PowerSpec 1710 - Review 2022 - Morrison Sest1991

PowerSpec makes a gaggle of irksome desktop towers that look much the same as the ones you might have brought home from a Micro Center (the mostly East Coast equivalent of Fry's Electronics) in the 1990s. Now, the company is selling Micro Center shoppers something significantly more centre-catching: souped-upward but inexpensive gaming laptops, including the PowerSpec 1710 ($1,299) we're reviewing here. A quick glance at the specs shows that this automobile represents amazing value for money, with its Intel Cadre i7 processor, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 17.3-inch total HD display. Performance tests confirm that this is indeed a beast on a budget as long as you can deal with the pregnant rut it generates. The downside is that y'all can only purchase it in Micro Center stores.

Slim, With Good Looks

At ane by 16.5 by xi inches (HWD) and half dozen.seven pounds, the PowerSpec 1710 is as large and heavy as you'd expect from a 17-inch gaming rig, though it's far from the biggest or heaviest. It'southward svelte compared with the 13.ane-inch deep, 9.77-pound Alienware 17 R4. In fact, this is i of the lightest 17-inchers we've tested recently, weighing a pound less than the New Razer Blade Pro. Even amend, the Power Spec'southward manageable AC adapter adds only 1.77 pounds, compared with the behemoth power bricks that power competing laptops with x-series GPUs.

The Power Spec 1710 isn't just slim, it looks skillful too, offer an understated artful that could be suitable for the game room or the boardroom. It's fabricated entirely of black plastic, except for the ruby-red plastic borders effectually the air intake grilles on the back edge and the speaker ports on the bottom. The height of the display lid is sculpted, with athwart cutouts on the left and right sides, and there are more than sculpted bits next to the webcam and on the forepart edge. Everything feels very solid and well-put-together. At that place'due south noticeable flex in the display lid, but that'southward understandable for such a big, thin surface, and it doesn't feel flimsy.

An air of quality and usefulness continues on the bottom of the laptop, even downward to the labels on the screws that tell yous which ones y'all need to loosen to detach the keyboard and which ones allow the chassis itself to come autonomously.

The just attribute of the design that might give some prospective owners suspension is the massive PowerSpec logo emblazoned on the display lid. If you buy this laptop, you had better be very confident in broadcasting to your friends that you're not afraid to game with a non-name brand rig. Ideally you'll have friends who are in the know almost PowerSpec and Micro Center and volition recognize that yous got an splendid deal on a very powerful automobile.

Micro Centre is too selling a smaller version of this laptop called the PowerSpec 1510, which has a 15-inch brandish and completely different case styling, but mostly identical specs to the PowerSpec 1710.

Wide Angles, No Tearing

The PowerSpec 1710'south full HD (1,920-by-1,080) brandish uses an In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel, which means that colors don't wash out and text is visible even when viewing the screen from extreme angles. The brandish supports Nvidia's Thousand-Sync technology to reduce the annoying tearing effect during gameplay by synchronizing the screen's refresh rate and the frame rate of the GTX 1070. You can toggle this feature on or off in the Settings panel of games that support it.

The screen's matte finish is very good at reducing glare from nearby lights, eliminating a significant source of frustration for gamers. The downside of a matte screen is that colors don't announced every bit vibrant every bit they would on a glossy display. In that location's no option to configure a glossy display on the PowerSpec 1710. In fact, there are no configuration options at all, and you can't even purchase it online. You walk into your local Micro Center, swipe your credit card, and walk out with the laptop.

The 17-inch course factor allows enough room for a total-sized keyboard, and it's prissy to meet that the PowerSpec 1710 takes full reward of that infinite. You won't observe mechanical switches, but yous will find a complete number pad equally well every bit full-sized directional arrow keys. The keys are a flake mushy and wobbly, but at that place'south very little flex when yous strike them forcefully, thanks to the solid chassis.

The keyboard's three-zone RGB backlighting is controlled by a mixture of dedicated office buttons and software. Y'all can increase or decrease the backlight brightness and plow information technology off using the Fn + [asterisk] and Fn+ [minus] keys on the numpad, or bring upward the GameFeet software for further customization by pressing Fn+ [frontward slash].

The touchpad isn't clickable, simply information technology is fairly responsive even at the lower sensitivity settings, which means that you lot don't have to jack up the sensitivity and run a risk accidental palm input while yous're typing merely so you can have a usable touchpad. Left- and right-click buttons are located below the touchpad. The pad itself is slightly left of center on the laptop, merely centered beneath the main section of the keyboard, where your hands are typically resting. For longer gaming sessions at home, you'll probably be using an external gaming mouse anyway.

Considering the large air intake grilles occupy the entire rear of the laptop, the ports are relegated to the left and right edges. On the right, you'll observe a headphone jack, an audio input and output, a full-size SD bill of fare slot, two USB 3.0 ports, a gigabit Ethernet port and a Kensington lock slot. On the left are 2 more USB 3.0 ports, a USB-C jack that supports Thunderbolt 3, two Mini DisplayPort outputs, an HDMI port, and the power jack.

