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

it defaults to 2666 20-19-19-43

 

Yeah not the best default timings that's for sure.

 

Oh, its a gamble for sure.
I know they are terrible at these default values, but if we get a mod-bios someday they will blow anything we will ever see at DDR4 JEDEC out of the water.
These are the same basic micron e-die ramchips we see on desktop-parts.
So 3733@cl16 is entirely possible if the board permits.

 

That sort of speed is very trace dependent and sodimm slots have a disadvantage.

 

You are absolutely right, but a man can dream, right? ; )
If we do end up getting a mod-bios i will have a lot of fun fine-tuning and seeing how far i can take it.

EDIT: For those who use Obsidian Fan-control: You may wanna try setting it to the "EC" setting.
I think XMG changed the fan-curves and i gotta say... props to them!
They really did a good job here.

 

@Meaker@Sager does holding the FN+D while powering on and holding them for 20-30sec still reset the CMOS? I’m getting tired of pulling battery.

 

i am way to curious not to ask... why do you keep resetting the cmos so much @Sbeezy ?
Usually i would think you were changing BIOS settings and need to revert quickly... but there is hardly anything to change there.

 

I’m trying to tighten my memory timings as much as possible. Keep on getting no post. I may have the Der8auer big lol.

 

wait... there is memory OC in bios now??

 

No it’s all done via Ryzen master. Still hangs as if it’s being done in bios. Then I have to pull the battery and cmos battery.

 

That is so weird.
Lets just say you found your stable overclock... would it be set at boot before ryzen master even starts?
is that even possible?
I thought Ryzen Master stuff only worked while the program was running?
or am i way off here?

 

I wanna say it writes it somewhere otherwise the testing would be lost when it resets.

 

That is extremely interesting and a bit unexpected.

 

It may be the SOC doing all the background stuff as I notice when it happens it doesn’t fully power down. Being able to tweak in the bios would make this process so much quicker. Also needs beep codes besides the low battery beep!

 

You are lucky the settings in Ryzen Master are not sticking with a cmos reset. It sounds like it has a chance of bricking desktop systems from what I have read:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/chytg3/psa_do_not_use_ryzen_master_to_set_memory_oc_and/

So far have you been impressed with the increased performance of the overclock?

 

My CPU “OC” sticks and does well I’ve been able to get over 3700 in CBR20 3700 was the goal being that’s supposed to be the minimum score of a desktop, it’s only when I start trying to go tighter on my memory timings that things go haywire, 3200mt/s at cl16 is fine but my computer is definitely noticeably faster in terms of responsiveness when higher than 3200, just can’t seem to hold 18 or lower cl at higher if/memclk speeds. I’m gonna cool it out for the night and mess with it again tomorrow. I may not have as good as an IMC as I previously thought.

 

Read of several who have tuned ram via RM and it sticks in bios Must remove battery to reset. Both good and bad I guess.

 

I would have to ask to find out, to be fair it's worth just trying out, sometimes it does not recover from all kinds of bad settings.

 

Jesus, i think i genuinely prefer doing that kinda thing in BIOS.
Its just way more convenient and from what i hear less risky, too.

 

I’ve been doing that tons lol! I saw your comments on 3DandStuffs video. How is your laptop holding up @taraquin ?

 

Hello everyone,

in order to promote the global sales of the barebone underneath XMG APEX 15, let's keep a list of brands in different regions of the world that are currently supporting this fine machine. Because what's good for other Local OEMs in different regions, is also good for XMG. We are all in this together!

This table will be permanently managed under the following Google Sheets link. If I'm missing any new brands or resellers or if you spot any mistakes, send me a PM here on Notebookreview. The list is arbitrarily sorted by myself, vaguely based on launch date and region.

→ XMG APEX 15 with AMD Ryzen: Brands in other regions (Google Sheets)


Current list, as of May 18, 2020:


Europe

XMG APEX 15
https://www.xmg.gg/xmg-apex-15

PC Specialist 15.6" Nova
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/nova-15/


North America

OriginPC EON15-X
https://www.originpc.com/gaming/laptops/eon15-x-amd

Eluktronics (tba)
(tba)

Sager NP7958F1
https://www.sagernotebook.com/Notebook-NP7958F1.html

iBuyPower Chimera NH58DEQ (NP6858EQ)
https://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Chimera-NH58AF1-(NP7958F1)-Gaming-Laptop

rjtech (NH5xAx)
https://rjtech.com/shop/index.php?dispatch=product_features.view&variant_id=262

HIDevolution EVOC High Performance Systems NH583/NH584 (NH5xAx)
https://www.hidevolution.com/product/gaming-laptops/evoc-clevo/15-inch-gaming-laptops/l/amd-ryzen-7

Eurocom Nightsky ARX15
https://eurocom.com/ec/configure(2,463,0)NightskyARX15


Singapor

AftershockPC Forge 15R
https://www.aftershockpc.com/welcome/Productinner/forge15r


Malaysia

Level51 Forge 15R
https://www.level51pc.co/welcome/Products

Illegear ARES V
https://www.illegear.com/laptops/ares-v/


Australia

Metabox Prime-Ai
https://www.metabox.com.au/store/Performance-Laptops/Prime-Ai-Range/Buy


Taiwan

Cjscope MX-756
https://www.cjscope.com.tw/cht/product_detail.php?serial=358


The Netherlands

laptopparts4less (NH5xAx)
https://laptopparts4less.frl/15.6inch-laptop-samenstellen


Poland

Hyperbook NH5
https://www.hyperbook.pl/nh5/



Thank you!

