HP Omen X Owner's Lounge

Hello fellas,

New guy here. In about a week or so I will receive the new HP Omen X laptop with the current specs:

- i7 7820HK
- GTX 1080
- 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD
- 16GB RAM
- 120Hz Full HD GSYNC IPS

If you have any questions regarding this unit, please feel free to ask.

Now a question on my part. Regardless of the temperatures the CPU and GPU will obtain, I will most likely repaste the CPU and GPU with Liquid Metal (Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut). Are (almost) all laptops repasteable(?) with Liquid Metal or do I have to watch out for some kind of material that gives a reaction with Liquid Metal?

Thanks!

 

First repaste and repad it with TG Kryonaut or Phobya Nanogrease Extreme with Fujipoly or arctic pads. If the temps turn up worse go LM. You'll never know which heatsink they will use? Aluminium will be eaten away by LM.

 

I would be very interested in performance, both before and after repasting. If you want to go the Liquid Metal route and are worried about destroying the heatsink, HP sells the GTX 1080 version part (940598-001) for $59 on their partsurfer website. On my Zbook 15 G3, it has a copper plate directly touching the CPU / GPU to transfer heat to the pipes, and aluminum everywhere else. If you were to mask off around the aluminum areas carefully I think it would work. I would do the GPU with non-conductive paste only, similar to what HIDEvolution recommends.

Speaking of which, I wonder if HIDEvolution plans to offer this model repasted, similar to how they offer the Alienware models? @Donald@HIDevolution ?

 

+rep added. If HID_EVOC sells their variant, it'll be awesome.
I feel traditional paste is the way to go at first to see if there any improvements in temps before going LM.

 

We offer Thermal Materials upgrades on all of the brands and models we sell, not just Alienware.

However we do not sell HP products.

 

Hi guys,

Thanks for the replies! Of course I will be doing some benchmarking and posting the results. Also I will be doing some before and after, with the according temperatures and performance results.

Are there heatsinks made out of aluminium or are most heatsinks made out of copper? If I were to break down the HP, how do I know if I am dealing with a copper or aluminium heatsink?

 

Aluminium will be light and copper based will be a lot heavier.
Aluminium looks more silverish like back of iphone 6. Copper will be reddish brown.

 

See the service manual for complete disassembly instructions:

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c05808729

This review also has a section explaining components with the bottom cover off:



The heatsink will have copper heatpipes, pads (to touch the CPU / GPU cores), and fins. Everything else will be aluminum. The whole thing is painted black except on the fins and places it contacts a heat source. The best thing to do is read about the repasting process for the AW17R4 or similar then try to follow along on the Omen X as you take it apart. Take good pictures and post here if you have trouble.

 

Any updates?

 

How did it go Graedon? I'm planning on buying this laptop with the exact same specs and have some questions.

Is the display good? (why or why not)
Did you have trouble with overheating?

Anything I should take in consideration before buying it?

Thanks you.

 

Notebookcheck has put up their review. I don't know what they were smoking but "remains cool under pressure" does not describe the Throttling CPU temps I was seeing in their charts. 99C for Witcher 3. Desperately needs repasting and new thermal pads if you ask me.

On the upside; best keyboard and best battery life by far of any DTR Gaming laptop I have seen. 2 Hrs under load, 5.5 Wifi is crazy for its weight class

https://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-Omen-X-17-7820HK-GTX-1080-120-Hz-FHD-Laptop-Review.280650.0.html

 

The unlocked 7820hk Who can’t be oc’d is boiling in the chassis with wimpy 25w Cpu Package Power in a Gpu stress test. Furmark is bad for graphics but not for processors. Notebookcheck’s reviewers gave it a score of 87%. This must be a typo. I can’t see an another reason.

 

Any news on this unit? Any more owners wanting to share their experiences?

It looks mean! But the heatsink looks tiny, very tiny

 

oooooooh!
Just found out. It has a vapour chamber for CPU and GPU, plus the two M.2 SSDs are also connected to the main heatsink for heat dissipation.
Looks like a pretty nifty system considering the size and that it shares heatpipes...

