***Gigabyte P35X owner's lounge***

Guess I'll do my mini-review. I'll try to exclude stuff that was explained in dajohu's list.

Lone's Mini-Review:

Pros:

-Excellent Screen
-Efficient cooling for general purpose loads and possible improvement after BIOS/vBIOS modifications (still waiting on Prema)
-Chassis is top notch
-Weight and feel of most of the laptop
-Able to use an i7-4860HQ instead of its weaker solution. Able to overclock +300 MHz if the situation allows it... (Waiting on this one)
-Heat does NOT affect keyboard or palmrest enough to call it hot/too warm unless doing something stupid like Furmark+Prime95.

Cons:

-That bezel... just a personal opinion
-Maximum load throttle issues (this also occurs on P651SE, but CPU load is generally less heat on the Clevo due to having heatpipes separate from GPU and CPU)
-Keyboard feels weak? I preferred the W230ST keyboard for chiclet style. Again, this is personal opinion. If this could be fixed or replaced with something better. I would do so.
-Drivers drivers drivers drivers drivers drivers... (Not the BSOD issue earlier, just Gigabyte's buggy drivers that need frequent updating; beta drivers superior than initial)
-No M.2 option (personal opinion; not as important but can get superior wifi cards if this was available, cakefish would've been happy)
-Chassis, though good quality, does leave oily prints. I recommend cleaning it out every once in a while.
-2 RAM slots (this is a big one)


Have yet to damage my PC with nicks yet. Hopefully not...

My work laptop is an HP Elitebook 8460w (chicklet keyboard superior to P35x) and has a thick aluminum chassis that does not get damaged easily...sturdy as all hell. P35x needs to be slightly better to be worth its dollar.

 

This is what I wrote to OCUK about RMA'n my P35X and the 3 issues I had with the laptop

and now for my mini review:

Pro's:

Thin and light weight
980m and low temps
4 storage options (2 msata SSDs & 2 HDDs)
3K screen (its so frakin beautiful w/ no dead or stuck pixels even though W8.1 200% scaling to me sucks)
power plug on upper right side (compared to MSI on the middle right side)

Cons:

Bezel, so much wasted space
Drivers (had to try numerous drivers or uninstall oem drivers to get something to work)
Fingerprint magnet case especially if you have oily fingers
CPU throttling and high temps
No driver or utility disk included
keyboard (i prefer my work MBP over this one and probably not use to all the keys being condensed together)

Here's an example of my CPU high temps:

I disabled CPU turbo boost and the CPU still hit low 90s C with an U3 and fans underneath the vents while playing FFXIV ARR for a few hours.

 

Whoa! I missed the part about being able to update Nvidia drivers if you used older intel drivers. I'd much rather do that then update intel and be stuck with stock Nvidia driver's. Now I have something to try tomorrow night!

 

Welp, couldnt get high-end BF4 to run at good temps unless I forced framerate caps. All tests excluding framerate capping ended with the following graphs: (Games tested: Crysis 3, BF4, Metro)

This was regardless with 3K native resolution or 1080p with undervolting. If I wanted to force it to below 85C, had to be framerate capped. So this laptop is pretty much a cousin of W230ST in which required pretty much the same performance configurations to obtain safe temperatures.





The bright side? Over 60 FPS in each test. FRAPS shown here in the following streams:

3K Test: Twitch

1080P Test: Twitch

The GTX 900 series GPU lag that causes Driver State Failure (stutter lag during gameplay): Twitch

 

Which version of the Intel GFX drivers are you using? If you're using the updated from Intel, try out the one that came with the laptop instead. I found out that using the OEM from GB and any combo from NV or Laptop2goVideo works.

 

I used the intel drivers from smartmanager update. I could downgrade it, but the temps wont go down with it.

 

Gotcha, but will it solve your Driver State Failure if you did?

 

I'll do the test in an hour.

 

Ok, make sure to use this one Intel GFX (10.18.10.3958) and let use know if that fixes it. Because if it does, why would the Intel GFX drivers be so important? Why would it cause 3DMark to fail on mine, cause yours and other peoples GFX issues. Is it because all video is going through it?

 

Darn it, those are the same drivers I'm already using. I was thinking there was an older version I could roll back to. Well I got the driver state failure yesterday with that same driver and the latest nvidia so it doesn't look like that will help me.

 

Still got it. Only way around is to startup unplugged. Might look into batteryboost setup.

 

Shucks, sorry to hear that since I was hoping it would help fix both of your issues.

 

I think something within our drivers just ticks off the thing. Mine just happens to be Geforce Experience related. Will do more tests after work tomorrow.

 

Damn it, still undecided on what to buy, the only problem with the P35X is the keyboard, high temps and overall build quality which the GS60 does better, but has a 970M not a 980M.. Any advice please, I'm going crazy over here.

 

You could uninstall Geforce Experience to be sure for your testing.

