Category: Laptop

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Computer Hardware Laptop

Gigabyte P35X V6 review vs my Desktop PC with 970 GTX

So I got one of the new Gigabyte P35X v6-PC4K4D laptop from Gigabyte. I chose it because it was not gaming looking, which tended to have lots of colors, and weird angles. I also went to Microcenter and touched a few 1070GTX laptops first (not the P35X, as they do not stock them). They (Asus and MSI brands) all felt very cheap, plasticy, and hollow feeling. My wife also mentioned how plastic they felt, and cheap.

So going home a bit bummed I had wanted a P35X since v2, so I was glad they got some beefy power in it, to replace my desktop which has an i5 4690k, 970 GTX, 1TB Samsung SSD, and 16GB DDR3.

So at first glance here were my numbers:
DESKTOP:
Csgo – 250 on mirage – 300ish on average in dust2
BF1 – 60/50 medium settings
H1z1 – 70-80ish
Rocket league – 180-200

40-55 db on fan – barely audible imo as it sits under my desktop, but raised up.

OCCT – 320 FPS on laptop 310 FPS on desktop
OCCT – 79C on laptop and 50C on desktop

CSGO laptop – 76C – fan pretty loud like 200-250 fps
Rocket league – 86C – fan pretty lout at like 200-250 fps
H1Z1 laptop – 83C on gpu and cpu – fan pretty loud about 70-80fps

PCMark 2016 Vantage I got 37k on the laptop and 30k on my desktop.

Overall, I am impressed what this thing laptop can handle. One thing I wish Gigabyte did was send over an SSD with NVMe, not this Transcend Sata M.2. If anyone wants some specific benchmarks, let me know. The screen is gorgeous, 4k is awesome. I do not think I could ever go back to FHD/1080p!

Some random info about the laptop:

Display: 15.6″ 4K UHD 3840 x 2160 IPS anti-glare display LCD | Features: Incredible slim & light design, recommended for VR
Processor: 6th Gen Intel Quad Core i7 6700HQ (2.6-3.5GHz) | GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 GDDR5 8GB (NVIDIA Optimus )
RAM: 16 GB (8GB*2) DDR4 2400MHz Memory | Storage: 512GB M.2 SATA SSD, 1TB 7200rpm HDD | ODD: Super Multi DVD RW (Additional Hot Swappable Bay for ODD/HDD/SSD/empty) | OS: Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
Keybaord: Full-sized Auto-Adjusting Backlit Keyboard | USB 3.1 Type-C | HDMI 2.0 | Exclusive Software: XSplit Gamecaster + Broadcaster, System Gauge, Fan Tweak, TriDef SmartCam
Dimension: 15.16 x 10.63 x 0.83 inch | Weight: 5.29 Ibs | Warranty: 2 years global warranty

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Air Cards Computer Hardware General Computing Laptop

Panasonic Toughbook CF-53 MC7750 4G Verizon Issues – 2101 Error

We have a few new Toughbook CF-53’s in that occasionally get the 2101 error within Verizon Access. I was wondering if anyone else was having these issues? I am in touch with Panasonic, and Verizon on trying to get a permanent fix, but it seems to be very intermittent right now.

If I get a resolution, I will update this post.

*updated*

OKAY, so I have two CF53’s with the issue. Been contacting verizon with no luck, finaly got a hold of the Panasonic wireless engineer and he shared with me some new software specific to these MC7750’s, and specific to this 2101 error. Basically what was happening was that the driver software was installing some connect option for Windows 7, it would sometimes install and conflict with Verizon Access Manager. So what he did was remove that from the installer, and bingo, worked like a champ…tried this one two laptops with error 2101.

Software :

Drivers from Panasonic: linky
Software from Verizon: linky

Make sure to uninstall all old drivers, and VZAccess Manager and then install the new ones.

Any questions let me know, I will try to assist.

Categories
Computer Hardware Laptop

Lenovo x220 BIOS 1.26 – fixes suspend problem

Looks like my Lenovo x220 got a new BIOS update!

official download link : 1.26 BIOS

changelog :

<1.26.1.13>
UEFI: 1.26 / ECP: 1.13
– (New) Allow to enable WWAN and WLAN device simultaneously.
– (Fix) Fixed an issue that might not resume from suspend state with combination of
specific CPU and BIOS setting for Intel Hyper-Threading Technology.
– (Fix) Fixed an issue where the maximum number of failed password attempts for WMI
was not 3.
– (Fix) Fixed an issue that error message is displayed when system is undocked from
slicer.

<1.25-1.13>
UEFI: 1.25 / ECP: 1.13
– (Fix) Fixed an issue where SATA BIOS might return timeout error with
SATA compatibility mode.
– (Fix) Fixed an issue where updating BIOS might not be completed if it is
executed after resume.

<1.24-1.13>
UEFI: 1.24 / ECP: 1.13
– (Fix) Corrected a description of VERSION in this README document.

<1.24-1.13>
UEFI: 1.24 / ECP: 1.13
– (New) Improved memory resource allocation process to reserve more memory space
for optional hardware devices.
– (Fix) Fixed an issue that intranet account login failure for ThinkVantage
Hardware Password Manager.
– (Fix) Allowed system recovery from POST 191 error without loading setup defaults
in BIOS setup menu by press F9 key.

<1.22-1.12>
UEFI: 1.22 / ECP: 1.12
– (New) Add support for old type external fingerprint reader.
– (New) Add support an option to change product name and version format in
SMBIOS.
– (Fix) Fixed an issue where system boot might be slow with special condition.
– (Fix) Fixed an issue where system might be halt when some mobile phone is
attached on USB port.
– (Fix) Fixed an issue where system performance might be down in high stress
configuration.
– (Fix) Fixed an issue where Flash Update utility fails when DEP (Data Execute
Prevention) is enabled.
– (Fix) Fixed an issue that Hard Disk Password is unintentionally enabled for eSATA
HDD on dock.

