TONGFANG GK5CN5Z / GK5CN6Z / GK5CQ7Z / GK5CP0Z

Hi

It is a USB Type-C Gen 1 port, meaning USB 3.0 speeds (5Gbps). It supports standard 5V USB 3.0 (not the higher 20V) and is not DP capable. For the video output, you should stick to the dedicated 2x mini-DP and 1x HDMI

So go for external power (should be better shielded anyway to reduce noise), DP or HDMI for your monitor and you then technically have 4x USB 3.0 speed connections for everything else.

It's become very complicated, but you have Gen 1 (USB 3.0 speed), Gen 2 (USB 3.1 speed), PD supporting 20V or non-PD supporting 5V, without or with DP video support and a whole raft of fun logos to try and work out what does what. Just remember that TYPE-C is the connection type, the only feature it really guarantees in terms of performance is minimum USB 3.0 5Gbps speed.

 

Oh, disappointed, PCSpecialist says 3.1 in their detailed specifications and from my understanding, USB 3.1 seems automatically video-capable (which 3.0 is not) - but now I understand the mistake, see the end of this message

Yes for sure, I was just dreaming having just one thing to plug (+ power) to get everything on my desk working. But okay, I think I can do the effort to plug in one more cable

Thanks, I plan to go for the TP-Link UH720 which has a multi-transaction translator and apparently good electrical protections, and down to USB 1.1 compatibility which is apparently not the case of every hub (why?!!??!), but still a good feature if you still have old USB gears from the 2000' (like some MIDI controllers).

I finally got it (thanks to wikipedia) ! So USB 3.0 = USB 3.1 gen 1 (5GB/S) but you also have USB 3.1 gen 2 (10GB/S), so "USB 3.1" with no further precision means gen 1 OR gen 2 which is very nasty - or bless for marketing laws...

Thanks for these precisions.

So you confirm that the 3 USB-A and the USB-C ports of this laptop are USB 3.0 / 3.1 gen 1 ? Because in Kitguru and notebookcheck reviews it's said that there is 1 USB 2.0 (which one ?) and 3 USB 3.0 (including the type-C)...
EDIT : maybe the USB on the left side is 2.0 as it is black instead of blue. Can someone confirm ?

 

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Schen...-GTX-1060-Full-HD-Laptop-Review.315660.0.html

Correct - please see this review ^^^^ of the XMG Neo 15. Note it has sandblasted finish (not brushed aluminium) and different ( in our opinion) better key caps than the PCS version - mabe you prefer this look ;-)

The Type-C connection is 100% USB 3.1 Gen 1. They haven't added the Gen 1 on their website and KitGuru just copy/pasted the specs in their review from the PCS website. You'll see from our website that we call the port "1x USB-C 3.1 Gen1" which is correct - not adding the Gen 1 is missleading. Still confusing, but the Gen should ALWAYS be clarified.

2x USB 3.0 ports on the right hand side, 1x USB 2.0 port on the left side - as you said, blue and black. The photos of the Neo 15 in the notebookcheck review show this in more detail.

 

I already checked your laptops, but the GK5CN6Z is about 300€ more than from PCS with the config I want, and I already ordered it anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But thanks again for your clarifications - and I agree with you, I prefer your key caps (I didnt noticed the difference since you tell me)

PCS - @Jacob Hawkes - you should update the Recoil II specs to avoid any misunderstanding (USB 3.1 gen 1 or USB 3.0 but not "USB 3.1")

 

I have a PCS version but i do prefer your keycaps anyway to get my hands on them?

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€300 sounds like a huge difference - I just priced up exact same spec (with PCS 3 Year Gold Warranty because that's actually just a 2 year warranty which we offer as standard, 1060, 8GB, 250GB, Win 10 Home) and the price difference was just over €100. Add to that the better chassis and key caps and there's less of a difference ;-)

Sorry, we buy the keyboards in with those different keycaps but AFAIK they're unique to our version of the chassis. Pretty sure we couldn't sell the key caps separately.

 

So if somebody loses a keycap they can't get a new one ?

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That's not what I said is it ;-)

We don't have complete sets to sell because they come as part of the keyboard.

 

Mine is 144Hz panel, 1060, 2x8Go 2666MHz, Intel 256Go NVMe SSD, 1To 7200tr/min HDD, no OS and silver guaranty (1year) and it was a bit less than 1400€ (now it's about 1440 !), and at XMG I get it for about 1680€ with the 2 years guaranty and a faster delivery (and nicer keyboard )

But cant we get a complete set made of individual caps that originally come for replacement ?

