NEW Gigabyte P34 V2

Hey guys, I'm new to this forum, but I had a question, how is the build quality on this laptop? Specifically, I was looking at the hinges on the lid and the palm rest. I also want to know how the keyboard is, and how the trackpad is. I would be typing on this laptop a lot, and would like to know if the keyboard had the problems of the predecessor.

 

Here is a pretty good review of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcQMINo2QOE

He mentions the keyboard is excellent, with a nice tactile response. As for the touch pad, (from what I read) it is average; good enough for general use (documents, windows). The keyboard is chiclet style meaning the keys are on individual "islands" vs. "glued together" which I personally prefer as I find it easier. The touchpad also has dedicated buttons; it's not a click pad (see the video).

Here is yet another link where you can find reviews on: Newegg.ca - GIGABYTE P34G-CF1 Notebook Intel Core i7 4700HQ (2.40GHz) 8GB Memory 1TB HDD 128GB SSD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760M 2GB 14.0" Windows 8

From there, we can see the hinges are claimed to be "sturdy". The lid and keyboard area (palm rest) are aluminum and thus will have a nice premium feel. In addition, when gaming, the temperature of the palm rest stays surprisingly cool (see video above).

Hope that helped If you have any other questions, I will do my best to help you. Once I actually get the thing, I can do an in-depth review

 

I also noticed two different finishes on the laptop; one with smooth lines:



And one with a grainy pattern:



I guess then two different types of finishes exist
Personally I prefer the one with the lines; guess I'll have to wait to find out

 

Thank you so much!
Also, just wondering, where should I order to get the extra large battery? I couldn't find an option on xoticpc, and newegg and my other haunts don't sell this laptop. I live in the US.
And would I need to order the better thermal paste? Or is the stock stuff good enough?

 

No problem shadow. As for paste, I would keep stock. Gigabyte knows what they are doing and have put in a paste that meets the thermal demands of the CPU / GPU. Could you replace the paste? Sure, you might get 3-4 degrees cooler extending the life of components (remember; #1 enemy of electronics is voltage and heat). With my computer experience, I replace paste on my devices at about the 3 year mark when the stuff starts losing efficiency. Even if you get the "premium" paste Xotic offers; after 3 years it WILL start losing it's efficiency. You are best to keep the stock paste, then in 2-3 years when you replace it, put in something better (my personal favorite is Arctic Silver 5)

The battery is something I can't help you with; I know of no retailers (other than affordable laptops in Australia) that offer the bigger battery. To be honest, 128gb total storage (what you would have if getting bigger battery) is NOT sufficient for a gaming laptop. (for example BF3 premium is ~36gb and BF4 is ~30gb). The hour/1.5 hours you get extra simply isn't worth sacrificing games in a GAMING laptop . With that being said, the standard battery should provide decent battery life (think about 4-5 hours) with the right setup (Using iGPU on low settings, throttling CPU; don't need full power of i7 to browse email/type notes, screen dimmed etc.) Either way, forget about gaming away from power source. If you want to know why specifically I can explain but the main idea is that there is no modern battery (and thus no laptop out there) that can sustain supplying a GPU with the power it needs to run at full speed. The GPU will downclock no matter what.

 

Question to CoFlash: How does the power connector feel when connected? Is it sturdy? On some (cheap) laptops, it feels loose and ty. How is it with this one? Thanks!

 

It is pretty secure. Not loose at all. The power brick is on the bigger side though. Keep that in mind if you're already planning buying a compact bag to carry it in.

 

It's not loose for me either

In the past week I have spent 32hrs gaming on this thing. Deus Ex 3, Assassin's Creed 4, Dark Souls 2, Skyrim, Fallout New Vegas, ARMA3 and a few other titles I simply tested. Still no fan issues to speak of.

 

German readers, I saw that a pre-order has gone live on Alternate.de and I'm wondering if it's the P34G V2 (there's no details on the product page, so I sent a mail to Alternate to confirm. I'll probably have to wait until Monday for the answer, though):
GIGABYTE P34G, Notebook schwarz

 

@Coflash How does it compare to your M14x in terms of performance and build quality? I have an M14x but I'm thinking of upgrading to either this or the Lenovo Y50 and really those are my two main concerns



Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for the info. I wrote an email to alternate.de asking about the availability of the v2 about three weeks back. This is what the replied:

"vielen Dank für Ihre E-Mail.
Bezüglich Ihrer Anfrage können wir Ihnen aktuell noch kein Erscheinungsdatum
nennen."

