Eurocom Monster 4 (GTX970M)

[crazyeyesreaper]

Eurocom looks to impress with its ultra portable 14 inch Monster 4. Weighing in at just 2kg / 4.4lbs, it is light, but don't let its small size fool you. It comes configured with an Intel Core i7 6700HQ and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, which gives it quite the punch for such a tiny system.

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[Warrgarbl]

Typical Clevo device, probably a P641RE. The negatives you mentioned are pretty normal for Clevo. I'd add that the plastics tend to get worn out really quick, too, making them look like a mess after a year of moderate use. However, Clevo sells their barebones with much smaller minimum order amounts than many comptetitors, which is why there are so many Clevos being sold by various companies. My company sells Clevos as well, and I never quite liked them, mostly because of the often quite horrible build quality and materials as well as general noisiness.

 

[Melvis]

HGST HDD and 99c? CPU temps, Thats a fail in my book.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

HGST has proven reliable in terms of HDDs compared to even Seagate / Western digital and the fact the unit features an M.2 SSD kinda moot. In fact recent HDD reliability tests shows HGST around 0-2% failure rate where as Seagate and Western Digital on certain models have up to 12-13% failure rates.
99C CPU temps i expected it considering the small size with high end CPU. Fact remains the temps may have resulted in throttling but when playing say GTA V / Dota 2 frame rates were un-affected. Essentially i could only tell it was throttling because Aida64 showed the data. In game without the app monitoring I couldn't tell. Still its something that should be improved on. I have a feeling making the vent under the second fan larger would help.

That said, when a problem causes issues that truly affects performance then yes its a failure. The biggest thing with the temp issue was the CPU did not run at full turbo clocks. However it still ran at Intels designated clock speed of 2.6 Ghz that is essentially guaranteed. The massive 900 Mhz boost clock tho was not in affect when pushing heavy loads since you guessed it thermal throttle.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

HGST has proven reliable in terms of HDDs compared to even Seagate / Western digital and the fact the unit features an M.2 SSD kinda moot. In fact recent HDD reliability tests shows HGST around 0-2% failure rate where as Seagate and Western Digital on certain models have up to 12-13% failure rates.
99C CPU temps i expected it considering the small size with high end CPU. Fact remains the temps may have resulted in throttling but when playing say GTA V / Dota 2 frame rates were un-affected. Essentially i could only tell it was throttling because Aida64 showed the data. In game without the app monitoring I couldn't tell. Still its something that should be improved on. I have a feeling making the vent under the second fan larger would help.

That said, when a problem causes issues that truly affects performance then yes its a failure. The biggest thing with the temp issue was the CPU did not run at full turbo clocks. However it still ran at Intels designated clock speed of 2.6 Ghz that is essentially guaranteed. The massive 900 Mhz boost clock tho was not in affect when pushing heavy loads since you guessed it thermal throttle.

That kind of temperature deserves to be raked over the coals. My alienware 15r2 has the same chips, and the CPU sits in the mid 50c range, with the GPU peaking at 62c.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

@TheinsanegamerN Yeah GPU temps were fine, that said Alienware 15r2 is also much larger than the Eurocom Monster 4.

So I can understand bitching about temps. But size means much lower footprint for cooling.

Alienware 15R2 is 34 x 386 x 270 mm / 1.34 x 15.2 x 10.63 in meaning it has a volume of 216
Eurocom Monster 4 is 25.4 x 349 x 247 mm / 1 x 13.74 x 9.72 in meaning it has a volume of 133

In terms of internal space that is a difference of about 20%.
The Alienware is also much heavier 6.86 lbs vs 4.4lbs

But I digress the unit shouldn't throttle not at that price point. I have a feeling when configured with the i5 it is probably not an issue. I have however reached out to Eurocom for more data and information on why it is happening.

That said looking at the data itself and cross referencing with Notebook check the Eurocoms performance is on par with the Alienware M15r2. Meaning throttle or not they performed the same in CPU tests in fact the Eurocom managed to eek out a slight lead.

