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

The main upgrade this time is CPU, gaming laptop should wear H CPU, and if it only 10-15% performance upgrade it means won’t be different with 7700 HQ on old Blade 14, with only 1070 maxq upgrade they will loose the competition. Gaming laptop isn’t an ultrabook, it’s hot machine, I think no one want to use their laptop with cassis temperature which can achieve 50 celcius, can you mention gaming laptops that built to be used on closed lid? It’s only 2 in 1, all in one laptop like xps/MacBook and ultrabook that doesn’t have good dgpu. I heard about gap of heat sinks things but how can my Blade 14 1060 only gpu 81 and CPU 79 out of box, now I need undervolting maybe because the thermal paste is already become thin, idk never took a look on it, but still it’s never cross 84 cpu, and gpu stay same never on 80ish. Because they use other thermal sink design it doesn’t mean it’s a design failure (you comment sounds like that to me), like other laptop master/guru etc mentioned, maybe they use other paste to maintain it, i heard they use something different, well correct me if I’m wrong.

 

As the saying goes: "Fortune favors the bold"! Ok, so I don't REALLY blame you. I'm an old hand at PC building, and I've repasted more than my share of laptops in the past [as well as delidding] but It can DEFINITELY be a delicate process. The first laptop I ever repasted was a first generation Asus G73, and as horrifying as that was [you had to essentially disassemble the entire thing and pull out the motherboard] at least the Blade doesn't LOOK that bad.

I suppose if nobody does a repaste before I get my hands on mine I'll have to do a video. on the PLUS side, this is the first Razer laptop I've seen that looks even REMOTELY simple to repaste, so there's that.

If it ends up being me, though. . just note that I'll have to shoot it with an iPhone.. I'm not a pro youtube or anything like that

 

Not with last gen where we basically got the same GPU’s for 2 years.
If you need a laptop now I’m not saying don’t buy the Razer because from what I’ve read and seen so far it looks great, except for the highish CPU temps but from what I’ve seen so far from all these new thin lite models (MSI GS65,AERO 15X, ASUS ZEPHYRUS M)with small bezels have high CPU temps, it’s not a Razer problem but more of a Intel problem just having more cores produces more heat = to higher CPU temps.
I’m just talking for myself when I say I can wait for better GPU’s and not knocking the GTX 1060/1070MQ they are very good GPU’s ,what I do know is I’ll be kicking myself in the ass for getting a laptop now knowing something better is coming out relatively soon.
Yeah I get your argument about tech advancing yearly and I’m a patient guy and can wait, but what if the new GPU’s come out let’s say early 2019 and then we see anther 2 year cycle. Sure it’s not the norm but you never know.

 

When I want something new I just do it then and there. I set a budget and stay within it and don't look back. People beat themselves up pretty often due to new GPU, CPU or whatever releasing as it happens on cycles pretty often. I don't see a good reason if you want a Blade not to jump on this one and use it for a couple-few years.

 

Im learning to be content with my purchases lately, instead of trying to keep up with the latest-and-greatest. Hopefully i keep this blade for 3 years haha

 

I though same thing 14 months ago after bought my Blade 14 2017, but even it runs like a champ even now, I’ve my mind on putting it already on eBay for this new 15 and watching threads about it on many forums

 

Has anybody tried their hand at liquid metal yet? I'm planning on buying from hidevolution, and I know LM is good, but I'm hoping to find out if it's 95 bucks good.

 

It's definitely the best you can get, but it takes a skilled and experienced person to apply it properly and cordon it to the die only so it doesn't leak onto other components. It also depends on whether the rest of the heat management solution was already overburdened. If the vapor chamber, fins, and fans were already working to the point where it was saturated and couldn't transfer any more heat than it already was, no amount of TIM quality increase is going to help. This is why I'm kind of interested in seeing how a kryonaut application will perform versus the stock TIM. I think Kryonaut is marginally the best non-conductive TIM out there right now.

EDIT: If those LM Blade 14 TIM experiments in other threads have shown us anything, the old heat pipe model wasn't fully saturated with the stock TIM that was used. So I suppose it remains to be seen if the vapor chamber design + stock TIM is leaving anything on the table here.

