Razer Blade 15.6" (GTX 1060/1070, 2018 edition) Owner's Lounge

Ok guys my next keep it real YouTube post is up.
This one testing a video rendering performance. I will post how to re-create the test yourselves for equipment that isn't the new RB 15

If you likes, please consider subscribing

 

how does it feel during gaming? does it feel less sweaty? Ive been eyeing up a Dbrand set myself

 

I don't like the palm rests with or without a skin, it sucks either way. I just use a small microfiber cloth under my palm. The Dbrand exterior skins are a must though, very good stuff

 

Just run RTX 2080 core v2, the performance quite similar with 1080ti eGPU setting as benchmarks reported, dx12 timespy give a performance boost over 1080ti. It’s compatible and quite easy setting.
RTX Off
https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/27972555
https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/27972675
RTX OnXD
https://www.3dmark.com/spy/4453253
https://www.3dmark.com/fs/16420889

 

My laptop has been on the FedEx delivery truck 2 days, in a row, without them stopping by the office and dropping it off. Perfect weather, not sure what the “exception” is. No joy this weekend.

 

Never mind, stick something else in the post when you watch my Razer Blade 15 Sleeve YouTube post that you WILL WANT

 

Ugh.. what have you done...

 

Looks like something out of the Otherworld from Silent Hill 2. Not my cup of tea, but if the owner digs it, that's all that matters.

 

He said he deliberately made it look like crap so no one would eye his computer and have a chance of stealing it

 

I'd never begrudge anyone their opinion.. but...

 

lol

 

Hey everyone! Maybe I don't get it, please help. Why In balance mode, in Turbo mode- off, and even after -150 undervolting. I can't browse Chrome without fan clicking(like it starts, and then immediately stops) Maybe it because fan control was set on around 55C to turn on, but how to fix it.????? In quite environment , it's SO annoying!!Thank you

 

I don't use Chrome I use edge but I don't think that's your problem.
Open up task manager and see what's jumping up the cpu.

My bet is Defender, or another AV.
You can look up how to make these less aggressive or perhaps change the bios to disable turbo cpu.
Hope this helps you.

 

Anybody try to undervolt their 1060s? I'm curious what you guys are able to get, my most stable undervolt is 1809/2100 at 0.8V

 

Hey everyone!

My trusty old Clevo laptop met its untimely demise last week during a catastrophic power failure at my parent's house. I've been on the hunt for a new school/gaming laptop and after doing a ton of research I finally settled on getting a Razer 15 while simultaneously sucker punching my wallet. I ended up ordering it through HIDevolution as I've heard great things about them on here and I wanted to get a liquid metal paste professionally installed with a warranty (I could do a normal repaste myself but don't have the self confidence to go anywhere near LM). I'm extremely mobile with my laptop so I'm hoping that their application method really does prevent LM from leaking!

I'm also hoping that my laptop will arrive sometime next week. In the meantime, is there any literature I should be reading up on for things like removing bloatware, undervolting, testing for defects, etc.? Razer's alleged poor QC has me a bit worried and I want to take all the right precautions to ensure that I get a solid machine.

 

Razer doesn't really have poor QC, the fit and finish on their machines are second to none. The problem is their engineering, particularly bad with thermal management and power consumption. Both can be adequately addressed with liquid metal and undervolting.

 

@Ultra Male has a completionist guide to a clean install of Windows10 here, in notebookreview.com. A separate thread details a windows tweaks guide.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/nbr-windows-10-clean-installation-guide.781178/

I also ordered from @hidevolution for the same reasons, LM, and I added extended US warranty and to choose a laptop with minimal light bleed on the screen.

I will be upgrading the SSD, and doing the clean Win10pro install. As I understand it, Razer does not install bloatware, perhaps some of the reason for pricing.

Now, if the Lost FedEx truck can find my large, centrally placed, office on this, the third attempt, I might get mine today.

 

Had a fun gaming session on my unit over the weekend but I am going to look for a larger DTR laptop so if anyone if looking for a super sweet deal on one of these guys let me know! I am going to list it up on the FS/FT forums later today.

