New gaming notebook unveiled - AORUS X7

It's good that you were able to reduce temps to acceptable levels by implementing some or all of the above tweaks, but since the cooling system was highlighted as one of this laptop's selling points, I still think this is an embarrassment.

I agree with Cloudfire: the user shouldn't have to do any of the tweaks (well maybe apart from lifting up the back) to have acceptable CPU temps. Though to be fair, considering the 4700MQ is technically being semi-actively cooled (no dedicated fan or heatpipes), these temps when viewed in context "make sense", even though they're not what anyone would call "reasonable".

 

GPU 0 should have been linked by heatpipe to GPU1 heatsink and the CPU should have had one dedicated heatpipe at least (that large bottom one).

Cheaping out with that plate was silly.

 

I dont really see a problem with temps around 90 at peak though. As long as there is no throttling and the casing stays relativly cool it will be fine.

 

Propping it up and running max fans resulted in ~ 8-10C reduced peak temps. That's something simple any user can do. Fussing with Intel XTU is a third party change that many users may not feel comfortable with, but it's still easy and free to do, not ideal, but it is a simple "mod".

Again, as noted before, OEM's have to manage with what components are available. If Intel offered a chip that ran at 2.8GHz max turbo (4 cores) and 100mv less voltage, this wouldn't even be seen as negative and people would be nodding their heads up and down, and wow, it doesn't exceed 85C. I'm not giving an excuse, just that this is an issue when you cram the current gen 47W CPU in a confined space. The same problem exists with any thin and light or small laptop out there that offers these chips. This machine is no exception. It's like putting a Camaro engine into an Impala where the Camaro can achieve 420 ft-lbs of torque but in the Impala only 380 due to other drivetrain constraints, but the Camaro engine is the only 8 cylinder engine available to them.

Perhaps Aorus should restrict the CPU to 2.8GHz and run at 100mV less, but then people would scream bloody murder that they can't run their CPU at spec speeds. Or even offer a dual core, which honestly for gaming, except for a handful of games, there would be little to no performance degradation.

From what I've gathered, Haswell chips run much hotter than Sandy or Ivy Bridge chips, and the TDP ratings should be much higher.

I agree there. GPU's sharing a heatsink would have made more sense than the CPU + GPU, and likely would have evened out the temps. The GPU's might run a little hotter, but likely not in the high 80's when the CPU goes up there. But I'm sure they've tested that, or maybe not.

Also, I haven't been able to recreate that 3 hour battery life session. After several tests in SLI and single GPU config typical battery life is right around 2.5 hour mark whether surfing or movie viewing. So at the moment it looks like 2.5 hours is about typical for battery life.

 

Thank you for taking measurements, a 17" notebook with a 15" footprint sounded too good to be true. Sadly it was, bummer. How could they be so grossly off in their published measurements? No big deal for some, but a deal breaker for others - if they can't get simple measurements right it makes you wonder what else got fudged. Disappointed for sure.

 

I'm sure it was an honest mistake. Their web editors and marketing staff are human too. It could have been some fresh college intern that hadn't had his morning Mountain Dew and asked him to measure the machine. They have since updated the specs on their site.

 

Thanks for keeping us in the loop as your review progresses. I will admit I'm disappointed by the size discrepancies, as that was a big factor in my excitement for this machine and why I went with the 15" I currently have over a 17".... I do travel and that size difference does matter in that scenario. Too good to be true as Sen7inel said well. Not necessarily a deal breaker, but when combined with those temps definitely not as exited as I once was.

 

Well at this point, I've done what I can. I have to reset the machine, pack it up and send it back. I have the review 80% complete, just hope I'm not forgetting something once I get it all buttoned up.

It would have been nice to be able to repaste the CPU and GPU to see if that improved it any, and as with pretty much every other machine, it helps by at least a few deg C, usually more.

Their rep has been very candid and responsive about some questions I've had. They sound very receptive to user feedback for future revisions, so it can't hurt to let them know what you want and expect.

 

No doubt a dream come true combination of size and strength for us travelers, too bad it was but a mirage. Still excited for the product and HTWingNut's review, but at this point I have to consider the Y510p and P25w as legitimate alternatives.

Again, can't wait for this review!

 

we can always look forward to a X7 R2 .

 

There is an idea, but there is always something better right around the corner, obsolescence is the byproduct of innovation. Just as the vastly improved R2 comes out there will be talk of how superior the upcoming R3 will be, how much cooler the cpus will run by then, and how faster the next gen of mobile gpus will perform - we'll be stuck waiting forever! My point is the X7 looks to be an outstanding, innovative laptop with its size and power. I just don't know if I can realistically make it work for ME

 

if the next version have enough enhancements and fixes, i would bite. By then it should be updated with more recent tech and fix all the glaring issues we can see right now. That would be enough for me.

