Official Clevo PC50DD2 / DF1 / DN2 Owner's Lounge

You got yours? If you did post some pics and impressions! (I gotta wait till the 30th till I get mine)

 

Haha no, I have the np378f2 which is the 2070 super version of this laptop I think. The pc70dn2 might be the best to compare with as that's the 17" buy I can't find a forum for that one yet. I'm curious to see how they compare 2070 super 115W vs the 2080 max-q

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Gotcha!

First impressions

• Very sleek, professional look. I can definitely use this for work and play.
• There's some flex (screen), but nothing out of the ordinary.
• Fingerprint and dust magnet
• As expected Clevo fan controls are horrible so I've installed Obsidian's, works great now.
• On normal fans temps spike quickly, e.g. when installing 3DMark I hit 90°C... Because they are temperature spikes rather than sustained heat (probably aiming for that 5Ghz), fans quickly spin up and down. Undervolting and probably a repaste will be in order. In any case you should have Throttlestop profiles for performance and light loads. For example, for office work I run a stable all core clock of 3.5ghz and temps don't increase above 50°C.
• A bit disappointed with the battery. With turbo boost disabled, screen brightness dimmed, battery saving mode enabled etc. it seems to only last for 4 hours (Word + wifi). I'd hoped for at least 6h of autonomy. Maybe there's still ways to optimize.

First benchmarks
I've applied a mild -50mV undervolt.

• Cinebench R20 on max fans: 3016, which could be 400pts better. Only reached 80°C max, which is nice.
• Firestrike on max fans: 14806, 15943 graphics, 20064 physics, 7682 combined. Normal scores for the RTX 2060. CPU peaked at 90°C during the physics test, GPU remained below 70°C

 

Honestly all things considered this is better temps compared to thar asus G14 I had that peaked at 100c or so while loading a map on the RTX mincraft demo worlds.

Are you on stock paste or factory upgraded paste?

I'm half tempted to flash that XMG bios with their custom fan curve and see how that compares to the stock bios without having to set one myself. Keep us posted if you can I'll be joining you in a few days with my 2080 super model (which I hope doesn't run way hotter)

About to hit the bed (west coast of the US) I might have more questions later for you.

Btw did you try to lower the hz of the screen to see of that helps with the battery life or not?(not sure if it does but I know it did on the G14)

Thanks

 

It's repasted by the reseller with Kryonaut.

Before opening her up I'll first try and undervolt the CPU a bit more. I'm increasing it by -25mV each day until a BSOD or freeze comes up.

With max fans this CPU can be tamed, somewhat, for maximum performance, but you'll need headphones.

I find changing the refresh rate a bit cumbersome, also I enjoy working with a high refresh rate screen, I guess I'm spoiled

 

I'm running a stable -100 millivolt undervolt on the CPU. It did help tame the beast a little bit. I'm going to have to try out obsidian too. Im not big fan of clevos. They seem to lag behind the action a bit.

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Any updated impressions?

 

I'm busy grading papers atm so I don't have much time for benching. In general I'm very pleased with how thin and nice this laptop is. A completely different beast than my p775TM for sure.

The keyboard types well, with sufficient feedback. I'm very glad that there's a numpad.

The battery behaves strange, sometimes it seems I have 6h of autonomy (yay!) and sometimes only 3h, but I think it's Window's reading of remaining battery life rather than the battery itself. I'll have to test it with a video in loop I suppose. Maybe also recalibrate the battery.

The screen quality is the same as my p775tm, i.e. (very) good.

The sound quality is sufficient for watching a movie, of course lacking in bass and volume, but that is to be expected.

I haven't tested the webcam yet, but I have a few online meetings next week so I'll get back on that. I guess there won't be any surprises there.

With Throttlestop + Obsidian fan control it is possible to have completely silent fans for light workloads (internet, Word, movie).

The bios I have is unfortunately very basic. There is no undervolting control, I can't even disable HT. If you want to play around you'll need an unlocked bios (maybe the Sager or XMG one).

 

Sager's bios is not unlocked for overclocking or undervolting except for the memory. Intel XTU or Throttlestop works though. Obsidian help out at all on controlling cpu temps? I'm looking to get my cpu to be happy in the 75C range, right now I can't get it below 82-84C.