 

Ah, I see. That's good news, one fear I had was receiving a defective unit in the mail (based on the laptop's abysmal Amazon reviews). I figured that HID would in general have higher quality standards, but as you said a lot of the laptop's issues are alleviated by fixing the thermal situation.

Nice, I hope you were able to get your laptop! I was thinking about getting a 256gb model and then manually upgrading to 1 TB myself, but ultimate I went for the 512GB model since that should be able to last me a year or two before needing to be upgraded.

I also have a MATLAB homework assignment due next Monday but I doubt the laptop will come that quickly.

 

When you order with any changes to the original manufacturer’s stock configuration or choose any service options from us, we will perform a full quality check - ensure latest stable BIOS firmware and drivers are installed, burn in stress testing for temperature, benchmark testing to ensure it is performing to standard, keyboard and touchpad test, check of ports for functionality, display check for abnormalities, and a physical check of the chassis for blemishes. You can also make notes to the technician if you would like us to look for something specific. A product that passes through our hands has a much lower chance of DOA (defect on arrival).

Here is what we do for Q.C. testing:

Stress testing and Benchmarks:
Firestrike/Time Spy
PassMark/Performance test
AIDA64 Extreme
HDtunepro (for SSDs/HDDs)
Memtest86
Testmem5

Monitoring software:
HWiNFO64
GPU-Z
MSI Afterburner + Rivatuner Statistics Server

We also do at least 30mins-1hr of intense online gaming at Ultra settings with high end games for those with a heavy build and mods.

Did you ask for your Notebookreview discount?

 

I don't know why you guys in here are so deadset on doing this to your notebook and paying that premium price to have someone "Review" your laptop and then apply some LM on your laptop . I mean I just picked up a Blade 15 1060 for 2 grand. Then bought a used Razer Core on Ebay, soon to be 2080 RTXti. Without the RTX 2080, I paid the same price as one of these HIDevolution laptops probably less but I bet you I will get better temps and better performance and when I'm on the go I'll have better battery. And in the end I paid $2,446 for both the laptop and the Razer Core with a 1070 ASUS card in it.

I just don't really understand.... why so few people take the Razer Core route, but maybe it's because I've never been an FPS gamer on the go only Hearthstone and RTS games and FPS games for at home. I'm also a Macbook User just turned Razer User

For doubters:

 

Because there have been SEVERE longevity issues with numerous blades in the past, namely the mosfets blowing up and the battery swelling/dysfunctioning, not to mention poor thermals out of the box. Buying through a reseller like HIDEvolution can help resolve those headaches, since they handle all of it themselves, and you get none of the headache of dealing with Razer.

Smoking deal on the razer core + 1070, wish I could find something like that!

 

Wow, thank you for the response! I didn't know that your tests were that extensive, but that definitely makes me feel a lot more confident purchasing from you guys. I haven't asked for the NBR discount, is there way to still get it?

For me at least, the Razer core doesn't make sense. I already have a desktop configuration at home which is more than capable for gaming/productivity. However I also use my laptop extensively for solidworks, programming, and gaming when I'm on campus (I commute to school). I wanted to get a machine that could perform at a high level while being light/compact and without burning up, and so repasting the laptop seems to be almost a necessity.

 

This.

My laptop did arrive yesterday. No issues out of the box. TimeSpy testing ran the temp to 75-82 while idle was 65-70. (I don’t recall the score, as the laptop is at the office) in general use, this is a snappy laptop. I was impressed at the fan noise not being horrific, I could hear it ramp up under load, but it was not objectionable, nor high pitched.


I did swap the SSD, and in the, slow, process of a clean build. After I finish Win10pro install, with tweaking, and play around with throttle stop, I’ll try out some benchmarking.

1) I won’t be overclocking
2) I will be trying to help battery life when not on AC
3) on AC power, I will be aiming for the best performance allowed under 80c.

