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

So I impulse bought a v3 980M FHD model for $1350 this morning when I saw the sale. I was hoping to get a v4 but that deal was too good to pass up. One thing I want to ask after reading through the thread a bit. Is the general consensus that repasting is worth it and improves temperatures? I don't want to even bother if it's only a couple degrees.

 

Where did you get it for that price?

 

I second that question, where did you get it and are more available. I wouldn't mind replacing my aging desktop with another P35X at that price!

 

Amazon Marketplace on Prime day. Unfortunately it was only that day. Sorry for not replying sooner.

 

Are you guys using anything in place of Dolby Digital Plus?
I find the interface for EQ to be unbelievably infuriating to use.

 

Hey guys, first time poster, long time lurker here in need of some advice.
I'm looking to buy a new laptop and have it narrowed down to 2 which mostly fulfill my needs: P35XV4 or NP8652-S.
My main concern is the thermal throttling on the Gigabyte. Anyone know if it's better/worse with the new broadwell CPU?

I will be using it around the house (ocasionally take it to work/school) and mostly to play some not so demanding games that I would like to play at max or close to max settings (Cities Skylines, Skyforge, Archeage) during periods of up to 3 hours on average. Maybe throttling wouldnt even be a problem with what I'm going to be doing? Any help will be appreciated

 

I have a Broadwell P35x. Throttling is probably the same as the experiences had by the V3 people here.

With the stock paste I was throttling pretty hard, I saw around 10-15% performance losses when the throttling kicked in. I repasted with Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra, which helped somewhat, and a small undervolt (all it could handle) also helped a little. The throttling is pretty minor. I have an undercooler, which negates it almost entirely.

I have Cities and I can get max settings at 1080p easily. Skyforge and Archeage I'd imagine would run at max or close to it. I can run Witcher 3 at 1080p medium-high.

If you're willing to repaste and mess with Intel XTU, then the performance will be very similar. If you're moving it around a lot, the P35x is better suited being much thinner. I replaced an "old" Y500, which feels like a beast compared to the P35x.

Tell me if there's anything in particular you want me to test, I'll see what I can do.

 

I think soon install Windows 10.
Before that I would restore the operating system to the factory version.
Do you recommend? I should use the restore function through F9 or use "Smart USB backup"?
Anyone has any experience with this?
Any other comments regarding Windows 10?

 

There's a Windows 10 thread here that may be of some use:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/windows-10.762434/

 

Depends on the paste and application from factory. Generally speaking, you can almost always apply a better compound and usually do a better job with the application that how the system arrives to you, thus reducing temperatures (noticeable more during load than during idle).

On the flip side, you always risk your warranty doing so.

 

Hey thanks for the quick answer

Its unfortunate to hear that the throttling is still an issue in the v4 models. I guess the hassle of repasting and messing with XTU (newbie here lol) isn't really worth the mobility gained with the P35X, cause I would be using mostly around the house anyway.

How is the overall build quality? Any specific problems on your model? After reading thru this thread and the P34W's I got kinda scared. Oh and also, since most the games I would be playing happen to be pretty CPU intensive, does the undervolting affect the performance of the CPU?

Thanks for the help! I really want a good excuse for going for the P35X

 

Messing with Intel XTU isn't very hard, and this laptop is one of the easiest to repaste I've seen (I used to repair office computers, and this is easier than most of those). Even if you don't know what you're doing you could probably figure it out in under an hour.

I don't think there were any changes to the case from the V3, if there were then they're minor. The keyboard is pretty weak, there's so little key travel. The trackpad is floaty, not terrible, but below average quality. The frame to the screen is really thin and is a little weaker than I'd like, so there's more risk of damage if you drop it moving it around your house. Otherwise the build quality is good, I can't think of any other complaints.

My specific model is plagued with Intel's horrible 7260 wifi adapter. I turned a setting "HT" off, and it seems to work normal, but recently it seems to be giving me problems again. Not sure if the competition uses that too, but if you get this laptop you might want to invest in a Killer 1202 just to not deal with this godawful wifi adapter. If you don't want to replace it yourself you can probably get the P35X with Killer 1202 from a dealer with customization online.

Undervolting does not reduce performance of the CPU. UnderCLOCKING does. They both will reduce temps. If you get lucky and manage a -100 undervolt, you might see no throttling at all. I've found that running VSYNC or using something that locks the FPS to 60 GREATLY reduces temps, which will also reduce throttling.

If you want a laptop that is easier to carry around, this is a better option. If you want the option that "just works" with no meddling, pick the other one.

