Optimus Pro XI Review

ShutterBug365

Bronze Level Poster
Optimus Pro XI Review

Specification, the important bits:

  • Ryzen 7 4800H
  • 32Gb 2666MHz RAM (2 x 16GB)
  • RTX 2060
  • 1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus
Ordering etc:

As usual for PCS this was without issue and very straightforward with no problems and kept well informed throughout the build process which flew. Arrived with PCS into stock at the start of the week and with me by the end of the week.

Delivery:

Delivered by our local DPD guy who is excellent, appreciate this is out of PCS control but it does reflect to a degree. Packaging was clean and undamaged on arrival – I did wonder if anything was in the box as it was noticeably light. The packaging around the laptop box does not actually fill the outer box so it had a couple of inches each side to move around. But being double boxed and with the protection inside I do not see it as an issue.

Laptop:

Now the bit everyone is interested.

The laptop looks clean and sleek in appearance with a solid feel to the keyboard section. The screen whilst solid does flex a little but I think that is the way with laptops these days. Good sized bezels around the screen to give some protection.

Am still setting up etc but everything is so responsive and quick. From turning on to Windows is a few seconds.

WiFi is sitting on full signal and 866Mhz on 5ghz and never lags once, distance from router is about 4m through the floor and wall. Laptop downstairs, router upstairs. Got to say its good to be back on WiFi after several months of being on a homeplug.

Screen is excellent, crisp and consistent brightness throughout with no dead pixels. Have colour calibrated the screen which cycles through 460 different full colour tones. Luminance for photographers is great it will set brightness at 119 (the software aims for 120).

Keyboard is quiet and comfortable to type on, takes a bit of getting used to as it is slightly more cramped than my old one.

Fan noise, laptop is set to max fan but so far have not heard a single fan from the laptop. Having previously got an image on the underneath I did have a laptop cooler delivered the same day as the laptop which has fans directly under the vents. Not tried any games on it yet, still setting up and installing all the software etc and so far, the temperatures on 100% power plan bounce between the high 30’s to the high 50’s.

Photoshop and Lightroom are very responsive and both report that they are using the RTX 2060 for acceleration.

Some images attached of the box opening , not the best as I am not used to taking photographs on my mobile. The slight discolouration on the chassis is down to the fact it was very cold outside and this was a few minutes after bringing it in the house.

Using the Samsung NVME drivers have run a benchmark in Samsung Magician. Specs suggest up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W and the benchmark came out at up to 3541MB/R, 3320MB/W. The benchmark lasted 2 minutes and put the drive temp up from 40 degrees to 46 degrees.

Buy again:

Would I recommend this laptop – yes

Would I buy PCS again – yes, in fact desktop is currently on order. Only ever had laptops from PCS before so am looking forward to the desktop side of things.
 

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Bhuna50

Author Level
Thanks - getting excited waiting for mine now. Put my specs here: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/threads/new-optimus-pro-for-old-defiance.74265/

Glad to hear that Photoshop and Lightroom are running well. Just a couple of questions if you dont mind:

- colour calibration - do you have a colour card you compare to when doing this or is this just an automatic thing that runs - what program do you use? I'm just an amateur photographer so have always "made do" with my screen as it came.
- I started to find that Lightroom would seem like it had "paused" for a while whilst uploading lots of photos and then all of a sudden they would appear - I never knew if my machine had 'froze' or something - does this still happen in LR or are you pleased that the uploading and processing side is quite smooth with the laptop?

Would be interested to hear what happens when you game with it re temperatures and fan noise please - not that I will be changing my mind now on my order too much.. lol.
 

ShutterBug365

Bronze Level Poster
Thanks - getting excited waiting for mine now. Put my specs here: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/threads/new-optimus-pro-for-old-defiance.74265/

Glad to hear that Photoshop and Lightroom are running well. Just a couple of questions if you dont mind:

- colour calibration - do you have a colour card you compare to when doing this or is this just an automatic thing that runs - what program do you use? I'm just an amateur photographer so have always "made do" with my screen as it came.
- I started to find that Lightroom would seem like it had "paused" for a while whilst uploading lots of photos and then all of a sudden they would appear - I never knew if my machine had 'froze' or something - does this still happen in LR or are you pleased that the uploading and processing side is quite smooth with the laptop?

Would be interested to hear what happens when you game with it re temperatures and fan noise please - not that I will be changing my mind now on my order too much.. lol.

I have one of the colour calibration devices that you can buy - the XRite i1 Display Pro which I got from Amazon a few years ago. I believe it has been replaced / updated now. There is a similar device made by Spyder.

These work by sitting on the screen whilst a programme runs through a series of checks which are monitored by the sensor device on the screen. It then creates an ICM profile that windows then uses. Takes a few minutes and needs to be redone after a few weeks but it is very easy.

