Intel Eluktronics MAG 15 laptop with Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut and Cooler Master MasterGel offers just marginal temperature improvements when gaming

(October 17, 2019 update: Price information and temperature clarification added.)

Intel announced its white label gaming laptop back in September as an alternative to the usual Clevo and Tongfang systems most resellers like to use. Companies like Schenker, Eluktronics, and Maingear have already begun shipping their respective variants of the Intel laptop with our full review on the Schenker model here. By extension, our Schenker XMG Fusion 15 review also covers the Eluktronics MAG 15 and Maingear Element since they all share the same underlying Intel-designed chassis. We recommend checking out the page to learn more about these models.

To give themselves an upper hand, Eluktronics have repasted the CPU and GPU of our MAG 15 test unit with more expensive Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut liquid metal and Cooler Master's MasterGel Maker solution, respectively. In contrast, our Schenker test unit shipped with a standard silicone-based thermal compound sourced from Shin-Etsu and M.G.. The MAG 15 should have better thermals than our base XMG Fusion 15 configuration on paper.

The table and screenshots below represent the MAG 15 under various stressful conditions ranging from Prime95 to Witcher 3 loads. Interestingly, core temperatures aren't all that different from the XMG Fusion 15 despite their dissimilar thermal pastes. When running both Prime95 and FurMark simultaneously, the CPU and GPU in the Schenker would stabilize at 90 C and 75 C, respectively, compared to 89 C and 77 C on the Eluktronics. The deltas are similarly narrow when running Witcher 3.

CPU temperature when running CineBench R15 Multi-Thread in a loop, however, is about 8 C to 10 C cooler on the Eluktronics system at 71 C to 81 C compared to 81 C to 89 C on the Schenker. CPU performance is about the same between them. Both systems were set to High Performance mode prior to each testing phase.

Schenker says the costlier compounds should be performing a little better than what we've recorded here when compared to the standard silicone-based thermal paste. Other factors contributing to our results are also likely at play including CPU binning, differences in ambient testing temperature, and production variances between the Shenker and Eluktronics systems. Thus, users will likely have slightly different results with their own retail units than what we have here. Even so, don't expect any huge performance or temperature advantages when gaming if upgrading to Thermal Grizzly on this particular Intel-designed chassis; the standard silicone paste will do just fine at least in the short term. If you plan on running the CPU and/or GPU at 100 percent utilization, however, then the more advanced thermal compound options should be worth considering.

The Eluktronics MAG 15 is now shipping for $1950 USD if configured with the RTX 2070 Max-Q GPU, 16 GB DDR4-2666 RAM, 512 GB PCIe SSD, and both the Thermal Grizzly and Cooler Master thermal compounds. Configuring the Schenker XMG Fusion 15 with similar specifications comes out to 2220 Euros or approximately $2430. Depending on where you reside, one option is going to be far more attractive than the other.