This was posted 2 years 14 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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Kraken M15 (Intel NUC X15) Q Essential GeForce i7 11800H/RTX 3060/QHD 165Hz Gaming Laptop $1199 Shipped @ BPC Tech

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Kraken M15 (Intel NUC X15) Q Essential GeForce i7 11800H/RTX 3060/QHD 165Hz Gaming Laptop $1199 Shipped @ BPC Tech
Go to Deal
Kazusa on 10/11/2022 - 23:37 bpctech.com.au (8385 clicks)
Last edited 11/11/2022 - 03:49 by 1 other user
ZIP100

Intel® Core™ i7-11800H Processor 24M Cache, up to 4.60 GHz
15.6" Narrow bezel, IPS 16:9 display with QHD 165 Hz
1x 8GB RAM (3200MHZ) + 256GB SSD
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6G graphics 140W
Seems to be a pretty good deal, has a second ram slot and a second nvme slot for upgrades
Doesn't seem to actually require zip pay as my purchase went through with Klarna for those people who don't have $1000+ limit with zip pay

Review of the NUC X15 from Jarrods tech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AmtDtw2XtQ

Computing 15.6inch Computer Gaming Laptop Intel Laptop

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closed Comments

    • Brrrrt on 11/11/2022 - 18:13

      should be more than fine

  • hen dawg on 11/11/2022 - 12:19

    If I'm not going to ever be gaming on this still looks like the one to choose over the NUC M15 with i7 + Iris XE graphics deals for about $1,000
    Bit thicker and heavier but 2k screen and bit faster? Less RAM though

    • ttkc on 11/11/2022 - 12:23
      +1

      I think we will see better deals soon (Black Friday/Xmas sale). So I will wait.

    • agalea101 on 11/11/2022 - 13:30
      +1

      That's what I was looking into as well.

      But on binglee right now it's 997

      Then togther with the 11% off sitewide and 10% cashback it should be around $797 or so

      Might bite that apple. Already got gaming stuff and I need a new lappy for work

      • ttkc on 11/11/2022 - 14:55

        Good find, Maybe post a deal?

        • agalea101 on 11/11/2022 - 14:56

          Haha someone already did. It's all good. I just hope it's still on stock at 6 💪

  • Kunalb84 on 13/11/2022 - 16:49
    +1

    i missed it, any other deal similar to this…my budget is $1000-$1200 with requirements of little or may be 2 games Fortnite and Aoe 4

  • elcheapo on 14/11/2022 - 11:21

    missed this too.. any black friday upcoming deal

  • rockmelon on 15/11/2022 - 10:32
    +11

    Picked mine up from BCP Tech in Mount Waverly yesterday after receiving the Quality Check complete email.

    Setup Feedback:
    • Came with Windows 10 pre-installed (Generic inactivated key), no issues as I wanted a fresh Windows 11 Pro install.
    • Had to enable boot from USB within the BIOS to get the Win11 bootable USB to be picked up.
    • Touchpad works in the BIOS, however curiously I had to use an external mouse during the Windows 11 setup wizard.
    • I Purchased a Windows 7 pro OEM key from G2A for $17 and was able to activate it without issues within the Windows 11 fresh install, i.e. I didn't have to upgrade from Win7 > Win10 > Win11. NOTE when purchasing any Windows product key, make sure it's either an OEM or Retail Channel key as they are far less likely to ever be deactivated compared to MAK or KMS keys.
    • Installed Drivers without too many issues, note that the Intel driver page doesn't include the drivers for the dedicated GPU, only the integrated. Go to NVidia direct for that. Also you can install the Intel NUC Software Studio from the Microsoft Store which will allow you to change the performance defaults, keyboard lighting effects etc. It's got a terrible rating but I couldn't really fault it.

