Aorus X7 Review by HTWingNut

LOL some people...

 

I mean from the recent purchases.

 

Notebookcheck has a review of it but Htwingnut's is by far the most thorough. And you can tell that not much if anything has changed from his preproduction model to the retail one.

Also the AUO screen they use is very grainy in comparison to say an LG screen of the same specs. I have had both screens side by side and it is pretty jarring if something like screen grain puts you off. It's still a good panel but I would just warn people before plunking down $2100 and neweggs notebook return policy.

 

Yeah HTWingNut's review is one of the best and about as detailed as you're gonna find this side of NotebookCheck.

 

as always, THANKS for ANOTHER GREAT REVIEW! This time though I miss the cute pictures of the kids. :hi2:

 

Blue! Come back at us with those Thermals man! Don't forget about us

 

Do you think they will update this model with dual 860m cards?

 

I really hope they do. I may end up snatching a first gen just because I want something now instead of later, but if I want for all the new laptops to come out, and the Aorus comes out with dual 860's I'll be sold sold sold.

 

Let's just hope they improve battery life!

 

Maxwell will do that. But yeah, always nice to have bigger batteries in everything.

 

Yes, bigger battery too, eliminate the HDD. Seriously. Put three mSATA's in there, add another 3 cells and all it a day. Well, work on power management a little bit more, and I don't mean having to run at the speed of a netbook just to get 3 hours life.

 

Having Optimus work with SLI would absolutely kill it for battery life.

 

@HTwingnut can you confirm that both vents on the side and the back are exhaust? Watched another reviewer that mentioned side was intake, back was exhaust, I'm more inclined to believe you myself but I was just curious if you actually tested it or just kind of winged (pun intended) it. Edit: Nevermind, had it confirmed via a different avenue

Also damn them for doing this so late in the product cycle. I highly doubt they'll do a refresh within the next few months (we all saw how well that worked for Razer) and I want this now! >_<

 

That's a sweet looking machine. Unfortunately for me, I must have Windows 7. The software I use is not supported under Windows 8. In other works, I can't call for support. They won't even talk to me. Bummer...

 

Now that I think about it, I could probably find all the Win7 drives myself. I do need at least an 4800QM for VT-d support so it's still a no go for me. If this company is still around in 3-4 years I will look at their stuff the next time I need to upgrade my laptop.

 

Having an arm core that can run the internal display off the GPU L2 cache would do far more.

 

so i'm off today but she tells me to go in because there's a package coming. ups showed up and i saw the label.

GIGG-E-TY

i love my wife.

EDIT: keyboard flex is the only thing im not digging so far.

 

Tell us more!

 

Hey HT, any chance of you picking up the GS70 Stealth Pro and giving us another stellar review.

If possible, would really like to hear your thoughts comparing the two, since they are quite similarly spec'd and priced.

 

turned it on for the third time today. i was greeted with the bios.

flipped through and noticed i was short a drive. opened her up, re-seated and it booted up. here's hoping it was an isolated incident.

 

If someone is willing to send me one, or sell it to me so I can at least make my money back, sure.

 

Just received mine 2 days ago and so far am very impressed. The screen is great and honestly I cant tell the difference between the CMO1720 that I had got a chance to look at in the store. Loving the scissor-switch keys as well. Just might take a while to get fully acquainted with though, coming from rubber dome keys.

It's true that this laptop gets hot. I was playing Thief in FHD Ultra, and CPU got to 91 degrees within 15 minutes (fans on auto). Good thing (I guess) is that it doesn't go any higher. Undervolting and downclocking in XTU brought temps down by around 8deg. Is there any way to get the XTU settings to stick on every boot?

Right now I'm using with one GPU disabled since single 765M is perfect for my games ATM. Temps are nice and cool with single GPU.

What carry sleeve do the other owner's recommend? And is there an owner's club already?

 

Make sure you're using the latest XTU (4.4 as of today). Once you set it, it should keep settings.

If you're adventurous I would recommend repasting the CPU and GPU's yourself. It can make a significant improvement. Also prop up the back end a little bit and should help even more.

 

Yea, I'll be doing a repaste soon. IC Diamond is currently the best right? I use a notebook cooler so no need to prop the rear.

I just updated XTU. Let me play around with the settings some more and see if they stick,

Thanks for your input.

 

I personally use IC Diamond but most any of the common ones will do. IC Diamond is a little thick, but it's a bit more forgiving if you add too much. AS5, Gelid, Shin-Etsu... all are fine.

