workstation | EPIC PC

MADE FOR PROFESSIONAL! MSI WF75 WORKSTATION UNBOX & REVIEW

ADMIN — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 06:52:19 +0000

As we mentioned in the previous WS series review, There is none other manufacturers like MSI on the market that has combined the beauty of the design and high-performance for workstations into one. Recently, MSI has launched its brand new WF series workstation, redefining the appearance of the workstation to be simple and elegant.

The WF series comes into two sizes, the 15-inch and 17-inch. It’s both compacts in light-weight and medium-weighted jobs. With NVidia’s professional graphics cards, whether it is 3D modelling or rendering, game development and other leading industry jobs can be easily competent, based on this, MSI is easily got certified by most industries’ leading ISVs on the market.

Custom services allow users to select their CPU, a ram based on Intel 10th generation i7, i9 or server-grade Intel Xeon CPU and ECC memory, graphic card in GF series can be selected from T1000/T2000 to Quadro RTX 3000. 2.7Kg weight within a 51WH battery will last around 7 hours of continuous use. The backlit full-sized keyboard brings more convenience to the designer. The fingerprint sensor with TMP 2.0 chip is installed on the touchpad, which adds extra protection to the data security. The rich interface design allows users to easily extend a professional screen. The MSI Creator Center provides a comprehensive computer system management including the cooling monitoring system and also has a function to boost the design software.

So let’s dig in the details.

Product Specification

WF75 10TK Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www.msi.com/Workstation/WF75-10TX/Specification

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
The outer packaging is the traditional gaming series black box

The AC adapter is slim design, 19.5V 9.23A 180W and manufactured by Chicony

The weight of the AC adapter and power cable is 756g in total

the main body is warped by a double-layered suit which has an anti-static layer and a black fabric layer

Product Analysis

The MSI WF75 10TK has a brand new designed chassis

The front and back look of MSI WF75

The MSI Logo

The thin-bezel design

The total thickness is around 22.8 mm and the opening angle of this laptop is 120°

The full-sized numeric keypad has the chiclet design and a tight feel with no loose corners

The Keyboard back light

We are surprised that the WF75 does not contain a modern large-sized touchpad，the blank areas above and below the keyboard are actually very large. We believed that the large-sized touchpad can be integrated in completely

The 720p IR HD camera on the top of the B cover is next to the built-in directional noise reduction microphone

The chamfered corners are slightly rounded and without sharp edges

The design of the rear shaft is solid and has a little bit of an industrial design

The laptop front side | Smooth design without any indicator

The laptop rear side | Professional square lines makes the workstation powerful

The laptop right side | Kensington Lock port, Earphone port, Microphone port, 1 x USB3.2 Type-A Gen1, 1 x USB3.2 Type-C Gen1, 1 x Gb LAN port

The laptop left side | Power jack, 1 x (4K @ 30Hz) HDMI, 2 x Type-A USB3.2 Gen1

The laptop weight: 2.33KG, 3.1KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Screen Analysis

The screen panel is N173HCE-G33, 144Hz FHD IPS-level, 99.9% sRGB, manufactured by Innolux

Viewing angle

Screen Calibration
WF75 is using a FHD Innolux N173HCE-G33 IPS-level 144Hz panel. This screen has 99.9% sRGB coverage which is enough for video, photo editing and 3D modelling, and the 144Hz refresh rate is more inclined to game performance. We used the DisplayCAL with Datacolor Spyder 4 Elite to calibrate this panel.

Calibration result: Average 〉E≈0.08, Maximum 〉E≈1.16
After calibration, we have a 96.7% sRGB, 66.6% of Adobe RGB and 68.5% of DCI P3 coverage

Calibration Curves

Gamut

Tone Response Curves

Hardware & Software Introduction

HWiNFO64 CPU and the integrated graphic card details

HWiNFO64 Ram details

HWiNFO64 Nvidia RTX Quadro 3000 detail

HWiNFO64 LAN and WIFI detail
LAN chip – Realtek RTL8168 1.0Gb LAN
WIFI Card – Intel Wifi6 AX 201 with Bluetooth v5.1

HWiNFO64 Battery detail

CPU-Z snapshots

GPU-Z snapshots

MSI Creator Center | Creator Mode, allows user to turn on/off software acceleration

MSI Creator Center | System Monitoring, allows user to check the machine details

MSI Creator Center | User Scenario, allows user to change the performance profile

MSI Creator Center | Battery Master, allows user to check and switch the battery performance

MSI True Color | allows user to adjust the view modes and fine-tune the screen colour

Run-time Benchmark Test

Before the test, we make sure the Ultimate Power Performance has been activated in Win10. All available updates for this windows version are patched already.

