Requests & Questions for HP Spectre x360 (15inch)

[9 year old]

2 hours ago, iechowulf said:

So, I did a battery life test today. Results as follows:

 

The test started at 8:20 am 

Battery charged to 100%

Bluetooth On but nothing connected

Brightness set to 100%

Sound set to 70%

Best Performance Mode

4k display (I normally put it to 1080 just to squeeze some more life out of it since u cant really tell the difference anyway)

Keyboard backlight on(turned off automatically after a while)

 

The test was literally me watching back to back WAN Show episodes with the above-mentioned settings in full-screen mode. Google Chrome, and of course wifi was on.
The test ended at 2:25 pm for a total of 6 Hours and 5 minutes of battery time doing the above-mentioned task. I stopped when the laptop got to 10% and gave me the "Battery life low" warning. I could have squeezed another few minutes tops but I ended it at 10, shut down and set it to charge. I had HWMonitor running in the background and throttle stop was on as well so.... yeah.

 

Oh that's awesome to see! Eventhough its a hexacore processor, The battery life seem to perform pretty good. Thanks for taking your time and doing these tests. Much Appreciated!

[genexis_x]

12 hours ago, iechowulf said:

Huh? Do i just make them and switch between them in the top left corner of throttle stop? What would be a performance vs battery saving profile? (Im a newb, but i learn quick so thanks in advance haha)

yes

 

you can refer to my Y530 review for an example

[iechowulf]

On 1/27/2019 at 12:09 PM, iechowulf said:

 

So, this is what I got! I did it on battery power ( I can do it again with the charger plugged in ) but basically the clocks stayed in the 3.1Ghz neighborhood consistently throughout. 

 

Edit: I was using the pc prior to this and then I changed the settings/power mode then ran Cinebench 3 times, back to back before taking the screenshot so this isn't temps from like a cold boot. The fans kicked on during the 2nd run but weren't full power. it was very low. They didn't even turn on prior to running cinebench. In the FIVR settings in throttlestop, I have the turbo ratios set to 41 across all 6 cores

 

 

Anyone notice the "Turn On" button for Throttle Stop? I hadn't turned it on loool, im pretty sure it was on since i saw the changes take effect in HWMonitor but i want to be certain... Is this basically null and void because it was not on? Just want to double verify if i need to do this all again because its no problem lol

[genexis_x]

Just click turn on for peace of mind

[iechowulf]

1 hour ago, GeneXiS_X said:

Just click turn on for peace of mind

Okay thanks! Profile time lool 
Also quick question, i noticed that the GPU really under performs when it isnt plugged in. I could basically have it on any power profile and even went into nvidia settings and put power management to max performance but if i load up like black ops, it'll be hard-stuck at 30FPS but if i plug in the charger that jumps up to like 70+ and same for leauge, hard stuck at 30 then shoots up to 150+

Anyway to fix this? Or will changing this end up just f*cking up my battery? (Pretty sure i could google an answer but just wanna know if i shouldn't even bother)

[genexis_x]

9 hours ago, iechowulf said:

i noticed that the GPU really under performs when it isnt plugged in

it's normal, battery can't provide enough juice

9 hours ago, iechowulf said:

Or will changing this end up just f*cking up my battery?

you can turn off Batteryboost which can provide max 60 FPS while on battery power, however battery lifespan will decrease if you frequently do medium/heavy loads under battery power

[snoops3d]

This is great thank you for taking time to put all this info together.. Im extremely interested in this laptop and was curious about a couple of things:

 

A) in your cinebench tests how long does each test take.. Im trying to get an understanding of how long the 360 can run under load before throttling as I will be doing 3d rendering from time to time.

B)Do you know if the ram is soldered on, or if there are ram slots that I could upgrade, I know that mx150 version has slots but I have heard the layout is slightly different from the mx150 and gtx 1050

C) have you been gaming on it for any length of time if so what were your impressions with thermals.

 

Thanks again for all the info you have provided its been a great help!

[iechowulf]

On 2/6/2019 at 2:44 PM, snoops3d said:

This is great thank you for taking time to put all this info together.. Im extremely interested in this laptop and was curious about a couple of things:

 

A) in your cinebench tests how long does each test take.. Im trying to get an understanding of how long the 360 can run under load before throttling as I will be doing 3d rendering from time to time.