 

I think the Aorus X7 is the one case where the thermal benefits from using the Liquid Ultra are enough that it's worth taking the risk. Even in my P370SM with a fairly robust cooling system, I still saw anywhere from a 7-10C drop in CPU temps under load upon switching from MX-4 to Liquid Ultra.

Just to give you an idea, CPU temp hovers around 60C when playing Crysis 2 on max settings, and never exceeds 65C peak temp. This stuff is simply amazing.

 

I've used Liquid Ultra and saw at best 3C improvement. Considering it is basically liquid metal, the risk is too great of shorting out your motherboard should any get anywhere else but on the die.

 

I think I'll go with IC Diamond then, thanks for the suggestions.

Also, for anyone looking for a case, I picked up this one here at a local outlet and it fits perfectly.

 

Newegg is showing sold out on the X7 and not backorder anymore. Wonder if a refresh is incoming. The X7 I received had massive build issues so I sent it right back to Newegg. I have yet to receive a replacement.

 

I ordered one through XoticPC to have them do a repaste, it came in today and I've only ran the 3Dmark Demo.

I am a novice in benchmarking and this also being my first laptop ever.




Nothing else was done in this run, no undervolting, increasing the fans or propping up the laptop.

 

If you don't mind, what issues did you have?

 

I hope they do a Maxwell sli version. That would probably be an insta buy for me.

 

newegg had the aorus in stock again two days ago, they even had a refurbished one for $1699. i would have bought that one in a heartbeat. the $1699 aorus was probably mine fresh from RMA (in perfect condition). Would have bought back my own laptop again for $500 cheaperi returned my aorus and am getting a razer blade instead. hopefully by the time my blade is paid off i can buy an aorus with the 800 series cards should the upgrade the laptop.

 

which power supply did you use? the one from the alienware 240W?
is it this one?
Ladegerät für Dell ALIENWARE M17X Netzteil Stromversorgung Original

 

Dell PA9E with this adapter X75 Power Connector - 7.4 x 5.08mm Female Jack to 5.5 x 2.5mm Male Plug

 

thank you!

 

Hey HT, quick question... was comparing your great review here with the GS60 I'm tinkering with. Was curious about outside case temps; if I'm reading your pics correct, you are showing temps in "Deg F"... I gotta assume that was meant to say Deg C? That 50 sounds about comparable in C to what I'm seeing with the GS60 in the hottest spot on bottom under CPU/GPU (basically comparable to 120F hot bath water), but if you are actually reading F then I'm way off. I use the 'ol basic double it and add 30 when flying to convert C->F, but by my math you must have been sitting in the local Circle K Beer Cooler to get those temps

Thanks again for the great review!

 

LOL! Yeah deg C. Otherwise it would have been used in a freezer, well considering this winter we had it wouldn't be too unlikely. I guess I better fix that.

 

This may be a stupid question but is it to much to hope that Optimus will support SLI sometime in the future or is there some sort of hardware limitation that prevents it? Really interested in the X7 but weighing my options.

 

^it exists already, you just need a MUX to route the display traces to either the iGPU or dGPUs.

 

Does anyone have any details on the 309R bios update? Is it recommended to update or not?

 

i'm running the 309r bios and haven't noticed any changes at all.

 

Hey HT could you upload the XTU profile you used to lower the core clocks? I'm not sure if I can just lower the multiplier to 30x without adjusting the voltage, does it automatically do this?

 

Even the default voltage is too high for running at stock clocks, so lowering the clocks will require even less voltage. The one you want to adjust is the "dynamic CPU voltage offset". If you're lowering your turbo multis to 30x, you could probably start with -100mV.

 

-100mv is quite a bit. I've found -50mv to -60mv are the most stable, of course every chip and system is different but I'd start with -50mV and stress it with Intel's stress test, 3Dmark, games, etc and make sure it doesn't crash, then drop another 10 or 15mv, etc. You don't HAVE to lower voltage, just dropping clocks helps quite a bit too.

 

Got it thanks, haven't messed with an Intel's XTU before so I'm glad I asked before hand.

 

Is there a way to control a core individually? One of my cores is always running about 4 degrees hotter, I'd like to be able to lower it's voltage only.

 

No I don't think that's possible, and also what you described is quite normal.

 

Sounds like there will be an Aorus X7 refresh at the end of May w/ a 4k screen. Uncertain on GPU update (although that would be awesome).