CPU-Z Benchmark

CPU-Z Memory Speed

Cinebench R15 Results – Single core & multi-core

Cinebench R15 Extreme Results – Single core & multi-core

Cinebench R20 Results – Single core & multi-core

SSD Benchmark – TxBENCH

PCMark10 Extended Benchmark: 6,406

3DMark Time Spy : 6,060

3DMark API Overhead Feature Test

3DMark VRS: OFF – 321.62FPS, ON – 468.21FPS, Performance Gain – 45.6%

3DMark DLSS : OFF – 26.24FPS, ON – 37.26FPS

Workstation Benchmark
VRAY Benchmark

SPECviewperf 13 – The overall results

SPECviewperf 13 – Catia

SPECviewperf 13 – CREO

SPECviewperf 13 – Energy

SPECviewperf 13 – MAYA

SPECviewperf 13 – Medical

SPECviewperf 13 – Showcase

SPECviewperf 13 – SNX8

SPECviewperf 13 – Solid works

SPECviewperf 13 – 3DSMAX

Thermal Tests

We are pressure testing this workstation by using AIDA64.
Test room temperature : 23℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature : 44℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature : 41℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 87℃±2℃, GPU temperature is around 78℃±2℃

We’ve also tested the AIDA64 Single FPU pressuring, Prime95 and Furmark, the temperature control for this workstation is quite good, we only get around 3% throttling under AIDA64 Single FPU test.

Disassembling analysis

It’s quite easy to disassemble the backplate

The laptop C panel internal look

Battery, 4600mAh manufactured by Simplo, 3-cell 52.4Wh

Samsung DDR4 2666 2 x 16GB Dual Channel : M471A2K43CB1-CTD

SSD: Samsung PM981 512GB

HDD: Western Digital Blue WD10SPZX 1TB SATA3 5400rpm

WIFI & Bluetooth card: Intel AX201NGW, Wifi6 2.4G/5G, 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5.1

Speakers

The whole system luxury designed Heatsink: 7 Pipes
The exhausting fans are PAAD06015SL(DC 5V 0.55A) manufactured by AAVID

The main motherboard front and back look

The GPU chip from Nvidia, N19E-Q1-KD-A1 which is the Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000 with 6GB GDDR6

The 10th Gen INTEL i7-10750H CPU

The PCH chipset

SUMMARY

The brand new designed WF75 is an entry-level professional workstation, MSI once again interpreted the slogan “Extreme stability, made for professional”. Good performance is enough to allow users to experience the confidence and efficiency during their work. The well-designed appearance no matter whether using this beast in the office, cafe store or outdoors, will enable a graceful experience to users without being considered by others as a workaholic if you are holding an oversized brick computer and working overtime. A variety of hardware options provide users with different needs, whether it is the WF series we tested this time or the high-end WS, WE series can also be customised by normal users and enterprise-level users.

The WF75 10TK adopts the Intel 10th gen CPU and NVidia Quadro RTX 3000 professional graphics card to easily solve the needs of most users for video editing, photo editing and light and middle-weighted 3D modelling. At the same time, the entertainment performance of this workstation is also very good. The audio chip supports Hi-Res level music and the 144Hz e-sports level screen can also make this computer a gaming machine. The gaming performance test can be referred to in our WS66’s benchmark

MADE FOR PROFESSIONAL! MSI WS66 WORKSTATION UNBOX & REVIEW

The price of the WF series has not been announced. Of course, a cost-effective machine will seize the market opportunities, let’s look forward to it!

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 91/100

MSI WF75 10TK OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

MADE FOR PROFESSIONAL! MSI WS66 WORKSTATION UNBOX & REVIEW

ADMIN — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 08:06:57 +0000

Recently, MSI sent their latest WS series thin-n-light, high-performance workstation–WS66 10TK. As an upgraded version of WS65, the WS66 not only continues with a good appearance and design but also integrates a new powerful processor and professional graphics card, while taking into account a light-weight and slim body for easy portability. A variety of different optional configurations can meet the needs of new era creators.

This WS66 10TK is an engineering sample but consistent with the data published on the official website, this laptop is equipped with an Intel 10th gen Core i7-10750H, with 6-cores and 12-threads, boosting to 5.0GHz. It has integrated the Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000 Graphics card with 6GB of video ram and a 15.6″ IPS-Level FHD screen, 2 x 16GB DDR4 ram for a total of 64GB, 1TB Samsung OEM NVMe SSD.

According to the specifications, the performance of this workstation is roughly the same as their GS66 gaming laptop except for the Quadro professional graphic card.

So let’s dig in the details.

Product Specification

WS66 10TK Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www.msi.com/Workstation/WS66-10TX/Specification

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
The outer packaging is still packed with a yellow recycled carton but the internal packaging is similar to the GS series

The AC adapter is slim design, 20V 9A 180W and manufactured by DELTA

The weight of the AC adapter and power cable is 564g in total

the main body is warped by a double-layered suit which has an anti-static layer and a black fabric layer

Product Analysis

Compared to the WS65, the WS66 10TK has a pretty similar design

MSI WS65

MSI WS66

The main look of the WS66

The thin-bezel design

The total thickness is around 19.8 mm and the opening angle of this laptop is 180°

The numeric keypad is not coming back, but what you get is the comfort brought by the larger buttons and pitch

The Keyboard back light

The touchpad size is the same as the WS65 and integrated with a TPM v2 chip to enhance the security

The 720p IR HD camera on the top of the B cover is next to the built-in directional noise reduction microphone

The chamfered corners are slightly rounded and without sharp edges

The design of the rear shaft is solid and simple

The laptop front side – Smooth design without any indicator

The laptop rear side – Not symmetrical, but the opening area is large enough to provide a better air duct, the MSI Workstation GS66 is printed here

