PowerSpec 1720 Laptop Review: Holy Grail for gaming and video editing?

Review of the PowerSpec 1720 laptop by Micro Center. Is this laptop the Holy Grail for gamers, video and photo editors looking for a laptop with top performance at a price that doesn't kill their bank account? Watch to find out!
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[@Texas240]

I have the 15.6" 1520 model and while the performance is real, I've come to HATE the numpad keyboard. I downsized from a 17" Asus G751 (bsod'd on me after 3 years). My purchase was spur of the moment replacement. I've not felt the reduced size in the screen at all. However, they keyboard squeezing in the numpad along with the Clevo chasis not dropping the arrow keypad down and away from the shift key means I'm ALWAYS grabbing the up arrow key when I try to capitalize something with right shift. Even after having it for 6 months or more, I've still not re-learned how to do a short reach for the shift key. I'm very impressed with the VALUE of these Micro Center offerings! The 15.6" model has the auo80ed panel, which I think is not as good and has fairly noticeable backlighting bleed through issues. If I watch a movie or game that has a dark screen it looks as though I had a light behind me splashing on the screen. If you've started something and had to get up and turn off a light behind you to get a dark screen, you know what I'm talking about. Except since it's caused by the screen backlighting the only solution is to deal with it and avoid dark screens. My only other complaint that I've found is a design issue with the cord. The cord plugs into the back but has a 90 degree bend. that means that the cord blocks the left, rear fan vent. The fans (one each side for cpu and gpu) blow out the back and the sides. So, the exhaust is only about 50% blocked. Still, a straight cord could eliminate the blockage. My 1520 had the NVMe 500gb ssd and the 2nd NVMe slot free. So, I didn't look for how they had the wifi setup. The "2.5" drive slot seemed to be thinner than the 2.5 ssd I had in my previous laptop. I figured I'd just use two 1tb NVMe when I get around to expanding, so I didn't look into that. The 1520 runs hot, right up to the 96c thermal throttle setting. I came across "undervolting" and de-tuned the core clock multipliers (down to 3.6GHz from the 3.9 stock boost). I set the boost power to 71 and 41 watts (short term and normal) and a -0.100V core voltage modifier. The laptop now runs about 86c although doing cinebench time spy it did tag 96c for about a minute although it didn't thermal throttle itself. One other minor gripe is that the center of the keypad has noticeable flex, but I only notice it if I'm looking down at the keys. It's not given me problems while typing or gaming. PowerSpec and MicroCenter might not be super well known and not everyone can access a store for their "store only" deals, but they are my go-to place for pc stuff these days. I took a chance on this laptop because of the great value and haven't been disappointed. The nearest competing "name brand" laptops were 300-500$ more for slightly less features. Those didn't have the 144hz panel with Gsync. Great Review and thanks for bringing light to this super value from Micro Center. I just randomly came across the review and figured I'd add my $0.02 worth on the smaller 15.6" 1520, in case anyone found this review while considering that machine.

[@NerdSidekick]

Thanks for adding your mini-review. No computer is perfect, but the PowerSpec line is pretty good. And MicroCenter has great prices. I recently built a desktop computer and their pricing on many parts was better than anything I could find online.

[@quantrannhu3238]

Great P/P, as always with Micro Center and Clevo chassis. But really? I have not finished playing with their Powerspec 1510 from last year. With a little tweak and upgrade, the machine is still running like a champ. Might wait for future generations of Powerspec. Keep up, Microcenter. Keep up, Nerd Sidekick. Love your channel.

[@pbdye1607]

The salesperson was confused. The WiFi card uses an NVMe-*like* slot, but it's 2230 size. To my knowledge, only one off-brand company made a super-small 2230-sized SSD that only had ~256GB of space and no one's made anything like it or larger since.

[@nayyarrashid4661]

You are right. He was confused because all laptops have at least 2 m.2 slots with one being taken up by nvme and the other by network adapter. And 2230 still have the same connectors as 2280

[@lobetec314]

I've been owning this laptop for about 6 months now, and its super solid! Just wish it had more storage...

