a complete picture of its performance, because on the other side of the fence there are Nvidia-favoring games as well, or where Nvidia runs faster under DX11/OGL than DX12/VK in the same game (many examples of this such as DX:MD, Doom, Frostbite Engine titles, etc). So on balance, Fire Strike is a nice middle ground.

I was talking about the 4GB VRAM on the mobile RX 580. It's disappointing that Asus didn't even bother to have 8GB of GDDR5, but I guess that's a price you pay for BGA since it looks like they ran out of space on the motherboard for additional VRAM chips.

£1600 for the config in your signature? Yikes that's $2140 USD! Here in the States, that same WB74 SKU goes for only $1500 on the Asus eStore (as well as on Amazon, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart).

I had no idea you overpaid so much for that machine. For $2140, I could configure an EVOC P750TM-G with an MXM slotted GTX 1070N, which smokes mobile RX 580 in GPU performance. It also comes standard with factory de-lidded and undervolted/overclocked Coffee Lake 6-core CPUs, as well as amenities like Prema unlocked firmware and factory repasted CPU and GPU.

 

Consider the fact that in the UK, laptops and electronics in general usually have same numbers in terms of price as they do in the USA, except the difference is in currency.
There's at least 20% extra on top of the $1600 price tag (that's the release price) in the USA due to VAT and extra you need to pay for import taxes.
So your comparison of building a cheaper system in the USA is flawed at best.
In the UK, an i7/1060 laptop WILL set you back £1400 - £1600 depending on the configuration.

And while it is accurate that in the UK electronics are generally the most expensive in comparison to the rest of Europe, you also need to keep in mind the wages between UK and US aren't the same when you take into account living standards, etc.
Proportionally speaking, laptops with 1070 would be easily in the range of £1800-£2000 while laptops with 1080 are from £2000 and above.

Degrees of affordability depend on one's salary and/or savings.
The GL702ZC is one of the most affordable and powerful systems in its category for price and performance in UK for example.

I like what it represents but I tore into Asus for dropping the ball on so many things that would otherwise make this laptop amazing for the same price.


P.S. Firestrike is still a benchmark, and in most games, the differences between this RX 580 and mobile GTX 1060 are negligible, especially if you take into account newest drivers (which the reviewers did not).

 

Yes it's an older benchmark, but it's useful precisely because it doesn't favor certain GPU brands/architectures or driver versions. It only slightly favors Windows 8.1/10 (because 7 lacks full DX11.1 support I'm assuming).

Do you have Doom (2016) or Deus Ex: Mankind Divided? Those are a couple of AMD-favoring games off the top of my head. Would be interesting to compare performance between your RX 580 and my overclocked 980M, which as I said performs like a stock 1060N. DX:MD has a built-in benchmark.

 

I'm waiting for my GL702ZC to come back from Asus. Should be here tomorrow (well, basically later today).
I don't have Doom, but I will have Deus Ex: Mankind Divided soon for playing about.

As for Firestrike... I think you might have misunderstood. I meant the fact that it's a benchmark is the problem.
Benchmarks are NOT representative of actual gaming performance.

Plus, one of the other issues as I said is that reviewers didn't test the RX 580 using latest drivers.
Granted, the drivers could produce minimal difference, but there have been DX11 and DX12 gains for both Polaris and Vega with the latest AMD drivers it would seem, so it would be worth testing them.

I'm actually hoping to continue playing Mass Effect Andromeda.
But bear in mind that my laptop comes in single-channel mode... so dual-channel could easily affect FPS for the better (especially under 1080p which is more sensitive to system RAM than higher resolutions)... so any results I post wouldn't again be particularly representative as we need dual-channel configuration for Ryzen 1700 to reach its full potential under 2400 MhZ RAM speed in the laptop).
And some reviews of dekstop Ryzen 1700 and RX 480 (which would be closest to my RX 580 in GL702ZC) with single channel and dual channel 2400 MhZ RAM did note a measurable FPS difference of about 10%.

Which begs the question... why didn't the reviewers test this machine in games and other software using dual-channel mode?
Better yet, what was Asus thinking not placing dual-channel RAM into this machine?

 

Run the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided benchmark (under Extras) with these settings and lemme know what you get. You can use DX12 if that gets you better performance. The benchmark is extremely GPU-bound so CPU/RAM has basically no effect on it.

 

Got a reply from Asus.
They couldn't say what caused the problem, but they said they replaced the motherboard and this was their reply:

"Thank you for contacting Asus UK support team.

