I had a problem shortly after benchmarking everything: as I was installing Infinite Crisis, I turned on Youtube and went to bed to drift off for an hour until the download was done. When I woke up, the monitor wouldn't turn on.
I reset the computer; picture on the BIOS was fine, but the moment it loaded Windows, it faded to black. To make sure it wasn't a Windows problem, I booted from a live-CD Ubuntu image and the same thing happened; picture fine on post, faded to black while loading the OS.
I very nearly had a panic attack. I read around and tried the various fixes; I made sure the system was running on its native screen (Fn+F3 changes multiple monitors). I read it might had been excess charge from the outlet and many laptops get that. The fix to this is removing the battery and unplug the computer, then hold the power button pressed between 30 seconds to 2 minutes, sometimes repeating the process up to three times (for HP laptops, I've read).
I tried that, but it didn't work. In the end what fixed it was resetting BIOS default settings (and then changing them back, obviously). I don't know what the hell that was, but it gave me quite a scare, as I've read this is an omen of bad things to come (like system death) and the incident occurred a mere two days into owning the Z585.
It hasn't happened since, but to make sure it wasn't excess charge that can damage the hardware, I switch between the High Performance Mode and the Battery Saver profiles in Windows' Power Saving Options. You should do that too.
Or you could install the Razer Game Booster app, that automatically switches the setting the moment you load up a game.
Lastly, I also suspect the CPUID Hardware monitor app, which is great, but occasionally gives errors as it probes the BIOS (used to give me BSODs on the desktop on occasion). I avoid leaving the app running for more than a few minutes now (it was on for close to two hours before the odd crash).
Another tiny issue is that I'm not certain of the wireless card's efficiency. My fiancée's 3-year-old VAIO gets better wireless perception than my Z585 in our house. This shouldn't be a huge problem once we finally fucking move the desk near the router (I always favour Ethernet connections), but for the time being, even Youtube can lag at times.
Lastly, the temperature does worry me a bit. During gaming, the aluminum casing can get hot enough to literally cause pain and make me pull my hand away on occasion. GPU-Z gives below 50 degrees Celcius for the dedicated 7670M on idle and around 80 on load, which is well-within-range.
What worries me, between the plastic frame that can melt and everything being cramped up in there is the CPU/APU. GPU-Z gives the APU over 100 degrees Celcius on idle; however, I've found out that these apps can't properly monitor APU temperatures.
The closest a tool can get is the CPUID monitor. This one gave me more... reasonable temperatures: below 60 degrees for the CPU, below 70 for the APU on idle. Both of these go up higher during downloads and installs (another side-effect of hardware being cramped in a laptop, since both the CPU and the hard-drive experience heavy load during an install).
They're not as scary, but they're still not great. Keep in mind, these temps are monitored while the laptop is running constantly on top of a base with a 14'' fan spinning. It's an AMD thing, apparently and if high temps are something that worry you, you'd might want to reconsider.
All in all, I'm cautiously satisfied with my purchase. The system is still not running as it should; not being able to install Linux is a major draw-back for me and the temperatures do worry me (as laptops are somewhat future-proof investments), while performance drops on simple Windows use can get infuriating at times.
Adding in at least one more 2GB dimm of RAM is absolutely necessary, especially for multi-tasking and I should get around to that sooner rather than later. The recommended gaming requirement of 8 or 16GB is an overkill, but 4GB may be pushing it these days, especially as Windows already eats up at around 1.5GB and the APU needs memory as well (of around 500MB). This leaves a mere gig for use by games and apps.
However, for less than 500 Euros, the performance gain is impressive. There are very few games I'm interested in that haven't come out yet and as real-life is getting more hectic and responsibility-heavy, I don't expect to be much focused on next-gen gaming anytime soon. Besides, with a kid in the house, for these games perhaps I should ponder switching to a console.
The upgradeable processor is certainly a sweet deal and if your budget can handle it, an A10 is the better pick. Remember to stay away from AMD dedicated GPUs from the 8xxx series that are below the 8750m (as they perform slightly higher than Intel's HD series, which in itself performs significantly lower than AMD's APUs) and avoid any processors with less than 4 physical cores, as they're not particularly future-proof. The Z585 is not something I'd recommend for a purchase for anyone looking to invest in the future, but with just a few bucks more, AMD's A series does produce surprisingly good results in my personal opinion and should always be eyed for budget mobile gaming.
