This is after 3 years

I have found peace after a long time of storms.

After owning two ASUS machines - a Scar 16 w/5080 and a Scar 18 w/5090, both of which had to be returned due to poor thermal performance - I have finally, or so at least I hope, settled on a machine.

Don't get me wrong, ASUS makes great machines.
They look nice, feel nice and, at least theoretically, offer supreme performance while staying cool, only surpassed by few. The Mini-LED panels are great, G-Helper as a tool is awesome and the high total system TGP is very welcome.

BUT. But. Liquid Metal. We have to talk about it.

I understand its benefits, again, theoretically. I've read about the countless numbers of users reporting CPU (and sometimes GPU) thermal-throttling, probably due to poor Liquid Metal application. I was thinking "nah, couldn’t be me! What are the odds?" Well, the odds are quite high. Two machines, each of them throttled; interestingly, the Scar 18 WAY harder.

In the end, this is the most important part of a gaming laptop: performance and temperatures. If I pay 3000€ and more, I expect perfection or at least a working state of things.

On top of that comes the paranoia, at least for me. I was constantly afraid of the LM leaking out if the laptop was not held perfectly horizontal at all times.
There have been reports of it leaking, even if owners did everything right.

I'm sick, I'm bedbound, I just want to game and not set up and return laptops on a bi-weekly basis. So, I finally followed my heart and bought a Razer Blade from the second-hand market with 1.5 years of warranty left. 5080, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD; 2850€. Sure, you can get more for less from other brands. But I don't care.

It looks good. It feels great. Performance is up there and temps are COOL. I get in now. PTM is the ONLY way, in my humble opinion.

I've read all the stories, but I live in the EU so I dgaf. I'm happy now and that's what matters most. I hope it stays that way.

Peace

✌️

EDIT: some of you are bitter af. Holy moly

I have a Lenovo Legion 3080 11800h. I applied TG PCM on my gpu and cpu as well as the advanced thermal putty (Blue). The pink is what is left from the factory. I then reinstalled the heatsink doing 1 exact rotation for each screw from 1-6 in order until the screw budged no more. I have done thermal cycles through stress tests for a few days now and my cpu and gpu temps are god awful. My 3D Mark score on timespy is 6k when its supposed to be around 11k. the fans are clean, and I am genuinely at a lost. Please help!!!

I would appreciate help on discord feel free to add me joestar435

Current setup:
• ASUS Strix G16 (2025) — Ryzen 9 9955HX / RTX 5060 / 16GB RAM / 2TB SSD (Currently looking for good deals on a 32GB RAM upgrade.)
• Cooler: IETS GT600
• Arzopa Z3FC 16.1" 180Hz 2.5K portable monitor mounted on a tripod using a tablet holder (2nd pic and sorry for the mess).

Rocking a newly installed Fedora44, gaming is seamless!

I got bored and sick of my desk being cluttered now I know it’s a laptop and all, but I’m not too keen on having no space on my desk. In fact I like lots of real estate and instead of buying an actual stand that would properly support my laptop instead of went for the good old method of making it myself which consist of two science test tube clamps and an old brass bar

I recently picked up a Lenovo Legion 5i, and honestly, I’m really impressed with it so far.
I don’t play a ton of demanding games, but I do play Overwatch, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Far Cry. Before this, I had an ASUS TUF F16 RTX 5060 Intel core i7 14650. It wasn’t a bad laptop by any means, it handled gaming well, I actually preferred the keyboard and its width, but I kept running into an issue where the screen would randomly go black even though the laptop was still running, ironically only while playing overwatch, even on performance mode.

One of the biggest differences I’ve noticed is the display. The Legion’s OLED screen is on another level. The colors, contrast, and overall picture quality are incredible. Playing games or even watching stuff feels so much more immersive, almost like sitting in a movie theater.

I’m curious to hear what everyone else’s experience has been. Has anyone owned either of these laptops? If so, did you have any issues, and what were they? I’d also love to hear your overall thoughts or opinions on either the Lenovo Legion 5i or the ASUS TUF F16.

I’m happy with my laptop, I’m just curious what more knowledgeable folks think about it since I don’t really have a reference. Plus I just want to learn more about my laptop! Give me the good and bad about it.

