Gigabyte P34G

im just wondering if this laptop is durable. looking to take in to school everyday and use it for gaming outside of school. also the design and quality of it. thanks

 

Greetings from Norway!

I have some questions about the P34G: I have been trying to find the answer in the forum, but its so much to read and I feel like I might have missed something.

1) Battery-time: How long do you get with light use such as Office Word and Wifi with low brightness on the screen? Could it be made better by swapping the HDD for an SSD?
2) The fans: I have been reading about them ramping up - will this also occur on light use?
3) The keyboard: I have read that there is some flex, does it still feel solid?

Cheers
- N

 

I gave you one reply here in case you missed it.

--> http://forum.notebookreview.com/gigabyte/720497-gigabyte-p34g-149.html#post9479644 <--

Mac

 

1. From what people report and what I see personally 3 to 4 hours is realistic. Probably a bit more with tweaking. There is no gain in power consumption to go from an SSD from HDD, Early on when SSDs first came we all thought they'd use a lot less, in practise they don't.

2. Yes and no, the kick-in point seems to be at 50-55 degrees, a temperature it will hit with the blink of an eye. People are looking for a solution to rise this threshold a few degrees, given that we have an unlocked BIOS and various fan control software I have hopes in this regard, but we do not have a solution at the moment.

3. They keys themselves do not flex. They are short travel and nice feeling, and quite good for a laptop keyboard. The issue reported here and that I observe myself is that the "decorative" cover around the keys have some issues, namely it bulge slightly between the space-key and trackpad. You do not touch it or click it though. I seem to recall one owner in this thread had an issue where one of the screws that hold the keyboard in place (they go all the way through from the bottom of the chassis into the bottom of the keyboard) wasn't tightened properly or was wrong.

Mac

 

Hello all.

I have been looking for a slim, light Notebook/Ultrabook and the p34G appears to be exactly what I want.

I have the following questions:
1) I have heard some stories about build quality (elsewhere in this thread). Is this anything to be concerned about?
2) One of my biggest issues is noise. When the laptop is running in desktop/2D mode, do BOTH fans spin? Is it noticable?
3) Also related to noise, another pet hate is the dreaded "cpu whine". Does this laptop suffer from that annoying whining noise?
4) I note the laptop has a plastic base, but a metal top. How is the finish of the aluminium?
5) Related to above, does the laptop have much flex? (I have a habit of picking up my laptop with one hand on the lefthand side of the wrist rest).
6) I see the included SSD is 128gb (with a max 256 gb). Why is 256 the limit? Is this a hardware/architecture limit or just the bios?
7) How is the onging product support? Do they release much in the way of bios updates?
8) What is the maximum practical CPU which can be installed (i,e, something which the bios supports, which wont cause the laptop to overheat).

If anyone can answer some of all of my questions, I would be very happy

regards

 

I'm getting the problem on 8.1. I killed the OSD and the smart manager itself through the task manager, and caps lock did not tab me out. So the problem is definitely with the smart manager.

 

okay so i basically narrowed it down to the lenovo y510p and gigabyte P34G... looking for durability, quilting, and portability. what do you guys think. I want this laptop to last 4 years.since the gigabyte P34G is fairly new is there some problems with it?

 

Sorry to hear it still happens in Windows 8 (was optimistically hoping it could be a side effect of the Win 8 Smart Manager being used on Win 7 - too bad). This is the unfortunate thing about Gigabyte collecting all those many management apps into one - it makes it hard to disable just the one part that you are having problems with.

Has anyone reported this issue to their support? It's a huge deal on a gaming laptop.

If you want quilting this is not the laptop for you.

Along with reading this thread, here are some of the English Reviews (there are actually lots):

Review Gigabyte P34G Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

Review: Gigabyte P34G - Laptop - HEXUS.net

Gigabyte P34G review | Expert Reviews

Gigabyte P34G gaming laptop Review - Notebooks - Gaming - Good Gear Guide by PC World Australia

Gigabyte P34G review | ITProPortal.com

See what they think about the quality and all the rest there - a lot of them hit on it .

Main complaints for this one is noise, the issue above of geting kicked out of full screen games and the major throttling on battery that prevents most gaming except when plugged in - it's the mostly the P35K that bends.

