How do you want your next laptop to be built?

That EVOC looks nice, indeed. I could hold off on buying a laptop till new hardware comes in, though. I'll vote with my wallet against BGA too!!

 

I stand corrected.

 

next we just need AMD to step up in mobile GPU space again so nvidia doesnt charge $1200-$1300 for a single piece of MXM PCB GPU while amd cards use to be ~$300-400 iirc.

8700k laptop where you at? need superior single threaded performance for specific software.























such as these.

 

I haven't played Oh No More Lemmings since 1995 !!!!

anyway, @Mr. Fox I know you're busy, but can i speak to you privately? I have a request.

 

AMD hasn't been competitive for mobile gpus in close to a decade have they?

I had a laptop with a 5870M, and at that time it bested anything from NVIDIA and was the #1 mobile gpu on the market, but I don't recall AMD being overly competitive since then.

 

the only instance where I am ok with BGA is if its the R7 1700 in a laptop since it should be overclockable and has enough cores to supply my demand for the foreseeable future

Otherwise I would still want a MXM gpu but if its GTX 980 level or above that would be fine for my own personal preferences. I play games on a m5100 and dont have a huge demand on super pretty graphics as most games dont hold my interest to begin with and I can care less about Crysis 3 , Division, Far Cry, GTA5 or the like.

I am interested into trying my hand at game design and GTX 980 / R9 290x seems to be the mainstream today.

 

I wouldn't call GTX 980 mainstream. GTX 1060 is about on par with a 980, and is probably what most people buying gaming machines today are purchasing, but most people playing games are using older hardware, it's not like mainstream consumers upgrade their machines every hardware generation.

 

Asus ROG Strix GL702ZC impressions – what to expect from an AMD Ryzen laptop
http://www.ultrabookreview.com/17680-asus-rog-gl702zc-reviews/

 

As expected... The graphics ruin the whole laptop!! + the single core performance is a tragedy @ole!!! And the cooling ain't good enough.

 

yea wtf man, look at the cpu. its like half the cpu fan is shared by GPU rofl, and is it just me or that CPU fan is smaller than GPU fan lolol. nope, overclock past stock is not happening, or it'll happen at 4ghz then immediately throttle down due to heat.

 

here a photo of those Ryzen+rx580

 

Dat PGA socket.

 

Ermm, PM's! ;-)

 

7970M was very competitive with the 680M (eventually overtaking it at stock clocks), but nvidia really took off from there and AMD never really kept up.

 

re-read my post, I stated GTX 980 level, not the GTX 980 specifically.

Since CPU is socketed then might be able to upgrade to Zen+ later on

 

I remember reading somewhere it's locked, no CPU OCing. In games it'd be a bit pointless, it's GPU limited. Which is bga

However the beauty of being socket... CPU could be swapped for a 1800X (if there's no factory sku for it)

 

As you can see, not only soldered gpu filth, but it's a AMD who barely can compete with 1060 and the Gpu fan is crippled down in size vs. the cpu fan. The engineers have done a very loosy job on this tragedy!! And Shared pipes/heatsink is a terrible solution, even worse as the gpu fan is on this level and can't cool down the gpu when cpu and gpu simultaneously running fully load. I have no problems understanding why Asus engineers locked down overclocking features in firmware for this JOKE!!

Edit. And forget running a unlocked 95W Ryzen in this piece of trash if it was possible!! Even R1700 would be too much if it was possible OC the processor.

 

is that cpu soldered too? looks like its not but gpu definitely is

 

He doesn't accept PM's.

 

Got a mirror? Site's not working for me.

 

nothing really to see tbh, sucky heatsinks ewwwwww

how about you show us 8700k laptop and it's cpu heatsink still under NDA?

 

Laptops That Use Full Desktop CPUs


CHEAPEST 1050 Ti Gaming Laptop (2017) - Eluktronics W650KK1 - Great Hybrid Gaming and School Laptop!

 

yes, it is not perfect but it is just a first step for AMD pga cpus. Asus was enough courageous when other OEM/ODM weren't.
May be other OEMs will follow with better models

 

I understand that, but the only thing that is GTX 980 level is 980, 1060, 1070, 1080, and titans. None of those are really mainstream. 1060 might be if only looking at what is being bought right now, but most gamers are not using pascal cards.

 

Ah!

 

Doesn't help much bruh if they equally will fully locked down the firmware for overclocking ability!! Aka the socket Ryzen Cpu will be exactly same as a fully locked down low entry Intel i7 BGA, but with more cores and lower clocks!!

