*** XMG Apex 15 with Ryzen 3950X / Clevo NH58AF1 Owner's Lounge ***

Information/reviews of the Clevo with desktop ryzen cpu.
looks really promizing. Some issues with ram speed/bios, but performance is awesome. Thermals stock are quite good. I wonder about noise and if fixed clockspeeds/voltage are possible for better performance tuning.

Another review from one of the forum members:


Quote from XMG-rep:
In order to promote the global sales of the barebone underneath XMG APEX 15, let's keep a list of brands in different regions of the world that are currently supporting this fine machine. Because what's good for other Local OEMs in different regions, is also good for XMG. We are all in this together!

This table will be permanently managed under the following Google Sheets link. If I'm missing any new brands or resellers or if you spot any mistakes, send me a PM here on Notebookreview. The list is arbitrarily sorted by myself, vaguely based on launch date and region.

→ XMG APEX 15 with AMD Ryzen: Brands in other regions (Google Sheets)


Current list, as of May 18, 2020:


Europe

XMG APEX 15
https://www.xmg.gg/xmg-apex-15

PC Specialist 15.6" Nova
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/nova-15/


North America

OriginPC EON15-X
https://www.originpc.com/gaming/laptops/eon15-x-amd

Eluktronics (tba)
(tba)

Sager NP7958F1
https://www.sagernotebook.com/Notebook-NP7958F1.html

iBuyPower Chimera NH58DEQ (NP6858EQ)
https://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Chimera-NH58AF1-(NP7958F1)-Gaming-Laptop

rjtech (NH5xAx)
https://rjtech.com/shop/index.php?dispatch=product_features.view&variant_id=262

HIDevolution EVOC High Performance Systems NH583/NH584 (NH5xAx)
https://www.hidevolution.com/product/gaming-laptops/evoc-clevo/15-inch-gaming-laptops/l/amd-ryzen-7


South East Asia

AftershockPC Forge 15R
https://www.aftershockpc.com/welcome/Productinner/forge15r

Illegear ARES V
https://www.illegear.com/laptops/ares-v/


Australia

Metabox Prime-Ai
https://www.metabox.com.au/store/Performance-Laptops/Prime-Ai-Range/Buy


Taiwan

Cjscope MX-756
https://www.cjscope.com.tw/cht/product_detail.php?serial=358


The Netherlands

laptopparts4less (NH5xAx)
https://laptopparts4less.frl/15.6inch-laptop-samenstellen


Poland

Hyperbook NH5
https://www.hyperbook.pl/nh5/



Thank you!

Cheers,
XMG|Tom

 

What laptop was he using 10 years ago with bezels that small? Also all the sodimms will have been designed with Intel in mind and the memory coding from AMD will have little history of supporting them either.

 

In Singapore and the Asis Pacific Region, this XMG APEX15 is sold as AfterShock FORGE 15R

 

It will be sold all over the world indeed, we will be too

 

I'm lookin forward for the 17inch version(if planned) to come as AfterShock FORGE17R or XMG Apex17. Best if it comes as all AMD/ATI build for folks who plays little games but do more on image rendering works.

 

Pulled from a post by win32asmguy

 

Awww... I had totally missed noticing on that... yup. That looks familiar for sure.
Pity. No all ATI/AMD build in plan... Wait!
Isn't XMG/AfterShock Ryzen platform lappies made by Clevo/Sager? Asking XMG doesn't yield positive answers. How about asking straight to builders?

 

Yes, they are a Clevo reseller. You'd have to reach out to Clevo-com.tw directly in an email or something.

 

This machine is judging interest. If its popular you can expect a more expansive lineup in the future.

 

Well then, they had better started out with some big guns to get that hype train rolling.

 

Well you can see what the model offers for the price.

 

I did and it was 'meh'.

 

You think so? Lots of tuning potential, price is reasonable considering AMDs much smaller development program.

 

I was talking about rolling out with the big guns, and if this was their attempt at that, it fell flat for me. 15", anemic heatsink, cl22 ram, bga graphics.

 

Cl22-ram is due to compability since it's JEDEC specs. I bet you can run that ram at 3200cl18 without problems when BIOS-tuning works fine, especially if you can up voltage a bit.

 

They really needed to get first impressions right. Look, I'm cheering for AMD, I like what they're doing. All I'm saying is that, if they wanted to have their name synonymous with performance, they should've rolled out the big stuff first, and afterwards offer some lower tier BGA SKUs for their lineup.

 

You don't start that by going all out because if you do and no one buys it you loose a LOT of money.

 

I agree with this, but I tend to think we are in the minority based on what has been rolling out on average market wide the last few years.

 

@Meaker@Sager would you be able to check if the NH58AF1 sold by Sager uses a brushed aluminum lid? XMG mentioned in their reddit post that the only AMD chassis with a metal lid was the NH57, which is why they are using it for the Apex 15.