Peter

 

I have both a 256GB mSATA SSD and a regular 512GB SATA SSD in mine. There is no limit just that Gigabyte's standard configs don't go higher.

Sent from my LG-D800 using Tapatalk

 

I've yet to see one offered with a 256gb msata anywhere.

 

I have been emailing support, and I'm about to call them. I'll let you know what happens.

 

Gentech and XoticPC both allow you to upgrade the msata up to 512GB, unless you're talking about the stock msata.

 

is this a reliable laptop? since its a fairly new laptop?

 

Please do, thanks.

Ya I think he means stock - those boutique re sellers will let you upgrade almost anything that's not soldered on (still not sure if I should upgrade to an AC or Killer card myself). But at least that answers the original question about whether 256mb on that mSATA controller was a hard limit.

Thanks,
Peter

 

When I was looking into the wireless cards a couple months ago, I learned that Killer cards have very poor drivers/driver updates, so I just went with the Intel AC 7260.

 

I called the tech that I was emailing and he gave me the same response: We can't disable the on screen notifications without disabling smart manager.

But, I've found sort of a workaround even though it's a bit of a hassle to do: Say you want to turn on the GPU boost to play a certain game. Run smart manager and turn on the GPU boost, then disable Gigabyte OSDV3 from the task manager. This makes it so that you have no on screen notification for caps lock, but you still have the GPU boost. If you launch the smart manager again to turn it off, the OSD comes back on, though. It's a bit annoying, but necessary if you need the GPU boost.

 

Nice! Will try! TY!! (re: finding the Win8 key from page 150)

 

can someone please let me know if this is a reliable laptop? i want it to last 4 years and looking for a quality portable gaming laptop. any problems with it so far?

 

I wouldn't be buying it if I didn't think it could last that long - my laptop from 2006 is still in use today along with the other 2 I bought since then. Others have replied to you in this thread and have posted their experiences and I gave you a list of 5 different reviews to check out.

If you treat it right and carefully it should last. However if you cover the vents, never clean out the fans, toss it around, drop or bang it a few times (especially the screen), let it float around unprotected in your bag - who knows. I'm very hopeful though that if I am careful with it, then it will give me years of solid service.

If you want someone to answer if this laptop will last for four years, I can't say. I tried to tell you what I could and others have posted on it as well. If you want to know for sure, check back with us in a few years and we'll let you know how it's going - otherwise, read .

All the best,

Peter

 

This is what, the sixth time you've posted this? I understand you're worried buddy, but people aren't going to give you a solid yes or no because nobody is certain yet. People have given you what they THINK will happen, as well as linked you to professional reviews, without a single word of thanks from you, and you're still asking?

Anyway, FWIW here's my opinion: if you're so concerned about durability, I wouldn't suggest going for the P34G. Gigabyte is fairly new to the laptop scene, and sleek gaming laptops are generally a new concept. You'd probably be better off getting something with slightly less intense specs that has been around for a bit longer.

That's my opinion.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

 

Just wanted to make give a quick heads up on CPU undervolting.

I've experimented with this for a couple of days using the Intel XTU software and improvements in lower load temperatures and power consumption can definitely be had given some time spent testing stability. At the moment it seems -75mV to -100mV is achievable with no compromise in stability, but how well your CPU stand up to undervolting will be different from chip to chip and there's so many different testing scenarios. Presently my chip runs seemingly stable at a max of 0.973v vs the factory default of 1.104v and I'm seeing 4-7c lower max load temperatures in syntethic tests (AIDA64 System stability test). Had no crashes or weird phenomenons in real life usage such as games or heavy Photoshop work.

The benefit from undervolting, just to make it clear, is mainly running at high load as the dynamic voltage tech in the Haswell platform seems to work very well and on battery it's tweaked towards absolute minimums anyway, so there's probably not much battery life to be gained (but still worth a shot) from undervolting. This also have little effect on low load/idle temperatures so it is not a fix for preventing the fans from ramping up.