I play MMOs mainly, looking forward to Star Citizen (unsure how well that’s going to run on this laptop). I don’t play FPS games that traditionally tend to push machines.

Today, I have an hour or two of time to work on the project. I left the process halfway through turning the Microsoft AV defender off. I hope to finish this off, with some more of the guide. At some point I’ll have to hook up to the WiFi, and let Windows activate, and, supposedly, upgrade itself to 10pro, which is needed for some of this work. I’ll need a real AV installed prior to taking the laptop out of my office WiFi, which is well protected. Or opening email for that matter.

 

Windows Defender is not as bad as you think... In fact, it’s a great option. Use it in conjunction with MalwareBytes

 

I can't say because I don't know who you are. Please email me at [email protected]

 

I'm thinking about picking up the 1060mq as I also play games that are generally light like shadowverse (anime hearth) and league of legends with some video editing here and there. Do you by chance have a idea how the temps and fan noise are when playing LoL?

 

These are exactly the parameters I plan to use for my pending 1070/4k. Would love to see where you land with your configuration

 

I'm on this same boat as well, best performance possible for under 80c (and bonus for quiet as possible).

How I achieve this...
-repasted with Kryonaut
-undervolt by -.150mv
-set clock speeds to 3.0ghz on all cores
-use Razer Gaming Mode with Auto fan profile. Pretty well behaved this way, but i switch to balanced for whatevers not gaming. Results tested with actual gaming, fortnite.
No FPS hit taken from clock speed drop.

 

I did a complete re-install of Win10pro, on a new ssd. I used the @Ultra Male clean install guide almost exactly. I have not put an AV on yet, thats next. I did install TS, and tried -100 and re-ran TimeSpy. New score 5 036, up from 4 801. Maybe thats not different. I peeked at the TS icon at the bottom during a Firestrike run (13 169) and saw 76 for max CPU temp, but the TS summary later showed 85 as max temp.

Other than that, the laptop is much better behaved when at idle than when I got it. It sticks at about 45 degrees at idle. I did install all the current drivers from the Razer site (don't skewer me please). The laptop does not run audible fans during generic computing. I still have the fans on "balanced". I checked the C states in TS (on AC power still) and have C7 at 97% across all 6 cores. I am very happy with that.

For me, I will try out some additional undervolting, but in general I am very happy with quality, and performance of this laptop. Is it a power gaming beast, nah, well perhaps for it's size. But this should do well for me for general business use, and the random gaming. I have a 17 inch ASUS ROG with 1070 at my beach house for those weekends. (talk about a pain in the shoulder to lug around the airport). Very happy with the purchase, and the Liquid Metal Repaste job done by @hidevolution

I will keep an eye out for any of you that come up with more tweaks

 

Hey,
I own a gs65
I pasted lm my self and was able to get the same temp as you.
My highest score was Total: 14994
Graphics: 17079 Physics: 16726 <---my highest physics was some where around 16880
Anyhow, I was wondering how you achieved going beyond 17k graphics and as well as physics score.
Mine is oc at core:+225 and memory:+655
It seems like you did not unlock any bios or some sort..
Can you tell me how you did it?

Thanks~!

 

How are you manually setting click speed? I can only figure out turbo or non turbo.

 

using Throttlestop, under the FIVR button. left-most area.

 

with the 8750H its going to be extremely difficult to get temps steady under 80c most games i run will see the CPU to sit around 85-87c she is a toasty one.

 

Chrome is recourse intensive for no reason. I actually started liking edge because it runs smother since Chrome does not support 144hz and Edge does so its going to perform better it also uses significantly less battery life than Chrome.

To fix the fan problem Chrome has hardware acceleration on as a default so turn that off and it will fix that but it will also be much slower when loading pages that have alot of pictures or videos

 

With 3 year warranty/accidental, I am deciding between the following or to wait till next year.

Blade 15: 144hz 16GB RAM 15 512GB SSD GTX 1070 - £2,549

Blade 15: 144hz 16GB RAM 15 512GB SSD GTX 1060 - £2,079

XPS 15: 4K 32GB RAM 1TB SSD GTX 1050 TI - £1,961

It’s tough. XPS seems to make the most sense just on price/spec alone? I will be 60% productivity and maybe I don’t really need 144hz?