 

But with the same warranty it's not that much of a difference. Ours is 24 month parts, labour and shipping. Only the PCS "3 Year Gold" warranty offers this the other options are 1 year and 2 year warranty - not 3.

EDIT - I see what you mean - add €67 for 3 day build and dead pixel guarantee charge and it soon adds up.

Caps - let me check tomorrow.

 

I'd like to buy this laptop but I don't know if this works with Linux.

I'd like to record screencast with the computer. The integrated microphone is good or the registration comes with a lot of background noise?

 

Yes Linux works with this computer, but there is apparently some issues with the touchpad which is not recognized. It doesnt seems to be solved yet. I also read something about flickering with the 144Hz panel.

You can hear the integrated mic in this review. But it's always better to get a better mic than the built in ones...

 

All the audio on this laptop is done through a popular Realtek sound chip. Which is on very many notebooks and motherboards. So it should be detected all OK in linux.

Trackpad - not working. But there is a thread elsewhere, on kubuntu forums, about the trackpad issue:

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthread.php/73599-PC-specialist-Recoil-II-TouchPad-not-found

The certain other hardware things also don't work in linux. Like for example changing the RGB lights.

 

Hi guys. I have a recurring issue with this laptop. Windows sometimes hangs when I'm gaming or watching a movie. And what I mean by hanging is, image freezes but game or movie is still running in the background, I can still hear all the audio, but it does not respond to mouse or keyboard. I can still activate turbo fans and use fn + F1-12 options, but nothing else. Issue only stops when I hard shutdown or suspend.

I'm on bios N.1.04. I have -0.100 UV on core and cache but even without UV, I still have the issue. I also have an external monitor always connected, not sure if that can be the problem...

Graphics card is 1060 and have drivers updated.

What am I missing? :/

 

So I'm having a weird issue with my notebook. I was at school working on my laptop no issues everything worked as it should work. I came home after half an hour setup my notebook to continue my school work and it booted to the BIOS. The keyboard doesn't work so I picked a wireless keyboard and exit the BIOS.. he won't boot to windows so I restored default settings in the BIOS and still keeps booting to the BIOS. I tried to install a restore point and that didn't work. I took the M.2 ssd which windows is installed to my desktop and it booted to that M.2 ssd without issues. I tried to reinstall windows but I can't format or delete the ssd... everytime I press delete or format it's going straight to the installer (copying windows files). If anyone had this issues let me know otherwise i'm going to the store..

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I'm not sure to understand everything.
You booted without issue on your laptop with the SSD from your desktop computer ? Or on your desktop computer with the SSD from your laptop ?

If boot on laptop with desktop SSD : the problem might be the SSD from your laptop, try to boot on it with your desktop computer.
If boot on desktop computer with laptop SSD : the problem might come from the laptop itself, maybe the M.2 slot. Did you try to put the laptop SSD into the second M.2 slot ? Did you try to install Windows on the 2,5" disk if you have one ?

 

Yeah the ssd comes from the notebook. If i stick it in my desktop it boots without issues. I tried the second slot but this is a sata m.2 and the second slot is only pci-e. I'm going to try instal it in the 2"5 hdd. Wish me luck

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So can you try to put your system SSD from your desktop into your laptop to see if it boots ?

I dont understand how windows go straight to installation without giving you the ability to use integrated tools.
Maybe you can try a Linux installer in order to see what happens ?

Yes good luck

 

Thx for the tips but nothing worked. The weird thing is that the bios reconize the 2 drives but won't boot to Windows.

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1. Try to restore stock bios configuration
2. Try to Use Legacy mode

 

I did and still the same problem..

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What bios version and EC do you have?

 

I know there is one option in some bios that sometimes needs to be enabled before it can correctly see SSDs as a boot drive

 

US here, any suggestion on a seller with the larger battery AND the 144 hz panel? Origin doesn't have the 144 hz panel and they don't offer thermal repasting

 

I brought back the notebook to LaptopPlus. Hopefully they can fix the issue otherwise they have to return it to PCS.. and I have to wait longer. I forget to check the version of the BIOS and EC. I will report if they fixed it!

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any news about the touchpad issue on Linux?
Anyone tried using the control center for windows on linux via wine?

 

I've tried with Wine, using the control center from the vendor of my notebook (Avell) but it didn't work. I'm currently using kernel 4.18.15 and it still doesn't work (the touchpad). I cannot also use the nvidia drivers with more than one monitor and can't change the keyboard colors. Right now is the default colors that came with it. I can however lower/increase the keyboard luminosity with the Fn keys.

