HP Omen 15 - dc0051nr (new to market) i7 8750h + gtx 1060 thin bezel!

You will NOT be able to find a better bang for buck around $1k - even used! I don't know how/why Microcenter is selling this low. I'm pretty sure they are selling at employee price.

The bios update F1.05 definitely helped with thermals. I would still undervolt no matter what laptop you get, as you are reducing heat with a simple click of a button.

Another tip to keep the thermals in check is to ensure your battery is always topped off before you game, since the battery won't produce heat as it would if it was charging.

The only downside, which I'm seeing with a lot of the laptops from major brands, is the single channel memory config. So you'll be forced to open it up to add another stick and enable dual channel. This is a must if you don't want a gimped laptop.

Oh, and to make this laptop even better, you could eventually swap out the display to the 144hz IPS screen that is available in the higher end model. This means you shouldn't lose brightness control which normally happens when you swap out to non-native panels.

 

Would you recommend replacing the 16GB stick with 2 x 8GB or get an additional 16GB for a total of 32GB? I have read articles and watched videos showing that FPS while gaming at 60 Hz is not affected by single vs dual channel memory but that it changes drastically when gaming at 120 or 144 Hz.

Would upgrading to a 144 Hz panel be worth it, in your opinion, with a GTX 1060 in this machine, since it is really meant for 1080p 60 Hz gaming?

 

Depends on the game. For something like Fornite or Overwatch FPS can easily go in the 100's on a 1060 depending on graphic settings (I can generally stick close to 150's with high on overwatch, probably pegged if I drop to medium) so you'll see benefits. League and Dota as well. If you're playing something more graphically demanding then you won't see as much benefit.

the 144hz panel is also more color accurate and brighter, so you'll see benefit there even if the games you play don't go above 60fps.

 

UPDATE 7/10/2018 Panel replacement requires a special screen that has slightly slimmer mounting hardware. User beware. Bezel has clips and sticky tape. I cannot recommend replacement for the average Joe. Small video showcasing as much as I could soon.

 

Can this laptop also use the IGP?
I would buy that with 1070 144Hz G Sync, or do you think that gets too hot?

 

As per the review and the OP it does NOT use the iGPU.

I wouldn’t worry about GPU temperatures in modern laptops as much as I would the CPU.

 

You can not switch to igp?

 

No, you can't use integrated graphics on this machine at all.

 

Hiya,

I’ll be getting this laptop (the 1070MQ version) in a couple of days time, and I just want to make sure if what I gathered from the internet is enough to make the thermals stable:

1. Performance Mode in HP Command Center when gaming
2. Update BIOS to latest version
3. Disable Turbo Boost


I’ve never had a Windows 10 laptop, or any decent one in the last 6-7 years so I’m kinda new to the nuts and bolts of these kinds of machine. Any other suggestion or recommendations for setting up?

 

I wouldn't disable turbo boost, as non turbo is a bit low (2.2 ghz). Could be good enough for you. However undervolting is the better route to go. If you still need more headroom you can lower the max turbo power in the bios or xtu/throttlestop from 45W to a lower number.

 

Oh, okay so it’s like UV>BIOS>Disable Turbo if it starts to heatup, right?

I actually plan to do these things in a step-wise manner to ensure that I wouldnt be overdoing it.

While at it, which of those would be the safest one to do for a dummy like myself?

 

Yea, that would be the order.

Undervolt is safe. You can probably go straight to -100mV off the bat, then increase it. Bob's video (OP) and channel has guides on doing this.

If you go the BIOS route 35W should be good enough, can always try a little bit lower.

 

Hi, I'm planning to buy this soon. Can anyone tell me how many m.2 slots this one has? I'd like to install an additional ssd instead of replacing the nvme one.

 

One NVME and one hdd slot, both occupieds

 

I pulled the 1TB spinner and replaced it with that 2TB Micron SSD that you can get for around 260 from time to time. Put the 1TB drive in a 10 dollar usb3.1 cheap external enclosure. The 1TB drive is fast for a spinner, but I'm spoiled by SSD fast load times when starting a game up, etc. Any 2.5 SATA SSD should work fine.

 

Unfortunately it's very costly in my country (India). 1TB SSD is about 500 dollars here. Laptop itself costs nearly 1900$ and I bargained to get it for about 1750$ (1060 144Hz model). I thought of adding one more cheap 256GB m.2 SSD later. I'm thinking of may be sell the 128GB ssd and get a bigger one.