Also, is there any technical reason a 3950X could not be installed in the NH58, even though Sager does not have it as an option? The same reddit post said that all of the Clevo AMD chassis use the same motherboard for now (other than GPU differences).

 

There's review and benchmarks on polish site purepc.pl if you are intrested
https://www.purepc.pl/test-hyperbook-nh5-zen-notebook-z-procesorem-ryzen-9-3900x (let your browser translate the page)

What is worrying is that Nvidia's refreshed RTX gpu's are actually weaker than their legacy counterparts ( https://www.purepc.pl/odswiezony-geforce-rtx-2070-dla-laptopow-z-gorsza-specyfikacja)

 

Checking for you.

 

TimeSpy should show how much of a performance deficit that low voltage memory results in.

 

The a cover is metal and the 3950x will boot but your on your own support wise with it.

 

It's due to ram being JEDEC-compliant and spd is compatible with both Intel and AMD as l8ng as chipset supports it. It OEMs allows for XMP-profiles or manual tuning like Clevo does one can use the G.Skill Ripjaws 3200cl16 1.2V or the Crucial Ball7stix 3200cl16 1.35V so-dimm which probably will bring performance up several percent in some apps and in games where CPU is the bottleneck.

 

54dB is a bit too loud. I wonder if we can set the CPU to fixed clock at low voltage instead? My ryzen 3600 can run at 3.7GHz@1V, max powerconsumption during stresstest are 53W and during gaming it uses 30-40W avg, being able to do that with this machine will probably bring temps/nouse down a lot. I think and slightly underclocked/low volt 3600 and a undervolted 2060 can be a really good and quiet match with this notebook

 

My reply was to a post about the low voltage GDDR6 that appeared on the new super cards.

 

The 1070 should be stepping down a bit in price though at the same time. It will be interesting to see how the ram clocks and a volt mod to the vram could help a lot.

 

Sorry, misunderstood.

 

I hope they manage to get ram working with decent timings, as at this point they're already leagues beyond the Dellaware 51m.

 

Could take some tuning from AMD and memory manufacturers.

 

Seems the polish review managed to tune the ram a bit. Best would be if we could use ryzen dram calc, that can improve many games and certain apps by up to 20% in some cases by going from 3200 with lax timings to 3600 with tight timings.

 

Ryzen DRAM Calculator settings are only applicable to desktop motherboards. Laptop tracing is sub-optimal.

 

It's very much a lottery, since you need both a good board and IMC on the CPU to break some of the barriers.

 

Since it's based on a desktop B450-chipset I have my hopes up Clevo has lot of tuning options for ram in bios on many notebooks, much tweaking of for instance 3 row timings possible on my old P651RS

 

It's 51.8 db with undervolted GPU, but you also have to take a note that the tested unit is not run in ECO mode. It's full 105W 3900x so maybe that changes things.

edit:
Tbh. I don't know anymore, it doesn't seem to consume more than 65W on power chart, but all diagnostics report 105W procesor

 

Even the sodimm socket itself is noisier.

 

3600 native is still pretty cool, since it can do XMP and not be gimped by JEDEC.

 

Poland's HyperBook Ryzen Laptop NH5 Zen is the same as XMG Apex15, as well as Asia-Pacific's AfterShock Forge15R.
Hyperbook's NH-Intel range comes with a big 17inch screen option as NH7.

After i look further into XMG's big screen models, from the CORE, NEO, PRO and ULTRA, it seems that such vent design is not in XMG's big screen INTEL's range.
Could this HyperBook NH7 body be in plan for NH7 Zen?

 

I'd say it's unlikely. NH7 is older series based on NH70RAQ clevo barebone.
Ultimately, it boils down to Clevo - if Clevo doesn't have plan for 17 inch AMD laptop, they no reseller will offer it

 

Ouch!
Wrong excitment over accidental encounter...

 

Even if Clevo did make a 17 inch model, it would have had the same limitations of 65W processor, and 115W GPU.

Maybe Clevo should have crowdfunded a high end AMD DTR to cover engineering and manufacturing up front costs. I have seen people waste way more money on companies far less likely to deliver!

 

Or just support the models that are out there, the sales and interest are being looked at to determine future models.

 

So much power. Out of the box CBR20 without any tweaking:




The 15 inch screen is small but it has good clarity. Its an LGD05E8 according to HWInfo64.

 

That's awesome! how long did you wait for your laptop to arrive?

 

I ordered on April 17th, shipped on April 22nd, delivered on April 25th.

 

Awesome

 

Very nice, anything that scales with more cores will work great with the 3950x.

 

Is it loud under load?

 

Sure. I don't have exact numbers but maybe 50-60dB?

 

How about gaming? Is is still loud or a bit more subdued.