Review: 15.6" Initia AMD - it came, it had to go back, now it's running splendidly.

[Heartfeltdawn]

Up to 2019, I'd always used PCs at home that I built myself. Bought my first laptop in 2019, a PCS Ultranote 15.6" with I5-8300H, MX250 GPU, 8GB. It's been an absolute workhorse for my music stuff running Reaper, Helix Native for guitar fun, Ableton Live for general tomfoolery. The desktop has been turned into a games machine (R5 3600, 16GB, GTX1660). Come December 2020 and lockdown 3, I decided it was time for another laptop so went the 15.6" Initia AMD (Clevo model NL51RU) . No OS, R7 4700u, 16GB, cheapest SSD and then I'll stick in my own m2 drive. I ordered on the 23rd of December, stock of the Initia wasn't expected until the 15th of January, and here I am now with it sat on the kitchen table next to my Ultranote installing W10 (note to mods: you convinced me on W10 Home!). So that's the first point: considering the worldwide demand & shortage of various computing bits and with me ordering over the holiday season in a pandemic, the total time to complete the order is superb. Top marks to PCS in that regard.

DPD arrived in their usual timely manner and the laptop is packaged immaculately. Onto the kitchen table with everything, a quick power on to see that it starts up fine... no problems there. Power down, and out with the toolkit. One screw had been stripped. None of the crossheads worked so out with the flat tip instead. Happily it came out but there was a slight Code Brown going on for a couple of minutes. Out with the stock SSD which will be used for something or other and in with an Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB M.2. Easy installation, case back on, in with the USB3 pen drive, and now to start installing W10.

Initial impressions were excellent. A little more bend in the keyboard than the Ultranote but I expected that. The Ultranote is a big dirty garbage truck by comparison to the sleek slim Initia (I like garbage trucks). Screen seems brighter than the Ultranote on first glance. Installed all the last updates, and then stuck LatencyMon on to see what the DPC latency was like in the stock setup before I start faffing with it. Mostly good, not running perfectly, but no surprises with the laptop. Definitely less latency issues stock than I had with the Ultranote. Oh. Now we have problems. I'm getting regular unexpected blue screen crashes. The crash are so quick that I can't actually read what the crashes are. Out with a full W10 reinstallation but set to offline account. Click on the Wifi. Then into Windows Update for all the usual updates... OK so far. I then log into my Ableton account and start to download Live Suite 10. Nope, stopped halfway through and crashed. Sigh. Tried again, got it downloaded, crashes during the installation process. Decide to get Memtest64 out and test them across all three of my computers. After 20 minutes, the i5-8300h Ultranote laptop has zero errors, the R5 3600 desktop has zero errors after 30 minutes, and my new laptop has 7 errors in 6 minutes.

Both ram sticks come out and get tested individually. Stick 1 in ram slot 1 tests fine. Stick 2 in ram slot 1 tests fine. Stick 1 in ram slot 2 doesn't test fine. Stick 2 in ram slot 2 doesn't test fine either. It tested so bad on this one, it didn't reach three minutes and then crashed. I've then just restarted the laptop and it's crashed as well. Oh dear. I'm testing it now as I type. So far we are up to 12 errors in 4 minutes. Summation:

Slot 1: errors every time with each stick of ram individually
Slot 2: errors every time with each stick of ram individually
Looks like I have a bad RAM slot.

A slight air of grumpiness came over me and I took myself off to the balcony for ten minutes.

Back to work! One stick on ram in slot 1: reinstall W10, no problem. Install Ableton Live 10 Suite, no problem. Am going to stress test it later and play with it some more.

At the minute, I think I'm going to keep it. Both sticks of RAM can go in my old laptop and I'll buy a 16GB stick to go in the new one.

So postives:

-screen
-general build quality
-trackpad is good and can't fault it for how it's operating now

Negatives:

-one duff RAM slot.

 

[ubuysa]

IMO that one duff RAM slot would be an immediate return from me. You have no idea why you have problems with that slot. It might just be a bad connection in the socket, but it could be an issue on the motherboard or indeed in the memory controller or even in the CPU. It may get worse with time and cause a major failure just as your warranty expires.

I would send it back if it were mine, near enough isn't good enough.

 

[Martinr36]

IMO that one duff RAM slot would be an immediate return from me. You have no idea why you have problems with that slot. It might just be a bad connection in the socket, but it could be an issue on the motherboard or indeed in the memory controller or even in the CPU. It may get worse with time and cause a major failure just as your warranty expires.

I would send it back if it were mine, near enough isn't good enough.

Yeah that sounds like a definite RMA to me as well

 

[Heartfeltdawn]

This is why I decided to sleep on it. You're right. It's a major fault and major faults aren't good enough. It's a shame because it runs beautifully now. Setting it up as a low DPC latency audio laptop has been very easy, very few tweaks needed.

I'll park the RMA in later.

 

[Martinr36]

This is why I decided to sleep on it. You're right. It's a major fault and major faults aren't good enough. It's a shame because it runs beautifully now. Setting it up as a low DPC latency audio laptop has been very easy, very few tweaks needed.

