Silentmaxx in Rheinbach has been developing and producing PC components for over 15 years and – as the company name suggests – has specialised in particularly low-noise, passively cooled power supply units and CPU coolers. Silentmaxx also offers a wide range of silent, passively cooled workstations, including Xeon workstations with 44 cores and Nvidia Quadro cards. The workstation we tested is based on the Kenko S-595i, which is completely passively cooled in its basic version and does not require a fan.

The silent Max was delivered for testing “true rock ‘n’ roll” style in a flight case with butterfly fasteners and ball corners, extremely well padded and packaged. This is not the normal packaging, but is only used for test devices. The graphics card was attached to a housing plate with a cable tie for transport, the large heatpipe heatsink was not specially secured.

Case

The Silentmaxx Big Tower case, like the CPU and graphics card cooler, is a product that was developed and manufactured in-house. Unlike most other tower cases, the Silentmaxx case is made of plastic, which is lighter and probably cheaper, but unfortunately does not convey the same feeling of quality and stability as aluminium, for example. There are two USB 3.0 and two USB 2 ports on the front top, along with a power and reset button. Practical if you need to quickly import data from a mobile hard drive.

The question of whether a MIDI tower wouldn’t have done as well is answered automatically after opening the housing. No, because the entire space between the first PCIe slot, where the graphics card is located, to the top of the case is filled by a huge passive CPU cooler with ten heatpipes. The passively cooled graphics card, also equipped with heatpipes and a large heat sink, sits directly underneath. Actually passively, because directly one slot below the graphics card is a plastic tray with two large, slowly rotating fans that gently fan the graphics card’s heat sinks – but unfortunately cover a PCIe x-16 slot in the process. A narrow fan is also hidden between the two blocks of the CPU heatsinks, attached to the upper cooler via a metal clip.

There are three free 5¼ slots behind the case door, one of which is already occupied by a DVD multi 22x drive, with eight completely free HDD cages/slots underneath in the case.

Equipment

Silentmaxx has equipped the workstation with an Intel i9-9900K CPU with 8 cores and 32 Gbytes of RAM memory. Unlike the i7-9700K CPU, the Intel i9-9900K installed in the Silentmaxx has hyperthreading in addition to the 8 cores, which is certainly not a disadvantage for HD video, 3D and audio applications. The GeForce RTX 2070 with 8 Gbyte is not the most powerful graphics card, but it is one that offers a good price-performance ratio. In addition, the 175 watts of power consumption of the 2070 are probably easier to cool passively than the 260 watts of the 2080 Ti.

Silentmaxx has installed an M.2 SSD module with a Tbyte capacity for mass storage and, as already mentioned, there is even a DVD-R multi drive in the 5¼ slot. In terms of interfaces, the silent Max offers everything you could possibly need for everyday use: two Gigabit LAN ports, four USB 3.0 ports, two USB 3.1 ports and two USB 2.0 ports, two Thunderbolt 2.1 ports and one USB C port, three Displayports plus one Mini Displayport and HDMI on the RTX 2070.

How quiet is “Silent”?

Is the workstation really silent when computing? Not quite, because on the one hand you could hear the fan working quietly between the two CPU heat sinks. On the other hand, the fan began to rattle audibly once the heat sinks had warmed up a little. Although the problem could be quickly resolved by moving the fan, it revealed a problem with the fastening and mechanical decoupling of the fan. The graphics card, on the other hand, cooled effectively, quietly and smoothly at around 72°C under full load.

Performance

With a Cinebench 20 CPU score of 4,913 and 2,042 points in Cinebench 15, the Silentmaxx workstation took second place directly behind the significantly more expensive Xi-Machines Animate X2. The CPU was also only 3 seconds behind the Animate X2 in the V-Ray render test with 1 minute and 3 seconds. The Nvidia RTX 2070 achieved the top value of 168 frames per second in the OpenGL benchmark of Cinebench 15 and needed 1 minute and 7 seconds for the V-Ray scene.

The results of the Blender Classroom tests were interesting. In the CPU test with version 2.7, the i9-9900K of the Silentmaxx workstation was only 14 seconds slower than the Xeon CPU of the Xi-Machine at 12 minutes and 2 seconds. If the same scene was rendered with Blender 2.8, the i9-9900K was even 22 seconds faster than the Xeon W 2155 at just 8 minutes and 27 seconds. At 3 minutes and 14 seconds, the Nvidia RTX 2070 required a good 1 minute and 2 seconds more computing time than the 2080 Ti.

