[REVIEW] Commandos Glock 5 (i5-8400, GTX 1050TI)

[genexis_x]

Hi everyone. This is my fifth review in LTT forum. I will be reviewing the Commandos Glock 5 laptop. It belongs to a good friend of mine. He bought it for RM3410 (including RM20 shipping) with sales discount, which is about USD 820. Main specs of the laptop are as below:

Spoiler

Intel i5-8400 (desktop CPU)

GTX 1050TI 4GB

8GB 2400MHz single channel RAM

1TB HGST+128GB Pioneer SATA M.2

15.6 inch 60Hz 72% NTSC IPS

DOS (upgraded to W10 Pro with RM10 key)

2YR Carry In Warranty

Free Backpack

Free Professional Screen Calibration with Spyder Pro

Free Thermal Enhancer works on GPU & CPU

Free Full Maintenance Service

 

Based on Clevo NB50TK1 chassis

Product page

 

You can also purchase this model in US from Eluktronics

 

A few notes before reading:

1. This is a short review

2. My English Language is not that great since it's not my native language. I apologize if you find the description too simple and boring.

3. Related pictures can be found online

 

If you have any questions, kindly leave a comment below.

 

External review for reference: Tekgila, klgadgetguy and some other Chinese websites (just search nb50tk1评测)

 

Part 1: Build quality, input devices

The build quality is good overall. The whole body is made of hard plastic. Starting with the lid, thanks to the 2 hinges, there isn’t much flex when the relatively thin lid is twisted. The keyboard deck and keyboard area are solid, little to no flex. There are some weak points of course. For instance, there is noticeable flex when force is applied on top of the lid cover, especially at the center part. There is some flex above the keyboard where the battery sits below. Also, even though the lid can be opened with one finger, the hinges are too loose, causing the lid to wobble. The lid can be opened to ~140 degrees.

 

Keyboard – The keyboard is like my Legion Y530, which is good. The keys require slightly more actuation force (I would say 50-55g), has about 1.6mm travel distance, key feedback is slightly more rigid unlike Y530 which has a soft stop. The keys are quite clicky to type on. There is a minor complaint: When the keys are fully pressed, you can feel the key has some sort of resistance at the end of the travel distance which feels mushy; however, this doesn’t affect the typing experience much. There is 3 zone RGB lightning which can be controlled by Clevo software.

  

Touchpad – The touchpad uses Synaptics driver (I forgot to check it is Precision driver or not, sorry about that). It has a large surface. Gliding, gestures and everything else are smooth and accurate. The plastic surface is smooth. The physical buttons are OK to be pressed. Quite good overall.

 

Part 2: Display, Audio, Connectivity, Battery

The display is a 60Hz 72% NTSC IPS panel from LG (LGD0570, or LP156WF6-SPP2). The display is colour calibrated out of the box. As expected, colours are vibrant, it gets bright (25-30% brightness is enough for indoor use). Ghosting is not severe despite a 60Hz IPS panel.

 

Audio is kinda mediocre. Background noise is present, mids and highs are not balanced. Bass is absent, max volume is OKish. You can tune the audio via Sound Blaster software though. The speakers are located at the sides (at bottom)

 

I didn’t have enough time to test battery life, though I might include the results here in future. It has 47Wh battery which is removable from outside (rare nowadays).

 

Part 3: Cooling performance

The cooling design consists of 2 separate heatpipes for CPU+GPU, though the CPU side heatpipes are thicker (due to extra heat from higher end desktop CPU like i7 8700). You can take a look at the cooling design via the product page. Kryonaut is applied out of the box. No noticeable uneven core temps can be observed.

 

Due to time constraints, I only tested the worst-case scenario thermal testing: Aida64 FPU+Unigine Heaven (dx11, medium quality, moderate tessellation, x2 AA, 1080p). This is tested at ambient temp of ~32C. Laptop is plugged in. CPU and GPU are undervolted. Custom fan profile (increased fan speed).

 

Results:

CPU: 3.7-3.8GHz all 6 cores, max 94C, ~57W

GPU: 1709MHz, max 74C

Fan noise: ~52dBA

 

CSGO 1080p low: CPU runs much cooler (seldom reach 70C), much less fan noise (~42dBA), no throttling

 

(will post more results in future)

 

I managed to undervolt -125mv on both core and cache. -135mv will result in instant crash. Your results may vary though. I have made 2 profiles via Throttlestop:

1. Performance - turbo limits 40,40,39,39,38,38, Speedshift 1, BD Prochot disabled

2. Light - turbo limits 40,40,37,34,31,28, Speedshift 170, BD Prochot disabled

 

For GPU, I only make one profile in MSI Afterburner: 1733MHz@0.931V, +96MHz memory clock (didn’t do further testing, might be able to push a little more clock speed)

 

Notes:

1. You can customize fan control via Clevo software, but the customization is limited (only 2 points in the fan curve can be modified). The fans will not stop while idling (20-30% fan speed) and this cannot be modified. Fan speed while idling is ~36dBA. Max speed is ~55dBA.

2. The fans take a while to speed up when load is applied. 

3. The included charger is 150W Chicony brick.

 

Conclusion: Well-built and well-cooled budget 1050TI gaming laptop

 

Thanks for reading! Let me know if there are mistakes in this review.

Edited June 6, 2019 by GeneXiS_X

[ahuckphin]

When you mention Asus FX stoves, do you mean to say that the Asus FX thermals throttle? 

[genexis_x]

3 minutes ago, bindydad123 said:

When you mention Asus FX stoves, do you mean to say that the Asus FX thermals throttle? 

Yup bcoz of their bad cooling designs. Struggle to cool components (especially GPU) even with max fans.

[amirbahalagharn]

I believe you can even swap cpu with 9600K or even 9700K(as they have no hyper-threading) with undervolting+delid+repaste+etc... to get higher FPS.

[genexis_x]

2 hours ago, amirbahalagharn said:

I believe you can even swap cpu with 9600K or even 9700K(as they have no hyper-threading) with undervolting+delid+repaste+etc... to get higher FPS.

Requires many work...my friend probably don't want that, he's happy with what he has right now