[@NerdSidekick]

Watch this video where I show how to add an NVMe drive to this computer. It's pretty easy. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mXPddGZ4nN6de5Y

[@MrPison69]

If you buy at microcenter. You can buy storage and they’ll install it for free. I bought the 1520 and added 1TB for $80. 1.5TB total storage

[@bobschuster149]

@@MrPison69 oo

[@michaels8597]

Here's the deal..I own a PowerSpec desktop,and I went with them for a number of reasons..PowerSpec is the MicroCenter store brand,and they sell EVERYTHING related to computers,down to cables,power suppiles,cases,and CPUs.They build POwerSpecs in house,and since they already have all the internals,they can just install whatever midrange or upper level parts,instead of cheap trash.I had just bought an HP and it died,and I believe it was a weak power supply.Instead of getting the HP fixed,i just replaced it with the PowerSpec.As you see,it's got a lot of ports,SoundBlaster audio,good RAM,and is expandable.They dont have to cut corners to save you money,and I know I was confused when i got my desktop.I plugged it in,and didnt hear anything,so I went to check,and lo and behold,it was on,it just was extremely quiet.If something happens,they are soooooooooooooo great with checking and fixing whatever is wrong,in a timely fashion,and in store.Just remember,you do nOT want to fill up the SSD/SATA drives.You ONLY want the necessary programs on the computer,and you can save data to DVD or MDisc.So if i was using the 1620 to edit pics/videos,i would do the edits and then send the files to my servers/NAS.Another option is to get portable drives,like the WDs i have,and get multiple portables,media,and drives,in different machines...Oh eyah,I think i have used at least 10 different brands of computers over the years,and my PowerSpec is easily the best desktop i have used,ever,since the 1990s.Second place goes to my NEC 166MMX,and then my Mac G4s....

[@spdcrzy]

I've had the 1720 for a few months now and it is a quantum leap over the 1510/1710 series. One thing I haven't been able to figure out is whether or not the HDMI port is 2.0 for 4K60 output. But otherwise I added a 16GB stick and 1TB SSD. With a -140mV underclock and a cooling pad, it's completely fine going 24/7.

[@NerdSidekick]

I haven't had the need to push any 4k video out of the HDMI port so I can't address that one, but I'm still enjoying mine. Glad to hear your experience. I think it's a keeper.

[@Aycheffe]

i just bought this laptop, it will arrive in a few days. was the single channel memory noticeable enough to warrent a switch to dual channel? and what EXACTLY ram did you buy that was compatible?

[@spdcrzy]

@@Aycheffe Oh yeah, it was a definite jump in performance. Single-channel, in almost any productivity task that requires heavy data crunching, is a big speed bump. Dual channel is like the bare minimum. I think I got Crucial DDR4-2666 memory, since that's the speed that is spec'd in the laptop itself. I've had no memory issues whatsoever.

[@G-Dimension]

Hi, nice review. Can you tell what kind of the temperatures you get while gaming?

[@NerdSidekick]

I have not been gaming on this laptop, so I don't have any temps to share. Anyone else?

[@Forsakendestinity320]

i got this laptop, i want to install a second 16gig ram stick, can you tell me which one would be compatible

[@gabebeshaw]

How are the quality of the hinges? Does the screen stay in place when you tilt. Do the hinges feel like they will go the distance for say 4-5 years?

[@NerdSidekick]

Hinges are very tight and hold the screen where I want it. I do think the hinges will give good service for many years.

[@beastfocker]

Great detailed review! Thanx mate

[@jullemw2830]

I have this labtob!! it'S so GOODD!!!!!!!! :D

[@jullemw2830]

OMG

[@jullemw2830]

!

[@jullemw2830]

I HAVE IT TOO!!!

[@jullemw2830]

SAME!