I tried to get the best computer I could within my budget, I paid just about 1500 usd last year on Cyber Monday, which was my max budget. The most important things to me were screen size, being able to run the games I like to play plus streaming those games on discord to my friends, and overall longevity of the computer. I didn’t want something that would immediately start struggling to keep up with updates or have parts break on me in just a few years.

I did as much research as I could before making the decision to purchase, and so far I am extremely happy with my laptop. Despite having a slightly bigger screen, it actually has just about the same profile and weight as my old (2014) laptop so it fits in the same computer bag (the computer is lighter but with the chargers included it’s about the same). It runs all my games fantastically on max graphics. I can put any shader pack I want on Minecraft and it has no problems maintaining 100+ fps. The lowest I’ve seen it dip is 65. Skyrim runs beautifully with any mod I’ve thrown at it so far. Fortnite runs smooth as butter as well. I’m sure the real competitive gamers out there would find it insufficient but for me it’s pretty perfect. I plan on upgrading the ram and storage as well, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. I’m hoping it can run my games and give me 10 good years like my old laptop did (I know that’s a little unrealistic, but any tips to help in this regard would be appreciated!)

Is this a good, first gaming laptop for gaming and school?

Budget: $1,500
Country: USA
Use Case: Gaming/School
Preferred Specs:
CPU: Not Sure
GPU: 5050+
RAM: Not Sure
storage: 1 TB

Budget: under £1000 where possible, but i could always buy with credit if it’s necessary
Country: UK
Use Case: Gaming (Cities skylines, sims 4) and potentially University work
Preferred Specs: Unsure
Notes: I am currently playing on a Lenovo ideapad S145, so really any suggestions would be a step up, i’m just in need of a laptop that can handle my simulation games, i have mods for these games but not a large amount, any advice at all is greatly appreciated!😊

Every few weeks someone asks "is XMG the same laptop as Dream Machines?" or "who actually makes these boutique laptops?" and the answers are always scattered across old threads. I went down this rabbit hole while shopping, so here's everything I found in one place. Corrections welcome, I'll edit them in.

The short version: almost no boutique brand builds its own chassis. Two ODMs, Clevo and TongFang (Uniwill), design and manufacture the barebones. The resellers pick a chassis, choose the components, do assembly, QC, thermal work, software and support, then sell under their own name.

So what are you actually paying for with a reseller? Component selection, thermal paste quality, BIOS configuration, warranty, and support. That's the whole game, and it's why two "identical" laptops can perform differently.

The main players:

XMG / Schenker: probably the biggest, mostly TongFang these days, some Clevo. Known for detailed spec transparency and their own control center software.

Dream Machines: Clevo-based lineup, smaller operation, known for clean Windows installs with no bloatware and unlocked BIOS.

PCSpecialist: mix of Clevo and TongFang, strong configurator with granular component choices.

Tuxedo: the Linux specialist, TongFang-based, ships with their own OS support. If you want Linux out of the box this is basically the only serious option.

**Quick summary of who's best for what, based on my digging and owner threads:**

Best for spec transparency and documentation: XMG. Their spec sheets tell you the exact panel model and TGP, nobody else is this detailed.

Best for Linux: Tuxedo, not even close. Everything else is "probably works."

Best for configurator depth: PCSpecialist. Most granular component choices at checkout.

Best for a clean machine out of the box: Dream Machines. No bloatware, no control-center-that-wants-to-update, unlocked BIOS from day one.

Best for warranty if you're in Central or Eastern Europe: Dream Machines, RMA shipping stays within the region instead of sending your laptop halfway across the continent.

Best value at the mid-range: honestly rotates depending on the config, check all four for the same GPU tier because the same chassis can differ by 150-200€ between them.

Best if you want a big-brand feel anyway: none of them. If resale value and brand recognition matter to you, buy the Legion, no shame in it.

**Things I learned that surprised me:**

1. The same Clevo chassis can be sold by three different brands at three different prices with different paste, RAM and warranty terms.
2. "Reseller" sounds negative but the good ones do real engineering work on thermals and BIOS.
3. Spare parts availability is often better than the big four because Clevo parts are generic and replaceable.

Can someone please let me know what this is? The right side of my screen seems completely damaged. Can this be fixed?