I reset the computer; picture on the BIOS was fine, but the moment it loaded Windows, it faded to black. To make sure it wasn't a Windows problem, I booted from a live-CD Ubuntu image and the same thing happened; picture fine on post, faded to black while loading the OS.
I very nearly had a panic attack. I read around and tried the various fixes; I made sure the system was running on its native screen (Fn+F3 changes multiple monitors). I read it might had been excess charge from the outlet and many laptops get that. The fix to this is removing the battery and unplug the computer, then hold the power button pressed between 30 seconds to 2 minutes, sometimes repeating the process up to three times (for HP laptops, I've read).
I tried that, but it didn't work. In the end what fixed it was resetting BIOS default settings (and then changing them back, obviously). I don't know what the hell that was, but it gave me quite a scare, as I've read this is an omen of bad things to come (like system death) and the incident occurred a mere two days into owning the Z585.
It hasn't happened since, but to make sure it wasn't excess charge that can damage the hardware, I switch between the High Performance Mode and the Battery Saver profiles in Windows' Power Saving Options. You should do that too.
Or you could install the Razer Game Booster app, that automatically switches the setting the moment you load up a game.
Lastly, I also suspect the CPUID Hardware monitor app, which is great, but occasionally gives errors as it probes the BIOS (used to give me BSODs on the desktop on occasion). I avoid leaving the app running for more than a few minutes now (it was on for close to two hours before the odd crash).
Another tiny issue is that I'm not certain of the wireless card's efficiency. My fiancée's 3-year-old VAIO gets better wireless perception than my Z585 in our house. This shouldn't be a huge problem once we finally fucking move the desk near the router (I always favour Ethernet connections), but for the time being, even Youtube can lag at times.
Lastly, the temperature does worry me a bit. During gaming, the aluminum casing can get hot enough to literally cause pain and make me pull my hand away on occasion. GPU-Z gives below 50 degrees Celcius for the dedicated 7670M on idle and around 80 on load, which is well-within-range.
What worries me, between the plastic frame that can melt and everything being cramped up in there is the CPU/APU. GPU-Z gives the APU over 100 degrees Celcius on idle; however, I've found out that these apps can't properly monitor APU temperatures.
The closest a tool can get is the CPUID monitor. This one gave me more... reasonable temperatures: below 60 degrees for the CPU, below 70 for the APU on idle. Both of these go up higher during downloads and installs (another side-effect of hardware being cramped in a laptop, since both the CPU and the hard-drive experience heavy load during an install).
They're not as scary, but they're still not great. Keep in mind, these temps are monitored while the laptop is running constantly on top of a base with a 14'' fan spinning. It's an AMD thing, apparently and if high temps are something that worry you, you'd might want to reconsider.
All in all, I'm cautiously satisfied with my purchase. The system is still not running as it should; not being able to install Linux is a major draw-back for me and the temperatures do worry me (as laptops are somewhat future-proof investments), while performance drops on simple Windows use can get infuriating at times.
Adding in at least one more 2GB dimm of RAM is absolutely necessary, especially for multi-tasking and I should get around to that sooner rather than later. The recommended gaming requirement of 8 or 16GB is an overkill, but 4GB may be pushing it these days, especially as Windows already eats up at around 1.5GB and the APU needs memory as well (of around 500MB). This leaves a mere gig for use by games and apps.
However, for less than 500 Euros, the performance gain is impressive. There are very few games I'm interested in that haven't come out yet and as real-life is getting more hectic and responsibility-heavy, I don't expect to be much focused on next-gen gaming anytime soon. Besides, with a kid in the house, for these games perhaps I should ponder switching to a console.
The upgradeable processor is certainly a sweet deal and if your budget can handle it, an A10 is the better pick. Remember to stay away from AMD dedicated GPUs from the 8xxx series that are below the 8750m (as they perform slightly higher than Intel's HD series, which in itself performs significantly lower than AMD's APUs) and avoid any processors with less than 4 physical cores, as they're not particularly future-proof. The Z585 is not something I'd recommend for a purchase for anyone looking to invest in the future, but with just a few bucks more, AMD's A series does produce surprisingly good results in my personal opinion and should always be eyed for budget mobile gaming.
HWINFO64 tells me everything I need to know about the IGPU GPU and APU
ReplyDeletePretty much anything you want to know about this laptop just ask :) always willing to help out fellow users!!
ReplyDelete