Mac

 

I have a question i almost decided to buy the msi ge40 because i tought i wasnt able to use the gigabyte p34g in my country due other power voltages altough my friend told me it should be posible if i bought universal adapter kit for the wallplug (hope u understand what im saying) but he said it will only work if its not above 240v so could anyone please send me pictures of the (idk how u call it) the black box that u plug into youre wall and then with a cable leads u to the laptop so can anyone please take clear readable pictures of the black box power voltages to see if i can really use it in my country (Belgium) Thanks alot!

 

Hey all, very informative thread, I have read through almost all 153 pages in anticipation of getting my p34g, and what a rollercoaster of ups and downs! As it stands I can't wait to get this awesome piece of kit. I understand its limitations and quirks but believe they are more than acceptable for what you get, its 2013 not 2030, as such limits are to be expected, and im not that fussy, I just like power!

Having said that I do have some questions for the more technically minded among you.

1. The p34g has a haswell cpu, whose only real improvement is battery life. I get that under load it runs 4 cores and the discrete GPU real high and so nailing the battery then doesn't bother me at all, that is what is required when gaming and I only game ( or run my various CG softwares) when plugged in. What I don't get is why gigabyte or some techno whizz hasn't found a way to say switch off hyper threading and run a single core, drop the voltage down to a haswell esque 12 volts, run solely on the integrated gpu and as such keep temps down and increase normal use battery life hugely?
It seems like this should be a very viable option with the technology we have. I am not disheartened if there is no way to do such a thing ( although controlling the fan ramping I have read about would be nice), but I am intrigued as to why it wouldnt work, or if it would why no one has tried it.

2. There is a lot of info in this thread, and by the time I got to the end I forgot more than I remembered. Would it be possible for any fellow p34g enthusiast or techno enthusiast to make a best use kinda list? Like

Monitor calibration,

undervolting for performance scenarios and stability

maximum temps to watch for (and software to help monitor this) to prevent
killing the thing now or in the long term

Deactivating or activating unnecessary windows 8.1 features for speed and temps.

Best upgrade routine for Windows 8.1, gigabyte software and various drivers.

Flashing the bios with the one I saw in this forum and how to best utilize the functionality it offers.

Anything else which might be news or useful to a layman regarding softwares, tweaks and the like.

3. I was wondering if there was some sort of software which could either deactivate the battery at say 90% charge or at least warn you so as to prolong its effectiveness.

4. If it is possible to create a flashed bios configuration that runs at a battery optomized setting, would it be possible to have 2 settings saved which would allow you to boot up according to what you want to do (ie play games or work).

5. Not really p34g specific but my last lappy burned out playing games but the hd is still good. I have ordered an external chasis to connect it to the new laptop via usb 2.0, is there any reason why when I want to play games I couldn't just hook it up and boot from there? So it would kinda be my gaming hard drive.

So a lot of questions but in preparation for getting my p34g I am hoping someone or someones smarter than me has some answers to get this minor marvel running optimally. Thanks in advance to those willing to take the time to educate those lees capable (ie, me)

Cheers
Tyrhone

 

Welcome . I will try to answer a couple things with my limited knowledge and leave the rest to those wiser and more experienced with the laptop than I.

It's great that you read through the whole thread btw, I found myself wanting to ask questions but then I'd read a bit more and almost always find someone already answered it .

The Unlocked BIOS apparently has an option for disabling Hyper Threading and other settings and it was reported the person was able to get another 40 minutes of battery life from that. I was really glad to hear that, though I'd like to hear more about the fan control options, I'm surprised no one has tried or reported their experiences with that yet (unless people were able to solve that big issue with it and so never came back to the forum again :/).

Too bad about the OSD Caps Lock display issue all Gigabyte will say is "Turn of Smart Manager" :/.

You can set the warning to whatever point you want or have the computer hibernate or go to stand by with whatever battery level you like - that's built into Windows .

That would be awesome. I have been thinking I'd love to use that when I'm on the train just doing work to get as much battery as I can and then bump the settings to max when I get home (even before I plug in, if possible) - that would be an awesome option if it existed.

Should work for storage, though probably you won't be able to boot well since your old laptop wouldn't have had the same drivers, motherboard, processor, etc.. Plus it will be slow (I got a USB 3.0 2TB WD Ultra Portable for $99 this week in part because USB 2.0 just isn't quite fast enough) - I wouldn't boot from it myself, though storing the games there is fine - use the mSSD to boot .