[@jullemw2830]

OMG SAMIKSET

[@BarnyTrubble]

For the price of this laptop I'm kind of into it, but some of the decisions that were made in the manufacturing are just honestly bizarre. Why use a single stick of ram when you have 2 slots available? Who was the joker at the store who said one NVME slot was taken up by the CLEARLY VISIBLE wifi card? The battery is unbelievably small. It very clearly is what it is as far as a laptop is concerned, Clevo chassis, built for speed, usability be damned, and priced (currently) at $1400 absolutely blowing other 2070 equipped machines out of the water monetarily speaking. But to get here, holy smokes did Micro Center make so absolutely illogical and bizarre decisions.

[@lobetec314]

its a cheap machine with its insane specs. it had to cut corners

[@6khollywood449]

Great Video! I just bought this laptop almost got an MSI but glad I got this laptop. Thanks for opening the case did not know I can install a 2nd drive and additional SSD! Good stuff!

[@bmw320540750]

What is your impression of this laptop after 1 year do you recommend this laptop, or it's better to pay a little bit more and get another brand?

[@TalonsTech]

Great video. The battery life could and should be extended by using "Optimus" mode via going into the BIOS and selecting Optimus vs using discrete GPU mode.

[@Romanitto]

Cpu get hot by default and you want use intel gpu ? For battery life? How it will perform a good gaming experience? Right now, I have laptop ge75 gtx 1070 and same CPU, but I can't disable intel gpu so when I try run rise of the tomb raider on ultra preset game just crashed, gpu not go more 80°C wich is good but cpu jumping from 85° to 95-97° without undervolting you can't run game like for couple hours.... so it must be a way how to low cpu temperature

[@spdcrzy]

You can't use Optimus with G-Sync at the same time. Simply undervolting the CPU and GPU and running in powersaving mode gets you 3 hours of SOT.

[@VagabondOfNote]

Nice review! Are the fans audible when the laptop is under a light load (KZbin, web browsing etc.)? Any thermal throttling when stress testing? How about keyboard surface temperatures?

[@NerdSidekick]

Fans are not audible when just web browsing or watching KZbin. They will kick in when rendering video or, I assume, playing video games. I have not used it long enough to see any thermal throttling. Keyboard hasn't been hot for me.

[@yoitsmegabe]

Thanks for this review! Good luck with the channel. subbed

[@NerdSidekick]

Thanks for the sub!

[@RaimusValsondra]

bought this machine 2 weeks ago. runs a little hot. lot faster than my old Samsung though.

[@lacedup6809]

Yeah gotta repaste it or undervolt.

[@bmw320540750]

What is your impression of this laptop after 1 year do you recommend this laptop, or it's better to pay a little bit more and get another brand?

[@pzark3638]

Nice first video. Can you tell me what panel this laptop uses? If you don't know you can check by going to: Device Manager --> Monitors --> right click on Display (underneath "Monitors") --> Properties --> Details --> Hardware Ids If that doesn't work you can also just install a 3rd party program like HWiNFO.

[@NerdSidekick]

Hardware ID is AUO409D. I have to say, the monitor is quite crisp and clear and is a joy to use.

[@pzark3638]

@@NerdSidekick That's what I was hoping you would say. That panel is currently one of the best 17.3" 144Hz screen you can get. I might have to pick one up myself now.... I know you said the fans can get loud while gaming or editing. Could you expand on that? I guess I'm just asking how loud, and is it annoying. Because I though I knew what loud was then I saw some of Asus's acoustics benchmarks. Appreciate the speedy reply.

[@NerdSidekick]

@@pzark3638 It's difficult to quantify the loudness, but it can get pretty "breezy" at times, perhaps comparable to a small handheld fan. It's not too annoying but "noise" is a subjective thing. It usually doesn't last too long, as the system seems to be regulating the temp and cutting the fan speed fairly quickly once the temps are back where they need to be. On occasion, I have found the fan kicking in even when the computer is sitting idle. I haven't ever checked to find out why, but I have simply assumed Windows was installing an update or a virus scan was taking place, or some other self-maintenance was underway. To me, this "unprovoked" fan noise is more annoying than when I'm actively working and the fan kicks in. But the bottom line, for me, the fan noise is most definitely not a deal breaker. I would definitely buy this laptop again.

