Advice before purchasing Octane III

[Neo]

Having weighed up many options I think I'll be looking to order an Octane III 15.6" soon (With 6700k, 1070 gfx) However a few questions have sprung to mind that hopefully someone can advise on:

> If I specify a M.2 drive and a SSD will the OS automatically be installed on the M.2 by default by PCS or will they put it on the SSD?

> You can spec 64GB RAM (4x16GB) on this thing... would that be any use for gaming (Fallout 4 etc) or a complete waste of £ ?

> I keep reading a lot of threads going on about the heat produced. How can I monitor the temps easily after purchasing? Is there a recommended tool and what is 'normal' under idle and under gaming (Fallout 4 etc) for the 6700k and 1070? I assume specifying the Arctic paste for an extra £9 is a sensible option given I don't have the know-how or confidence to do that myself?!

> In terms of upgrading in the future - what is simple on this chassis for a novice to enhance? If something is too complicated to get to I won't attempt it! Needs to be a few screws off and plug in really. I'd be thinking in terms of adding a 2nd M.2 and second SSD - maybe add more RAM depending on what I go with.

Any help or information you could provide would be very much appreciated. Cheers.

:tank:

 

[Oussebon]

1) If you spec an M.2 and a regular SSD and press "proceed" when in the configurator (don't worry, you can do so safely without it asking for your cash) it will actually say "We note that you have selected an SSD drive and a mechanical hard drive under the primary hard disk drive option. Please confirm whether you would like your operating system (OS) to be installed on the SSD drive or on the mechanical hard drive: (dropdown menu with M.2 as the default)"

2) Anything more than 16gb for gaming is a complete waste at this point and likely will be for a long while to come. Even for FO4 / Skyrim with ENBs etc.

3) "I assume specifying the Arctic paste for an extra £9 is a sensible option given I don't have the know-how or confidence to do that myself?!" I would given the overall expense of the laptop and the relatively small % it adds to that cost. It may help keep the CPU a few degrees cooler under load. You can have your choice of temp monitoring software, e.g. https://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/ which can monitor CPU and GPU temps and log them to a file.

4) Upgrading storage and RAM in most laptops (including the Octane) is usually pretty straightforward. You shouldn't expect to be able to upgrade much else however, e.g. CPU or GPU - those you'll quite possibly be stuck with. However, as they're not soldered to the motherboard in the extremely unlikely event that they break it should be possible to have them removed and replaced without having to basically replace the whole laptop. This is one of the advantages of the Octanes imo.

 

[wincha]

You can choose which drive do you want them to install the OS on.

For the ram, it's absolutely no need to go over 16GB of ram if you're just aim to game on it. Basically only video editing like using Adobe PR & AE will use more than 16GB of ram, and that's talking about a serious project. But be aware that if you just order 2 rams like me (2 x 8GB), they will just install them in the slots on the bottom side but not the slots under the keyboard, you'll have to tear it down to get access to the slots under the keyboard later if you want to install more ram on it.

About the temperature, my 15.6" Octane III with 6700k & 1070 is not that hot even I've overclocked both the CPU and GPU. My 6700k is running at 4.4GHz with stock voltage and the 1070 is 185MHz increased on core clock, 200MHz increased on memory clock. The CPU runs around 75~85C under stress and the GPU never go over 75C in an hour test of running heaven benchmark. I might be able to get the temperature a bit lower either idle or user stress as I'm using the standard thermal paste for still (tbh it just arrived for 2 days, quite busy atm. I've only opened the bottom plate to make sure everything looks good and don't have time to tear it all the way down to redo the paste but so far it's working good now)

I don't think it's so complicate to upgrade it. It's basically the same layout with the Clevo P750DM, you can google the complete tear down guide quite easily. As long as the bios support the hardware installed, you'll be able to upgrade it by yourself (I'm taking about the 7th gen Intel core here as the socket are the same =P)

 

[Neo]

Thank you for replies. It's now ordered:

Chassis & Display
Octane Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-6700k (4.0GHz) 8MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
32GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 - 8.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1, G-SYNC
1st Hard Disk
960GB HyperX SAVAGE 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD BLACK 2.5" WD10JPLX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1100MB/W)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Power Supply
1 x 230W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ WIRELESS-AC 1535 M.2 GAMING 802.11AC + BLUETOOTH 4.1
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS, 2 x USB 3.1 PORTS, 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Battery
Octane Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (82WH)
Keyboard Language
OCTANE SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 10 (64-bit) Home DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Google Chrome™
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MP FULL HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Delivery
PCS EXTRA-CARE DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND - MON-FRI, PRE-NOON
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Promotional Item
FREE GEARS OF WAR 4 with select GTX 10 Series GPUs!