The laptop right side – Ear/Mic port, 1 x USB3.2 Type-C Gen2, 1 x SD (XC/HC) Card Reader, 1 x Gb LAN port

The laptop left side – Power jack, 1 x Type-C (USB3.2 Gen2 / DP / Thunderbolt™3) with PD charging, 1 x (4K @ 60Hz) HDMI, 1 x Type-A USB3.2 Gen2

The laptop weight: 2.14KG, 2.7KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Screen Analysis

The screen panel is LP156WFG-SPB3, 15.6″, 144Hz FHD IPS-level, 94% sRGB, manufactured by LG

Viewing angle

Screen Calibration
WS66 is using a FHD LG LP156WFG-SPB3 IPS-level panel. Frankly, this screen with only 94% sRGB coverage is not enough for video, photo editing and 3D modelling, and the 144Hz refresh rate is more inclined to game performance. MSI also provides some hi-end panels for different usage purposes. We used the DisplayCAL with Datacolor Spyder 4 Elite to calibrate this panel.

Calibration result: Average △E≈0.09, Maximum △E≈2.07
After calibration, we have a 96.7% sRGB, 66.6% of Adobe RGB and 68.5% of DCI P3 coverage

Calibration Curves

Gamut

Tone Response Curves

Hardware & Software Introduction

HWiNFO64 System detail

HWiNFO64 CPU and the integrated graphic card details

HWiNFO64 Ram details

HWiNFO64 Nvidia RTX Quadro 3000 detail

HWiNFO64 LAN and WIFI detail
LAN chip – Intel I225-V 2.5Gb LAN
WIFI Card – Intel Wifi6 AX 201 with Bluetooth v5.1

HWiNFO64 Battery detail

CPU-Z snapshots

GPU-Z snapshots

MSI Creator Center – Creator Mode, allows user to turn on/off software acceleration

MSI Creator Center – System Monitoring, allows user to check the machine details

MSI Creator Center – User Scenario, allows user to change the performance profile

MSI Creator Center – Battery Master, allows user to check and switch the battery performance

MSI True Color – is allows user to adjust the view modes and fine-tune the screen colour

Run-time Benchmark Test

Before the test, we make sure the Ultimate Power Performance has been activated in Win10

CPU-Z Benchmark – according to the result, there is nearly no difference in single-core speed compared with an i7-10700 on a desktop

AIDA64 Memory & Cache benchmark

Cinebench R15 Results – Single core & multi-core

Cinebench R20 Results – Single core & multi-core

SSD Benchmark – TxBENCH

PCMark10 Benchmark: 5,854

3DMark Time Spy : 5,657

3DMark Port Royal : 3,130

3DMark API : 3,130

3DMark VRS: OFF – 295.07FPS, ON – 427.44FPS, Performance Gain – 44.9%

3DMark DLSS : OFF – 23.68FPS, ON – 33.82FPS

Workstation Benchmark
VRAY Benchmark

SPECviewperf 13 – The overall results

SPECviewperf 13 – Catia

SPECviewperf 13 – CREO

SPECviewperf 13 – Energy

SPECviewperf 13 – MAYA

SPECviewperf 13 – Medical

SPECviewperf 13 – Showcase

SPECviewperf 13 – SNX8

SPECviewperf 13 – Solid works

SPECviewperf 13 – 3DSMAX

Thermal Tests

We are pressure testing this workstation by using AIDA64.
Test room temperature : 21℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature : 42℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature : 39℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is throttling down around 3%
The CPU package temperature is around 94℃±2℃, GPU temperature is around 81℃±2℃

After replacing the thermal paste, under AIDA64 CPU & GPU pressure test, the temperature of the CPU and the GPU core has dropped significantly
The CPU package temperature is around 86℃±2℃, GPU temperature is around 73℃±2℃

Disassembling analysis

It’s extremely easy to disassemble the back plate

The back plate

The laptop C panel internal looking

Battery, 6250mAh manufactured by Getac, 4-cell 99.9Wh

Samsung DDR4 2666 2 x 16GB Dual Channel : M471A2K43CB1 – CTD

SSD: Samsung PM981 1TB

WIFI & Bluetooth card: Intel AX201NGW, Wifi6 2.4G/5G, 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5.1

The component thermal stickers

The whole system Heatsink: 7 Pipes

The exhausting fans are 2 x BS5005HS-U4Q(DC 5V 1A) and U4J(DC 5V 0.5A) manufactured by A-power

The main motherboard front and back look

The GPU chip from Nvidia, N19E-Q1-KD-A1 which is the Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000 with 6GB GDDR6

The 10th Gen INTEL i7-10750H CPU

The PCH chipset

The SSD slots, slot 1 supports m.2 NVMe/SATA SSD, slot 2 only support NVMe SSD

The Intel Thunderbolt™3 chip T803A900

SUMMARY

The 10th Gen i7 with 32G memory can handle most workloads. The thin and light design does not limit the performance of this machine, and the Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000 can handle most lightweight design needs. For some users who have a high demand for colour accuracy, the only flaw of this machine is that the screen only displays 96% of sRGB coverage.

