At this year's CES show, the game brand mechanics brought us a big surprise - water-cooled game mechanics star 17. I was under the impression that this was the second water-cooled game book on the market after ROG in 2017, and it was also the first water-cooled game book under the Mechanic. With the arrival of the water-cooled game book, the mechanic has also opened a new "Star" series product line, and the previous mechanic F117, mechanic T90, etc., the mechanic star series products adopt a new design, the overall look is new. In addition to the Star 17, there is another notebook star 15 with a traditional air cooling system in the star series, and in this issue we will feel the charm of this new product series through the mechanic star 15.
Product parameters
Operating system: Windows 11 Home (64-bit)
Display: 15.6-inch screen (1920×1080, 144Hz)
Processor: Intel Core i7-12700H (14 core 20 threads, 6P8E, 3.5GHz~4.7GHz)
Memory: Kintec 16GB DDR4 3200 (8GB×2, King Tiger TMKS8G68AHFHD-32A)
Hard Drive: Jianxing 512GB NVMe SSD(SSSTC CL4-8D512)
GPU：NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop（4GB GDDR6）
Battery: 41Wh
Size: 361mm×241mm×25mm
Weight: 2.2kg (without power adapter)
Reference price: 6799 yuan
Geometry stitching design appearance
The appearance of mechanic game books (such as the F117 series) is mostly metallic silver, which can be regarded as the classic color of the mechanic game book. In recent years, mechanics have begun to seek breakthroughs in the design of notebooks, such as the previously launched Machinist Machcreator series design, which boldly adopted a more fashionable and simple style. For the new Star series, especially the first time in this series to usher in the water-cooled game product, the mechanics have to pay more attention to this, so we can clearly see the biggest changes in the Star series only from the appearance.
Taking the mechanic Star 15 as an example, this machine adopts a black and gray color scheme as a whole, creating a sense of luxury. Its A side has changed greatly, for the first time added a mitered geometric stitching design, the upper left half and the lower right half of the A side are cleverly cut apart, visually forming a strong impact, while the upper left part also added the uppercase mechanic "MACHENIKE" English brand name, the mechanic called "Mars imprint pixel character", this eye-catching orange font further strengthens the visual impact of the A side.
For the first time, the A-side has added a miter-shaped geometric stitching design, and the upper left and lower right halves of the A-side are cleverly cut apart, forming a strong impact visually.
In the right half of the A side, we can also see that the upper design has a mechanic's brand logo, and the logo color scheme is also orange, thus forming an overall coordinated style. This geometric stitching design and color matching make the Mechanic Star 15 look more technological and stylish, and also make it closer to the aesthetics of the younger generation.
The color scheme of the mechanic brand logo is also similar to the "Martian imprint pixel character" on the left, which is orange.
This machine uses a 15.6-inch 1080p resolution IPS matte screen, the advantage of the matte screen is that it can prevent reflections, and it is not easy to stain fingerprints. In addition, the screen refresh rate of this machine is 144Hz, and the 144Hz high screen brush screen for gamers can reduce the phenomenon of game screen stuttering, smearing, tearing, etc., especially for FPS games. However, the screen of this machine also has shortcomings, we measured that the screen sRGB color gamut coverage area of this machine is only 64%, the performance is ordinary, and we also expect the mechanic to launch a high color gamut version of the Star 15 in the future.
We measured that the screen sRGB color gamut coverage area of this machine is only 64%.
It is worth mentioning that there are many details of the C side of the mechanic Star 15 that echo the style of the A side, such as the orange line around the boot key, the orange line under the keyboard and the orange Slogan in the lower right corner of the keyboard, these small details show the mechanic's intentions. In addition, the keyboard of this machine still supports colorful backlighting, the actual feel is good, the rebound force is moderate, and it is not tired for a long time. Importantly, as a 15.6-inch notebook, the Mechanic Star 15 also retains the numeric keypad design, which is more convenient for both gaming and daily office.
There are many details on the C side that echo the style of the A side, such as the orange line around the boot key, the orange line under the keyboard, and the orange Slogan in the lower right corner of the keyboard.
The mechanic Star 15 has interfaces on the back of the fuselage, left and right sides, and in general, it is equipped with two USB-A 3.2 interfaces, a USB-A 2.0 interface, an RJ-45 interface, a 3.5mm microphone/headphone interface, a USB-C interface, and an HDMI interface and a Mini DP interface. Such an interface design can meet the needs of most gamers.
This machine has a complete interface to meet the needs of most gamers.
It is equipped with a 12th generation Core H45 standard voltage processor
The Machinist Star 15 is equipped with a new 12th-generation Core i7-12700H processor, this processor codenamed Alder Lake, using the Intel 7 production process, and adding a new hybrid architecture design, it is equipped with 6 performance cores, 8 energy efficiency cores, composing 14 cores and 20 threads. In terms of frequency, the Core i7-12700H has a maximum frequency of 4.7GHz and an energy efficiency core of 3.5GHz. In addition, on the Intel official website, we can see that the core i7-12700H processor has a basic power consumption of 45W, a maximum acceleration power consumption of 115W, a 24MB smart cache, and an integrated Intel Iris Xe core display, supporting DDR4 and DDR5 memory.
The Mechanic Star 15 is powered by the new 12th generation Core i7-12700H processor.