The one Tbyte SSD delivered the expected transfer speeds of 3,001 Mbytes per second read rate and 2,970 Mbytes per second write rate in the Aja system test. The test with HD-Tune determined a continuous transfer rate of 2,248 Mbytes per second. With these transfer speeds and capacities, many tasks from HD video and 3D to large audio projects can be realised. We measured a maximum DPC latency of 304 microseconds, which, together with the good benchmark results, indicates that Windows 10 Pro is running smoothly with the latest drivers and without disruptive utilities.

Conclusion

Admittedly, the case of the Silentmaxx workstation is not as stylish as that of the Xi-Machines Animate X2, and it is not much quieter under full load. On the other hand, it only costs about a third of the price, but still plays in the same league in terms of CPU performance. After all, the Silentmaxx Worksation was the second fastest computer in the test field, but at 3,110 euros it was the second cheapest. If you can do without the stylish casing and additional security provided by Enterprise Edition components, the Silentmaxx is a powerful, well-configured workstation that offers excellent value for money.

The post Silentmaxx workstation based on Kenko S-595i in test first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Björn Eichelbaum.

As is usual for Xi-Machines, the Animate X2 Advanced was delivered extremely well protected against transport damage. The actual packaging of the workstation is very securely padded in another large cardboard box with a huge number of small polystyrene elements. However, unpacking and collecting the numerous polystyrene elements, especially with a statically charged fleece jumper, elicited a curse or two from the author. Alternatively, you could also use bubble wrap, which is easier to unpack and repack.

Even when unpacking, the numerous labels on each side of the packaging were noticeable, indicating further transport protection for the CPU and graphics card inside the workstation case.

Case

The case is the midi tower version of the standard workstation case from Xi-Machines made from elegant-looking, black brushed aluminium with chrome-plated feet. Two USB 3.0 ports as well as a headphone and microphone socket are hidden under a small hinged lid on the top, with the power switch and reset button right next to it. There are two empty 5¼-inch slots on the front of the housing in case an optical drive or multi-card slot reader needs to be retrofitted.

After removing the transport lock for the CPU and graphics card, the inside of the case looks very tidy: one usable PCIe x4 and PCIe x16 slot each are still free, and three hot-swap bays are still available in the neighbouring HDD cage. As you would expect from Xi-Machines, the cable management is flawless, with only one really visible cable running from the powerful and quiet power supply unit to the graphics card.

Features

Xi-Machines has equipped the Animate X2 with an Intel Xeon W-2155 CPU with ten cores and 64 Gbytes of registered ECC RAM system memory. The RAM memory is divided into four 16 Gbyte modules. This leaves four RAM slots free. In total, the memory can be expanded to a maximum of 512 Gbytes.

When it comes to mass storage, Xi-Machines has opted for so-called Enterprise Edition drives. Enterprise Edition is not a special edition for Star Trek fans, but means that these mass storage devices have a significantly higher operational reliability and service life than the normally available consumer/desktop models. The Meantime Between Failure (MTBF) is significantly higher for the Enterprise Edition models, and so is the price.

Three different mass storage devices were installed: a 480 Gbyte SSD for the operating system, a 480 Gbyte M.2 SSD as a scratch disc and a 3.2 Tbyte (!) PCIe SSD module with crazy transfer rates for project data. The graphics card is the Ti version of the current Geforce RTX 2080 with 11 Gbytes of RAM. In addition, the Animate X2 Advanced offers almost all currently relevant interfaces at the rear of the housing.
The scope of delivery also includes a mouse and a keyboard of acceptable quality, extra cables for the power supply unit, a small box with screws and an anti-static wrist strap with a clamp for earthing.

Performance

In the Cinebench 20 CPU test, the Animate X2 Advanced came out on top of the test field with 5,258 points, as expected. In the older Cinebench 15 test, it was also at the top with 2,200 points and the Geforce RTX 2080Ti achieved 159 points in the OpenGL test. In the V-Ray render test for CPU and GPU, the good results of the Cinebench tests were confirmed with a computing time of just 1 minute and 1 second for the CPU test and just 46 seconds for the GPU test.