 

I'm trying to say, I heard AMD had not enough moneys or people to support the development of a Ryzen integration onto mobile motherboards. So Asus made the first effort with this first laptop, it is not enough but now the road is opened because Ryzen mobile integration is reality and other OEMs/ODMs, hopefully there isn't an Asus exclusive, could make their own systems.
We need to wait Clevo or MSI/Eurocom

 

@Eurocom Support
Hi! Are there news about tornado f5/f7 with a Ryzen socketed cpu?

 

Asus ROG Strix GL702ZC impressions – what to expect from an AMD Ryzen laptop

By Andrei Girbea , last updated on August 23, 2017
Summary: The Asus ROG Strix GL702ZC is a mixed bag. On one hand it looks like a regular notebook, but on the other hand it behaves differently, as it is built on desktop grade AMD Ryzen and Polaris hardware. That makes it an excellent performer in tasks that require serious processing power and can benefit from the eight cores of the Ryzen 7 CPU, but on the other hand the AMD RX 580 with its high energy requirements and only average performance makes little sense on a portable computer. With the two combined the device gets very noisy and barely lasts for 2 hours of actual use on battery, so it's a tight niche product that only caters to very specific needs. Read on for the complete story below.
If you’re interested in a laptop that won’t break the bank for you and can handle complex multi-core loads like very few other notebooks available as of August 2017, the Asus ROG Strix GL702ZC should be of interest.

It looks like a standard 17-inch laptop, perhaps a little thicker and heavier than the norm these days, but on a first look little else suggests what this can do.

Underneath the shell though this is the first notebook built on an AMD Ryzen processor and AMD Polaris graphics chip. Both are desktop-grade components, so it should come to no surprise this computer gets rather loud and offers abysmal battery life. But it performs flawlessly, especially with demanding chores that actually put the multi-core CPU to work.

Our configuration comes with an eight-core sixteen-thread Ryzen 7 CPU and a Radeon RX 580 graphics chip, and as a result it’s not necessarily a gaming laptop, but a computer engineers, programmers, architects, video editors, graphics artists and everyone else who’d actually need solid multi-core performance should find interesting enough to at least give a look. There’s more than meets the eye about it though, as you’ll find in the article below.

Design and first look
The GL702ZC looks like most of the other devices in the ROG Strix line, which means it’s mostly black with a handful of orange accents here and there, like the ROG logo on top of the keyboard, the speaker’s grills or the framing around the clickpad, as well as some silver branding, like the Republic of Gamers under the screen and the Strix logo beneath the arrow keys. They’re not obtrusive though and if it weren’t for the big logo and light bar on the lid, which are backlit by the screen’s panel and cannot be shut off, this laptop could probably fly under the radar even in stricter business environments. As it is, I don’t know, but decals should help.
Looks aside, this laptop is fairly well built and feels strong, although there’s still some squeaking and flex in the hood. In fact, the ROG GL702ZC feels quite massive and that’s because it’s thicker and heavier than the other 17-inchers in the GL702 series, both the GL702VM and the slightly larger GL702VS with Nvidia 1070 graphics. At 7 lbs it’s still not as heavy as some of the top-tier gaming notebooks, but it doesn’t get their capabilities either. Its footprint on the other hand is still fairly compact for a 17-inch laptop, so this will fit well in a regular backpack.

As far as the choice in materials goes, the lid is made of brushed aluminum, while everything else is plastic, but the good quality kind. Both the metal and the plastic are black and will shows smudges easily.

Anyway, let’s turn our attention on this notebook’s practicality. We already mentioned it’s thick and heavy, with the former aspect leading to a tall front lip that’s going to press on your wrists with daily use. It’s not sharp, but not completely blunt either, so using the laptop for a long while can get a little annoying. That aside, there’s not much to complain in terms of build and design.
he arm-rest is spacious and the screens lifts easily with a single hand on its otherwise sturdy two hinges that allow it to lean back to about 145 degrees, which is enough for desk use. Four grippy rubber feet keep it well anchored on a flat surface and the ports are lined on the sides, with the back reserved for cooling and the front for the status LEDs.

The underbelly get the same design as on the other GL702 laptops, with some graphic details, the aforementioned feet and some intake grills. Given this laptop gets desktop hardware I would have hoped Asus would tweak those out in order to allow better air intake, but they didn’t, yet that didn’t prove to be an issue, as you’ll find out in a bit. There’s no way to quickly access the interior, you’ll have to get past the entire back panel, but that’s a fairly simple task as it’s hold in place by a dozen Philips screws, all clearly visible.