So far I have not see any issues with Lightroom, although to be honest I set it importing and walked away. I also went through the following web page and made a few changes to the settings https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/improve-lightroom-classic-cc-performance/
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Many thanks for the detailed review, that will help others looking for a similar build. :)
 

oji3001

Member
Really great review, looking at a similar build for myself, if you get to test out any games on this, Could you update and let us know how it went and what you played on it
Many Thanks
 

ShutterBug365

Bronze Level Poster
Running EuroTruckSim2 tonight and running Ultra settings. Temps were CPU 95 degrees and still taking advantage of turbo boost running about 30%. Graphics card running at 85 degrees. If you disable Turbo Boost then temps drop on CPU to 76 degrees.

Hard drive temps at 47 degrees, all these taken from the Control Centre software.

Fans even on full are not overly loud and plenty of warm air coming out from the right hand side of the laptop. Keyboard area gets warm but nothing abnormal, the area above the keyboard and below the screen does get very hot to the touch.

This is the first game I have played so maybe the thermal paste will take time to bed itself in.

On exiting the game temps all round drop to the high 50's within about a minute and the fans quiet down. Low 50's within 2 minutes.
 
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ShutterBug365

Bronze Level Poster
Apologies for double posting but one thing I did notice but took a double take is that all the stickers for CPU, GPU etc are on the right handside of them laptop. Seeing that I recalled recently on here a thread about how it would be better etc for them to be moved. You can see in the picture above.

Have ordered a laptop cooler today so will see when that arrives if it makes a difference.
 

ShutterBug365

Bronze Level Poster
Ok, have found the problem and have to say the cooling is impressive. The fan on the CPU was not plugged in at all so was not working, have fixed it a it was an easy fix but hard to understand how it passed QC as it was obvious that the fan was not working although the temps were doing great. So have dropped from 95 degrees to 75 degrees without a cooling pad.

The give away was when playing the only hot air was from the right handside of the laptop and nothing at all from the left.
 

Bhuna50

Author Level
Forgotten to be attached, or shaken loose in transit / set up do you think?

My Optimus is now in testing so hopefully wont be long.

Have you noticed any increase in noise now then from the fans as you were saying it ran quite quiet? is that still the case now you have plugged in the second fan?
 

ShutterBug365

Bronze Level Poster
Honestly do not know but of course it could have been loose since the original factory who knows.... the only people who will be able to confirm is the engineers who built and tested, have to say it was not overly hard to push it into connect it and its located right under the heatsink for the CPU which is where I found the cable lodged.

It is one of those things but obviously could have been worse if I had not got suspicious and decided to double and triple check.

Yes, slightly more noise from the fans as the number of fans have been doubled and temperatures are obviously significantly better now but only played for 10 minutes and even put it on my 4k TV and played EuroTruck at 4k for a few minutes and temps were rock solid and not overly loud.

The impressive thing was it was hitting 95 degrees and still turbo boosting before although watching the temperature when in windows it would jump up 4/5 degrees before dropping again but was idling at 40 no problem! To me that seems to suggest the cooling is very good on the laptop. The fans are hard to see with the bottom case on but with a bright torch it is possible, maybe worth a few seconds check once you have it up to a decent temperature.

Pleased it was just something as simple as that, I would have hated to have done an RMA for a fan, although would have been happy for them to send me on.

Will see how it goes now, I am getting a cooling fan tomorrow when delivered from Amazon which will only help further.

Also another temperature trick, AMD have released a drivers for the CPU and onboard graphics etc and installing them it dropped by a few degrees.
 

Bhuna50

Author Level
Thanks @ShutterBug365 for taking the time to write review and answer questions. Much appreciated.

I will be opening my laptop within a day or two anyway as need to insert my 2TB SSHD at some point so will probably take the time to check the other connections are firmly fitted then.
 

ShutterBug365

Bronze Level Poster
No problem at all, I have found the community very helpful in spec'ing up this laptop and also my desktop that is on order.

Thankfully this is one that's easy to check without opening up, the total lack of air flow out of the left hand side of the laptop seemed strange and I just had that nagging feeling if you know what I mean.

My one concern is I know of several friends who would not have thought twice and would have just carried on using it and not said anything.
 

ShutterBug365

Bronze Level Poster
Would like to report that laptop is functioning nice and cool now.

It is not unusual to see temps in their 30's when just in Windows and so far not managed to get it above 75 in Euro Truck Sim 2 using Ultra Settings (apparently according to the AMD software hitting 133FPS)
 

Bhuna50

Author Level
Would like to report that laptop is functioning nice and cool now.

It is not unusual to see temps in their 30's when just in Windows and so far not managed to get it above 75 in Euro Truck Sim 2 using Ultra Settings (apparently according to the AMD software hitting 133FPS)

Nice to know. Mines hit a glitch at the moment and failed a second day of tests. After several hours display would drop and system would fail to display. Thought it was the MB but apparently second build did it too so getting some new chassis drivers from manufacturer and testing again and hopefully fingers crossed it might get dispatched today.

Will have to wait and see.

Have to say PCS technician has been excellent in communicating with me throughout process and would rather they ensure I get a working machine than me have to RMA it later.


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