Sometimes I’m thinking to see if to wait out the whiskey lake laptops next month or two and eGPU them (I know, they are 15w low power CPU vs 45w that these are).

Alternatively wait the whiskey lake equivocate for 45w Q2 2019 a long with RTX Nvidia and perhaps the improvements to these two machines will bring them closer to perfection?

 

Oopsie

 

Did you mean to post that here?

 

Oof good catch, definitely not! long day at work

 

The 1050ti in the XPS 15 is really going to struggle playing games at 4k, you'd probably have to tone down the settings and/or drop your resolution to 1080p to play most modern titles. Although if gaming isn't a concern for you then I would agree that the XPS 15 is going to be a much better (and cheaper) productivity machine.

This is just my two cents, but if you don't absolutely need a new laptop right now I would recommend waiting a couple months to see if any new RTX equipped laptops come down the line. If you don't like what you see at that point then you can always pick up the XPS/Razer, and maybe get a small discount on it too.

 

Couple months? I highly doubt any RTX chip worth salt is going to have a TDP matching the likes of a 1070 Max-Q.. let alone anything lower TDP like a 1060 or 1050Ti in that timeframe. Maybe end of Q1 2019 if we're lucky.

 

I don’t think they will bother with RTX GPU’s until they can get the 9th gen Intel CPU’s in? So thinking Q2 2019 (maybe Q3?).

 

Of course, in general the longer you wait the better your options will be. My point was that waiting until, say, December/January might give you a better idea of what's coming down the line.

 

Laptops are mostly equipped with mid range gpu, some are high end like xx70 and xx80 with lower tdp, this rtx cards are more power hungry than Pascal so mobile chip I think won’t be named with rtx due this, I heard also midrange gpu won’t have Ray Tracing core.
And this is my 2 cents

 

The 1070m Blade without a doubt is the route you should take. The xps doesnt have much in terms of upgradability and the screen is nice to look at but horrible for games it has a low response time and the 1050 ti is really not going to do much. And the price the RTX machines are going to carry are going to be daunting.

 

Poor guy diidn't do any tweaking with ThrottleStop so its power limit throttling during his gaming. He needs to uncheck BD PROCHOT and it'll produce the results he wants. Razer needs to tweak these things before selling them, its like buying a car with a bad factory tune on it. Leads people to make other purchases...

 

Placed my order for the 1060 with 144hz to replace my 17r4 for on the go.

Right now these are what I'm going to check on when it arrives
- Coil whine
- Acceptable back light bleed
- Ports disconnecting (usb 3 and TB as I will have a drive connected while editing)
- Heard something about battery charger getting hot and possibly having coil whine?

Anything else I should watch out for ?

 

some people on reddit reporting they have been popping chargers sporadically, no known cause or fix. bleed is variable, luck of the draw. all blades need repasting out of the box and aggressive undervolting to be really happy, keep that in mind.

 

With regards to repasting, unless you use LM (which has it's cons) the repaste won't make much of a difference, although undervolting is recommended.

 

What do you mean by "aggressive undervolting"?

Sounds tough, militant even, instead of kind gentlemanly tuning the CPU undervolt for the lowest setting with stable operation at 100% CPU load and 0% CPU idle, you'd beat it with a stick until it submits?

Generally I suggest trying -100mV, as that is usually stable and also gives about -10C temperature reduction at 100% CPU load.

You can often tune lower, for the 8th generation there have been reports as low as -150mV or more,and it might reduce load temps further, but about as aggressive as I'd go for undervolting is within +-5mV of the stable setting.

More aggressive would be +-1mV or +-2mV, but that might be too aggressive - leaving not enough variance for room ambient temperature changes.

Some find undervolting in the Winter they need to back off the undervolt a bit +-5mV in the Summer when it gets hot.

What do you mean by "aggressive undervolting"?