 

75C under stress will be difficult, unless perhaps by using LM

 

I try to avoid LM due to safety's sake. My repasting skills are fairly hit or miss. I am going to repaste on more time with some fresh kryonaut. Delidding would probably be best, but that sounds like a pita for a soldered on board chip

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Time Spy: 6236
Graphics: 6016
CPU: 7876

Conditions
Max speed fans, CPU@ -100mV

Notes

• CPU boosted all core only between 3,7 and 4 Ghz, which probably explains the low temperature - would the undervolt limit higher clocks?
• CPU only drew a maximum of 40W, the whole system 132W
• Nevertheless I get a power limit exceeded for the CPU in HWinfo
• CPU max temp: 60°C (!)
• Max GPU clock: 1,905mhz
• Max GPU power: 90w
• GPU max temp: 63°C

 

Yeah when you undervolt you'll get a lower frequency on chip. That's due to that power limiting you see. The power limit is changed a bit by the control center profiles. If you use hwinfo you can test each profile and see what your limits are.

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Those are sweet temps too. I daresay u could remove the undervolt and let it fly for max performance. You're not being limited by your temps at all there. It must make for a quiet machine under load.

My Sager 8378F2 has the 115W 2070 paired with the 10875H with the following power profiles

Performance mode short boost to 107W for up to 32 seconds or 70C whichever comes first(max I've seen is like 20 seconds using my home air conditioner vent for cooling). Normally on air it hits 90C withing like 7 seconds with max fans and then gets throttled to 45W-55W.

Entertainment Mode limits the short power boost to 55W and then a sustained 45W.after. Chips usually around 80-83C for me at max fans.

My quiet mode limits CPU to 15W and the GPU to 115W
My Power Saver Mode limits my CPU to 15W and GPU to 90W.

Before I tuned my GPU my 2070 was power limited and rarely boosted over 1650 on the MHz under any heavy GPU loading. I averaged like 1570Mhz. After tuning I sit around 1850Mhz sustained. I clipped it at the point so it won't ever boost for the full 1930mhz.

You're machine is in the thermal sweet spot. Undervolting will help you have quieter fans, but if you want better CPU performance you could remove it. Power limiting really should be renamed. It's really a current limiter.


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I don't use CCC. I could try and raise PL through throttlestop.

 

I'm tempted to remove it and try something else. I know it fights with MSI afterburner which I used to tune the GPU. If I change profiles in ccc I have to reapply the MSI afterburner profiles.

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Without CCC my PL1 is 45w, PL2 is 90w in Throttlestop. I'm thinking of raising PL1 to 60w and disabling PL2 altogether.

 

How many PCIe Lanes has thunderbolt 3?

 

4 i think
https://www.metabox.com.au/store/Prime-S-Range

 

Hey! Finally i've ot some time to test my laptop.
Later i'll write a complete review but for now:
-A VERY VERY good looking machine
-Same good screen as others clevo
-Incredibly good temps with stock paste (taken with that in order to repaste with kryonaut but also that stock is good)
-97w boost for 28sec at 5.1ghz reached in performance mode from CCC and 90C° and 50w continuos at 69C° with 3.6Ghz all core boost
-very good fingerprint and normal touchpad
-loud speaker compared with previous clevo but a little bit lack of bass
-Not sure how to change the lighting mode ofthe keyboard (now i can change only one color per time for the full keyboard)
-Fast Wifi and BT (i have configured the AC killer)
-Strong chassis and very low bending screen
-That thing is DAMN THIN GUYS FOR THE COMPONENTS THAT ARE IN!

Now i'm going to test it with Premiere, After Effects and Davinci that is my work and the battery lifetime


For those that already have it, do you know how to change the lighting mode of the keyboard?

 

You have different profiles. Take it out of the demo profiles and find the one w solid color. You can then drag a box around the keys u want to change and select their color from the palate wheel. U can also modify the color by inputting numbers into the r g b boxes on the lower left.

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Any chance of a picture of the heat sink when you repaste? I'd like to compare.

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Unfortunatly i dont' have the option to drag a box around the keys. Also i haven't mode except the solid one (no demo no other modes.) I think i have to reinstall the ccc.

For the pic of the heatsink, no problem, next week i come back home (where i have the kryo) and i'll post the photos

 

Luca I think that the PCX0DX chassis series have single zone RGB keyboards, so only one (customizable) color is available.

 

In the manual says that you can create custom layouts

https://downloads.metabox.com.au/usermanuals/PC50DD.pdf

 

Yeah pretty sure it's just one color for the whole keyboard unless you got something special:

• Single Zone Multi-Color illuminated keyboard

 

thank for the link,

as I was suggesting the "default" factory configuration is single zone, and as a option multizone one, only with multizone/per key one you can customize the illumination pattern..
ref. Page specification D.2 3rd column first box:

"Built-in Gamma Secure Pad OR Touchpad with Microsoft PTP MultiGesture and Scrolling Functionality (Factory Option)
DEFAULT=> Full Size & Multi-Color Illuminated LED Keyboard with Numeric Pad
OR
Full Size & Full Color Illuminated LED “Per Key” Keyboard with Numeric Pad (Factory Option)"
​

and if you look every photo of the PCXX serie the have a single zone (uniform color) KB

 

My device comes today (with the 2080 super max-q) can't wait to get my hands on it. Will post impressions after I get it set up and configured.

