PC Specialist Ionico 17 Ryzen 9 RTX 3070 32GB BEAST!!!

ArtHus

Member
Hey Everyone,

I'm going to be completely honest I received an email offering me 3 Months extension on warranty in exchange for a review. Believe it or not I had already planned on doing a review. This review will be an honest assessment of my experience of both the laptop and my experience leading me to order from PC Specialist.

Chassis & Display Ionico Series: 17.3" Matte QHD 165Hz sRGB 100% LED Widescreen (2560x1440)
Processor (CPU) AMD Ryzen™ 9 Eight Core Processor 5900HX (3.3GHz, 4.6GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM) 32GB Corsair 2933MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 3070 - 8.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive 500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive 1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Memory Card Reader Integrated Micro-SD Memory Card Reader
AC Adaptor 1 x 230W AC Adaptor Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Battery Ionico Series Integrated 91WH Lithium Ion Battery
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 M.2 GAMING + BLUETOOTH 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options 1 x USB 3.2 PORT (Type C) + 3 x USB 3.2 PORTS
Keyboard Language IONICO 17 SERIES RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence Media Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account Office Software FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Notebook Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty 3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee 1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs

Just some background on me, I've been in an around PC/laptops since 1997. I am a casual gamer, mainly playing games from 00's and earlier. Anything recent I have played on consoles. I had been using my Dell E6540 (until someone still to this day unknown spilt something on it and fried the motherboard). The Dell was used largely for work, nothing too taxing, i7 4th gen, 16gb ram and dedicated AMD graphics. It was adequate for what I needed and held its own whilst I battled on Rise of Nations or Football Manager.

After some contemplation I decided it was time to buy a replacement. I spend approximately 3 months researching, waiting for stock etc etc. Until I went with PC Specialist. A decision I am pleased to say so far I do not regret. Ultimately for me how a company is judged is when you encounter a problem and how well they resolve the problem. In this case also the build and how the laptop has performed thus far.

I was all for ordering The Legion 7, but stock was an issue, but in the end that was a blessing in disguise. The 7 came with three specifications that I considered R7 with RTX 3060 and 16gb ram @ £1500, R7 with RTX 3070 and 32gb ram @ £1800 or the R9 with RTX 3080 32gb ram @ £2500. I paid just shy of £2150. In my mind the only sacrifice I have made is on the graphics card but saved over £300. Also the 7 has timing issues with the RAM from what I had read, the difference in performance is minimal but it would always bug me and would be something I would consider changing at some point at the cost of approx £100-150, which I don't need to do now. The stock of the 7 was also a factor, its not in stock anywhere. The price I paid also included the 1 Year Pixel Guarantee, and the 3 Year Gold Warranty. So in terms of value this was a great deal in my opinion, considering the extra warranty this comes with and the fact your ordering from a UK based company.

Prior to placing the order I emailed PC Specialist about what chassis they used for the Ionico 17 series and whether this model came with a MUX Switch and the TGP. I received an email response in two parts the first confirming the chassis used and the second confirmed that both MUX switch was present and the TGP. The total response time was under 24 hours. TGP is configurable and max is 140W.

From placing the order the updates were regular and the laptop was built and ready to dispatch in 5 working days. The whole process was smooth and quick. I asked for the dispatch date to be delayed, this was honoured.

The Chassis is excellent, it is a TongFang GM7ZN7P. A company I had never heard of until I started researching. I couldn't find any meaning full reviews for this chassis online including on Youtube, but rivals were using Tongfang chassis and they were receiving solid reviews. From my experience so far it is a good solid unit. Its much thinner and lighter than I expected at approx. 2cm and 2.3kg respectively. I also like the one hand opening of the laptop. I like the power, ethernet, USB 3 & C ports are on the back, just to reduce wire clutter. I like it has a webcam and micro sd slot, I was surprised to see most rivals don't offer these, features I expected as standard. All in all the laptop feels premium. The keyboard feels solid too, different from my Dell but the experience on it to date has been good. I'm old fashioned and like to have a numpad, which this has, but lacks an enter button, which is my only criticism. The sound is decent but i had very little expectations.

My experience of the laptop so far has been excellent. Everything is super quick from the moment you switch it on button it loads up in seconds and the additional bonus of the IR camera with Windows Hello support mean the laptop is logged in and ready with minimal fuss. I carried out all the recommended updates including Windows and Nvidia and the laptop has carried out those updates without any issues. I have run Timespy and it scored 10279. In my book that's a good score, and confirmed everything was working as it should. Feel free to let me know if I can improve or test further.

I can't fault it at the moment, the Control Panel is good and allows me to increase power and fan speed when required and control the MUX switch. Everything has been smooth so far, but it is unlikely I will over tax it and too be honest it is overkill for what I need. The one piece of advise I can give is in regards to value for money. For me this could not be beaten, a few came close but overall this was the best package of CPU, GPU, Warranty, MUX switch, RAM. And most importantly do I have any buyers regret which is littered all over the internet, I can safely say I have none.

Top marks to PC Specialist.

Feel free to ask any questions, and I will update on my experience as and when required.

 

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GinGai

Member
Thank you, thinking about buying this variant too. Only adding extra 2TB SSD. Super helpful review, probably going to place my order soon.
 

GinGai

Member
It has a logo, but it's easy to wipe it off. So basically no logo.

I took a couple of photos it it helps.
 

