HIDevolution order - EVOC P670RS-G

I finally decided to order my first Clevo laptop. After asking many questions on here I settled on the P670RS and decided to go with HIDevolution. I am going to update as I go through this process. So far so good.

I called to make sure they had the chassis in stock. Donald answered all of my questions and had some suggestions for me. Phenomenally knowledgeable. This is some of the best customer service I have experienced, and it's only the first step.

Here is the final configuration:

EVOC P670RS-G
- 17.3" Full HD (1920x1080) LG IPS FHD LED Antiglare Matte Type Display w/ NVIDIA G-Sync Technology
- nVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 w/ 8GB GDDR5
- 6th Generation Intel Core i7-6700HQ Quad Core Processor
- Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra 100% Metal Thermal Interface on CPU, IC Diamond on GPU
- 16GB (2 x 8GB) Dual Channel DDR4/2400MHz
- 500GB Samsung 850 EVO (3D VNAND TECH) M.2 SATA SSD
- Intel® Wireless-AC 8260 802.11 ac/a/b/g/n 2x2 NGFF w/ Bluetooth 4.2
- Genuine Windows® 10 Home, 64bit, English
- 3 Year HIDevolution Limited U.S. Warranty + LIFETIME HIDevolution Technical

I'm really excited to get my hands on it.

 

Congrats bro, you won't be disappointed, they have the best customer service

 

Ordered on 9/27. Payment confirmed on 9/28. Went into pre-production on 9/30. This is with rush processing, so without it would probably take longer.

I'm hopeful that I'll have it by the end of next week, which would be a really great turnaround time.

 

Awesome bro. HIDEvolution is very fast and have awesome quality control

 

Annoyingly HIDevolution was out of the Samsung 850 EVO and so it took a few days for them to get all of my parts. @Donald@HIDevolution kept me in the loop the entire time. 10/5 the laptop moved to the production phase, and then it was shipped the same day. Scheduled to arrive on 10/11. Really excited about it, and only in part because I am at the moment computer-less.

 

It finally arrived! First impressions:

Build quality is very solid. The machine is beautiful. And its BIG. I am coming from a 13" ultrabook, so that is to be expected, but still. It's huge. At the same time I'm surprised by how thin and light it is. It's thinner than my wife's 4-year-old 15" ThinkPad and weighs about as much. Overall very pleased.

I had only about two hours to play with it, so I updated windows, removed some MS software, etc. So far everything is good. It will be a few days until I can put it through its paces and really test it. Probably on the weekend. I'll update then.

 

Congrats bro! Hope the packaging was good

 

Everything was great! Very secure, no issues at all. I'm going to spend some time tonight going through all the hoops to configure Windows correctly. Then towards the end of the week do the partition on the main drive, etc. Need to get my nerve up to do the BIOS and EC update too. Then hopefully put it through its paces on the weekend.

 

@Phoenix but there is no Prema BIOS yet for this laptop, right? So for now I am trying to figure out if I should use the Sager or XMG BIOS or EC at all.

 

Not yet, the XMG BIOS is just a stock BIOS with the XMG logo and so is the Sager one, don't play with fire and brick your machine.

Please be patient for the official @Prema BIOS

 

This is good advice. Do not flash anything until the @Prema firmware is ready.

 

@Phoenix @Mr. Fox I guess I saw that the new updates from Sager and XMG fix some of the existing issues with external monitors and the fan profiles, but I will be patient and will wait for @Prema. Thanks for the heads up.

 

A Prema BIOS for this system is, at best, weeks and, at worst, months away.

If an update comes down from Clevo itself, I'd say go ahead and do it if there's something in there that addresses a specific issue you might be having.

 

Right, but I do not think Clevo usually puts out updates. The two that are available are from XMG and Sager. On one hand they seem to fix a few problems, which is nice but not absolutely critical. But on the other hand the updates are not from HIDevolution, so I am somewhat nervous in applying them.