 

[Melvis]

HGST has proven reliable in terms of HDDs compared to even Seagate / Western digital and the fact the unit features an M.2 SSD kinda moot. In fact recent HDD reliability tests shows HGST around 0-2% failure rate where as Seagate and Western Digital on certain models have up to 12-13% failure rates.
99C CPU temps i expected it considering the small size with high end CPU. Fact remains the temps may have resulted in throttling but when playing say GTA V / Dota 2 frame rates were un-affected. Essentially i could only tell it was throttling because Aida64 showed the data. In game without the app monitoring I couldn't tell. Still its something that should be improved on. I have a feeling making the vent under the second fan larger would help.

That said, when a problem causes issues that truly affects performance then yes its a failure. The biggest thing with the temp issue was the CPU did not run at full turbo clocks. However it still ran at Intels designated clock speed of 2.6 Ghz that is essentially guaranteed. The massive 900 Mhz boost clock tho was not in affect when pushing heavy loads since you guessed it thermal throttle.

Not in my experience there not, seen more HGST drives fail more then any other here, only reason why there % is lower is because of how many are been used!.

Temps regardless what the CPU is Id expect no more then 80-85c, anything over that is just ridicules and in a laptop thats a BIG deal.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

I am pretty sure a company employing thousands of HDDs is a better indicator than someone whos seen likely less than 100 drives. In your experience HGST may not be reliable in my experience Seagate is unreliable. Etc personal feelings do not trump statistics.
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-stats-q1-2016/

As for temps I am not disagreeing with you but heres the simple Fact.

Alienware M15R2 as pointed out above same exact specs vs Monster 4, In CPU tests the Monster 4 eeks out a small lead. So even tho the Alienware runs much cooler it didnt affect final performance. As i said I have spoken with Eurocom they will get back to me with more info on the issue in the near future.

 

[$ReaPeR$]

Not in my experience there not, seen more HGST drives fail more then any other here, only reason why there % is lower is because of how many are been used!.

Temps regardless what the CPU is Id expect no more then 80-85c, anything over that is just ridicules and in a laptop thats a BIG deal.

in my experience seagate is the shittiest company ever since 5 of their drives have failed on me, and with photos and many things that i valued, and wd is second with almost as many drives.. but thats irrelevant, personal experience is not statistics and stating it as such is ridiculous.

I am pretty sure a company employing thousands of HDDs is a better indicator than someone whos seen likely less than 100 drives. In your experience HGST may not be reliable in my experience Seagate is unreliable. Etc personal feelings do not trump statistics.
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-stats-q1-2016/

As for temps I am not disagreeing with you but heres the simple Fact.

Alienware M15R2 as pointed out above same exact specs vs Monster 4, In CPU tests the Monster 4 eeks out a small lead. So even tho the Alienware runs much cooler it didnt affect final performance. As i said I have spoken with Eurocom they will get back to me with more info on the issue in the near future.

you are so right about the size, i recently bought an acer with the same cpu but a 950m and in some games it hits 99 easily, usually it stays at 85-90 for the cpu and the gpu, i know they both thermal throttle like crazy but what can you do, the 14-15 inch size is damn hard to cool. for 1600$ though they should find a way, its ridiculous for that price point to not have aat least a decent cooling solution. and yes i also havent seen a perf impact.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

in my experience seagate is the shittiest company ever since 5 of their drives have failed on me, and with photos and many things that i valued, and wd is second with almost as many drives.. but thats irrelevant, personal experience is not statistics and stating it as such is ridiculous.


you are so right about the size, i recently bought an acer with the same cpu but a 950m and in some games it hits 99 easily, usually it stays at 85-90 for the cpu and the gpu, i know they both thermal throttle like crazy but what can you do, the 14-15 inch size is damn hard to cool. for 1600$ though they should find a way, its ridiculous for that price point to not have aat least a decent cooling solution. and yes i also havent seen a perf impact.

Exactly! I can see what its doing but it didn't impact performance. In CPU tests it gets close to a desktop 6770K. We know temps are an issue but if its fast enough you can't notice if its fast enough that it doesn't impact performance. I can't really fault it as much as I would like.

Simple fact remains some Intel CPUs with stock HSF still throttle in desktops with better space for cooling. Fact remains in Gaming this laptop does quite well and is lightweight. You can't have everything obviously so some things have to be let go in order to gain somewhere else. Simple fact is at about 50% lighter than an Alienware M15R2 and $500-600 cheaper it offers the same performance. The end result trumps the other issues.