B)Do you know if the ram is soldered on, or if there are ram slots that I could upgrade, I know that mx150 version has slots but I have heard the layout is slightly different from the mx150 and gtx 1050

C) have you been gaming on it for any length of time if so what were your impressions with thermals.

 

Thanks again for all the info you have provided its been a great help!

No problem! Im happy to help. I basically found that there was a complete lack of info on this so i decided since i was gonna get it to put out asmuch as i can... Its by no means a professional review and im pretty much a newb - BUT anything counts here i guess haha

A) I have no idea. I honestly cant remember, but i just turned it on after a day of classes ( its at 47% battery ) and ran another test for you right now. Ran it twice, results as follows:

Test 1 took about 45seconds, with a score of 1025

Test 2 took about 40 seconds, with a score of 1037 

 

This is running on battery power, throttlestop is on with the same settings as the pics posted for the last cinebench runs and I did not measure thermals this time. If you would like more detail let me know, i will run it and provide anything you'd like

 

B) The ram is soldered with this one. I believe the Mx150 is slotted, but the 1050Ti Version that i have is 100% Soldered on ram. Pretty much only thing u can upgrade is the SSD. I havent upgraded mine yet, but i plan to later on. I just need to find out if it has dual m.2 slots because that would be AMAZING altho i highly doubt it (i havent opened mine up, nor have i seen a tear-down or anyone mention dual slots and it is pretty rare on laptops besides a few noteable ones)

 

C) I have! Honestly, the thermals are AMAZING. I normally do really light gaming on battery power, and i dont ever get anything noticable. I really cant tell you specifics because i have not checked the temps when im gaming inbetween classes, but i did monitor it initially ( first page of this post) so you can check that out for some info there. I can say tho that it definitely gets a bit warmer when the charger is plugged in gaming as opposed to battery power, but thats 100% expected; It is definitely not uncomfortably warm. The heat is spread out and dissipated REALLY well on this laptop, there is no focus point for heat and your hands dont really notice it unless you place ur hand on the bottom of the laptop... then you definitely do. If its on your lap you will know that its warmer down there but not scorching or uncomfortable. Atleast not to me. As i said, heat is spread out really well and there is no focus point where the surface temp is like 10+ degrees higher than the rest of the laptop. I can also say that it cools down really quickly after switching from heavy usage to light or just putting it to sleep or off entirely. 

 

If you are considering this laptop i'd highly recommend it... Honestly, im 100% satisfied with this and i haven't had any issues. I switched to precision drivers over the Synaptics one and yeaaaaah that just put the icing on the cake for me. Im 100% satisfied, but your mileage may vary. Any questions, hit me up. But i'd say purchase it for yourself and try it out. You have 30 days to return it for a full refund if it doesnt meet your standards or needs. No better way to judge than that really haha

[snoops3d]

ok great thank you! I am excited to try it out will be ordering later in the month..  Im surprised you can switch drivers from synaptics to Precision without an issue where do you get the precision drivers ?

[iechowulf]

11 hours ago, snoops3d said:

ok great thank you! I am excited to try it out will be ordering later in the month..  Im surprised you can switch drivers from synaptics to Precision without an issue where do you get the precision drivers ?

No problem, if you feel like you want to you can always add your own experiences to this post for other potential buyers! And i did the switch from a reddit post i found... This: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/6qz30h/enable_precision_touchpad_on_hp_spectre_x360_2017/

 

Provides a pretty good guide to follow

 

 

 

 

[snoops3d]

Thanks again for the info!  yeah I will definately share my experiences, theres not much info out there on this laptop as of now!  Im wont be ordering until beginning or mid march as they are supposedly releasing an OLED screen version of this, and I want to see how much the upgrade will cost. 

[iechowulf]

11 hours ago, snoops3d said:

Thanks again for the info!  yeah I will definately share my experiences, theres not much info out there on this laptop as of now!  Im wont be ordering until beginning or mid march as they are supposedly releasing an OLED screen version of this, and I want to see how much the upgrade will cost. 

Sounds good! I would have waiting too but i needed this for school haha - will be looking forward to hear about the OLED upgrade if you do get it!

[snoops3d]

iechowulf:
how are you liking the laptop so far? I plan on ordering on Friday but was curious to hear your thoughts on it, now that you had it for a while?  how are thermals in general? any gaming ? hows battery life? or anything else that comes to mind!

Thanks for all the info.