 

I was one of the first last year (read as guinea pig) with a P35X V3 and had a bunch of issues initially due to drivers. I reinstalled recently when moving drives around and had no issues with it at all now. It is trouble free gaming experience, and honestly much better system than my Sager has been overall. With repaste and undervolt my temps are acceptable but I found that if I disable turboboost they are very good and had no effect to the framerate in any games that I have been playing.

That said, I think I will be selling my beloved P35X and keeping the Sager mainly because I want the maximum CPU/GPU power possible. The P35X portability/battery for its size is awesome, and I've struggled with which laptop to keep because I really don't need both of them. I've got some weird issues with my Sager than I will likely never find a solution for but have just decided to live with it.

 

How is everyone finding this with Windows 10? Not sure to update yet or not.

Thanks!

 

Weirdly enough that I didn't get the Windows 10 upgrade icon at all, but not desperate to upgrade to Win10 because I'm one of the rare few who's contented with Win8.1.

In terms of performance after 9 months (close enough), I get steady 30fps in The Witcher 3 with mid-high settings and the Hairwork turned off at 2560x1080 resolution. This is with repaste only.

I have just upgrade the RAM to 2x8GB HyperX from the factory default 8GB Crucial, time to see how much differences that make.

Edit: RAM uograde doesn't seem to make much of differences in terms of FPS, but the laptop is somewhat quieter.

Regards.

 

Windows 10 upgrade went perfect for me on my p35x v3. there was new drivers for the entire laptop on the smart update.

 

To get the windows 10 upgrade icon to appear there is a simple tool you can use that check for the required windows updates, and has two methods to make it appear. I have used this many times and has always worked for me. It is the top rates answer, I couldn't figure out how to link directly to the answer.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...10-but-i/848b5cce-958b-49ae-a132-a999a883265b

All you need to do is below, copied directly from the link above:

This section posted by Susan Bradley:
Community Moderator Susan Bradley (I don't work for Microsoft) with a community edit:
There is a community provided tool/script that will go through several means to fix the common issues. The link to this tool/script is buried on page 90 of this forum - but the easier way to find it is in the middle of this InfoWorld article - it's the dropbox link https://www.dropbox.com/s/0u0au9xgy6ss18p/win10fix_full.zip?dl=0 which is also referred to in the article below:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/29...or-acquire-the-windows-10-free-copy-icon.html

Instructions to run the tool:

1. Go to https://www.dropbox.com/s/0u0au9xgy6ss18p/win10fix_full.zip?dl=0and download the file.
2. Copy the win10fix_full.bat file to anywhere else like desktop.
3. Right click the file and click run as administrator.
4. Follow the screen instruction untill to come to main menu screen.
5. On main menu screen do step 1 first and check if you go the updates insalled and and then press any key it will take you back to main menu.
6. Now do step 2 which only takes like 1 second and should have the icon in the task bar.

 

Already did that, step 1 through 5, twice after reboots, not working.

Regards.

 

Hmm, that is odd then. Sorry I don't have any other ideas if you ran it as admin and had the updates. It worked on both win 7 & 8, retail, OEM, a vista machine upgraded using a random Win7 disk, and my P35X UK version. Most of them didn't show the icon until I used the tool and I did a few reinstalls over the last month where I had to use it multiple times too.

 

I suspect mine's because of the anti-virus suite I used that changed the windows update settings, but I rather manually upgrade the Win10 later than to poking about the anti-virus.

Edit: of course I could be totally wrong, and it's because something small and totally irrelevant.

Regards.

 

I will manually update too, I already have the Win 10 ISO. I just wanted to make sure I got on board with my "free" reservation. I'm waiting to see what others think, but I am also one who happens to like 8.1 with my own tweaks so I am in no hurry at all to move to 10 on my gaming machines. If anything I may upgrade one of my guest machines and see how it works there.

 

Can anyone who upgraded please confirm if 3 finger swipe navigation is disabled in Chrome/Edge/Forefox? I upgraded an Ultrabook yesterday and lost that capability even though I had a Synaptics driver. I don't mind as much because I still have a touch screen but I would mind more on this model since there's no other way to hit the back button without hitting the actual button in the nav bar. It wouldn't be the end of the world if this trackpad wasn't so jumpy....

 

No, upgrade and use the new élan driver, and you are good to go.

 

By the way, has anyone being able to hackintosh on P35x? I guess the process is similar to other laptop with a 4720hq, right?