 

Think this is the first review (sort of) I have found of the 1070 max q version with the 144hz screen. Not as detailed as Bob's. But gives you a glimpse and they have different configurations for NZ currently.

 

I don't know what I did but my cpu runs at 4GHZ at all times when plugged in

I did update the bios so maybe that caused it?

 

When you click on the battery icon in the taskbar, is the slider all the way to the right on "best performance"? This causes the CPU to remain at its max frequency. If so, put it in the middle. Did you change any of your power options in control panel, such as Processor Power Management? Make sure that under Minimum Processor State both On Battery and Plugged In are set to 5% and that under Maximum Processor State both On Battery and Plugged In are set to 100%.

 

Still waiting for a more thorough review like how Bob does his, we already know a 1070 will out perform the 1060 by at least 10 percent and the real question is does the cooling solution perform adequately for the chassis with this hot combination, in not sure if the 1070 is maxq as I saw this from HP's (u.s.) website today.. I kinda like the chassis as it is... But would have loved gold accents instead of red, like how msi did the gs65 and without the omen logo but instead probably lettering like "HP OMEN" exactly how the previous iteration had.. Just my two cents though... Looking forward for the release of the video though been aching to get this laptop for a while now... Also another thing is pricing I hope they can aggressively price this and undercut their competitors, as hp isn't well known for their gaming titles, though omen itself has been there for quite a while (originally voodoo pc), I hope they succeed with this model...

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It has a 1070 Max-Q. I am absolutely loving mine with the GTX 1060.

 

I wonder about that also, using TS the processor frequency never dropped below 4ghz. the tip above was very useful for newbies like myself

 

I had to undervolt the cpu from the factory (1.09V I think) to 1.015 to not get a throttle when running a single run of cinebench r15 , which I got 1261! But Obviously it throttles on the second or the third run



Anyone know why it throttles from the mid 80s C? It should throttle from the mid 90's...

Yup, Thanks
I had to create a new balanced power plan​

 

Just ordered mine from amazon for $1250! Can't believe some of you guys scored this for only $1000 at microcenter! Kind of regretting paying so much for it but I've been researching laptops for weeks now and I need to finally make a decision so i had to pull the trigger.

Hopefully this thing lasts me a few years. Makes me nervous hearing about how high the temps reach on the CPU. Sounds like I'll need to learn all about undervolting and updating the bios.

This'll be my first PC in over a decade and I can't wait for it to arrive next week.

 

You’ll be surprised how good a product youll be getting for the money. I hope so too it would last me a while. We’re on the same boat. I have started reading about Windows 10, undervolting and stuff since yesterday.

 

To start, I would undervolt the cpu and also undervolt the gpu. If that's not enough, then re-apply thermal paste.
If that's still not enough, then I would try to disable hyperthreading in the bios, if possible. After all, 6 cpu cores is still very good, even without hyperthreading.

 

I have a 2017 HP Pavilion. Not the same as this Omen 15, but my story might interest everyone here.
Last week, I saw Bob recommend putting the slider in the middle. I did that a week ago.
After I did that, sometimes, when exiting a game (when switching from nvidia graphics to intel graphics),
windows would freeze and I had to hard reboot (hold down the power button). It seems my cpu/gpu undervolt is unstable when the slider is in the middle.
I put the slider back to the right (best performance) and now my undervolt is stable again.

 

If the undervolt is unstable, it would be better to bring the offset closer to zero (e.g., if you had the undervolt previously at -125 mV, try -120 mV and check for stability) instead of always running with the CPU at max frequency. Running with max CPU frequency all the time will increase heat and noise unnecessarily.

 

Thinking about picking up the 1070 Max-Q version. Just wondering how loud this will be under gaming load? I am replacing a Clevo P650 and although I like the spec of the Omen, it will be a deal killer if it's noisier - not for me, but for others who live here!

 

I don't find mine with a 1060 to be very loud, but the latest BIOS update did make it about 10 dB louder (twice as loud) at max load. It's worth it though to keep temperatures lower. Other laptops I've owned have definitely been louder.

 

Reducing the undervolt will increase heat and noise unneccesarily. Why should I care about heat and noise while idle?
I care about heat and noise, only while cpu/gpu are at or near max load.

 

Can someone please tell me how to reduce the temperatures on this pc ? shoud i do a BIOS update ? disable power boost ? please help me to make these temps lower since i m a noob and i don t know how to do it thank you all

 

that is a good info. I personally have not undervolted mine since I am yet to start playing games. good to know that the slider has an effect with the undervolt.

