Aero 15, gentechpc or hidevolution? Qc problems?

Hello all,

Looking to get the aero 15 in about a week or two and am torn between getting it from gentechpc or hidevolution. Gentechpc currently has a summer sale program going on which offers free dead pixel guaranty(30 days) and a free CLU thermal paste job. Hidevolution on the other hand has a gigabyte mouse/pad and a bag included in the purchase.

Assuming I get the liquid metal paste done, do any of you guys know if either company takes responsibility for the product if something happens to the laptop due to a bad repaste job down the line? I intended on getting the laptop with a CLU, would you guys recommend against it? Most of the arguments against this seem to stem from not being experienced enough to apply the paste but seeing as to how this will be done by a professional, is this still a bad idea?

Lastly after getting the dead pixel warranty and the thermal repaste job done, I really don't want to end up with a screen that has a lot of back light bleed. Hidevolution offers a program for this where their techs apparantly pick the top 20% screens with the least amount of back light bleed for 100$. I really don't want to go down this route because I'd then be paying close to 200$ extra for how I normally expect to receive my laptop. For the people who bought the aero 15 from these resellers, what are your thoughts?

All answers are highly appreciated and I apologize if I posted this under the wrong section. First post here.

 

I'd go for the repaste offer. It helps you so much and you will probably replace that cheap mouse from the other offer anyway. I would also ask them to do some undervolting of the cpu for you if you don't know how to, maybe they will do it for free.


It's down to: 1. Cooler, Quieter, Faster WITH warrantie or 2. A mouse and a bag. God knows what cheap mouse it is and how embarrassing that bag can be.


Regarding the warranties i'm speaking out of my own logic, don't know your local law or the shops: Since they are something like a boutique laptop rebrander/custom builder i would guess that they offer the warranties, not gigabyte. So a repaste they offer/sell would fall under their warrantie.


Edit: OK, i checked the free gigabyte stuff out. Not to shabby, considering it's around 120$ free stuff, the bagback looks good, and the mouse seems to be popular. Also the offer a 50$ repaste job with CLU. Sounds like a nobrainer for me, considering you get some gud stuff for free.

1999$ for the gigabyte bundle with CLU or 1899$ with the CLU. You chose. Booth offer Dead Pixel Warrantie for 30D and a game bundle.

 

Yeah the gigabyte accessories thrown in by hidevolution are actually decent. I'm very tempted to get the CLU too, my question is if done right, can the liquid metal spread out of the gpu/cpu/heatsink if I move the laptop around a lot? For instance say I'm on a bike on a bumpy road? Last thing I would want is to ruin a 2k laptop for a drop in a couple cs.

How much back light would you say is acceptable or unacceptable for that matter? Hidevolution has that offer where for a 100$ theyll pick top 20% screens with least bleed, I m kinda paranoid I'm gonna get a laptop with a lot of bleed since 80% of the leftover screens have to go somewhere. I guess most of the questions I have can be better answered by the sales representative from either company, I will try to get in touch with them. Thanks for the input!

 

Regarding BLB: I'd take the offer. BLB is annoying and I have had my experiences with that. Some people don't bother with BLB, some are very sensitive, baut considering the price of the device, I wouldn't allow any form of oc issues.

Regarding CLU: I've read a few posts about CLU and mobility of laptops. If done right there shouldn't be an issue, and you have warranty anyway. I'd ask the seller directly about that and maybe ask iUnlock here in the forum for advice.

 

Yeah I inquired about the warranty situation specifically for the CLU part. I will try to get in touch with iunlock and ask him for his opinion regarding this too. How hard/annoying is getting rid of the bloat ware on the aero15? They offer this option for 15$ and I'm not too sure if this is something I can do myself easily.

I want to get the BLB option too but at a 100$, I'm trying to see if this really is an issue for the aero15.

 

Im in the same boat here, which one did you end up picking?

 

I've just read a thread hear on the forum from a guy having an issue with gentech and blb. They didn't want to acknowledge his blb as an issue. Maybe keep an eye on that thread.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/official-gigabyte-aero-15-owners-lounge.804575/page-79

Bloatware is easy to deal with, if there is any. Uninstall it or smack a fresh win 10 install on it, just remember that the fusion software is required for the fancy functions of the Aero 15.

 

As Dan mentioned, it seems like another user is having problems with gentechpc. I already ordered from hidevolution, my sales advisor told me they price match with their competitors so if youre leaning towards gentechpc because of their free dead pixel warranty and CLU paste job, mention this to your sales advisor at hidevolution and I think you get offered the same deal but they take away the free gigabyte accessories. There were some offers that stacked for me.

Try contacting @Donald@HIDevolution for help and offers currently available.

As far as backlight bleed, I expect a little backlight bleed but I hope any amount of bleed like @RobonHood has shouldn't be considered normal.

Also, @RobonHood if you're still getting the aero 15 and worried about BLB, you can get screen picked out by a hidevolution staff for 100$. Just not sure how much backlight bleed such a screen would have, it would be nice if hidevolution had an image of it so we could compare.

@Dan@Dan I was about to pay them for a fresh install too since I'm paying them for an undervolting service already, will just uninstalling the bloat ware be as efficient as a fresh install? If I do a fresh install, do I have to save the color profile that is "pantone certified"?

 

Also I'm using the citi double cash back card. I get two percent back but more importantly my manufacturers warranty is extended for an additional 2 years at no cost to me. If you're paying with a card see what benefits your bank offers you. If you're paying in cash then you get a cash discount from hidevolution too like other retailers do.

 

Depends on the bloatware, but i'd prefer a fresh install. For undervolting they will install intel XTU so don't kick that off after recieving the laptop. Regarding performance, shouldn't be much of a diference, except if it's one of those diggin-in-deep software.

 

I'm definitely interested in getting another device, but with everything and the announcement of the Aero 14 - 1050 Ti with thunderbolt 3, and the extra nvme I may just wait a few months again and see what drops. The Aero's are really the only devices in my mind as far as portability goes, its just a matter of vendor (definitely not GenTech again xD). I think that the panel used in the Aero and as well the Sager Np8952 just tends to have the bleeding issues and I'm looking to avoid that if I can, so by maybe going with the 2560 panel in the 14 I'd fair better.

Idk this my first time purchasing a large purchase laptop and I feel kinda spurned it won't stop my from doing it again, but I'll definitely work with vendors a little more beforehand I suppose.

 

If I had to pick and 1050ti laptop, I'd go with for the xps 15 or check out what reviews say about the Asus ux550v%.

Since the Aero 14 is already out with a 1060, I'd never pick the 1050ti, but that's just me wanting more-or-less gpu power.

 

So the main issue with both those devices is 1. GTX 1050's not Ti's, 2. the 9560 has a x2 thunderbolt 3 port and kills egpu performance. 3. the UX550 has the same screen I had issues with on the Aero 15 with the same problems and worse battery life.

The thought with the Aero 14 1050Ti is it's still an upgrade performance-wise to me (coming from an 860m) and will play what I wanna play fine. With the added m.2 bay and the thunderbolt 3 port it serves as a better hopefully cheaper alternative the the 1060-14/15. If they price it right (hoping for 1200-1400 USD mark) its a more budget friendly option saving me $1k that I could spend on other things while still being portable.

Idk I really liked the 14 before the 15 was announced but because it only had 1 m.2 and no thunderbolt it killed the device for me. Plus the screen is proven to be nice and it should hopefully carry over the same display from its 1060 brother.

With that said I'm still getting quotes from other distributer's in regards to another 15 since I don't know when the 14 will drop.

 

You're right, the XPS is non-Ti. The UX550 has a 1050Ti model version tho. The 14 is really a nice choice if you're going to fire it with a eGPU. Maybe the will bring a refreshed 14 with a 1060? Always a shame those laptops. Ther's always the one or another thing that makes them inperfect so that it hurts. :/

 

I get what you mean. You come to expect QC to be on par for a product at that price range(above average for laptops), but unfortunately that doesn't seem to hold true for most manufacturers. I wish manufactures or resellers would post pics of displays with BLB on them as a reference of how much BLB is considered acceptable for each type of panel/display for reference.

I was considering the 4k variant but I was informed that the ETA for that is in October, unfortunately I couldn't wait that long. I was also told that powering the 4k display would drain more battery than the fhd1080p display.(correct me if I'm wrong, I'm very uneducated regarding these matters). If true this was a big no-no for me, since the performance to battery/size ratio is the primary reason I'm buying this. That being said, I wish the default resolution was 1440p.

Service for me from hidevolution has been absolutely exceptional so far, I had a lot of various requests and modified my order several times after purchasing the laptop. (I couldn't make up my mind on the configurations and other services like undervolt etc) My order seems like it's just about ready to be shipped, I'm fairly certain I should get it by next week. I will post pics of what the BLB on mine looks like.

Thanks for the advice about the xtu Dan. Mr fox advised the same of me and was gracious enough to inform me of other matters regarding my configurations as well. The xtu settings on mine seems to be -.100 volt for my processor.

 

Can you give me a little breakdown on the spec you ordered. Also looking at ordering one the end of the month.

 

I got the 30 day deadpixel warranty, CLU paste job and an undervolt service from hidevolution. I was very tempted to get the minimum BLB service too which is a 100$.

Aside from that I ended up purchasing a 960 Evo ssd from craigslist for 80$ and plan to upgrade the ram to a 32gb as soon as I figure out the model number for the default 16gb one.

 

how do you know they will actually check for backlight bleed

 

The same way you know they'll ship the product if you pay for it, trust in the manufacturer mainly. I can imagine there being a high chance of buyer's remorse if you purchase this option atm due to a lack of information. Unfortunately we do not have an image of a display with minimum backlight bleed for reference. I think its a good option if this means that there is next to none or no BLB at all. But if you get a display with more noticeable bleed, I imagine that money is perhaps better spent in upgrading your ram or ssd.

 

If you get a laptop with BLB, they didn't check. If you get a BLB free one, they might or might not have checked!