EDIT 2: It would also be interesting if HiDevolution would post a comparison of the stock setup vs their upgrade options since they offer them as extra $$ addons. Of course if they are only marginally/error of margin better than stock no one would buy them. I'm sure we'll see someone post something soon enough. @Donald@HIDevolution any chance you guys could post something along these lines on YouTube or something. You guys are the experts after all.

 

Dave Lee just posted new video:

 

Alright I've done a repaste with Kryonaut, but so far the thermals seem to only have a 1-2c drop. That said it's my first time doing paste in a long time so I'm going to pop it back open soon to redo it. So, here's the teardown and a few notes:

1 - Bottom taken off.

Putting this is bold as I think there is a slight chance of damaging things here. Take note of the position of the monitor cable towards the back of the machine. The slack there is necessary when it opens and closes. Can make a clicking noise if you have it too tight.

11 total screws hold down the heatsink. They are the 8 numbered screws (little circles can be carefully removed and reused) and then the ones at either far edge and then the one by the SSD.



2 - Cables are unplugged where they meet the motherboard. The metal connector has a little arm that lifts up and the plastic piece at the front of the smaller connect lifts up as well. I'm fairly certain you can replace the ram without unplugging these by simply pulling up the taped piece on the ram.



Cables just move out of the way and you have easy access to the heatsink. I opened it in reverse numerical order and then VERY slowly and carefully pried the heatsink starting near the ram and working my way around the edge. It takes a little bit of force as they didn't skimp on thermal pads inside of this device as you'll see next.



4 - heatsink is off. Look at all the thermal pads (including one left behind on a chip). All of those have to release in order to get the sink off.







From there is cleaned off the cores, applied new paste and installed in reverse order. There was nothing special about the way I pasted so nothing to share in that regard. Stock material didn't seem terrible and the application was slightly better than what I'd expected to find. I'm going to play around with it some. It does seem to run a bit more silently for general computing than before.

 

Nice.. 2C isn't shabby, that can mean the difference between fan speed levels in some cases. I was hoping we'd see something more akin to 5C or so though. At least that tells us that Razer did a good job on the stock config here. So that 1-2C drop is both idle and gaming load?

 

@dgreen9
Thx for sharing ur repasting work! Could you please also share the thickness of the stock thermal pads if u open up again? Saw two types with different thickness.

 

The drop is both idle and gaming it appears. I still think maybe I could have done a better job with the paste and it's tempting to replace all the pads. So I'm going to see how this does for a few days.

Regarding pads there are two different thicknesses. I'm not familiar with what the thicknesses may be and the difference between 1mm and 2mm might be pretty small in my eyes. No access to any sort of precise measuring instrument either. That said there are two different thicknesses, but it appears to just be two. One seems like its around half the thickness of the other.

 

Wow... Dave got really good temps there. With undervolt it seems like he never hit 80c

Edit: ok watched it again. Max Temp is anywhere in the mid 80s.. but this is also pretty good in compare to what we have seen until now

 

Interesting stuff, I'm eager to see some liquid metal applications then. Assuming @dgreen9 had a solid paste job (which I'm sure is probably fine), the sink and paste are doing their job absorbing the heat, but the fans and airflow arent efficiently removing heat from the chassis. We'll have to keep experimenting

 

Anhyone have palm rest issues for the trackpad while typing and gaming as Dave siggested in the video? also is there a function key like on the GS65 to disable the trackpad outright and one for the webcam?

 

I don't have palm rejection issues, and no there are not keys to turn off the touch pad and camera.

 

Whats the brightness levels of the different Razer Blade 15 2018 panels?

 

idk if anyone knows anything about the 4k panel, but the 144hz panel is 310 as mentioned in Dave2D's video.

 

I've actually cancelled my order for now. Things are looking bright for this laptop, but after realizing the GTX 10 series are already 2 years old, I thought, I might as well wait a bit longer and see how the market will evolve with the 11 series on the horizon.