Back to the IO, there’s pretty much everything you’d expect here, except of course for Thunderbolt 3 (as this is an AMD laptop). You’ll find 3x USB A slots, one USB C port, HDMI 2.0 and mini DP for video output, an RJ45 slot, a card-reader, the headphone/mic jack and a Kensington lock. Most of these are conveniently placed on the left edge, which leaves plenty of room to maneuver a mouse on the right.
All in all, the ROG GL702ZC is bigger than heavier than the Intel based GL702 laptops, but given it gets a desktop CPU and GPU, that comes to no surprise. In fact, it’s actually fairly compact and light if we compare it to other 17-inch laptops with desktop grade hardware that are available out there. My biggest gripe is with those pesky light bars on the hood, as this is in my opinion a laptop made for professionals and such accents could perhaps steer some of them away.

Keyboard and trackpad
The keyboard is shared with all the other GL702s and is a mixed bag. I’d reckon most will find it good enough for daily use and I got used to it after a while too, but I still have some nits with both the layout and the experience.

First of all, most keys are properly sized and spaced, but the right-side gets a cramped NumPad with narrower keys, as well as cramped and narrow directional keys. And then, I couldn’t get my typing speed and accuracy to where I wanted on this laptop, not even after typing thousands of words on it.
The keys feel nice to the touch and even seem to perform well, but it’s a combination of their stroke depth and slightly higher resistance that I couldn’t get used to. You should keep in mind I’m accustomed to shorter and softer strokes, so there’s a fair chance many of you will actually find this keyboard a good match, especially if you’re coming from an older full-size laptop.

The keys are at least very quiet. They’re also backlit with red LEDs and three intensity levels to choose from. The illumination is activated by hitting a key or by swiping fingers across the touchpad, as it should be.


Speaking of that, for mouse Asus went with an Elan clickpad with Microsoft Precision drivers, which is not the best option you’ll find on a laptop these days. As also mentioned in our reviews of the GL702VM and GL702VT, it’s not consistent with precise strokes and its cursor is also fairly jumpy, especially when having a finger on the click areas. None of these issues occur all the time, they are erratic and difficult to reproduce, but happen often enough to find them annoying.

The trackpad is made out of plastic, but I don’t have a problem with that. It rattles with firmer taps though and its click buttons are a little on the stiff side.

Screen
For the screen Asus went with an improved version of the 17.3-inch FHD 60 Hz matte IPS panel they put on the GL702VM, and there’s very little to complain about it.

As you’ll see below, it’s bright, fairly rich and doesn’t disappoint when it comes to color reproduction either. It’s still a 70% AdobeRGB panel, but it’s great for everyday use and most will probably find it good enough even for graphics work.

Just keep in mind that the gray levels, blues and gamma are a little skewed out of the box and you should calibrate the panel to make it look more realistic. Or you can use our calibrated profile if you don’t have the right tools to do the calibration yourselves.

• Panel HardwareID: LG Philips LP173WF4-SPF5 (LGD04E8);
• Coverage: 92% sRGB, 69% NTSC, 71% AdobeRGB;
• Measured gamma: 2.0;
• Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 372 cd/m2 on power;
• Contrast at max brightness: 730:1;
• White point: 7200 K;
• Black on max brightness: 0.51 cd/m2;
• Average DeltaE: 1.59 uncalibrated, 1.09 calibrated.

Given this is an AMD halo laptop, there’s also support for Freesync, which should help with the gaming experience.

I didn’t notice any obvious light bleeding either, so that’s another plus.

On the other hand, some of you might find the 1080p resolution insufficient on a 17-inch screen and I can’t argue with that, but at least this FHD panel is actually a good match for the GPU in this laptop, as you’ll see below.

Hardware, performance and upgrade options
Let’s get to what actually matters here. Our test unit comes with an 8-core 16-thread AMD Ryzen 7 1700 processor. It’s a desktop processor with a TDP of 65 W, which explains the laptop’s thickness and increased weight, especially since it is bundled with a desktop graphics chip as well: a Radeon RX 580 with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory. There’s also 24 GB of DDR4 RAM on out sample and hybrid storage, with an M.2 SATA SSD in the M.2 80 mm slot and a 1 TB HDD in the 2.5? bay.
The processor is the the big selling point here. Simply put, there’s no other similar laptop with an eight-core CPU as of August 2017. There are some notebooks available with Intel Xeon and KabyLake K desktop grade processors, but they’re all massive and expensive, like this one. With the Ryzen CPU, the GL702ZC actually gets potential buyers solid multi-core performance in a fairly compact shell and for a good price.

