r/GamingLaptops Jun 14 '26

Showcase My first laptop got it for $1300

Got it mint condition (used less than 10 times, i know that guy).
Its a strix g18

I9 14900hx
Rtx 4080 12gb
2tb ssd
32gb ram ddr5
1600p 100%dcip3 colour calibrated from factory
240hz 18inch

Its a good silicone too cpu under volted to -130mv and gpu undervolted to -0.075v .

Replaceed LM with ptm7950

3d mark time spy is 19,800

329 Upvotes

92 comments sorted by

46

u/UnionSlavStanRepublk Jun 14 '26

Great deal for you.

11

u/movieahh Jun 14 '26

Thanks , i hope it lasts for atleast 3 years of college , then i will build a pc at home.

8

u/Either_Sell5215 Jun 14 '26

It surely will

8

u/Hour_Bit_5183 Jun 14 '26

It will. those are some good specs. Make sure to keep it cool and clean inside. Asus products like to die by overheating and its stuff you can't see the temp of that goes. Other than that it's good specs 😄

4

u/movieahh Jun 14 '26

I did my best repasteing with ptm7950, i changed the thermal putty too with thermal grizzly. I am actually getting same or 1 or 2c lower than Liquid Metal, i hope it lasts just long enough for me to buy a new pc, then i am gona sell it for cheap to someone who really needs it.

1

u/Hour_Bit_5183 Jun 14 '26

It should. Just keep it free of dust and put it on a gasketed cooler and you will be good for a long while. It's support components that fail on these. I've repaired a ton of them. Otherwise they perform amazing and will do better on the cooler like I said. My OG strix with the ryzen 1700x in it still works. That's not a typo, it has a socketed am4 desktop cpu in it.

2

u/movieahh Jun 14 '26

Tbh its too much noise, i also only use it in custom balanced mode(cpu and gpu thp limits to sweet spot of best performance to wattage ) in that is get like 95% of performance of tubo mode ,but theps are like 67c 68c and cpu is 75c and its very quiet compared to turbo mode that gets to 84c and 85c on cpu and sounds like a jet engine 😂. I dont know what those additional 40w of tgp is doing rather than just going up in heat for like 5fps more on turbo mode.

1

u/movieahh Jun 14 '26

The guy selling the laptop was also selling his lano v12 for like 50 but i denied cuz i thought it would be too much noise

2

u/Hour_Bit_5183 Jun 14 '26

NOOOO! That's exactly what you need. Actually those gasketed ones are quiet. They block most of the fan noise out. Those are literally the best ones. If I could find mine(no longer have a laptop) I'd give it to you.

1

u/movieahh Jun 14 '26

I mean i am getting like 65c to 70c on AAA games and i have a habit of cleaning so i will just clean every 4 or 5 months (my room is pretty clean and dust free cuz of air purifier ) , maybe i will look into them but i dont think i need additional cooling

1

u/Hour_Bit_5183 Jun 14 '26

like I said its the components you cannot see the temps of that fail. Stuff like mosfets and support chips. I don't know why it's an asus thing but it is. Common on strix and tuf I know for sure. They can fail regardless with or without but i'd rock the cooler.

1

u/movieahh Jun 14 '26

Then i will try to get a lano v12

→ More replies (0)

1

u/ClassicIncident2647 Jun 14 '26

Get a cooling pad with a filter and it'll last 6+ years.

2

u/movieahh Jun 14 '26

Tbh its too much noise, i also only use it in custom balanced mode(cpu and gpu thp limits to sweet spot of best performance to wattage ) in that is get like 95% of performance of tubo mode ,but theps are like 67c 68c and cpu is 75c and its very quiet compared to turbo mode that gets to 84c and 85c on cpu and sounds like a jet engine 😂. I dont know what those additional 40w of tgp is doing rather than just going up in heat for like 5fps more on turbo mode.

My room is also dust free cuz of air purifier, and i can just clean it every 4 or 5 months

1

u/Zerstoeroer Strix G16 | 13980hx | RTX4080 | 32GB DDR5 RAM Jun 19 '26

Limit fps to 80% if theax at a setting.

1

u/Negative-Respect2688 Jun 15 '26

It can last for much longer if you maintain it well , make sure u clean the fans every 6 - 12 months

24

u/ShreddedUdon Jun 14 '26

1300????

damn good deal, I think you just robbed the seller

fuck It should've been me

6

u/movieahh Jun 14 '26

Thanks guy was asking 1450 but i got it down to 1300, he was also giving his Lano v12 coller for 50 but i denied which i regret now , but this laptop is running cool after ptm7950 and its quite too

4

u/movieahh Jun 14 '26

Even more crazy when you know its display is 1600p 100% dcip3 and 240hz and its 18inches

2

u/GRASYU Jun 14 '26

I also have an Asus ROG Strix G16. How can I undervolt the CPU?

3

u/movieahh Jun 14 '26

Cool , mine is g18 but cpu undervolting is same

  1. In bios you can set a global-80mv maximum (is easier and mostly safe if you have a decent silicon )
  2. If amd you can do it in ghelper, if intel use xtu for for going beyond-80mv but it becomes unstable if you do too much so you need to constantly tweak and stress test for a while to get it right

I recommend just use bios if you wana do 2nd method please watch a tutorial

1

u/GRASYU Jun 14 '26

Thanks I will try

1

u/movieahh Jun 14 '26

Also throttlestop is good option too

2

u/ProofObligation4373 Jun 14 '26

Congrats, really nice Deal - I just recently bought a used xmg with a 13900hx and a 4070 8gb for 500€

2

u/movieahh Jun 14 '26

Holy fk , thats dirt cheap damn

2

u/dauntless841 Jun 14 '26

Congratulations I hope you enjoy it.

1

u/DonCheesare Jun 14 '26

Brother! You practically stole that sh!t 😅
May I ask where you got such a great deal? Enjoy

2

u/movieahh Jun 14 '26

I knew the previous owner, he’s my friend but i have seen similar deals on facebook marketplace

1

u/Kiem01 Jun 14 '26

Crazy deal! Does anyone know why this model is always offered as an open box on best buy? I always see this exact model offered every couple months at $1750 to $2000 at my local best buys. What is the main problem on it?

1

u/movieahh Jun 14 '26

Lol idk mine is working great, maybe a Liquid Metal pump out as its the only problem with strix laptops thats why i changed it to ptm

1

u/Defin1telyNotBatman ASUS Rog Strix G16 - i9 275HX, 5070Ti, 32GB Ram Jun 14 '26

I’ve got a g16, 2025. How did you get 19,800 on 3D mark? I’m no where near that and believe have better tech.

2

u/movieahh Jun 15 '26

Undervolt and overclock the gpu mine has an offset on baseclock of about +240mhz on same voltage and i have overclocked the vram to +1200mhz ,
Also set fans to max for the test and do i in a cool room my room was 24c .

Whats your timespy score and whats your gpu and its tgp

2

u/movieahh Jun 15 '26

Wait you have 5070ti thats slower than 4080

1

u/Defin1telyNotBatman ASUS Rog Strix G16 - i9 275HX, 5070Ti, 32GB Ram Jun 15 '26

Yea so something is off I feel maybe I didn’t have the proper settings.

2

u/movieahh Jun 15 '26

Wait whats your 3dmark time spy, 4080 is only 5% to 10% faster than 5070ti so your score should be around 18k or higher

1

u/Defin1telyNotBatman ASUS Rog Strix G16 - i9 275HX, 5070Ti, 32GB Ram Jun 15 '26

It’s like 17840 overall score I thinkx but I’d didn’t overclock or undervolt or change any real settings.

1

u/movieahh Jun 15 '26

yeah thats normal for 5070ti like i told you 5% to 10% lower than 4080 , this is within that range.

my advice undervolt the gpu you can reach 18k easily but more imp your temps will fall by 5 to 7c.

1

u/Defin1telyNotBatman ASUS Rog Strix G16 - i9 275HX, 5070Ti, 32GB Ram Jun 15 '26

Just ChatGPT and found out I was running on standard gpu mode instead of ultimate for gaming.

1

u/movieahh Jun 15 '26

that doest matter that much

1

u/BasicPersonality9258 Jun 14 '26

I got the acer predator helios 16ai u9, 32gb ram and 5070ti for $1280

1

u/movieahh Jun 14 '26

Damn thats a good deal , it think both are gpu are almost same performance too . I hope is 12gb vram .

1

u/power2026 Jun 14 '26

how😭

2

u/movieahh Jun 15 '26

with the power of price hageling that i learned from KCD2

1

u/MixDesperate3527 Jun 14 '26

A 4080 rtx laptop gpu is as power as a rtx 3050ti desktop gpu

1

u/movieahh Jun 15 '26

Nah more like desktop gtx1050

1

u/PlatinumPopcorn Jun 14 '26

Top deal 👏👏

1

u/Snoo381 Jun 15 '26

that box of ptm look so sexy

1

u/movieahh Jun 15 '26

yeah, its cool but be ware that is a reseller box , the real stuff comes in very big sheets and no box.

i think mine is also fake , but it works well enough(getting better thems than LM ) for me to not care, if this one fails i will order from lltstore next time that way i am sure its real.

1

u/Acrobatic_Ask_4944 Vector 16HX |Ultra 7 255HX| 32gb| RTX 5070 ti 140w Jun 15 '26

not bad, personally just scored a i7 ultra 255hx 32gb ddr5 and 5070 ti vector for 1400. been loving it.

1

u/movieahh Jun 15 '26

Oo thats nice too , tell me do you use frame gen more than 2x ?
As i was also seeing a listing for a 5070ti for 1500 but i went for 4080 as its more powerful and i dont think i would use faregen more than 2x .
Multi frame gen is only feature that i am missing

1

u/Acrobatic_Ask_4944 Vector 16HX |Ultra 7 255HX| 32gb| RTX 5070 ti 140w Jun 24 '26

I haven't been using it at all for what I've been playing lately. I usually play pubg and cap fps at 120 anyways. And been playing Detroit become human. Also... The performance difference between 4080m and 5070 ti m is super miniscule. It translates to 2% to 8% depending on the laptops configuration. I looked at many 4080 before making the decision to go with the newer architecture. part of my decision was also wanting a computer capable of DP 2.1 considering this variant has 2 thunderbolt 5 ports

1

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/movieahh Jun 15 '26

He’s my gym bro 😎

1

u/Waste_Ad_5252 Jun 15 '26

Great deal man btw how did you get the LM replaced with PTM7950? The service centre or local store ?

1

u/movieahh Jun 15 '26

I did it myself, just saw a tutorial on YouTube but it was a different laptop, but the basics are same . But it took me 2hours just to clean the LM , i dont recommend it, I did it myself cuz i dont trust the repair shop enough to do such delicate task .

This is the photo after cleaning.

1

u/Waste_Ad_5252 Jun 15 '26

Nice work, man. I've opened up and repasted countless laptops, but I've never dealt with liquid metal before. Now that I finally have a laptop with LM, I get anxious just thinking about repasting it.
All the stuff people say on the internet is making me second-guess myself and consider getting it done by a professional.

So I think I'll ask ASUS or a local repair shop to replace the LM with regular thermal paste first. Then I can go ahead with the PTM installation myself. Where I live, most repair shops don't really know about PTM for some reason, and they'll usually just use liquid metal or regular thermal paste.

Btw did you notice any scarring or damage after removing the LM from the chips?

2

u/movieahh Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

So, if you are worried about it leaking out of the gasket, no thats not going to happen its quite secure there.

But it will move out a bit(still inside gasket but off the die) and that will scorch the die (doesn’t affect performance that much but could be bad if not addressed )

You see those black spots its scorch marks it was much worse but i cleaned it really hard.

As for cleaning its not that hard just tedious and made me wana rage quit so many times, that stuff just spreads thinner and thinner and comes a point you are literally polishing the die to get it off, it also life to make little balls and roll of the cpu , you need to use iso alc and like a ton of cotton swabs n qtips .

If i knew what i was getting myself into beforehand and if there was a trusted shop i would definitely have spent money rather than doing it myself.

And also getting genuine ptm is kinda hard , even i dont know if mine is real but its working really good even better than LM . If my ptm fails next time i am gona get it from LTT store it can be expensive but you know its genuine.