How much of a performance boost is there on the new processor? We tested it with CINEBENCH R23 software, and finally the mechanic Star 15 got a single-threaded score of 1779pts and a multi-threaded score of 13756pts. Compared to the Mechanic F117 poison (single-threaded 1396pts, multi-threaded 12066pts) equipped with the 11th generation Core i7-11800H processor, the Mechanic Star 15 is across the board in CINEBENCH R23, with a single-threaded lead of about 27% and a multi-threaded lead of about 14%. In the CrossMark processor test, the mechanic Star 15 scored a total score of 1923, which is also excellent, according to the official test results of CrossMark, it can be seen that the current model equipped with core i7-11800H has a maximum score of only 1695 points, compared with the mechanic Star 15 leading about 13%. This again shows that the new processor does have a big performance upgrade.
CINEBENCH R23 test score.
In terms of other configurations, the machine we tested is equipped with Kintec 16GB DDR4 3200 dual-channel memory, from the test of AIDA64, the DDR4 3200 dual-channel memory read speed reached 49343MB/s, the write speed reached 47396MB/s, and the latency control was about 86.7ns.
The Mechanic Star 15 retains a 2.5-inch HDD hard drive expansion bit inside.
In terms of hard disk, this machine uses Jianxing 512GB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD, from the AS SSD Benchma test (1GB test data) score, the continuous read speed of this SSD is 2713.44MB/s, the continuous write speed is 1739.6MB/s, the total score is 4489 points, which can meet the needs of gamers to copy large-capacity game files or other data. In fact, the machine also retains a 2.5-inch HDD hard disk expansion bit inside, and players who have storage capacity requirements can install large-capacity HDD hard disks themselves.
Judging from the AS SSD Benchma test (1GB of test data), the machine's SSD continuous read speed is 2713.44MB/s and the continuous write speed is 1739.6MB/s.
RTX 3050 Ti play AAA games
The test prototype we got was the RTX 3050 Ti version. The GPU uses NVIDIA Ampere architecture, equipped with the second generation RT core and the third generation Tensor core, has 4GB GDDR6 video memory, and supports Dynamic Boost 2.0. From the GPU-Z detection, the unique base frequency of this machine is 1222MHz, the Boost frequency is 1485MHz, and it is equipped with 2560 CUDA cores. So what about the graphical performance of this machine?
The machine has a unique base frequency of 1222MHz and a Boost frequency of 1485MHz, equipped with 2560 CUDA cores.
First, in the 3DMark Time Spy test, the machine received a graphics card score of 5417, which is on the same level as most other models with the same graphics card. In the 3DMark Fire Strike test scenario, this machine scored a graphics card score of 14075, which is also comparable to most other models with the same graphics card, far exceeding the GTX 1650 mobile graphics card (9195 points) by about 53%.
In the 3DMark Time Spy test, the machine received a graphics card score of 5417.
In real-world games, this machine is able to play most of the popular AAA masterpieces at 1080p resolution. For example, under the high-quality preset of Far Cry 6 (RT level, FSR level), the average frame rate of this machine can reach 79fps; under the highest quality preset of Tomb Raider: Shadow (RT level, DLSS level), the average game frame rate can be maintained at about 70fps; and under the high-quality preset of Borderlands 3, the average 62.38fps can be achieved. Even with ultra-high graphics in the racing game F1 2021 (anti-aliasing only TAA), the machine's average frame rate can be maintained at 70fps. That is to say, the mechanic Star 15 equipped with the RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU has better graphics performance, and can cope well with most AAA games at 1080p resolution and high image quality, and the average frame rate of most games can be maintained at more than 60fps.
More importantly, the RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU also supports light chasing and DLSS, so for some games that support light chase, we can turn on light chase to feel a more realistic game screen, and for some games that do not move, we can open DLSS to increase the frame rate and achieve the purpose of playing. For example, in Tomb Raider: Shadows. This machine in the case of not turning on the light chase (1080p, high quality, RT off, DLSS off) average frame rate of 80fps, we can turn on the light chase (RT high) and DLSS (DLSS balance), at this time the game average frame rate can be maintained at 65fps, which not only maintains a higher frame rate, but also gets better picture quality.
Grill test
Mechanic Star 15 is equipped with dual fans, 4 heat dissipation copper tubes, double air outlet design, how is its heat dissipation performance? We double-roasted it at 25.3°C with AIDA64 software and Furmark software. After 30 minutes of measured double baking, the machine has a maximum surface temperature of 50.1 ° C, located below the screen at the hinge. As can be seen from the thermal imaging map, the temperature in the middle area of the keyboard of this machine is relatively concentrated, remaining at about 49 ° C, but the temperature of the WASD key is about 32 ° C, and the temperature of the wrist rest position is also relatively low. Of course, players rarely encounter the extreme situation of double roasting when actually using it.
After 30 minutes of double baking at 25.3 °C, the maximum temperature of the surface of this machine is 50.1 °C.
summary
Mechanic Star 15 uses the latest hardware configuration, the 12th generation Core i7-12700H processor and RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU bring it powerful performance, allowing it to play most of the popular AAA games, for users who usually only play online games or are not heavy AAA gamers, the overall performance and configuration of the Mechanic Star 15 can meet their needs. Of course, in addition to the upgrade in configuration, I think the bigger highlight of the Mechanic Star 15 is the new exterior design, which gives a refreshing feeling in most game books, which is also its typical attraction.