Any comment on ZBook 15 G5?

I am consdiering to deploy some ZBook 15 G5, but some users complained about HP ZBook G4's keyboards as comparing to Thinkpad, etc.

Any thoughts about ZBook 15 G5 are welcome from anyone having gotten these machines.

By the way, do you encounter heat throttle? How is the build quality comparing to G4?

 

Keyboard is everyone´s personal choice, so I´ll leave that as is. Yes the notebook tends to throttle, I have open a ticket with HP as they are not allowing the fans to go over 70%, on several occasions, I was able to overheat the machine (gaming ) so that it shut off, Intel is here to blame however. If you disable MCE the temps are stable. Having all generations of ZBooks, quality is going down IMHO, best was the G1, worst was the G3/G4, G5 is somewhere in the middle.

 

May I ask your hardware configuration of CPU and GPU? Xeon E-2176M + Quadro P2000?

Maybe they are trying hard to suppress the fan noises. I think I should respect that and purchase machines with lower hardware specs.

 

Mine specifically is E2186M + P2000, but we also have i5 and i7-8XXXH models, those do it also

 

Did you mean i5/i7/xeon all get heat throttled, or the fans would not go over 70%. (I assumed i5/i7 are much cooler than xeon.)

It's hard to choose over them this year. Some models doesn't upgrade their TDP limits, higher frequency is not necessarily faster than slow one, due to thermal throttling.

 

I´ve seen them rarely temp throttle, only in synth benchmarks with CPU+GPU active at the same time.

The fans look like a bug, because the machine is able to cool itself on heavier workloads with fans manually pumped to 100%. 4c CPU models runs cooler, but the MCE is killing it, TDP now only applies to default clock speeds, when Turbo Boosting, I saw 90-100W of usage on package itself, and that is much higher than any notebook can cool (unless watercooled)

 

SnakeSK: you are having exactly the same model that I am almost persuaded to buy. As there is no review of ZBook G5 around yet, please can you answer my questions:
- how is the battery life when e.g. browing on wifi?
- how is the noise under load? Do the fans go loud even under light load, e.g. browsing?
- which model is the primary SSD? Could you please measure the transfer rates?
- is there a SATA cable for HDD? Some specs say that it may NOT be included.
- just to be sure: 2x free RAM slots and 1x M.2 and 1x SATA slots free, right?

Thanks a lot, you may solve my huge dilemma (Zbook G5/Thinkpad P52/Precision 7530)

 

I am able to push it about 10-12 hrs with balanced battery mode, using 71% of brightness (calibrated) with lightweight work. This is on 100% battery charge though, I have set BIOS to charge it up to 80% so runtime is a little bit less

Under load it is less loud than G3 I had, however in normal conditions the fans spins aroun 960rpms, and I am unable to hear it (they are way quieter than previous gens). I am not going to go into some measurements but the loudness is nothing crazy in my opinion, and in just normal browsing you won´t hear it I promise. Just make sure the FIRST thing you do is repaste the CPU and replace the thermal pads (phobya ones 7W/mK, you´ll need 1mm and 0.5mm thickness, paste I used is Gelid GC Extreme, since then I am unable to push the CPU beyond 80C and GPU beyond 72C, stock paste is really bad and you may experience thermal shutdowns in higher ambient temps (28+)

I believe it is the PM981 SSD, 512+1TB, performance is near the same as 970 Pro last time I measured, about 3.2gigs read and 2.1gigs write sequential, the 1TB is a little bit faster

No SATA cable is needes, as there is a port directly on the motherboard with supplied cradle, I dont use SATA SSD though

I had no free slots (64 Gigs), however 2 slots are user accessible, 2 are on the bottom and you have to take the mobo out to access them, so be sure you order at least 32Gigs so these are populated, you can upgrade them later. Yes 1 NVME slot is free (in my case occupied by 1TB PM981)

 

Thanks a lot for the information. I don't expect any exact measurements of noise, 'I can't hear it' is fair enough The pre-configured model is 2186M + 512GB HDD + 32GB RAM + P2000 + 4K display, so everything I need/expect/want for my work - I just add my 1TB SATA SSD with old data/projects + NVME drive for my virtual machines and all is done.