 

I have lurked on this thread ever since I found it and news of the X7 over a month ago.

I want to say thank you HTWingNut not only for this review but others you have listed in your signature. I never had a "need" for a gaming laptop, but always wanted one, in the past but over the last 16 months work has been keeping me from my desktop more and more and of course I have been looking for one. I really do like what Gigabyte has offered in the X7 but will take a wait and see approach once these are in more hands.


Thanks again HTWingNut

P.S. I wish I still had my old GoPro Hero 2 w/the head mount strap for you HTWingNut, so you can go hands free on the demo's

 

Thanks HTWingNut. I feel sorry for the average joe gamer that buys this, without wingnuts expertise of cooling, undervolting etc... at this price point these flaws would be and are unexceptable to me. At the end of the day it seems the tech just isn't quite there yet to pull off a high end, thin gamer. Getting closer though.

 

Thanks so much for putting this together, wingnut! :thumbsup:

At first I thought, good lord 94fps for BF4? However, then I see you had AA disabled. Did you try with AA enabled for comparison?

Can you provide us with some insight on these results? How does this compare with other laptops with 775m or 780m? Are the performance results using the single 765m enabled comparable to performance you'd expect in a laptop that only has a single 765m?

Were there any surprises? Crysis 3 38fps, Metro Last Light 38fps, tomb raider 49fps seems a bit lower than I would have expected, but perhaps this is in line with how a 780m performs under the same Ultra settings? Did you try any of these with FXAA instead of MSAA?

 

Very strange design.

Why not a heatpipe that also goes over GPU1 and to the fan on the left? So that the heat is equally distributed across both fans not to mention both GPUs instead of having a really hot CPU as well as a GPU that runs 10C+ over the other GPU...

 

Don't look at the FPS for BF4. I redid those. They're all over the place though. Depends on what you're doing and how much action is going on. It's not quite that high. I reran everything on Ultra settings.

I do have benchmark results from previous runs that I can compare, but I rather do that with another machine side by side all with latest drivers, etc. But if you look at this review: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...ager-np8250-clevo-p157sm-review.html#gpubench

There's results of 780m:

Game: 780m / 765m SLI
3DMark 11 X Graphics: 2450 / 2240 (-8%)
3DMark Firestrike Graphics: 5265 / 4822 (-8%)
Unigine Heaven FPS: 32.3 / 27.4 (-15%)
Crysis 3: 34 / 32 (-6%)
Dirt 3: 90.6 / 86.5 (-5%)
Hitman: 34.3 / 30.3 (-12%)
Metro Last Light: 23.0 / 33.3 (+44%)
Sleeping Dogs: 30.8 / 33.7 (+9%)
Tomb Raider: 39.7 / 42.1 (+6%)

So they are very close, only oddity is Metro Last Light. Bioshock Infiinite I ran at different settings so not showing those results, and Catzilla has gone through numerous changes that the original was beta, and not a fair comparison either.

 

The almost 1lb weight discrepancy between reported and measured killed any interest I had in this. To be expected to cool 3 hot chips, but disappointing as they initially reported a unit that was much lighter.

 

To be fair, the weight on the site is with one mSATA + two RAM chips. Not four RAM chips + HDD + 2 mSATA.

But I just weighed them (my parts not theirs) with two separate scales to make sure, since they're light:





4.1oz extra. which would be 0.25lbs or ~ 0.11kg

 

This is great to hear and extremely helpful! I was a bit worried about some of the concerns you raised regarding heat, but these numbers seal the deal for me. Finally there is a thin form factor laptop available with beastly performance, that should last for the next few years. At the end of the day, I would not plan to run games on any laptop without a high quality laptop cooler anyways.

 

@ HTWingNut: Really aprecciate your effort on reviewing the X7!
Too bad they brushed up those initial weight and size. sounded to good. maybe someone put future "x5" figures online. Nevertheless they are going to be a deal breaker for me as I travel by plane weekly. Somewhat 16" would have been great - anything beyond is not quite acceptable if you got to travel with a T430 as well. So I'm still looking for a fast, high build quality (aluminum preferred) 14-16" gaming laptop, that is available in germany and capable of playing Guild Wars 2 at Ultra Quality. My second best choice - P34g gets more and more atractive as I'm loosing patience to wait any longer and the razor blade is still not available with guarantee / without ridiculous taxes/shipping costs

 

Well, with any luck there will be an addition to the lineup, hopefully a smaller notebook.