When rendering the classroom scene in Blender, the Geforce RTX was able to show what it can do. The ten CPU cores of the Xeon W-2155 calculated a brisk 8 minutes and 49 seconds, while the Geforce RTX 2080 Ti took just a quarter of the time at 2 minutes and 12 seconds. The unofficial Octane-Bench beta test also showed what the RTX cards have over their predecessors: 302 points without RTX and a whopping 895 with.

Xi-Machines has gone all out when it comes to mass storage: the 3.2 Tbyte PCIe SSD Enterprise Edition module achieved write rates of 2,035 Mbytes and read rates of 4,407 Mbytes per second in the Aja system test and delivered a sustained transfer rate of 4,400 Mbytes per second. However, with limitations, not with the mass storage, but with the benchmarks. According to Xi-Machines, the SSD is capable of reading data at up to 6,170 Mbytes per second – unfortunately, we were unable to measure this. The 500 Gbyte capacity SSD intended as a scratch disc also achieved similarly high write rates of 2,012 Mbytes per second as the large PCIe SSD, but with read rates of 2,729 Mbytes per second it did not come close to their values. The smaller system SSD wrote data at 362 and read it out again at 513 Mbytes per second – completely sufficient for the operating system. With a maximum DPC latency of 442 microseconds, the Animate X2 Advanced was in the midfield of the test candidates. This is fine for the traditional application area of 3D, rendering and HD video. In addition, Windows 10 Pro is configured in such a way that users can get started straight away without having to activate Windows, update drivers or prevent questionable optimisation tools from working.

The cooling concept of the Animate X2 Advanced works well, because even under simultaneous synthetic full utilisation of all components with the Aida 64 stress test, the temperature values of the CPU, the mainboard and the mass storage remained within the normal range.

Only the Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080 Ti reached a slightly higher value of 81°C, although this is unlikely to be reached under realistic load scenarios in practice. And under all the load and stress, hardly a murmur could be heard from the Animate X2 Advanced, only the graphics card stood out a little when the fans started up, but everything was absolutely bearable.

Conclusion

At 9,875 euros, the Xi-Machines Animate X2 Advanced is certainly no bargain, but calling it expensive is not justified either. Of course, in comparison with the other test candidates, none of which offer selected and tested Enterprise Edition devices of 3.2 Tbyte size and a 5-year warranty, the price seems quite high.

However, if you consider the costs incurred and the loss of image for the customer if a workstation fails unexpectedly in the middle of a large project, then the price is put into perspective and the attribute expensive can very quickly turn into inexpensive.

The Xi-Machines Animate X2 Advanced is unquestionably fast in all areas, offers excellent hardware components and processing and extensive options for increasing the capacities of mass storage and RAM memory. In terms of operational safety and reliability: If I had to buy a computer for a nuclear power plant, I would probably order it from Xi-Machines.

The post Xi-Machines Animate X2 Advanced im Test first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Björn Eichelbaum.

Nuendo 10 is in fact the tenth version of the audio post-production software. The offset to the Cubase version numbers is due to the fact that Cubase has always had a .0 and a paid .5 release, but Nuendo only appeared once as a .5 version with version 6.5. Apparently, user feedback was responsible for the fact that the .5 versions of Nuendo were abolished and it now appears with the correct version number.

Doppler effect

The new effects Doppler Effect, Voice Designer, Distroyer and the revised Channel Strip are ideal for use in a post-production context. The Doppler effect simulates the shifting of the pitch of audio objects that move towards or away from the listener. We are all familiar with this effect from everyday life, for example when an ambulance drives past you quickly.

Nuendo’s Doppler effect plug-in offers an automatic and a manual mode, which quickly and clearly achieve acoustically convincing results with a manageable number of parameters. In manual and automatic mode, the parameters L-R Distance, Pitch, Transition and Depth are available. In manual mode, the progression of the effect is simply controlled by hand via a fader running from left to right directly to the current image. In automatic mode, the start, transition and end points of the Doppler effect are defined and the rest is done automatically. Convincing results are quickly achieved with both modes, which can be adjusted using two additional panorama sliders in the stereo image.