I'll park the RMA in later.

Let us know how it all goes

 

[Faster]

This is why I decided to sleep on it. You're right. It's a major fault and major faults aren't good enough. It's a shame because it runs beautifully now. Setting it up as a low DPC latency audio laptop has been very easy, very few tweaks needed.

I'll park the RMA in later.

How did you manage to set it up as a low DPC latency audio laptop? I have a Proteus VI by Quanta (NLCB) and I have some DPC latency issues. I can set very low latency and don't have any audio problem but occasionally I can hear some cracckles or pops. Even with a high buffersize, just listening to spotify, sometimes a little cracckle shows up. I have problems with the ACPI.sys and nvlddmmkm.sys. Thanks in advance

 

[Heartfeltdawn]

@Faster Will drop you a PM.

 

[Heartfeltdawn]

Update: PCS have done a full stress test for three hours and couldn't replicate the error. It will be coming back to me soon and so I will go for a full wipe of the stock PCS SSD and will reinstall W10 on there myself and see how it goes. If it passes the test, then I shall remove the SSD, reinstall my Adata m2 and try it from there.

If the system crashes out with an M2 and works fine with an SSD then it goes back.

Kudos to PCS for keeping me updated

 

[Heartfeltdawn]

In the space of 15 minutes this afternoon I've had:

-a DHL courier turn up with a laptop for me to send on to a friend, buzz the intercom, talk to me... and then run off without delivering.
-An email for work saying that I will be out of a job once furlough ends at the end of April.
-And then a new PCS RMA update.

After the first two, I was dreading the last but it's actually good.

"We have since been able to replicate the fault. We believe we have isolated the fault to the motherboard. We have since replaced the motherboard and begun an overnight system-wide stress test. Providing all tests are passed, and the issue is resolved, the system will be prepared for dispatch tomorrow. Thank you for your time. Kind regards."

Boom! This is excellent news! Thank you to everyone who said RMA was the right thing to do.

 

[Bhuna50]

In the space of 15 minutes this afternoon I've had:

-a DHL courier turn up with a laptop for me to send on to a friend, buzz the intercom, talk to me... and then run off without delivering.
-An email for work saying that I will be out of a job once furlough ends at the end of April.
-And then a new PCS RMA update.

After the first two, I was dreading the last but it's actually good.

"We have since been able to replicate the fault. We believe we have isolated the fault to the motherboard. We have since replaced the motherboard and begun an overnight system-wide stress test. Providing all tests are passed, and the issue is resolved, the system will be prepared for dispatch tomorrow. Thank you for your time. Kind regards."

Boom! This is excellent news! Thank you to everyone who said RMA was the right thing to do.

1. Are you sure the DHL man hasnt left it on the doorstep and someone has run off with it?

2. Sorry to hear your bad news.

3. Pleased to hear your good news.

 

[Heartfeltdawn]

Nope, it was a signed for delivery and the redelivery email went out. All arranged for tomorrow so I shall sit in the apartment foyer and wait for him to show his face.

2. Kinda expected. Hospitality is in dire straits. Gonna be a tough life as a head chef for the next year.

3. Me too!

 

[barlew]

Nope, it was a signed for delivery and the redelivery email went out. All arranged for tomorrow so I shall sit in the apartment foyer and wait for him to show his face.

2. Kinda expected. Hospitality is in dire straits. Gonna be a tough life as a head chef for the next year.

3. Me too!

Sounds like you are having a savage day but I'm glad PCS at least to replicate the fault. Test it again when you receive it and let us know how it goes.

 

[Heartfeltdawn]

The moment of truth arrived with DPD delivering before 9.30am on Friday morning. The kitchen table became a laptop zone with my old Ultranote, the new Initia, and an Honor Magicbook 14 bought to send on to a friend next week after I'd played with it.

Initia booted up fine with Windows installed on the stock PCS SSD. Flipped it over and started to unscrew it. As said in the first post, the screws really are bloody horrible. I have very decent screwdrivers and bits: I genuinely feel like I could tear these screws apart. Definitely going to find some better replacements. The bottom case came off very easily and the internals are nicely laid out. In with the Adata m2 drive, in with the USB stick, and time to install W10. No problems at all. The crashes I had previously have not been replicated at all in use so clearly a motherboard issue. Screen is still very good and the speakers are much better than those on the Ultranote. Bit more keyboard flex than the Ultranote, trackpads about equal.

Fan control is a definite issue out of the box. The Clevo Control Center associated with this Clevo model doesn't have the same profiling ability that I have with CCC on my older Ultranote. Obsidian Fan Control is now on there and does the job so I plopped Obsidian onto the Initia. Much better fan control now. Also disabled the turbo boost through RegEdit because I don't need hyper-out there performance. As an audio laptop mostly running straight up audio, samples, and limited virtual synths, having it running a bit cooler therefore with less fan noise is a good thing. This is a great contrast to the Magicbook which has a lousy fan profile and no apparent way of controlling it (more on that later).