Oh - and thanks for the tip with repasting, but I don't think I'll do it

Maybe one more question: have you considered the Precision 7530? If yes, why has ZBook won?

Again, thanks a lot!

 

4K display is your preference, I don´t think it´s worth the price but it may suit your workload better (I do a lot of VMs and management of servers so 4K is unnecessary for me, better invest into larger NVMe drive + FHD panel as this will drive your runtime further than SATA SSD + 4K panel).

No I haven´t, Dell has been running into TB3 issues with their docks and controllers (split lanes) so I ruled them out completely. Some of my colleagues run Lenovo´s but I cant stand their keyboard

 

And a last question: have you considered the Studio G5? I like it as it is thin and 0.5kg lighter, though the missing ethernet and smart card reader spoil the game a bit...

 

Considered, but I cant stand having no touchpad buttons. Tried it several times and no thanks, 15u is an better option (my boss has it)

 

15u is great, but with no storage expansion slot, it is a no-go for me

I'll consider the FullHD option, however now I have a Thinkpad T540p (yes, a real oldie, but still running fine - just ran out of guarantee) with a 3K resolution which is great (love running VMs in FullHD resolution still not covering my whole display), so I'd love to try the 4K.

 

SnakeSK, thanks again for the information. My G5 arrives today.

 

HP has released the ZBook 15u G5, the 5th generation of their popular mobile workstation line. Announced back in April of this year, HP describes the 15u G5 as an entry-level, performance-driven workstation that is ideal for professionals on the go, which is pretty much in line with other 15u models we looked at over the past few years (we found that they are generally solid mobile rigs that offer a good bang for their lower price tag). The new 15u is highlighted by an optional 4K, touch display, quad core Intel Core processors and 3D professional graphics, all packed inside a thin mobile workstation.
Ref: https://dissertationpanda.com/

 

Hi Snake, after a couple of weeks with my G5 I am leanimg towards repasting the machine. As soon as the cpu runs on more than 20 perc, the cpu goes up to 99 degrees C and the fans run at full speed.

So here are my questions:
- I cannot decide between Arctic MX4, Thermal Grizzly Cryonaut or Coollaboratory Liquid Pro. Which of these would you suggest?
- what have you used the thermal pads for? I can either get Arctic or Therma Grizzly Minus 8. Which are better? And how many 0.5mm and 1mm do I need?

Thanks for advice.

 

haha told you

As for the TIM - I went with Gelid GC Extreme, didn´t went with LM as there are far more drawbacks to it, and I don´t really care if the cpu is at 80 or 70C (dif between TIM/LM).

I used one stripe of 0,5mm and 1 stripe of 1mm phobya thermal pads, replacing the stock gummy like. The most crucial part is the VRM, which really needs good thermal conductivity interface to cool the VRM so CPU is not throttling so often.

You will need the 0,5mm ones for caps after the VRM, and 1mm ones for VRMs, and GPU memory

 

Thaaaat's right you told me

I have bought a 5.5g pack of the Thermal Grizzly Cryonaut at the beginning (yes, too many risks with the metal pastes).

Besides this, as far as I understand I need one piece of this:

https://www.alza.sk/thermal-grizzly-minus-pad-8-120-20-1-0-mm-d5151359.htm?o=7

and one piece of this:

https://www.alza.sk/thermal-grizzly-minus-pad-8-120-20-0-5-mm-d5151357.htm?o=10

Is it right?

Another idea: there are also thicker - 1.5mm and 2mm pads - would they fit as well and would they bring any real advantage over 0.5mm?

By the way and just to be sure.. hope my warranty is not void by repasting...

 

tichepc.sk

No they won´t fit, anything thicked than 0.5mm on the caps will result in heatsink being skewed and not seating properly on GPU memory and VRMs.