Voice Designer

Steinberg has added the Voice Designer to Nuendo 10 for distorting voices and other audio signals. The design of the user interface and the adjustment of the parameter values for the pitch shifter, format shift, morph generator, frequency modulation, robot module and delay effects is, in my opinion, very well done. The Voice Designer enables even absolute amateurs to manipulate voices or other audio signals in a targeted manner in the area of electronic and organic sounds with just a few simple steps. You can get an impression of what this sounds like in the accompanying video on our YouTube channel.

Channel Strip

Nuendo’s Channel Strip has been redesigned in terms of appearance and functionality. It is now possible to change the signal flow of the Gate, Compressor, EQ, De-Esser / Envelope Shaper, Saturation and Limiter modules simply by dragging and dropping. In addition, the metering displays have been integrated into the Channel Strip views so that all important information is visible at a glance.

Functions

Among the more than 40 new features, there are also some interesting functions that will make life easier, especially for larger post-production projects, and will cost the odd intern their job. For example, the Loudness Normalize function, with which all audio files in a selection can be normalised not only to a specific level, but also to a specific loudness in accordance with EBU R 128. This function is particularly useful for level adjustments in larger projects with many audio objects.

Video Cut Detection

The same applies to Video Cut Detection, which analyses a video file, detects image cuts and automatically sets edit or cut markers based on the default settings, which can then be displayed on a separate marker track. This is an interesting function not only for classic post-production tasks such as Foley, sound design and mixing, but also for composers of film music, as the distances between the individual markers on the marker track make it easier to determine tempos and time signatures that match the editing rhythm of the video.

Audio Alignment

With the Audio Alignment Panel, Steinberg has integrated a tool in Nuendo 10 for automatically adjusting the timing of an audio file to a reference file, which works in a similar way to the VocAlign plug-in or Revoice Pro from third-party provider Synchro Arts.

Whether it’s a matter of aligning a synchronised voice take to the original, bringing several choir voices into time or matching drum takes to each other, with the Audio Alignment Panel this works automatically, quickly and reliably in the vast majority of cases.

Field Recorder Import

The new Field Recorder Audio Import function also alleviates one of the most tedious and time-consuming tasks in the audio sector, namely searching for and assigning field recorder audio files to specific events within a project. This is because you often have to search for a better recording of the scene among tens of files and hundreds of poorly documented takes – by hand, in winter, alone and in the darkness of the Edit Suite. With the special user interface of Field Recorder Audio Import, this is now largely automatic, clear and fast. Thank you very much!

DearVR

Some things you just have to see. For the interested sound engineer, this includes a presentation of the DearVR workflow with Nuendo or the DAW Reaper. This is because the DearVR support included in Nuendo 10 enables the creation and mixing of 3D audio content directly in the VR environment of DearVR Spatial Connect.

This means that Nuendo’s transport control, mixing console and editing functions are available directly in the virtual environment of the VR animation or game and can be operated directly and without delay via the two hand controllers of the VR headset.

Operation via the headset’s hand controllers appears to be intuitive and sufficiently precise to enable accurate adjustment of faders and pan positions. You will find out more about this later this year when we have tested the DearVR support in Nuendo 10.

Workflow & More

In addition to the new effects and functions, Steinberg has made numerous improvements to the workflow. For example, the colouring of tracks and objects has been simplified, the display options in windows such as export and automation have been expanded and the user interface has been improved on high-resolution displays.

The new options for direct offline processing should be of particular interest to sound designers. It is now possible to convert the insert effect chain of a channel into a Direct Offline Processing preset with just one click. In addition, direct offline effects can be calculated simply by selecting audio files and no longer require CPU power.

For mixes with Dolby Atmos, Nuendo version 10 is now able to import ADM (Audio Definition Model) BWF files. These wave files contain the metadata for object-based automation. This means that Dolby Atmos mixes can be imported and the automation can be further processed in Nuendo 10.

The larger the project, the greater the risk of getting lost in the mix. With the Mix Console’s snapshots, up to ten snapshots of the mixer status can be saved regardless of the save status of the project file. The user can decide for himself which parameters and channels are included in the snapshots. This function is a kind of partial insurance for less experienced mixers and a great way for experienced mixers to compare different options quickly and easily.

