*** Official Clevo PA71 Owner's Lounge ***

Being that I didn't see an owners lounge set up for this specific model (please correct me if I'm wrong about that), and I just unboxed my freshly released and hotly anticipated PA71 ES-G by way of HIDevolution (EVOC), I figure I might as well start one up.

Specs are as follows:

EVOC High Performance Systems PA71ES-G 17.3" (42cm x 29.5cm x 2cm)

FHD 144Hz (AUO319D - B173HAN03.1 w/ color calibration)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 w/ 8GB GDDR5 + Intel UHD 630 (user switchable MSHybrid mode via CCC 2.0)

Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut on CPU + GPU, and Stock thermal pads

16GB Crucial DDR4-2400 (CT16G4SFD824A.M16F) Single Channel SDRAM

(OEM) Seagate ST1000LM035-1RK172

(Aftermarket) WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD M.2 2280 (500GB)

Intel® Wireless-AC 9260 802.11 ac/a/b/g/n 2x2 NGFF w/ Bluetooth 5

RGB Per Key illuminated full size keyboard with numeric pad

Windows 10 Pro

66600 mWh Battery

230w Power adapter (16.5cm x 8cm x 3cm)

VIDEO REVIEW



WRITTEN REVIEW
Great performance in an affordable package, with a few caveats. Benchmarks are at the end of the bottom.

SCREEN
The 144hz G-Sync ready IPS screen may not offer the best NTSC coverage at 72%, but it looks pretty flaunting what it’s got. Having owned this machine for 2 weeks now, I’m happy to say that I’ve been very content with everything I’ve experienced on the display thus far. Design work, gaming, and general daily use all look fine straight out of the box. A bit surprisingly, there was no discernable difference between the professional color calibration profile and the default calibration after OS reinstall. Being an IPS though, you may want to minimize backlight bleed via your reseller if they offer it, as I bypassed that option and definitely have noticeable bleed in the top left corner which may annoy me into a screen upgrade in the future. It’s also worth mentioning that the inner panel cover is plastic, and the back is aluminum. The hinges feel smooth and sturdy and you CAN open this laptop with one finger, if that’s your thing.

WEBCAM
It’s a 2MP 1080p 30fps webcam, and it does the job fine. Most other options on the market have 720p, so I’m glad Clevo remembered it was 2018 and went full HD.

SPEAKERS
Stock speakers are invariably ‘meh’ unless you tweak them thru driver or software mods. I opted for the easier of these routes, and after some TLC via EqualizerAPO, they got noticeably louder, clearer, and more well-rounded in their frequency response. No matter what though, you will not get bass out of these things, so if you really want an upgraded audio experience, the addition of any kind of external speaker will be a (major) improvement. Don’t get me wrong, EQ APO + Viper4Windows working in conjunction make a great team, and squeeze a lot more performance out of them, but they’re still just tiny drivers at the end of the day, so just keep expectations low and you’ll be alright. My config files for both programs are available at the bottom.

KEYBOARD / TOUCHPAD / LEDS
The full RGB per-key backlighting looks nice, but as mentioned in the one line review, it is somewhat crippled by the (laughable) Clevo Control Center module used to control it. There’s no way to save configs, and the sleep timer has severe amnesia. The typing experience is OK: A little more stiffness/clickiness in keypress would be nice, but the travel feels good and typing pretty natural after an hour. What I really like about the per-key lighting is you can light the lettered-keys and arrows differently than the rest, so a quick glance down will allow you to (re)orient yourself if your fingers start to wander due to the full keyboard layout being offset from center. Also nice: ZERO flex thanks the structural integrity of the Al-alloy body. I typically use an external mouse, but the touchpad does just fine in a pinch, with gesture recognition and pleasantly clicky buttons below.

There’s also a group of 8 status-indicator LEDs on the front that add to the angular spaceship look + feel of this model, though no more than 4-5 of them are typically lit up during normal usage.

HEAT / FANS
The whole aluminum body stays cool enough while doing everything except gaming, in which case it heats up pretty quickly; especially the top-left corner. I never found it uncomfortable, but it was certainly noticeable, and that may detract from your gaming experience.The aluminum body + fans dissipate heat well enough, so the CPU/GPU temps are back down to idle range within a minute after ending your session, but the top left area of the faceplate will stay warm for much longer. On that note, the aluminum gets warm on the left side while using the keyboard after an hour or so of work too, so I’ll probably be using my external keyboard most of the time to avoid sweaty palms.