The RTX 3000 performed very well in games despite the WS66 being a workstation. We have tried ‘Shadow of the Tomb Raider’ with Ultra graphic quality under FHD resolution, the average fps between 75 to 80, which reaches the same level as the GTX 1660 but with the powerful Ray-Tracing function. This aroused our curiosity and so we tested ‘The Witcher 3’, with an average of 55 FPS under Ultra graphic quality and FHD resolution. This level of gaming performance means that most MOBA and FPS games are lightweight. This workstation is not capable of work, but also for gaming and other entertainment purposes.

In terms of the output IO, it’s a pity for a lack of full-sized DP or mini-DP interface, but fortunately, the HDMI port supports 4k @ 60hz, and the USB 3.2 Type-c interface on the left side with the Thunderbolt 3 support can also use to charge this laptop. However, the maximum charging power is only 120W, and the discrete graphics card cannot be activated.

The pricing of MSI WS66 has not been announced yet, but as a mobile workstation, it will certainly not be cheap.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 93/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED

MSI WS66 10TK OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

THIN, LIGHT AND PORTABLE! MSI WS65 WORKSTATION UNBOX & REVIEW

ADMIN — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 12:51:23 +0000

When someone talking about mobile workstations, most people expect the impression that they are bulky, giant size and industrial level ugly designed. But it turns out that workstation products can also be very artistic. MSI recently sent its new workstation series laptop WS65 9TM. This powerful workstation is built with GS series thin-n-light designed body, equipped with the most powerful laptop processor – the Intel Core i9-9880H, with 8-cores and 16-threads, boosting to a crazy 4.8GHz! It has integrated the Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 Graphics card with 16GB of video ram and a 15.6″ IPS-Level 4K 60Hz UHD screen, 2 x 32GB DDR4 ram total up to 64GB, 1TB (512GB × 2) NVMe PCle SSD.

Surprisingly, we thought that the WS65 would be a power-eating beast like MSI GT series, but the design of a 230W single power supply brought a touch of portability to this workstation.

So let’s dig in the details with the following benchmark.

Product Specification

WS65 9TM Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www.msi.com/Workstation/WS65-Mobile-Workstation/Specification

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
The outer packaging is still packed with a yellow recycled carton

Different from the gaming series, the MSI workstation uses the same white packaging from PS series, elegant and professional

the main body is warped by a double-layered suit which has an anti-static layer and a black fabric layer

Product Analysis

Compared to the similar size GS65 Stealth, the WS65 9TM has the exact same chassis design

MSI GS65

MSI WS65

The main looking of WS65

The thin-bezel design

The total thickness is only 17.9 mm, and the bottom side is 13.29mm thick

The opening angel of this laptop is 180°

The numeric keypad has been removed. This is actually a relatively unsuccessful design, because for designers, more shortcut combinations needs it

The Keyboard backlight, bright but not too sharp

The touchpad size has been adjusted as the same as the GS75 with a fingerprint reader, which integrated a TPM v2 chip to enhance the security

The 720p camera on the top of the B cover is next to the built-in directional noise reduction microphone

The power supply is a single 230W design from Chicony, A17-230P1A

I/O Analysis

The laptop front side – only a battery indicator located on the right side of the front edge, very simple design

The laptop rear side – Has the same design as GS65, the irregular triangle cooling fence also brings modern feeling

The laptop right side – I/O are the Micro SD card readers, 1 x USB3.2 Type-A Gen2, 1 x Type-C (USB3.2 Gen2 / DP / Thunderbolt™3), 1 x mini DP, 1 x HDMI 2.0 (4K@60Hz) and the power jack

The laptop left side – I/O are the Kensington Lock, 1 x Gb LAN, 2 x USB3.2 Type-A Gen1, headphone port and microphone port

The laptop weight: 1.92KG

The laptop with power adapter package overall weight: 2.65KG

Screen Analysis

The screen panel is B173ZAN03.0, 17.3″, 16:9 60Hz 4K IPS IGZO, 100% Adobe RGB, manufactured by AUO

Screen Calibration
WS63 is using a 4K UHD Sharp LQ156D1JW42 IPS panel and it was pre-calibrated. The display is awesome with colours that appear and only a minor level of graininess despite the matte overlay. In the end, we decided not to perform a secondary calibration to prevent an interfere with the previously corrected data

Hardware & Software Introduction

MSI Workstation Logo

MSI Workstation Wallpaper

Windows 10 Desktop looking

Windows 10 Info page

HWiNFO64 System details

CPU-Z snapshots

GPU-Z snapshots

LAN chip – Qualcomm Atheros AR8171/8175 Gigabit LAN
WIFI Card – Intel Wireless-AC 9560 with Bluetooth v5

SSD – 1TB Samsung PM981

MSI Creator Center – Creator Mode, is allows user to turn on/off software acceloration

MSI Creator Center – System Monitoring, is allows user to check the machine details

MSI Creator Center – System Tuner, is allows user to change the performance profile and adjust the screen settings

MSI Creator Center – Battery Master, is allows user to check and switch the battery performance

MSI Creator Center – Tools & Help, is allows user to manage the warranty and help support and add more applications shortcuts

Run-time Benchmark Test

Before the test, we are enabled the Ultimate Power Performance setting in Win10

CPU-Z Benchmark – according to the result, there is nearly no difference compared with an i9-9900K on a desktop

