Evoc P870TM1 Review

I ordered on December 2, 2017 after speaking to Donald in late November and on December 1st. @Donald@HIDevolution was and still is amazing going above and beyond as well as working outside normal hours.

So much so that he definitely outperforms Dell's ProSupport -who I've had the misfortune of dealing with, more on that later.

Despite the expected ship date being by December 21st for most likely after Christmas delivery my laptop shipped on December 11th! Later arrived on December 15th, again far sooner than the expected ship date.

One cannot begin to describe how great this was for me, for this laptop was purchased not only for casual gaming at home, but for work use.

Despite Donald not considering himself a technician he was able to offer me great advice when my USB Windows 10 installer decided to do this monstrosity:

As a result of my P870TM1 having issues with Windows 10 (caused by a bad USB image), I was in a very emotional stressed & bad mood, however, despite that Donald was able to assist me. I cannot leave out the skilled while fast and efficient technician Zoltan (seriously he installed several drivers in less than two minutes while over a slow ADSL-Teamviewer, replacing drivers that Windows put Generics for). He fixed every issue that was caused by not Hidevolution, but by both Windows 10 & my incompetence (to be fair I'm a Linux guy ).

All in all I'm more than impressed, so long as you give Hidevolution some time they will help you. If you think you need 24/7 ProSupport "support" I would argue that in my experience Dell's ProSupport techs didn't work nearly as fast as Zoltan nor did several of Dell's agents I spoke to in the past know what to troubleshoot, instead often sending next day random 'suspected' parts (such as a SSD) or nagging me to mail the laptop to the depot only to hear "we couldn't find the battery issue so we have replaced the SSD or RAM".

Obviously my next laptop will also be a Hidevolution computer, perhaps a Lenovo PXX as the thought of ECC RAM on a laptop is very appealing .

TLDR - If you need good support, buy from Hidevolution. If you are an incompetent like myself, Hidevolution is still a perfect choice. Need a brand with an excellent tech that doesn't waste your time and knows what's wrong quickly? @Zoltan@HIDevolution . Perfect salesman that really destroys the competition? @Donald@HIDevolution .

Just in case the mods need proof I'm not a shill:

Yours truly opening le box of the laptop upon arrival:

The laptop right now:

Screenshot of the order:

 

Accidentally called The Donald once on a saturday morning at around 8am Chiraq time. (thought I was returning his msg) He's in cali I believe. It was like 6am there and he STILL ANSWERED!

Crazy service unlike I have ever seen with any product.

Yer gonna love that thing!

 

Just don't disturb him while he's fishing, that's just rude

 

@Donald@HIDevolution >>>>>>


@WeebLoser Awesome review man and congrats on your new beast.

Let me know if you need help tweaking it. These are the Phoenix Tweaks:

1- Uninstallation of all the Windows Store Garbage Apps like 3D Paint, Print 3D, Alarms & Clock, Feedback Hub, Maps, Groove Music, News, Weather, etc.
2- Removing all Windows 10 Privacy Invasion stuff like Telemetry, sending your keystrokes to Microsoft, automatically installing suggested apps in the background, allowing Microsoft to conduct experiments on your laptop, disabling automatic driver updates through Windows updates, disabling Windows 10 ads, disabling Cortana, Cloud Search etc.
3- Removal of nVIDIA and Intel Telemetry
4- Adjusting a lot of options in PC Settings like disabling Windows Tablet Mode (you have a laptop not a tablet), disabling suggestions appearing in the start menu, disabling automatically connecting to Paid WiFi Hotspots, disabling Game DVR which reduced performance in games, and a lot more.
5- Replacing Cortana with a much better search tool that finds results instantly called Everything which finds any file you want as soon as you start typing even a few letters of its name and it doesn't even rely on the Windows Indexing Service to do this!
6- Restoring the classic Windows Photo Viewer
7- Restoring the Classic Windows 7 Start Menu
8- Removal of the new and useless 3D Objects Folder that appears when you open "Computer"
9- Completely disabling Windows Defender from its roots (including all scheduled tasks and startup files) for those who want to install their own AV. ESET NOD32 Antivirus is highly recommended if you want the utmost security with the least system performance impact.

 

Oh I already do. I'm very satisfied with the temps. 70C for the GPU in max settings with anti-aliasing, gsync etc on in Civ 5 with mods .



CPU is at 100C max and that's still at the 100C TJ max, but honestly I'm so impressed, it's far quieter than my PC was when it would game (EVGA 980 Ti).

Pray do tell, as I will definitely use your methods. I did use Paint 3D, but it's not needed. I hate telemetry but haven't found a convenient program to disable it.