 

I already have a GTX 1070 laptop so I’m not really looking to move latterly, it’s a big 17” laptop not close to sexy like the Razer but runs great cool and quiet.
That’s the main reason I’m waiting for new the new GPU’s before throwing thousands of dollars on something I want but don’t really need.

Exactly, why I’m willing to wait.
I used to be just like that wanting the latest and greatest every time but I’ve mellowed out a bit.

 

Anyone else have a power brick that makes an audible buzz?

 

Mines quiet, my old one for the 14 buzzed.

I just repasted with Kryo, going to start tests tonight.

 

Yeah my brick has a pretty loud buzz. Between the higher than average temperatures and that I might need to think about a swap.

Was this your first time with kryo? It was mine and it was thicker than I expected. Was actually hard to spread.

 

So. I called Razer about the buzzing adapter. They have no adapters by themselves, so they wanted me to send the laptop back as well and send me another. I told them I would wait till they have them in stock.

 

waasnt my first time but ya it felt thick to spread on, i wasnt very shy with it this time lol. i got the same results as you though, only a couple degrees drop in temp (close to 4-5c)

edit: Ok just tried overwatch, temps dropped 5c on cpu, 4c on gpu. i feel like my fps are a bit lower for whatever reason

 

That would be a fairly significant drop. Weird on the FPS!

 

yeah haha ultimately im done tinkering with the temp control, just going to set my clocks where i want them and be happy with how nice the laptop is. One day if i find someone near houston with good LM experience, i may pay them to install it.

 

LM isn't bad, you just have to be very VERY sparing with it. Even if you put the TINITEST dab on it, it's probably enough to do the CPU, GPU, heat sync, and 50% wasted LM cleaned off. The thing is: You're probably only going to see an additional 1-2c drop vs good thermal paste. It's different with the desktop intel chips, since a huge part of the heat transfer issue is between the die and the IHS, where on the blade the dies are exposed. Depending on your temps it MAY be worth it, and I'm still debating doing mine since I have the stuff on hand, but a good thermal paste is probably best practice for SAFE repasting.

Just something to think about... I just did LM on my MSI Vortex G25, and while my CPU temps dropped a good 15-17c, my GPU temps were within 2-3c over AS5 [yes, I still use AS5, sue me] Given the temperature differential in my office, that 2-3c is actually within margin of error [it's cooler in here today]

 

This laptop has caught my eye. Having stayed away from Razer for so long, have their CS and quality control improved?

 

They't not without their problems, but I haven't had a lick of trouble with my unit yet. Still going to slap a fat warranty on it though.

 

Alright guys, I'm ready to commit to buying an extended warranty + accident protection for the Razer. Being that I bought it from Razer direct, and not Amazon or Best Buy, my options boil down to what looks like just Upsie and SquareTrade. I'm a HIGHLY carefull human bean, but accidents do happen and the last razer i sold ended up having a MOBO crap out on the new owner couple months later. Gotta be safe over sorry.
Perks to Upsie - Cheaper. 3 years ADH costs $321 with $25 deductibles
-Will only allow repairs or replacements up to the cost of the device (so if they replace it, they do it once and they're done with you.)
-Had some bad reviews and LONG repair times (phones) but the CEO reached out to most of them.

Squaretrade
-Possibly infinite claims?
much more expensive. 3 year WITH $75 deductibles costs $449.
-seems like they get sh*t done quick and get you fixed/paid.

...Thoughts?

 

It looked like the thermal pads are too thick if anything but clearly had great contact with the components due to the imprints left. Regardless of the thermal pad thickness it also looked like good even contact on the GPU and CPU which is awesome coming from my horribly uneven AW 15 (the 3-point mounting for heatsinks should die and go to the darkest corners of the underworld). Very promising stuff I probably would not fret with the thermal pads and just throw on some Kryonaut and call it a day.