AIDA64 Memory & Cache benchmark

Cinebench R15 Results – Single core & multi-core

Cinebench R20 Results – Single core & multi-core

SSD Benchmark – TxBENCH

PCMark10 Benchmark: 4,987
Results Link: https://www.3dmark.com/pcm10b/678000

3DMark Fire Strike : 16,035

3DMark Fire Strike Extreme : 8,576

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra : 4,449

3DMark Time Spy : 6,889

3DMark Time Spy Extreme : 3,097

3DMark Port Royal : 4,069

Workstation Benchmark
VRAY Benchmark

SPECviewperf 13 – The overall results

SPECviewperf 13 – Catia

SPECviewperf 13 – CREO

SPECviewperf 13 – Energy

SPECviewperf 13 – MAYA

SPECviewperf 13 – Medical

SPECviewperf 13 – Showcase

SPECviewperf 13 – SNX8

SPECviewperf 13 – Solid works

SPECviewperf 13 – 3DSMAX

Thermal Tests

We are pressure testing this workstation by using AIDA64 and Cinebench.
Test room temperature : 23℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature : 37℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature : 48℃

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i9-9880H is overheat and throtting down around 17%
The CPU package temperature is around 97℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & GPU pressure test, this Intel i9-9880H is overheat but not throtting down
The CPU package temperature is around 89℃±2℃

Under Cinebench R15 benchmarking, this Intel i9-9880H is overheat and throtting down around 17%
The CPU package temperature is around 96℃±3℃

The surface full load temperature : Top around 42℃, Buttom around 34℃

The surface full load temperature (Left part of the exhausting fence): Main tunnel around 47℃, Top case around 34℃

The surface full load temperature (Right part of the exhausting fence): Main tunnel around 45℃, Top case around 36℃, Buttom side LCD panel around 40℃

Disassembling analysis

It’s extremely easy to disassemble the backplate

The backplate

The laptop back looking and disassembling

Battery, 5280mAh manufactured by Getac, 80Wh

Samsung DDR4 2666 2 x 16GB Dual Channel : M471A2K43CB1 – CTD

SSD : Samsung PM981 1TB

WIFI & Bluetooth card : Intel 9560NGW, 2.4G/5G, 300Mbps + 1730Mbps 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5

The CPU chipset and power supply Heatsink : 5 Pipes

The GPU chip from Nvidia, N19E-Q5-A1 which is the Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 with 16GB GDDR6

The INTEL i9-9880HK CPU

The back of CPU and GPU power supply

The PCH chipset

The SSD slots, both slot support m.2 NVMe SSD

The Motherboard model & version MS-16Q41 Ver 1.0

EC Chip

The heatsink fans from A-power BS5005HS-U3I DC 5V 0.5A and BS5005HS-U3J 5V 0.5A

SUMMARY

According to the benchmark result, with the high-performance Quadro card, the overall performance in the professional field from the SPECviewperf result is very competitive with other mobile workstations. And MSI is currently the only company that makes mobile workstations thin and light, abandoning the bulk design and pursuing fashion and beauty, while taking into account performance. At the same time, the high-frequency single-core speed of CPU also guarantees certain gaming performance, and the large-sized memory, NVMe SSD and rich expansion I/O ports promote this workstation also suitable for music production and film editing, 4K IPS level high-resolution and the pre-calibrated screen has excellent color reproduction for photography and graphic editing. However, the WS65 is not satisfactory in terms of heat dissipation. The casing and cooling system that used from their GS65 series cannot suppress the super-heating 8-core i9-9880H and the performance monster Quadro RTX5000 graphics card. The former inevitably hit the voltage wall when calling the AVX instruction set, resulting in overheating and throttling of nearly 20% of the performance, while the heat of GPU is significantly increased because they share the same cooling system. Therefore, it seems necessary to prepare a laptop cooler stand to give this heater a little help.

In general, MSI WS65 9TM is an excellent mobile workstation. Compared to other brands like HP or DELL, which are relatively conservative design concepts of major manufacturers, MSI has always been a model of innovative business in the area. With the development of technology, stronger-performance and more power-efficient chips will have an inestimable impact on the field of mobile workstations, which means this kind of laptop can also be thinner and more stylish, designers will enjoy the benefits of a high-performance workstation in coffee bars. This is the inevitable result brought by innovation.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 91.5/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC EXTREME POWER & DESIGN AWARD

MSI WS65 9TM OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

THE WORLD’S ONLY “ALL INTEL INSIDE” LAPTOP! GIGABYTE AERO 15-Y9 UNBOX & REVIEW

ADMIN — Sun, 07 Apr 2019 10:28:08 +0000

Recently, Gigabyte sent us their latest AERO series laptop, the flagship 15-Y9. The Y9 uses the latest 6-core 12-thread Intel i9-8950HK, 32G of DDR4 memory, the RTX2080 Max-Q that supports ray-tracing, 2TB high-capacity and a speedy NVMe SSD. This is all hooked up to a stunning 4K 60Hz IPS anti-glare screen.

So, can this laptop stand out against similar brands competing for the flagship market? Let’s test it in detail!

Product Specification

GIGABYTE AERO 15-Y9 Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www.gigabyte.com/Laptop/AERO-15–RTX-20-Series#sp

Product Unboxing

Package
This generation of Gigabyte Aero 15 has abandoned the previous plain colour packaging, using a black orange colour like a sports car to reflect performance.

