*** XMG Apex 15 with Ryzen 3950X / Clevo NH58AF1 Owner's Lounge ***

Hard to cross flash then though.

 

I would say the build quality is less than the Precision 7740, but on par with the MSI WT75. It has a aluminum lid and metal palmrest, but plastic bottom case. At least it does not have any gamer accents other than the stupid lighting on the back of the aluminum lid. For the time being it is the only Zen2 PGA + B450 laptop, so you kind of have to take the build quality for better or for worse.

 

Thanks, in that case it seems to be similar to the top of the line Clevo units which is solid enough.

 

@Brian Crawford I am curious if you machine has Virtualization support enabled. Mine is running bios 1.07.01 (dated 2/27/2020) and the feature is disabled and not available in the bios as an option.

Also I bought a kit of Kingston HyperX memory (HX432S20IBK2/32) which has JEDEC DDR4-3200 [email protected] according to the datasheet. Curious how the performance differs between DDR4-2666 CL16.

 

@win32asmguy Virtualization seems to be disabled in all models currently available from XMG or regular Clevo stores.

I cant speak for possible prema-models tho.

Since this is basically just a b450 board tho its almost guaranteed that it could be unlocked with a mod bios tho.

Before we get a mod-bios we should have a fixed bios tho imho.
Dumping and modding the current bios wouldnt help all that much in the long-run.

 

You're welcome! I'm just using the bundled Realtek HD Audio Manager that came with that custom driver. See here for the settings that fixed my speaker dissonance:


@win32asmguy , I don't have Virtualization enabled either. Bummer.

 

I noticed in the Apex 15 review on notebook check the "AMD-V" option in the HWInfo64 screenshot is enabled. It's not listed as a benefit to the XMG special bios, so hopefully just an oversight. @Meaker@Sager any info about this?

 

I can check.

 

It's disabled by default but that could be changed with enough interest, looks like they have taken a super cautious approach.

 

Interesting. Well I would like to have it as an option. Pretty sure mine is a sager as it came from "MIDERN" in California.

 

I've passed on the interest

 

Mine also came from Sager Midern in CA, please pass along the interest from me as well. Virtualization was a big reason why I purchased this system as a new workstation. For all of its teething problems, I truly like this laptop so I am really hoping for a less limited bios in the near future.

 

Linus has done a video on the machine now as well by the way.

 

There's a new Clevo Control Center v.2.24 on the XMG page. I can't find release notes anywhere. Can someone who is using the Control Center do an upgrade and report if anything has improved?

 

Ok, not gonna lie, that intro kinda made me want to watch the entire thing.

 

It's definitely a Linus video.

 

@5:32, it might convince you to buy it .They didn't even bother trying to show db levels at different scenarios!

 

Not exactly, but it's entertaining Besides, this forum pretty much dissected the pros/cons of this laptop within hours of it's debut online.

 

Did clevo really neuter the bios after der8auer did the LN OC run?...

 

That’s what I’ve been wondering too! THANKS ROMAN

 

Hi, I just registered to the forum. I'm ordering an Apex 15 and I originally wanted to get it with the 3700X because of this post but now I'm wondering that one could achieve the same silence and low temps in idle conditions with the 3900X if CCD1 is disabled in Ryzen Master. This screenshot is taken from the Ryzen Master reference guide.

I don't think I'd need 12 cores for browsing and such. Do you think it's a viable idea to have a 3900X in the Apex 15 and only enable the second CCD chiplet if I need the performance for rendering/development tasks?

 

I have mine running on 2 cores (3600x) when on battery and half parked when I’m doing light work. That should be feasible, honestly I would wait for the others to chime in if you’re still shaky on which processor you want.

 

I’m about to check it out

 

I don't blame him at all, if I had bought one of those based on der8auer review and then received a neutered laptop I would blame Clevo and only Clevo, why even make socketed laptops if you are going to hard cap them and lock the firmware? Just slap a a soldered 4900 then and call it a day instead of misleading review units..

 

I had talked to an XMG employee after release.
There are apparently two versions of the unlocked BIOS.
One for regular people and one that can be given out to certain enthusiasts by request.
The one by request is closer to a typical XMG bios with ram-OC etc.

I didnt buy from XMG tho so me requesting that one wouldn't get me anywhere.
Anyone here an XMG-customer who could try?

 

It’s no skin off my back lol, there was supposed to be 3 emojis there

 

You may have to skeez on said XMG employee to get the goods lmao! I’ll be your wingman!