 

I haven't tried to hackintosh in over a year, but from my experience, It's extremely difficult to do it with a graphics card Apple doesn't support. 750M and R9 M370X are the last two mobile cards they supported. I'm sure you could get it to work, provided you delete all the appropriate kexts but it's going to be a painful process and there's a very good chance you're not going to get 100% functionality. I'd ask over at tonymacx86 though, not here. Most of the compaticility issues are already listed in the faqs and you'll be able to run down the list of your hardware specs.

 

Help! the dgpu seems to be not working after I enabled it from the bios. I checked device manager and it shows code 43.
I uninstalled and re-install every driver but it still won't work.

 

Someone already installed Windows 10 on the p35x?
Any advice?

 

It's easy, just make a thumb drive and install. Took about an hour. Then use smart update to get the latest drivers.

 

I have it installed. Works perfect. just get the new drivers from gigabyte

 

Thanks Xentar712 and derkeysersoze for your feedback!

One more question:
before installing Windows 10, I want to do a system restore (like came from factory), I planned to do so with F9 function. Any advice?
(I do not know if anyone has done and can give me an opinion).
Thanks in advance!

 

You might as well do the update first and then do a fresh install one Windows recognizes your product key in Windows 10. You can't do a fresh install until you update once anyways. There's no current way around it.

You can do the system restore route too, but you'll be doing a lot of updates for no reason and you might have to install Windows three times depending on what you want to do.

For me, I just delete recovery partitions. Every time I need it, it never works right and it's safer to keep a recovery drives somewhere other than the drive you're worried about corrupting. I'd just assume keep Windows 8 and 10 install thumb drives handy. You'll be glad you did and you can use them for any future machine you buy.

 

Win 10 seems happy enough once I updated all the drivers via smart update. Took about an hour, from memory (although the driver updates always take an age to download via that utility!). Anyone know anything about the bluetooth overhaul, the ps3 drivers I was using (scp) seem to have been fundamentally compromised.. so no more using wireless ps3 controllers until this issue is fixed...

 

For windows 10 upgrade you have to do the standard upgrade first. it changes something in your BIOS you need to verify your windows is activated. After that however you can reinstall as you wish.

 

derkeysersoze, sparkle999 and Xentar712... THANKS!
Why I want to do a complete restoration of the PC (via F9) before installing Windows 10 ?, because I could not solve a very important issue: not working I stand by.

I thought that changing the board wifi solve (my problem of stand by comes from the wifi). I bought a Killer wifi. And I've tried everything ...

As you can imagine ... a laptop without standby ... it is not a laptop!

Then, not wanting to install Windows 10 and learned that I still have that problem. I do not know if it is very reasonable to expect that Windows 10 wifi solve my problem ...

Beyond that, I would not have to restore your system first, I do it for those reasons.

Come to think a little ... maybe I should install Windows 10, see if the standby works ... and if not, return to the original factory settings (windows 7) and there start over.
Yes I have high expectations (I know others might) standby solve the problem of making a full system restore.

Finally, again THANK YOU for your support !!!

 

Anyone know what the point of the grills on the sides of the power button are?

 

Those are speakers.

 

That's what I thought but mine don't make any noise... is there somewhere to control the volume to them?

I think mine might be disabled because of software. I bought it open box and it looks like the last guy did a reinstall of Windows and wiped the recovery partition. I did all the updates so I'm either missing something or it's a disconnected wire. If anyone can confirm that there is a way to adjust the speaker volume of just those speakers, that would help.

 

I thought that the speakers were in the front on either side of the optical drive. I think the grills next to the power button is just for air circulation but i could be mistaken

 

The speakers are at the front, and the subwoofer at the bottom. The grills at the top , nearl the power button, are purely decorative.

 

I installed Windows 10 and update the BIOS to version FOOC
Restarting the screen remained within the BIOS setup.
Chose the "Save and Continue" option, but the laptop will be turned off and returned to the screen in BIOS setup.
Then. within settings windows, choose "restore windows 7 configuration mode" or something.
And there after ... strange flashes continued to enter windows.
Any suggestions? someone who has installed Windows 10 did this happen?

 

Anyone know of a shop (in europe) where I can order a replacement PSU? I only found one which asked €30 for shipping alone.

Ridiculous btw, my psu suddenly died. Instead of only sending in the psu for warranty they want me to send in the entire Laptop too (which works perfectly and charges with a 120W universal PSU I had lying around) for three whole weeks. I can't miss my computer for that long so I'll just have to buy a replacement.

Windows 10 upgrade worked absolutely perfect for me. I really like the OS.