After removing a simple sticker with the Gigabyte Logo, the laptop body is simple.
Since this machine is a sample sent by Gigabyte, there is no fibre jacket with anti-scratch protection and anti-static outer packaging

A 230W brick power supply with a standard D-type power cord is provided in the accessory box
The manufacturer of the power supply is Chicony Electronics from Taiwan. 19.5V / 11.8A output voltage / current, 110V-240V adaptive

The length and height of the power supply are 155mm and 30mm respectively, the total weight is 0.72kg. The size and weight are moderate.

Product Analysis

Gigabyte’s latest AERO 15-Y9 follows the design of the first two generations. The black aluminum alloy case is matched with the carbon fibre to decorate the triangle area and make the whole machine stand out. This seems to be ruined by the huge backlit Gigabyte LOGO. It was criticised by netizens as “the design work of college students”. Confusingly, although the A-panel top cover is made of aluminum alloy, the deformation can still be seen if you press it.

All the sides of the fuselage are chamfered, and the sleek touch is very comfortable

The screen design of the B-panel is also the same as the previous generation, the design of the three-side thin-bezel and the 720P camera at the bottom. The sticker of Pantone colour is attached to the lower right corner of the screen

The thin bezel is still around 5mm wide

This 15.6-inch IPS matte screen is made by AUO. The resolution of this screen is UHD 3840 x 2160, refresh rate 60Hz, brightness 400 cd/m2, response time 30ms, G-SYNC is not supported

The opening angle of the screen is about 120°, and it cannot be completely flat

The keyboard on the C-panel is also the same design as the previous generation. The full-sized keyboard + Per-key RGB button feels solid and it is currently the most comfortable laptop keyboard to use in the market

The touchpad feels delicate, but the size is still small compared with other similar products on the market, and the asymmetric design may be awkward for some users

The design of the air-exhausting vent is similar to a Macbook. The left and right radiator grids are the air outlets of the fan. However, the left and right shafts will block the air duct of the outlet and affect the wind pressure inside the machine. This will cause a small amount of heat to flow back to the bottom of the machine, forcing the fan to intake again and resulting in overheating issues

The D-panel still uses the previous chassis. The thin design of the rubber feet makes the bottom of the machine only 2-4mm away from the tabletop, plus the fan-shaped opening design is narrow, also the metal dust-proof net is too dense, the seriously insufficient space results in a lack of overall heat dissipation

I/O Analysis

The front view of the laptop, there is no I/O port located on this side

The rear view of the laptop has a feeling of battery looking, but this is actually the built-in design of the shaft.

The left side I/O of this laptop includes the LAN port with Killer E2500 Ethernet card, a USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A port, an HDMI 2.0 port, an USB 3.1 Type-C with DP 1.4 and a standard 3.5mm combo audio port

The right side I/O of this laptop contains an UHS-II SD Card Reader, a USB 3.1 Type-C with Thunderbolt™ 3 port, 2 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A port, a power jack, and a Kensington lock port

The laptop weight is around 2.12KG, the power brick is around 2.84KG

Screen Analysis

This laptop uses a 15.6 inch, 16:9 60Hz 4K IPS Matt screen, manufactured by AUO

Screen Calibration
We are using the Datacolor Spyder 4 Elite for doing screen calibration, the screen temperature is under 6500K

The Gamut test result, this panel comes in with 100% of sRGB, 97% of AdobeRGB

The Tone Response test result

The Brightness & Contrast tests result

The Screen Uniformity tests result
Colour Uniformity for Brightness 50% & 100%

Luminance Uniformity for Brightness 50% & 100%

Colour Accuracy test result, Average ΔE≈0.90

Before & after calibration
This panel has impressed us, red, green and yellow colours become richer and higher vividness after calibration. We have taken some screenshot directly via the SLR camera.

Windows 10 Display settings

Hardware & Software Brief Introduction

BIOS details, main view

BIOS details, advanced SSD details

BIOS details, memory details

Windows 10 Info page

Aida64 Brief summary page

Memory Details

Thaiphoon Burner – Memory Details

LAN chip – Killer E2500 Gigabit LAN

Audio Chipset – Realtek ALC255

SSD – 2TB Intel 760P NVMe SSD

WIFI Card – Intel Wireless-AC 9260 with Bluetooth v5

System memory usage – Idle

Gigabyte Control Center
The Gigabyte Control Center is very powerful and can be divided into 6 major functions

‘Smart Dashboard’ can display the system usage, hard drive information, battery and power plan, fan speed, and simple overclocking options

‘App Shortcut’, users can add their favourite app’s shortcut here

‘Manager’ is the laptop function control manager, users can change nearly all important functions via this control panel

‘Fusion’ is Gigabyte per-key RGB manager, this function is to manage the RGB feature and Macro Key for the keyboard

‘Device Setting’ is the smart fan manager for this laptop, this function is to customise the fan spinning profile for different usage scenarios

‘Smart Utilities’ is the laptop driver and utility downloader, if the driver has an update, it will show on the 2nd column, user can click the highlighted version number to start downloading and installing