With fans on auto, they’re generally pretty quiet, but will ramp up to 80% as soon as you get into your game. For whatever reason, Clevo doesn’t allow for the customizable fan profiles to be set at 100%, so it’s 80% on auto or manually selecting 100%, which is a dumb caveat. I game-tested BF1 with all settings on high, and although my GPU never got above 72C, the CPU was at 85C after 30mins, at which time I threw the fans on maximum*, and the CPU + GPU dropped a few degrees and hovered around 80C / 65C, respectively for the rest of my session. All that said though, I did go with the TG Conductonaut re-paste from HID, so I imagine temps might be too high without, since they are packing all this power in such a thin chassis. I should also mention I have my laptop on a stand ( https://amzn.to/2xKFU76) for max air flow, so your experience may vary. If anybody else is looking into stands, keep in mind the screen only opens to about 45 degrees, so you’re pretty limited in how much can angle it.

*I’ve heard lots of talk of unbearably loud/high-pitched Clevo fans, and maybe I’m blissfully ignorant due to not having anything to compare to, but even at maximum, the fans didn’t get in the way of my BF1 experience. If it does for you, some headphones or an external speaker will cover that distraction up with ease.

PORTS / LEDS
The PA71’s have a great selection of ports finding another machine at this price point with TB3 is nigh impossible without compromising something else. Nothing is future-proof, but at least you have the option for an external GPU or 4K monitor with this one in addition to 2 mini-display ports. I’ve had my FHD external graphics monitor taking up the HDMI + 1 of the USBs, and have yet to feel wanting for more. With my calibrated speaker software in place of the included SoundBlaster X suite, the headphones + bluetooth speakers sound great, and there’s even another 2-1 audio jack besides the dedicated headphone + microphone jacks, so it should have you covered on all fronts. There’s an SD card slot as well, but I didn’t have anything on hand to test with, apologies photog friends.

BATTERY
I think the battery on this beast is respectable enough considering it’s mid-range 66wH size. I put it to the test doing some light work in Photoshop, had a dozen tabs open in Opera browser, a music mix playing on Youtube in the background at 35% volume, display at 75% brightness (until battery hit 50%, then brightness down to 40%), dual displays running, keyboard lit up on lowest brightness setting, battery saver clicked on 25%, and I ended up squeezing out a little over 2 hours. If you were just browsing or movie watching, I’d figure you could get at least another half hour on that or more. Recharge time is about 1hr 30mins from 1%.

SERVICEABILITY / GENERAL PERFORMANCE
One of the main reasons I ended up going with this model besides the obviously attractive hardware, was the ease of access to the guts. I had all the screws out in a few minutes (HID even removed the screw under the keyboard for me , and the base plate popped off with zero hassle. A lot of the other big name-brand models I had this stacked up against didn’t seem as serviceable, so for those of you who like to switch out components, do DIY repairs, or just keep it clean, that’s all easily accomplished with the PA71 series. Only thing I couldn’t see was the speakers, as those are front firing on the top, which I actually think is a good design decision...if only they’d use slightly better materials or drivers in the first place.

The 6-core Coffeelake chomps through most tasks with aplomb. It handles my daily design routine (3 Adobe apps, a dozen browser tabs, and a handful of windows apps) like a champ. While the 8750U is not overclockable, you can undervolt it, which I may try down the line, and will update this review if I do. Judging from my gaming experience thus far, the laptop 1070 (NOT a Max-Q, mind you) in this machine handles heavy lifting dutifully, and will hopefully be sufficient for light forays into VR. If not, having that TB3 as a fallback option is real nice, I gotta say. My closing thoughts are that this thing is a great buy for the money, IF you get it repasted, can live with the sloppy Control Center AND the VERY VISIBLE FINGERPRINTS. It’s an absolute magnet, so keep your spray + cloth nearby. Benches are below - let me know in the comments if there’s something else you want me to run; if it’s free and I have the time, I’ll update as soon as I can. Thanks for reading~!

BENCHMARKS
https://imgur.com/a/5vgDfyU

EQUALIZER APO CONFIG
https://bit.ly/2slNRu7

VIPER4WINDOWS CONFIG
https://bit.ly/2IYZPV7

 

be sure to include general specs of this machine, i.e. storage slots, dimensions, weight, battery capacity, CPU/GPU/RAM configuration possibilities, etc.

a few pictures cant hurt either

 

I'm leaning towards this laptop instead of the MSI GE73 Raider RGB. I'd like to hear your thoughts about it as well.
Please do post about the speakers; earlier PA71 models had weird speakers with one being louder than the other, touchpad experience (Windows Precision?) and overall review

 

yeah i'm thinking in buying this as well... looks pretty good and cheap.

 

Temps data EVERYTHING thank you

 

Separate boot and data drives I take it? Was there a good deal on those? I would have been tempted to match for raid.