 

It does sound insanely heavy at over 7lbs. I'd probably be willing to overlook this given the thinness of the chassis, however it would be nice to be able to check out a display model at Fry's or Best Buy before dropping $2,000 on this model.

 

It's about the weight of most 15" gaming notebooks, although the weight felt distributed pretty evenly.

 

I am tempted to pick this up, dunno if id want to spend any real money on a gaming laptop though.

 

MSI is also launching a thin notebook pretty soon.

GS60, a 15.6 inch gaming notebook. No specs disclosed. But pretty sure its nowhere near as powerful as the X7

 

Considering the GS70 has a 765m, that MSI 15" likely won't have anything more than that or 860m. I would love to see a thin and light 14-15" with a 192-bit 870m in it though. Not as powerful as the Aorus x7, but plenty powerful enough for 1080p gaming.

 

LinusTechTips reported that the GS60 seemed faster in the same games. Gameplay was reported to be smoother than the GS70...so the thing might actually have a 770M within its confines.

 

@HTWingNut

When will you be posting your full review of the Aorus?

 

a 770M in an MSI GS series :/ the 17" is already struggling to cool the little GTX 765M.
I don't expect it to happen anytime soon

 

Review UP: http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/745355-aorus-x7-review-htwingnut.html

 

This notebook is almost perfect for me. But the display is a bit of a disappointment. Having an option to buy an upgraded display panel would made it a perfect buy for me...

@HTWingNut:
I have quickly googled the model you have shown on one of your vids. Looks like this particular display has a bunch of unhappy users complaining about vertical lines (see: Anyone replace their AUO matte screen ? - Page 5 ). I wonder if you have noticed this during your trial.

 

I didn't notice any "lines" per se. It wasn't as crisp as I'm used to, then again, I'm used to 1080p IPS on a 13" screen.

 

Got my thermal paste and msatas ready to go, should be here Thursday.

 

What is the price for this thing? I cant find anyplace that sellls it. Also what do u guys think it would cost if i ship it to Norway? I dont think any shop in Norway will get this so i have to ship.

 

Only place that sells it currently in USA that I know if is Newegg.

Newegg.com - Aorus X7-CF1 Notebook Intel Core i7 4700HQ (2.40GHz) 16GB Memory 128GB x2 SSD 1TB HDD 17.3" Windows 8.1

Also look at Aorus website they post where it's available for sale.

 

Are they any store that ships to norway? It will be so expensive to do it with jetcarrier.

 

Oops, missed that Norway part. /shame on me/

It's not available in Europe yet that I know of.

 

exclusive store selling the X7 in UK: Aorus X7-CF1 17.3" LED TFT, Intel Core i7-4700HQ, 16GB DDR3, 2x128 SSD RAID, 1TB HDD, Dual NVIDIA GTX 765M SLI - Windows 8 [9WX700003-GB-A-001]

perhaps you'd find it in a german store too

 

If i order from USA, the total will be like 2900 dollars, so it is way to exspensive. I just have to wait and see what they will cost in Norway. If I am lucky enough a small company in Norway will buy it cheap and sell it without windows and maybe do a rebranding like they did with the msi gs70, then it will be cheap.

 

I doubt they will be able to rebrand. MSI sell barebones like Clevo for rebrand and reselling. Aorus is already a branded laptop and unless they offer barebones with no logos, and probably not going to happen any time soon. But that doesn't mean it won't make it's way to Norway. I just know they are starting up and likely are limiting their channels to test the interest in the product.

 

The boat may have sailed but worth a try for other potential buyers:

"You need to update specs ASAP with GTX 860M. Much faster and actually cooler than GTX 765M!"

"AORUS: we have submitted your request/suggestion to our R&D Team. They huffed at us and told us to come back much much much later. We're not sure whether it was language barrier or our sign language that confused them. But we are working very hard on this.
Thank you for your patience."

 

This X7 is now available from Xotic PC.

 

"Language barrier", "sign language", LoL.

 

Hello,

Did anyone tried to use this laptop on a 3d TV through hdmi port with nvidia 3dtv play. Did you discuss to display stereoscopic movies and video games this way or does this laptop suffer the usual.

 

Any 14"/15" models from AORUS coming out or rumored?

 

ahem... rumored... ahem...

<iframe width='420' height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/5NNOrp_83RU" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

That would be nice, but I don't think so. Sounds like there will be an Aorus X7 refresh at the end of May w/ a 4k screen. Uncertain on a GPU update (although that would be even better).

 

Well considering everything in the last month or so has been 860m, I sure would hope they wouldn't just update with a 4k screen. But then again, who knows.

 

Do you have a source? It sounds great and the logical step for Aorus, but is it a rumour or wishful thinking?