NOVA - Rzyen9 3900's Review with Linux Installed

[VPATEL]

Hello everyone,
I would like to give a review of my NOVA 15 and here is the config below:

Chassis & Display
Nova Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900 12 Core CPU (3.1GHz-4.3GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2060 - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)

Now, Its been over a month using NOVA with Manjaro i3.
First off, There was very smooth and fast Linux installation( took a min or 2).

About the computer itself, it works flawlessly. The Ryzen 9 3900 performance on Multithreading is great and all the CPU intensive simulations are very fast. However, on a single thread, the performance is good for normal use but the performance is kinda ok for running simulation.


The good points of this Nova :

• - Solid Build Quality, Sturdy and no flex near keyboad and trackpad.
  
• - Cheaper than regular high-end laptops on the market
• - Performance quality is close to a Desktop PC
• - compatible with Manjaro Linux however, I don't see any problem working with other Distros.
• - Linux supported Control Centre package/software also work well. (Sorry can't mention the name because of the different Laptop provider. PM me to ask the details)

The less good points of this Nova :

- Fan Noise is little bit anoying but it's only when running Simulations (especially hours long Simulations). However, at normal use, the CPU TEMP is around 60 -70C and fan is silent with the help of control centre profile. So it's an acceptcable Trade-off.

- The Keyboard Freezing: The laptop is still running but any key, trackpad and power button included, is not working. However, the external keyboard and mouse works fine. It happens only when I am running long simulations on all threads with 100% CPU usage (and also when I ran CineBench or UserBench on windows before installing Linux)

• - The NOVA shuts down automatically only when it's on Battery while running a small Python Simulation (of few mins) on all Cores. I don't know if this is an issue or a Default Bios setting from PCS Like a fail safe to shutdown the NOVA on the battery when it's on 90 - 100% CPU usage. It shutdown immediately once the simulation is started after 5-10 sec. And once you restart the System, all the core will run on 2.1 GHz. The system works fine after restarting again and also pluging the power cord. (this happend in both Windows and Linux)
  

Benchmark Reults:

GeekBench Result is Here.(on Linux)
UserBenchmark Result is Here. (on windows)
CineBench Result is in the attached Image.(on windows)

To conclude, I can recommend this DTR for everyone that needs a high-end CPU performance laptop at a simalar price range in comparison to high-end laptops on the market, but with far better performace becasue of Desktop CPU.

 

[demon28]

Great Review, Thanks for sharing your experience! You can try experimenting with manual mode in Ryzen master and manual fan mode in CCC to counteract the loud fan noise and high heat during continuous load. It might be less effective with the 3900 than it is with my 3600(yours is a completely different beast) but it can lead to decreased noise without minimal, if any, multi core performance difference. You would be however sacrificing your single core performance as your CPU's single core Turbo boost is much higher than the all core one.

 

[VPATEL]

Great Review, Thanks for sharing your experience! You can try experimenting with manual mode in Ryzen master and manual fan mode in CCC to counteract the loud fan noise and high heat during continuous load. It might be less effective with the 3900 than it is with my 3600(yours is a completely different beast) but it can lead to decreased noise without minimal, if any, multi core performance difference. You would be however sacrificing your single core performance as your CPU's single core Turbo boost is much higher than the single thread one.

Thanks for the Info, however, its not possible to do so because I only have Manjaro installed.
So ryzen master and CCC is not supported for Linux.
The Linux alternative software has limited options but it works.

 

[VPATEL]

Hello Guys,


While doing normal office work, my keyboard is freezing. This happened now twice in an hour.

The Keyboard Freezing: The laptop is still running but any key and power button included, is not working.
However, the external mouse and keyboard work fine.
As I am using Manjaro i3, it's annoying when the keyboard is not responding properly.

Btw, I have windows 10 on the virtual box and the NOVA keyboard is also freezing and not responding. ( I had this same issue when I first received the NOVA with preinstall windows.

Did I get the defective keyboard? If so then, what is the procedure to get it replaced?

Someone has also had this issue https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/threads/nova-15-6-keyboard-freezing.73035/

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hello Guys,


While doing normal office work, my keyboard is freezing. This happened now twice in an hour.

The Keyboard Freezing: The laptop is still running but any key and power button included, is not working.
However, the external mouse and keyboard work fine.
As I am using Manjaro i3, it's annoying when the keyboard is not responding properly.

Btw, I have windows 10 on the virtual box and the NOVA keyboard is also freezing and not responding. ( I had this same issue when I first received the NOVA with preinstall windows.

Did I get the defective keyboard? If so then, what is the procedure to get it replaced?

Someone has also had this issue https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/threads/nova-15-6-keyboard-freezing.73035/

I would contact PCS and discuss it with them, it may be thermally related.

 

[FerrariVie]

I know it doesn't have anything to do with your keyboard issue, but why is your cinebench single-core performance so low? I can get around 460-470 on my Ryzen 3 3100. The multi-core seems about right, though.

 

[VPATEL]

I know it doesn't have anything to do with your keyboard issue, but why is your cinebench single-core performance so low? I can get around 460-470 on my Ryzen 3 3100. The multi-core seems about right, though.

Goddamit I uploaded the wrong image file.

I have run the Cinebench test twice when I had the test Windows 10, which was preinstalled from PCS.
There were two results however, I lost the image file of the good Cinebench score, as I just realized when you pointed it out.

This Single-core score is lower because my clock speed dropped drastically after a force restart by removing the battery when the whole system froze, the keys on the keyboard, mouse and the power button were not responding. I think even Multi-core score is also slightly lower in this case. I thought this happened may be due to test windows 10.
After a cold start, everything was back to normal.

After a fresh Linux installation, I did not see this type of behaviour.

Anyway, I have just run the single-core test in windows 10 from the virtual box. However, I can't run the Multi-core test because only 12 core is assigned to the windows 10 in the virtual box.

 

[FerrariVie]

Goddamit I uploaded the wrong image file.

I have run the Cinebench test twice when I had the test Windows 10, which was preinstalled from PCS.
There were two results however, I lost the image file of the good Cinebench score, as I just realized when you pointed it out.

This Single-core score is lower because my clock speed dropped drastically after a force restart by removing the battery when the whole system froze, the keys on the keyboard, mouse and the power button were not responding. I think even Multi-core score is also slightly lower in this case. I thought this happened may be due to test windows 10.
After a cold start, everything was back to normal.

After a fresh Linux installation, I did not see this type of behaviour.

Anyway, I have just run the single-core test in windows 10 from the virtual box. However, I can't run the Multi-core test because only 12 core is assigned to the windows 10 in the virtual box.

I get it, and using a virtual machine will also draw some resources by itself for the emulation, so not really true to the performance.

 

[hogfish]

As others had said, thanks for the review.

Two quick questions: were you using the closed source nvidia driver, or nouveau for the RTX2060?
And have you tried to get cuda working? Under linux, of course.

 

[VPATEL]

As others had said, thanks for the review.

Two quick questions: were you using the closed source nvidia driver, or nouveau for the RTX2060?
And have you tried to get cuda working? Under linux, of course.

I am using the closed source NVidia driver.
No, I haven't yet.