The CPU is clocked at 3.0 GHz with Turbo up to 3.7 GHz, and it worked flawlessly in our tests, without any traces of throttling in benchmarks, everyday loads and even when stressed with Prime95. Asus took their time to design a cooling solution able to handle this processor and actually did a great job at it.

We’ll talk about the cooling in a bit, for now let’s have a quick look at the internals. The back panel is hold in place by a handful of screws and is easy to take apart, allowing access to the RAM slots, storage drives, wireless chip and battery. Our configuration comes with just a SATA M.2 SSD, but PCIe x4 SSDs are also compatible as far as I can tell.


Before we jump to performance, we should also talk about the graphics inside this laptop. Asus went with a Polaris based Radeon RX 580 graphics chip, the 4 GB DDR5 model and under-clocked from the versions you can buy on PCs. That makes sense, because the desktop chip has a TDP of 185 W and that’s too much for this kind of notebook. For comparison, the GTX 1080 has a similar TDP and those laptops are usually more massive. This AMD chip still runs hot even clocked down to a 1077 Mhz default clock speed (from around 1250 MHz on the desktop chip), but at least it performs well with demanding loads and games.

In fewer words, both the CPU and GPU reach fairly high temperatures with demanding loads, but both also work flawlessly, without throttling or dropping in performance with real-life scenarios as long as you keep the computer plugged to the wall. The experience is completely different on battery, with both the CPU and GPU clocking down aggressively, at least on our sample. You’ll find more details on speeds and temperatures in benchmark and games below.

Now, let’s get to those benchmark results. Here’s what we got on our test unit, and keep in mind it’s a pre-production sample and these might actually improve on the retail models with optimized drivers. Replacing the SATA SSD with a faster option will also have an impact on some of these scores.

• 3DMark 11: P13526;
• 3DMark 13: Sky Driver – 27188, Fire Strike – 9331, Time Spy – 3776;
• 3DMark 13 Graphics: Sky Driver – 33206, Fire Strike – 10679, Time Spy – 3483;
• PCMark 08: Home Conventional – 5222;
• PCMark 10: 4228;
• Passmark: CPU Mark – 13937, 3D Graphics Mark – 7698;
• Geekbench 3 32-bit: Single-Core: 3672, Multi-core: 26595;
• Geekbench 4 64-bit: Single-Core: 3959, Multi-core: 23725;
• CineBench 11.5: OpenGL 85.04 fps, CPU 15.28 pts, CPU Single Core 1.49 pts;
• CineBench R15: OpenGL 102.27 fps, CPU 1407 cb, CPU Single Core 133 cb;
• x264 HD Benchmark 4.0 32-bit: Pass 1 – 156.71 fps, Pass 2 – 65.56 fps;
• x264 HD Benchmark 5.0 64-bit: Pass 1 – 70.08 fps, Pass 2 – 15.06 fps.

For the sake of comparison, here’s how the Core i7-7700HQ scores, the CPU you’ll find inside most similarly priced performance laptops available these days.

The Ryzen 7 comes in front when it comes to multi-core performance, but trails the Intel CPU in single core results, which is totally normal given the Cores are clocked lower on the AMD platform.

As far as graphics performance goes, the snipped RX 580 on this notebook is outperformed by a standard GTX 1060 chip in benchmarks and actual games. It’s also a much more power-hungry option, with a toll on temperatures, fan noise and battery life. On the other hand it does have an edge over the Nvidia chips in terms of computational power, so perhaps you can put this to good use in certain applications.

We also ran some stress tests on this sample, first pushing the CPU with Prime95 and then the CPU and GPU simultaneously with Prime95 and Furmark. The pictures below show that the CPU breezes through Prime 95, maintaining at 3.2 GHz and under 75 Celsius, but when the GPU kicks in as well the CPU gets much hotter (up to 85 Celsius). It still doesn’t throttle, but the GPU clocks down aggressively and reaches temperatures of around 90 Celsius, so even the complex cooling solution can’t keep it at bay. Of course, stress tests don’t really matter that much, since you’ll hardly have such loads with real-life tasks.

Knowing all that, although I have to admit my experience with AMD Polaris chips is basically null, the RX 580 makes little sense to me on a laptop and the ROG Strix GL702ZC is unbalanced as a result. It’s definitely not a best buy for gaming, but it can be a good option for multi-threaded activities that can benefit from the increased number of cores and the extra computational power of the RX 580 graphics chip. We’ll talk more about that in the conclusions section.