DPC latency: without any tweaks, there were a couple of issues but I expected that. None of the issues were major or difficult to track down. Disabling the ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery and the Realtek family controller and tweaking the power settings (definitely install the chipset drivers from the Clevo website) is enough for the laptop to pass a two-hour LatencyMon test. Testing this laptop, the Honor Magicbook running an R5 3500u, and my Ryzen 5 3600 desktop over the last , all three required minimal tweaks to get DPC latency to a very low level, a big difference to my i5-8300H Ultranote which did require quite a bit of fiddling. By what I have read elsewhere in music forums, from what mods and others have said here, and from my own tests, anyone who wants an audio laptop and who doesn't want to use a Thunderbolt interface should go Ryzen in my opinion.

Now I've had a chance to get Reaper and Ableton Live on there, the performance is excellent. I use an RME Babyface Pro FS for my audio interface. RME are famed for writing the best audio drivers out there and this reputation is well earned. I've gigged with laptops, software, and MIDI floorboards before and my setup now is way way better than I was using then. I have no doubt that I could use this setup live and have no issues.

Conclusion: it's a quirk in timing that I have this at the same time as the Honor Magicbook as it allows me to compare and contrast two Ryzen 4000 laptops. The Initia isn't built quite as well as the Magicbook which really is top notch. That isn't to say the Initia is poorly constructed but the Honor really does have the wow factor. However the flaws of the Magocbook really exemplify what I like about PCS and Clevo: there's so much capacity for tinkering. No soldered RAM, loads of software options for tweaking this and that, fans you can actually control. It's a far cry from the pathetic driver support for the Honor. For my needs, PCS have delivered on price, quality, and flexibility twice now and I will almost certainly have another in the future. The Initia now feels like a laptop set up for what I want to do, namely audio and recording/sampling, rather than a laptop which could do it but isn't built for that purpose.

Price was £555 for a 16gb 4700u 128 SSD no Windows installed Initia delivered. Add in £110 for the Adata m2 drive bought and installed separately.

 

[FerrariVie]

How did you manage to set it up as a low DPC latency audio laptop? I have a Proteus VI by Quanta (NLCB) and I have some DPC latency issues. I can set very low latency and don't have any audio problem but occasionally I can hear some cracckles or pops. Even with a high buffersize, just listening to spotify, sometimes a little cracckle shows up. I have problems with the ACPI.sys and nvlddmmkm.sys. Thanks in advance

DPC latency: without any tweaks, there were a couple of issues but I expected that. None of the issues were major or difficult to track down. Disabling the ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery and the Realtek family controller and tweaking the power settings (definitely install the chipset drivers from the Clevo website) is enough for the laptop to pass a two-hour LatencyMon test. Testing this laptop, the Honor Magicbook running an R5 3500u, and my Ryzen 5 3600 desktop over the last , all three required minimal tweaks to get DPC latency to a very low level, a big difference to my i5-8300H Ultranote which did require quite a bit of fiddling. By what I have read elsewhere in music forums, from what mods and others have said here, and from my own tests, anyone who wants an audio laptop and who doesn't want to use a Thunderbolt interface should go Ryzen in my opinion.

Below is what solved DPC latency issues on my Clevo laptop, hope it helps other people with similar issues.

Edit these settings on your current windows power plan:

• Disabled USB settings > USB selective suspend settings > Plugged in: Disabled.
• Turn off PCI Express > Link State Power Management > Plugged in: Off.

Fan control is a definite issue out of the box. The Clevo Control Center associated with this Clevo model doesn't have the same profiling ability that I have with CCC on my older Ultranote. Obsidian Fan Control is now on there and does the job so I plopped Obsidian onto the Initia. Much better fan control now. Also disabled the turbo boost through RegEdit because I don't need hyper-out there performance. As an audio laptop mostly running straight up audio, samples, and limited virtual synths, having it running a bit cooler therefore with less fan noise is a good thing. This is a great contrast to the Magicbook which has a lousy fan profile and no apparent way of controlling it (more on that later).

I also use obsidian fan control and absolutely love it! But by uninstalling CCC, did you also lose some of the keyboard shortcuts? The ones related to sound and screen still work, but I've lost the shortcuts that control keyboard brightness and effects.

 

[Heartfeltdawn]

@FeVieira interesting on the latency front as I haven't altered the USB settings or PCI Express settings. It really is running absolutely rock solid with fewer tweaks than any system I've had since the days of Windows 7 and an Athlon CPU.

Yes, I did lose the keyboard shortcuts once I took CCC out. Just reinstalled it and so I have those shortcuts back and the fan control isn't taken away from Obsidian. Best of both worlds now

 

[FerrariVie]

Yes, I did lose the keyboard shortcuts once I took CCC out. Just reinstalled it and so I have those shortcuts back and the fan control isn't taken away from Obsidian. Best of both worlds now

Wow, really? I think I'll give it a try, then