 

Did any re-seller receive 8950HK PA7 model stock, yet?

 

Why?

The PA71 can use an 8950HK?

Where's the cooling?

 

u could ask that of any BGA laptop, no matter the config

 

No, you should see the Eluktronics Mech-15 rebranded from that TongFang ODM. Tried to get some user to overheat it at stock and he couldn't. No undervolt. No repaste. 1070N and 8750H.

Also I mean... the P650RG. Thing was like ice.

 

Apart from the newer cpu
Any difference in the chassis or heat sink? Compared to the pa71hs?

 

Hey quick question, can this laptop slot 2 NVMe SSD?

 

sure, exceptions confirm the rule ^^

Sent from my Xiaomi Mi Max 2 (Oxygen) using Tapatalk

 

The Tongfang has only a 1060 and still disables the Turbo while GPU is active...

Yes you can order this model with 1070 & 8950HK from Clevo...hoping for a sample to set and adjust the throttle properly in the PremaMod...

 

No, check Eluktronic's site. The 1070 unit not the 1060 one. The Mech-15 not the G2. Someone over at suggestalaptop got one to guinea pig for us and except TDP throttle (45w not enuff for 6 core) he held performance running heaven and AIDA64 with stress CPU/Cache/FPU ticked, max temps was I think 91c on a single core. No undervolt no repasting.

The G2 is the one with the 144Hz screen though, unfortunately the regular mech-15 is only 60Hz.

Sent from my OnePlus 1 using a coconut

 

Ah, right, that's a different TongFang model (thicker P6 style barebone without slim bezel).
Did he also just make an AIDA64 run with GPU?
Most models can be adjusted to hold their full stock CPU Turbo, but only without using the GPU...
Please PM me a link (if you have) to the tests, to not derail this thread further.

 

Everything I am seeing says it does have the 2 M.2 Slots that can support the NVMe type

 

Responsiveness, my 850 evo drives in raid 0 in my backup machine do very well.

 

okay

 

Yes.

 

I'm interested in this model, too.

Clevo website claims there will be three different panels to choose from:

• 17.3” UHD(4K) High resolution panel
• 17.3” FHD 144Hz / QHD 120Hz Refresh Rate Panel

Anyone knows the ETA of QHD and/or UHD options?

 

Panel options will vary by region, the main distributors choose what they want to go with. I think the FHD 144Hz has been judged to be in general the best pairing for the hardware.

 

There's such a thing? I wouldn't mind trying it out.

 

Judged by whom? Sager? And based on?

 

most likely resolution vs. hardware prowess to power high refresh rates in current game titles...

 

Each regional distributor will decide what makes sense for them.

 

Curious to know your thoughts - I bought my ES-G from Metabox (an AU distributor), and I feel like my temps are on the high side for sure. Normal usage atm (steam downloading some stuff, chrome with tabs open, discord open) and I'm getting 68C CPU (actually jumped up to 80 at some points), 45C GPU. Started up PUBG and ended up getting CPU temps of 90+ (GPU doing fine at 70+).

Also the fans are crazy loud. I've upgraded from an ASUS G750 where the fans would only go berserk under heavy load, but these are constantly chugging away....

 

@whambamsam

Those 68 to 80 spikes could mean that, the default fan profile isn't sufficiently aggressive to cope with rapidly increasing loads. Maybe you could adjust it to ramp higher from lower temps.

You should also test it with the back of the laptop raised on bottle caps (it significantly reduced temps on previous models with 7700hq).

The next step should be undervolting the CPU (which has the greatest impact on temperatures while also lowering the CPU power consumption, meaning you can maintain higher clocks in the same load).

 

Also check your power settings, is your CPU clock going down properly at idle?

 

@Meaker@Sager I have no idea how to check this! I'm a full on newb

@raz8020 makes sense, I'll give changing the profile a go. Is there a guide to undervolting? I've never done anything like that before.

 

Sure:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-throttlestop-guide.531329/

https://www.notebookcheck.net/How-t...ife-The-ThrottleStop-Guide-2017.213140.0.html

You'll also find video results with a search:


Before you try any OC software, make sure to uninstall clevo control center to avoid conflicts and use the windows high performance plan.

 

@raz8020 - is it necessary to uninstall the clevo control center? doesn't that mean i won't have access to fan profiles, led, etc?

 

Yep, that would mean the you'll lose fan control and the rest of the customization.

I haven't been following the TS guide thread for a while, but as far as I remember, there were conflicts with other OC software like XTU and probably TS.

I think that an experienced clevo user like @Papusan could clear this up.