Other new features include the display of the latencies occurring in the respective channel, improvements when creating side-chain inputs, the select-spacer-between-selected-events function and many other small life-savers.

Musical

Nuendo 10 has the same musical capabilities as its sister program, MIDI sequencer veteran and quasi-standard Cubase 10, allowing for an extremely effective and musical way of editing audio with Vari Audio 3, similar to MIDI notes, and coming close to the capabilities of the highly specialised third-party software Melodyne from Celemony. Explaining the musical capabilities of Cubase is beyond the scope of this article. To put it briefly, Cubase / Nuendo can do everything you could possibly need in current music production, and a whole lot more. In addition, there are sound generators of the finest quality, sound libraries and masses of VST sound presets.

To be continued

Steinberg has already announced further new functions and options for the upcoming updates, such as the integration of the ARA plug-in interface, which should particularly benefit users in the music sector. Unlike the usual dumb plug-in interfaces, ARA knows how many bars the project has and where the current playback position is in the project. Especially with plug-ins such as Melodyne, the ARA integration really makes work easier, as all copy-and-paste and move actions can now be carried out directly on the audio files in the Arrange window rather than in the plug-in.

Also announced for a later update is Video Rendering for exporting video content or a complete audio/video project directly from Nuendo 10, as well as the Cue Sheet Export function, which creates a report of all music elements or clips of a speaker that appear in the project.

Conclusion

Nuendo 10 is currently the benchmark in audio post-production for film/TV, game audio and VR audio. No other DAW currently offers such a range of functions at this price, which is favourable considering the integrated possibilities. You can’t even rent Pro Tools at a comparable level for a year. The possibilities of DearVR integration look impressive, but how well they work in practice remains to be seen.

Small improvements and new functions in the Nuendo workflow may not sound particularly spectacular, but they are much more noticeable in day-to-day work than the new super plug-in that you use once a month, as they save the user an enormous amount of time in some cases. The powerful software tools and functions that have to be purchased separately from competing products at a high price, such as an ADR taker system, audio alignment, VR audio / Ambisonics integration, Doppler effect, Voice Designer or the musical capabilities of the industry standard Cubase, are already integrated in Nuendo 10.

The post Audio post-production software: Nuendo 10 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Björn Eichelbaum.

The idea of using a gaming notebook as a workstation is actually obvious due to the similar hardware requirements. This is because the demands on the CPU, GPU, RAM and mass storage are high in gaming as well as in the areas of 3D, HD video and media content creation. If you take a look at the hardware equipment of the Alienware m15, you would be forgiven for believing it could be used as a workstation. The notebook was delivered in a sturdy shipping box, which keeps the device well padded on the inside.

Case

The housing of the m15 appears stable and accurately finished. All plastic parts are clean and flush, the display hinges are secure and run smoothly and evenly. The 15.6-inch UHD display with 4K resolution delivers good, high-contrast images even at less than ideal viewing angles and has enough brightness reserves to work outdoors on a summer’s day.
We were positively impressed by the keyboard, which, in addition to good keys and a generous surface area, even offers a full alpha-num pad, which makes it much easier to operate 3D, audio and video programmes. The track pad with two mouse buttons can also be controlled safely and precisely.

On the left side of the Alienware m15 is a USBA 3.1 port and the Gigabit LAN socket, with two more USBA 3.1 ports on the right. On the rear, Dell has accommodated the HDMI 2.0, a mini display port, Thunderbolt 3 and the Alienware Graphics Amplifier port.

Equipment

When selecting the CPU and graphics card for the Alienware m15, the maxim “a lot helps a lot” obviously applied. Dell has packed an Intel i9-8950HK CPU with six cores and the Nvidia Geforce GTX 2080 Max Q, one of the currently most powerful mobile graphics cards with 8 Gbytes of RAM, into the m15 and additionally garnished it with 32 Gbytes of RAM memory. This should be sufficient for most workstation tasks such as HD video editing or 3D modelling. However, the capacity of the internal NVME SSD could be a little tight, as only 256 Gbyte for programmes, one or two libraries and project data will quickly become cramped. However, it is then possible to connect a lot of fast mass storage via one of the available high-speed interfaces.

