New Laptop - First things...

[Paulbax]

I should receive my Ionico 15 tomorrow.
Normally when I receive a mainstream laptop I just create accounts and go. I do nothing special, I let it update itself when it decides to.
With custom laptops, do you need to do anything special? It already comes with windows. I figure from many posts I will need to run windows update a few times. I will check the control centre.
Anything else???
Once up and running i will do a firestrike test. Should be fun, I've never done a perfo test before.

 

[kshina]

Whats your config mate? Still undecided on Ionico!

 

[ubuysa]

I should receive my Ionico 15 tomorrow.
Normally when I receive a mainstream laptop I just create accounts and go. I do nothing special, I let it update itself when it decides to.
With custom laptops, do you need to do anything special? It already comes with windows. I figure from many posts I will need to run windows update a few times. I will check the control centre.
Anything else???
Once up and running i will do a firestrike test. Should be fun, I've never done a perfo test before.

Run Windows Update repeatedly, even across reboots. Then open an elevated command prompt and run sfc /scannow (yep, even a new install sometimes throws sfc errors). When that's done, and before you install any software, check that everything is working. All ports, all drives, WiFi, Ethernet, audio (in and out), graphics modes etc. etc. You want to establish a baseline before you install your own stuff so that you can be sure if problems happen later that it was all working ok when you got it.

 

[Paulbax]

Run Windows Update repeatedly, even across reboots. Then open an elevated command prompt and run sfc /scannow (yep, even a new install sometimes throws sfc errors). When that's done, and before you install any software, check that everything is working. All ports, all drives, WiFi, Ethernet, audio (in and out), graphics modes etc. etc. You want to establish a baseline before you install your own stuff so that you can be sure if problems happen later that it was all working ok when you got it.

Thanks. What does sfc /scannow do?
I guess it runs a scan but what's an sfc?

 

[Paulbax]

Whats your config mate? Still undecided on Ionico!

15.6, 3070, 32gb.

 

[Bhuna50]

SFC is a system file checker tool and it checks for corrupt windows files and replaces them if any errors found.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Paulbax]

@ubuysa @andjef796
Ok. Just googled what an Elevated command prompt is... seems straight forward. Dont think I have been into a "DOS" type prompt since fiddling with config.sys and autoexec.bat (think that's them?) settings on my 486DX2 in the mid nineties.... may need to bear with me!

 

[Cenksenci]

This is the exact topic that I wanted to create it. I have no idea what to do first until now. But still don't know what to do next, after all Windows update done. Maybe a ControlCenter guide would be greatful. I know @Macco26 has already reviewed and it was amazing but still I have a little knowledge on setting the voltage values to get balance the system. Thank in advice.

 

[Macco26]

Well, I would definitely forward you to my video for the CC atm. But I promise if I end up keeping this laptop I might do something more screenshot related.

 

[daveeb]

@ubuysa @andjef796
Ok. Just googled what an Elevated command prompt is... seems straight forward. Dont think I have been into a "DOS" type prompt since fiddling with config.sys and autoexec.bat (think that's them?) settings on my 486DX2 in the mid nineties.... may need to bear with me!

Ha ha, sounds like you're at my level. I was quite sussed with windows 95 and to an extent XP but now it's all a bit of a mystery.

 

[Paulbax]

Ok. So far so good. Love the laptop. A few points:
PCS installed windows on the 2nd 1Tb drive and not the 1st 500Gb drive intended for the OS.... grrrrr. I guess they ignored the first drive to go for the fastest... Really want to swap it over but concerned by the efforts Angelo has had. Is it difficult? If not I would prefer to do before adding other stuff.
I ran the sfc /scannow.
I did all the windows updates including 20H2! Multiple restarts. I have tested the ports, drives etc and all seems ok.
3DMark Firestart on installed copy was "initialising" so gave up, uninstalled and reinstalled from forum link and all works.
I ran on Turbo and did not touch anything else:

I scored 20 805 in Fire Strike

Intel Core i7-10875H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 (notebook) x 1, 32768 MB, 64-bit Windows 10}

www.3dmark.com

I got 20805 so a bit down on others but I haven't tweaked anything yet.
I think I have control centre 3.1.6?
Some pics attached:
I will attach some pics in a later post as I need to reduce size.

 

[Paulbax]

Oh and the thermals seem good. Pics attached. Sfc, drives, CC and Firestrike:

 

[Macco26]

2TB drive is faster. That's why they opted for it. You can shrink the partion, adding another and have a total of 3. Like 500 + 500 + 1500 if you want your OS data stay separated by the other.

