Tongfang GM7TG8P experience (and modifications)

[Katja]

My main machine is this, redistributed by Maingear as the Vector Pro 17", but is also sold as the Eluktronics MAX-17 and probably a bunch of other names by various manufacturers.

I bought it with an Intel i7 11800H, 32GB of DDR4-3200, an RTX 3080 16GB, and a 1TB NVME drive. It's definitely a good system out of the box, but I did make some small changes.

Namely, I upgraded the ram to 64GB, and added an additional 2TB NVME drive, and seems to be running well.

Windows 10 Pro is what this system came with, but I opted for running LTSC (and have used 11 to an extent), and it seems to run fairly well; the temps are definitely something I could really want cooler, but I do keep this in dGPU mode. Temps tend to stay within 80-90C on the CPU, not the most ideal, but that's usually under load. GPU temps are something I haven't gotten around to monitoring, but I'll probably modify this when I do get around to it at some point.

Since this is a rebadged Tongfang chassis, usually someone like Eluktronics or Maingear tend to have their own control centers to modify things; this is something they usually do within their own design. Maingear's control center doesn't seem to work on Windows 11 currently, but I haven't tested it since I initially bought this laptop back in November, so I can't say.

What I can say, though, is that Eluktronics' control center seems to work well on this system (which shipped as Maingear to me) and has a bit more configurability; Maingear seems to cap the GPU's wattage at 150W, when Eluktronics does allow the GPU to hit it's actual cap at 165W, which is where I prefer to keep it at.

I haven't done much with undervolting, but it seems that -70mv seems to do the trick using Throttlestop, and it does help the temps a bit, but I do need to experiment more with it to find a good UV for it. For now, this seems to do the trick.

Linux compatibility seems to be okay on this; I did run an Arch install using i3 for some time, and it seemed that it auto-detected everything out of the box, asides from the GPU (nvidia-proprietary is kind of a must). I haven't done much in Linux with this, but that's something I'll mess with in the coming weeks.

I imagine that doing some proper undervolt experimentation (including maybe on the GPU) might be in order to help the temps, as this runs warmer than I'd probably prefer, but it's to be expected since this system is primarily for gaming.

I'm not usually one to opt for Intel, but the gen 4 speeds on the first NVME slot as well as having Thunderbolt 4 in this were honestly something I were happy to have. I paid about $2500 USD for the system's base model, but the upgrades costed a lot more.

I'm hoping to do some more Linux tinkering with this, and maybe try to fine tune the temps (and maybe repaste the CPU/GPU sometime soon) so I can maybe get this into a place where I'm happy.

For my first full-time laptop system due to moving to Europe recently, I'm pretty happy with it overall. My only gripe is fan noise, but it's not usually too much of an issue.

If anyone else happens to own this same model with similar CPU/GPU, I'd appreciate some suggestions on undervolts at some point.

This thing is thin, strong, and makes for a good 1440p/165hz gaming machine and productivity system. I figure I'd post given nobody had posted anything about a Tongfang system yet.

[Katja]

On 2/1/2022 at 3:49 AM, Katja said:

My main machine is this, redistributed by Maingear as the Vector Pro 17", but is also sold as the Eluktronics MAX-17 and probably a bunch of other names by various manufacturers.

I bought it with an Intel i7 11800H, 32GB of DDR4-3200, an RTX 3080 16GB, and a 1TB NVME drive. It's definitely a good system out of the box, but I did make some small changes.

Namely, I upgraded the ram to 64GB, and added an additional 2TB NVME drive, and seems to be running well.

Windows 10 Pro is what this system came with, but I opted for running LTSC (and have used 11 to an extent), and it seems to run fairly well; the temps are definitely something I could really want cooler, but I do keep this in dGPU mode. Temps tend to stay within 80-90C on the CPU, not the most ideal, but that's usually under load. GPU temps are something I haven't gotten around to monitoring, but I'll probably modify this when I do get around to it at some point.

Since this is a rebadged Tongfang chassis, usually someone like Eluktronics or Maingear tend to have their own control centers to modify things; this is something they usually do within their own design. Maingear's control center doesn't seem to work on Windows 11 currently, but I haven't tested it since I initially bought this laptop back in November, so I can't say.

What I can say, though, is that Eluktronics' control center seems to work well on this system (which shipped as Maingear to me) and has a bit more configurability; Maingear seems to cap the GPU's wattage at 150W, when Eluktronics does allow the GPU to hit it's actual cap at 165W, which is where I prefer to keep it at.

I haven't done much with undervolting, but it seems that -70mv seems to do the trick using Throttlestop, and it does help the temps a bit, but I do need to experiment more with it to find a good UV for it. For now, this seems to do the trick.

Linux compatibility seems to be okay on this; I did run an Arch install using i3 for some time, and it seemed that it auto-detected everything out of the box, asides from the GPU (nvidia-proprietary is kind of a must). I haven't done much in Linux with this, but that's something I'll mess with in the coming weeks.

I imagine that doing some proper undervolt experimentation (including maybe on the GPU) might be in order to help the temps, as this runs warmer than I'd probably prefer, but it's to be expected since this system is primarily for gaming.

I'm not usually one to opt for Intel, but the gen 4 speeds on the first NVME slot as well as having Thunderbolt 4 in this were honestly something I were happy to have. I paid about $2500 USD for the system's base model, but the upgrades costed a lot more.

I'm hoping to do some more Linux tinkering with this, and maybe try to fine tune the temps (and maybe repaste the CPU/GPU sometime soon) so I can maybe get this into a place where I'm happy.

For my first full-time laptop system due to moving to Europe recently, I'm pretty happy with it overall. My only gripe is fan noise, but it's not usually too much of an issue.

If anyone else happens to own this same model with similar CPU/GPU, I'd appreciate some suggestions on undervolts at some point.

This thing is thin, strong, and makes for a good 1440p/165hz gaming machine and productivity system. I figure I'd post given nobody had posted anything about a Tongfang system yet.

Oh yeah, this had a power delivery failure and the system is done for now, until I can figure out a proper way to troubleshoot. Meh.

[Reciever]

No chance at a repair?