 

[Oussebon]

Looks nice.

If you're only gaming, you could amend your order to be 16gb RAM. There will be literally no benefit to more than that since your computer won't even need the full 16gb for games, even if you have quite a few tabs and stuff open in the background.

 

[Neo]

I did consider the answers above and my thinking was:

1. I will be keeping it a long long time before further upgrade so it might however unlikely help future proof it a little.
2. I like having the option of being potentially able to do video editing if I ever wanted to.
3. The price difference between the 16 and the 32 when compared to this type of overall laptop spend was negligable


For info: for anyone else ordering; the samsung m.2 is out of stock atm. I wonder how long it will take for more stock to become available ?

 

[cavedw]

I did consider the answers above and my thinking was:

1. I will be keeping it a long long time before further upgrade so it might however unlikely help future proof it a little.
2. I like having the option of being potentially able to do video editing if I ever wanted to.
3. The price difference between the 16 and the 32 when compared to this type of overall laptop spend was negligable


For info: for anyone else ordering; the samsung m.2 is out of stock atm. I wonder how long it will take for more stock to become available ?

I was in your shoes a little while ago, thinking about 32 over 16 gb ram. I opted for 32 in the end. As you mention, the price differential may be palatable.
I ran a 16gb laptop for 8 months. I have a couple environments running, a few VM's and one game. 16gb just didnt cut it. I dont like running an insanely large paging file on ssd disks either. Seems a bit counterproductive.

32gb will keep most workloads in RAM. Then you can rid yourself of pesky paging disks and also disable hibernate. Another collosal waste of disk space and use.

I put this machine to sleep, and never turn it off. In sleep the battery should give you about 4 days. No need for hibernate. No start up time

 

[Oussebon]

I have a couple environments running, a few VM's and one game. 16gb just didnt cut it.

No kidding, you were running a game and a few VMs

If it's just gaming, by the time games need that much RAM on very high settings the rest of the laptop won't be powerful enough to run them on those settings anyway. There's no futureproofing value really. But if those £124 seem like loose change and you might maybe be working on pretty large video editing projects, then its your money to spend for sure.

I would suggest 2400MHz RAM since it's an option (not sure if I'd seen that it was when originally posting, I think they added it quite recently). At 32gb capacity it increases the cost by 'only' £40 and might actually improve performance a bit in a lot of games: http://www.hardwareunboxed.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1570 and quite a lot in some games. Sorry for not mentioning earlier.

 

[cavedw]

No kidding, you were running a game and a few VMs

I concede... you make a very good point.

 

[Neo]

No kidding, you were running a game and a few VMs

If it's just gaming, by the time games need that much RAM on very high settings the rest of the laptop won't be powerful enough to run them on those settings anyway. There's no futureproofing value really. But if those £124 seem like loose change and you might maybe be working on pretty large video editing projects, then its your money to spend for sure.

I would suggest 2400MHz RAM since it's an option (not sure if I'd seen that it was when originally posting, I think they added it quite recently). At 32gb capacity it increases the cost by 'only' £40 and might actually improve performance a bit in a lot of games: http://www.hardwareunboxed.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1570 and quite a lot in some games. Sorry for not mentioning earlier.

Thanks for the tip! I have amended my order to include:
32GB HyperX IMPACT 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB) - as you say the £39 extra is not a lot.

Also as the 256GB Samsung M.2 was out of stock I also changed that to: 512GB SAMSUNG SM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3200MB/R, 1700MB/W)

 

[Neo]

I was in your shoes a little while ago, thinking about 32 over 16 gb ram. I opted for 32 in the end. As you mention, the price differential may be palatable.
I ran a 16gb laptop for 8 months. I have a couple environments running, a few VM's and one game. 16gb just didnt cut it. I dont like running an insanely large paging file on ssd disks either. Seems a bit counterproductive.

32gb will keep most workloads in RAM. Then you can rid yourself of pesky paging disks and also disable hibernate. Another collosal waste of disk space and use.

I put this machine to sleep, and never turn it off. In sleep the battery should give you about 4 days. No need for hibernate. No start up time

Thanks for this info. Useful to know