2019 Razer Blade "Base" 15

[Thysanoptera]

In case you missed it - Razer updated the Base model with 9th gen CPU, RTX2060 and 144Hz screen. Was grocery shopping again today, picked it up at BestBuy on my way home. In short - I love it, this is it, finally a laptop I will keep for a while and enjoy it. I still have 2018 MBP, GS65 and bought also X1C for good measure in the last year, and all of them immediately made me feel kind of 'meh', I knew that it is not a long term solution. But this Blade is just awesome, I can have a machine with all the storage I need that runs fast or quiet if needed, doesn't burn or bend and squeak. I've put 2TB EVO 970 Plus, 7.8TB SATA 2.5 inch Micron SSD and 64 GB RAM in it. 9.8 TB total SSD storage in a small 15 incher.

It comes with factory -100mV undervolt. I bumped it to -125 and run some benchmarks. Corona is 2:43/2,969,122, Cinebench R20 is 2600, Valley 72 fps/3235 @80W and 85fps/3574 @ 90W (extremeHD preset). Well, you may say - nothing impressive here. True, about the scores - the power settings are 60W PL1 (20 seconds or so) and then 45W TDP - and you can't increase the limits out of the box, but the max CPU temp was 64C. This thing beats my 6 core MBP while being 30C cooler (with fans at max). The GPU temp never went above 60C@80W and 65C@90W. How 'cool' is that? I couldn't believe my eyes, the cooling system looks bog standard, two heatpipes for each CPU and GPU. one is shared, tiny fans with heatsinks on one side only. I guess those couple of mm in thickness makes all the difference. In primes95 small FFT max temp is 63C @ 45W @ 3.1GHz, also looks like 10C cooler than the GS65 after repaste. Magic!

I need to unlock the bios, unfortunately you have to hex edit a dump and load it, and figure out a way to make custom fan curves (it stops the fans at idle, I'd prefer them to stay at 2000 rpm or so). But even at stock settings it is perfectly usable little machine that does everything.

The only thing I don't like is the keyboard, both the keys and layout, but I can live with that. The battery life is obviously short (2.5 inch bay takes the battery space so only 65Wh) but this wasn't my priority.

I'll update when I get to removing the power limits, there is a ton of headroom left, I'm sure it will beat the crap out of my GS65 also.

 

[ApplesandOranges]

Keep us posted on reliability and Customer Service if needed. I am contemplating a Razer laptop, but was a little concerned about quality and CS.

 

[Thysanoptera]

Keep us posted on reliability and Customer Service if needed. I am contemplating a Razer laptop, but was a little concerned about quality and CS.

Hopefully I will not have to, I've never had a laptop die on me in a way that I wasn't able to fix myself. Only once I've send a Gigabyte for service to replace the screen, in hindsight I should have just bought one on ebay and replace it myself, they overturned the the case screws which broke plastic sockets, didn't notice immediately only after the case started to crack. When it comes to customer service I always expect the worst, regardless of brand.

This blade quality is top notch, I can't find a single fault in assembly, screen has no light bleed whatsoever, maybe just a little on the bottom edge, but I have to turn off all the lights, display a black background and angle it in a specific way to distinguish from regular IPS glow. And I've read horror stories about it, with really ugly looking pictures. Maybe just got lucky.

 

[kazmac]

In case you missed it - Razer updated the Base model with 9th gen CPU, RTX2060 and 144Hz screen. Was grocery shopping again today, picked it up at BestBuy on my way home. In short - I love it, this is it, finally a laptop I will keep for a while and enjoy it. I still have 2018 MBP, GS65 and bought also X1C for good measure in the last year, and all of them immediately made me feel kind of 'meh', I knew that it is not a long term solution. But this Blade is just awesome, I can have a machine with all the storage I need that runs fast or quiet if needed, doesn't burn or bend and squeak. I've put 2TB EVO 970 Plus, 7.8TB SATA 2.5 inch Micron SSD and 64 GB RAM in it. 9.8 TB total SSD storage in a small 15 incher.