 

Lads, is the dedicated OMEN Command Center key still not functioning with your units?

 

Kristian as Bob has posted earlier the bios update makes the omen command center key disabled

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Go to op's YouTube page you will find a lot of useful information and tutorials on how to do it... Bob does a lot of good content, his honest opinion is quite a breath of fresh air.

 

Think first step, measure your thermals when you be gaming etc. Use any 3rd party simple software like HWmonitor and see what the cpu/gpu temperatures are like.

Then goto HP website and in support, let it detect your system and it should show available BIOS updates. Install those and again run the thermals measurement.

See, if makes any difference. Then next step would be undervolting. Bob has a good tutorial how to do it on his youtube channel. Also after you update the BIOS, it will let you change the CPU power settings. You can try scaling it back by -5 watts at a time to max say 30 watts and see if any changes on thermals. The default for the CPU is 45 watts.

Disabling boost, repasting would be the steps after that. But, best to do the above first step by step and see if any changes. Also, good to have a cooling pad or even vacuum cooler, am checking if there is one which will fit the rear exhausts of the omen.

 

Hey guys hp.com just updated their website and included 1070 and 144hz as an option but it is about 1700+ without win10 pro, do you guys think they'll decrease their price during black Friday event? Also want to know how much difference in thermals it's gonna be for the 1070 vs 1060 in this chassis

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I have the .05 bios and the omen key working fine. Try installing the HP System Event Utility. That should do it, but you might find the network booster is unavailable. In this case, you should also install OMEN Command Center SDK Package

Let me know if it works out

 

can you post the link to the 1070 for 1700.. cant seem to find it.. ty

 

https://store.hp.com/us/en/Configur...Id=&catEntryId=3074457345618890323&quantity=1

@ jimsteve80 im not sure if it will populate correctly but here is a screen capture its 1819, roughly 100 over, I really want to get it I think is a good deal what do you guys think? it comes with 1 tb with 7200 rpm HD & 128 PCIE NVME.. but is it 820 bucks over the MC asking price of 999... can you guys share your opinion?

 

Nice.. this one has a 1070 while the MC one had a 1060, also different series I think.. 15 omen vs 15t. But, we are all interested and waiting to see the thermals on gtx 1070 omen. Right now, in UK the Omen 15 with 1070 and 256 nvme can be bought for 1400 pounds. Seems like a steal given hardly any other 1070 options available in UK even close to that price. But, all waiting for reviewers/ end users summaries on the thermals.

 

So this laptop throttles back to 3.2GHZ (or whatever 45W can achieve), so really, what you are getting is a 3.2GHZ CPU not the 3.9Ghz that you think. Very disappointing. The temps are still through the roof when I render even at -160mv undervolt @3.2, and most likely will get thermal throttling at 97c sooner than you think.

I was hopping I could render 3d scenes since that 6C12T CPU would have been amazing for rendering. Googling around, though, it seems most laptops throttle their CPU in this manner / they are just not made to render for hours and keep within thermal limits.

So I don't know what to do here... Should I return mine and build a desktop? or get a replacement and hope the new laptop runs cooler? It seems they went back in stock at my MC.

 

No, the OMEN button functions both before and after BIOS update.

 

hiya. tried the first option but it didnt work. i checked the program version and it is up to date so i dunno what to do next.

 

Next I would uninstall both the command center app and system event utility. Restart computer. Reinstall Omen Command Center (in Microsoft store). Try the button. If it doesn't work, install both the event utility and Omen sdk and try the button.

If it still doesn't work after this, I am unfortunately stumped. My button works every time with no issues.

 

So finally got mine! Swapped the nvme for a 960 evo a did a fresh install, everything ok except Omen button, but I don't care about it. BIG problem ... I updated the Bios and after that the fans are noticiable louder and rev up much quicker, as quick as if I open a Firefox tab. In fact sometimes are at max speed during long times, a f*cking plane. Is possible to revert the Bios? I tried pressing win + B plus start as HP says and I supossed to have saved previos Bios in a usb but cannot get it to work. Starting to think about getting a replacement

ps: 144hz screen looks really good and 1270 in cinebench multicore!

 

damn.. noise is a concern.. how are the thermals pre and post bios update?

 

How much did you pay?

 

Thermals are ok, same pre and post Bios, that is the problem. I do not play but in normal use around 55-60c.
Also there is no way to use any program out there to control fans. Speedfan, Notebook fan control ... none of them are able to recognize fans.