 

What will be your main usage of the laptop? Do you really need 980m?

Regards

 

If 970M is enough, I'd go with Clevo P650SE instead, lower priced and much better value than GS60.

If you want 980M in slim package, the only option right now is P35x and Clevo P650SG.

 

Damn it, this laptop seems like a pain in the . I feel bad for everyone going through it's quirks and problems like guinea pigs, trying to look for a solution for everyone. Should NOT be happening in a brand new $2500 laptop!

Since none of the Clevos/P650SG have warranty where I live, that's not an option for me. Was planning on getting the 1080p P35X + IC Diamond paste but I'm thinking I should just kill the portable 980m dream and get a G751jy. Huge, yes - but maximum, quiet and cool performance. Yeah, it sucks major balls that I won't be able to move around much and take it to work - which is why I was considering the P35X in the first place - but no compromise (read: no throttle) gaming is more important for me I guess.

Will still keep an eye on this thread as I still have a month, but damn you Gigabyte - came so very close.

 

There's vertually no gaming laptop existed without throttle. The only way to gaming with no throttle is to get a gaming desktop, which is not portable at all. Perfect gaming laptop does not exist, we all have to make compromises here and there.

Regards

 

Not with larger laptops, they don't throttle at all, mine doesn't for instance, the G751 probably won't throttle either (Asus are renowned for good cooling & good benchmark scores) - likely full turbo on CPU & GPU.

 

Don't REALLY need a 980m, I just wanted to buy the best possible thing so it will last longer, but if it suffers from throttling/heat issues then a 970m is probably good enough for me. The Clevo looks good but to be honest I like the look of the GS60 more and I don't think the Clevo is available in the UK.

 

It's available under different names. PCSpecialist for example have them.

Regards

 

The clevo is available here through xmg mysn.co.uk I think it is the p505. On the gs60 side worth checking out the cyberpower fangbook edge if you don't need it urgently - current ETA is 02/12/2014 (i.e. 2nd Dec).

 

Perhaps I should word better: what I'm trying to say is all laptops have compromises.

Regards

 

I was wondering why OC UK weren't responding to the email I had sent. Turns out I had messaged the wrong department. I emailed the RMA service and received a response IMMEDIATELY. They are even offering collection of the laptop. Very good service I must say. Impressed.

EDIT: oh wait, turns out it was just a strange coincidence that they had replied to my previous email the exact same time as I sent the new one.

 

Wished they offer collection service in the US. They responded to every email I sent them. My RMA request email was sent on Fri and I got a reply on Sat with my RMA #. Very impressed with their CS Dept and timely reponses to my emails.

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

 

I have this laptop until Thursday. Then OC UK are coming to collect it sometime that day. Which conveniently gives me enough time to trial Far Cry 4 on the 980M before I have to say goodbye to the laptop - I can benchmark it for you guys

Oh man, it'll be a hard few weeks having to live with my Clevo P170SM again. But it's all for the greater good. My replacement Clevo (made sure it doesn't have the Intel 7260 but the Killer 1202 instead!) should arrive in 'early December'. Time to start counting down the days and hours again!

 

I iz confused, should i still get this laptop or are the issues unbearable?

Sent from my GT-I9300

 

I will be able to answer that soon. Well I should be able to, if and when my CF2 arrive this week.

And if it does not, then I think I will change my order to GT72 (with TN panel and 970m, but in stock).

We will see.

Regards

 

If you're fine with capping frames, it does well. I bought it mostly to see if the thin profile was for me. My issues are mostly personal however.


Also, crippled Geforce Experience's online process and managed two successful boots on AC.

 

Soo, I have been away for a couple a days & I found this forum to be exploded.

What have happend to Cakefish & LoneSyndal's laptop?! :0
Cakefish seems to have problems with the WiFi/Bluetooth?
LoneSyndal's getting random BSOD about some power?

 

We all had some sort if driver faults. Mine and dajohu's tended to get BSOD for "Driver Power State Failure" due to Nvidia drivers conflicting with something in our system. Mine reoccured after formating when I fixed Geforce Experience to finally connect to internet (would loop infinitely to connect to Nvidia server).

As an enthusiast, this PC has quite the quirks for me if my goal is performance that is enough to melt the thing, but alas I've been throttled through every step of the way.

If playing on max settings, be warned that laptop will hit the 87-90C zone fast. Undervolt and franerate limiting does help, but no overclock potential for CPU. (GPU overclock is fine. Went as high as +135/580)

 

I've just watched some of Cakefishes' gameplay videos and i noticed some audio 'stuttering' every ten seconds or so. Would that be the DPC Latency issue you were talking about? What was causing it? Is it fixeable or hardware related?

 

Just dont run monitoring software while playing. That was the solution.

I have some twitch stream broadcasts showing the gameplay with FPS counter showing.