 

Dang they charge a lot more for your model. Squaretrade for my 1060 512 $2199 version on Amazon would’ve been $269 for 4 years! I’m just sticking with the extra year with my Amazon Card. Spent 30 minutes today with the Razer Customer Service trying to figure out when they might be sending Amazon units. The chat support is super slow and they’re not very knowledgeable. Towards the end he gave me a link directing me to their own site aka Razer.com telling me I should buy it from them. After spending 30 minutes looking for a simple answer... that wasn’t even on the table lol

 

Does Synapse 3 allows us to have the laptop auto switch the monitor to 60hz when on battery and auto switch to 144hz when plugged in?

 

I’m still on the fence about this laptop. Coming from MAC I bought a GS65 and it’s a perfectly working unit and I’m still debating is it’s worth the extra $300 and buying from razer direct to get a good unit . I really like how I can disable trackpad on GS65 while gaming with a function key and how the function keys light up red when you press the function button.

Anyone having typing issues with the shift key on the right? How does the keyboard compare to the GS65 ( looks at assault )?

 

I have to admit that shift key thing has me wary on this one, I switch back and forth between my gaming notebook and a macbook pro constantly. That would drive me insane. I think I might pass on this.

 

I was stupid and bought both. It’s honestly not worth spending the extra money for the blade. The temps seem a little lower on the gs65. Yes the blade has a better build but not worth the extra money.

 

The right shift key is a little odd. I've started to get used to it already.

 

I wonder if its because I'm left-handed that I use the left shift key not the right. I've never had a problem with the layout, except for sometimes mashing the right Fn key instead of left arrow

 

I use both shift keys. I think I would have a really tough time going back and forth between my two notebooks.

Actually after taking everything into consideration. I think the Acer Triton 700 wins the battle between all the thin and lights this round, even with the strange trackpad placement. Seeing that Linus video where it was making ZERO noise cycling uniengine, that's amazing. I hardly ever use my trackpad on my EVOC. I actually disabled it permanently pretty much due to the Synaptics Trackpad Enhancements software constantly taking up like 5% cpu time. It would even do so when touching the trackpad when it was "soft disabled".

 

I really cant believe that the msi is cooler than the blade, even though it is...
That heatsink looks so much better from the blade. Quite sad that it happened again and razer didnt managed to get a good thermal solution

 

I got my best friend to buy the Triton 700, its a nice laptop, i LOVE the way it looks. Problems i have with it are that the trackpad is much more awkward to use in person, the glass isnt textured like the XPS or Blade so your finger drags hard on it, aslo the boundaries are hard to distinguish, and the keyboard is... weird. otherwise its sexy and strong.

 

My conclusion after the repaste is that the sinks are doing their job very well, but the fans aren't extracting all the heat. the notebook gets hot on bottom and above the keyboard. if this thing had side vents in addition to the rears, it would probably be able to tame the heat. I just enjoy mine for the 90% productive use, and hardly actually game on PC so it suits my fancy. The MSI did cool better, it had more area to blow heat out. On high fan settings, it was a bit louder though. It also scores a 7 on build quality where the blade is a 10 along with Macbooks (imo)

 

I will say regarding the keyboard layout its a bit of an unforced error. I'm sure everyone will ultimately get used to it, but who needed full height arrow keys!

 

I did actually, I play several games that use them and I think it's a blessing. I think razer said SPECIFICALLY to me "sorry for screwing you out of the Razer Blade pro since you're a lefty" XD

 

With fans on full speed, I can few air coming up through the keyboard and top area, it’s odd but I can feel the breeze. I might buy on of the non-chroma stands to elevate it.

 

I do as well. The half-height arrow keys on the newer MacBooks are ... sub-optimal to put it nicely. IMO the new keyboards are not great at all on the new MacBooks. But.. I would have way too hard a time with that shift key placement since I pretty much use two notebooks every day.

 

I have a question for Razer 15 owners - does the fn key and the arrow keys perform the Home/End PgUp/PgDown keys?

N

 

It also happens to Blade 14 2017, at least on mine. I think on full blast there’s no enough area to push out the air, I’m using also something like stand btw. One 14 Blade users said that there’s no air coming out from keyboard though but on mine definitely is, on full load especially, can feel it.