Vyper-17 Quick review

Charlas

Enthusiast
Here's a quick review (I've been chock full of 'real' work recently, as was last few weeks of my current PI), so let's do a quick good and bad's for the Vyper 17.

20200626_145728.jpg

Spec : 10875H / 2070Super / 32GB / -50mv undervolt
Well, turned up great, nicely boxed, and like some others have noticed I also noticed the power cable into the charger is not 'snug', however I simply switched it for another I had laying around as it's just a standard kettle lead and seems just fine.

The Laptop seems really well put together, as I was installing another NVME SSD, I've had the bottom off, and looks like a decent layout. The keyboard seems 'good enough, but not quite mechanical in feel', but for the depth of the chassis, I suppose about as good as you can manage, the strange numpad layout might take longer to get used to, however (no enter key, and -/+ at the very top). The screen does have a little backlight bleed on the bottom right of the screen, only visible if the screen is completely dark, but it's there. Whilst anything is shown it's just fine, I was debating sending it back, however, it's not unheard of on any LCD panel to have a little bleed, and it's only the very edge, if it becomes worse I'll get in touch with PCS. However, the screen does have a nice colour reproduction and will be happy enough editing Premiere Pro stuff on it on the move.

Touchpad, now I'm finicky with these, I would MUCH rather have buttons separated, this doesn't, rather it just has a clicky pad. I hate them however at the best of times, and always have a mouse (G602) or MX Ergo (for travel) so the amount I will use it is negligible at best, however, it is a good size.

Feel : The device feels well made, heavy enough to feel 'expensive' light enough to travel with, and shouldn't shatter at the first sign of a bump.

Performance : So far I've not had anything to complain about here, 60+ FPS at 1440/Ultra/High in most stuff, nothing seems to phase it too badly. Temps can get warm if you have the fan curve quietened down, however, in gaming mode, it's not obnoxiously loud.


AtRest.png Office temperature at the moment is 32c (can't wait for the new aircon to arrive!) this is at rest, background CPU usage 15-20%

TimeSpy.png Taken at the end of the TimeSpy Demo loop, in Game mode.

So as you can see, even on a hot day, with nothing special happening it sits in low 60c area, and under a gaming load, low to mid 70c's

Stuff To Note : The Thunderbolt port is a bit intolerant to some Thunderbolt hubs, for example, my Dell TB15 and TB16's are not stable with the laptop, causing driver crashes, Lenovo one won't work at all, however USB-C Hubs are just fine, as is my HP Thunderbolt hub, so take that as a note.

Would love this to have a DP-Mini on it too (so HDMI and DP on chassis) as using multiple screens through docs can be a pain, and another USB-C/TB port wouldn't go amiss (but that's a general PC complaint, something MAC's have got only sort of right as they should still have USB3/HDMI ports)

The things I might have changed given the choice would be the keyboard layout, but that's just something to get muscle memory on, the port selection out backend the speakers.....

So, to the speakers : Yes they are perfectly 'serviceable' for the most part, however, they are not great, they fire down, the fans drown them out if gaming, they are a little uncalibrated so harsh and vibrate at times. But hey, no laptop (even the good ones like Apple's) are actually usable to listen to more than just a Teams/Skype/Zoom call, so invest in a decent surround/headphone setup, you won't regret it.
 
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Charlas

Enthusiast
Ohhh... Quick note... Drivers... I installed Windows myself from scratch, and the drivers are not complete on the PCS Website, you need the Thunderbolt and Management Engine stuff from Intel, shout if you need them and I'll send em over.
 

chrisg4u

Member
Ohhh... Quick note... Drivers... I installed Windows myself from scratch, and the drivers are not complete on the PCS Website, you need the Thunderbolt and Management Engine stuff from Intel, shout if you need them and I'll send em over.

Can I get the links to these downloads please mate :)
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Some of the drivers aren't in the list, like the TB3 ones and management engine stuff, both intel generic ones, but can't just grab em from intel...
The lists are specific to the account, they’re not generalised, so if one person doesn’t have them doesn’t necessarily mean the next person won’t.
 

Charlas

Enthusiast
The lists are specific to the account, they’re not generalised, so if one person doesn’t have them doesn’t necessarily mean the next person won’t.
Fair enough, but mine didn't so was just warning people that purchase the same model
 

raygun57

Member
Great info. I got mine about a week ago. Have you experimented with different BIOS/EC and control center versions?
 

Charlas

Enthusiast
Bios left alone for now, undervolt 50mv is about all I've done. May have a fiddle when I get a chance at some point.
 

Djakninn

New member
I can see you're doing some audio work in your screenshot. Have you done any dpc latency testing/experienced any dropouts with your unit? Also, do the fans ever get loud enough to impair your work?
 

Charlas

Enthusiast
Latency comes down to drivers used etc, but I've not bumped into anything unusual, however I don't use the onboard audio, I have external stuff in use.
 
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