The memory usage of Gigabyte control center

Overclocking Test

Since the Gigabyte Control Center provides overclocking options, we definitely need to use it. In all tests, fan cooling is selected to turn on the automatic temperature control of Microsoft Azure AI and turn on the Maximum Fan Cooling option to maximise the fan speed

None Overclocking Idle – Microsoft Azure AI Gaming+ & Professional+ turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 3,300rpm | CPU package Temp : 66°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.8Ghz | CPU Power : 32.4W | GPU Temp : 46°C

None Overclocking – Aida64 Stress FPU – Both AI and Max cooling, CPU still Overheat and throttled
Fan Speed ≈ 5,530rpm | CPU package Temp : 83°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.8Ghz (14% loss) | CPU Power : 61.9W | GPU Temp : 57°C

During the test, we have found the overclocking level of CPU from level 0 to 4 has the same frequency and power consumption setting, only level 5 is actually overclocked.

Overclocking Idle – CPU Overheat and throttled – Microsoft Azure AI Gaming+ & Professional+ turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 3,800rpm | CPU package Temp : 66°C | CPU FQ ≈ 4.1Ghz (8% loss)| CPU Power : 23.4W

Overclocking Idle – Fan Maximum Cooling turned on | MS Azure AI turned off
Fan Speed ≈ 5,500rpm | CPU package Temp : 59°C | CPU FQ ≈ 4.5Ghz | CPU Power : 21.1W

Overclocking – Aida64 Stress FPU – CPU Overheat and throttled – MS Azure AI Gaming+ & Professional+ turned on
Fan Speed ≈ 3,700rpm | CPU package Temp : 90°C | CPU FQ ≈ 3.5Ghz (21% loss) | CPU Power : 72.8W

Overclocking summary
First of all, the overclocking level of the CPU may be set incorrectly, only ‘0’ and ‘5’ do have different frequencies. The CPU frequency and voltage do not change at all in level 1-4. The CPU frequency can indeed go up. Similarly, the graphics card can also be overclocked under the same situation, and the performance is also obviously improved. However, in some games either need the higher single-core CPU frequency or required the extreme graphics resources such as Ray Tracing and DLSS, etc., Consuming graphics resources, such as turning on optical chasing and anti-aliasing, etc., this thin-n-double copper tube cooling system is completely collapsed.

Secondly, turning Azure AI on or off does not play a decisive role in heat dissipation, and most of the time it will affect it. Then the fan speed needs to be manually adjusted to the highest level to barely hold the i9 and 2080 Max-Q while working lightly. When we tested the SPECview Workstation, the time used exceeded our imagination and the test did not pass. In the end, the CPU has been overheated and throttled. Similarly, the temperature of the CPU and GPU in idle state is also somewhat hot, and AI seems to ignore this selectivity. Therefore, after our tests, although this laptop can be overclocked, but based on the incompetence of the cooling system, it will naturally reduce the frequency after overclocking, and it is completely useless.

Run-time Benchmark Test

CPU-Z snapshots

CPU-Z Benchmark – according to the result, the average performance of this i9-8950HK is nearly the same as the desktop CPU i7-7700K

GPU-Z snapshots

AIDA64 Memory & Cache benchmark

AIDA64 GPGPU Benchmark

Cinebench R20 Results – Single core & multi-core

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FURMARK 4K Stress test

SSD Details – Intel SSD Toolbox

SSD Details – Crystal Disk Info

SSD Benchmark – ASSSD 3GB, 5GB, 10GB tests

SSD Benchmark – TxBENCH

PCMark10 Benchmark : 5,505
Results Link : http://www.3dmark.com/pcm10b/516317

3DMark API Overhead Feature Test :

3DMark 2K DLSS Test :
Result Link : http://www.3dmark.com/nd/43570

3DMark 4K DLSS Test :
Result Link : http://www.3dmark.com/nd/43566

3DMark Time Spy : 7,201
Result Link : http://www.3dmark.com/spy/6693251

3DMark Time Spy Extreme : 3,300
Result Link : http://www.3dmark.com/spy/6693329

3DMark Fire Strike : 16,628
Result Link : http://www.3dmark.com/fs/18828560

3DMark Fire Strike Extreme : 8,825
Result Link : http://www.3dmark.com/fs/18828618

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra : 4,621
Result Link : http://www.3dmark.com/fs/18828665

3DMark Fire Port Royal : 4,206
Result Link : http://www.3dmark.com/pr/68148

Unigine Vally (Extreme HD): 3,669 | Avg FPS : 87.9

Unigine Superposition (Extreme 4K) : 6,162 | Avg FPS : 46.09

Final Fantasy XV – Benchmark (1080p,HQ pack) : 7,475

Final Fantasy XV – Benchmark (2K,HQ pack) : 5,358

Final Fantasy XV – Benchmark (4K,HQ pack) : 3,126

Final Fantasy XV – Benchmark (4K Custom,HQ pack) : 3,212

Final Fantasy XV – Benchmark (1080p,HQ pack) : 7,475

Workstation Benchmark
VRAY Benchmark

SPECviewperf 13 – 4K benchmark settings

SPECviewperf 13 – The overall results

SPECviewperf 13 – Catia

SPECviewperf 13 – CREO

SPECviewperf 13 – Energy

SPECviewperf 13 – MAYA

SPECviewperf 13 – Medical

SPECviewperf 13 – SNX8

SPECviewperf 13 – Solid works

Thermal and Noise Tests

Test room temperature : 18℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature : 58℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature : 51℃
AIDA64 Extreme full load stress test CPU&FPU: 90℃
Furmark full load stress test GPU: 80℃