 

HP Omen X 17 Review - Overclockable & GTX 1080 with a Unique Design

 

Got my hands on one.
Keyboard is amazing really, pretty cool gaming experience.

The cooling system is heavy and substantial. Repasted with Kryonaut but temps aren't great. CPU goes to 85-88C while the GPU stays under 73C while gaming for a couple hours. No throttling though.

It has a pretty big vapour chamber and two sets of copper fins for each chip, also has great VRM coverage and even cools the SSDs. The fans just don't spin up that much so the thing remains quite quiet under load, but the temps aren't better because of that I think.
I think LM would work wonders on it.

I'm wondering about something. This thing has an "Omen Control Center" where you can change the multiplier and voltage (only increase) for the CPU, I think it uses intel XTU as a backbone for the process.
When undervolting with Throttlestop do I have to be careful about anything? Won't the control center change anything back?

Thanks

 

It's great HP is making an effort again at marketing gaming laptops

I've used a number of HP's over the years for personal and work use and never had a problem with one. They run fine and reliably, and any time I've needed support - new batteries after a few years - HP has everything in stock and ready to go.

It may not be the flamingest gaming laptop, but it sounds like it gets the job done.

When the HP gaming models hit the Costco / Sam's discount closeout sales, they could be a good cheap buy.

 

Don't use Omen Control center. Put xtu service in services.msc to manaul and then launch TS to undervolt. Xtu and TS can cause conflicts.

 

I'm so glad I came across this post, there's so little information about this laptop from actual owners.

I'm interested in ordering this laptop today, but with the i7-7700hq and gtx 1070. Do you guys think this computer would be reliable for long term use (5+ years)?

I'm primarily a console gamer, but I do own fallout 4 on PC, as well as a few light games. I want this laptop for mainly writing, drawing, and soon college work.

My current laptop is a 10 year old hp dv7t that's become pretty buggy lately. I don't plan on pushing the X to its limits, but I absolutely love the screen size, style and keyboard.

Do you guys think the omen X can last several years without any major problems? Thanks!

 

Anyway 7700HQ is locked down cpu, If you can repaste or mod anything, the PC could last 5 yr+. Omen X looks like MSI beasts.
@Papusan I never seen a disclaimer like this:

 

Awesome! I'd like to repaste it but I have no clue how to do it, I've seen videos but nothing specific to this laptop. Kinda afraid of messing something up! Do you have any tips for a beginner, or maybe know of a guide?

 

Always a reason... From the

NBR review of Omen X laptop with unlocked i7-7820HK

In our testing, we were unable to get a stable overclock at any multiplier between 37x and 40x. Performance was shaky in both the Omen Center benchmark and Cinebench with some multipliers giving lower scores and hitting lower clock speeds, and one setting (38x CPU multiplier, +0.505 V) crashed the system and forced a full reboot. Given the high thermal output of the CPU at its base multiplier (more on this in the Stress Test below), we opted not to push the silicon any further.

 

Yes I noticed that huge downgrade in performance too for better battery life 344 mins Optimus prime profile.

 

I think I know what they are on about regarding stability between 37 and 40x. The Omen Center appears to not hold onto those settings upon rebooting. Although it says it does, after rebooting it goes back to 35x.
38x +0.505V is a monstrous amount of voltage.

I've got mine repasted with Kryonaut, CPU Core and Cache at -135mV, iGPU at -65mV, multiplier set to x39 with all cores active and it's working great. All the settings were done in throttlestop. Handles it like a champ.
I think I can go way lower with this. Tested it at x40 with -150mV and it breezed thru 4 games of Battlegrounds, then I tried a -165mV and it crashed. Still needs more testing to get the most out of it, I'm just not very patient.

Current settings (x39, -135mV) it doesn't go past 86C in gaming loads which is pretty good. Stable and no throttling.

BTW, what's the best way to revert Throttlestop changes when crashing occurs? It won't open in safe mode, I had to delete the settings.ini to get it back to default values and start over.
I heard some people put it on a 5min delay on task scheduler but I can't find that option.

 

I use another TS profile for startup when I test out new overclock settings. Aka pc boot up as usual with stable voltage and settings. Take a look here regarding delay of startup task.