 

HIDevolution only issues Prema updates for their customers not stock clevo BIOS updates unless you email them, they can get those updates for you straight from Clevo

They did that for me way back when they weren't a Prema partner to get an EC firmware update that fixes throttling at stock speeds on my first P870DM

This guy also posts stock Clevo BIOS(es) but be very careful to not flash anything that isn't for your exact model, there are separate BIOS(es) for GSYNC or non GSYNC taptops:

https://repo.palkeo.com/clevo-mirror/P6xxRS/

No BIOS from Clevo on that mirror yet for your system so best to email HIDevolution if you really want it.

On my first P870DM I did manage to flash the XMG BIOS onto my system but didn't like the logo so I removed it and went back to stock.

Best to wait for the Prema BIOS IMO

 

Thanks @Phoenix. My only concern is the fan tables that are fixed in the new EC. Right now it seems ok, but this weekend I will try to run some games for a while and see if it causes any problem. Other issues do not concern me as much. If things seem like they need fixing I'll get in touch wtih someone from HIDevolution.

 

Does your current Control Center have the built in CPU overclocking utility?

Part of me thinks the problem is this. You see, we P870DM owners have a problem where if we install Intel XTU, the fan tables get messed up and they would spin up randomly for no reason even if the system is idle. So the solution is to never use XTU and only a full format would fix this not just uninstalling XTU.

The reason I mention this is because the later Control Center have XTU built in as you will see from your startup processes/services so a quick tip might be to format and then install an older Control Center which you know for a fact doesn't contain XTU by checking the startup items after you install it. once you are sure it's clean from XTU, then format and install that control center.

just a thought

 

@Phoenix It does have XTU built into the CCC. So perhaps this is the problem, I don't know. On the other hand a lot of people seem to have been able to flash the new EC from XMG and report that it fixes the problem. To be honest I am not thrilled with the idea of reformatting the entire system. I'm worried I would not do something right or would forget to install something afterwards that would mess some things up.

 

I understand, formatting is very tedious.

If it's really bothering you, just get in touch HIDevolution that way if anything goes wrong, it's still covered under warranty

 

Ok, so I had some time to put the computer through its paces over the weekend. Here's the report.

First, I ended up reinstalling Windows and all drivers. My own fault - I initially messed up account creation and wanted to "do it right." Big thanks to @Phoenix for the help there.

I stress tested the CPU with Prime95 for about 15 minutes, temperatures maxed out at 63C. I then used ThrottleStop to undervolt the CPU by -50mV. Now the temperatures top out at 58C. So five degrees better and everything is stable.

I ran Unigine Valley benchmark. Score is 2863, although I have no idea what that means. Most importantly, the GPU temperature topped out at 68C and the CPU temperature at 58C again. So hey, temperatures seem really great. I'll report some more after longish gaming sessions.

In order to work ThrottleStop has to be running the entire time, right? So I should set it up to start up whenever the computer starts up and then just let it do its thing in the background? @unclewebb. Is there a way to have it show only in the system tray rather than along the bottom in the taskbar?

So far everything really is pretty great.

 

On the main ThrottleStop screen is Task Bar checked? Make sure that box is clear. If you have any problems, send me a message.

 

Awesome bro. How would you rate HIDevolution's service?

 

Thank you @unclewebb such an easy fix that I just didn't see!

So far HIDevolution has been great @Phoenix. @Donald@HIDevolution helped me place the order and talked with me about a lot of the options. I had done a lot of research ahead of time and was pretty certain of what I wanted, but if that were not the case I think a conversation with him could be extremely useful. When I asked for the drivers they sent them to me right away with no problems.

There is so far no EC or BIOS update from HIDevolution and they suggested I not use the Sager or XMG ones. I don't use an external monitor, so no big loss there. My fans do spin up very loud on startup and sometimes do so at seemingly random moments. I think this is the problem the new EX from XMG is supposed to fix, but it is not so annoying. I think I will wait for an update from HIDevolution and/or @Prema.

Played Rebel Galaxy for a while over the weekend. Not exactly the most demanding game, but it does look beautiful with ultra settings. Not a sweat from the machine - temps stayed in the 50s on the GPU.

 

How's your laptop bro?

 

So far everything seems great. Maybe even better.

