New model, the Cosmos XT, acceptable noise levels?

[iPete]

Chassis and Display
Cosmos Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Quad Core Processor i5-6440HQ (2.60GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
8GB HyperX IMPACT 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 950M - 2.0GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 32MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2150MB/R, 1260MB/W)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 2
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0, vPRO​

This is very short review, more an initial impressive as I've had this less than 2 weeks.

Background: I recently moved into a flat and had to let go of my 5 year old (but still very capable) PC Specialist desktop to save space.
My main usage is web surfing, Photoshop and playing older games like CS:GO and Left 4 Dead 2.

After looking at laptops for several months, I noticed recently the new XT model.
It appears to be more refined in spec than the Cosmos IV, enough to make me order.

Case: The XT case doesn't offer a DVD drive, in it's place are two M.2 SSD drives.
I had read reviews of the IV case that said the DVD drive cover was a bit odd when there was no DVD drive behind it (minor I know).
The XT case also adds some angled edges, overall looks nice.

Other refinements to the spec (IV vs XT) include different processor options (i5-6300 > i5-6440) but the main internal difference for me was the two M.2 drives. I'm a sucker for new standards and whilst I may never really notice the difference over SATA SSD, I didn't see any harm in having them! The extra slot will likely be useful when if need to add more storage too.

Performance: It won't set the benchmarking world on fire but it's more than I need. It's great, hasn't skipped a beat and everything is near instant.

The less good?
The only downside in the two weeks I've had this are the fans. They can really get going when doing the most mundane of tasks. I don't know if this is a BIOS or software issue I can look into (?).

Alternatively, this may be perfectly normal for these model of laptops (?), this is the only laptop I've ever used with a GTX GPU, so I'm looking to you guys for help on this one!
I've just downloaded hwmonitor as SpeedFan wasn't picking up the fans.

Verdict: So far I'm happy in my transition away from a PC, I feel the specification offers great value for money and I'd happily answer in much more detail on any areas people want to know about.

 

[philspence]

Hey, nice review. I'm looking into getting this. What's the battery life like? Are the fans still really loud as well?

 

[Fellowchap]

Hello. I own one of these - the fans seem to behave pretty normally to me! They are quiet for most general use, and speed up when doing intensive tasks.

I do have an application on mine called 'Control Center' in which you can control fan speed and set custom profiles based on temperatures. Do you have this too? It's in C:\Program Files (x86)\Hotkey

Also if you don't mind, I have a question for you (or any other PC spec users) - how are the black levels on your laptop's IPS display using this test? http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php

With default display settings I can see down to 11 fairly easily, and under good conditions + high brightness I can just about see down to 6, but that's it.

I'm just wondering if this is normal for an IPS panel or if other users are seeing better black levels than this!

Phil - I still have yet to do a proper test but I would say 2.5 - 3 hours battery for light usage.

 

[iPete]

Hi Phil, on the battery I'm the same as Fellowchap, I've not done a proper test and would say the same. It tends to live on my dining room table always connected.
The fans are OK but noisier than any other machine I've used but I'm comparing with work laptops with, at most, low end GT cards and on-boards GPUs.

Fellowchap, I don't know what the normal is for these monitors but I'm not doing much better than you, perhaps worth it's own thread?
Thanks for pointing out Control Center, I've put it into Quiet mode and will see how that fairs.

 

[Fellowchap]

Excellent, hope it worked! I learned that there's a shortcut to that program by pressing Fn+Esc.

Maybe also check what your temperatures are like with HWMonitor in case they're getting hotter than normal. During light usage my CPU cores are between 40-50 which I would rate as good.

I did a more thorough battery test (for anyone interested) - after 2 hours and 55 minutes of light usage, it got down to 10%. So yeah, I'm sticking with 2.5 - 3 hours on average!

Regarding the screen, I did some poking around the internet and I think black levels are generally a weak point of IPS displays. Maybe some are better than others but I suppose this is quite normal. Otherwise I think it is a very good screen!