To the non-german folks: They simply don't know when it will be available .

Maybe this has changed by now. So @Weirdcitizen, please keep us updated what the reply to you.

Also, I still would be very interested in prices for the bigger battery version, regardless if Euro or USD. I'm curious if they charge a premium for the bigger battery in comparision to smaller battery +HDD.

Thanks again

 

The M14x is a loud & heavy building block compared to this. The performance isn't even worth going over, the P34Gv2 destroys it.

 

Does it feel sturdy and well built?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Hello, could I ask if you've had experience with Alternate before? I was wondering if they might reduce the price of the V1 once the V2 is available, I don't need the latest video card so it might be worth getting the previous version. Also, do you know what is their return policy?

Thanks.

 

I have to agree on the battery. Even if the larger battery option was available I would have still gone for the storage, simply on the basis that if I'm gaming I'll need to be plugged up anyway. To me the difference of 5.5 and 7 hrs of light use battery life is negligible compared to the massive difference in the two storage options.

 

yes, I have experience with Alternate. Over the last couple of years I occasionally placed orders with them. Mostly I ordered the parts to build a whole desktop computer for friends every now and then. The prices are pretty competitive, although amazon.de might be 1-2 Euros cheaper on average. However, Alternate's product range is excellent. As is their service and speed of shipment.
Of course I can't say whether they will lower the price of the V1 (I don't work there :> ), however consider these two things:

a) prices of the V1 will inevitably go down as a result of the newer version. Insofar, a little bit of waiting in order to see the prices come down might not be the worst idea. and of course don't constrain yourself to Alternate. I know there are other shops + ebay where you can find it. Just take a look here:
GIGABYTE - Where to Buy

b) make sure you make up your decision wisely about the V1 since it might well be that the price difference to the V2 is not that big of a deal. Moreover, the V2 (as far as I can tell from the resources available to me at this point of time), has been optimised in (at least) these major point:
1. Battery life: Maxwell Chip + bigger battery if you so desire
2. Performance: Again, Maxwell 860 vs Kepler 760, you can expect 40%+ as performance boost.
3. Fan noise: From what Coflash etc. told us in this thread, fan noise has been immensely improved, which was THE major downside of the predecessor.

I personally would chose these improvements over 100-200€ less in price, but that's fairly subjective

As far as Alternate's return policy is concerned, I can tell you that they offer the normal, legally binding, return period of 14 days. the 30days amazon.de offers is something they are doing as an additional selling point with respect to their quality of service.

hope this helps

 

I would say it is decent. I wouldn't compare it to other top tier laptops. The top panel is the only part that is metal. The keyboard panel is plastic with some grainy metal like finish. It feels ok but I think some brushed metal would be nicer. I also wish it came in a uniform color and not the two tone dark blue/bright silver.

The keyboard feels good to me. No flex when I type at all unless I apply a good amount of pressure just to test it.

No rattles and nothing is loose. All the ports are exposed well and no issues plugging anything in.

 

There's a review of the p34 by PC Pro, Gigabyte P34G v2 review | PC Pro
They seem to have the large battery version and have a UK "manufacturer-supplied guide price" of £989 inc VAT. Why is it taking so long for this laptop to come on sale in the UK?

Has anyone had European (preferably UK) experience buying a laptop from the US, from Xotic or Gentech? I'm tempted but worried that it will be rather expensive in postage of anything goes wrong.

 

I'm going to put another SSD in mine, this should be fine right?

Samsung 840 EVO Series 250GB mSATA [MZ-MTE250BW] - $199.00 : PC Case Gear

 

I think that Samsung makes good SSDs, but I'm not an expert on this.

Are you planning to install it yourself? If so, I'm interested in how difficult it is.

 

Well...