    Build Quality Feedback:
    • Sturdy build which doesn't flex/creak when you pick it up from only one side.
    • Webcam is terrible and I found that I had to calibrate Windows Hello several times more than usual possibly due to the blurry quality.
    • I'm also experiencing the coil whine noise when running on battery. It's not unbearable and it seems to be directly impacted depending on the keyboard backlighting/lightbar brightness setting, i.e. setting the brightness to 100% seems to reduce the noise, at least for my ears.
    • Battery drain is pretty significant even just from browsing on Chrome alone, will have a play and see if I can curb the integrated GPU or similar and report back.
    • Fans are almost silent 99% of the time with everything I threw at it, apart from gaming and stress testing. NOTE I found that the chassis was getting very toasty on my hands, so I turned off the "Passive Cooling Mode" option within the Performance Tuning of the Intel NUC software studio which made a big difference without increasing the fan volume.

    Overall loving this laptop and it's an absolute steal for the price. Now I'm just waiting for a half decent pair of 16GB sticks if anyone has seen something, otherwise HODL Black Friday!

    • melb-ourne on 15/11/2022 - 10:37

      Ty for ur feedback…Are u planning to upgrade the SSD?

      • rockmelon on 15/11/2022 - 10:48
        +2

        No worries, hoping we can use the comments section to iron out any kinks with this great laptop.

        Yes I upgraded the SSD after doing a quick system test to see if everything was working out of the box.

        I ended up buying the NV2 1TB $99 from BCP Tech SSD from this deal:
        https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/736029

        Make sure to install it in Slot A (which is the slot closest to the fans, as Slot B is PCIe gen 3 only. Funnily the 256GB SSD that came with the lappy was already in Slot B like they were already expecting we would do the swap.

    • imranauz on 16/11/2022 - 17:11
      +1

      I bought this but have not recive it yet. also still waiting for the laptop.
      Kingston Fury Impact 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) 3200MHz DDR4 CL20 Laptop Memory Kit of 2 KF432S20IBK2/32, Black
      https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B097QJ25NY?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_…

      • rockmelon on 17/11/2022 - 08:51

        Looks like a great price for the Kingston Fury sticks, thanks for the heads up!

        I was considering buying 2 of the below Crucial CL22 3200MHz.
        https://www.umart.com.au/product/crucial-16gb-1x16gb-ct16g4s…

        The main advantage I can see for the Kingston Fury kit would be the XMP support for easier overclocking. Was there any other features that drew you to the Kingston Fury?

    • BargainHunterJohnnyB on 23/11/2022 - 13:11

      The only thing that I actually think is crap about the x15 are the speakers - coming from a macbook pro that has some pretty darn good speakers built in, these are simple horrible and I wish i could find some other ones to replace them with…. Apart from that everything else is OK in my books…

  • CyberMurning on 15/11/2022 - 11:15

    someone said we can just leave the window un-activated, right? just having that word in the corner, no harm

    also i wish this one has dedicated numerical keys (or there is 17" model) - i cant stand typing number without them

    • melb-ourne on 15/11/2022 - 11:25
      +2

      u missing customization/some security/bug update. It better to do the above post(rockmelon
      ) for $17

    • rockmelon on 15/11/2022 - 12:32

      Yes, you can leave windows inactivated and it won't really be noticeable for around the first week depending on your usage. However, after that it will have the watermark on the wallpaper haunting you from the ghost of MS Clippy, reminding you of your sins, forcing you to stare into endless void of black wallpaper without a hope to change it.

      But jokes aside, as melb-ourne commented above; you'll be missing out on security updates and many features that require activated windows. But for temporary machines and VMs I never activate Windows.

      • Shanetrain on 15/11/2022 - 14:03

        Might be a silly question but this will be my first laptop so I'm new to activating window's and installing drivers etc so i don't know a whole lot about it, is there any videos or even can you possibly give me a quick step by step or run down of what to do when i boot up, like where to get a cheap Windows key and how to activate it and then what drivers do i install first and where from etc?

        Would be much appreciated!

