Asus ROG GL702ZC - Ryzen CPU, a good idea ?

[berillions]

Hello,
What do you think about this laptop with Ryzen 1700 CPU and Rx580 (4Gb) GPU ?
I'm not a big player on PC because i have a PS4 and the laptop is only for games like Crusader Kings 2, Stellaris and RPG like Tyranny, PoE &Co.
So i would like to buy this laptop but as a linux user and an user of Gentoo. Like this OS compile itself the applications, do you know if this laptop has the "segfault compilation" issue ?
Like explain here : https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comment...dd&sh=ebe8a4e4
I know that Vega laptop release soon but i don't know when these laptops with Vega M GH will be available in France ... So i hesitate between this laptop and Vega laptop...
PS : I don't want Nvidia laptop of course :-)
Thanks,

[chithanh]

It is possible that this laptop is affected by the segfault issue. A high number of Ryzen CPUs up to a certain manufacturing week are defective.
Removing and RMA'ing the CPU from the laptop will be difficult (but not impossible, it is socketed).

Ryzen 2000 series should be unaffected by the segfault, so I suggest a laptop with 2500U/2700U Raven Ridge APU or wait until Pinnacle Ridge later this year.

[berillions]

And about Nvidia laptop ?
I don't want to buy it because i'm afraid about Nvidia and Wayland issues actually ...
Do you think i can buy a Nvidia laptop for the 5 next years ?


That's why i search an AMD laptop...

[chithanh]

With NVidia you will be dependent on their proprietary drivers for the foreseeable future. This is only a good idea if your use case aligns with what NVidia considers relevant. Intel I would not buy currently due to Meltdown.

Only ones I can recommend at this time are the AMD 2500U/2700U laptops.

[berillions]

Only ones I can recommend at this time are the AMD 2500U/2700U laptops.

I want an AMD 2500U/2700U laptops but i don't know if these laptopq will release in France.

[Azultra]

Hello,
What do you think about this laptop with Ryzen 1700 CPU and Rx580 (4Gb) GPU ?
I'm not a big player on PC because i have a PS4 and the laptop is only for games like Crusader Kings 2, Stellaris and RPG like Tyranny, PoE &Co.
So i would like to buy this laptop but as a linux user and an user of Gentoo. Like this OS compile itself the applications, do you know if this laptop has the "segfault compilation" issue ?
Like explain here : https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comment...dd&sh=ebe8a4e4
I know that Vega laptop release soon but i don't know when these laptops with Vega M GH will be available in France ... So i hesitate between this laptop and Vega laptop...
PS : I don't want Nvidia laptop of course :-)
Thanks,

Hi,

I've been using a GL702ZC laptops for 2 months and a half now and only got one suspicious crash so far.

There are also two issues that shouldn't be confused, the segfault issue was a manufacturing problem that affected Ryzen chips from early 2017: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...-Segv-Response
And nowadays there are still users experiencing random crashes during idling from times to times, but they seem related to other factors such as memory timings. From my daily usage of the laptop (mostly programming, and I've compiled LLVM, Clang, and other compilers dozens of times since I contribute to them) which stays on and mostly idling during the night and while I'm at work, one single system freeze is all I've experienced so far.

So I'm very happy with this laptop, it's pretty impressive to see how the open source Radeon drivers have matured and to be able to play >Observer_ perfectly smoothly all maxed out. Everything is so responsive and fast to load.
The only issues currently for me on a 4.14 kernel and which will probably go away in later versions (4.14 is the first version to support the Realtek wireless chip) are:
- internal mic not working
- Bluetooth not detected (part of the Realtek r8822be chip)

[berillions]

So you think it is a good choice actually ?
How is the temperature when you compile or when you play (if you try that) ?

Like i said, the main usage is for Internet, watching video (Films, Series or Youtube). And for gaming, only for the games that i explained if my first post.
I can have the laptop for 1399€.

For me, i don't use Bluetooth and Internal mic so these issues are not important for me.

[Azultra]

I would totally recommend it.

How is the temperature when you compile

Temperature rised from 46°C to 69°C:

or when you play (if you try that) ?

Like i said, the main usage is for Internet, watching video (Films, Series or Youtube). And for gaming, only for the games that i explained if my first post.
I can have the laptop for 1399€.

I haven't checked the temperature, however one thing to be aware of is that the fan is powerful and although silent while not gaming (even during compilations), its gets noisy in demanding games, but that's how high-end gaming laptops are. On not too demanding games I don't know. I have Stellaris too, so give me time to download it and I'll check the temperature as well.

[berillions]

I saw that you're French so i sent you a Private Message ;-)

[Azultra]

So.. you might wonder when I wandered off. I couldn't actually test Stellaris in the right conditions, and I didn't want to jump to conclusions too fast and give Asus and this laptop a bad rep. Because unfortunately, right after I posted my previous message, I booted Windows and played Subnautica for like an hour, and then fans went up to 100%, and have been stuck to 100% since then, making my laptop sound and vibrate like a vacuum cleaner all the time, even in the BIOS settings, despite every temperature being less than 35°C.

I have tried a lot of things (flashing an older BIOS, resetting the Embedded Controller, wrote through ACPI calls into the EC scratch RAM locations that manage the fans i.e 0x521 and 0x522 but the values get overwritten less than 100ms later by something), everything was in vain. I'm still waiting on Asus to either provide me a software fix if that is possible, or RMA my laptop. I'm not the first owner hit by this issue: https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...and-in-Windows

So this is pretty unfortunate to have this powerful AMD laptop sabotaged by such a stupid issue. Did I lose the lottery and stumbled upon a rare defective component issue, or is there a motherboard design flaw, e.g a component that gets damaged by overheating and then trigger continuously a SMI that force the EC to run the fans at 100%?
Until I get more information from Asus, I sadly can't praise the GL702ZC anymore.