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Sid is one of our very first customers who went with Legion V1, back in 2016. His core requirements revolved around a mobilty workstation; capable enough to run multiple VMs along with AAA Gaming. His system went through a GPU & Display failure recently and he decided to opt for an upgrade with our new Legion V3 Lineup.
Azom Experience
"First off, this is my second barebone system from Azom. Previous one was Legion V1 with an i5 6500 and a GTX 970M, that suffered multiple component failures after 3 years. I was tempted to try other brands this time - Alienware, ROGs, Omens but there was one thing that Azom unit had that those other players still do not (in the Indian market) - Customization and Ability to Upgrade just about any component Within Reason, just like a Desktop.
One thing to note - any laptop, even a Clevo Barebone from Azom will have limited cooling and I did not feel that an i9 with a GTX 2080 would make much sense, given the heat and eventual thermal throttling that can occur overtime.
Having said that, I have seen that with Prema MOD, boost speed on the i7 goes up to 5.03Ghz without any overclocking. But the heat does reach high 95c + on full load scenarios and there is the limitation of the cooling solution in a laptop. Unless I go bonkers like Linus and water cool the heck out of this and hence convert it to a desktop, I do not see any real need for the faster components.
Here, with the current config, I have run 3 virtual machines in parallel while in Windows 10 without any slowdowns (Windows 10 in VM, Ubuntu in another VM and CloudReady Chrome OS on Virtualbox)
Aftersales support from Azom is fantastic though I suspect it must be better in the same city where they are based. This is one issue if the buyer is not tech-savvy - no local support (taking to the dealer shop for repairs or any part replacement), system needs to be shipped to them. They do have home/ office pick up and door step delivery option. Also , they cover both to & fro shipping under warranty.
Software is another potential weakness with Clevo (not a hit on Azom as they are the ODMs and depend on Clevo a lot) Other OEMs, I've seen pushing out bios updates and even moving towards GUI Bios while Clevo stays on an old format (good for those who like manual tinkering but rest may feel it lacks polish). Plus, the software updates from Clevo are tending to be slow if not irritating. My Clevo Control Center stopped working after a new version of Windows 10 came in and since then, have been waiting for control center update. (again, they depend on Clevo for the software).
A few of the screenshots added here are of the various benchmarks taken back to back and show how robust the system is and can consistently take the high loads. CPU heavy games such as Civ V and later with the massive maps load just great without any stutter. While I don’t run any intensive FPS title, Subnautica and the latest test version of Below Zero are able to run at the highest settings with absolutely no slowdown or lag. Yes, I have to use a mouse as the touchpad is passable but not something to game on - no laptop touchpads can seriously replace a mouse.
The keyboard is great though the key travel tends to have a slight initial resistance the travel is good. It cannot compete with a Thinkpad keyboard even from 10 years ago though... but this is pretty good to use for typing out emails and reviews like this.
If I have to nitpick, Clevo has to get better at the design side and MSI, Acers, Asus and even Dell/Alienware are bringing out well-designed systems and for the price, the Barebone is just barebone - plain and traditional which is fine if the use case is a work station but lacks the oomph of a gaming rig.
Software, maybe Azom can start adding their own to the offerings, similar to OrginPC or ExoticPC which I see are using Clevo platforms.
Given the options to customize the hardware and robust build, I find it hard to find other OEMs that can match the offerings and with the superb before and after-sales support from Harsh and the team, I hope we see this getting the due attention that is deserved. Will be sad not to see Azom in the hands of our local YouTubers at some stage to play around and showcase what is India's answer to other players in the space.
If you are looking at a desktop replacement, Azom's V3 should be at the top of the list... "- Sid
This concludes Sid's - Customer Spotlight. We would like to thank him again for choosing Azom for his compute needs and supporting a small business. Wishing him all the best for his future endeavors.
*Regarding feedback on software & driver issues, we are closely working with Clevo to address them on priority. Core challenge has been with Microsoft updates lately , where even with WHQL Certificaltion and insider testing, some or the other issue pops up post update. Hopefully , future updates will be more stable and won't have any system breaking impact on release.
Regards,
Arindam
Founder - Azom Systems