Kindly be advised that we cannot give you a report on what caused the problem.
We can only let you know the part that was replaced, this was the motherboard.

Our apologies for the inconveniences caused to you."

Lol... so, basically, they probably didn't look into the cooling assembly as I asked them to check if its adequate or needs redesigning (oh yes it DOES), or to ascertain what caused the problem to prevent it from happening again.

What happens if the fan control unit or something else breaks again after a month?
Could I ask for a refund if it does?

 

Yup it's quite efficient. Here's a couple GPU-Z shots showing the GPU core using 65W and 72W under full load:

Spoiler

Total board power would be around 80-85W factoring in the VRAM and VRMs, etc. Pretty impressive stuff, considering you're getting R9 290 (250W) or RX 470 (120W) level performance in an 80W mobile GPU.

With such an efficient GPU, the laptop should be both cool and quiet, sadly it's neither because Asus screwed up the motherboard design by cramping the GPU core and CPU in the middle right next to each other.

 

When Asus replaced the motherboard, did they use the thermal paste and pads you had supplied with the RMA? Looking at the picture in the OP, the fact that they use some dried semen looking paste on the VRAM chips and VRMs, instead of proper thermal pads, is so negligent.

If the unit keeps breaking down, and Asus won't honor your request for a refund, you should contact the consumer protection agency in your country. From what I've heard, buyer protection laws are much more consumer friendly in Europe than in the US.

 

I have no idea.
The laptop still hasn't arrived. DPD never delivered it... and according to their website, the laptop is still en-route to my city depot.
I tried calling DPD by telling them that they never delivered my goods on the day as they originally said... but they were apparently swamped with calls and it was impossible to get through as they were experiencing issues (how convenient).

Agreed. We'll see what happens.
I can still fire off an email to Asus on this though and see what they say.

I was within my rights to return the laptop to LaptopsDirect within the first 14 days and get a refund.
Problem is, this issue didn't happen until 2 weeks after that period...
My question is, considering the laptop is under warranty for 24 months (that's how long I got the warranty for from LaptopsDirect), wouldn't it include the ability to request a refund in case the unit keeps breaking down (considering it would indicate it was Asus who royally messed up the cooling and possibly the custom mobo design by placing the GPU and CPU too close together)?

 

More as expected. You can claim full refund if the same party breaks for 3rd time. At least here home.
Do you know if the MB is in different revisions?

 

I'd request replacement with a *new* unit after the 2nd return, and before the 3rd return, and escalate it then.

If they insist on a 3rd return attempt to fix it I'd do it under the condition that if it doesn't come back fixed - or has a new problem that developed due to shipping or the fixes - you get a refund or a new unit.

Some vendor returns for lemon's that do take 3 times around have been so long in the queue they actually offer the next model up as replacement (or new model), I wouldn't pine over it, but if the timing gets close to release of a new model, I'd bring it up.

I've seen this mostly with Dell, but I have seen it happen to other brands too, but it's rare, with Dell it gets posted about a lot to recommend others stuck in the RMA loop on how to break free.

Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

 

Well, no laptop as of yet.
I called DPD and after a rather lengthy wait on the phone, I asked the operator what happened and why hasn't my laptop been delivered as I was told it would... the guy said it was accidentally shipped to Glasgow and that it should be in Edinburgh (my city) depot today.
He also said that it will probably get delivered on Saturday as he was told they will be running the deliveries during the weekend (however, upon checking the DPD website just a minute ago, the status remains unchanged - it still says the laptop is on its way to edinburgh depot).

This is getting ridiculous. First the laptop breaks down due to Asus shoddy cooling only a month of using it, then DPD mess up an go to a wrong address to pick up the laptop for RMA, and after a month of waiting, I am supposed to get the laptop back and it got shipped into a neighbouring city by 'accident'.

I don't care if the hardware is new... Asus had ample time to design appropriate cooling for this thing before releasing it. They knew the thermal and power requirements of all components and STILL they messed up the cooling.

Though I can't shake the feeling that part of that shoddy cooling was improper thermal paste application on VRM's and chips among other things using a suspicious substance.

 

has anyone tried to see what the max power draw from the RX580 8MB is on the HP OMEN laptops ?

 

You own one? Check GPU-Z sensors tab while running a Unigine (or FurMark ).

 

Hey Deks!