The quality of the laptop is very good. Solid build, very comfortable. I wish the keyboard was a tiny bit larger - I keep missing the zero key, but I will get used to it. The screen I got is great - there is no light bleed at all, and everything looks fantastic on it. The size at 17 inches is HUGE compared to my old 13 inch Lenovo. I like it - it feels like a proper desktop replacement and not a halfsies compromise. Glad I went with the 670 rather than the 650.

At your suggestion I wiped the drive after installing XTU and reinstalled Windows and everything else. Surprisingly easy today. I remember in the late 90s this was not such an easy process. Installed the drivers in the right order and everything seems to work great. There is still a process called XTUservies or something like that though - I think it is part of Clevo CC as you said? In ProgramFiles(x86) there is a folder for Intel and Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, but it does not appear in CCleaner or anywhere else. Is there any worries that it will conflict with ThrottleStop or anything else like that? And is there a way to get rid of it completely?

Speaking of ThrottleStop, I ended up undervolting the CPU by -150v. Tested with Prime95 for half hour or so and seems stable. I don't want to push my luck so will probably leave it there. Once Prema BIOS comes out I will be able to do most of this in the BIOS and will not need ThrottleStop, right?

I just received a new BIOS from HID, the .04 one. Have not yet flashed it. I've been trying to figure out what the latest EC version for the laptop is, since some places have suggested making sure to flash the EC before BIOS. Right now I have the .02 version of EC.

I can definitely hear the fans whining noise in a quiet room even when browsing the web, etc. Temperatures are usually in the 30s during this, so I am not sure the fans are really necessary. Maybe I didn't notice it before since usually my wife is watching TV when I use the laptop. The Clevo CC is really an awful piece of software to try to configure anything correctly. Is there a better utility to deal with fans? Maybe the BIOS update will help.

Performance - wise this is a beast. But that's to be expected. The GTX 1070 doesn't break a sweat on ultra settings on the games I run - Skyrim, Civ V, Pillars of Eternity. Pretty much exactly what I wanted - to be able to play these kinds of games now and into the future with great graphics.

At times there have been hiccups. For example the ThrottleStop tray icon disappeared and I had to find a utility that resets the cash for those. During one of the installs Windows created a second recovery partition, and I chose to re-install to make sure I had only one and it was the right one. Obviously the mistake of installing XTU at the very beginning and then having to remove it and reinstall everything. Etc. These are learning experiences I guess - it has really been more than a decade since I have spent a lot of time dealing with the nitty gritty of computer setup. It's nice to be able to spend some time with this, but obviously may be frustrating to people looking for a perfectly working machine out of the box that requires no fiddling.

@Phoenix thanks again for the encouragement and all of the answers and suggestions.

 

You need the older version which does not contain the built in OC utility and XTU: Control Center AP v5.0001.0.50

I'm afraid if you still have the issue of the fans randomly spinning up while just surfing the web, you will need to do an EC reset followed by an immediate format and reinstallation of Windows without even booting again into the old Windows that contained XTU so it won't mess up the fan tables again

that's a good undervolt for stock speeds, for a 4.4 GHz on all cores, a good undervolt would be -80mV

BUT you have to do the undervolt on both the CPU and Cache AKA Ring to get those temps down not only on the CPU

Please do not run Prime95 or Furmark unless you want to fry your taptop

That question has to go to HIDevolution's support as I don't have your same laptop so I can't answer that

Just install the older Clevo Control Center that I linked above after a full format and NVRAM Reset and you will be fine.

If you have an Intel WLAN Card, please see this thread, it has the solution:
Apps not loading on startup in Windows 10 [SOLVED]

 

Thanks @Phoenix

I am trying to figure out if the fans are to do with XTU or not. It is not like they ramp up to maximum the way some people have reported. More like they are running on very low even when just browsing the web. So maybe this is normal? Or do you think this is because of the stupid XTU issue?

Resetting NVRAM requires opening the laptop up and doing something on the motherboard, right? Honestly I am not thrilled with the idea of having to do that. If it was just a matter of another clean Windows install and never touching Clevo CC past version .50 that would be another matter.