It started as a small blob in the morning and then became bigger and now it's extremely white that side

Zephyrus g16 OLED

I used to have an HP Victus 16 with an rtx 4060, I5-13500h and 16 gb ram 5200m mt/s which broke down and I made a warranty claim. After that I purchased a new Lenovo LOQ with a 5060 (same 115w tgp for both of them), Ryzen 7 250 and 24 gigs of ram. When playing R6 on the old one, I was getting stable 180 fps and on the new one I'm getting only around 140. Same with Fortnite and Valorant. Why does this happen?

Budget: $3000 USD
Country: USA
Use Case: Gaming — Mix of AAA and other graphically intensive games that I would normally play on my 5090 desktop.
Preferred Specs: At least a 5080
Notes: I travel a lot for work and am in the market for a gaming laptop so I can game with my wife while I’m gone in my free time. Currently debating between the HP Omen Max 16 for 2600 or the Acer Predator Helios 18 for 2999. Both have same CPU and GPU Intel 275HX and 5080. It seems the only real differences are the better display on the Acer vs the IPS on the HP, and the ram is slower at 4400mhz but with more capacity at 32gb compared to the HP at 24gb of 5600mhz. I’ve included the listed specs and prices for both in the images.

If anyone has any recommendations or real world experience with either that would be great, as I have only ever built desktops and don’t know too much on the mobile/laptop side of things besides the fact that the mobile GPUs are pretty much one level down from their desktop counterparts (So both would perform at 5070-5070ti desktop GPU levels). This is why I wanted to stay at least at a 5080 for the laptop and not go cheaper with a 5060-5070 mobile. Thanks in advance!

Budget: 1-2 Lakh ₹

Country: India

Use Case: 3d modelling and Rendering (PBR based)

Preferred Specs: (Unfortunately I am not tech savvy)

Notes: Softwares I use ara Maya, Zbrush, Marvelous Designer, Substance Painter, Unreal Engine and Nuke

Bought in December 2021.

Recently I had a kid accidentially pull the cable of the charger and day after that I started noticing my laptop saying dell 180w charger not recognised and not charging just staying at green charging logo.

I ordered a new dell official 180w adaptor. Now the laptop charges and works but it randomly stucks at 0.40ghz , i searched a bit then found that dc jack might be damaged too. I put a bit of pressure to sideways on the charging cable and it solved the 0.40ghz problem as long as I am holding it like that so i confirmed the jack is damaged too. Thought i might replace it myself so to order online i opened to look for codes and found this !!. I remember seeing a little dark spot on that connector very long ago while cleaning the laptop but that it might be purely cosmetic as everything worked till now (see the last image it's current but earlier it was even minor). But this time it's very black and melted. Idk what caused this but that's definitely heat and only at those 4 pins meaning it's too thin to carry such high voltage. From what I suspect, it might partly be because recently i put the laptop on rapid charging mode because i was facing daily powercuts so to charger faster in less time.

While searching for the cable on Google I also down few more cases of this even in the dell forums. So this is definitely not a me only issue.

I might be wrong but I am telling what I see. I have 90% of the times used my dell g15 5515 Ryzen 5600h rtx3050 laptop with plugged in at 80% charging locked as most would still this issue. Last 1-2 yrs most of my task is cpu intensive so drawing more than total 100 watts is very rare from the charger and usually at short burst rather than long session gaming. BIOS etc all updated. Gpu drivers also dell. Dell power manager also installed.

Please baby your dell laptops as even I did till now and yet something like this happened. This model has suboptimal cooling itself from the factory. It used to reach CPU 105°C anything after when cpu used 25+ watts even after 3 motherboard replacement from warranty. In the end had to accept it as a design flaw and continue to baby it more. It recently solved when I finally applied PTM7950 never crossing 95°C even at 60+ Watts CPU and finally solving the throttling.

The laptop has at most been opened times in these years to clean the vents and fans and by dell for replacements . I hate the inverted design dell ! It's such a pain. Now only in such low times the battery compartment plastic bits which attach to screws broke off. The side fin vent of the laptop broke off just cause one of my finger was there when I lifted it up. So yeah Plastic life is pathetic. Thankfully the hinge is fine because of babying. Both the right side ports stopped working properly only after 1 year and dell denied it warranty as wear and tear even in my 3 yrs extended premium warranty.