It comes with factory -100mV undervolt. I bumped it to -125 and run some benchmarks. Corona is 2:43/2,969,122, Cinebench R20 is 2600, Valley 72 fps/3235 @80W and 85fps/3574 @ 90W (extremeHD preset). Well, you may say - nothing impressive here. True, about the scores - the power settings are 60W PL1 (20 seconds or so) and then 45W TDP - and you can't increase the limits out of the box, but the max CPU temp was 64C. This thing beats my 6 core MBP while being 30C cooler (with fans at max). The GPU temp never went above 60C@80W and 65C@90W. How 'cool' is that? I couldn't believe my eyes, the cooling system looks bog standard, two heatpipes for each CPU and GPU. one is shared, tiny fans with heatsinks on one side only. I guess those couple of mm in thickness makes all the difference. In primes95 small FFT max temp is 63C @ 45W @ 3.1GHz, also looks like 10C cooler than the GS65 after repaste. Magic!

I need to unlock the bios, unfortunately you have to hex edit a dump and load it, and figure out a way to make custom fan curves (it stops the fans at idle, I'd prefer them to stay at 2000 rpm or so). But even at stock settings it is perfectly usable little machine that does everything.

The only thing I don't like is the keyboard, both the keys and layout, but I can live with that. The battery life is obviously short (2.5 inch bay takes the battery space so only 65Wh) but this wasn't my priority.

I'll update when I get to removing the power limits, there is a ton of headroom left, I'm sure it will beat the crap out of my GS65 also.

Congratulations! Nice to hear Razer updated the base model 15” and that you upgraded it yourself.

That keyboard layout sadly tripped me up hard, otherwise I’d be using the 15” Advanced model. I love Razer’s laptops, just wish they’d rethink the keyboard layout.

Enjoy yours!

Please update when you can.

 

[Thysanoptera]

Loaded the last BIOS, edited it to enable advanced options, flashed it back essentially removing power limits. The results are insane, especially comparing to GS65. Step aside @Queen6, there is a new 6-core king in town:

The maximum temperature in Corona was about 64C, in CB20 it was 78C, CPU locked at max turbo of 4GHz. My GS65 thermally throttles in CB20 reaching 95C and I thought that was good. I have no idea how they did it, but I'm truly flabbergasted how the reviewers, including notable ones like notebookcheck, have those Blades at the bottom of CPU benchmarks and general opinion is they run hot. There is not a whole lot of Base model reviews, maybe that vapor chamber in Advanced model doesn't work that well. But this Base model is a beast.

 

[kazmac]

Loaded the last BIOS, edited it to enable advanced options, flashed it back essentially removing power limits. The results are insane, especially comparing to GS65. Step aside @Queen6, there is a new 6-core king in town:

View attachment 853718 View attachment 853719
The maximum temperature in Corona was about 64C, in CB20 it was 78C, CPU locked at max turbo of 4GHz. My GS65 thermally throttles in CB20 reaching 95C and I thought that was good. I have no idea how they did it, but I'm truly flabbergasted how the reviewers, including notable ones like notebookcheck, have those Blades at the bottom of CPU benchmarks and general opinion is they run hot. There is not a whole lot of Base model reviews, maybe that vapor chamber in Advanced model doesn't work that well. But this Base model is a beast.

That is impressive. Equally more so that you were able to underclock it further and obtain cooler results. My Advanced was always warm, but only heard the fans once.

Of course, I am not familiar with Bios and underclocking, though I do sort of understand what underclocking does as far as temperatures and heat. Thanks for posting this too. I hope you continue. I may not know a lot of what you’re doing, but it is fascinating and helpful in my understanding of components, cooling and Windows.

 

[v0lume4]

Mid 60's temps under load? Are you pulling my leg? That's insane.

Is this the one you purchased from Best Buy (link below)? Razer is still selling the GTX 1060 "Base" model on their website, and the cheapest 2060 model I can find on the Best Buy website is approaching $2000 (unless this is the one you're referring to?).