 

I'll send you a PM

 

holy $h!t that voltage and that frequency. try undervolting mate. a decent 8700k sample will only need like 1.2v for 4.7 to 4.8ghz overclock and will reduce that temp by easily 20-25c.

 

1.35V is getting pretty up there certainly.

 

Heck. I just realized that @Donald is the same Donald that helped me purchase my Dellware from PowerNotebooks 6 years ago...

http://www.powernotebooks.com/

I was so impressed with him that guy. I even sent him an email and was sorry to learn that he retired. I am glad to hear he is back in action now in HID.

Zoltan was another really great guy...

PS sorry for being out of topic

 

You can't really stop Donald, he just keeps going

 

Anb improvements on the CPU temps? @Falkentyne scored a good improvement on GT75...

 

But @Donald is not the same as @Donald@HIDevolution

 

Well noted

 

Yeah those Temps are about as high as they can get. Try backing down the voltage and step back the frequency. You may have hit the worst CPU wafer in the whole bunch. I bet they took the piece from the end of the wafer, and made it on a Monday, after a long Chinese holiday. That there, is a "Monday chip" for sure.1

 

Oh my sweet lord jesus, this is absolute garbage. 100C CPU and 70c on GPU with 38% max usage, its absolutely garbage. This is downright terrifying.

This is even delidded. Not only are those temperatures awful, but you also have to deal with trash sound, trash keyboard, trash baterylife, barebones and non functional software.

No offense, but this is an absolute turd.

@Phoenix
If your clevo experience was anything like this, I understand why you gave that turd back. This is pathethic.

 

^^^^^ This guy is animated.... I hope mine doesn't perform like this.

 

100c like that is not normal, something up there.

 

When you get yours, please let us know which temps you have.

Also I'm animated because some people here hype the hell out of the clevo LGAbooks despite it failing so hard at being a notebook. It's comical.

 

Settle down guys...that post was from December of last year.

 

And how exacly does this change things?

 

Can you compare it to any MSI 8700K 1080 laptop?

 

Er, I would think the issue has been resolved since there are no posts from the OP since December. What is the point of digging up this old thread just to bash around a stale issue?

 

I know I have only been in the forums for like 5 hours, but it seems the " @Danishblunt" likes to give out flak like it's candy - just judging by his posts.

I'm not not some evoc fan boy(actually I am) but you may want to consider the release of the TM sereies and when this post was released. I'm no Astro-elctro-mathmatical-wizard, but I would venture to guess that there were a few bugs back then that needed to be ironed out. Both software side and hardware. Like thermal paste application.

Look friend, we get it, you hate DTRs.... Doesn't mean everyone else has lost hope in the glorious journey to true desktop replacement. We will find the promised Land. And when we do... You can hang out outside and watch cook eggs off the back of our machines.

Have a talibantastic day amigo )

Insert sarc tag.

 

@Danishblunt

I know your argument is with LGA systems, but for the record, my BGA experience with the 1710 has been quite satisfying. Yes, it needed some hands-on TLC to get it to where it is, but all that was needed was a repaste. The underside was easy to take off, and everything is there once you do. With the money I saved, I invested in adding a M.2 500GB 960 EVO ($199.99 @ MicroCenter), and swapped out the 1TB HDD for a 500GB 850 EVO I already had.

I also swapped out a G700 mouse for the Corsair Dark Core, since I've upgraded to a 4K display earlier with my desktop, and needed higher mouse res. Then I added the K63 Wireless SE to match my mouse, and they both use Bluetooth 4.2 + LE, so no dongles required. I also grabbed a new, more portable cooler for $20, as I cannot find my old one. Still have the SF-19 for home usage.

And the cost is still lower than what the MSIs would have cost me. I've seen 1710 open boxes for under $1000. And I now have a better keyboard than any laptop will ever have, and 100Hz GSync FHD for when I travel, and 4K 10bit 60Hz when I dock at home. (It's FreeSync, but NV's Fast Sync works very well with it)

 

Sorry I don't get your point. What exacly is "the 1710" maybe that will clearify what you're talking about since I'm completely lost.

@ Donald@HIDevolution
You say that but there is no indication of a solved state. I still see users with tremedus thermal issues here on these forums.

@ Fastmover
There is no such things as bugs ironed out over time, it's clevo after all. When you buy a clevo you're dealing with 3rd party support, clevo doesn't help. Also I don't hate DTRs, infact I have 2 DTRs myself, I do however not rave about faulty unfinished barebones, unlike others I look at what I get and if I pay over 5k bucks for something that is simply barebones and half working/broken, then I will complain about it.