 

Supposedly my P35W was meant to get to scan.co.uk today to be dispatched to me, but I haven't got a dispatch note so it appears it was delayed, if they can't give me an definite ETA tomorrow morning, I think I'm just going to change to the MS GS70 and hopefully the 3GB vs 6GB VRAM will turn out to be a lot of hot air...

 

Is the CPU holding you back in games in any way though? Are the clockspeeds its running at in game enough as to not to bottleneck the GPU?

 

The GS70, unlike the GS60, doesn't have an IPS panel like the P35W, though

 

There are some folks with back light bleed on the GS60 though, so if that bothers you, that is something to consider.

 

GPU runs well for most part as shown in my streams (in which CPU was 87-90C at all times).

When CPU gets capped (fixed lower clocks and undervolting), runs better GPU-wise.

Best undervolt value is between -50-70mV. Any more or less is lost performance.

 

If you don't mind tinkering with drivers to find out which one works for you, repasting of TIM to get lowered temps and using a notebook cooler like Cooler Master NotePal U3 then the 980m is worth a shot. If you're not into that and just wants something that works especially after spending this much for it, then this laptop isn't for you.

As much as I love to tinker with my gadgets, I shouldn't have to tinker this much especially after paying $2.4k USD for it but that is my personal feeling.

 

So was my P35X, suppose to be in stock today.

Although the Gigabyte Rep on the OCUK forum confirmed that they've left the factory and sent to retailers last weekend, I'm going to give them the benefit of doubt and wait until Thursday to decide whether to jump ship or not. A piece of my coursework is due on Thursday, don't really have the time to set up the new computer anyway.

Furthermore, whatever laptop I'm end up getting, I'll just move my current system drive to the new system. There's no way I'm going to spend a whole week to refill a 1TB system and make all the settings just the way I like it.

I will, however, test the stability with the "vanilla" OS with updated drivers, before insert my Crucial M500.

Regards

 

For those who wanted to see the FPS for this laptop earlier, but didn't get to see it. Here's a youtube playlist of the videos I recorded and what was done on each.

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PogNGh2Xw2I&list=PLMcSELt76OnFZTyUwkla11f7EHQNK9gn9

 

Is that the fan noise on the background?

Regards

 

Yes. The built-in mic picks up a lot of ambience, the fan being there is one. Do note that speed only occurs at 80C and higher.

The Warframe video, temp was around 74C. So fans werent audible to mic. Hard to hear with chatter though.

 

I had a GS60 970M which I swiched out for a 2014 Razer Blade. The screen bleed is annoying in dark images and the idle fan speeds are a little loud for my liking. But otherwise it's a pretty solid laptop.

EDIT: That is, about the GS60.

 

THANKS LUNAP!!
Sounds good but:
Look this:
https://www.facebook.com/bluemobility.clevo/photos/a.1396745677232745.1073741828.1396338017273511/1396813157225997/?type=1&theater
Let me show this detail:

And,
2 more questions:
Think it will sell in the US for January? ...
How much you think it will cost? (base with 980M VRAM 8GB and 32GB RAM). If you have a "hunch" ....

On the other hand, I got response from lumion3d.com
They consider 16 GB of RAM enough. And prioritize having more VRAM.
Accordingly, I understand that I should prefer again "P35X v3" ...
comments?....
Thanks!!!!

 

Whats improved on the 7265?

Sent from my GT-I9300

 

So scan.co.uk have just contacted me to let me know that "due to a chipset shortage there will be a delay on this product until 28/11/14, perhaps a little later", i.e. the P35W is delayed.

Now the question is do I just go for the MSI GS70, which they have in stock for £1399.20, or do I wait, or do I cancel and change to a P650SE(?), i.e. an XMG P505 or scan's LG1520, either of which I could get a 980M in for ~ the same price (if I strip out the HDD and just have the m.2 as I brought a SSD to go in the P35W), or do I wait for the Cyberpower Fangbook Edge with a 970M with 6GB...

I don't "need" to get a new notebook right now, as it's not for work or anything like that (and my "main" reason for getting one is to be able to play Witcher 3 on it when it comes out in Feb), but I am really fed up of waiting... Blah, decisions, decisions.

 

I would buy other laptop if my P35X is delay to 28th. The continuous delay and the problems encountered by the early adapters really worries me. I'd prefer not have to chew off my leg to get out of the honey trap.

But if you're plan to pre-order other laptop, why not wait for a day or two to see if they meet your expectation? P35 v3 seem so promising at start, yet we have numbers of people abandon ship, same maybe happen to other laptops, too.

Regards

 

Thanks nuttsan that's useful to know as I've got the p35w on order from scan too. Thought the gigabyte rep on overclockers forum suggested they got sent out last week, ocuk hav their delivery date as 21st.
I'm going to hang on 4 the p35w I think, it still seems the best bet for my needs, light, good screen n reasonable battery, just hope the issues with the p35x are driver issues n fixed in next updates, fingers crossed...
First post here too, but really great forum with lots of good info.