Hi guys, just got my Selenite G on 14th May. Wanna share some of my usage review and questions after two weeks.
i7 10875H 8 cores, 16gb ddr4 ram, RTX 2070 max-p
If you find it long you can skip it, just sharing my honest review about the laptop.Goods:
1. Built quality seem good. Screen also not much problem. Keyboard experience is weird initially, but after a while already got used to it.
2. Considered portable enough as my previous laptop Lenovo Y50 GTX860M is 15.6 inch but this 17.3 inch beauty is just unbeatable, having the almost same dimensions and weight.
3. Gaming is great on RTX2070 although it's a mobile version, FYI this is refreshed version (factory undervolted by Nvidia) having higher clock speed and reduced total bandwidth. Power consumption maintain the same 115W.
4. Windows Hello Camera, one of the reason to buy this laptop, save time on typing password
5. Sound wise, i salute the power of THX spatial audio software, but not the speaker itself hehe, overall listening feel is alright. Still prefer the JBL speakers+sub and Dolby software on my Lenovo Y50.
6. Price is unbeatable, been surveyed many brands of laptops with similar specs, but others just overpriced for the 2070 performance.
PROBLEMS:
1. At first i though Kryonaut will work on this laptop like a charm since it's considered a premium grade thermal paste for me. Somehow after some time of the usage, i've been experiencing a serious issue. The game framerate would drastically drop to unplayable frame rate for a while, then it become normal again. Using Afterburner monitoring during gameplay, can notice the cpu and gpu clock dropped to slowest speed too at the moment of stuttering frame rates. This problem happens intermittent one, not always. Not much background process which can interfere the game, just gaming no stream or others.
Used HWiNFO to monitor the status, found that cpu always more than 85c while gaming and all cores experiencing thermal throttling. To solve the issue i undervolted cpu more than -80mV to aid thermal reduction. Now the cpu mostly max up averagely 80c which won't have throttling on it.
OK, initially i thought thermal throttling could be the issue of the game stuttering, but somwhow yesterday the stuttering is coming back again with all undervolt, limit turbo boost, set dGPU at bios, max performance in Nvidia control panel, and no whisper mode at GeForce Experience, you name it. Can't figure out what else i can do to solve this frustrating problem. Maybe it's due to the 14nm++++++ process?
Another reason could be high ambient temp while gaming la, not at 25c air con room, so this issue could be subjective. Unfortunately didn't check for the power draw though at the moment.
2. The turbo and gaming fan mode is a bit problematic also before start using ThrottleStop. The temps are still good when in office mode, but when switching to Turbo from the AB i can see the CPU temp increased few degrees, turned off turbo it'll drop to normal again. Maybe it's the power delivery mode set by the command center there. After undervolting using TS it seem like dont have this issue already.
3. Keyboard RGB is kinda a joke, since i own Corsair mech KB i thought Selenite would be the same having function of import other user lighting effects/having smoother animations, turned out only those presets available. I'm not sure about other luxury laptop brands, or it's only Illegear doing so?
Command center is buggy, sometimes not detecting the hardware or the software can't be used properly, had to restart laptop or restart the process then only can work nicely. The fan button sometimes can't control the fan speed too due to buggy software. Having the feel of being trolled, but can't blame since i didn't perform thorough research enough about keyboard side, hunting for laptops and my friend (who using Laguna SE) to "poison" me to buy this brand, although i already know Illegear beforehand.
4. Rubberize palm rest. Okay thismay be my own preference but i prefer metal surface than this cuz rubberized is damn hard to take care of. When it ages it'll be sticky if you don't take care of it right.
Reviews aside, have some questions for gamers and enthusiasts here.
1. Cooling pad or vacuum cooler for you guys? I searched online and it's really dependent on laptops models, so you can't decide straightly which is better. Or you guys never use these at all?
2. Anyone owning 2070 variant mind to share their thermal performance? Would like to know whether it's me the unlucky one or everyone facing the same issue.
3. How to take care the rubberized surface? Researched online few methods, microfibre + alcohol OR microfibre + wash soap, then wipe with dry cloth. Would like to maximize the lifespan to prevent it become sticky since my previous Y50 also rubberized and unfortunately that moment i didn't realize the importance of taking care it.
That should be all about my review and concern about Selenite G. Any further issues or questions will be discussed in future. Thanks guys for spending time reading this and am happy to join the high end gaming for the first time!
Great write up! i can possibly shed some light regarding thermals and a couple of your other questions. Now keep in mind i own the last gen Selenite (9750H/RTX2060) and i'm currently in Australia where it is winter so ambients will be slightly lower than your 25c.
1) Kryonaut tends to dry up much faster than other compounds above 80c. This is even stated on their marketing material where they use a "special process/compound to halt the drying out process up to 80c" or something along those lines. It can also be due to the fact that Kryonaut is a very thin paste and requires a heatsink with even mounting pressure (4 screws with 1 in each corner). Our machines use 3 points like on the older Alienware laptops (15 and 17 R3/R4, the really boxy looking ones with Kaby lake and Pascal GPUs).
On the notebookreview forums, this caused those machines to have some cores throttle due to heat while the rest were somewhat fine since mounting pressure was distributed unevenly across the CPU die. A mis-sized thermal pad was also to blame for it. The more savvy users of those machines bent one of the screw arms slightly as well as changed the thermal pad and they got much better results combined with the usual undervolts.
I recommend a thicker thermal paste for these barebones machines. I find that Hydronaut works much better than Kryonaut. Their performance is going to be almost identical regardless of what it says on the packaging. I use the spread method and try to get as even of a spread as possible.
2) I personally recommend a cooling pad. It is possible that the fans are being choked of airflow even when sitting on a flat table. Some Clevo barebones do this but i am not 100% sure about the GK7 barebones. I have a box of old playing cards lifting up my machine from the rear and it seems to be helping with getting more air in to the fans.
3) You can try using the command center from either XMG (Neo 17) or Eluktronics (Mech G1R)
5) For sound i HIGHLY recommend following this guide at the bottom of the page. Dont have to deal with whatever THX/Soundblaster software. You get the native windows EQ and can tweak to your hearts content: