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PCSpecialist Optimus V X13 Review

We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with almost completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3DMark tests.

We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation. Ambient noise in the room measures close to the limits of our sound meter at 28dBa.

Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

KitGuru noise guide

10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum
noise
Generally the laptop is quiet – such as when working in Office, surfing the internet or using Adobe Photoshop.

When tasked with gaming at 100%, the cooler has to work much harder.
cooling system
Remember both Core i7 processor and Nvidia graphics are cooled by the same dual heatpipe system, with single fan. Noise quickly ramps up when gaming, hitting almost 40dBa. This is quite loud and certainly noticeable when using the laptop.

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4 comments

  1. well, had a look at it, and it seems that price is a load of crap.. thats the price for the base unit with the dual core pentium CPU, nnd the basic ram/HDD setup. -_- was about to put in an order.

  2. Click the reviews tag at the top of the pcspecialist page and you will find this exact spec for £749. I’ve used this company several times and have always been very happy with the service and the product. Hope this helps

  3. Backwards tech guy

    I’ve had this laptop (but a higher end config) since 2014 now. The chassis is garbage. PC specialist have been nice enough to change it for me twice now but, basically, you get a lot of cracks from the very sharp corners around the screen and keyboard as they are stress concentrators. The internal hardware is real good, however and PC Specialists have been quite good with customer care.

  4. I’ve also got this laptop. Yep I had the chassis changed too, funnily enough I also bought in 2014. I am having continuing problems with overheating, have swapped the thermal paste no end of times, think the heat pipes might be busted or something.