Help Please Optimus 17.3

[ASHENTI]

• Hi. I have ordered this configuration and after reading several people experiencing severe overheating on this model I am a little nervous. The mods on here are great and I would appreciate any advice. I am at my limit in terms of cost and wanted to make sure I am getting the best I can afford. However if the laptop is going to have severe overheating issues then it's back to square one. Any advice/help greatly appreciated.
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PCSPECIALIST.CO.UK SPECIFICATION

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Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 10750H (2.6GHz, 5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2060 - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st Storage Drive
1TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 3 in 1 Card Reader (Full Size SD / SDHC / SDXC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 180W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery
Optimus Series 46WH Lithium Ion Battery
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
2 Channel High Def. Audio + THX Spatial Audio
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x USB 3.1 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.1 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language
OPTIMUS SERIES RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS & UK OFFSHORE ISLANDS / N IRELAND
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
Price: £0.00 including VAT and Delivery

• https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/why-buy/#iso

 

[SpyderTracks]

There was one poster recently where the fans weren't kicking in appropriately with temps which suggested a hardware / BIOS issue and they were advised to contact PCS for an RMA.

But other than that I'm not aware of any heat issues on the chassis? Can you link to the threads you've seen?

 

[Grinty]

Hi Ashenti. I've got a much older model of Optimus (the Mk II from 8-9 years ago). Your model has a 180W power brick, which is twice as large as mine so that's potentially twice as much heating. On the other hand I can see from the pictures that the latest Optimus has four vents instead of the one that I've got, so there's obviously been more effort put into getting that extra heat out.

The best advice I can give is to make sure there's plenty of free air under your laptop (say 2-3 inches between your laptop and whatever it's resting on) and don't let anything cover the fan intakes. I really wouldn't recommend resting it on your lap or any other soft surface. In my case I've got it propped up with a soft drinks can in each corner, which looks ridiculous but puts it at a comfortable height for me to type on. I'm sure there are better looking solutions available!

 

[ASHENTI]

Hi GRINTY. Thank you for the post. Not sure about the cans!! I am just a little nervous spending that amount of money and it overheating!! I guess I will just have to see how it goes.

 

[ASHENTI]

Hi Spyder

There was one poster recently where the fans weren't kicking in appropriately with temps which suggested a hardware / BIOS issue and they were advised to contact PCS for an RMA.

But other than that I'm not aware of any heat issues on the chassis? Can you link to the threads you've seen?

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/threads/fans-not-speeding-up-when-hot.68567/ Thanks for the reply Spyder. That's the link to the thread that's made me a little nervous. What's your thoughts?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hi Spyder


https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/threads/fans-not-speeding-up-when-hot.68567/ Thanks for the reply Spyder. That's the link to the thread that's made me a little nervous. What's your thoughts?

Ah, yes, I do remember that one.

The laptop isn't overheating, there's plenty of thermal headroom left on the CPU.

It's just that there's ample fan power availability left to cool it further that isn't automatically triggered.

But there's no performance impact with it, it's just some people (myself included) expect fans to automatically adjust with temps, but on that chassis (perhaps to keep costs low) it's a manual process for setting the fan curve. If you see post number 17 in that thread, once applying the manual fan boosts (there's a button above the keyboard to poll through fan power settings), then the temps reduce an awful lot to very respectable temps:

Fans not speeding up when hot

Hi there, Im new to pc gaming and recently purchased the Optimus XI Pro, it works great but theres one thing bugging me, temperatures when playing games have gotten as high as 94 degrees. I expect it to get hot but the fans don't increase with the heat. I have to manually boost the fan using...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

It is a budget chassis, so compromises I guess have to be made.

 

[ASHENTI]

Hi Spyder. That's great you've put my mind at ease. So you think the laptop is working as it should and its a case of manually putting on the fans then? I assume the easiest way is when playing games to just manually max the fan for the duration?

Just on the specs of my machine, does it look capable enough gaming laptop or is there anything that jumps out at you that you would maybe change? Sorry for the questions but I am new to all this and although I've researched before I bought I always like to hear from someone with more expertise than myself. Thanks again.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hi Spyder. That's great you've put my mind at ease. So you think the laptop is working as it should and its a case of manually putting on the fans then? I assume the easiest way is when playing games to just manually max the fan for the duration?

Yes, absolutely, when gaming or anything intensive, just set the fans to max or play about and find out where they can be set to still offer cooling whilst being quieter if that's important.

It's a good build, well balanced.

It's worth trying for an M2 as the primary drive, just try configuring one of the PCS ones and see how much more expensive it is (I don't think it's that much), if it's within budget, it's a worthwhile change. If you can't, don't worry, it's not going to affect gaming performance at all, the drive you've configured will still be perfectly adequate.

Remove bullguard, it can cause issues and actually windows defender which comes with windows is better anyway.

Up the warranty to silver for £5er, extends return to base to 1 year from 1 month, well worth it.

 

[ASHENTI]

Hi Spyder. Thank you for all your help, you've definitely put my mind at ease.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hi Spyder. Thank you for all your help, you've definitely put my mind at ease.

No problem, glad it helped

 

[ASHENTI]

Spyder one more question!! I have upgraded to silver plan, as you said it was a no brainer. Whilst I was doing that I noticed there is an option to request no anti virus to be pre installed. My build comes with a free month of bullguard. Would I be better asking for no free anti virus be installed and simply use windows defender and download free Malwarebytes?

Thanks in advance.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Spyder one more question!! I have upgraded to silver plan, as you said it was a no brainer. Whilst I was doing that I noticed there is an option to request no anti virus to be pre installed. My build comes with a free month of bullguard. Would I be better asking for no free anti virus be installed and simply use windows defender and download free Malwarebytes?

Thanks in advance.

Yes, absolutely, windows defender is actually better anyway. Paired with malware bytes it’s a bulletproof combination

 

[ASHENTI]

As always, many thanks!!