 

[$ReaPeR$]

Exactly! I can see what its doing but it didn't impact performance. In CPU tests it gets close to a desktop 6770K. We know temps are an issue but if its fast enough you can't notice if its fast enough that it doesn't impact performance. I can't really fault it as much as I would like.

Simple fact remains some Intel CPUs with stock HSF still throttle in desktops with better space for cooling. Fact remains in Gaming this laptop does quite well and is lightweight. You can't have everything obviously so some things have to be let go in order to gain somewhere else. Simple fact is at about 50% lighter than an Alienware M15R2 and $500-600 cheaper it offers the same performance. The end result trumps the other issues.

imo laptops like these are more like desktop replacements (or lan friendly computers) more than anything, and yes, price is the determining factor, i got mine for the simple reason that i couldnt move my desktop pc, but these laptops connected to a screen and a keyboard are perfect.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

True and if i was using it as a desktop replacement I would get a cheap notebook cooler which would probably be enough to enable 100% performance 100% of the time. Right now the Laptop delivers 100% about 95% of the time. Mostly its when the FPU units get used it gets hot. Thus why typical gaming / browsing CPU load doesnt trigger it or if it does its for a short moment rather than massive throttling.

 

[$ReaPeR$]

i totally agree, one has to have some perspective after all, i was very surprised from the effect of thermal throttling though, or the lack of it to be honest, i thought that all hell would brake loose, but i couldnt even notice it, and its very hot here, thats something that one should account for also.

 

[danbert2000]

In my opinion, the MSI GS60 provides all of the advantages of this laptop (thin, light, powerful) and has better build quality and thermals to boot. Here's one that matches specs and price:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0150PLJBS/?tag=tec06d-20

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Yes and its also a 15.6 inch unit which means it still has more space for better layout / heat dissipation. Then again those that read the review would notice i made the point that as a 15 inch class product the Monster 4 would have probably made a bit more sense.

 

[Melvis]

I am pretty sure a company employing thousands of HDDs is a better indicator than someone whos seen likely less than 100 drives. In your experience HGST may not be reliable in my experience Seagate is unreliable. Etc personal feelings do not trump statistics.
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-stats-q1-2016/

As for temps I am not disagreeing with you but heres the simple Fact.

Alienware M15R2 as pointed out above same exact specs vs Monster 4, In CPU tests the Monster 4 eeks out a small lead. So even tho the Alienware runs much cooler it didnt affect final performance. As i said I have spoken with Eurocom they will get back to me with more info on the issue in the near future.

True but I do see alot more drives then you think running my own business here and out of all drives WD have the least amount of failures for me in the past 10yrs then any other drive, seagate by far has been the worst for me out of all my clients, I just stopped using them all together. Thats the exact same graph I was looking at and you have to take it with a grain of salt as naturally the one that has 200000+ drives tested will get a lower % its just simple maths.

Temps I guess are more of a personal Preference as for me anything hitting over 80c is just to hot and needs looking at to improve air flow or whatever to bring those temps down I just cant see it doing any good long term to the CPU and or components around it.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

true but how often is a CPU going to be pegged at 100%. Like i said temps were bad throttle is bad but i can't really fault it when looking at the data its on par or out performing systems with the same configuration.

Is it weird certainly could also be bad sensor or just a bad TIM job. Like said Eurocom will be looking into it and getting back to me. At which point ill update here.

 

[miluthui]

Hmm I think the MSI GS40 6QE Phantom is better:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/MSI-GS40-6QE-Phantom-Notebook-Review.158147.0.html
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0167P47B4/?tag=tec06d-20

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Eurocom has gotten back to me with a repaste the laptop had much better thermals. While it says its throttling the graph doesn't show it. However temps are heavily improved vs the 99'C i saw in this exact review unit under heavy load.

 

[Caring1]

At that temp it's a great buy, for those that can afford it and need a laptop to game on.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Yeah had them run a few more tests just to confirm. With repaste and with same settings Temps dropped by about 13'C under heavy load. Resulting in no throttle. So good work by Eurocom overall.