Hope that answers a bit of your questions.

All the best,
Peter

 

Just figured I'd post my 3dmark for those of us that just wanna see how loud we can make the fans
Surprisingly cool during stress testing, only got to 63C during this 3dmark run, and that was not using the extreme preset. Just let the fans auto adjust.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4700HQ,GIGABYTE P34

 

Pretty good stuff you got here
I can see that you unlocked the +135mhz limit, didnt you ? If so, may I ask how did you do that trick ? Or did you flash an unlocked BIOS

 

Dude, I'm struggling to make sense of the data in that screenie from Nvidia Inspector. Your core voltage is too high and the memory clock don't ad up. I get completely different data from the same software (and indeed everything else such as GPU Shark). Not accusing you of anything, I'm just confused

With Ultraboost off the stats should read: Core 719mhz/Memory 2004mhz
Ultraboost on "Performance": Core 805mhz/Memory 2004mhz
Ultraboost on "Exxtreme" Core 854mhz/Memory 2004mhz.
Voltage should hover between 0.850 and 0.912v

Screenie with ultraboost at extreme under heavy load.


Mac

 

So controlling these fans is definitely possibly. This program theoretically should be able to control any laptops fans...

Beta Version: Dev-Host - NoteBookFanControl-0.14.4.60.beta-U2442Config.zip - The Ultimate Free File Hosting / File Sharing Service
Final Release Version: [Vorstellung] NoteBook FanControl (NBFC) - ComputerBase Forum


We just need one computer savvy stud among us to bite the bullet and create a config file for the P34G. The directions to do so are all right here (found in beta zip file)....

View attachment NoteBook FanControl - User Manual.pdf

I would try but the whole process is a little over my head.

So who wants to be the hero? Whoever fixes it will bask in the glory of random internet strangers for days to come! Tales of their bravery and selflessness will be song throughout the P34G forums from here to whirlpool.net. Come masked hero, find your place in history!

 

Ye, flashed the bios with a modified one. You can read the bios off the chip with nvflash if you first force P0 state with nvidiainspector. Took me a while to figue out why it didnt want to read the bios lol. I still have the +135 limit, I just bumped the base

 

I know you posted in the related thread first and you're hoping to get someone excited who can find the way (as I am) - the one problem I have with this is people keep starting this from scratch (this will be, what the fifth time in this thread?) people find the simple way doesn't work and they get discouraged and give up. If we can build up the knowledge in the http://forum.notebookreview.com/gigabyte/738712-gigabyte-p34g-fan-control.html thread maybe someone can reverse engineer from the Modded BIOS and we can get this solved.

I don't have the system yet and won't for at least 3 weeks so I can't help anyone yet - but if someone can give it a try and post what they attempted there so we can gather the knowledge I'm sure we can find a solution to this.

Thanks,
Peter

 

He got an unlocked vBIOS, overvolted and heavily overclocked the 760M, hence the high volt, clocks and 3dmark11 P score =) I reach P5500 with the GTX 765M when doing the same thing.

Did you use the Svet tuner ? You should be stable @ 1025mhz on the core with 0.975v (so +0.025v over your current 3d volt)
Would like to see if you could push further ! Have you also unlocked the power target ?
Cheers

 

Would anyone be interested in buying an mCube Slim 95W charger? I used to use it to charge my P34G (which I just sold ) as an alternative to the giant power brick that is the charger lol. Even though it was only 95W, it worked fine, even on gaming with a slight overclock on the GPU. It'll also charge your phone at the same time . PM me if interested.

 

My chip seems to have some problems going past 970-980, so I think someone else will have to do the 1Ghz run lol. Would be nice to hit P5500 tho The power limit is still on, I just increased the voltage and clock.
You can use Kepler GPU Tweaker to change settings, but it does not have all the "Tweaks" for this GPU.. I haven't tried Svet's.

Just bu careful and don't blame me lol

 

Hey buddy,

To go further, you may need to push the voltage and the power target % further 760 and 765m are the same chips so I'd expect similar OC results! Thanks for sharing, +rep.

 

I might.