Emissions (noise, heat), Connectivity and speakers
There’s a massive cooling solution inside this laptop with two big fans and a complex heatpipes architecture. I find it a weird that the vast majority of the cooling solution is meant to cool the CPU (right) and the GPU side (left) gets fewer heatpipes and a smaller fan, given the TDP actually has a higher TDP than the CPU.



The CPU is socketed, thus upgradeable, and the GPU is soldered on the motherboard and cannot be replaced.



The fans are active all the time and they’re far from quiet. They idle at around 40-42 dB and jump to about 44 dB with everyday multitasking, which makes them clearly audible in any environment. But then they get very loud with software like Premiere or games, with up to 55-56 dB at head level in front of the computer and up to 60 dB at the back. So those around you will actually perceive this laptop noisier than you, as the one using it, will. 60 dB is very loud, given that very few other laptops out there get past the 50 dB mark, and that means this laptop is pretty much unusable without headphones and even so, you’d better not have any colleagues.

As you probably expected, the GPU takes the blame for a large part of the fan activity. For comparison, while running Prime95 the fans are much quieter (about 46dB), but they ramp up aggressively as soon as there’s load on the GPU as well.

As far as temperatures go, the ROG GL702ZC gets a little warm with standard multitasking, but is actually quite cool at full-load, as you’ll see below. Of course, a lot of hot air comes out through those exhaust grills at the back, so you shouldn’t have anything sensitive behind it.


There’s Gigabit LAN, Wireless AC and Bluetooth on this laptop. We had some problems with the wireless on our sample as it constantly disconnected and wasn’t able to max-out my Internet speed, but I don’t think those will carry on the final retails units. Still, something to double check.

The speakers are borrowed from the GL702VM with pretty big internal chambers and small cuts placed on the palm-rest. I don’t know who in their right mind thought that’s a good place to put such small speaker cuts, as they’re so easy to cover and muffle with your hands while actually using the laptop, but if you can look past this aspect, they’re actually pretty good.

We measured volumes up to 78 dB, which is about average, and the sound coming out is fairly rich and clean, with lows noticeable down to 50 MHz and no distortions at high volumes.

I’ll also mention the camera placed on top of the screen and flanked by microphones, both decent for occasional use. I’d get something better for streaming, there still so much this one can do, especially in dimmer environments.

Battery life
There’s a 76 Wh battery on the ROG Strix GL702ZC but with the AMD hardware inside, the battery life is abysmal, as you can see below.

• 42 W (~1 h 45 min of use) – very light browsing and text editing in Google Drive, Power Saving Mode, screen at 30%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 45 W (~1 h 40 min of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Internet Explorer, Power Saving Mode, screen at 30%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 42 W (~1 h 45 min of use) – 1080p fullscreen .mkv video in the Movie app,Power Saving Mode, screen at 30%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 45 W (~1 h 40 min of use) – 4K fullscreen .mkv video in the Movie app, Power Saving Mode, screen at 30%, Wi-Fi ON;
• 51 W (~1 h 30 min of use) – heavy browsing in Edge, Power SavingMode, screen at 30%, Wi-Fi ON.
• 65 W (~1 h 10 min of use) – gaming, High Performance Mode, screen at 30%.

The screen’s brightness was set at 30%, roughly 120 nits, but that matter very little in the whole scheme. I also switched the laptop on Power Saving in most cases, because the Balanced mode is actually aggressive and keeps the CPU at full-clocks even with very basic activities, so eats even faster through the battery.

The power hungry hardware also requires a big power-source, and as a result this notebook comes with a massive 280 W power brick that weighs nearly 3 lbs (1.3 kg) for the European version, including all the cables. The battery needs about 2 hours to fully charge.
Price and availability
The GL702ZC is listed at $1499 in the US for the configuration we had here, with the Ryzen 7 processor, RX 580 graphics, 16 GB of RAM, a 256 GB SSD and a 1 TB HDD.

That’s actually competitive, just a little more expensive than most 17-inch laptops with Intel Core i7-7700HQ processors and Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics, so the price shouldn’t be a decisive factor in your decision, but whether if you actually need the processing power this laptop offers and are willing to sacrifice on portability, noise and battery life for it.

Ryzen 5 six-core and eventually even Ryzen 3 quad-core configurations might be available, but this Ryzen 7 option makes the most sense to me.

Follow this link for more details and updated prices at the time you read this post.

Final thoughts
There’s no other similar notebook out there at this point, but even so the ROG Strix GL702ZC is a mixed bag.