Performance

With the Intel Core i9-8950HK processor, the Alienware m15 achieved an impressive 2,546 points in the Cinebench 20 CPU benchmark, 1,221 points in the older Cinebench 15 and 117 frames per second in its OpenGL test for the Nvidia Geforce 2080 Max Q. The Alienware m15 also performed well in the V-Ray benchmark for CPU and GPU:
1 minute and 52 seconds of computing time for the CPU test and 1 minute and 43 seconds for the GPU test.
In the Blender 2.7 render test of the classroom scene, the i9 8950 HK needed 23 minutes and 44 seconds. With version 2.8, the same scene calculated on the CPU then only took 18 minutes and 6 seconds and just 4 minutes and 37 seconds on the GPU of the Geforce RTX. The unofficial Octane-Bench beta render test resulted in 151 points without and a whopping 445 points with RTX support.
With the default preset “4K Full”, the 256 Gbyte NVME SSD achieved 650 Mbytes per second when writing and 2,409 Mbytes per second when reading data with a continuous transfer rate of at least 1,182 Mbytes per second in the Aja system test. This is a little low for writing, but the Alienware m15 will probably not be used for 8K capturing.

The Dell Alienware m15 achieved the second-highest DPC latency value of 734 microseconds, traditionally caused by a Dell driver. This is a pity, because apart from this singular peak value, the latencies were in significantly lower ranges, which makes the Alienware m15 appear worse in this area than it actually is.
An Intel i9-8950HK CPU and an RTX 2080 are very fast, but they also have to be cooled somehow, which is always a bit difficult in notebooks due to the limited space available. If you then consider that the case is quite flat for the hardware power it contains, a thermal disaster seems inevitable. Even when idling, the Alienware’s fans repeatedly started up audibly. At around 20 to 30% load, the fans then ran continuously in the lower speed range.
During the test runs with the benchmarks, the fans then started up audibly to loudly and the underside of the case became noticeably warm after a few minutes. Under synthetic load with the Aida 64 stress test, in which the CPU, GPU, memory and all mass storage devices ran simultaneously at full capacity, the temperature of the CPU initially rose to 100°C and that of the GPU to 92°C. This led to the CPU clock frequency being reduced by 10 to 20% to protect the CPU from overheating. Normally, a notebook does not recover from such a heavy thermal load and continues to run at a slower pace under load. Not so the Alienware m15, which heroically picked itself up after about two to three minutes of thermal throttling of the CPU with audible fan noise and from then on continued to calculate unchecked with CPU temperatures of 92°C and GPU temperatures of around 80°C – permanently and without fluctuations. Although this is close to the limit, it is okay considering the form factor and performance. A warning for all male readers who have the idea of using the Alienware m15 under full load as a classic laptop on their lap: This could lead to thermal sterilisation in the long run.

Conclusion

The idea of misusing the Alienware m15, which was actually designed for gaming, as a workstation is not so far-fetched. There are a few points that will irritate professional workstation users, such as the many pre-installed software helpers and assistants that interrupt your work at the most inopportune moments and have to be deactivated manually. Or the relatively high fan noise under partial and full load, the low SSD storage space and the brief thermal throttling. In return, the user gets a computer with a huge variety of configuration options, a good display and casing and more than enough CPU and GPU performance to be able to work decently on the move without having to spend a fortune. And you can also use it for gaming.

The post Notebook Alienware m15 tested first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Björn Eichelbaum.

As you would almost expect from a gaming laptop, the Razer Blade was delivered in stylishly designed packaging, secure and shockproof. The bright green logo on the display lid is certainly not to everyone’s taste, but if young people like it …

Case

As soon as we unpacked it, we noticed the pleasantly high-quality feel of the black housing, which is largely milled from a single piece of aluminium. One disadvantage of the beautiful black surface is the fact that you can see almost every fingerprint and therefore constantly endeavour to avoid them.

Incidentally, the test device is the professional model, which houses an Nvidia Geforce RTX 2070 and is slightly flatter than the normal model. All sockets, such as the USB or HDMI connections, appear firmly locked and of high quality. The power cable from the power supply unit to the notebook is angled and secured so well that it seems impossible to remove it unintentionally. This is not always an advantage, as notebook power supply cables lying loose in the area can be easily tripped over, the cable gets stuck and pulls the notebook down with it. Two plastic strips run from left to right on the underside of the case, which ensure an undisturbed flow of cooling air to the intake slots of the fans when the notebook is placed on a smooth surface.