Cheers,
XMG|Tom

 

Most definitely

 

@XMG
you may wanna add these:
https://laptopparts4less.frl/game-l...evo-NH55AFW-RTX-2070-game-laptop-samenstellen
https://laptopparts4less.frl/game-l...evo-NH57AF1-RTX-2070-game-laptop-samenstellen

 

Hey Tom! Keep up the good work! For NA you can add R&J Technologies/ NH58af1 to the list as that’s my reseller.

 

Also,
Hyperbook NH5 (nh57). Company is based in Poland.

 

@YardSnake
@Sbeezy
@Mark0

Thank you! I added them to the Google Sheets link and updated my post.

 

I tried this and Ryzen Master was still not applying the manual frequency and voltage specified in the profile at boot. However, it is definitely applying the faster memory and infinity fabric clock. Not only that but the faster memory and infinity clocks are also applied when I boot into Linux. Are you still using ZenStates to apply manual core frequency and voltage at boot?

The Samsung B-die ram I have seems to be fine operating at DDR4-3200 18-21-21-42 tRC 72 tRFC 560 1T.

 

HIDevolution is selling it as the NH584 (or NH583 for 1660-1660ti version). They ship worldwide, but for ease of support, should be considered North America.

Edit: had linked the wrong intel version. But XMG got the right link

 

Seems like after the update I could never get zen states to work again! It would always error out so I 86’ed it

 

I’m gonna stick with 3200cl16 for now and 4150 all core boost. That’s dam close to minimum desktop performance. When we get a more featured bios/mod bios I’ll resume tweaking. So far I love this laptop if it’s not apparent, but it’s a gift and a curse.

 

@Sbeezy Thats really unusual man. I got the BIOS update, too and zenstates still works for me!

and yes, This notebook is really great and also really ****.


EDIT: Are you using DRAM calculator to come up with the correct timings/voltages?

 

yessir

 

A big thank you to anyone and everyone who provided info and feedback on the 1.07.04 BIOS with AMD-V, this machine was absolutely made for this. Still testing, but it seems like idling VM's don't even trigger my parked cores to spool up, so idle temps are extremely reasonable at 50C.

Currently running 3.55ghz all core at 0.95v, parking 24/32 threads at idle. Still working on fan noise but the settings above have been OK, the ramping/ratcheting up and down still happens every time ZenStates craps out after restart or randomly after wake from sleep.

Does anyone else have a similar experience with ZenStates failing on wake (no error message) or after a full shutdown and restart (error message "Last shutdown was not clean")? I've done repeated runs of CBr20, benchmarks, and testing with prime95 so I feel that the all core and voltage is stable. I think I may be able to drop voltage further still - I stopped testing after working my way to 0.95v and haven't had an time to go further yet. The failing ZenStates is concerning me a bit since every reboot results in the CPU running briefly at over 1.4v! This seems to be due to the behavior of Zen States in bumping the limits for PPT, TDC, and EDC to their max values in manual mode. Worth mentioning, I have seen this behavior from ZenStates on both 1.07.01 and 1.07.04 BIOS.

Couldn't agree more, this is like the laptop equivalent of daily driving a supercar.

 

@SamuelL421 Yeah, zenstates does that for me, too.
Filed a bug-report.

 

I will see if I can fork it and fix it.

 

@win32asmguy I bow down to your brilliance! You Sir are a gentleman and a scholar ^^

 

Above and beyond the call of duty! Wow.

 

Norway

Multicom.no - Multicom Kunshan NH58AF 15.6" 144Hz

 

@XMG laptopparts4less ships eu-wide, not just the netherlands.

EDIT:
Also, could we get changelogs along with the BIOS updates?
To my knowledge there was nothing included with the last update.
I would really like to know what actually changes.

 

Good to hear the virtualisation looks good

 

Thanks, noted.

Thanks for the hint, but they don't have their own brand (they use Clevo and TongFang in their product names) and they only offer 5 keyboard layouts that are centered around the Benelux area so I will just put them down for Netherlands for now. Readers of the reference list are free to do their own research and find the brand that fits their requirements.

The ODM is often very tight lipped about changelogs. If there is any major update (like AGESA 1005) we will try to put this up in one of our community threads on Reddit.

// Tom

 

@YardSnake @SamuelL421 It is appears that Windows 10 "Fast Startup" could be part of the issue. It does not appear to handle the hibernation transition properly with the debugging I have done so far.

 

@win32asmguy Obsidian tools said something about that being a bad thing, so i disabled it from within that program, if i remember correctly.
Have to check wether it actually did it.

 

I haven't gotten it, the only reseller where I live which sells them gets them in a month. Maybe then

 

I will put that in the starting post

 

@XMG
I sent them an e-mail and they have responded.
Laptopparts4less actually ships worldwide.
Most of their customers are from within the EU.

I'll gladly forward the e-mail to you if you want.

 

Send me PMs if you want links to local resellers in first post. Also please provide me with other reviews I van link to

 

Yeah and if a service freezes up the shutdown wont clear it either. It's a terrible "feature".

 

Thank you for investigating, I'll turn off fast startup and report back after testing - I don't think I have that disabled and I believe it is enabled by default.

 

AMD announced they'll support b450 for zen3, will be curious to see what can be fitted into this machine in the future!
https://www.anandtech.com/show/1580...ryzen-4000-cpus-on-b450-and-x470-motherboards