Aorus X7 Review by HTWingNut

It would be suicide not to update the GPU's to Maxwell. Power and heat will go down significantly.

 

And SLI 860M will smoke the current SLI 765M system.

Sent with love from my Galaxy S4

 

Hey HT found your old video detailing Intel XTU

in case anyone is interested.Thanks again!

 

Indeed, not to mention great for marketing. I understand their rationale for getting the X7 out before Chinese New Year, but a 4k screen and SLI 860m`s would be ideal (esp. the 860s, but I suppose a 4k IPS (if they exist) would be a nice upgrade, too. I'd cancel my razer blade 512 pre order (which has been massively delayed) for that.

 

This would be a buy for me with 860m sli and 1080p ips, optional 4k because I don't need 4k

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

 

I agree, all these 3K and 4K screens are being thrown in. Now we're at the mercy of Microsoft for better UI scaling and nVidia/AMD for scaling in gaming and having it not look horrible. Of course true 4K is 2x 1080p so you could still game at 1080p and should still look pretty crisp. I would just have to laugh if Aorus comes out with a 14 inch with a Maxwell 870m replacement and beats the 870m in the Blade by 30% performance with less power and heat. Tee hee.

 

Man you have such a chip on your shoulder for the blade. Don't hold your breath for 870 Maxwell, it'll probably be a while, especially one that is 30% performance. The Kepler and Maxwell 860's are similar.

 

Call it a chip, call it a grudge, whatever. I have nothing against Razer other than they could make something great but instead go for the marketing ploy for most perforamnce and thinnest at the expense of RAM and storage expansion and thermals and gouging customers with their limited SSD options. In any case I digress. I've said my piece.

With regards to 870m, I am referring to the 870m replacement (970m? 870mx?) in Maxwell. The 860m is an odd duck why they decided to go with Maxwell and Kepler for the same designation is beyond me. The 860m Kepler didn't exist for many months prior to 860m Maxwell, they were released concurrently. Whatever replaces the 192-bit card in Maxwell is quite likely to be significantly faster, run cooler, and use less power. It's more like a comparison of the 750m with 850m or 760/5m with the 860m.

 

Everyone will be refreshing with the 900M/800MX including Razer. I don't think for a second we won't see another blade in early/mid 2015. I'd love to see an Aorus 14 we need more competition, though gigabyte will need to decide if it wants to do that or continue with the P line.

 

I don't think Razer will be refreshing in a few months though, likely when Aorus will be releasing their updated laptop and possibly a smaller version (rumor). That is if nVidia has anything up their sleeve in the next few months. No doubt Razer will refresh, but likely not for another year. I guess it's always leap frog.

 

You didn't happen to notice what the idle temps were like on the Aorus did you. Reread the review but didn't see anything.

Very interested in this laptop but waiting for a maxwell refresh. Battery life isn't important to me but temps and performance are.

 

These are my idle temps right now. No cooler, with 80mV undervolt. Just sitting on my glass table at work running office applications etc.

BTW, I should mention that I have repasted the GPU and CPU. After repasting, I got a whopping 9deg drop in load temps on CPU. GPU runs 63 / 77 on load and about 45 / 50 idle on GPU1 / GPU2 respectively. Quite good imo.

 

Those are actually pretty good looking temps, both idle and load, for as thin as this machine is. Tore between this and the sager np7338. Two completely different notebooks on the spectrum but I think they both have their unique advantages. Not in a huge hurry to get a new one but waiting to see if the aorus gets a 860m refresh before I start throwing money.

 

I want to upgrade my mechanical hd to a kick- SSD. But it is so hard (for me) knowing what would fit. The Verified Vendors List isn't listing many options. Any suggestions on what to get? Price is not really an issue

 

I have a Samsung 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256 256 GB in mine. Get the 512GB if money isn't an issue

 

Thank you for your reply!

I've heard that Samsung has really fast drives, but shorter lifespan than, for example, Intel. Any thoughts on that?

Was it easy to install?

 

The short answer is you will probably ditch the Samsung drive for something better many years before it wears out. It's really a non issue for consumers.

Sent with love from my Galaxy S4

 

The pro version also have improved reliability and number of reads/writes, so it really shouldn't be a problem.

 

People need to get over the notion of "limited write cycles" of an SSD. It's a non issue period. Unless you do TONS of writes (like 100GB/day+) EVERY SINGLE DAY you might run into issues. But in those cases you'd buy an enterprise type drive because that's what your workload demands.

 

The problem is that reviews put attention to it, when it's virtually impossible to break the cycles for an average user. Even if you are a heavy user, you'd have to be on 24/7 to achieve such insanity.

 

These are my temps after 30 minutes of SC-blacklist. Fans on auto, laptop propped up, 80mV undervolt, CPU and GPUs repasted.



Repasting really makes a huge difference. The factory paste job was rather bad...

 

Yeah a 500GB SSD using TLC nand with 1000 P/E cycles will still last almost 5 years with 100GB of writes PER DAY with 3x write amplification. It's a complete non-issue for the average consumer.

 

Thank you! I think mythbusters should do an episode on that issue!