 

tough to identify anyone there, since they dont use names on their own XMG reddit.
The user was called "XMG_gg" and said the following:

"The official shipping BIOS is going to be much more restricted than what we were able to show in the der8auer video. We have the technical option to share a more unlocked BIOS with enthusiast customers (with limited warranty), but we haven't come to an agreement with the ODM about the terms & conditions."

 

I think that’s Tim or Tom can’t recall exactly which atm! Control center 2.24 has fixed the 100% ramp on start for me and so far seems like the fan profile for Auto is set a little faster which in turn keeps the laptop cool enough to not constantly ramp up and down. Will keep testing and report back!

 

So far its been legit, I've only heard the fans ramp once when installing Apex Legends and they were maybe at 45-50%, they didn't stay on long and I didn't get the ramp up like I used to when starting and running BF5 . I say it's improved so far! test it out and report back if it's worth it to you.

 

I do have an issue with the Realtek audio driver, I suppose... When playing audio in chrome or anywhere in windows when I change a track the audio goes away until the program is closed and re launched. Has anyone run into this issue with 6.0.8858.1 or 6.0.1.8656?

 

Which version of windows do you have?

 

Pro 18363!

 

Consider setting a manual voltage and frequency if you want to leave it in the performance mode all the time. That is the most effective way to stabilize Tctl/Tdie fluctuations and have reduced/consistent fan speeds at idle and load.

I did notice a few times when I disabled CCD1 that its reported temperature became "stuck" at some static value, like 69C, which effectively made Tctl/Tdie minimum temperature the same, which interfered with idle fan speed as you can imagine. It may be a bug but probably something you should know if you try to go down that route.

 

Pro should work fine. Sadly i dont know why you have that issue.
Sorry!

 

Did you leave the machine in the Entertainment performance mode all them time? I assume this is without any tweaks via Ryzen Master or ZenStates? What are your idle and load voltages like? I still experience temperature and noise spikes with the 3950X in Entertainment mode with the update. I have not tried the 3700X yet.

 

Yes performance mode, all of my tweaks are still in place, idle voltage is 0.937v. Peak voltage under load 1.275.

 

Ah, that is significantly lower than the 3950X which peaks at 1.4v under load unless manual frequency and voltage is specified.

 

A 3300X would be an interesting option.

 

Notebookcheck retested this clevo with a new BIOS version.

Link: https://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-...1-Laptop-Mega-schnell-mega-laut.463574.0.html

Anyone here who has that BIOS-version, yet?

 

I’ve been fighting the urge to buy one! Win32asm has me wanting to sale some of my car audio gear to go buy a 3900x or skeez on a 3900 from the black market.

 

I dunno mate.
The use-case for something with that many cores is basically productivity-only and even then you would have to do video-editing, compiling code, graphics/video work to ever utilize it.
If thats the case? Good idea, go for it!

But if you just wanna game you are probably better off getting something that produces less heat.
My 3700x is fixed at 3.6ghz with a low voltage and Witcher 3 runs amazingly well.

 

I'm on 1.07.01

 

I'm fine with my 3600x, For now lol. The 3700x isnt looking too bad, although not much of an upgrade... the 3300x is a good lil toy to OC for the lulz

 

I think thats the one we are all on currently unless some lucky person has gotten the new one already.

EDIT: The Ryzen 3000 series CPUs are all great for gaming. I wouldnt even be surprised if the 4 core-variants made short work of Cyberpunk 2077 when it releases.

 

Playing around
https://imgur.com/gallery/g35bm77

 

Even for productivity work it is very very hard to make that choice purely for extra CPU performance - sure, the render/compile can complete 50% faster, but there are many trade off's for it. My personal list, compared to the Precision 7740:

• lower single core boost
• less battery life
• smaller screen
• noisier at idle and load
• worse keyboard layout
• worse trackpad
• less memory / storage capacity and compatibility
• worse build quality
• no onsite repair / next business day part service
• worse audio quality
• no graphics MUX switch
• no thunderbolt ports for docking solutions
• no full sized SD card

Granted, the Precision costs quite a bit more than the NH58AF1, but for work related tasks the extra cost associated isn't particularly a concern.

 

New BIOS version available from our service department with AMD-V enabled by default due until your interest

1.07.04

 

Reached my CB Score Goals now lets see some other benchmarks.