        • rockmelon on 15/11/2022 - 15:54
          +6

          No worries mate, activating Windows is pretty easy once you have a product key. Best tip I can give that applies to Windows 8.1 all the way through to Windows 11 is to take advantage of the Start menu search, i.e. pressing the Windows key and start typing. The keyword search has really improved, such as simply typing in "activation" and choose Activation Settings from the start menu and it'll take you to the right menu options without having to navigate through the Control Panel etc.

          With regards to buying a Windows product key, you can always buy one from the Microsoft Store, Windows 11 Home is a good choice, unless you need the ability to RDP/Sandbox virtualization out of the box, whilst third party applications can be substituted for the out of box experience. Saying that, I always buy Windows 11 Professional and you should search for a vid comparing the two on YouTube. Also if you are feeling adventurous and want to save a decent chunk of change you can buy a product key from a key marketplace such as G2A, Kinguin etc. However, note that these keys have been acquired by breaking Microsoft's TOS and could be deactivated at a later date, not that I've ever personally ever had that happen with an "OEM" key. You could also choose a "Retail" version key which will allow you to move the key to another device if you ever get rid of this laptop.

          With regards to the drivers, note that many drivers are not necessarily 100% required to be installed/updated as Windows does a pretty good job out of box. However, it's always best practice to use the manufacturers newest drivers as they can sometimes fix known issues or increase performance:

          1. https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/198135/… is the download page for all Intel software for this laptop.
          2. Download "Intel® NUC X15 Laptop Kits - LAPKC71F, LAPKC71E, LAPKC51E - UniwillService for NUC Software Studio"
          3. Download "Intel® NUC X15 Laptop Kit - LAPKCx1x - Driver Pack"
          4. Both will be in .zip format, extract them to a new folder for each to keep things tidy.
          5. Follow the specific driver installation order as detailed in the installation doc PDF "Intel NUC X15 Laptop Kits-Driver Installation Guide" found within the extracted files for "Intel® NUC X15 Laptop Kit - LAPKCx1x - Driver Pack"
          6. ~ Restart whenever prompted and then continue to the next driver when successful.
          7. Download the NVidia GeForce Experience from https://www.nvidia.com/en-au/geforce/geforce-experience/down… which will automatically update/install the correct Drivers and allow you to customize the GPU settings to get the most out of gaming, if you feel so inclined.
          8. To manage the lighting and fan/performance of the laptop, open the Microsoft Store (search for it in the start menu mentioned at the top of this comment) and within the store search for "Intel NUC Software Studio" and click install/open. You might want to have a play with the settings yourself, but my only recommendation is to click the arrow within the "Performance Tuning" section and then turn off the slider for "Passive Cooling Mode". This setting may slightly impact the battery life and you may hear the fans very faintly at idle, however I would still recommend it unless it's the heart of winter and you haven't paid your heating bills.

          Hope that helps! Remember that google is your best source of information, allowing you to avoid ever having to bring your laptop into a tech shop for support. You shouldn't run into any major issues so long as you aren't downloading software or adding browser extensions from dodgy sites.

          Also on a side note for anyone interested, I just found this reddit post which seems pretty active in discussing various issues and solutions for the NUC X15.

          https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLaptops/comments/s8gewi/krake…

          • Shanetrain on 15/11/2022 - 16:07
            +1

            @rockmelon: Thank you very much bud! Will definitely check this all out once my laptop arrives, doing gods work mate!

  • cooper9797 on 15/11/2022 - 12:57

    I'm looking to let mine go if anyone's interested?

    Decided the M15 might be a better fit and seems like BPC doesn't offer change of mind returns unfortunately.

    • cooper9797 on 15/11/2022 - 21:27

      Laptop's unopened btw. Still sealed in box.

      • Kciel on 16/11/2022 - 01:33

        I'm interested. Send me a pm

      • cooper9797 on 18/11/2022 - 08:07

        Letting it go for what I paid for it (same price as the deal basically) if anyone's interested?