On one hand it looks like a standard 17-inch notebook, albeit a rather thick and heavy one, and don’t forget you’ll also have to carry that big power-brick around. It also feels like a notebook, with a good screen, proper IO, a nice keyboard and the whole standard package. But it doesn’t act like a regular notebook, as it’s built on desktop grade hardware, which comes with excellent performance in certain situations, but also with very noisy fans and very short battery life.

The eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 1700 is the big selling point here, an excellent option for multi-core tasks. I’d reckon programmers, engineers or architects would find good use in such power in a portable frame. Graphics artists might as well, given the screen is pretty good and the Adobe suits still emphasizes much on CPU, but at this point the AMD RX580 chip that’s part of this build might become a limitation, as Lightroom, Photoshop and Premiere are known to work better with CUDA processing units, something the Nvidia Pascal counterparts excel at.

And then there’s the gaming aspect of this laptop, with the snipped RX580 barely a match for a GTX 1060 chip while having the high power consumption, noise and heat inconveniences. Gaming Youtubers might like this computer, as an option that would allow them to play mid-range games (MMORPGS, shooters) smoothly and also stream and even edit at the same time, thanks to the multi-tasking capabilities of the Ryzen platform. Those interested primarily in gaming though will find much better value in one of the more portable and more affordable 17-inch laptops with Intel HQ processors and Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics that sell for about the same and even less, like the Asus ROG GL702VM, the Acer Aspire Nitro V17, the Acer Predator Helios 300 and some of the other options mentioned in this longer list.

So all in all, while some might find good value in the Ryzen CPU, the choice in graphics greatly limits this laptop’s pool of potential buyers, so whether this is something you’d be interested in is entirely up to you and your particular needs. I for one am much more excited about future laptops with AMD processors and Nvidia graphics though, as I believe those will make for better balanced desktop replacements with improved performance and fewer compromises. But AMD should move fast and have something for use until Intel release their Coffee Lake six-core laptop platforms.

For now though, the GL702ZC is an interesting new addition to the market, but its quirks and limitations make it a niche product that will only cater to very specific needs.

With that in mind we’ll wrap this up here, but the comments section is open for your feedback, impressions and questions on this Asus ROG Strix GL702ZC and other similar computers, and we’re around to help out if we can.

 

And r9 290 / r9 290x / 390 / 390x / rx 480 / rx 580 before / after mining booms

 

Would have to drop at least one of the letters in NDA for that sort of thing.

 

some news from Eurocom
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...a-precision-m7710.804833/page-3#post-10590681

did you test clevo p750dm2?

thanks for these infos
I know that MSI 16L13 uses also a MSI gtx1060 mxm 3.0b. Does P5000 work with tornado f5 ?

wow! those P2000/P3000 for tornado f5 are awesome
what about that p3000 for a p750dm?

wow! these news are great!

 

So, they used a socket for the CPU. That's good. +1 point for that. Hopefully, it will accept an 1800X as an upgrade. -1 point for not including an unlocked X version of 1700. But, wait... OMG... they used a crappy GPU and made it BGA filth on top of being wimpy? What the heck!?! -4 points for that massive blunder. Another fail for ASUS. Out of a possible 5 points they get a -5 points. Sucks that they cannot manage to get it right.

Given that it is coming from ASUS, it would have been pretty foolish to expect too much based on their history of producing junky notebooks. No telling what ASUS did to castrate the power handling of this poor thing. It is going to be really interesting to see how that plays out, but the chintzy little 280W AC adapter is the first major clue that this is going to be an emasculated wuss-book. The cooling system looks like a real mess as well.

 

u know we should question ASUS asking why they use socket CPU from AMD but BGA from intel when it cost more. too bad we have an answer already, coporate greed!. im sure intel pay oems to purposely only use their BGA trash instead of LGA so they can control market better.

 

You could also question, why ASUS would use the not so much standard 280w psu instead for the more used 330w. Not the biggest difference in size. Save a few bucks? Because the difference in size between 280w vs. 330w isn't big. Or they know this Machine Jokebook's hardware ain't OC'able.

 

I honestly do not know why anyone would want it. Even if it had dual 330W power and Ryzen 1800X and an unlocked BIOS with no power limits to use it all, that crappy GPU just totally ruins it, and having it as BGA garbage makes it even worse. AMD is notorious for premature GPU failures, so I wonder how long it will take before the motherboard needs to be replaced due to a dead Radeon? What, maybe a year to 16 months maximum? Just long enough for the warranty to run out if ASUS is lucky?

At the very least it should have had a normal MXM slot with the choice of a 1070 or a 1080 like the MSI models with no external power supply as upgrade options to the weak little Radeon chip.