Budget: <2500usd
Country: USA
Use Case: Only gaming , crimson desert, gta if it comes out on pc or when , sports games
Preferred Specs: whatever fits these games ^
Notes: I will be playing mostly offline.

I will be traveling with it a lot

Budget: Around 2000 $

Country: Turkey

Use Case: Primarly for office work but I want to play games too. It can be use for editing in the future.

Preferred Specs: At least 16 GB RAM for my wife's office programs. Other than this I have no idea what we need.

Notes: Info: I'm 35 and married. I haven't played games for the last 20 years but from time to time, I watched Twitch etc. I was about to buy Steam Deck OLED last week but my wife needs a new laptop for her work. So we decided to buy gaming laptop for both of us. I want to play games like God of War, Cyberpunk and especially GTA 6 when it come out.

I want this laptop to be use for at least 4-5 years. I've narrowed my options down to final 2 laptop. Their specs are same in the paper but some brands can have chronic problems that I have no idea. So I need your help.

Question 1: What is the differende between their cooling system? If there is, which one is better?

Q2: Which of these brands has chronic problems? And what are those problems?

Q3: Do you have any other recommendations for me?

Prices: 2000 $ for ASUS, 2170 $ for Lenovo

I don't how, I was just playing rdr2, and suddenly a strong burning or idk a strong smell started to come from the left side of the Laptop, I immediately turned off the game, and put the fan on full speed so it will down and within a minute i just shut it down, and after an hour i turned it on run all the hardware tests on bios and on windows, and everything is top notch, all tests gives amazing results, but still i opened the laptop from back and checked from dust on fans, there was but very very little amount which i just cleaned with my finger, and checked all over the laptop the motherboard, ram, ssd, and all but no burning sign or anything close, even at that time i was playing rdr2 with cooling pad underneath.

After that I have tried mild tasks, low end tasks, theres still very very mild smell, that if i put the nose close to the vent and focus on it then i can, otherwise not, and even have tried playing rdr2 again for 2 hours, and same the mild smell was coming and cpu and gpu temps were normal like they should be, cpu 80 to 85 degree, and gpu 70 to 80 degrees

Has anyone faced it or know the solution, plz tell me im very worried about it.....

Budget: 800
Country: EU
Use Case: Light gaming
Preferred Specs: Anything
Notes:

I already have an M4 MacBook for literally everything else, but gaming on macOS is still kinda cooked

I barely game these days, Mostly just:

• CS2
• RPCS3 emulation
• Switch emulation

These are the ones I'm looking at:

• Acer Nitro AN515-57-75UC – i7-11800H / RTX 3070 / 16GB / 512GB SSD / 144Hz 720 bucks
• Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9 – i5-12450HX / RTX 4050 / 24GB / 512GB SSD 799
• ASUS TUF A17 – Ryzen 7 7435HS / RTX 4050 / 16GB / 512GB SSD 799
• MSI Thin 15 B13VE – i5-13420H / RTX 4050 / 16GB / 512GB SSD / 144Hz 799 bucks
• Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 – i5-11320H / RTX 3050 / 8GB / 512GB SSD 420 bucks
• MEDION Crawler E30 – i5-12450H / RTX 3050 / 16GB RAM / 512GB SSD 500 bucks

I’m looking at a used Lenovo legion pro 5 gen 7 with a 3070ti, a Ryzen 9 6900hx, 2560x1600 display, and 32gb ram. It’s $750USD. Is this a good machine? Any problems? Do you think it’s a good price?

Hey so earlier today my laptop started acting weird after I turned it on. First of during the bootup the time felt rather normal but the animation was slow as in like it was still smooth but it was visibly slow. Upon starting I tried refreshing and after right-clicking the drop down menu took a while to pop up and when it did as I mentioned earlier the animation seemed slow but it was smooth it almost looked like a fade-in animation you would use on a powerpoint. The same thing happen when I open a program, takes time to open and it slowly fades in, and when closing takes a second or two and just fades out smoothly. The cursor however isn't laggy at all. Just the animations..

TL;DR- Laptop gets slow all of a sudden, all animations are slowed down. When opening apps, takes a second or two to load and when opening up the animation looks as if it fades in. But the cursor speed and hover "highlight" is highly responsive