I readyour story about the rog gl702zc and I have exactly the same situation as you, it happened 2 days ago, and I got the laptop since december 10-12 I think, so afther 2 weeks the same scenario happened now for me unfortunately. And I would like to talk with you about this if you do not mind, I would prefer voice, because it is faster and direct, I see you are from the UK, I am from the Netherlands so we have luckily almost the same timezone. I hope you have discord, if so add me as Otylo#5060 if that does not work for you then send me in an private email to me in what other way I can contact you. I just made an account today specially for in order to contact you, I see the option of messages but I am completely new to this website and did not find anywhere the option to send you an private message. Perhaps it is because I am now on my ipad, but leave me an message and then I can tell you also my private email, incase it is needed. I hope you can reply soon, I am at a total loss what to do, I think I will plan to go wednesaday by car to Asus in the NL, in the hopes they can do something about it. I hope to talk to you before at 12:00 UK time then, incase you can have some tips for me how to approach this and if it is really an malfunction in the hardware fan control that got damaged (have you really tried everything? I am still hoping it is a windows 10 error, because internet explorer edge with youtube as a programm got stuck too when it happened and I could not shut i down the programm the sound did not get stuck only the ability to shut down the internet browser). Speedfan control programm indeed has no Option for our laptops. Perhaps I will go perhaps otherwise thursday or friday now I edit this an hour later, but I just hope to hear soon from you and to hear your full story and the advice you can have. Greets!

 

I just read now all your comments on this forum thread on my partners laptop, and also what the others had to say about the things to need to improve about this laptop designs and flaws. And I agree with it, it made me realize and picture the whole situation. It all falls into place what is going on and same things Deks reports are identical to me, what makes me sad to read for my issue.
Also thank you hmscott for your helpful advice how to shorten and be direct with your message.
I am a bit like Deks, I have the habit to tell it all in a long story and in detail. So thank you very much I will use your tips for dealing with this. Deks your words and experience so far with all you said and the points you make are excellent, and I will use this also for dealing with this issue, thanks so much for this.
Last thing I want to say Deks, is that I see you are correct, your hypothesis alone in the beginning it was not windows, because it happens also in BIOS like I tested, points all to the hardware. So good thinking, I did not realize this when I tested this.
I am really worried tbh, I want an repast also with if possible from something I heard what is 'liquid metal'' I will ask for this, or what was the stuff you asked for Deks? I can hopefully look it up again in this thread what you said. Anyways I do not feel save with the paste inplace normally in the laptop. So I hope this is possible.
Also I am worried if I do not get an reply with details what was at fault, because if they simply switch the motherboard and do not learn from it, then it will be the same thing all over, and just a ticking time bomb. The model needs some adjustments, there is a design flaw. When I saw that the CPU + GPU where so close before I purchased this laptop in reviews, all the time I was thinking, ''why are they placing the CPU and GPU so close to each other and the fans so far apart? That can work, but is really inefficient.'' That made me really worried, also it can work incase the metal radiator is bigger.
If I would design this, I would find a way to place the CPU and GPU apart and if possible add an radiator on top of them directly to cool it down or very close to them, it will save noise/power/and avoid the temp go to high and damage something.
But I am no laptop designer or builder expert, they should have had a good reason why to design it like this, I checked if more gaming laptops do this, and they do! Also msi for example does this with same looking radiators what I saw from the pictures and same design cpu+ gpu close to eachother in latest models, with fans quite some distance apart, it should then work and not be the cause of flaw for this laptop, I just feel and think it is not a logical design, but because of this like I said it should not be the reason that probably the pulse width monitor (the hardware that controls your fans) get damaged it seems by the heat.
Still at this moment , I am really baffled, I have not played Mass Effect Andromeda, I played Star Wars the Old Republic (SWTOR), and when it happened this issue with my laptop, I was running youtube with a playlist, and SWTOR was not even on highest settings, and I had already pushed fans too 30% extra speed, in order to cool down the laptop even more incase something can damage by heat buildup. I make sure I do not go above 65 degrees, when I reached almost 70 ones with 69 degrees, I got worried and did this as savety precaution. I am always precautious and worried those things can happen, and I can tell you when this happened, and checked the temp in ROG Gaming Center, I saw something of below 60, I think it was 56 and dropped fast when I went out of the game and to the desktop window. Anyways a few seconds later it was 40 degrees more or less. This is all way below the temperature of 75 degrees what is seen as worried zone for CPU of AMD for the long term wellfare, so that means for something above 3-4 years and then the cpu will go then down slowly in quality, it happens actually at above 85 so I read, 75 is just the last minimum save zone temperature when they think and tested nothing should happen, and at 95 degrees there is an automatic savety mechanism build in that the system will switch itself off before damage can happen. Anyways because of this, and I never let my temperature go above 70 degrees and so far I have seen only reached several times 69 degrees at max, I thought a motherboard must handle this kind of temperature was my feeling, that is why I was so baffled at that moment when it all happened, I just played the game 10 minutes, walked in my house in that game and then bam.. it was like an Airplane took off. XD If my partner was not sitting next to me, I could have not believed it myself, we where just planning to play together... Seems every time there is something hindering us to do so haha. Ah well. I will just deal with this all in an positive way, like Hmscott is saying, stay positive + friendly and be short to the point about what you ask. 1 thing I will do hopefully different though is as I said in my previous message, is to go directly to ASUS headquarters in the NL, and just show it to them personally what is going on, so that I do not get hopefully an similar situation like Deks had, that they will not take you serious and think you are some person who has no knowhow about it, and just need to clean your laptop for example. XD Deks you can not blame them really for that, that incompetance comes from somewhere, and a lot of people call them, and then it is quite often or most likely that it those peoples fault or that they overlook something and are incompetent. So do understand that, and sit in their point of view. I have also experienced often similar cases with people, so terrible sometimes. Anyways, I would still like to call you Deks, and have a conversation about this. Let me know how I can reach you, or send me an private message here if possible (no idea how that works yet). I still think this laptop can be saved, it is a cool powerful laptop, such a shame this issue has come up. I hope not more people have this. I wish you Deks/ HmScott and all of you here or read this a nice 2nd day of Christmas and best wishes of 2018. And hope to hear from you soon Deks. Greets!