Features

The first thing that catches the eye is the display with its narrow bezel and vibrant colours. For the fact that it is “only” equipped with a 1920 x 1080 resolution, but with a 144 Hz refresh rate, the resolution appears finer than it actually is. If that’s not enough, the Razer Blade can also be ordered with an optional 4K OLED touchscreen display. The viewing angles are wide from the sides, top and bottom and also allow several people to gather in front of the display, for example to watch a presentation or a video. If the display needs to be expanded with additional external monitors for a presentation, there are three simultaneously usable options with one HDMI 2.0, one Thunderbolt 3 and one mini DisplayPort.

As is usual with gaming notebooks, the keyboard is equipped with RGB backlighting, which offers various, extremely colourful lighting modes – don’t worry, the keyboard can also be illuminated in plain white. Nice detail: The FN shortcuts are now also RGB-illuminated. Unfortunately, the keyboard lacks an alpha-num pad, which is often used for transport control in video or for switching 3D views in Blender, etc.

With its six cores, the Intel i7-8750H CPU together with the 16 GB RAM should provide sufficient performance and memory for content creation. With the Nvidia Geforce RTX 2070 8 Gbyte Max-Q, the Razer Blade is definitely up to date in terms of graphics cards and should also cut a fine figure in GPU-supported rendering. The capacity of the M.2 SSD with 256 GB is probably sufficient for gaming, but for HD video you will need to expand with external mass storage, which is easily possible via the Thunderbolt or USB interface. The quality of the integrated speakers is good and they are loud enough to produce an appropriate sound backdrop within the radius of the display.

Performance

In the Cinebench 20 multi-core CPU test, the Intel i7-8750H installed in the Razer achieved 1,918 points, compared to 923 points in the old Cinebench. Although this is the lowest CPU score in the test field, it is still possible to work quickly with this performance in most applications. The graphics card is more responsible for the large renderings, which calculates a good four times faster than the CPU in Blender 2.8, for example. The RTX 2070 needed just 5 minutes and 3 seconds for the classroom scene in Blender 2.8, whereas the i7 CPU needed 22 minutes and 26 seconds.

In the V-Ray render test, the i7-8750H calculated for 2 minutes and 47 seconds, while the Nvidia RTX 2070 Max-Q needed 1 minute and 37 seconds and output 15,111 frames per second in the Cinebench 15 OpenGL test.

With a write rate of 1,424 and a read rate of 2,417 in the Aja system test, the M.2 SSD delivered the expected transfer rates, and in the continuous transfer rate under HD Tune it was able to impress with 1,584 Mbytes per second.

The DPC latency left a less favourable impression. At 928 microseconds, it was the highest of all test computers, but still just within the tolerable range. However, with a little fiddling with the Windows services and installed additional programmes, it should be possible to reduce this value.

Even under full utilisation of all components in the synthetic stress test of Aida 64, all components remained within the safe temperature window and there was no thermal throttling at any time, so that the CPU and GPU were able to fully develop their performance at all times. The relatively low noise level emitted by the Razer’s fans was surprising in all benchmark runs. Although the Razer is audible under full load, the fan noise is in a frequency range that is perceived as less annoying.

Conclusion

Although the competition offers higher peak values in individual areas, the Razer Blade 15 impresses with its sensible hardware equipment, which can be cooled well and reasonably quietly in the compact case, even under everyday conditions. For workstation users, the Razer is also suitable for somewhat more demanding rendering or editing tasks thanks to the display connection options and GPU power.

The look and the RGB keyboard are certainly a matter of taste and disqualify the Razer for the gentlemen from the executive floor. For content creators, on the other hand, I can well imagine the Razer as a mobile addition, because after work a little gaming is supposed to relieve stress and inspire immensely. For the price of just under €2,500, the Razer Blade is a well-balanced, powerful notebook that doesn’t exceed its thermal limits and is also up to date in terms of rendering power thanks to the Nvidia Geforce RTX 2070.

The post Notebook Razer Blade 15 in test first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Björn Eichelbaum.