 

Looking to improve battery life and found up to 77% in C3 state. Check your throttlestop if you guys have the same issue, it could be driver related.

 

A new benchmark

Witcher 3 ultra quality, hairworks on
Max fans

GPU (non-overclocked) temps never reached 70°C, reaches 95w power
CPU (all core set to max 3.5 Ghz) temps never reached 68°C, CPU package power reaches only 35w

FPS: around 70, between 61 lowest and 88 highest. Disabling hairworks increases FPS with 10 to 20

Conclusion: There is more than sufficient thermal and power headroom to increase CPU clocks, I'll raise the multiplier in a next benchmark. There is also enough thermal headroom room to overclock the RTX 2060.


Two more observations

1. The laptop gets hot after a few hours of use. I don't mean CPU and GPU temps, they are nicely under control, but the chassis itself.

2. The 'blocks' left and right next to the hinges are fragile. I bumped the laptop against a wall, not *terribly* hard, and one of the blocks became crooked and I had to 'de-crook' it. This might become an issue if you carry it every day to your work. Make sure you have a sturdy laptop bag.

For the rest, really enjoying this piece of hardware!

 

So I got my unit yesterday and I am still playing around with it (will post more when I got more impressions)

I insalled the XMG BIOS on it (their fan profile is pretty decent vs the stock clevo one)

I installed the latest drivers and stuff on it and have been playing around with intel XTU (currently unvolting by .075)

My question for you and everyone here, what power profile are you guys using in the control center?

I am currently on entertainment, but I guess performance runs the gpu at 90w vs 80w (it also makes the cpu run way hotter/faster too) on my unit when stress-testing I never go above 80 something C when using entertainment, but when using performance it goes near 99C...

 

I limited my CPU to 35w also to help w temps. Performance is fine for games and runs much cooler. I see my CPU temps in the mid 70s w peaks in the low 80s. Frequency is about 3.7ghz. you've actually seen 5.1ghz on this CPU? What did you use to test it?

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When I first ran the laptop with CCC installing Cinebench alone boosted my clocks to 5Ghz and my temps soared to >90°C. Fans spinning up and down were horrible.

I'm not using CCC (Obsidian tools instead) nor XTU (throttlestop instead), but if you can manually set (1) clocks to something more stable and realistic; (2) PL1 to 45w, perhaps even disabling PL2, which should solve the CPU spikes in performance.

 

Max frequency I saw was 4.7ghz at 104w, which was the short term turbo boost limit. I then drops to 55w. I disabled that short term boost since all it did was boost the chip right to 90C in like 2 seconds. Even with max fans prior to test it still pegs temps I wonder if I limited it to 90W if would have seen a higher sustained freq. Hmmm you gave me something to check. The only purpose I saw of that short term boost was for Intel to claim that up to 5.1ghz and a slightly higher benchmark number for CPU. Thermally it beats the hell out of the chip and under any sustained load it has no way to cool down. Did you run cinebench in single core or multi?

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The score I posted a few pages pages ago is of R20, which is multicore. I reached 80°C max. I should redo the test with my higher undervolt.

 

I did some more Cinebench R20 testing.

Cinebench R20
- max fans
-125mV CPU
-100mV Cache

3,7Ghz (allcore)
score 3356
temps max 66°C

HWINFO shows that the CPU power throttles when going beyond 3,6Ghz.
It reaches 67w after which it throttles back to 3Ghz.

Changing TPL1 from 45w to 52w
Disabling TPL2
Set Turbo Time Limit to 3670016

3,7Ghz (allcore)
score 3729 (!!)
temps max 71°C

Clocks remain the same (max. 3,6Ghz), regardless of Throttlestop's Turbo Ratio Limits
Power reaches 67w (despite setting TPL1 to 52, so probably an EC thing) but no power throttling!

4Ghz (allcore)
Clocks remain the same

 

Did some testing this morning, feel like I have it semi-dialed in right now and I am happy with the Entertainment Profile in CCC:

Entertainment mode in CCC:
XMG Bios fan profile
-.050mV CPU
-.050mV Cache

Cinebench R20:
3295
max temp: 77C

CPU-Z Bench:
Single-Thread: 565.5
Multi-Thread: 4848.1
Max Temp: 80C

AIDA64:
Cache & Memory Benchmark
Max Temp: 77C


Performance mode in CCC:
XMG Bios fan profile (AFAIK XMG only made a custom profile for Entertainment Mode)
-.050mV CPU
-.050mV Cache

Cinebench R20:
4298
max temp: 99C

CPU-Z Bench:
Single-Thread: 568.5
Multi-Thread: 5229.8
Max Temp: 94C

AIDA64:
Cache & Memory Benchmark
Max Temp: 77C


In Entertainment mode the fans are pretty quiet with the XMG fan profile and I am content with my results and temps. I tried undervolting more and it resulted in crashes while doing windows reinstalls and the like so I am settling on -.050v for now. I have been able to overclock the GPU a little (+100mhz on the GPU, +500Mhz on the VRAM) and I will post more results with that later.

