IONICO 15.6 - What do you think?

[Brookes_117]

Hi everyone,

This is the machine I've gone for, let me know what you think and if you think I should have gone for the thicker 15.6 Recoil, because thermals!

My plan is to be using it for both work and gaming. Work wise, running geographical information systems (GIS) (environmental and geochemical interpolations and models) and producing maps and figures for reports as well as some light 3D rendering in Leapfrog Geo and lots of Microsoft office. I often travel for work so portability is needed but I'm not opposed to lugging around a chonky laptop. Majority of the time at work and home I'll be hooking this up to a monitor and an elevated open air laptop stand (I have a 144Hz, 1440p, 32" LG UltraGear VA panel at home). In terms of gaming, want to chew through AC valhalla, Doom eternal, Witcher 3, Valheim, CIV, Warframe, and triple A titles as and when something comes out I want to play.

How are the thermals on the Ionico? does it throttle? is there room for a larger battery at a latter date? I prefer the thin and light looks of the Ionico (upgrading from a Dell XPS 9550 with i7 skylake and 16gb RAM) but I know the thicker Recoil will likely offer better thermals.

My Budget: £1800

Any thoughts?! cheers!

Specification:
Chassis & Display
Ionico Series: 15.6" Matte QHD 165Hz sRGB 100% LED Widescreen (2560x1440)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen™ 9 Eight Core Processor 5900HX (3.3GHz, 4.6GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair 2933MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
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 SSD (3500 MB/R, 3200 MB/W)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS M.2, PCIe, SSD (2000 MB/R, 1200 MB/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 62WH Lithium Ion Battery
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x USB 3.2 PORT (Type C) + 3 x USB 3.2 PORTS
Keyboard Language
IONICO SERIES RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery 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
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Promotional Item
Get Outriders with qualifying GeForce RTX Powered Laptops
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland

 

[Macco26]

For the Ionico I suggest you to lurk at my YT playlist for the Ionico 17:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCmdLI8Jk4F4T6tA1SvOzaTkZYWqoPkej

Yes, it's the bigger brother 17-sized, but as they share the same motherboard, it might be a good indication. I have the Intel version as it didn't exist in Zen3 version at the time of my purchase. Keep this in mind while looking at those videos.

The Recoil 15 however shares pretty much the same motherboard, so the only difference is it's thicker of 0,5 cm so expected to be fresher with temperatures. It has a more loudy mechanical keyboard (with per-key RGB illumination) and that's the only differences among the 2.

If I were you I'd get the Ionico 17 with Zen3. Larger means with larger side radiators, so being 2cm thick balances the 2,5 cm thick but crammed Recoil 15. Unless you like the mechanical keyboard of the latter.
My Ionico can be fitted into a 15-sized laptop bag, for what it is worth. You'll see by the video how slim it is.
Plus 2560x1440 makes a bit more sense at 17" IMO.

 

[Brookes_117]

For the Ionico I suggest you to lurk at my YT playlist for the Ionico 17:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCmdLI8Jk4F4T6tA1SvOzaTkZYWqoPkej

Yes, it's the bigger brother 17-sized, but as they share the same motherboard, it might be a good indication. I have the Intel version as it didn't exist in Zen3 version at the time of my purchase. Keep this in mind while looking at those videos.

The Recoil 15 however shares pretty much the same motherboard, so the only difference is it's thicker of 0,5 cm so expected to be fresher with temperatures. It has a more loudy mechanical keyboard (with per-key RGB illumination) and that's the only differences among the 2.

If I were you I'd get the Ionico 17 with Zen3. Larger means with larger side radiators, so being 2cm thick balances the 2,5 cm thick but crammed Recoil 15. Unless you like the mechanical keyboard of the latter.
My Ionico can be fitted into a 15-sized laptop bag, for what it is worth. You'll see by the video how slim it is.
Plus 2560x1440 makes a bit more sense at 17" IMO.

Cheers Macco that does make a lot of sense. Yeah I'm not a massive fan of the Mechanical clickey keys, especially in the office might get some funny looks ha. But a larger screen to utilise the resolution and provide some better heat dissipation sounds like a very good solution. Amazed the footprint of the 17 is so small!

Many Thanks!

 

[Sptz]

Is the DP really 1.2? Why not 1.4?! Looks like a massive oversight

 

[Macco26]

Where did you see 1.2? It should be 1.4 infact, directly controlled by the Nvidia RXT 30 series GPU.

