Review for the Vyper 17

[spectre]

This is my review of the Vyper 17 that I got a last week.

I'd like to preface this post by saying that I don't really know much about gaming laptops and this was my first gaming laptop purchase, so some of the things I find problematic might be a fairly normal thing in these kinds of laptops. This is just my impression of this laptop after a few days of use.

Below are the specs of the laptop:

Chassis & Display
Vyper Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor 10875H (2.3GHz, 5.1GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2070 - 8.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB INTEL® 660p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 1800MB/sR | 1800MB/sW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated Micro-SD Memory Card Reader
AC Adaptor
1 x 230W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Battery
Vyper Series Integrated 91WH Lithium Ion Battery
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x THUNDERBOLT 3 PORT + 3 x USB 3.1 PORTS
Keyboard Language
VYPER 17 SERIES RGB BACKLIT USA KEYBOARD
Operating System
Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
US International/USA - US English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Supplied on USB Drive
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM

Review:

Pros:
-Very fast
-Decent size. I've seen some big laptops but this is not one of them
-Display looks good

Cons:
-Drivers from the PCS support simply didn't work and the laptop didn't feel ready to use, e.g. the 'Battery' icon in the bottom left didn't show any menu where you could go and change the brightness. I had to look for them myself. It was a bit of a headache but I managed to install all the important drivers. Everything's working fine now.
-Fans are very loud. Even if I'm doing something not very resource intensive like watching a video the fans sometimes crank up to what appears to be the maximum speed. Again, maybe that's normal with these laptops.
-During gaming some parts of the keyboard become a bit hot.
-Integrated Camera placement is pretty bad. I would say the camera is almost unusable, especially if you want to use it for any formal/professional occasion. But I don't care about the camera so it's not a big deal for me.

Summary:

The pros greatly outweigh the cons. For me, it's well worth the purchase.

Pictures:

 

[ubuysa]

Thanks for the review.

Which drivers did you have to install? That's really bad, the laptop is supposed to be fully setup by PCS. If it wasn't they need to know.

I'm not sure what you mean by the battery icon at bottom left for changing the brightness? Do you mean on on-screen icon?

 

[spectre]

Honestly, I don't even remember now. I just downloaded all the files from the page and ran them, and for several drivers the setup just failed with the error message along the lines of 'This driver isn't suitable for any device on this computer' or 'Failed to install driver'. It is possible that the installation was failing because the drivers were already installed, but that's not what the error messages said and I think the setup would fail even after a fresh installation of Windows. I then downloaded a couple of open source programs that install drivers automatically. They installed, I believe, around 15 uninstalled/outdated drivers.

I meant this icon

Normally when you click it a menu is supposed to appear where you can either go to Power Options or there's a slider with which you can control the brightness. Nothing happened when I clicked it.

This isn't a big enough issue for me to contact support, and I've read threads on the forums saying that the end user is expected to install/update drivers. Everything is working seamlessly now, so I have no complaints.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Honestly, I don't even remember now. I just downloaded all the files from the page and ran them, and for several drivers the setup just failed with the error message along the lines of 'This driver isn't suitable for any device on this computer' or 'Failed to install driver'. It is possible that the installation was failing because the drivers were already installed, but that's not what the error messages said and I think the setup would fail even after a fresh installation of Windows. I then downloaded a couple of open source programs that install drivers automatically. They installed, I believe, around 15 uninstalled/outdated drivers.

I meant this icon View attachment 17312

Normally when you click it a menu is supposed to appear where you can either go to Power Options or there's a slider with which you can control the brightness. Nothing happened when I clicked it.

This isn't a big enough issue for me to contact support, and I've read threads on the forums saying that the end user is expected to install/update drivers. Everything is working seamlessly now, so I have no complaints.

Have you got control center installed?

 

[spectre]

Have you got control center installed?

Yes, but I haven't really used it yet (except to disable the lighting on the keyboard).

 

[SpyderTracks]

Yes, but I haven't really used it yet (except to disable the lighting on the keyboard).

So long as it’s installed that’s all I was checking. You know about the fan adjustment button for different modes, ie gaming, office etc.

 

[spectre]

So long as it’s installed that’s all I was checking. You know about the fan adjustment button for different modes, ie gaming, office etc.

I do now. And that definitely wasn't the maximum fan speed that I was hearing before because I turned on Fan Boost and wow, that is really loud.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I do now. And that definitely wasn't the maximum fan speed that I was hearing before because I turned on Fan Boost and wow, that is really loud.

Yeah, it will be loud at full pelt.

 

[as678]

pc never update driver！🤔

 

[PhilHibbs]

The 17” Vyper on the web site is magnesium chassis but your pictures are black chassis, is this a different model? Key layout is different too. Yours has a \ key by the Z.

 

[SpyderTracks]

The 17” Vyper on the web site is magnesium chassis but your pictures are black chassis, is this a different model? Key layout is different too. Yours has a \ key by the Z.
View attachment 17731

That keyboard is the US layout which is different. it is magnesium, just coloured black.

if I’m not mistaken, the op still has the protective covering in place in their photos.

 

[TheMash]

I meant this icon View attachment 17312

Normally when you click it a menu is supposed to appear where you can either go to Power Options or there's a slider with which you can control the brightness. Nothing happened when I clicked it.

This isn't a big enough issue for me to contact support, and I've read threads on the forums saying that the end user is expected to install/update drivers. Everything is working seamlessly now, so I have no complaints.

That is the power management icon and has nothing to do with brightness adjustment.
The slider on the battery pop-up is to choose the power scheme for your laptop, which in case you select the battery saver mode, just dim the brightness to save battery.
Brightness adjust has always been in the action center of Windows 10, on the right (windows key + A).


In 25 years of IT I've never used third party, open-source, software to install drivers. I'd advise to avoid using them unless they're from trusted companies.
Sometimes with a fresh install of Windows some background installs are going on and if you try to install something such as drivers, you could end with errors and something like that.
Sometimes is better to do a proper clean install (USB drive with error free Windows ISO image "burnt" using Rufus tool) and reboot after a while of the first Windows login has been done, to make sure the system is sorted out.