I opened it up today, here are the pics:

http://www.coflash.com/stuff/p34gv2inside_01.jpeg

http://www.coflash.com/stuff/p34gv2inside_02.jpeg

http://www.coflash.com/stuff/p34gv2inside_03.jpeg

http://www.coflash.com/stuff/p34gv2inside_04.jpeg

So when I bought this thing I was told it had a bigger battery but that I could install another MSATA drive. Unless I am blind... there is no extra MSATA slot and the 2.5 drive bay is filled with the larger battery. What are my options here?

As you can see there is a SATA connector. Is there some sort of SATA > MSATA connector I can use and somehow seat it in that available space on the left of the battery?

Thanks.

 

Yes, the rationale behind the bigger battery is, that they have some spare space because of the lacking HDD drive which can in return be used for the battery. However it is a shame they didn't manage to make use of the full space inside the case as I can see on your first picture, there's still plenty of space available on the left side.
Of course, if there was a way to use this space for a second mSATA drive, that would be just awesome.

I have to admit that I can't help you with the SATA->mSATA problem, but I can imagine that there is a decent solution for it and I would be very interested indeed if you could manage to find a way for this issue

 

It is terrible, how can man choose the right of these laptop to not ruin the space of the regular HDD? I want to put there a Samsung M9T 2TB HDD

 

Swap out the liteon msata for a bigger msata. Buy a USB -> msata cable first to clone the existing msata.

 

You could use this mSATA to SATA adapter. It is about half the length of a standard SATA drive. The mSATA drive mounts inside the case perpendicularly to the SATA connector so it may be ideal for this situation. Not sure how you might mount it inside the case though.

 

The answer I received from Gigabyte Germany four days ago.

-> for non-Germans: the p34g v2 should be available in Germany (alternate.de) mid of May.

 

GREAT! Thanks a lot for sharing. Countdown T- 18 days has started

 

i own a p35k cf2 and got another msata same brand LiteOn It as the original and raid 0 them and they are working fine. its perfectly fine to change your ssd and plus it will not void your warranty. warranty is only voided if you remove the motherboard or heat sink... but its ok to change harddrisks and ram and that stuff.
in your case you have the p34g so you can have only one msata so i would recommend changing the original one with a faster one. you will notice better speeds.

 

I shouldn't have to do that.. It'll be $200 more expensive than what I originally planned on spending and I was told there'd be another MSATA slot.

This sounds like the way I should do it. I could make something that would fit. Thanks

 

That's really crappy; ultimately the fault is on the re-seller for giving you false information. If you ask me, they should pay for your SSD that you BOUGHT based on their FALSE information. (But to be honest, on gigabyte's website it clearly states 1 mSATA ;mistakes happen)

 

If you have figured out a way to install the second mSATA drive with the adapter, I'd be grateful if you shared your solution. Do you think the aforementioned adapter will fit into the spare space? In the description it says 4 inches in width. According to your picture, it looks like that would be too wide...

 

My bad, I didn't realize you had bought an SSD already, i was just thinking of an easy way to enlarge storage that was a guaranteed fit.
Bad situation, sorry.

 

my question is if the second sata port can be enabled in the bios. i dont imagine gigabyte would use a different bios specifically for the bigger battery version but you never know. in theory, as long as you fit something like that msata to sata adapter in there, it should work. can you confirm in the bios if there's a sata #0 and #1 still?

 

Here's what I have



So if I can find a SATA > MSATA adapter that fits I should be fine?

 

I would think this would fit:
SYBA 50mm 1 8in mSATA SSD to 2 5in SATA Converter Adapter SI ADA40066 | eBay

 

i would think so. i guess it's just a matter of making sure the msata you get is compatible. but i think almost any modern msata you would purchase would be fine.

 

I just noticed on a few of the description pages:

Only up to 256GB? So I can't even add a single 512 if I tried? :/

 

I would assume that the description is talking about the options that Gigabyte is selling with the laptop (e.g. maybe some versions come with 256 GB by default). I know of no technical limitation that would prevent you from installing a bigger capacity mSATA SSD. Furthermore, XoticPC allows one to configure the mSATA SSD up to 1 TB (source: XOTIC PC | GIGABYTE P34Gv2-CF1 - 14.0" Gaming Notebook with GTX 860M), so you should be fine to replace the mSATA SSD with a bigger one.

 

Anyone know where I buy the larger battery version in the US? I asked XoticPC last week and they said they are only carrying the standard battery version right now.

 

Just ordered a Samsung 840 EVO Series 500GB mSATA, hope it works

From Gigabyte: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34687130/Installing the 2nd mSATA SSD on P34.pdf

 

Thanks for the info, I'll keep an eye on prices. I can see Alternate already started adding more new Gigabyte models, I guess it'll be available soon. There is a P34G v1 with i5 going for 770 euros (and less RAM but whatever, that can be upgraded easily) which honestly sounds like a steal for me, don't know what you guys think about that.

 

Wow, that's awesome. Really angers me that they didn't market that. If they would of marketed the bigger battery version as having a mSATA slot open, I would definitely have opted for that... I will talk to XoticPC today; maybe I can cancel my order and get the bigger battery version. Any idea when that is coming? Is it the same price?

 

They're rubbish at marketing anything. It's hilarious to see that the supplier has to keep going back and forward just trying to find out simple things. A simple spec sheet + product page where you can see the various configurations would have helped a lot of people. I had to go through the supplier who contacted his rep who contacted GIGABYTE directly just to get that PDF.

At the moment I'm trying to find out what MSATA converter they have in the images in the PDF. I can see it's GIGABYTE branded in one of their images, but for the life of me I cannot find any GIGABYTE MSATA > SATA adapters.

Just like the power adapter. How do I get an additional one? It's not on their site, not on ebay, not for sale anywhere. It's a joke tbh.

 

This seems kind of similar.

 

I'm thinking about biting the bullet with this purchase... Since I haven't used a Windows laptop in a while and not sure how much the quirks/fan noise/etc will bother me, I want to make sure I'm protecting myself with a return window. Looking at EOTIC PC, they allow for a 2 week return from the day of shipping (with my luck, it would be in transit to me for 13 of those days). I'll be assessed a 10% restocking fee if I customize it, so abut $150 in addition to the shipping costs.

The upgrades I was considering was taking the free additional 4GB of RAM and upgrading the Wifi card to Intel's AC card. If I just get those things separate, how hard would it be for me to add those in later assuming I keep the laptop.

Changing RAM and Hard Drives is something I've done on laptops in the past so feel comfortable with. Changing a Wifi card isn't. If I order the P34Gv2 as spec, test the machine out and then decide to keep it, is it difficult for me to then change the Intel Wifi card later on my own?

If its a pain I can just deal with it and order it configured properly and pay the restock.

Is the "upgrade" to new thermal paste and pixel protection usually worth it? I've only used MacBooks since 2008 so reacquainting myself with these issues.

 

Take a look at the pics of the internals Coflash posted earlier. Super easy to replace WiFi card; in my opinion, save the $ and do it yourself later if you really need it.

 

I didn't quite understand your initial motivation to change the WiFi card?! Why do you intent to do that? As far as I can tell there's already a AC-card inside the laptop. Are there any issue with the built-in card so that you want to change it right away?

Thanks

 

I'm in the same boat as you. I love my 13" Retina MacBook Pro and will have a really hard time switching, but I really want to play some games. I bought the base model from XoticPC via Amazon. I don't think there is any restocking fee if it's returned within 15 days. 128GB or SSD storage for me since there's also the storage drive. I would've liked to do some basic customizations too, but having the return policy without restock fee was more important to me. Good luck on your purchase!

 

According to the Gigabyte website's product page ( GIGABYTE - Notebook & Netbook - Notebook & Netbook - P series - P34G v2) and the PC Pro review ( Gigabyte P34G v2 review | PC Pro), the P34G v2 already has a Dual-band 802.11ac WiFi card. I'm not sure why the Xotic PC page says otherwise. I ordered this computer from Xotic PC last week (I upgraded the HDD to a 1TB 7200 RPM SATA III drive, and I also took the free 4GB of RAM). I can check the stock wireless card when my order arrives.

 

Are you sure the connector/Mobo is SATA III? I know the stock drive is SATA II so I would assume the I/O and motherboard support SATA II only; in which case a SATA III is limited (from 6gbps to 3gbps)