  • Wt133 on 17/11/2022 - 14:53

    Received mine the other day but having some coil whine with it when using it plugged in and on battery. Anyone else having this issue and know of a fix ?

    • rockmelon on 17/11/2022 - 15:07

      Yep, seems to be a common issue related to the keyboard backlighting and light bar brightness. Apparently it's pretty common issue for other gaming laptops too.

      Workaround is changing the brightness of the keyboard/light bar within the Intel NUC Software. I'm finding that 20% is the sweet spot for mine, with the light bar disabled. Others have reported that different colours also have an impact.

      • shabaka on 18/11/2022 - 17:42

        I see nothing has changed with the quality of those units

        mine gave least coil whine on battery with white backlight on every key. boring but that was the quietest option

        light bar I recommend to leave off - that one drains battery quite a bit, too

  • pineapple12 on 17/11/2022 - 22:32

    Just got the laptop, set it up, amazing so far and loving it all. Although I have one issue when im idle the screen goes black and I cant wake the laptop up again (power light is on) when i cant turn it on, im forced to power cycle the system. Anyone have this issue or a fix?

    • zorrt on 18/11/2022 - 07:56

      You can try to disable fast start and hibernate I think it was.

  • bloomingheck on 18/11/2022 - 19:27

    Just got the machine and not happy. While the machine was doing an update, the SSD failed. I opened it up and it appears they are using secondhand M.2 SSD. There's a sticker on it which says "Replace with HP Spare". It also looks old and not new part. This is ridiculous that I am getting secondhand stuff on a new machine!

    • rockmelon on 19/11/2022 - 08:15
      +1

      Yeah that sounds pretty dodgy, especially with that sticker. I would suggest doing a SSD health check with HWInfo or Crystal Disk Info etc. Collect all the evidence and then see how BPC Tech want to handle it.

      Good luck, let us know how you get on so that Ozbargainers know whether to trust BPC in future.

      • bloomingheck on 19/11/2022 - 10:00

        The SSD is not recognised by the machine. In the UEFI, it says the two slots are empty. I'm hoping it's just the SSD and not the slot that is stuffed.

      • Wt133 on 19/11/2022 - 19:10

        I noticed the same label on my drive when I opened it up inside to have a look. The drive is a Hp part but apparently the brand of drive is affiliated with Toshiba. I’ve never seen it before. Ended up adding in another 1tb drive for steam games. And using that included drive as a boot drive. Also Umart had a deal on x2 16 gigs (32 gigs), (max supported without risk of instability) of ram for $125 so got some of that coming. Seems ok for the price. Also noted the windows install didn’t include the NUC centre oddly enough but a fresh install and I was fine. And there’s a new version of bios available. Seems good for the price.

        Also I’ve checked with hardware info the Hp drive is brand new inside it.

        • voldemort on 20/11/2022 - 01:15

          Any early review for the laptop? :)

          • zorrt on 20/11/2022 - 08:37

            @voldemort: Screen is nice, haven't put inside by side to my monitor but I'm sure it won't compare. Noticeable light bleed, more so on bottom left corner. Light bleed doesn't bother me that much though. High refresh is very nice for general windows usage.

            Keyboard is pretty good, it's feels similar to my keychron k3 optical but needed a bit more force and less annoying (my keychron has the false press issue). It's not macbook level but I still like it.

            Trackpad is nice and smooth, glitchy at times though. Sometime a slight touch seems to register as a click and I end up opening random windows. But that could be me since I don't generally use touchpads.

            Idles around 50 degrees (drops to high 30s at times), haven't benched it but in genshin temps are around 75 degrees with GPU running at 95w. This is with a -50 undervolt to CPU and riser to lift up the back. Forgot what GPU temps were. Without undervolt CPU was around 80.

            Build is nice and solid. Whoever opened it up is a bit of a butcher though and tightend up too tight and damaged the screws a bit but no biggie so long as it didn't thread.