 

Friends, I NEED HELP!!
I cannot start my p35x. Smart USB fail!... F9 system recovery fail... I have not usb boot... someone can create and share with me an usb boot disk?
Thanx in advance!!!

EDIT: SOLVED!

 

I recently got myself a p35x v4 and I'm super stoked about it. I've been perusing this thread quite a bit before the purchase and I've seen quite a few mentions of undervolting to help with cpu temps. I am just curious what program is being utilized to perform this undervolting? Back in my core 2 duo days I used Throttlestop but I'm not sure if that's still applicable or not.

 

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us...p-boards-software-extreme-tuning-utility.html

 

How did you solve it? did you put it in legacy boot mode?

 

Has anyone found a slim travel charger for just office stuff like 120w, or even a slightly smaller alternative to the 180w brick?

I used a 90w one all day today (no 980m usage and only very light CPU usage) and it worked fine but I'm looking for a better 90w or 120w one (found this one that I am thinking of getting - http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-K33197-Portable-Notebook-Adapter/dp/B0007W1K8M). I'm not 100% it comes with a tip that will work though.

I would even take a slim 150w like the razer, which would allow some 980m usage but I'd have to watch it a bit (light gaming, disabled CPU turbo to save power etc) but I've had no luck finding something like that. The tip is the hard part, no universals ever list gigabyte but I found the L105 tip on my Targus 90W fits good. It measures about 5mm outside and the pin inside is about 2.5mm.

*edit* Ok it looks like there is a chance the Razer uses a 5.5mm OD and 2.5mm ID plug, so maybe it could work. I have googled, and searched these forums and found no info about a slim/travel/razer charger for this laptop. I can't be the only one looking for this!

*Final edit*
I went to buy the Kensington adapter above but had problems figuring out what tip I needed and it may/may not come with the tips on top of that. Was about to bid on one on ebay with a bunch of tips when I figured out the tip I needed was the "IBM" tip. I just happened to be throwing away 3 old IBM laptops so I checked the adapters and sure enough, all three of these older IBM's had have the same plug. Fits perfectly. Only issue is they are all only 70w, so I can use it to surf, watch a movie and charge the latop, but obviously no games.

I did some testing and it looks like the laptop uses about 27w in the silent fan profile mode which is likely where i would use it, and in gaming fan mode it used 36w. This is just sitting at the desktop with my standard 50+ chrome tabs and all my other programs running. Watching a movie off the ssd could use a few more watts but I'm confident I would still be well below 70w.

Anyway I thought I would mention this here in case it helps anyone else out. These adapters are likely very cheap (I was going to throw mine away!) they are very portable and do exactly what I was looking for. I will place one in my sleeve for those times when I don't want to carry the full size adapter and don't need to play games.

*Final edit 2* lol
While my solution above did work, I worried that the lower voltage (16v) from the IBM would eventually ruin my laptop so I searched for a 19v solution. I took a chance and ordered this from amazon for $18 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003FMVPFY. There was a tip that fit perfectly and it powers the P35X just as good as the IBM one but at the proper voltage. It is very slim and helps with portability (you can pack this in a sleeve easily). This is only for basic tasks like browsing, light workloads and watching a movie. You only have 65w continuous/75w peak to work with so keep that in mind! This isnt meant to be your main adapter by any means, only if you forget your larger one or need the extra portability for light loads. Now I can have peace of mind that it's getting 19v.

 

Nop...
I used the windows 8.1 CD installator.
Once running an operating system ... I tried several ways ...
I even generate a new USB drive with "Smart USB Backup ..." it worked.
Then a friend recommended me to do a fresh install of Windows 7 without any gigabyte drivers.
From there, I began to gradually install Gigabyte drivers .
And there I realized what driver it was preventing standby function of my laptop: Nvidia Geforce Experience. Then I uninstalledit and left only the Nvidia Control Panel.
I hope not very necessary Nvidia GeForce Experience ... (I do not use the laptop for gamming but -CAD- 3D design)...

 

Is there anyway to turn off the 5 lights on the front side?
Annoying as hell when watch a movie or something.

 

I came to the conclusion that the problem I had with my p35x was the NVIDIA GeForce Experience driver.
I uninstalled it and my standby works perfectly.
The problem now is that a program that use ... does not work well without this driver...
Can anyone recommend me a version of Nvidia GeForce Experience that works well and is not giving you headaches?
I know some like LoneSyndal have been lucky with the appropriate driver.

 

Geforce experience is just a tool that automatically optimizes game settings based on your hardware (which you end up changing anyway). It also has some in-game recording functions etc. Nothing that you really need. I dont use it at all.