Edit: From what I could find, it seems there were issues only with XTU with an older version of CCC. The 8th gen comes with CCC 2.0 which should have the previous bugs sorted out.

 

Thank you! I'll give XTU a go and see what happens... at this point I've let the manufacturer know that I'm seeing very high CPU temps and will see what they come back with

 

Open task manager, go to the performance tab and see if your CPU speed drops below 1Ghz at any point during idle.

 

@whambamsam could you tell me if the touchpad is Windows Precision or Synaptics? (pls God don't let it be ELAN)

 

Hrm - it does, is that...bad?

According to device manager, is Synaptics SMBus Touchpad.

 

Thank you! Lastly, could you share your overall experience with this laptop uptill now barring the high CPU temps?

P.S. Also could you kindly post some pics of the new Clevo Control Center 2.0? Cheers!

@LeiEn hows your temps doing with liquid metal?

 

So far so good, barring a few hiccups. Laptop was freezing out of the box when on MSHybrid mode, but after updating all drivers etc I've had no complaints.

The 3k 120hz screen is nice, could be a little brighter for my tastes. Keyboard travel is good too, though I wish they'd used a bit more of the width of the chassis to accommodate a full size right shift etc.

Fans are louder than I'm accustomed to - I was using an ASUS G750JX DB71 (2012/2013) previously, which was excellent noise wise. I suppose it's the trade off for a slimmer chassis.

Game performance so far is great! Ghost Recon Wildlands, AC3, Witcher 3, PUBG, all running extremely well.

Will post some pictures when I get home tonight.

 

I'm interested in the 3k QHD panel. Can you share a bit more about it? How's the viewing angle? Color temp?(cool or warm)

Good that your reseller had the option.

 

Viewing angles are good, colour I'd say on the warmer side atm. I haven't done any screen calibrating yet though.

For gaming, so far I haven't had any issues - but coming from an old laptop that was playing most games on 20ish FPS, anything is an improvement!

 

Anyone here with much experience with the control center? I haven't found much information about it - I'd like to remove the CPU fan cap at 80% when setting your own profile...

 

No it just means it is idling properly and reducing speed to save power when not in use.

 

A lot of that already available from resellers, but will do my best to include everything!

Exactly the same choice I had to make! Short version is speakers are pretty weak out of the box, but have since tuned them with EqualizerAPO, and they've improved exponentially. Will demo in the video review along with db levels + spectrum analyzer. Though I don't use touchpad much, it seemed pretty good right out of the box even before I installed the synaptic drivers. Nice L/R buttons, but haven't used the fingerprint scanner.

Either that all sounds irregular, or I've just got a very cool machine thanks to the Conductonaut LM pasting via HID. Haven't pushed it through the gaming paces yet, but have yet to break 60C on CPU doing anything in my routine workspace (3 Adobe apps running, a dozen tabs open on Opera browser, a bunch of file explorer windows, and running dual screen with my graphic pen monitor). GPU has yet to wakeup - haven't broken 50C doing anything yet.

Definitely. Will all be in the full review, but this thing hasn't broken a sweat during my routine workloading; 2-3 Adobe apps (typically PS + AI working with big graphic files), Opera browser with a dozen tabs, music, 2nd screen (pen-input display) all running simultaneously, and highest I've seen from CPU is high 50s, and GPU has yet to break 50. Going to get some benches and games going tonight!

That said, sorry for the delay; didn't mean to start the thread and disappear. Had to get it up and running real quick to take care of some design work, and then install new drive, OS, Phoenix tweaks, etc etc. Full review + benches coming the next few days!

 

Could you also measure fan noise? I'm quite interested in that. Thanks!

 

Yep, will include db readings alongside spectrum analyzer video for fans ( ramping from idle to max) as well as the speaker tuning i did with a combo of free APOs ( and will make my config files available for anybody who wants to test the difference for themselves; i was happily surprised & am very content with speaker performance now ).

Short review: IMO, the fans are pretty good. Not the quietest out there, but they have yet to annoy me while doing anything, and the new 5/29 release of CCC appears to be doing a great job of controlling them via the auto setting. More details soon!

 

You can find most of what you need already tested here https://www.notebookcheck.net/Schen...17-Clevo-PA71HS-G-Laptop-Review.284844.0.html - fan noise, temps, screen performance etc ;-)

 

Definitely read that one before i bought mine. Good to have another one out there to compare different specs against (processor, ram, screen, and LM repaste), and see how they match up. FWIW, I'll also be reviewing with the latest Clevo driver/app releases that just came out today (5/29).

 

I'd be interested to see the before and after differences too.

 

Would I have auto updated or do I need to go somewhere to download the drivers?