This port selection is more than acceptable for a gaming rig, and people with gargantuan external hard drives full of games volition peculiarly capeesh Thunderbolt three back up. If your game drove is more small, you'll do fine with the PowerSpec's internal storage, comprised of both a 1TB hard bulldoze and a speedy 250GB NVMe M.ii SSD. Wireless connectivity includes 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.ane.

For more than casual, headset-less gaming sessions, you'll appreciate the PowerSpec'due south 1710's speaker position in the display hinge. This allows for speakers that burn down upward and slightly frontwards, an orientation that profoundly increases audio clarity. Unfortunately, the bass is pretty much nonexistent, as you lot'd expect from laptop speakers, even though there's a dedicated subwoofer that fires through ane of the grilles on the laptop's bottom.

The HD webcam is fine for streaming to services like Twitch, although you won't get neat still epitome quality from its 2MP sensor.

A one-year parts and labor warranty comes standard.

Splendid Graphics Performance

Gaming operation on this machine is excellent, equally you'd await from a GTX 1070 graphics card. I consistently recorded frame rates above 80 frames per second (fps) and frequently much higher on both our Sky and Valley gaming simulations as well as during a cursory session of playing Sleeping Dogs, all with M-Sync enabled.

You can get a sense of just how much GPU ability the PowerSpec 1710 has relative to its similarly priced competitors on the nautical chart beneath. Most GTX 1050 Ti-powered systems, including the Lenovo Legion Y520, the MSI GP62X Leopard Pro, and the Asus ROG Strix GL753V post frame rates in the mid-40fps range on maximum quality settings. That's too low for quality gameplay. Meanwhile, the PowerSpec 1710 posted 100fps on the Heaven exam and 95fps on the Valley test at maximum quality settings.

PowerSpec 1710 Graphics Performance Chart

The superior results continue on the synthetic 3DMark benchmark tests, which truly revenue enhancement the graphics subsystem. With a score of 7,593, the PowerSpec 1710 performed slightly improve on the Fire Strike Extreme test than the GTX 1070-powered HP Omen 17 did (vii,118), and light years ameliorate than the 1050 Ti competition. During these tests, fan noise was quite loud, but the fans spooled dorsum downwardly to virtually silent one time testing was finished.

It'south all peaches and cream up to this signal, but unfortunately there is a potentially significant drawback (depending on your gaming habits) to stuffing such immense power into such a modest infinite and charging a bargain price for it: heat. During the criterion tests, the underside of the PowerSpec 1710 was too hot to place on my lap, reaching a temperature of 111 degrees. The frazzle outlet, located along the left edge, measured an even hotter 118 degrees.

These oestrus problems are a principal driver behind Nvidia'south Max-Q engineering science, which is expressly designed to more effectively cram loftier-powered GPUs into tight, thermally suboptimal spaces. Including Max-Q hither is likely out of the question due to the PowerSpec'south toll point, and fortunately the heat won't affair much if you programme to always game on a desk or table, but it makes the laptop near unusable without some sort of external solution like a cooling pad if y'all programme to game on your lap. Information technology'south as well a trouble if you plan to overclock the GTX 1070 or program custom fan speeds using the included software utility. Given the excellent results I experienced at manufacturing plant settings, though, this won't be necessary for all merely the near hardcore tinkerers.

With the PowerSpec 1710's light effect on your wallet, you could potentially justify using it just for gaming and maintaining another arrangement as your everyday reckoner for other tasks. But thanks to the Intel Core i7-7700HQ and 16GB of RAM, you lot could simply as easily employ the laptop as your principal workhorse for intensive calculating tasks similar video and photograph editing, not to mention everyday deportment like web browsing. Its score of 3,507 on the comprehensive PCMark viii benchmark is proof of this, as are the first-class times on our Handbrake video-encoding (1 minute, 1 second) and Photoshop image-editing (3:04) tests. Annotation, however, that these aren't essentially faster or slower than any of the competing systems, since they all apply the aforementioned processor, with the exception of the HP Omen 17.

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Battery life is good for a gaming laptop, clocking in at a grade-leading five hours and 52 minutes on our rundown test, which involves playing a local video at fifty pct screen brightness with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned off. You won't get anywhere almost vi hours of bombardment life while gaming, of course, so this is a organisation that should be plugged in most of the time.

A Height-Notch Deal, If Yous Tin can Get It

The PowerSpec 1710 is such a skillful value that it'due south understandable Micro Center is requiring y'all to visit a store to buy it. The stores are mostly on the East Coast and in the Midwest, which limits the laptop's appeal and prevents us from awarding it an Editors' Selection accolade. For those who aren't near a shop, we recommend the HP Omen 17, which retains our Editors' Choice for midrange gaming laptops.

If you lot tin get to a Micro Eye, in addition to getting a good deal, you're also getting an excellent performer if you buy this arrangement. It'southward got more than enough graphics horsepower to run the latest titles at maximum quality settings at its native full Hard disk drive resolution. The cooling system struggles to bargain with this immense power, but that volition only be a trouble for modest subsets of buyers, like overclockers and those who game on their lap. For almost other gamers, the PowerSpec 1710 is worth a look.