For comparison numbers here are some results from my Desktop with an AMD 3700x:

Cinebench R20:
4845

CPU-Z Bench:
Single-Thread: 527.9
Multi-Thread: 5595.8

AIDA64:
Cache & Memory Benchmark

Now for some GPU Benchmarks: (all under Entertainment CCC mode)

TIME SPY

PORT ROYAL

FIRE STRIKE

HEAVEN

Overall I am pretty happy with this purchase, temps and performance seem to be great while using the gpu/cpu together in gaming benchmarks. (and loudness isn't crazy either)

 

Thanks @gooface

Can you check your actual clocks in HWINFO? E.g. when running Cinebench.

 

First nasty BSOD.

First the screen freezes, cannot push any keyboard button, cannot power off the laptop. Then I get the BSOD "Driver Power State Failure". This could point to too much undervolting, or a problem with the sleep state. When the BSOD is finished the laptop doesn't restart, the screen remains black, the power button remains lit, but I can't restart / power off the laptop. I don't want to get the battery out while it's running, so I'll have to wait until it shuts down because of low battery...

 

Done some tests also with my sample. In perf mode 99°c reached and 20% Thermal throttling.
But i can't undervolt with throttlestop. How can i do? I have to switch to XMG Bios and play with throttlestop or i have to do in the XMG bios directly?

 

That sounds like an ugly one to try and diagnose.

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I will be receiving my one from UK pcspecialist tomorrow if anyone has any questions. I don't think I will be flashing the BIOS unless someone can convince me otherwise!

Specs are:

Chassis & Display
Defiance Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
(Clevo PC70DF1 (8GB RTX-2070 Max-Q, i7-10875H, 144Hz N7, Blank KB))
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor 10875H (2.3GHz, 5.1GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2070 Max-Q - 8.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive
Reusing a Rocket Sabrent M.2 2280 SSD 1TB, I had to buy a compulsory 128GB ADATA SX6000 LITE M.2 2280 (1800 MB/R, 1200 MB/W)
AC Adaptor
1 x 180W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery
Defiance Series Integrated 3 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (73WH)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x THUNDERBOLT 3 PORT + 3 x USB 3.2 PORTS
...

Total cost: £1,405.00 including VAT and Delivery

 

Congrats @jimmy00 with your purchase! I'm curious if the larger chassis of the PC70 series offers better cooling.

@Lzealot I dialed back my undervolt with 25mV and it's ran stable since then *crosses fingers*

 

Are you guys able to undervolt with stock bios?? I can't!
Have i to swap it with the xmg bios? (where i have to download it?)
Thanks in advice

 

I undervolted using Intel xtu. I cannot do it in the bios. It's locked. What bios does your machine have?

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Found a really GOOD Setup with XTU at the following values:
-Undervolt at -75mV (i can go up to -140mv but with -75mv is the best compromise between perf and temp)
-Turbo boost short power max 115w
-Turbo boost power max 70w
-Turbo boost power time window 28sec

XTU stress test with AVX2 for 5min report 4.19Ghz stable and 90°c max

PcMark bench test says that it is the 2nd best result for an i7 10875h. Really happy

Screenshot (12) by Luca Brunetti posted Jul 8, 2020 at 3:47 PM

 

Is someone able to shoot a few pictures of the laptop? I can't see it in person anywhere and I would like to get an idea of what it exactly looks like in person. Thanks!

 

I got the 2080 super/i7-10875H model with per key rgb.
Very happy with performance, thermals and noise levels.

 

Thermal are OK, CPU and GPU stays relatively cool. Chassis does get quite hot. Fans are obnoxiously loud though, every time when I would perform a tasks it goes crazy.

I have followed Luca's set up with undervolted -75mV and I'd say I would get ~48°c idle, performing tasks brings it to about ~60-70°c and with max about 90-95°c

Edit: Some images and videos of me pressing the keys, it doesn't do it justice, but hopefully a better idea. https://imgur.com/a/csipyHR

Chassis is real nice, metallic and not plastic.

 

If you want complete control over fan speed and temps, ditch CCC and XTU and use Throttlestop and Obsidian Tools instead. My fans never spin up and down. When gaming you'll always have relatively loud fans, of course.