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/razer-...lid-state-drive-black/6349357.p?skuId=6349357

 

[Thysanoptera]

That is impressive. Equally more so that you were able to underclock it further and obtain cooler results. My Advanced was always warm, but only heard the fans once.

Yeah, I had to go back to -125, I was getting crashes in firestrike with -145 and -140. -125 seems stable with a safe margin, cost me 2C.

Mid 60's temps under load? Are you pulling my leg? That's insane.

Is this the one you purchased from Best Buy (link below)? Razer is still selling the GTX 1060 "Base" model on their website, and the cheapest 2060 model I can find on the Best Buy website is approaching $2000 (unless this is the one you're referring to?).

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/razer-...lid-state-drive-black/6349357.p?skuId=6349357

Mid 60 when stock limited to 45W and fans at max. I always set fans to max when stress testing to see what the chassis limits are, otherwise you compare fan curves, which I prefer to set myself. Yes, that's exactly the model from Best Buy, the 2019 Base. The 1060 model has, well, 1060, 60Hz panel and 8th gen CPU, that's why I wasn't even looking at it. The 2019 Base has 9th gen, 2060 with 90W power limit, and 144Hz panel. It is essentially early 2019 Advanced model, with smaller battery, more ports, space for 2.5 inch drive, heat pipes instead of vapor chamber and single zone keyboard RGB light. And I think - with better cooling.

 

[v0lume4]

Mid 60 when stock limited to 45W and fans at max. I always set fans to max when stress testing to see what the chassis limits are, otherwise you compare fan curves, which I prefer to set myself. Yes, that's exactly the model from Best Buy, the 2019 Base. The 1060 model has, well, 1060, 60Hz panel and 8th gen CPU, that's why I wasn't even looking at it. The 2019 Base has 9th gen, 2060 with 90W power limit, and 144Hz panel. It is essentially early 2019 Advanced model, with smaller battery, more ports, space for 2.5 inch drive, heat pipes instead of vapor chamber and single zone keyboard RGB light. And I think - with better cooling.

Thanks for the reply. How loud is it at max fans?

Also, you said you have the GS65? I see Best Buy occasionally running sales on it and some of them seem too good to pass up (one sale recently was the 1660Ti model for ~$1400). Would you recommend it?

 

[Thysanoptera]

Thanks for the reply. How loud is it at max fans?

Also, you said you have the GS65? I see Best Buy occasionally running sales on it and some of them seem too good to pass up (one sale recently was the 1660Ti model for ~$1400). Would you recommend it?

It is loud, similar to all the other, doesn't stand out as especially loud or quiet. The thing is, because it has so much thermal headroom, you don't need to run it at full. While in auto it "catches" and flat lines the temperatures nicely way before you hit max rpm.

The GS65, at this moment, no - I wouldn't recommend it. On paper it's got everything, but they use a paper thin aluminum sheet for the chassis with plastic inserts. This thing bends and gives crackling sounds when you touch it. When I bought it I literally took it apart and was bending the chassis in hands because it had a kind of concave in it, to straighten it up. I could live with that, but unfortunately I believe it has effect on heat transfer from CPU - there are only 3 screws holding the CPU heatplate it in place, asymmetrical, and some time after repaste I was getting large temperature difference between even and odd cores. I think that's because bending of the chassis moves the heatplate and creates voids in TIM. Right now this is like 15C between cores at full load, and it was within 5C. I will give it another try, with something dense, like IC Diamond, but right now my 5 year old has RTX2060 equipped laptop with 4TB of SSDs to play minecraft. With the RTX disabled in BIOS because for some reason Optimus went bananas and the RTX heats up when the dGPU is inactive, inactive as in it doesn't even show up in HWInfo, but you can feel the area over GPU getting hot. Also one of green leds on keyboard died already.

If you looking at GS65, look at Acer Triton 500. This is essentially GS65 with tweaks, almost exactly same layout - but it has 4 screws holding CPU heatplate and different arrangements of heat pipes. Supposedly it is also more rigid. Look it up and compare pictures, they're almost identical. It is also cheaper, just doesn't have per key illumination.