 

 

[iechowulf]

Hey! So far so good man, the only problem i have with it is that i have to be very cautious with it so that it doesnt get scratched up! So far so good but im trying to get dbrand to make skins for it haha... Thermals are amazing, did an extended gaming session where my lap got kind of hot but nothing too bad a little 2min break didnt resolve. This tihng cools down QUICK. i think the metal body helps alot. I do Apex and Leauge on it comfortably, also battery life is amazing. Takes me through a day EASILY with juice to spare, i havent gamed on those days tho so im not certain about gamings affect on battery life. Im just really happy with it, only problem is that the 15" is huge for tablet mode, but i make it work however i can... 13" would be way more comfortable to use in tablet mode.

[snoops3d]

oh awesome news!.. Did you do anything to adjust thermals, like down throttle or repaste?

[iechowulf]

Papa Linus to the rescue! [I mean, ofcourse i kinda have the opposite review lmao but i feel like he is picking on ALOT of niche things, having used literally every laptop available to mankind haha but it points out literally EVERYTHING you might note, so its perfect. Just keep in mind that ALOT of these things are stuff that as a normal person u'd really not notice or care for unless you deal with lots of tech or are very picky i feel like... either way im sucking off HP cus i love this so ill shut up and let papa linus guide us xD]

 

 

[snoops3d]

Yeah he seems to be in nitpick mode, mainly with ergonomics.. His take on the track pad is slightly odd in that most other reviews have said the trackpad is a good solid performer but not quite as good as one using  precision drivers. Also his knock on the display is probably valid.  I wish he gave more info on thermals and performance testing.. that said I did find these reviews. First review does some interesting performance comparisons

 

 

Notebook check article

 

https://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-Spectre-x360-15-Core-i7-8750H-GTX-1050-Ti-Max-Q-2-TB-SSD-4K-Convertible-Review.413909.0.html

[snoops3d]

I did pull the trigger on the 15 i7-8750  cant wait for it to arrive!

[DarkDragon2K04]

linus has a review for both models up on YouTube in case you have not seen it

[snoops3d]

48 minutes ago, DarkDragon2K04 said:

linus has a review for both models up on YouTube in case you have not seen it

Oh awesome! I will check it out thanks!!

[DarkDragon2K04]

2 minutes ago, snoops3d said:

Oh awesome! I will check it out thanks!!

No P

[snoops3d]

I just got my Spectre 1050ti, I love  it, but the high pitched whistle that comes from the fans is killing me.. Is anyone else experience the same sort of noise?

[rfdebeaumont]

Hi iechowulf,

 

Thanks for all the detailed info, really appreciate it! I have this machine myself and I´m also really pleased, it runs so well

I had a question, you mentioned you undervolted it: Can you please share what voltages you settled on?
Did you use Intel's extreme tuning utility? I did run into some thermal issues myself running CS:GO at the highest settings for an extended period so I'm considering doing this. (CPU in lower 90's C, GPU in mid 80's C, room teperature of around 17 C). I think the heat from the GPU might have gotten transferred over to the CPU hmm. Turning down some video settings and capping the FPS at 60 did significantly reduce the thermals.

I've never attempted an undervolt so any tips/link to guide would be really appreciated!
Also if anyone has question on this laptop feel free to ask.

[rfdebeaumont]

On 3/28/2019 at 2:49 AM, snoops3d said:

I just got my Spectre 1050ti, I love  it, but the high pitched whistle that comes from the fans is killing me.. Is anyone else experience the same sort of noise?

I did not have this issue, could this be the infamous coil whine?
The fans can produce quite some noise when heat builds up to the max but certainly no whistling.
 

[imbrock]

I've been running the slightly less beefy model with the intel cpu vega gpu hybrid in it because I thought that sounded interesting. HP was the only company that was offering a full numberpad on their flagship laptops. I am however running it hooked up to an egpu and a hub most of the time when I'm at home which smooths the whole thing out.

I've been quite satisfied with it, I generally get good battery life when I use it at work for not gaming.

I'm very impressed by by how well the thunderbolt 3 performs with it. I have a plugable hub hooked into one thunderbolt port, which has keyboard headphones mouse keyboard ethernet and an ssd full of games running through it. On the other port I have the 1080 egpu running through with a 144 hz 1440p benq zowie monitor. The whole setup works pretty great, I generally get framerates above a hundred and quite quick loading on high settings.