 

The indication that the issue was resolved, long ago, is that the OP never posted about it again. Sure, the OP could have come back to say it was resolved, but many don't. Once resolved they enjoy their laptop and forget all about the thread they started. What you can count on is if it isn't resolved, they would certainly be posting about that.

"There is no such things as bugs ironed out over time..." is simply not true...I don't understand why you would say something like that. Improvements are made, and while the user does not get support from Clevo, their dealers do (some more than others), so that is a distinction without a difference. Of course choosing the Clevo dealer is important...some are better than others.

You can certainly share your opinion...everyone is entitled to do that...but to jump into a stale thread and rant on about it, as you have already done in numerous other posts, just gets boring, and does not improve your credibility. The P870TM1 Owners Lounge is full of very happy users...essentially telling them in so many words that they are stupid for buying it advances your credibility, and enhances this community, how?

I am a great fan of your knowledge, and appreciate your informative posts, but when you throw your venom into them, for the most part, I do not believe they are received well by most readers.

 

The 1710 is the PowerSpec 1710 by MicroCenter aka PA70HS-G.

 

This is where you're absolutely wrong. Assuming that everything got fixed just because the person doesn't reply anymore is not in any way proof that it has been fixed. He could have just said " screw it, ima give it back", or "I'll live with it" or similair. It can be anything really.

Also it is true that there are no fixes to problems, I mean, and I really mean it, love the fact that you guys attempt to fix these barebones systems, so far you've tried and did much much much better than the competition regarding the cooling solution and with the help of prema fixing some BIOS related problems, however you still cannot fix the crappy and somewhat broken control center, nor can you fix the absolute pathethic drivers which cause perfecly fine speakers to play garbage etc. For gods sake I'm dealing with people who have clevo notebooks from 2010 - 2016 and have no fix for their crappy drivers etc. because there is no support for this.

Also what are you talkking abnout, there is a user who literally has 100c on his notebook after delidd, Liquid metal etc. You expect me to be like "yeah, no acceptable, great temps!" or what? Many people here have been misguided to buy a Clevo only to get the big suprise that the temps are bad, speakers are terrible, keyboard mediocre at best, trashy fan control, terrible control over the system etc. What am I supposed to take from you when seeing those temps and users complaining about them while you somehow tell us its alright?

Also about that thread with happy customers, so far I've been through 10 pages, nobody talking about anything about great experience or similair, all they talk about is what specs they could get and a couple other questions, then there are some who said they bnought the system but are waiting for it. The end, I lack to see the happy customers.


@ Chastity
Gottcha, now I don't understand your point at all? My gripe was not with "cheap" systems, if you pay 1k USD for a 7700HQ, 16GB RAM, GTX 1070 MAXQ and don't care about speakers, headphone jack, keyboard (to some extend) and terrible software + Support, then I don't see the problem. The system gives you an inferior user experience if you use the notebook as a mobile device, but given its cheaper pricetag then it's fine. You connect all kinds of peripherals to the notebook to make it a better experience, which is fine, but if you actually use your notebook more as a portable device, the lackluster of clevo notebooks will be absolutely infuriating.For instance, when you travel a lot or simply do work on the go, you don't carry your screen, keyboard, coolingpad, mouse etc. with you. You set your money on performance, rather than a full user package, and got a good deal, with some shortcomings, no biggie, all good. But once you pay over 5k USD for a notebook and it still is so bad on so many levels, then this is getting insane. When you spend this much money on a 5k DTR system, then for crying out loud at least have the decency to make it feel less of a bareboines experience.

 

I'm using mine just fine without Clevo Control Center or 3rd party audio drivers (just the generic W7 HD audio driver). After my foam mod to correct the inadequate vibration damping, no distortion even with the speakers on 100% volume.

Also I'm pretty sure the GTX 1070 in the PA70HS-G is Max-P aka 115W, not Max-Q.

 

1) As stated, it's a full GTX1070, not a Max-Q.

2) I've never seen a built-in speaker setup to be worth using, and I've seen and used top-tier multimedia laptops with premium solutions, from several makers. Just give me a good line-out that's clean and doesn't sound like crap and I'm golden. For portability I use IEMs or my VModas with boom mic. BTW, the built-in mic works quite well, I just don't use it since I have a headset.