 

1) Even desktop users think the 1800X is a terrible waste of money, when you can OC the 1700 to 1800X performance anyway for $150 less. Were you aware of that? You might, if you follow the AMD subreddit. I'd say it was smart of Asus to go for the more value-for-money choice. At any rate, all AMD Zen CPUs hit a voltage wall at 4–4.1 GHz because it was built on GloFo's 14LPP process, which was based on TSMC's 14 nm process for smartphone chipsets.

They are extremely efficient at low clocks. 30 W for 8 Zen cores at 3 GHz, pulling 800-900 CB, faster than a Haswell 4710MQ drawing 55 W for 4 cores at 3.7 GHz, with 700 CB points. Zen >> Haswell.

2. Today I learnt the RX 580 is a "crappy" GPU. Wow, 1080p 60 FPS is crappy... Sure, they could've thrown in an MXM slot and used a 1070 instead, but the 580 isn't crappy by any shot. Oh, wait, I forgot that everyone here is rich as hell and can afford server rooms worth of GPUs.

3. Whether or not a CPU uses FCBGA, FCLGA, or FCPGA is not in the OEM's (in this case, Asus) hands. Intel chose to discontinue Socket G3 or PGA 946B/497 after Haswell. The Ryzen 7 1700 used in the Asus notebook is a desktop CPU, same as your P750/P770/P870/16L13. This Asus is the AMD equivalent of those notebooks. FYI, AMD's Raven Ridge notebook APUs are likely to be "crippled, castrated" 4C/8T FCBGA parts with an iGPU that would blow Intel Iris Pro out of the water.

4. You can't just say OEMs choose not to fit a bloody 100W TDP CPU and the associated desktop chipset into a 13" machine because of corporate greed. How do you propose to cool it so that it doesn't throttle? What about the GPU? Your comment is quite ignorant of facts.

I don't disagree that profits aren't chased after, but whether or not desktop parts are used in notebooks is unrelated to profits.

Sometimes I want to shoot myself when I see the comments here.

 

But this Asus laptop doesn't support overclocking, so the +600 MHz difference in base clock is a significant advantage for the 1800X. Although I have doubts about the cooling system's ability to cope with the additional 30W of heat, given that it was already overheating with the 65W 1700.

 

As I said before... A new crippled product from Asus. One step forward, two back - or 5. Put whats fit

 

Which chipset does the notebook use? If it's X370, B350 or X300, then the firmware could be modified to support overclocking. Not like the P870DM's stock firmware supports OC of the 7700K, either...

 

And who mod Asus firmware for laptops? And if you can mod it... What with the digital signing so you can flash the bios. What with EC? Not easy as yoo think. Could be as stinky as Dellienwares later ****y locked down cancer. Forget useful OC of this Turd's hardware!! The cooling can't handle it on top.

 

B350.

Does anyone mod Asus firmwares like Svet and Prema do for MSI and Clevo respectively?

 

Some do: here's an example.

 

That is not accurate. Overclocking was not blocked by castrated firmware. It is possible to overclock the crap out of 6700K and 7700K in the P870's using XTU and ThrottleStop. We have examples of 5.0GHz on stock BIOS. It is not facilitated as robustly as Prema BIOS, but there is a big difference when it is castrated like most notebooks where using software tools is not very effective, or even impossible in the worst examples. The damage and interference imposed by most of Clevo's competitors is both intentional and malicious, driven by ignorance. Some of them have the cajones to call the garbage they sell 'enthusiast' which also qualifies them as liars.

One also has to understand that some processors are also locked and/or limited and as worthless to enthusiasts as tits on a boar. Firmware mods won't fix that garbage.

 

@Ionising_Radiation it looks like you are lacking in knowledge of overclocking.

i helped my friend setup his ryzen 1600 cpu and help overclock it 4ghz with nvme pcie ssd. tbh it doesnt feel much faster or snappier than my own machine ivyE at 4.3ghz. i also took in account that he did a brand new install and usually new install is a lot more quicker. p570wm doesnt even have a nvme pcie ssd either.

if anyone come ask me i'll tell them to get ryzen as a base build because it is simply excellent deal, however with intels coffeelake coming soon it has i3 4c/4t with iGPU, ryzen deal no longer seems the best. if its gamer build i'd introduce ryzen 1700 or 1600.

but as for myself wanting the best cpu and storage, intel is the only way to go. not to mention if my stuff break and need to replace it, i better be able to keep that golden CPU and GPU. you have to understand man, BGA is NOT an option its simply TRASH in our standard.

again, the people u talking to here me, papusan, mr fox and most we ALL understand majority will get better value over performance and ryzen or bga is indeed "good enough". we ARE NOT in that segment, we ARE ONLY talking about HIGH END.

