1610ftw

This is all still pretty new so I would simply check temps and performance, they should be easy to check. Plus for workstation use I will mostly use the CPU in my laptops so that already helps with temps.

This can actually be a very smart solution as in todays laptops memory, chipsets and the SSDs can get very toasty. So an added fan or two that get(s) the air moving over all those components is a really good idea. More and more manufacturers seem to want to make sure that those areas are cooled and so far we are already seeing that third fan with Asus, TongFang and Gigabyte even has two added fans for that purpose. The Cooling has some TongFang vibes by the way if you look at their latest 16" watercooling design:

I doubt it would make much more than a 20 to 30W difference and for CPU only / CPU heavy loads it will probably have very little real world impact. I have waited (very long) for feedback about the 5070Ti and it seems that it is pretty good and not that much worse than the 4080 mobile last year so it looks like I will go with that, looking forward to the 580!

I checked a few pics from CES and one of their models looks like a Clevo and another one has a distinct Dell vibe. Looks like they emulate the look of other manufacturers including TongFang. Do you have a link where we can see the inside of the X560? 3 drives is above average for sure and it is still puzzling that Clevo does not go for a vapor chamber in their top model.

Surprise surprise: Medion announced its ERAZER Beast 18 X1 and I thought it was another X580 vendor but instead it looks like a TongFang! Sadly without liquid cooling: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/medion-erazer-beast-18-nvidia-rtx-5080-32gb-18-qhd-240hz-intel-ultra-9-27-lap-mdn-04289.html Connectivity is rather sparse and if I had to guess it is 2 NVME and 2 memory slots each. For me this might be the best looking chassis this gen including the keyboard with proper cursor keys and a separate power button.

He already ordered a Thinkpad P16 Gen 2 and received it on the 14th of March.

I have a MSI GT76 with the 10900K and the 2080 Super, same gen as the X170, and it also can be set up so that it is astonishingly quiet at about 90% of max performance. It also has a very nice fan control called silent option that I am sure you will remember - those were the days... The previous Raider chassis is actually the most stealth and completely black chassis option minus the red accents, at least it is only red and black and nothing else. Had both the Titan and the Raider and very much prefer the Raider as I am much more of a red than a blue guy plus the Raider was a lot less and had the QHD option. All black would of course be much better but then MS probably thinks that this is too boring. The keyboard obviously can be any color you want but I remember you had an issue with RGB at bootup that I imagine could be rather annoying in corporate style meetings... Having lately had the pleasure to check out the CreatorPro 18 this is indeed the one I would want if it wasn't for the fact that it only has two NVME slots which is a really bad joke on behalf of MSI. The chassis is basically a Raider chassis but only in shades of grey / silver and with a bluish-white keyboard and the vapor chamber / 400W power brick that it shares with the Titan. Looks very nice "in person" but the keyboard deck still has more flex than the Titan 18 that is more solid in that area.

Haha - that is brutal :D To pull that off in this chassis is indeed something and 67C with 155W (ot is it 165W?) is very respectable!

After the warranty period is of course different. It is 3 years over here so that would be a rather long time.. It would indeed help if they did include peak power draw of the GPU and CPU and also highest combined power draw. That would explain a lot. As for your temperatures you could check what happens when you keep the GPU temperature at an average of ca. 60C or less in TimeSpy where you now have 67C in your latest run here: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/131773151 Just as a test with everything else being the same. Nvidia used to downclock quite aggressively in previous generations and lowering temperatures will probably get you a boost and a couple of hundred extra points in the GPU score.

I would assume that shunt modding up to 220W is pretty much safe when temperatures are kept in check and it should give most of the performance improvements. Still I doubt that it would go unnoticed with the manufacturer so it would void the warranty. As these laptops can also break for other reasons I would want to keep that in mind. That Vector is crazy indeed and probably not in anything close to stock condition, wonder if they managed to do all of that with the stock cooling solution and regular fans but I strongly doubt that: It is a shame that MSI still does not have QHD LED panels but then none of the other manufacturers has the MSI panel either so there seems to be some exclusivity involved here. The Raider also has an impressively tacky keyboard this gen which would make it an easy pass even with 4 memory slots:

By the way, video review from notebookcheck: He mentions that the Titan is of much higher build quality than the Asus Scar. I have to say that this would not even make me consider the Asus any more as I do not like that el cheapo feeling in a laptop that would be a bit less but not that much less than the Titan. In any case the 5070 Ti and the 5080 seem to be the GPUs to get for this generation, the 5090 is just too much and with 175 to 175W does not give a sufficient performance increase - it would need a TDP boost to at least 200W to make used of its otherwise superior hardware and preferably to 225W.

Shunt modding seems quite risky but indeed probably what this guy has been doing with his MSI Vector: https://www.3dmark.com/spy/54976166 I would not risk it for this kind of performance increase and prefer to have a warranty 🙂

This is still really impressive and very cool, good to see you at it again! I take it that this is a P870 chassis with vapor chamber, how are temps during your TimeSpy runs?

Haha - anemic, I like that :D Looks like the ones in my Raider and anemic is an apt description. I have heard worse but indeed the older Titans all had fuller sound. Best non-macbook laptop sound that I have heard in the last ten years was the Clevo X170 and that was by some margin. Understood about the baby steps and indeed 50 to 60mv undervolting is rather low.

Yep, sound looks improved indeed. Best 4K panel with LED will still be with the MSI Raider and Titan while Acer, Asus and Gigabyte offer QHD LEDs. Still your M18 has such good performance that this gen will probably be too early to see more than a 10 to 15% improvement.