The analog out on this Realtek solution is quite decent, and clean amplification. I was very surprised, as I am usually required to use an external DAC. (Which I have a X-Fi USB HD which is an excellent external DAC for source)

3) The OS that was preinstalled was also mercifully barebone. I didn't have to strip out anything, except the ESET trial. I also used my Pro license from my old laptop to upgrade the Win10 Home edition it came with. The only vendor application is the Control Center. My only gripe is that MicroCenter is new to the laptop market in regards to being an reseller, so their support for BIOS and EC is non-existent at this point. Driver updates I get from Clevo's FTP and Donald's OBSIDIAN software. (And sometimes station-drivers)

The point I am trying to make is that you said Clevo offers a subpar experience to their users. I beg to differ. Seeing how replacement MXM GPU cards can be easily up around $800 to purchase, I would rather just get myself a new BGA setup for a couple of hundred more, have warranty and matched up components, and I can sell off my old one to mitigate costs. Plus I get to reuse all my external peripherals.

 

Pay more and have that gaming look everywhere you put your peace of (ret)artwork on table, desktop or lap. Nothing says "LOOK, IMMAH GAMER!" more than any - as you call it - DTR (or any other) MSI product.

 

I do agree with you on this one. I do like the design of the Clevo notebooks a lot better than other brands such as ASUS, MSI, Acer etc. However its still no excuse for them to give you barebones when you're paying over 5k USD.

1.) Well it's still around half the Wattage of a 1080, which is considerably easier to cool, but you get my point regardless.

2.) Well obviously you havent listened to a GT 75, L702, Toshiba with harman Kardon speakers etc. As a person who uses his speakers almost every day where sometimes you need to work in a group on a project having a notebook which can act like a radio without making your ears bleed, or showing a presentation to multiple customers on a table and know that everyone will be able to hear everything etc, I do not want to deal with grabage speakers. I also watch movies on the go, sometimes you simply dont want to have to carry around external speakers all the time if you can have a notebook with proper audio.

Do me a favor and try your headset on a notebook with non crap software. If you know a guy with a macbook or something, ask them if you can listen to music, listen to the same music on the macbook/proper notebook and then on your clevo, then come here again and tell me thatr the XFI + Soundcard is acceptable. It's terrible.

3.) Well sadly the drivers are also barebones. I like having a clean systsem, but not if I cannot do anything with it.

And yes I totally get your point with the MXM part, and I'm absolutely with you on this one, despite having MXM notebooks myself I can see why having a non MXM solution is also an option. However the experience is subpar, the problem is here that you clearly have different needs, you don't use it as much of a portable device as others do, also you don't have something to compare it to as it seems. I've had asus, msi, acer, clevo, HP, Alienware you name it, hence I have something which I can compare it to. It's the same as a guy who lives his life with his old nokia 3210 phone, it works, he only wants to write SMS and call, doesn't know of the existance of smartphones so obviously he won't complain, however the moment he has different needs and sees one of those smartphones he will start understand that the user experience is inferior.

It's all a matter of perspective really.

 

I had my NP9873 playing Christmas tunes at the office Plus the headphone output really brings out my shure SE535 IEMs.

 

@Danishblunt
After reading your last response, I had a whole long reply... then I decided it wasn't worth it. Your experiences with audio is limited, and you comment on hardware you have no idea of the specs or quality.

 

If you ever need a set of IEMs that are cheap enough to not cry if they break/lost, then I suggest the Skullcandy Titans, if they are still available. Very balanced sound, detailed, good isolation, bass response is respectable but not overwhelming, and inexpensive.

And not the Titan Pros. Those have a totally different sound, and not for the better.

 

Fortunately the two cables I have are very secure fitting, but perhaps for the gym that's not a bad idea.

 

Says the guy who uses garbage headphones on a trash optimized system that can't process audio properly due to terrible software. 10/10

 

Before calling out others like that, do you have any data to back up your claims? Have you done any SNR analysis? Response curve analysis? etc between the models you are talking about?

 

Well you have tune the software change the sound stage according to track like gaming or movies or music. I'm still not found better neutral sound stage. But its depends upon headphone, earphone and default speaker.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

Well I still don't have the P870TM1 with me, but, I do know that certain thing don't bothers me.

Things I don't care that much:

• Built-in speakers: I play attached to an external screen through HDMI. So the audio plays on Dolby Digital 5.1 on the Home Theater with ARC HDMI. If I don't have the home theater because I'm traveliling I plug my 5.1 USB headphones. I use built-in speakers only as a last resource to play videos on youtube, or lazy gamming to test configurations or stuff like that.
• Keyboard: I play most of my games with the PS4 gamepad, and have an external semi-mechanical keyboard to play FPS games.
• Webcam: I don't use it, as simple as that.
• Mic: I don't use it.