 

Hello everyone! Glad to see a group discussing the Omen X laptop performance, I too own this fantastic machine (since December) and recently did a repaste with Noctua NT-H1. Running benchmarks with a -.125mv undervolt runs in the 70s, but gaming on Vermintide 2 with a 36x multiplier results in a crappy 86c on the CPU. The GTX 1080 stays around 71c though. I do want to try a repaste one more time this weekend to ensure i have the best paste job on the 7820hk. Ill take pictures this time if anyone is interested.

 

If you want to repaste might as well switch to a better paste. NT-H1 is pretty good but Kryonaut is slightly better when it comes to regular paste.
You can also go the Liquid-Metal route, I bet that, with this cooling system, you would get some pretty radical temps. It does come with some safety concerns though.

I took some pictures when I opened mine up:



I got Micron modules for the 32GB 2400Mhz RAM


Similar to the Alienware 17 R4, you also need to remove the rear "trunk" in order to get the heatsink out easily. Not similar to the AW 17 R4, this thing is much easier to repaste.or clean


To remove the heatsink the CPU fan has to be removed on its own


Heatsink assembly off (don't forget to remove any M.2 SSDs before pulling on the heatsink, as these have a plate under them for added cooling)


Stock paste job




Kryonaut in


Close up of the vacum chamber. Any sugestions on how to prepare and clean up this surface a bit?


This is mid thermal pad replacement. Swapped them out for Arctic pads. I didn't run into any issues but figured might as well. Very important to check every single chip for proper contact when doing this.



I was hoping for a better drop in temps but it didn't happen. It really needs an undervolt to keep it under check. GPU temps are great though.

If you have any questions fire away

 

HI. Few questions if you don't mind.
1. What is weight of this laptop?(it seems its weight is not as shown on official web)
2. Does it work for 5 hours on light use?
3. Can you recommend it for hard 3D content creation? Not gaming
Thank you

 

And sorry for newbie question, but will i have better color accuracy if i purchase 4K panel but downscale it to 1080p?
If i am correct this will even save some battery?
I don't need 120Hz. I need very good color reproduction

 

Almost 5Kg, plus the charger, pretty hefty.

I don’t know, haven’t used it for very long on battery power. Check notebookcheck.com, they have a nice review where they test and talk about the battery.

I think it’s more than well equiped for that. But if you can wait I’d go for something with a coffee lake CPU as I think the added cores will be beneficial for 3D work.

If color accuracy is what you’re looking for then yes, the 4K panel is better. I don’t get why you would downscale though, might as well use the added resolution!

 

Glad to see there’s some activity discussing this laptop. I bought one last week and it’s one of the nicest laptop I’ve ever used.

However, these cpu temperatures are ridiculous. Any overclocking results in 90c+ temps. Did I just get a lemon or what? I want this laptop to work for me so I may replace it and try another one, but part of me feels like I’d be better off with an alienware, Asus, or msi. I really need 120hz. Though, the response time of the omen is so poor it feels
Iike a 60hz monitor.

 

Yeah I'm with you.

I sold my AW 17 R4 and got this. A few things about the AW weren't feeling so good, like the washed out TN screen and keyboard.
The Omen has a fantastic keyboard, seriously. Awesome to game in. The screen has better colors than the AW but I do miss the 1440p and speed of that TN panel.

I'm still mulling over returning it or keeping it. I don't like the alternatives that much. The GT75VR is way too gamer looking. Clevos are awesome hardware-wise but then the keyboard and overall feel aren't great...

 

It seems you and I are in the exact same boat with the same opinion. What's the move here? My return window is coming up soon for the omen.

The Alienware 17 r4 seems to run cooler, but the keyboard is bad and the panel is ugly. I actually prefer 1080p for the higher frame rates. For the price the next option would be the gt73vr. It runs extremely cool and the keyboard is better than most, but yes it's ugly. The panel on the MSI is super fast, but the gt73vr is (for me) $250 more.

Eluktronics (clevo) is on amazon with an 8700k and GTX 1080, 120hz 5ms 1080p display for $2550 ( another $250 over the MSI). This is a real desktop replacement, but the price is starting to get too high for me to justify.