 

Have you read any SSD review?
99% of the reviews are filled with nonsense like
"What would happen if we first filled the drive completely. Hit it with thousand programs at the same time, and then run a benchmark to see how many Megabytes per second it can do"

Totally realistic right? They are bored out of their behinds and lack any methods of finding out which drive is faster than the other, because SSDs hit the SATA3 limit like 4-5 years ago, and pretty much all SSDs today are extremely similar in performance. So the reviewers start doing stupid things like what I wrote above just to find something they differ about and therefor have something to write their sponsored reviews about. And of course you will find some drives that does worse in this BS test because the manufacture of course didn`t make a firmware that can deal with this sort of BS workload that normal persons will never ever encounter.

TLC vs MLC is just another stupid retarded annoying BS non issue that they blow way out of proportions because they just got to have something to write about.

 

I had been checking on the Aorus website from time to time, was thrilled to see they have now refreshed the X7 with dual 860m cards instead of 765m:

AORUS Gaming Laptop X7

Now all that remains is for it to be "in stock" again at Newegg or Amazon. (I think the version on Amazon currently uses the 765m cards). I wonder why Aorus does not simply sell direct to consumers via their own website?

Wingnut, any chance you will get a review model of the updated version?

 

I know this has nothing to do with the x7 but new AORUS models coming out:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gig...aorus-x3-x3-plus-13-3-13-9-gaming-laptop.html

HTWingnut I hope you can get these models and do your great reviews.
This can give the RAZER BLADE 2014 model some good competition.

 

Er, yeah I'd say it completely destroys the Blade with two 860m cards instead of one, for about the same retail price.

 

IKAS V is comparing the smaller Aorus X3 and X3 Plus (13.3" with 870M) to the Razer Blade (14" with 870M). The larger Aorus X7 (17" with 860M SLI) would compare to the Razer Blade Pro (17" 860M).

 

Exactly, but I think the X3 and X3 Plus still have slightly bigger chasis and hopefully that translates to a better cooling.

 

duane16, did you repaste the CPU and GPUs by yourself or did you go through a third-party vendor to repaste? I'm considering repasting my X7 v1 because of the high temps. I looked into some different shops around Taipei, but I've only found Arctic Silver to use. Which thermal paste did you use? And was it easy to repaste? I've repasted multiple desktop CPUs before but this will be my first mobile repasting.

 

When is this dual 860m coming out?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

They are in stock at Scan here in the UK:

Aorus X7 Intel i7 17.3" Gaming Notebook with SLi 8GB 860M Graphics FREE DELIVERY - X7 v2-CF1 - Scan.co.uk

(no idea where my previous reply went!)

 

Great review, HT, and good machine indeed. Being not much of a gamer myself, I really appreciate extra programmable buttons and good sound that only gaming notebooks provide. The price of this one disappoints, however.

 

for that price isn't razor new laptop better ? same size 17 inch

 

So the aorus site says it has a 2 year warranty.

I want to buy this via amazon due to amazon prime, and $8 overnight shipping.

But amazon does not mention the manufacturer warranty anywhere. Does this Aorus x7 come with the warranty if you buy via amazon, does anyone know?


Also what's up with newegg selling it for 2299 and only offering 1 year warranty?

 

hey gys so i got the aorus. i really like it. 1 big problem though. The touchpad. Because it is glass I find my finger sticking a lot and it is getting really annoying, compared to a traditional touchpad. Also since it is one big glass piece, anyone notice the left and right click buttons? You have to push the buttons towards the outside because if you do it in the inside it is almost impossible to click the button it's so hard. This is also annoying because I am used to clicking the right click button towards the inside, not outer edge.

If anyone else experienced this, did you find a way around it or does it get better?

 

Not really. The Razer costs $2300 for a 128GB SSD and single 860m, compared with $2300 for 3x128GB SSD + 1TB + two 860m GPU's.

 

Sorry for the late reply, I don't check these boards very often these days. I repasted it myself. It is not very difficult, as accessing the CPU and GPU only requires removing the back plate and unscrewing the heatsinks. If you have repasted desktops before, you should find the process very similar.

The thermal paste I am using in GELID GC Extreme, and I used Arcticlean to clean the processors. I'm really liking the performance of this paste so far.

Beware that the factory paste job is quite bad and you will find paste all over the place. You will need to clean it a lot. I'll see if I can post some before-after pictures.

If you need any more information please PM me.

 

I would love the see those photos!

 

I never quite get why laptop manufacturers don't use good thermal paste and don't have strict guidelines to applying it properly on the assembly chain. The extra cost involved would me minimal compared to all the possible returns for CPU and GPU overheating. The Aorus laptop reviews would also be better if a well applied top of the line thermal paste reduced the CPU and GPU temps.

What did you use to clean up the factory paste job? Acetone?

 

Could please share your way to undervolt the cpu? I am thinking about getting a new version of aorus x7 and trying to do some temperature modifications. Thank you so much!

 

Sorry, late reply again. Please see attached.

I used Arcticlean and coffee filters, but you may use 70% isopropyl alcohol if you don't want to buy any. It is quite cheap and works very well with coffee filters. Not sure about acetone though...

You can use Intel Extreme Tuning Utilities (XTU). But use the latest version otherwise the voltages won't stick on boot. I'm using a 80mV undervolt with 30x on both 3 and 4 cores.

 

Did you get to see an 860m SLI version bro? I am really curious what will happen with 970m!