<1.21-1.11>
UEFI: 1.21 / ECP: 1.11
– (Fix) According to the smartphone issue below, following smartphones are tested:
Motorola: Droid 2, Droid X
HTC: Nexus One, EVO, Droid Incredible, Droid Incredible 2, ThunderBolt, Aria
Samsung: Captivate, Galaxy Tab<

Categories
Computer Hardware Laptop

Lenovo x220 BIOS 1.21 – fixes CPU throttling problem

update : 1-17-2012 a newer BIOS is out which includes these changes :

Go Here

Looks like my Lenovo x220 got a new BIOS update!

official download link : 1.21 BIOS

——————————————————————————–
CHANGES IN THIS RELEASE
Version 1.21

[Important updates]
Nothing.

[New functions or enhancements]
– Improved system performance when heavy program is executed with 65W AC adapter.
– Improved system boots time.
– Disabled keyboarding while the lid was closed to avoid unexpected key input
when the computer was held with the lid closed.

[Problem fixes]
– Fixed an issue where the computer might not be booted from bootloader program.
– Fixed an issue where a 1820 error might occur at power-on when the external
fingerprint reader device was attached to the computer while the integrated
fingerprint reader was disabled in the ThinkPad Setup.
– Fixed an issue where the computer might fail to boot when connected the
Smartphone with the USB port.
– Improved cooling fan noise.
– Corrected spelling mistakes in BIOS setup menu.

——————————————————————————–

Reports so far are that it has improved WEI score (useless, I know, but some enjoy big numbers).

One user said : “As for the throttling fix. It appears to be working, when I run OCCT (the graphic/cpu stress) the cpu does not go to 800mhz, GPU is mostly at the 1300mhz turbo boost but fluctuates a little bit, so does the CPU but its mostly at 3.2-3.4ghz on both cores during the test. Before when running OCCT the CPU would drop to 800mhz.”

A lenovo staff member is quoted saying : ”

The version released yesterday is the version I was expecting later this month as I said yesterday. I didn’t realize, but the support team expedited it through. The internal testing shows good improvement on throttling with benchmarks and lab tests.”

Other users said they still experience the throttling though. Me personally, do not have the issue since BIOS 1.19

You can view the throttle issue thread here : link

Categories
Computer Hardware Laptop

Lenovo x220 i7 ssd PCMark Benchmarks

I benchmarked my X220 with PCMark Vantage Professional 64bit 1.0.2.0. I got : PCMark Vantage Professional 64bit 1.0.2.0 score : 13760

Also a screencap :

[zp src=”bench-x220.jpg” album=”blog/x220/” width=”600″]

Categories
Laptop

Lenovo X220 – full review from a consumer

If you’ve followed my blog at all, you probably knew I purchased the best 12.5″ netbook out there, the Lenovo X220. I’ve had my X220 for about 4 weeks now, so I gave myself some time to use it, and then write up a review about it. What I thought about it as a consumer. I did a fresh install on my SSD, running Windows 7 Pro x64. As a quick background note of myself, I usually see about 10-12 different laptops throughout the year (Dell, Asus, HP, etc). The hardware in my X220 is :

Intel Core i7-2620M Processor (3.4GHz, 3MB L3, 1333MHz FSB) w/ USB3
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
12.5″ Premium (IPS) HD (1366×768) LED Backlit Display, Mobile Broadband Ready, 2×2 Antenna
Intel® HD Graphics 3000
4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
128GB Crucial M4 SSD
ThinkPad Battery 29++ (9 cell)
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 (2×2 AGN)

Battery life : I get about 11.5-12 hours with my normal/daily tasks. This is one of the reasons I waited so long to write a review on this laptop. My daily tasks include wifi on, VPN’d into the data center doing some putty work (few session open). I usually have 1-20 firefox 4.0 tabs open, as well as thunderbird fetching every few minutes.

12.5″ Screen : The only issue I noticed with this screen is some minor tearing when scrolling on text heavy websites, otherwise simply gorgeous. I usually run around 9 brightness plugged in and on battery.

Graphics – Intel HD 3000 : I have not had time to run any games yet, but I have noticed that it does get a 5.6 on the Windows score.

Overall design/feel : I have read a lot of reviews where people did not like the touch pad, and where they loved it. I definitely love it. I removed some of the features of the touchpad via the software, and have felt that the touchpad is much more useful. The biggest annoyance with my big hands was with clicking with 1 finger, and mousing at the same time. I would always get the scroll to pop up, so I disabled it. I also disabled the side scrolls, as those are relatively useless for me too.

The camera is mediocre, does poorly in low light, but does a pretty good job in a decently light room. I do plan to use it when I am traveling and need to skype in. It worked really well for that. The only thing that was missing, was some software to play with the camera, outside of an application like Skype.

I have yet to take some benchmarks of the USB 3.0, but if anyone would like me too, I can.

I do LOVE the keyboard, it feels fresh, and new every time I use it. I have about 5-6 computers I sit at throughout the day, and I am always happy to go to the X220’s keyboard. Overall, this was definitely worth the price I paid for it ($1,046.34 after tax/shipping/SSD).

If you’d like me to take some detailed pictures, will do. Just ask!

You can view some previous benchmarks that I have run here :

http://vivithemage.com/2011/05/crucial-m4-ct128m4ssd2-2-5-128gb-sata-benchmarks-in-an-lenovo-x220/

I also made a post about how to convert a Crucial M4 9.5MM to 7MM :

http://vivithemage.com/2011/05/crucial-m4-ct128m4ssd2-128gb-in-x220-modded-to-7mm/