 

Hey - this is a thread with a poll asking what kind of laptop people want built, anyone can post here, so we're not talking only High End! Gain some perspective.

 

Socketed CPU and MXM GPU so I can repair or upgrade and is compatible for up to 10 years of next gen. CPU and MXM upgrades.

 

make that 100 years thanks intel

 

My idea of a great laptop isn't exactly something I would buy as a "desktop replacement", but rather, something that is actually mobile, with few compromises as far as the actual experience goes. I don't need a GTX 1080 in SLI and a 5ghz 7700k to have a good experience on a laptop. I'd much rather have a delidded desktop 7700 at 4ghz all-core turbo, a socketable GTX 1060, and a decent 120hz G-Sync panel (1440p preferred, so you can downscale to 720p while still remaining native with no interpolation for a free performance boost) over a laptop with far more performance, but zero upgrade paths in the future.

My problem with desktop replacement laptops, is that they are no longer laptops at that point. If you are forced to remain tethered to a wall, carry an external cooling solution, and require a table or strongman thighs to wield the thing, you've officially sacrificed everything that makes a laptop, a laptop. Rather than have overkill hardware for the sake of it being overkill, I'd rather have the actual experience be good, with hardware that is good enough at the time, and upgrade it as I see fit in the future. I expect the same thing out of my desktops, and it's the #1 reason why I prefer PC gaming as a whole.

Hardware tends to evolve along the path of improving efficiency. Rather than offer two times the performance outright, they strive for "performance per watt" with each generation. So a 1060N might use say, 75w of power, next years x70N card might use 75w as well, making it a great upgrade without requiring additional cooling hurdles to overcome. So far, recent Nvidia cards have followed that trend. From Fermi, all the way to Pascal, we have been seeing improved power efficiency with each generation. With CPU's, that trend is not as big, but it doesn't really matter anyways. The CPU market may have stagnated, but very little is being done from a software development side to take full advantage of the CPU's we have anyways as far as gaming is concerned.

Enthusiasts will be enthusiasts, and they will want to push the envelope in every form factor, and I can certainly respect that passion. However, they do not represent the majority of consumers, and people should remain aware of that. Am I asking for the continuance of these soldered thin&light paperweights? Certainly not, but that also doesn't mean we need massive SLI-capable 15lb laptops to become the norm either. To me, the best balance lies within the area where the least amount of compromises are made. Do not compromise cooling and I/O for "thin&light", and do not compromise portability and battery life for excessively fast hardware. Design a laptop that offers a balanced experience for the user. You'd be surprised how little horsepower you actually need, when G-Sync or Freesync is smoothing out the stutter and frame fluctuation for you. You'd also be surprised just how sharp a 720p resolution is on a 13 inch display (it's sharper than both a 21.5 inch 1080p panel and 27 inch 1440p panel). I think somewhere along the way, consumers started to worry more about arbitrary numbers on synthetic benchmarks, and less about the actual experience itself.


TL; DR? I want a laptop that can be upgraded entirely by my own hands, with as little compromises made, without forgetting why I chose a laptop in the first place. This is not a rant towards anyone that has a difference of opinion, just my own personal desires for a machine that is marketed with mobility in mind. Before anyone reminds me, yes, I understand that DTR's are bought as a means of being used as portable desktops without carrying around monitors, keyboards and towers, I am speaking strictly from a mobility stance, not a portability one.

 

I don't care any more to be honest. I don't have time to tinker much these days. I just want something that works. I'll wholesale upgrade every couple years and replace/fix under warranty until then. Portability is more important to me any more. I have a powerful desktop that manages my gaming, rendering, and encoding needs most of the time. I want something that can game decently on the go but 90% of the time it's just basic apps and media consumption.

With all the crap I have to haul around on a daily basis for work and kids and family, something smaller and lighter only helps lighten that load. My daily backpack is already chock full of stuff. Adding another 10 lbs and a lot more volume from a DTR laptop and associated power supply isn't trivial any more.

As much as I like to support socketed laptops, the reality of my life doesn't support it. It all comes down to best bang for the buck with size and weight too. Never thought I'd be there, but here I am.

This doesn't mean I support or condone TDP limits or restricted components. Having BGA vs socketed components shouldn't mean mutually exclusive TDP limits, limited OC, and throttling, but unfortunately it seems they are.

If a laptop needed to support my daily workload then absolutely I'd need/want a fully socketed system. But as a supporting role, not necessary.