Sorry to hear you sold it, it was nice talking to you about it and thank you very much for posting your BIOS Mod. Is it possible for you to post what guide you followed to unlock the BIOS so we can unlock the other version also?

Thank you very much,
Peter

 

Yeah, that's what I meant. I know the custom resellers offer a lot of options (few of which outperform the Lite-On drive in benchmarks, oddly enough).

All the reviews I've seen imply Gigabyte offers a stock config with a 256gb msata drive, but I've only ever seen the 128gb model (and a CF2 which I think had no msata drive and an i5 cpu).

 

Sorry for reposting my earlier question, but I'm looking at getting a second power brick (hoping to go smaller than the original). Amazon pulls up this one and this one. The Innergie Mcube 95 watt looks like a good option, but I wan tto make sure it will output enough juice to not damage the battery.

Anyone want to share their experience? Thanks.

Edit: Sorry, did not refresh to see the posts relating to this directly above mine. Buying used is not an option for me, but happy to hear that the 95w worked out OK. I think this is what I'll end up ordering.

 

Hey! Sorry to hear you're selling it on if you don't mind me asking, why are you choosing to do so? And is the power brick that big? Are you willing to sell your spare one internationally? Thanks

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

 

Hey thanks mate appreciate the reply. Yeah the bios thing posted earlier seemed really promising, as a novice I would be too weary of messing with things I am not sure about in their, and so was also a little dismayed and surprised tbat no one had elaborated further on what they had managed to do with it. Hopefully that whole line of investigation has not died yet.
Good news about windows having the funcionality built in for the battery, I guess I should investigate its built in options more closely.

With regards to the differing bios settings maybe one of the more techy guys here wouldbe willing to give Iit a shot, it doesnt seem like it would be too hard if you had the know how.

Thanks for the heads up on the hdd. I was just being lazy as I already have all my stuff installed on there. When my new baby p34g arrives I will probably just have OS and photoshop on the ssd and install games on hdd as I have read it does not really affect run speed just load times.

Thanks again for the welcome and taking the time to answer.
Cheers

 

I'm getting so much closer. So that tool didn't work, but I did find a tool that worked in terms of grabbing my windows 8 key out of bios.

How To Retrieve Windows 8 OEM Product Key From BIOS | Next of Windows

Great! Now I have a key! Alas, the Microsoft 'upload your computer to windows 8 with just a key' process only works with upgrade keys, not OEM keys, so I'm still looking for an ISO or tool to get to win8.

For now though, I'm working well in Win7. No real complaints, just tinkering.

 

Hi,

Can someone tell me whether this laptop flexes much? Specifically when picking it up with one hand, does the body bend slightly?

 

Thanks for that info, good to know . Odd that it didn't work for you to allow the download - I bought multiple upgrade keys for $14.99 when it was offered so I used those myself when getting the ISO.

Check this thread: How to obtain Windows 8.1 iso with Windows 8 OEM key. - Overclockers UK Forums - it may help - it's from another user in the same situation as you, having an OEM key but no upgrade key.

All the best,
Peter

 

If you pick it up with a one-hand grip, thumb on top of palmrest, fingers under in one of the two front corners with the screen "up" some slight flex is noticeable depending on how you position your fingers. The areas under the palmrest is populated by the harddrive and the battery, thus only have screws around the edge, while the area under the keyboard have a quite unusual arrangement of multiple screws and standoffs going through the whole chassis, meaning it is much more rigidly kept together plus it have the motherboard pcb as a "spine". Anyway, If you pick it up at the "middle", with the thumb in front of the trackpad, fingers under supporting, it is hard to notice any flex. if you pick it up with the thumb close to one of the screen hinges, fngers under it is hard to notice any flex. If you pick it up around the middle of one of the "short" sides, thumb still on top, fingers supporting under, it is hard to notice any flex.

By "hard to notice any flex" I mean the chassis bending into a slight bananaish shape. However, you can feel that slightly "springy" effect at the pressure points of your fingers towards the chassis, especially at the front corners. My hunch is that the best way to pick it up one-handed is the rearward grip with the thumb close to the screen hinges or at the middle of the short sides. If there would be any problems over time due to flex in the chassis is hard to tell, I've never had any problems related to that on my previous (often cheap all-plastic) ultraportables and I often use them in weird posiitions. I'm not concerned about this with the P34G, it appears sturdy enough..