Can you check your BIOS version? F2 or DEL (don't know which, I pressed both) to press upon reboot. E.g. you have January of February BIOS. AKA Have dGPU only in Switchable Graphics settings or disabled?

Regarding Firestrike and how to improve:
on CC: flag to have GPU TGP = 125W. Unticked = 115W. Plus DB = 15W.

Plus you need Throttlestop to undervolt the CPU. Mine so far is at -100mV but YMMV.

 

[Paulbax]

2TB drive is faster. That's why they opted for it. You can shrink the partion, adding another and have a total of 3. Like 500 + 500 + 1500 if you want your OS data stay separated by the other.

Can you check your BIOS version? F2 or DEL (don't know which, I pressed both) to press upon reboot. E.g. you have January of February BIOS. AKA Have dGPU only in Switchable Graphics settings or disabled?

Regarding Firestrike and how to improve:
on CC: flag to have GPU TGP = 125W. Unticked = 115W. Plus DB = 15W.

Plus you need Throttlestop to undervolt the CPU. Mine so far is at -100mV but YMMV.

Perfo difference between 500Gb and 1Tb drives is pretty small in attached image (slight write difference of 100MB/W)
I checked BIOS in windows. Obviously doesn't say if I have dGPU setting but shows version:
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. N.1.07PCS04, 24/02/2021

 

[Macco26]

You have the locked BIOS, like mine. On Advanced page you would find Switchable Graphics but with useless parameters, as the only Switchable-worthy would have been dGPU, which isn't.

You can try with Macrium Reflect to clone your OS drive and implant in the other one. Then in the BIOS say which has to be your primary disk. Of course anything on the 500 GB SSD would be wiped by the image recovery.
I don't remember if Macrium Reflect can do on-the-fly Cloning. For sure it can OS-image on an USB then you recover on the other disk.

 

[Paulbax]

Cloning sounds more complicated. I have a USB recovery. I thought I could do some kind of clean install on the 500gb drive and delete windows off the 1tb drive?

 

[Paulbax]

Ok. Did your cc changes but no undervolt. Bit better:

I scored 20 979 in Fire Strike

Intel Core i7-10875H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 (notebook) x 1, 32768 MB, 64-bit Windows 10}

www.3dmark.com

 

[Macco26]

Cloning sounds more complicated. I have a USB recovery. I thought I could do some kind of clean install on the 500gb drive and delete windows off the 1tb drive?

Macrium Reflect is free and not that hard, really.
If you want to install windows on the other drive you better open the chassis and remove the existing one, just to be sure Windows does not touch it and consider it the one where to store its recovery, MSR partiotions etc.
That's why with Macrium is all way better, as you clone all those partitions at once from one drive to the other.

 

[Cenksenci]

@Macco26 could you please share with us how to undervolt by using TS? Some screenshots you can share or maybe some video guide you can do.
A few questions based on this;
Is undervolting safe to use? What's the benefit of using undervolt?
What do we get when we do undervolt? More performance less temperature? Explain me like I am 5 years old please, thank you 🥰😇

 

[Macco26]

In the video I'm publishing today there is a very brief screenshot of my FIVR page of Throttlestop. Basically the only 2 things to do there is moving the slider in the middle (you'll find by the video) for the CPU Core, then select CPU Cache and do the same. Then Apply, ten Save (into the ini) then stress with TSBench / check with other loads if it's stable.
Undervolting does not have any consequences as far as your silicon can live with less voltage than expected. It runs cooler and can boost higher at a given temperature.
It's a thing Intel makes already, but since Silicon Lottery, they use a general voltage setting good for every CPU of a given model (e.g. 10875H). Can't lower too much as some samples could BSOD. We continue this lowering process with our single sample and see where it can go. Of course it can't be equal for everybody. My 10875H stays 100% reliable at -100 mV offset. Maybe even more, didn't push further atm. Yours could stop at 80, we don't know.
Generally I'm seeing high binned processors, like 10875H performing better than lower tiers, like 10750H (and presumably 10870H), because they are the best among the best (in the 10th series), to be able to reach as high as 5.1 Ghz in some scenarios.. A 10750H I had for few weeks stopped working after -75 mV..

EDIT: YT is still processing HD resolution since yesterday evening, wtf. For a 5 min long video? I won't pulish until it ends.