            Intel nuc studio isn't too great and been forgetting my settings and reverting itself back to passive mode. Have uninstalled uniwill and nuc studio and reinstalled so will see later it that resolves otherwise I'll need to keep checking and turning off passive mode as needed. Passive mode idles at around 70 degrees before the fans kick in.

    • s3n on 19/11/2022 - 11:49

      Yikes when a “bargain” becomes a headache

      $1600 Legion for me any day all delivered ready to go

    • CyberMurning on 19/11/2022 - 17:51
      -1

      But when you open means its out of warranty? Wow they are smart, they must think people will not break the seal anyway so just put anything inside.

      • bloomingheck on 19/11/2022 - 18:23
        +1

        No. Opening the laptop does not void warranty. The laptop itself advertises expansion for memory and NVME SSD slots.

        • zorrt on 20/11/2022 - 08:21

          Went and checked mine, was a Samsung instead of the gigabyte listed in the spec. Saying that I replaced it after booting up to check machine was ok and didn't reinstall.

          I'm sure they have a clause somewhere saying they will use equivalent parts that is different to that listed on the spec page when stock is low. Your stick was most probably just a doa which is unfortunate. Did you get in contact and are they sending you a replacement ssd?

  • CrackLlama on 18/11/2022 - 23:23

    Does anybody know if the remaining Kraken M15 laptops in stock at BPCtech are 140W aswell?

    • BargainHunterJohnnyB on 26/11/2022 - 09:48

      These just came in an Intel NUC x15 box with the ram and SSD preinstalled - the x15 is made by tongfang, although the BIOS is Intel's.

      So all of these Intel NUC x15s have the possibility of hitting 140 watts - although you'd want to keep it at 90-100 watts unless you just wanted to hear your room during the winter… 90-100 watts really is the 'sweet spot' in my experience.

  • jattsta on 20/11/2022 - 10:19

    Decent deal.
    I bought a second hand Nitro 5 Rtx 3060 for $740.
    Although screen colour accuracy isnt great I use my 1440 samsung curved 34inch monitor 99% of the time, so the screen on the Kraken isnt a big deal.
    140w GPU vs 95W on the Nitro realistically has 4-6 FPS differences in games.

    • CVonC on 21/11/2022 - 23:20

      Nice price! There's an MSI 3060 firmware out there that you can use to unlock the Acer's 3060 to 140W btq ;)

  • BargainHunterJohnnyB on 23/11/2022 - 13:17
    +2

    I just got mine and it's actually good for the price of $1200 - sure the SSD is crap, but everything else is sweet.

    I added a $15 windows 10 pro key to the OS and also a Samsung Evo 970 and it's all sweet.

    Eventually I am going to replace the 256GB with a 2TB gen 4 or some crap when they become cheap enough.

    For $1200 this is some serious hardware… just a 3060 costs $600 here and what makes this laptop significant is that the mobile 3060 is as powerful as the desktop one…

    For the price I actually thought it was 'nice', but of course not as nice as a $3000 16 inch M1/M2 macbook pro - although it has no problems running any AAA gaming title at full resolution.

    I play Halo: Infinite on it and noticed that on the screen 1080 and 1440 looks about the same, except 1080 gives me 110 FPS on Medium or High settings.. I could easily tune it to hit 165 hz consistently.

    • rockmelon on 23/11/2022 - 15:52

      Yeah I'm loving mine, the build quality was a real surprise and the venting seems to do a decent job of allowing the GPU to do it's thing!

      My only issue is that I find the dGPU always likes to stay 'awake' but in an idle state after I've finished gaming or have disconnected from an external monitor. Whilst it's awake the laptop battery lasts only a measly 2-3 hours.
      I've determined it's the dGPU causing the terrible battery life from monitoring the wattage draw Sensors within HWInfo. Also after adding a column to Task Manager > Processes for "GPU Engine", I can see that multiple apps are still utilizing the dGPU rather than falling back to the iGPU.
      After doing a full restart, I can see that the dGPU is no longer awake and I get a solid 6-9 hours of battery life.