 

[Queen6]

Loaded the last BIOS, edited it to enable advanced options, flashed it back essentially removing power limits. The results are insane, especially comparing to GS65. Step aside @Queen6, there is a new 6-core king in town:

The maximum temperature in Corona was about 64C, in CB20 it was 78C, CPU locked at max turbo of 4GHz. My GS65 thermally throttles in CB20 reaching 95C and I thought that was good. I have no idea how they did it, but I'm truly flabbergasted how the reviewers, including notable ones like notebookcheck, have those Blades at the bottom of CPU benchmarks and general opinion is they run hot. There is not a whole lot of Base model reviews, maybe that vapor chamber in Advanced model doesn't work that well. But this Base model is a beast.

Nice results

Q-6

 

[GoldfishRT]

For anyone interested they're clearing out 2018 Advanced models for $1499 (6c, 512gb, 1060, 144hz) from Razer direct. For that price one can live with a funky shift key I think.

Edit: Guess the deal ran out today because they're back to just $300 off but, I'd keep my eye out still. Leaving for posterity.

 

[lixuelai]

Eyeing the 2018 Advanced as well. Want to get a portable replacement for my 2013 MBP which is now serving desk duty. Only concern is Razer quality and after sale support.

 

[kazmac]

Eyeing the 2018 Advanced as well. Want to get a portable replacement for my 2013 MBP which is now serving desk duty. Only concern is Razer quality and after sale support.

Razer has improved their quality and after sale support significantly.

The build quality of the 2019s are excellent. They run warm, but that is to be expected. Not sure about the 2018 models, but I still think about the 2019 in spite of a keyboard layout I couldn't get used to.

 

[GoldfishRT]

Eyeing the 2018 Advanced as well. Want to get a portable replacement for my 2013 MBP which is now serving desk duty. Only concern is Razer quality and after sale support.

So I've had a 2018 Advanced for a week. And at $1499 how could I not give it another try?

Frankly, it's still not there. The 2019 has improvements but it's still not finished as well as my MacBook. For the price I paid it's adequate but I think at normal asking it's a bit much. My unit, like the one before it; has lots of backlight bleed, inconsistent finish around the power port, came extremely dusty out of the box, runs extremely hot under load (as in the bottom can actually burn you), has terrible battery life, inconsistent sleep.

With that said, the performance is stellar, the display outside of the bleed is great, the fans don't run when doing mundane stuff, and I love how it looks.

 

[Thysanoptera]

My unit, like the one before it; has lots of backlight bleed, inconsistent finish around the power port, came extremely dusty out of the box, runs extremely hot under load (as in the bottom can actually burn you), has terrible battery life, inconsistent sleep.

Did you take it back already? I'm curious if you could run some tests and check panel model. I didn't even consider getting the advanced version, because of vapor chamber. This should be used to spread the heat across large surface, looking at it, it is just a giant, hot area, that's not being used in heat exchange (well, except for whatever gets transferred through the bottom). The actual heatsinks are located at far sides of it, and only tiny portion of the whole chamber is actively cooled to facilitate condensation. I'm honestly surprised this even works, heatpipes seem to be better suited for such job.

I'm curious how the Advanced one compares to Base in 15 minutes long stress test, like this one is made with -125mV undervolt, with 45 and 80W limits on CPU and GPU, following parameters from this guide:

 

[GoldfishRT]

Did you take it back already? I'm curious if you could run some tests and check panel model

Nah it's still sitting here. I'm happy to run a benchmark or two on it in a few days but I won't be undervolting it.

 

[Thysanoptera]

Nah it's still sitting here. I'm happy to run a benchmark or two on it in a few days but I won't be undervolting it.

Don't worry about it, I thought you got the 2019, this one is undervolted by -100mV from factory. The 2018 at stock voltage will be quite a bit hotter, not a good comparison.

 

[ApplesandOranges]

So I've had a 2018 Advanced for a week. And at $1499 how could I not give it another try?