 

I have the same feeling re: the **** thermal paste on VRM's. I've had no issue with the actual cooling. Ok it's a little louder than I'd have liked, but my thermals are absolutely fine after repasting and replacing the **** paste on VRM's with thermal pads. I always do that regardless of the laptop though, as I am cynical of the stuff applied in the factory. I also accept that shouldn't be the case when you're spending this much on a machine, but I just do it for peace of mind.

 

Out of curiosity, what are your thermals now with the repaste and thermal pads?
Which paste and pads did you use?
Btw... wouldn't this also void your warranty in case something goes awry with the hardware like it did in my case?
Though I guess you could just remove the thermal pads and re-apply the thermal paste to the VRM's.

Otylo
Sorry, I hadn't been visiting the forums over the past few days.
I've installed Discord on my mobile and will add you so we can have a chat.

If your fans started running at 100% suddenly and stay at this usage when restarting (in BIOS), then its likely that Asus will just replace the motherboard like they did in my case.
I'm afraid that nothing short of that could solve this problem (if the issue is exactly the same as mine... and given your description, it appears it is).
You are quite fortunate you can go to an Asus HQ in your area directly... Asus is nowhere near Scotland I'm afraid so I had to send my laptop to them for repairs.

Your temperatures however didn't seem to be a problem.
Mine were also quite acceptable during gaming (Mass Effect Andromeda certainly didn't stress the fans to the maximum though).


Btw... update on the laptop situation.
DPD messed up.
Ever since they shipped it to Glasgow by mistake, it took another day for it to reach Edinburgh.
I spend hours on the phone trying to see what's been happening.
Long story short, I arranged to pick it up on Saturday between 17:30 and 18:00. Got to the depot at around 17:45 and the woman on the intercom turned me away saying they had a large number of people already inside waiting for their parcels (this was a lie, as they only had 3 people in).
Anyway, my partner drove into DPD after seeing another civilian car going in and one worker started shouting at us, insulting, swearing, and even threatening.
He even said he doesn't care what customer services arranged with me and wanted me off the premises - so we left.

I wrote an email about this incident to Asus (and once again I 'tore' into them diplomatically about laptop's cooling inadequacies), plus, I raised a complaint about this with DPD on Sunday saying we were treated in a very unprofessional manner and like common trash (shouted at, being misled, lied to, and threatened) - during that conversation with DPD on Sunday, the customer service said they had the laptop in a secure lorry I think and they hadn't had the staff to take it out, and wouldn't be able to do anything until Wednseday (tomorrow).

So, they knew about this... but never told me this on Friday... if they have, then I (and them) would have avoided the incident that occurred with that DPD worker, and Asus would not have received an email from me about this incident.