Mac


EDIT: Fixed the most glaring cases of late night spellitis.

 

I'm glad M4cr0s could comment on that. At first I dismissed the question out of hand, however I was just reading the thread on the Clevo W740SU/Sager NP2740/14.1" Galago UltraPro and in that thread someone picked up the laptop from the corner and....

Glad to hear we don't need to worry about that sort of thing with our P34Gs!

Thanks,
Peter

P.S. It's interesting that model with it's similar Intel Core i7-4750HQ also has the exact same 1.3GHz limit on battery... could this be something Intel did to limit these Haswells on battery by default?

 

hi, im just wondering where i can purchase this machine? im very excited to purchase it but dont have an idea from where. i live in Canada Ontario. thanks!

 

Sorry not available locally as far as I could find (and I looked quite a bit).

I ordered mine from GenTechPC and the plan is for me to visit the States with my brother just after Christmas for four days (so past the 48 hour requirement for the $800/person tax free allowance), I'm picking it up at Port Huron if all goes well from a Shipping Depot there.

GenTechPC and XoticPC will ship to you direct, however you will be hit by HST and import duties of quite a bit and unfortunately the loonie is not doing so well right now :/.

Helpful?

All the best,
Peter

 

A question for those who bought from OcUK:
What is your keyboard layout? Specifally, does it feature a big Enter/Return key or is it half-height?

For reference, big Enter:


half-heght:

 

Im thinking about pre ordering this laptop in its new i5-4200h version from alternate but have a couple of questions.

The reason i want the i5 version is mostly financial but i also hope the battery life from the dual core will be abit better. I know the tdp is the same but that doesn't say anything about the idle/wifi browsing power use. I know its hard to say anything about a product not yet released but does anyone know if it will be better?

Would i be able to use the cracked bios version for the i5 aswell? And can i undervolt/clock the cpu without it?

I'm going to change the hard drive for the 840 evo (one of the lowest power consuming ssd's) i already have and maybe buy some low power ram sticks. Did anyone else do that and what kind of battery life increase did they see.
Any other tricks i can pull off to make the battery life more ultrabook worthy?

And last but not least, has anyone who bought it seen a laptop they would have rather bought by now? And do you recommend this one?

 

You should be able to undervolt from Windows using the Intel XTU software (other options exist too). it works well and sticks through reboots.

Now, I made a quick effort to give an idea of the power consumption on the i7 4700hq. How and if these numbers can be translated to the i5 version I have no idea.

Test methodology was simple:

- Use HWmonitors "powers" section to take measurements (no idea how accurate these numbers really are). HWmonitor shows min/max values as well as current. Handy!
- Run the exact same test on battery and on AC with undervolt and without.
- Let system idle with browser with 20+ tabs and normal apps running plus a Steam download in the background.
- Run the system stability test of AIDA64 (CPU/FPU/Cache) which will put a substantial load on the system to get an idea of load consumption.

You will, given different circumstances and load patterns, see both higher and slightly lower voltage and power values than this. However, the screenies should give some idea of what to expect.

Stock voltage on AC


Undervolted 105mV (my stable undervolt setting) on AC


Stock voltage on battery


Undervolted 50mV on battery (it appear stable but I haven't truly tested this undervolt, it could be that even lower voltages could be squeezed out).


I'm not going to make any conclusions, but I'll make two observations.

1. The gain from undervolting on battery in idle-like conditions does look to be very small.
2. On AC, thus running at full speed (3.2ghz) while undervolted, idle power consumption is in fact suprisingly low.

However, study the numbers and decide for yourself.

Mac

 

Hey everyone, thinking of getting this laptop in the i7 2.4ghz, 760M, 8/12 gb config with a 120mSata and 1TB drive.

Basically I plan to play CoD Ghosts, does anyone know how well it handles this and similar games? This would be my first venture in the high performance gaming laptop world. My current laptop (in my sig) is barely functioning and I want a major upgrade. I would love it with a 765M to rival the Razer but I assume this GPU is almost just as capable.