My new Octane III

ducpha

New member
The laptop was purchased to replace my four years old MSI GE70 which is "old enough" comparing to recent games :)) Payment cleared at 06/02/2017, then I got my machine at 26/02. A bit long wait but worth it.

Build:
The chassis gives me a metallic looks even though it is plastic. Not a big problem since I use it as a desktop replacement.

Display:

Pros: G-Sync, IPS. Never go back to my old PC with TN panel again !
Cons: Slight backlight bleeding is noticeable around the edges and corners when displaying a dark background. It's not severe enough to be a distraction when gaming, fortunately

Performance

My machine is equipped with i7 7700K and GTX 1080. Gaming in 1080p is a walk in the park for the GTX 1080. Very happy.

Temps and Noise

A bit disappointed. Both CPU and GPU temps raise quickly when gaming, although I ordered Artic MX-4 paste in the first place. Fortunately, I didn't get any major throttling issue until now.
Fan gets very noisy under load. Recommend a headphone and.... stay away from people when gaming :))

Minor comments
+ The machine was supplied with a DVD containing all drivers although it doesn't have a DVD drive. I had to borrow my friend a USB Drive to install Windows and driver as it wouldn't detect my external HDD and I couldn't get online without driver.
+ I did notice that the machine as supplied was set with a core voltage offset of 100 mV. This appears without a minus sign in the BIOS and I assumed it meant that the processor had been slightly over volted but as in fact both HWMonitor and the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility showed that the processor was in fact undervolted by 100mV. I can't type a minus voltage offset in BIOS, either. This seems to be a fault in the BIOS.

Specs
Chassis & Display
Octane Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-7700k (4.2GHz) 8MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
8GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 - 8.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1, G-SYNC
1st Hard Disk
NOT REQUIRED
M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1600MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 330W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
2 x 1 Metre European Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0
 

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Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Very interesting that it's supplied with an undervolt direct from PCS themselves. It's a smart move to be fair. Yeah that issue with the BIOS not allowing undervolts is well known :)
 

Stephen M

Author Level
Do you use a cooling tray, I have the original Octane with an i7 4790 and find a cooling tray makes a decent difference to temperatures. As for noise, while I found the speakers and sub-woofer pretty good for a laptop I still use external speakers, although headphones fine if you do not mind wearing them.

I wonder how long until PCS send the drivers out on a USB stick, more and more machines are coming without a DVD these days
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
The system should have came with everything up and running. Easy to download the network driver and put it on your own USB (Or additional drive if you have one) in preparation for reformatting.
 

ducpha

New member
The system should have came with everything up and running. Easy to download the network driver and put it on your own USB (Or additional drive if you have one) in preparation for reformatting.
Yeah. It have came with Windows 10 Home pre-installed without activation but I have Windows 10 Pro product key. So I decided to reinstall it myself. I put every driver from the DVD to my external HDD but unfortunately it seem that my PC can't detect it.
 

ducpha

New member
Do you use a cooling tray, I have the original Octane with an i7 4790 and find a cooling tray makes a decent difference to temperatures. As for noise, while I found the speakers and sub-woofer pretty good for a laptop I still use external speakers, although headphones fine if you do not mind wearing them.

I wonder how long until PCS send the drivers out on a USB stick, more and more machines are coming without a DVD these days
No, I don't have a cooling tray. Should I get one ?
 
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