 

THanks for the tip. I have had a look at tichepc.sk - but ordered then the Thermal Grizzly (btw does SK in your nick mean Slovakia?) in the end. And though I have been building PCs and playing with hardware for the past 20 years, this is gonna be my first repasting. so keep your fingers crossed

 

If you live near Kosice go straight to Gabo and he´ll take care of it for you, he has many parts in stock.

http://www.tichepc.sk/Phobya-thermal-pad-XT-7W-mk-1mm-120x20mm-.html
http://www.tichepc.sk/Phobya-thermal-pad-XT-7W-mk-0-5mm-120x20mm-.html

Also stop shopping in alza, it´s pretty useless in terms of "specialty hardware".

If you´re gonna go with the LM route, ask Gabo for clear lacquer for protect the rest of the MoBo from shorting if the metal spills somehow (the chip is isolated with black sticker, only the die is visible.

As for the performance of TG, he is using these products daily, he is the only guy in SK I trust in cooling (he builds these machines daily, so he has a pretty good info not only about performance, but also about lifespan of these products, you may wanna ask him about this, since one you apply the lacquer, or some kind of isolation, it´ll be PITA to repaste it in the future, that´s why I went with standard paste, here are the results after 10mins of stress test (the CPU was sitting @ 2.9 GHz whole time, so no throttling), decide for yourself if the LM is necessary

 

No, I am from BA Nevermind, another challenge to finish

However, Thermal Grizzly seems to be providing some great stuff, so hopefully everything will be fine

Btw on batteries, the Xeon is running at 1.5GHz, being approx the same power as my old thinkpad with 4710MQ and ABSOLUTELY quiet (based on compilation times)

 

When disassembling it, remove the left fan (with battery facing away from you), remove LCD cable, IR sensor cable, and THEN the right fan, and then you can skew the heatsink out without taking apart the whole assembly.

 

Thanks If you're in BA, you'll have a couple of beers from me for all the tips and help

 

I work there. No problem.

 

Thanks for all the tips, Snake. I repasted the 17 G5 with Gelid Extreme and replaced the thermal pads with fujipoly. I got about 10 deg C drop at load and about 3 degree drop at idle. Fans silent. Thanks again!

 

No problem

 

Repasting is ready, thanks again SnakeSK!

The improvement is dramatic. On battery, compiling our project (ca. 2500 Java files) does not start the fan at all. On charger, the fan does not go higher that 62% (before repasting, it was on 100% 2 seconds after the compilation started!)

I have used Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut and Thermal Grizzly minus 8 pads (1pc 120x20x0.5 and 1pc 120x20x1)

 

Does anybody know where I can send my zbook 17 G5 to get repasted? I'm not comfortable doing it myself and don't want to screw up my $6500 computer. And I would like to have it look like it hasn't been touched so I don't void my comprehensive service agreement.

 

Repaste won´t help a thing, because the crucial thing that is getting hot is the VRM, and for that you have to replace the stock thermal pads.

 

Does anybody know what thickness pads and how much i would need for a Quadro P5200 on the Zbook 17 G5? Would one sheet of 100mm x 100mm for each thickness be enough?

 

@SnakeSK Thanks for all the tips. With your guidance and the HP maintenance manual I was able to replace the pads and the paste on my Zbook 15 g5. Used Arctic MX-4 and Gelid Solutions Extreme Thermal Pads 0,5 / 1,0 mm. Saw a significant decrease in CPU temperatures, although I still find that my fan kicks in quite often and immediate during 3D-CAD work.

For others with this issue, here's a way to quite easily control the Turbo Boost option from Win 10 energy settings, which seems to be the number 1 reason for the loud fan noise: http://www.geeks3d.com/20170213/how-to-disable-intel-turbo-boost-technology-on-a-notebook/#_24
Before repasting, I turned Turbo Boost of during normal work, and turn it on during more demanding work.

And, if others are planning to do some repasting, here's the Zbook 15 G5 maintenance manual: https://content.etilize.com/User-Manual/1048605596.pdf (It seems to be incorrect in that it mentions that there are thermal pads on the GPU and CPU, while there is only thermal paste on it. The thermal pads are used for the areas around the GPU and CPU).