The surface idle temperature :

The surface full load temperature (Exhausting fence):

The surface full load temperature (Back part of the exhausting fence):

The surface full load temperature (Intake fence):

The surface full load temperature (Middle and both fan side exhausting fence):

The surface full load temperature (Keyboard):

The Noise level under balance mode : around 42 dB

The Noise level under gaming mode : around 43-44 dB

The Noise level under Max Cooling mode : around 56-64 dB

Disassembling analysis

There are 13 Torx screw mounting on the back D panel, it’s quite easy to disassemble the back plate

The back panel looking

The upgraded cooling system, the capacitors on the PCH are also covered, and the PCH chip is also equipped with a metal heat shield

Battery, 6200mAh manufactured by Getac, 94.2Wh

The BIOS Battery under the WIFI card

Samsung DDR4 2666 Dual Channel : M471A2K43CB1 – CTD

Memory chip us using Samsung SEC 849 K4A8G08 5WC BCTD, which is the C-DIE chip

the 2nd m.2 combo SSD Slot supports both NVMe and SATA M.2 SSDs

SSD : 760P from Intel, 2TB, SSDPEKKW020T8

WIFI & Bluetooth card : 9560NGW from Intel, 2.4G/5G, 300Mbps+1730Mbps, 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5

The PCH chip

The GPU chip from Nvidia, N18E-G3-A1 which is the Nvidia TU104 chipset

The graphics memory is using GDDR6 chip from Samsung, a single chip of 1GB/32bit, a total of 8 components of 8GB/256bit specifications

The CPU chip, ‘SRCKN’ represents the Intel i9-8950HK

CPU power supply module

Graphics power supply module
The core part uses the NCP81610 PWM made by ON Semiconductor, which supports up to 8 phases power supply

The NCP303150 integrates a MOSFET driver, high−side MOSFET and low−side MOSFET into a single package. The driver and MOSFETs have been optimised for high−current DC-DC buck power conversion applications. The NCP303150 integrated solution greatly reduces package parasitic and board space compared to a discrete component solution.

The TPS65982 device is a stand-alone USB Type-C and power delivery (PD) controller providing cable-plug and orientation detection at the USB Type-C connector

The GST5009 LF Magnetics Module is designed for long haul gigabit Ethernet 1000 BASE-T, full duplex applications

The Chipset Heatsink. A dual-fan with 2 heat pipes heatsink system is not powerful enough to suppress the i9 CPU and 2080 Max-Q

Cooling fans are from A-POWER, BS5005HS-U2N, and BS5005HS-U2M, around 5500rpm speed

Heatsink Details – Graphics card part, the heatsink thickness is around 1.54mm

Heatsink Details – CPU part

Heatsink Details – Copper pipe thickness is around 2.2mm

Heatsink Details – The most thickness part is around 3.46mm

The exhausting fence

The intake fence

SUMMARY

According to our evaluation and disassembling result, I believe that the AERO 15-Y9 laptop, which is light-weighted, portable, performance, longer battery life and even professional.

For a laptop that sells for $5,699, it hasn’t reached or exceeded the price of some professional workstation laptops, and buyers could use this budget to purchase a top-of-the-line multi-core desktop workstation and a thinner office-use laptop. From the perspective of usability, for high-end gamers, this laptop uses an RTX2080 Max-Q graphics card, but the screen does not support G-SYNC, and the refresh rate is only 60hz, also the weakness of the high-color IPS screen such as Light leakage and high latency of around 30ms are also unacceptable for gamers, so an external large-sized high-refresh rate gaming screen may be a good additional choice.

For workstation users, the CPU of this laptop has reached the standard or even better, 32GB memory and 2TB NVMe SSD plus 4K colour-calibrated screen also make this laptop a performance beast, but the RTX2080 Max-Q is designed for game graphics, there is a huge gap between RTX and Quadro series graphic card in rendering and 3D modeling processing, this is obvious from our SPECviewperf test results, and for light-weight 4K graphics and video editing, the 15.6-inch screen size is a bit small, an external large-size display can play the strengths prominently of this laptop. So in terms of usability, the positioning of this laptop is quite vague.

However, the largest drawback is not the appearance, but the cooling system. Aside from the dispensable Microsoft Azure AI, when you really need to play games or do your work, it is best to turn off the overclocking, and the fan must be switched to max speed, otherwise the CPU will overheat and throttling, causing tumbled gaming fps or extending the time of video rendering. A cooling pad with fans and height adjustable may be the best partner for this laptop. At the same time, the design of the right I/O ports may make it inconvenient for users who use an external mouse. In general, this laptop is more suitable to stay on the cooling pad and connect to an external display, but in this way, the 4K screen attached to the laptop itself is completely wasted. Therefore, this laptop is more suitable for working people who play less AAA games.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 77/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC EXTREME POWER

GIGABYTE AERO 15-Y9 OFFICIAL WEBSITE: https://www.gigabyte.com/Laptop/AERO-15–RTX-20-Series#kf