[@pzark3638]

@@NerdSidekick That's good to hear. I kinda thought it wouldn't be too loud given how thick it is, but you never know. One more question about the display. I know it's the AUO409D panel, but how low can the minimum brightness be set? Other laptops with this panel usually come in around 15 cd/m2. Can you comfortably use it in a pitch black room?

[@NerdSidekick]

I don't have a light meter so I can't test the brightness. It is comfortable for me to use in a dark room, but like fan noise, brightness preferences are subjective. So, best recommendation is to try one out in person.

[@bmw320540750]

What is your impression of this laptop after 1 year do you recommend this laptop, or it's better to pay a little bit more and get another brand?

[@NerdSidekick]

My main computer is a desktop, but I was using this laptop just today and I really do enjoy it. The speed is nice and the monitor is crisp. The one annoyance is the loud fan. It will rev up during some operations, but usually settles down and gets fairly quiet most of the time. Overall, I still recommend this computer.

[@bmw320540750]

@@NerdSidekick Thanks a lot

[@jro669]

I would probably put in another 16 gb stick or get 2 gb sticks for dual channel memory as it should help it perform better.

[@Janzer_]

I think what the sales guy was referring to is that if you look at the powerspec website, for the 1720 specs on the system board, it states there are 3 m.2 slots. So if you only have 2 slots, sounds like they may have removed the 3rd. MicroCenter shows $1499 for me, not 1599, definitely might price check them and get that $100 back!

[@NerdSidekick]

Thanks for the slot info and thanks for the pricing tip!

[@森大木]

nice video

[@susankelley2174]

Great video and very informative :)

[@lacedup6809]

I got mine for 790.

[@NerdSidekick]

Nice!

[@lacedup6809]

@@NerdSidekick what screwdriver did you use to take this apart? Need one when correct length

[@NerdSidekick]

@@lacedup6809 You can see it in this video where I take it apart: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mXPddGZ4nN6de5Y Looks like they don't make it any more, but have this updated model: amzn.to/3j0HQen

[@daveslomer]

"Spur of the moment" applies to me, too. I was looking AT high-end laptops, not looking FOR one, but this 1720 had literally everything that was on my "must-have" list, including the exact CPU and RAM amount and type. When I saw that the "sale price is only good until" the next day (kind of untrue; it's always $1499 I now know), I went home, did more research, came back next day and bought it. I'm not a gamer, but I do a lot of Microsoft Office stuff (including Access and VBA for Word and Excel) and programming in Java (using Netbeans 8.2 and Android Studio 3.5), often having all 5 of the above plus Chrome with many windows plus other ancillary programs, all open at once (let's call it uber-tasking if not stupi-tasking), requiring power and speed, which this sucker provides impressively with rarely any appreciable wait time for anything. Like you, I hate the battery life. Yes, not much over 2 hours of heavy lifting. But when programming, I can resort to Airplane mode and improve life somewhat (never timed it; it'll say "3.5 more hours" but no). I also HATE the touchpad. I can't set the parameters properly to make it work anything like my old Dell, which I was very comfortable with, and maybe developed some bad habits. It had an Alps driver with many more settings than we have with Windows 10 and BIOS. So I use a gaming mouse and leave the touchpad alive if I need it. Overall, though, I'm happy with it. To help me decide if I needed another 16 GB of RAM (usage always increased to 50%), I opened every program I could find (some twice). It took 40 program instances to eat 80% of RAM and keep CPU constantly way over 50%. Infeasible scenario, yes, but it did show that 16 GB isn't enough for everything. So I got extra 16 GB for about $65 at Microcenter and am about ready to shut down and install it. Not worried about voiding warranty.

[@NerdSidekick]

Dave, thanks for your mini-review. I am still happy with my purchase and it sounds like it is working, for the most part, for you.

