Eurocom - P5 Pro (P751ZM)

This is a review of the Canadian Clevo vendor Eurocom.

But first…

A brief background:
I’ve been in the market for a new laptop since the summer of 2014. Originally, I was eyeing the MSI gt60 barebones notebook due to its 95% gamut screen option, triple raid ssd storage, superior sound quality, and customizable CPU+GPU. Unfortunately, by the time I was ready to order, the wide gamut screens were no longer available at most Clevo resellers. Then, rumours of the GTX 980M being really close to release started circulating. By the time it actually did come out (October), the notebook I wanted was being replaced by a new line of soldered-only CPU models that I had no interest in. So I turned my eyes towards the next big thing - Clevo P751ZM, which Eurocom sells as the P5 Pro!

Eurocom experience
There are several reasons for choosing Eurocom over the competition:
- Eurocom’s date for the P751ZM was earlier than the other resellers
- They offer components that other resellers do not (2133Mhz RAM for example)
- Educational Program 10% discount
- Canadian-based, so no import taxes since I’m currently in Canada

At first, I was a bit apprehensive to order from Eurocom because of their reputation here on Notebook Review. However, over the months of waiting for the release of the notebook, I noticed Eurocom representatives here on the forums making an effort to improve. I contacted them by email to test the waters a bit more and they were very fast to reply with the information I needed. So based on my observations, and the above bullet points, I decided to give them a chance and placed my order with them on December 30th.

The order was processed on January 5th, which is understandable given the holiday season. The email communication to arrange payment and related procedures was very pleasant, with sales department being very quick to reply. To my surprise, they even offered me an upgrade to the Sharp 4K display! I’ve seen other users on this forum get various bonuses from resellers, but I honestly wasn’t expecting it so that was a really nice gesture.

And then… a period of silence ensued. It seems that Eurocom does not do step-by-step build updates. So if you want to know how your order is progressing you have to send them an email. I waited until January 16th before my impatience got the best of me and I asked them for an update. It turned out that they had actually already shipped it on the 12th! It seems they forgot to send me a shipping confirmation and tracking number.

The package arrived on the 20th. But unfortunately they had sent the wrong AC adaptor. I ordered the 330W one but the notebook arrived with a 230W one instead. A quick email on the next day and Eurocom immediately replied with an invoice and tracking number for the new 330W adaptor, which is still in transit at the time of this writing and is expected to arrive on Tuesday evening.

As for the build quality itself, I’m still in the process of evaluating the machine so I might update this post later on if any other vendor-related issues arise. But one thing to note is that Eurocom does not have an option to pick a thermal compound. So it seems they used the stock Intel paste, which is inadequate for cooling the desktop CPU in this model.

In conclusion, I am very happy with the purchase and would recommend Eurocom for their responsiveness and service. My suggestions for improvement are:
- Update the customer on the current stage of the order without them having to ask for it
- Add the option for other thermal compounds besides the stock one

Thank you!

 

Thanks for the feedback! I just wanted to reply about your two suggestions.

1. We're trying our best to provide more fluid updates for all our customers (Order placed > In production > Shipped)! Sorry we missed the mark for you.

2. We don't use stock thermal paste, we wipe it off and apply IC Diamond thermal paste at no additional cost. This is applied on all our units and is based on IC Diamond being the best performer on our machines as tested by the R&D team.

 

That's ok, I already knew about that from other feedbacks so I was waiting patiently for the shipping confirmation Your response to emails has been amazingly fast and very helpful!

That's a bit disappointing then, as my own intensive testing lead to thermal throttling results at stock speed, which I would not expect to occur with a high grade compound such as IC diamond...

 

I wish that was better advertised. I opted for a Sager because it didn't look like there was a thermal paste upgrade. I originally was looking at Eurocom because of the student discount.

 

Yep, that was the first thing I tried. It was not enough to stop throttling with extremely intensive CPU programs though. There's more testing going on in the owner's lounge thread. Maybe a bios update will help. It's possible the throttling may be occurring due to wrong temperature signals being sent.

Also, this is the P5, not M5. The difference is kinda huge as the P5 houses a desktop processor rather than a mobile one.

 

It's temperature. Goes to 99-100C on prime95, then cools down to 93-96 when it starts throttling.
This is in normal ambient temps so I'm fairly concerned what will happen when I need to do real cpu intensive tasks in hot countries such as Greece and Spain that I visit often (36-45C ambient temps in the summer)

 

Yep, all my testing is in the owner's thread.