 

The only reason i want to buy this laptop is its battery runtime. It is the longest of all on the market with 1080gtx desktop . 17 R4 also has 99wt battery but it only runs for two hours

 

Is the battery life that good? In my experience it has not been much longer than 3-3.5 hours.

 

Hm. It’s strange that lots of reviews online tell it will last for 5-6 hours

 

I'll run a test for you tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

 

It would be very cool
I am interested if someone tried repasting it with liquid metal and undervolting for best temperatures?

 

I think the best way to test its battery is to make next:
1) undervolting
2) turn off backlight on a keyboard
3) lower the brightness not to minimum. Only to 50%
4) turn power saving mode
5) lower fan speed

 

That's really squeezing it.

I'm at work and decided to do a battery test today. So far it's been on for 2 hours and there's still 40% battery remaining.
My settings:
-Brightness 2 ticks under full
- -135mV undervolt, I upped the stock multiplier to x38 from x35 but on HP's power plan it's hovering around x11 (x8 min, x36 max in the last two hours)
-HP Recommended power plan (I think it automatically adjusts stuff as the load on the system changes, this might be the biggest reason for the high battery life on many reviews)
-Connected to a 5GHz Wi-Fi network all the time, been browsing the web non-stop and uploading videos to a server regularly
-No "Big" apps are running. I've only been using Chrome all morning. Maybe I'll fire up Premiere if I need to.

One weird thing, although G-Sync is ON and the refresh rate is set to 120Hz in Nvidia's CP, when I go to https://www.testufo.com/refreshrate it tells me my RR is 30Hz, maybe something to do with HP's power plan?

Another very weird thing is that HWInfo reports the PCH at 135ºC. 135C min, max and average over the last two hours, it's very weird. (It's not at that temp I'm pretty sure. CPU is around 40C and the whole laptop feels pretty cool, even the exhaust isn't hot)

 

10% remaining. 3 hours and fifteen minutes without really trying.

So yeah, with a bit of effort I think you can get over 4 hours out of this thing. Screen brightness matters a lot and mine is almost at full brightness (damn pseudo-modern open space work places with all their stinky natural light )

 

Many thanks for testing

 

NP dude.
I think I figured out where the good battery life comes from. It's HP's software and power plan. It has a few stuff installed that might be bloatware or not (up to the user, I guess).
It really optimizes power consumption and reduces the refresh rate down to 30Hz. Connected to a wall socket and in high-performance the RR is back to stable 120Hz.

I was suspicious so I did a frame-skip test. Happy to say it's true 120Hz.

 

The Alienware 17R4 can get 8+ hours of battery life if you have a model that has the GTX 1070 without G-SYNC, and use it in Optimus mode. Ideally you would also want a 1920x1080 LCD, potentially swap the Killer Wifi for an Intel Wifi card, and only use SSD's that have good power consumption.

 

What? Only with a 60Hz setup. Models with G-Sync 120Hz displays can't enable optimus.

What Paul said is true, there's not many 1080 laptops with better battery life than this thing. Although the 17 R4 was close.

 

Although they do only ship with a 60hz display option, if you have the LG panel you can overclock it to ~100hz. You still have to deal with rebooting after switching between the integrated/dedicated graphics though, which could be a pain.

Actually, re-reading NotebookCheck's review, they mention that the Omen X has a bios option to disable the GTX 1080 and run only on the Intel HD630 iGPU. If it does, and they did their Wifi battery test with that mode enabled, it would explain the runtimes they they see. Would you mind taking a look in the bios if such an option exists?

 

They mention that? I can't find it anywhere.
Found an option to "Keep fan always ON" that was set to Enabled. Now I've left it Disabled to see if it fixes my problem of idling fan speed. It's not noisy but you can hear it. And if the work-load is light it shouldn't need to be always on.

 

Yep, its the last paragraph of the GPU Performance section. It wouldn't be impossible for it to have something like that. Some older MSI GT73VR's with 6820HK / GTX1080 had the same feature, and did get a noticeable improvement in battery life when run in that mode.

 

I couldn’t find the option

 

Does anyone know what the response time is of this display? It seems it's worse than what's in the Alienware and MSI.