[@daveslomer]

To follow up some weeks later... First off, I added 16 GB of RAM ($70) and find that nothing except server slowness on the other end can slow it down. So, there's a plus. It's a screamer. However... and to clarify "I ... HATE the touchpad..." in my original post. Even set at lowest sensitivity, I still manage to let a thumb get too close (i.e., not even necessarily touching it [or so it seems]) and find a whole sentence, paragraph, or entire document highlighted and deleted or find myself editing a sentence about six inches from where the cursor had been. Or in File Explorer or Internet Explorer I accidentally follow (single-click) link upon link before I realize that my thumb is a little too close to no-digit's land. "But, Dave--I thought you said you use a 'gaming mouse'?" NOT ANYMORE. It was almost as bad as the touchpad. I returned it without spending much time tweaking it. I should NOT have to use a mouse-this is a LAPTOP. The reference I made to my old Dell laptop concerned a pointing-device driver by "Alps"--not Dell, not Microsoft. It had to be installed and could rather easily be tweaked to near-perfect compatibility, without which software and effort, I'd SUFFER THE SAME ERASED TEXT AND LINK FOLLOWING nonsense mentioned above. Tweaked (through the extensive interface), you'd never know the touchpad was there until you actually touched it. I wonder if whoever supports the PowerSpec line might contact Alps and do the right thing: ask them to remove the touchpad part of my misery with an interface such as used in a 2011 Dell. But the battery is simply a joke. Two hours max, no matter the settings. No gaming, little surfing, no color keypad, no high-end graphics… two hours. Because of the touchpad and battery, today, I would NOT buy this laptop. I cannot enjoy it. Not even the thought of using it. But it's all I have. Bad move. Oh, well. P.S. “Hyper-sensi-touch” has been in rare form while I was composing this, erasing several lines or paragraphs and moving the cursor without clear indication of desire to do so. Is any of this bothering you? Have you ways to cope that you can share? Anyone? Anyone? Buehler?

[@jimmylim5015]

I'm thinking about getting it instead of the Lenovo Y540... How is it performing Currently? No issues?

[@NerdSidekick]

Computer is working very well. No problems.

[@jimmylim5015]

@@NerdSidekick no light bleeding or overheating issues?

[@NerdSidekick]

@@jimmylim5015 None, thus far. The two issues I've had are the short battery life (a little over two hours) and the fans can get loud under load.

[@jimmylim5015]

@@NerdSidekick thanks, those are typical of gaming laptops

[@beliveinurself]

Thanks for posting this. VERY little information on this Clevo yet, which is a shame, as it seems like it might be one the best machines out there. Great performance / thermals / price. Excellent AUO IPS display w/ G-Sync. Decent size (c'mon, 30mm is still thin!) and understated looks. For anyone wanting to delve deeper, this laptop is actually Clevo PB70EF-G. The more common variant is the PB71EF-G (the 71 is a plain black chassis). There are also PB70ED-G / PB71ED-G models (8th Gen CPU w/ RTX 2060), and PB70RF-G / PB71RF-G models (9th Gen CPU w/ RTX 2070). Lots of resellers (Sager, Eurocom, Shenker, Metabox etc) use this Clevo chassis. There's a good thread on this machine here: forum.notebookreview.com/threads/official-clevo-pb7xex-g-owners-lounge.826811/

[@daveslomer]

Agree with little info. The "Snip and Sketch" screen captures in this video are the only inside looks I've seen--and they're great. Lots of written info at microcenter.com but no pics, at least not for this laptop. Very disappointed that one piece of paper was the extent of the "manual" in the box. Found link to 26-page "manual" for 1710. Microsoft Tech Support emailed me a link to "unofficial manual" for 1510 that seemed to be right on the money for 1720, but I wasn't looking for differences. Lots of pics, but nothing about the innards. (Except quite a few "soft warnings" about opening case and voiding warranty.They say "could" and "may" and then say "after you open...". Chat with support says go ahead and open the case but if you break it, warranty's void. I can live with that.)