Anyway... I'm done playing games.
If this laptop breaks down again, I'll tell Asus I think they made a blatant/obvious design flaw with this particular laptop in regards to most things and are asking too much (price-wise) for it, and that I would like my money back.

A replacement might be acceptable I guess, but only if they end up testing the machine in question and ensure the temperatures and fans have been adequately dealt with, and that this issue won't happen again - which is impossible to guarantee unless they determine the cause of the problem in the first place - but I would imagine its got more to do with shoddy cooling and cheaping out on other components - for the money they ask, the laptop should have been designed with better cooling, fans and other higher quality components).

 

Got the laptop back.
Looks like Asus never used the Fujipoly extreme Thermal pads that I provided as the casing for it remains sealed (don't know if they used the thermal paste though).

Now I have to undergo a laborious process of re-installing everything from scratch (better to have clean installs of the programs I use than not)

 

Another update - been relaxing a bit actually.

But, I wanted to report that I installed the latest chipset and GPU drivers from AMD's website.
FreeSync has been detected and works fine on GL702ZC with latest drivers (kudos to AMD).

Still in the process of installing programs, etc.
I also installed ReLive in AMD's drivers... so it should be easy to record gameplay and FPS should I wish.

 

@ Deks

I either used Grizzly Kryonaut or IC Diamond paste, I can't remember which. And I used the same Fujipoly pads as you. I don't see how it would have voided a warranty, I've never had an issue with doing so before. And I was already removing the motherboard to mod my BIOS & replace ram/ssd/hdd/wireless card (the provided realtek one is ****ing dog ****) either way.... I also reinstalled Windows (Win 10 Enterprise LTSB) from scratch first time around rather than using the provided image so may have avoided any issues you had there.

I'll get you some exact thermals later, but last I checked I was getting high 70s, low 80s (celsius) at a maximum while playing GTA, Skyrim and DOOM etc on high settings.

re: DPD - unlucky there, I've only ever had bother dealing with them too.

 

Well, in that case it should be fine for me to replace the thermal paste and apply my own thermal pads.
Any advice on which areas to apply the thermal pads to? Namely, if you can, just use the picture of GL702ZC innards as I provided here (highlight the areas most suitable for thermal pads and ones for thermal paste - sans of course the GPU and CPU) :
https://www.ultrabookreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/internals.jpg

 

I put pads on all the squares with the **** gunky thermal paste on them. The gunk comes off nice and easy with Arcticlean solution (or alcohol I imagine?). Rather than place a strip of thermal pad across a row of them, I cut each to rough size which didn't take long if you have a sharp knife/stanley knife/razor blade to hand.

 

Make sure the right thickness of pads is used, this is important. Too thin and it won't make contact, too thick and it'll create a gap between CPU/GPU and heatsink. Also not every component on the PCB may use the same thickness depending on the heatsink, since the z-height of VRAM chips, FETs, and chokes varies.

 

I got the 0.5mm thick thermal pads. That should be adequate.

 

You could stack them if they're too thin, but the heat transfer won't be as good as a single piece of the correct thickness.

 

Considering that Asus has been using thermal paste on the VRM's and GPU memory chips... I think 0.5mm thickness for pads should be enough.
At the very least, I can apply GeLid Extreme to everything.

 

You can also tighten the heatsink down with some modeling clay on the components to measure the exact thickness(es) needed.

 

I used a mixture of 0.5mm and 1mm thermal pads. 0.5m for mostly everything and 1mm for the smallest pasted vrm's near the edge of the board. That's mainly cause I ran out of 0.5mm padding and tried to be logical with placement, though.

 

Challenge: Find me a sleeve/case that this will fit in. I had a look at a few 17" neoprene sleeves, but I think this laptop may be a little on the thick side for those. Possibly only left with messenger bag / man bag styled things?

 

Ah... I see.
Btw, have you considered using GC gelid Extreme or Conductonaut?
I'm actually curious how both of those thermal pastes might behave in GL702ZC... so, please if you plan on replacing the thermal paste, let me know.

 

A sleeve might be impractical due to the bulkiness of the power brick (the laptop itself is on the thinner size given it's chassis. A 17" laptop sized shoulder bag might be a better idea. But again, cramming a bulky power supply into it might be an issue. I remember I had a lousy time putting the power brick for my Acer 5930g into a shoulder laptop bag. It was easier to use a 17" backpack.