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Sptz

Member
What's the battery life like?

I'm torn between this one and Legion 7/7i 2021.

The plus side I see with this is no iCue software, 17" but still lighter than the Legion. But then again, how is battery life (with optimus on) and fan noise? Is it too aggressive?

How is the screen as well?

Thanks!
 

ArtHus

Member
95% of the time i have the laptop plugged in. When I have unplugged it, to date I have never ran it flat but i do make a couple of adjustment to maximise the battery life, for example I will set the performance mode to Office because it is set to limit the TDP, switch the MUX off, and something else i do is change the power plan, i read on forums that you can make some amendments in the registry, which in turn enable a hidden option called "processor performance boost mode" i set this to disabled "on battery". I did run some benchmarks and it does reduce performance, however its purpose is to keep the processor running cooler, and indirectly improve battery life.

As you probably read in my post i seriously considered the Legion and had it been in stock i would have ordered it. The iCue software was talked about alot and seriously impacted the battery life of the Legion from what i had read. I do tend to have the keyboard backlit with a static colour and can't say for certain if it is a big a problem as the iCue software. But thinking out loud potentially if its the software using the cpu and most people on the forums commented that when iCue was force closed battery life improved possibly suggesting its not the lights themselves but the software running causing the battery drain.

The fan noise on max can be loud but its smooth, not clunky or rattily. I have a laptop cooling pad to help with airflow, and unless i'm gaming the fan rarely kick in.

As for optimus, none of the games or application i have used are that graphics intensive so again can't comment directly on battery consumption.

Screen is excellent in my opinion.

No buyers remorse.
 

barlew

Godlike
Thats a great review mate. Thanks very much for taking the time to lost it. It would be good if you posted any thoughts an observations wheb you have had it for a while.
 

YakuzaDog

Member
Hey. Thanks for the review; this is almost the exact spec I'm thinking of getting, so it's really helpful. If you don't mind me asking, what's been your experience now you've had it a little longer? You said you were playing older games before, have you been running anything more modern since? How do you find the temperatures?
 
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ArtHus

Member
Still no complaints to be honest. Only drawback if you haven't seen my other post was about multiple monitors via the usb-c port, but I found a work around. All in all the laptop is still going strong and handles everything I throw at it with ease.

In terms of gaming I have a xbox game pass subscription and therefore tend to stream games. These aren't taxing on the graphics card to be fair but honestly it's so smooth and a joy to play. But I have downloaded a few PC games Warhammer 2, Football Manager 2022, Age of Empires 4, Everspace 2. All these games have been played on maximum and its been excellent so far. I haven't really checked for framerates but I do monitor the temps.

When the fans kick in, they sound smooth which is a plus and I have a cooling pad which I switch on. I have also adjusted the performance boost mode by disabling it, when disabled I have found that the fans don't kick in as often or at all. It's a really useful feature, and to be honest I can't say the performance drops much, of course if you run a benchmark the performance scores will show disabling the boost mode does reduce performance but honestly i hardly notice it, if at all.

I've just run a quick battle on Warhammer to determine what sort of temperature it hits. I believe Warhammer is quite a CPU intensive game. Via the control panel i have selected game mode and performance boost mode disabled. Cooling pad off.

I had the game running whilst having the control panel open, a chrome based app which is streaming live tv, the monitor is running via the HDMI port and chrome browser. Warhammer loaded and played effortlessly and in the image you can see the temps reached on average around 75. The mux switch was off, so i'd expect a little more load on the cpu too. Fans never reached 100%.

Hopefully the images answer the keyboard lights question.
 

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barlew

Godlike
Still no complaints to be honest. Only drawback if you haven't seen my other post was about multiple monitors via the usb-c port, but I found a work around. All in all the laptop is still going strong and handles everything I throw at it with ease.

In terms of gaming I have a xbox game pass subscription and therefore tend to stream games. These aren't taxing on the graphics card to be fair but honestly it's so smooth and a joy to play. But I have downloaded a few PC games Warhammer 2, Football Manager 2022, Age of Empires 4, Everspace 2. All these games have been played on maximum and its been excellent so far. I haven't really checked for framerates but I do monitor the temps.

When the fans kick in, they sound smooth which is a plus and I have a cooling pad which I switch on. I have also adjusted the performance boost mode by disabling it, when disabled I have found that the fans don't kick in as often or at all. It's a really useful feature, and to be honest I can't say the performance drops much, of course if you run a benchmark the performance scores will show disabling the boost mode does reduce performance but honestly i hardly notice it, if at all.

I've just run a quick battle on Warhammer to determine what sort of temperature it hits. I believe Warhammer is quite a CPU intensive game. Via the control panel i have selected game mode and performance boost mode disabled. Cooling pad off.

I had the game running whilst having the control panel open, a chrome based app which is streaming live tv, the monitor is running via the HDMI port and chrome browser. Warhammer loaded and played effortlessly and in the image you can see the temps reached on average around 75. The mux switch was off, so i'd expect a little more load on the cpu too. Fans never reached 100%.

Hopefully the images answer the keyboard lights question.
That's really useful thanks very much for the detailed response.

I have two questions.

1. How bad is the screen bleed? I appreciate this is panel dependant but the precursor to the Ionico the Vyper seemed to have an awful lot of laptops which suffered badly from it.

2. How is your keyboard holding up? Is the lettering rubbing off yet?
 
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