Things I do care about:

• Performance: This is my main motivation to go with Clevo.
• Temps: I wouldn't tolerate a 100°C system. I hope my system gets better temps than the OP.
  
• Screen: though I don'r really play on laptop's screen I do use the laptop a lot for web browsing and play some online videos. So I want a good screen.
• Touchpad: I use the touch pad the 100% of the time, except when playng FPS games.
• Keyboard backlit and macrokeys: I hope this works just as good as with the AW18.

 

Even on your desk you like to use a touchpad over a mouse? Do you use gestures a lot?

 

To be honest, most of the time my laptop goes on my bed over the Notepal U3, that's why I use the touchpad a lot.

 

Could you please clarify as to why you hate Clevo laptops so much, especially this one?

When stating why you dislike or hate this product, can you provide any contrast to something that is better?

For example you say the product is so bad, for the same price / configuration could you provide what you think is an equivalent product at the least?

You didn't really give any reason as to why its bad other than its your opinion, and everyone has one of those.

 

Bad driver support, terrible BIOS support, relies on Prema to fix it. Fan control is terrible, could be considered half broken. Due to the nature of clevo notebooks, they are not finished notebooks, hence lack tons of finetuning. The parts are reused over and over again, where problems from previous models do carry on on next models with little to no improvments at all. Big fans are being build into the system to compensate for poor design causing the system to be extremely loud even compared to other huge systems such as the MSI GT 75, Asus Chimera G702.

Notebooks that come to mind are MSI GT 73/GT 75, Asus Rog G703 and Acer Predator 17X.

 

Sure.


Amazing it could reach 70%. Saved by the low fan noise?


And the new Msibook GT75 don't need fine tuning 100C is ok

 

Time to join in on the 6 core fun I think.

 

I’m just waiting to send away $4000 for this beast....

Finger on the button.

Ted and Donald are amazing and have been working with me through the whole process.

 

What's your config?

 

EVOC High Performance Systems P870TM1 17.3" Custom Built VR Ready Gaming Laptop w/ 1x or 2x GTX 1080
LCD Panel
17.3" 4K QFHD (3840x2160) AUO LED Matte Type Display - w/ nVIDIA® G-SYNC™ Technology - $150.00
Display Warranty
1 Year Zero Defective Pixel Warranty (perfect panel guarantee) - $85.00
Video Card
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB GDDR5 X 200W + Vapor Chamber Dual GPU Heat Sink - NVIDIA G-Sync Enabled - $165.00
Prema Custom BIOS
Prema Custom BIOS - Latest Updated Version
Processor
HIDevolution Delidded - Unlocked, Under Volted and Overclocked 8th Generation Intel Core i7-8700K 6 Core-12 Thread Processor, 4.7 GHz (HIDevolution Overclocked to 4.8GHz) - GUARANTEED Performance (Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut included) - $120.00
Thermal Interface Materials
Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut on CPU + GPU, and Fujipoly Extreme Thermal Pads on heat sensitive surfaces – BEST PERFORMANCE - $30.00
Memory
32GB (2 x 16GB) HIDevolution Approved Premium Dual Channel DDR4/2666MHz - $205.00
RAID Options
no RAID (1st drive as primary boot drive, 2nd & 3rd drives as storage drives)
M.2 SSD Slot 1 (supports PCIe or SATA)
Samsung 970 EVO 500GB M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe 3D-VNAND SSD - Up to 3,500 MB/s Read-2,500 MB/s Write - $264.00
M.2 SSD Slot 2 (supports PCIe and SATA)
None
M.2 SSD Slot 3 (supports PCIe ONLY)
None
1st 2.5" HDD/SSD Bay
1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive
2nd 2.5" HDD/SSD Bay
Empty HDD bay (with caddy/adapter)
Wireless Cards
Killer™ Wireless-AC N1550 802.11 ac/a/g/n 2x2 NGFF w/ Bluetooth 5.0 - installed by HIDevolution - $30.00
Operating System
Genuine Windows® 10 Pro, 64bit, English - $130.00
Operating System Reinstallation Media
OS Reinstallation + Drivers USB Flash Drive - $25.00
Office Software
None
Power Cord
UK 6 Ft Power Cord C13 - $10.00
Audio
Foster Audio Speakers x 2
Back-lit Gaming Keyboard
Anti-Ghosting, Custom Macro Back-lit Gaming Keyboard
Keyboard Language
U.S. English
Branding
No Logo on LCD Cover and Bezel
Warranty and Service
1 Year HIDevolution Limited U.S. Warranty + LIFETIME HIDevolution Technical Support
HIDevolution Limited Global Warranty
NONE

 

Good choice