 

[Brookes_117]

Is the DP really 1.2? Why not 1.4?! Looks like a massive oversight

DP 1.2 is what was listed on the specs sheet on PCS website and HDMI 2.0 not 2.1. so can only assume it's correct. For me this isn't a massive issue as display port 1.2 has a bandwidth of 21.6Gbps so will be capable of driving my 1440p 144Hz display. but in terms of future proofing you'd want the latest standards. If the IO is any different when I receive the Laptop I'll let you know!

P.S. PCS have made a few minor errors on specs listings before such as the Wifi 6 AX201 card being listed with ryzen CPU's which are only compatible with intel chips (AX200 for ryzen). So not sure if they've just auto filled DP 1.2 or if it is in fact DP 1.2. on this model.

 

[Sptz]

DP 1.2 is what was listed on the specs sheet on PCS website and HDMI 2.0 not 2.1. so can only assume it's correct. For me this isn't a massive issue as display port 1.2 has a bandwidth of 21.6Gbps so will be capable of driving my 1440p 144Hz display. but in terms of future proofing you'd want the latest standards. If the IO is any different when I receive the Laptop I'll let you know!

P.S. PCS have made a few minor errors on specs listings before such as the Wifi 6 AX201 card being listed with ryzen CPU's which are only compatible with intel chips (AX200 for ryzen). So not sure if they've just auto filled DP 1.2 or if it is in fact DP 1.2. on this model.

Do PCS staff lurk around the forums? Would be great to get clarification. Been eyeing this laptop as it looks ideal for my use case but would rather have DP1.4 (driving a 34" 3440x1440p @ 144hz) plus 4K120 in the future. (HDMI isn't as importante to me)

 

[Brookes_117]

Do PCS staff lurk around the forums? Would be great to get clarification. Been eyeing this laptop as it looks ideal for my use case but would rather have DP1.4 (driving a 34" 3440x1440p @ 144hz) plus 4K120 in the future. (HDMI isn't as importante to me)

Yeah I agree driving the 4k panel definitely need the DP1.4. There are good moderators on the forum who are usually very active and helpful. I think some are employed by PCS but not sure. I'd try @Scott @SpyderTracks @ubuysa these guys know pretty much everything there is to know about everything!

 

[Macco26]

DP 1.2 is what was listed on the specs sheet on PCS website and HDMI 2.0 not 2.1. so can only assume it's correct. For me this isn't a massive issue as display port 1.2 has a bandwidth of 21.6Gbps so will be capable of driving my 1440p 144Hz display. but in terms of future proofing you'd want the latest standards. If the IO is any different when I receive the Laptop I'll let you know!

P.S. PCS have made a few minor errors on specs listings before such as the Wifi 6 AX201 card being listed with ryzen CPU's which are only compatible with intel chips (AX200 for ryzen). So not sure if they've just auto filled DP 1.2 or if it is in fact DP 1.2. on this model.

It's a bad written configurator.
Same for Elimina Pro, for instance, as they share pretty much the same motherboard (they even share the BIOS, go figure) just with different soldered CPU/GPU.

And for Elimina Pro, but sold by another System Integrator:

Those are the specs for the RTX30 cards worldwide. Can't be otherwise

 

[ubuysa]

Yeah I agree driving the 4k panel definitely need the DP1.4. There are good moderators on the forum who are usually very active and helpful. I think some are employed by PCS but not sure. I'd try @Scott @SpyderTracks @ubuysa these guys know pretty much everything there is to know about everything!

None of the mods are employed by PCS. We're all unpaid volunteers.

The forum administrator is a PCS employee.

 

[Brookes_117]

it does seem the PCS website is a bit behind. As you say the chassis from tongfang all share the same motherboard and therefore IO so you'd assume it'd be DP1.4 direct to GPU and HDMI 2.1

 

[Brookes_117]

None of the mods are employed by PCS. We're all unpaid volunteers.

The forum administrator is a PCS employee.

That's awesome! great work you guys do, really appreciate it!!

 

[ubuysa]

That's awesome! great work you guys do, really appreciate it!!

Thanks, I know we all appreciate that.

I should add that there are PCS employees who have moderator status but they generally leave it up to us. I mean, why would you buy a dog and bark yourself?