Optimus; How has it evolved

moorw003

Active member
I apologise in advance if this seems a daft question to ask, but I'm interested to know since about the development of the Optimus laptop over several years.

Basically, my one and only time buying on PCS, was an Optimus IV 17.3 laptop in 2012. Sadly, it was the worst laptop I've ever owned. It overheated constantly, caused me no end of headaches, from multiple software glitches, sound that stopped working after about 9 months and full hardware failure after about 15 months. After that disappointment, I was never minded to return in a hurry, but my twin brother swears by PCS and has bought every PC he's bought since 2010 from this site.

I'm now looking for a new laptop for work, with mild gaming capabilites, a 17.3 inch screen and the frustration with almost everything on the market that meets that criteria is there's little out there that has 16gb ram and a good size hard drive, without costing a fortune on things I don't really need. Being able to spec something cheap, and add on the things I want is one option open, the other is to buy something which 8gb and small SSD, and buy/add components before I use it. That second thing is a hassle, so I'm minded to spec my own.

The obvious budget option on this website is the Optimus again, but despite it being 9 years ago, I'm incredibly wary. Now Optimus is at XI version, I'm wondering if people here have any idea how the platform has evolved over the generations. Has it been an evolution, or is the platform similar to what is was before.

Also, how does the thermal solution for the current iteration compare with the Elimina.

I'm mindful that exactly what I'm looking for isn't really available on the mass market, but at the same time the benefits I can gain by choosing exactly what I want are weighed down by an extremely negative previous experience. Thus I'm a little stuck right now!
 

BlessedSquirrel

We love you Ukraine
I apologise in advance if this seems a daft question to ask, but I'm interested to know since about the development of the Optimus laptop over several years.

Basically, my one and only time buying on PCS, was an Optimus IV 17.3 laptop in 2012. Sadly, it was the worst laptop I've ever owned. It overheated constantly, caused me no end of headaches, from multiple software glitches, sound that stopped working after about 9 months and full hardware failure after about 15 months. After that disappointment, I was never minded to return in a hurry, but my twin brother swears by PCS and has bought every PC he's bought since 2010 from this site.

I'm now looking for a new laptop for work, with mild gaming capabilites, a 17.3 inch screen and the frustration with almost everything on the market that meets that criteria is there's little out there that has 16gb ram and a good size hard drive, without costing a fortune on things I don't really need. Being able to spec something cheap, and add on the things I want is one option open, the other is to buy something which 8gb and small SSD, and buy/add components before I use it. That second thing is a hassle, so I'm minded to spec my own.

The obvious budget option on this website is the Optimus again, but despite it being 9 years ago, I'm incredibly wary. Now Optimus is at XI version, I'm wondering if people here have any idea how the platform has evolved over the generations. Has it been an evolution, or is the platform similar to what is was before.

Also, how does the thermal solution for the current iteration compare with the Elimina.

I'm mindful that exactly what I'm looking for isn't really available on the mass market, but at the same time the benefits I can gain by choosing exactly what I want are weighed down by an extremely negative previous experience. Thus I'm a little stuck right now!
Just out of interest, did you ever service your old optimus?
 

Bhuna50

Author Level
I've had my set up now for 10 months and I was playing Cyberpunk on relatively high graphics setting, high ray tracing settings and on the day it was really hot this week. I played for about 4 1/2 hours straight, no issues with anything (other than Im not a very good gamer) - no glitches, no overheating, no crashes (except my driving in the game) and generally a good afternoon playing


Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen™ 7 Eight Core Processor 4800H (2.9GHz, 4.2GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 32GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2060 - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 3 in 1 Card Reader (Full Size SD / SDHC / SDXC)
AC Adaptor
2 x 180W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
2 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery
Optimus Series Integrated 46WH Lithium Ion Battery
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x USB 3.1 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.1 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language
OPTIMUS SERIES RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Promotional Item
Get Assassin's Creed: Valhalla with select SAMSUNG SSDs!
 
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ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
I have an Optimus IV (15") from March 2013 that was used almost continuously for the first three years of its life on a sailing yacht. It's difficult to find a harsher environment for a laptop. Since then it's been in occasional but regular use in our apartment in (hot in the summer) Crete. I clean it out regularly but to date have never needed to repaste it.

The Optimus IV has worked flawlessly all that time. And is still going strong.
 
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