      If you have a chance, let me know if you experience the same thing so I can determine whether I need to do something more drastic on my machine like reflashing the BIOS / fresh Windows install.

      • BargainHunterJohnnyB on 26/11/2022 - 09:33
        +1

        Well I don't have that issue, apparently - I played some halo infinite and then closed that down and opened up youtube and set it to 4K …. this uses 24% of the intel graphics, but none of the dGPU.

        So I guess that this is a good thing for you and me, since it technically means that the bug is software based and localized to your server… I have not done thorough testing, but one test was enough for now and I'll let you know how it goes from here.

        The 3060's 6GB VRAM is actually sufficient in my experience, unless you try gaming on something more than 1440p - in all honesty, it appears to me that even scaling down to 1080p is fine for this laptop, since it's only a 15 inch screen…. does not hurt to have 1440p available, but I'd rather have 30 extra FPS LOL.. same as some of the game's graphics settings.. they might improve appearance, but it's not THAT noticeable..

        Also the best power setting is the middle one since the lowest is garbage .. it goes from 50 watts and 40 fps to 90 watts 120 fps to 120 watts 130 fps with halo infinite..

        I'd rather turn those settings down which are not even noticeable and have it running at what i actually consider a reasonable noise/heat level.

      • BargainHunterJohnnyB on 30/11/2022 - 12:31
        +1

        So I think that this problem occurs when you run one or two programs together, when one is initially using the GPU i.e. playing video games, then opening 'something else', and it goes on from there and cascades.

        Let me know if you need any further assistance.

        • rockmelon on 30/11/2022 - 13:02

          Thanks for the follow up BargainHunterJohnnyB!

          Yep that's exactly what I'm experiencing, essentially once a game or external monitor wakes the dGPU, other apps switch over to the dGPU. I assume this is to allow the iGPU to go into power saving. Then once you have finished gaming and exit the game, since the other apps are running from the dGPU, they have no reason to switch back to the iGPU.

          I found several other optimus related forums with other people experiencing the same issues but using other laptops, so it seems like a common issue.

          There are 2 workarounds that I've found work for me:

          1. Restart the laptop after gaming or disconnecting from an external monitor (not ideal)
          2. Once finished gaming etc. Open Device Manager > Display Adapters > NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU > Right click and Disable Device… then give it a couple seconds and Enable Device again. This will force all the other apps to switch back to the iGPU. It's important to Enable Device again rather than just simply leaving it off, otherwise it will have the opposite effect with the dGPU sensors being disabled and running at 30W consistently without going to sleep.
          • BargainHunterJohnnyB on 30/11/2022 - 13:43

            @rockmelon: Yeah I think it might just have to do with waking the dGPU and then when it's awake you use an app, which uses the dGPU, so obviously any other app that's open at that time on the desktop is going to be using the dGPU lol… then it gets 'stuck' there and if you open anything whilst the 'stuck' programs are open, you keep doing the same time, since there's no difference between a game and any other program using/waking the dGPU.

            Think it just has to do stuff being messed around with once the dGPU is awake.

            I also had to change all the lid settings from sleep or whatever to hibernate in order to get the desired result, but this is probably just software side.

    • cmyk on 25/11/2022 - 18:29

      Hi, can you share the link to $15 windows 10 key, thanks

  • raidosoma on 03/12/2022 - 18:56

    If anyone wants to let theirs go, for the same price as the sale, be interested in taking it off their hands.

    Live in Brisbane/Gold Coast

  • tootski on 09/12/2022 - 09:39
    +5

    FWIW I contacted BCP Tech and asked if this laptop qualified for the Intel Modern Warfare II promotion and it did. I saw an ad on their website where I bought this laptop. They sent me a master key and I was able to register on the intel site.

    • melb-ourne on 09/12/2022 - 11:30

      Thanks…Marketing going to send me the key

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