 

I'm struggling with touchpad support in Mint 19. Trying Kernel 4.19 rc2.
More here;
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/linux-mint-19-tara.820645/page-3

 

Hi guys! I've been using the laptop for a while now and I'm impressed although disstatisfied that my local supplier won't give me the 180W adapter without paying an extra 130 (!) euro's.

For now I have one other concern: I like that the fans are "protective", however sometimes I know and feel that they are over protective. When sitting in class my temp. somtimes spikes to 60 degrees when charging but then my fan will produce this huge amount of noise. I thought making a custom curve in the control center would solve this problem, but when the laptop "indicates" that it needs to switch, it switches back from office mode to gaming mode, meaning that it still does the same thing as it did before: Making too much noise.

Does anybody recommend a certain fan controlling software? And do these "override" the settings that the Control Center apply? And would removing the control center change the way the fans behave automatically?

Please let me know! Thanks.

 

Tongfang is better than hp omen?

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I talked with illegear about the 62wh battery:

I think it will be really hard to get the 62Wh battery

It depends from Which omen. There is the 2018 version with a slim design (as this tongfang) that is not yet avaible and the old fat style one
(i'm italian, if you need more info write me a PM)
​

 

edit (double post)

 

I'm italian too, but i can't send you a private message. The model of the hp omen is 15-dc0030nl. with 10% discount you can get it for 1400 euros and you can get if you are a student another 10% discount. On a forum i've seen someone has paid 1295 euros. This has tb3 that is missing in the recoil II

 

Another italian here!
I've also checked the 2018 omen but I ended up buying the tongfang because the omen seems to use always the Nvidia graphic card that for me is useless and inconvenient in a mobility situation.
In addition the omen is bigger and thicker than the tongfang, seems made of plastic instead of alluminum and its design is a too showy for me.

 

Overall looking across all the thin laptop's This GK5CN6Z still has the best cooling solution with the the mesh bottom and not narrow vents.

Others seem to get excessive more whine than this model.

 

Hey all,

First time poster here. I just purchased this laptop from Scan Computers UK (branded under the Vengeance Pro 15). So far my opinion is pretty mixed, it looks great, its slim and more than capable of playing the games i want to play on it (WoW mainly) But, like many of you have already mentioned, the cons seem to be the keyboard, fan noise and some build quality and screen issues and, especially for me at least.....heat output.

It hasn't throttled once since I've been using it, nor has it powered off randomly, so far so good with the 150w power supply. I ran a 3dmark with -125 on the core and cache, and a small 300mhz overclock to the ram on the 1060. Hit 11k on 3DMark firestrike and 4k on timespy. So its performing great, but the trouble is the fans are SO noisy, and the heat generated whilst its sat on my lap even when not gaming, makes it unusable for long stints of YouTube or anything that taxes the CPU at all. My temps are staying around 65-75 in games, low 50's to 60's when just using it normally but the heat that it produces still causes the fans to ramp up to annoyingly loud levels when just sat in the living room with the wife watching TV. I'm on the original bios, and as far as i can tell, if i flash to the other PCS bios that's been posted here, it will void my warranty.

I really want to like this laptop, but I'm afraid if I flash a new bios in the hope that cures the fan curves and some other issues, but it doesn't make it any better, then I wont be able to return it. My model also has light bleed on the screen, not too noticeable, on boot screen mainly. But as I say, I can look past those problems, and i've started using it with a laptop cooler constantly but what I really would like to fix is the fan speeds. If i set the speeds in gaming center to manual, and then start to game as soon as it gets hot it overides it and switches it back to the Smart Heat Management setting and the fans start up again. Does anyone know if this could be fixed by using another fan program or a different version of control center? Also has anyone else bought one of these from Scan UK? I was looking for a support forum but I cant find anything on Hexus related to this laptop or any released BIOS's from them.

 

Add me on telegram if you still need other info @lKinderBueno.

 

Hi
I finally got my Recoil II from PCS !
After about 1h of use I got a weird behavior : when rebooting I automatically arrived in the BIOS and the keyboard was not working. I had to plug an external keyboard in order to quit the bios and boot to windows, but at the login screen, the password field filled out itself, as if I was keeping pressing a letter. So I opened the back of the laptop and I saw that the keyboard cable was a little bit crooked. So I re-pluged it properly and it worked again... Quite a fear with a brand new product !