Frankly, it's still not there. The 2019 has improvements but it's still not finished as well as my MacBook. For the price I paid it's adequate but I think at normal asking it's a bit much. My unit, like the one before it; has lots of backlight bleed, inconsistent finish around the power port, came extremely dusty out of the box, runs extremely hot under load (as in the bottom can actually burn you), has terrible battery life, inconsistent sleep.

With that said, the performance is stellar, the display outside of the bleed is great, the fans don't run when doing mundane stuff, and I love how it looks.

Price you paid. For $1499 what do you get in a MacBook? Do you get an I7? how much ram or storage? What Graphics card do you get for $1499 with a MacBook? Dust? Have you ever used a microfiber cloth?

 

[GoldfishRT]

Price you paid. For $1499 what do you get in a MacBook? Do you get an I7? how much ram or storage? What Graphics card do you get for $1499 with a MacBook? Dust? Have you ever used a microfiber cloth?

Not just dust, but adhesive too. The fancy box it came in was all beat up to (which was inside of two shipping grade boxes, so no, not normal). Of course the laptop was fine, and it's pretty easily cleaned but that's not the point. It was just a carelessly packed product but ultimately doesn't matter sure.

And yes, for that price it's decent. It's normally about $4-500 more on sale, which puts it right in line with a 15" MacBook Pro and it's much less competitive at that price point and is only worth it at the discounted price for me. For the record, I got this MacBook Pro for $1800 - and it came with a 6 core i7 and 16GB of ram as well. Anybody paying full price for any machine is crazy. In terms of real prices, they're usually very comparable. Anyways, the GPU is much better but that's only a small part of why I'm buying a premium 15" laptop. Better hardware isn't just better specs, and I outlined some of my issues with it above. You don't have to agree. That's why there are a million different of these tools - to suit a million different tastes. If I played more games on my laptops then I'd probably feel different.

 

[maflynn]

Frankly, it's still not there. The 2019 has improvements but it's still not finished as well as my MacBook. For the price I paid it's adequate but I think at normal asking it's a bit much. My unit, like the one before it; has lots of backlight bleed, inconsistent finish around the power port, came extremely dusty out of the box, runs extremely hot under load (as in the bottom can actually burn you), has terrible battery life, inconsistent sleep.

I'm not defending Razer but gaming laptops in general have horrible battery life - I will give credit where credit is due and Apple does a great job at designing a system that lasts all day (or nearly all day). I've also had inconsistent sleep on many computers through out the years, not just PCs but Macs. So much so, I've largely given up trying to fix sleep if its not working. FWIW, my Lenovo seems to have decent sleep but the battery life is shorter then I want at times.

 

[ninja2000]

Don't worry about it, I thought you got the 2019, this one is undervolted by -100mV from factory. The 2018 at stock voltage will be quite a bit hotter, not a good comparison.

What panel did you get on the base model?

I have a 2018 8750/2070 and am considering selling it for the base as I need more storage and Ethernet but I won’t to make sure the panel is a good as the 144hz on my advanced

 

[Thysanoptera]

What panel did you get on the base model?

I have a 2018 8750/2070 and am considering selling it for the base as I need more storage and Ethernet but I won’t to make sure the panel is a good as the 144hz on my advanced

For 2019 they bumped the Advanced to 240Hz and Base to 144Hz, I guess the new Base has the same panel as old Advanced. I have BOE NV156FHM-N4K

 

[ninja2000]

For 2019 they bumped the Advanced to 240Hz and Base to 144Hz, I guess the new Base has the same panel as old Advanced. I have BOE NV156FHM-N4K

I have the LG 144hz panel in my 2018. The boe has pwm I believe so I was hoping they would use the LG again
Pwm gives me the worst headaches

 

[Thysanoptera]

I have the LG 144hz panel in my 2018. The boe has pwm I believe so I was hoping they would use the LG again
Pwm gives me the worst headaches

Lucky you, they used LG only at the beginning from what I've read. That BOE is not bad though. If that helps - I don't feel any PWM at all brightness levels, and they used older revision in the last year Advanced models - N4G. I did a quick search of reviews, and all laptops with N4G used PWM, but none of the ones with N4K had it.