I'll stay away from Prime95 then. It was suggested on here I think as a stress test for the CPU. Is there something else I should use to check that the undervolt is stable? I have the 6700HQ and so I'm not overclocking it - it goes to 3.5 on one core and 3.1 on all four cores I think.

Weirdly it doesn't seem like the apps are not loading - it seems like the icons are just missing! For example, with TS if I were to try to open it, it would open immediately, as if returning from being minimized. But in the tray there is no icon for it. Running the utility that cleaned the cash seems to have done it, but I'll bookmark the page with the instructions for how to install just the Intel driver. I'll check this weekend if it is causing any problems.

Thanks.

 

Check in CCC that your fans are set to Automatic not overclocking profile!

Prime95 tortures the CPU in a way that doesn't represent a regular user's usage scenarios and might harm your CPU

Use AIDA64 Extreme, run it, then right click on the icon in the taskbar, then tools, then system stability, let it run for 3-5 mins and record the max temps using HWiNFO running on the side (sensors only)

Example:

 

It is set to overclocking actually. I'll change it. I thought overclocking would let it tolerate higher temperatures, or is that not right?

I'll get AIDA64 and run it tonight/tomorrow. Right now I use HWMonitor rather than HWiNFO. Is one much better than the other or pretty much same thing?

Also, in your Windows guide you suggest using Autoruns to turn off some of the automatic processes. Maybe that's a way to get the XTU process not to run? Haven't tried it yet.

 

Yes, run Autorurns and in the filter box on the top left, type XTU then uncheck the 2 enries that you see

HWiNFO is more accurate in its temp readings than HWmonitor

The overclocking fan profile is more aggressive/more sensitive, unless you are running an extreme overclock, it's best to keep it in Automatic profile, that way the fans will take more time/heat threshold before they kicin to max blast

 

Cheers. I'll switch the profiles and see if that helps with the problem. Also will uninstall the current CCC and install the .50 version you posted that doesn't have the OC junk in it. Then will test everything with HWiNFO and AIDA64 and see what it all looks like.

 

awesome! awaiting your feedback bro

 

Also, despite these minor issues, I want to be clear that I REALLY like the laptop. I mean - fans slightly noisy (I'm coming from a completely silent ultrabook here) and quirks with drivers are minor, minor issues. In pretty much all respects it has exceeded my expectations.

 

@Phoenix what functuionality would I lose exactly if I were to just get rid of Clevo CC? What program would control the fans in that case?

 

The BIOS, it's automatic. In fact, that's what @Mr. Fox did on his new system.

Fresh new windows Installation, then installed all the drivers minus Control Center. the only thing he misses is the keyboard light controls. We all wish they were white or red by default but to me this is not as big of a deal, just a nice extra.

 

@Phoenix So what I did was reinstall a clean version of Windows for the second time. Had some free time this weekend... Chose not to install Clevo CC at all. Everything else went smoothly, except the Intel WLAN program blocked others at startup. I followed your instructions and now everything is working great.

I looked at HWiNFO and didn't like it after using it for 25 minutes or so. Not sure what it is. Went back to HWMonitor. Installed ThrottleStop and undervolted both CPU and CPU Cash by -150. Tested with AIDA64 Extreme. Seems perfectly stable, and shaved off ~10C from the temperature. I like AIDA, but I am not sure I am going to pay for it once the trial runs out in 30 days. If Prime95 is dangerous is there another CPU stress test software that you recommend?

Also, are there some settings in nVidia Control Panel that I should set? I simply moved the slider to Quality on the first page and checked that v-sync and g-sync are on. Is there anything else in there I should pay attention to?

HIDevolution folks sent me the new BIOS but so far I was not able to install it. When I try to flash it I get the following errors. Any ideas what they are? @gooface maybe you know?

http://i.imgur.com/rirBdzJ.jpg

 

oh lord, these is too much to type to answer your questions

Please install TeamViewer let me logon to your taptop and do some Phoenix magic to t3h j00

Edit: he wants to try to do things himself, so no TeamViewer session