After 1 day of use, I can confirm almost everything I saw in reviews :
- solid and nice case ! I previously had a MSI GS60 (same chassis as the today's GS65) and it's amazing how smaller and more robust tongfang's case is - fort he same screen size !
- really nice 144Hz screen (I got ICC profiles from here - XMG Neo 15X - and there - Gigabyte Aero 15X - as it is the same panel, and the one from the Aero 15 seems to fit better for me)
- way-too-noisy keyboard for me (I hope we will be able to buy silent switches soon)... Something else that annoys me with this keyboard is that the sensitivity can be very different from one key to another. For some, you dont event have to hear the click to switch the key one, and for some other hearing the click is not enough as you have to push the key as deep as you can to switch it on. The second case is not really a problem but the first one can become one when you hesitate while writing for example : some keys can switch on only with your fingers weight (without even pushing the key).
- The touchpad is nice BUT i found no way to configure it as there is not many options in default Windows mouse configuration panel which is really annoying : I hate reversed scrolling and 3 fingers functions for managing windows across the screen. I really would like to learn how to retro-engineer the driver and to make a proper one (and make one for linux as well, as there is still no solution for linux yet), but I have other things to do right now ^^
- Sometimes the LED bar switches on on startup even if I turned it off in the Control/Gaming center.
-The Control/Gaming center is a good start, but still lacks few options : what is behind different Performance modes (Game mode, performance mode, equilibrium mode and power saving mode) ? I would be nice to link different fan profiles to these different Performance modes. I also noticed a bug : when switching to Game mode the keyboard lighting automatically switches to "gaming mode" effect and stay to this same lighting effect even if you switch back to the last performance mode. So maybe it would also be nice to have per-performance-mode lighting settings...
- A more detailed review will come later

I was about to switch BIOS to the Mechrevo one but I got the following BIOS message : "Secure boot violation - Invalid signature detected. Check Secure Boot Policy in Setup". Finally I didnt even tryed to disable the secure boot option in the BIOS, as I wanted to see benchmark scores first.
So with last PCS BIOS and EC, and only a core and cache undervolt of 115mV with TS, I got quite different scores, between 1180 and 1260 (!!!).

 

A note on things I've heard from Eluktronics on the TONGFANG GK5CN6Z which according to one reviewer they are a build partner with Tongfang and were part of the development process.

Possible differences coming early 2019. Gtx1070 Max Q option and no Click Brown Switches for the keyboard.

 

LITTLE BATTLEFIELD V BENCHMARKS:
All settings at Ultra and FPS are 90% of the time at 61FPS and rarely it drops at 45FPS.

 

So it's better to wait for these new models? Is the keyboard now so difficult to use?

 

Not really. All depends if you mind the click click noise. Some don't like it. I used a k810 Logitech for a long while and it was quite the racket metal keys in a metal frame. So the old click click doesn't bother me.

 

I just got my laptop. Clean installed Windows 10 Pro. Installed the Intel WiFi driver and let Windows finish all its updating. Now I'm left with the following 3 devices.



I love the keyboard and clicking sound, nothing like my old IBM AT keyboard.

 

apart from the touchpad issue, anyone can make a list of the problems installing and using a Linux distro? I don't want to use Windows for my needs.

 

Looks like this laptop seems to have very specific hardware.

You should look at your resellers website to see which drivers they give you.

I think you need at least this one :
- intel Serial IO
and maybe these ones :
- intel chipset driver
- intel Management engine interface

From what I understand the needed version of intel Serial IO is provided by intel specifically for the constructor/reseller, as I'm not able to find this exact driver on Intel support website. You can still try to download this generic version I found on a famous french website for drivers, but you should try first check your resellers website or contact them.

Maybe you can also give a try with Intel Driver and Support Assistant which also helps you to keep intel drivers up to date regardless to Windows update. But it's still one more little backkground process you may not want

 

I installed tthe chipset drivers and all the devices were installed.

It was the "PCI Data Acquisition and Signal Processing Controller" that I hadn't seen before

I actually tried installing the "Intel ® Serial IO Driver" first which was in my downloads section on the PCS website but no new devices appeared to be installed.

I installed my Seagte Firecuda drive this morning and played my first games. So far everything about this laptop is very impressive.

 

recoil II has 2 usb 3.0 or 2 usb 3.1 and what gen?

 

it's better tongfang ck5cn5z /6z or p950ep6 regarding solidity and heat? I see that the p950ep6 has 2 usb type c port and 3 usb type a ports and a better webcam.

 

I found from my vendor's website (Raiontech) two different drivers for the touchpad, one from synaptics and one from elan. If anyone want to try I leave the link, I prefer to stay with Windows precision driver. Maybe these could help for touchpad issues using Linux, I only use Windows.

http://www.raiontech.com/driver-e-manuali-utente/driver-raionbook-gs5/

 

Raiontech or Pc specialist?