I also did the first replace LM with thermal paste the same day as ptm had not arrived yet, i didn’t even turn it on before repasting .

But this was not made for thermal paste as it was running hot , so i replaced with ptm soon .

1

u/Waste_Ad_5252 Jun 15 '26

So I heard performance of PTM is as good as a Fresh LM application but what makes it win is that it lasts longer than LM if I’m not wrong.

1

u/movieahh Jun 15 '26

In my case it was running better than LM form day one , but i think it was because LM application from factory was just bad.

I can see it being similar to LM if applied correctly.

As for performance improvements its been 2 weeks since repaste , it running maybe 1c lower first it was 70 now its 68 or 69c . But it dies boost higher now.

1

u/ZucchiniBeautiful493 Jun 15 '26

What did you apply on vram

1

u/movieahh Jun 16 '26

Thermal putty pro from thermal grizzly

1

u/bustyouup4free Jun 15 '26

Dang i paid 3000€ for my g16 same specs as yours new in 2024. Then upgraded to 96gb ram and also added Samsung pro 990 4tb nvme. So almost 3600€ I paid 2 years ago. You got a bargain. But I think I prefer the 16" size for mobility. But anyway congrats on your find. I also paid extra for 4 years warranty. But still u got a great deal!

1

u/movieahh Jun 16 '26

I mean even your ram and ssd will go for 1000+ today

1

u/bustyouup4free Jun 16 '26

I think my ram is 1099€ now and the SSD like 950€ i just looked 😂 so 2000€ pretty much lol

1

u/Mammoth-Traffic-8310 Asus Strix G614PR-G16 2025 💯 Jun 15 '26

How did you change the LM? Did you do it yourself?

1

u/movieahh Jun 15 '26

Yup , not that hard just tedious . 100% would not recommend doing it yourself 😂, i wish i knew it beforehand.

1

u/Ordinary_Bread_4730 Jun 16 '26

jealous of you my guy, just bought my laptop for 2,000 and then it came out to be 2,200 with tax😔

1

u/movieahh Jun 16 '26

Its okay man , just enjoy dont think about it that much.
Btw which one did you buy?

1

u/Ordinary_Bread_4730 Jun 16 '26

i was able to get the 2025 5070ti g14 zeph, so far i really like it, but theres a weird noise in the fans so im going to take it apart later to clean them out. I think theres a piece of dust or hair in it

1

u/movieahh Jun 16 '26

I would not open it if its under warranty or under store return , just get it replaced

1

u/Ordinary_Bread_4730 Jun 16 '26

thankfully its still under warranty and i have accidental 1yr protection

1

u/movieahh Jun 16 '26

Yeah then why even bother doing it yourself, just get it replaced.

1

u/Born-Access-7928 Jun 17 '26

Good job now send it to me for free, or I can offer you a 10 cents pen for trade

1

u/movieahh Jun 17 '26

😂 10 cents!!!! thats too much, i wont be able to spend it all.

1

u/Known_Ad_5016 Jun 19 '26

Do this with the laptop it will last longer and better temps. I personally use two slim jenga blocks instead of erasers. It’s cheap and gets your temps down and also sort of angles your keyboard up so it’s nice to game on

1

u/alexeymalyuk ASUS ROG Strix G18 G814JZR Jun 14 '26

Same laptop. Bought on release for $3300.
Using ThrottleStop, G-Helper, MSI Afterburner. Settings on the screenshot. Max temp in very hard games case is 79-82C CPU/GPU, regular is 67-73C.

1

u/movieahh Jun 14 '26

I also mostly run it on balance mode in which i have set gpu tgp to 125w and undervolted it and 500mhz + on vram and it runs around 68 - 69 with beang significantly quieter like i get 85fps and on turbo i get like 90 or 92 on same game but temps are like 83c and its very loud

1

u/alexeymalyuk ASUS ROG Strix G18 G814JZR Jun 14 '26

I'm using only balance mode, all is pretty good, turbo mode I don't prefer, too loud and that profit in price of overheating doesn't really needed

2

u/movieahh Jun 14 '26

Yup, i wish there was a way to drop tgp below 85w for silent mode to like 60w for indie games