Computex 2014: Aorus X3 & X3 plus, 13.3 & 13.9" gaming laptop!

if anything happens the iris pro won't be as efficient as neither hd4600 nor 870m. if you are doing 3D work, why would iGPU ever be more efficient than kepler. if you are just doing 2D work then what difference does it really make between an hd4600and 5200?
the whole point of iris pro is to provide machines without a dGPU some decent 3D processing power, but if you have an 870m, why need hd5200?
if you are on battery, iris pro is even more worse off because iGPU shares TDP with your CPU. so if you are talking about throttling, iris pro is gonna take a greater hit.

also, what makes you think the cost is minimal?

 

Seems like Aorus will be at isomnia UK and will be selling the X3 there 22nd Aug according to their Facebook page.
Damn it, wished I hadn't left UK so early
https://www.facebook.com/AORUSGaming?fref=ts

 

God I can't wait for reviews for this laptop. Hopefully end of Sept it'll come out in the USA

 

This looks like a very comprehensive review, although not unintelligible to me:

AORUS X3 Plus 輕薄效能不容小覷 - Mobile01 本站新聞

Petrov.

Edit: whoops, that link has been posted already, sorry!

 

had a big post yesterday morning that failed to save cause cookie was stale
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Gigabyte buys volume of chips in the intel ecosystem - therefore the price difference between 2 chips is minimal to them (main difference between many chips anyone sells isnt the lithography of the chip, but the test performance called "bining" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_binning) - and allows gigabyte/aorus to charge us at a price that makes up for their capital investment in design and manufacture of the laptop.

the upgraded version integrated GPU - this is mostly marketing - but perhaps it drives windows 8 at the higher resolution better than last years model - the total dissipated power of iGpu will always be less than cpu + dGPU, but that only affects some use cases.

My use case is long trips - on battery watching movies, i will clock the cpu back, set optimus to leave the nvidia chip off - 3d processing is still needed for the overlays in my media player, but this wont require nvidia tech

Main point is better igpu performance when it doesn't sacrifice battery life and costs the OEM minimally - yet allows them to overcharge the consumer is a business win.

and for $50-100 of the sale price on a $2-$3k laptop (~5%), to me its barely even worth my time to post a message about it, upgrade is less than the tax, less than the charge by cc processors, almost less than shipping costs.

always buy the best cpu+gpu you can reasonably afford on a laptop - the other components (ram and HD) are replaceable.

 

Every $50-100 counts for me. I tend to buy the specs I need, not the best specs available. I've seen places charge an extra $50-75 to add a i7-4510MQ over the 4500MQ, for a mere .1 Ghz. To me, that's just throwing money in the trash because there's no real difference you'll actually experience from that. The Iris CPU is even worse because I can't see anything in the specs that make it better. The only thing the the Iris processor has is better integrated graphics which is totally unnecessary if you have a dGPU. Given the lack of data on performance differences, I think they are probably the same for most tasks other than gaming. Even with your explanation, I cannot see how those chips cost similar prices. HD 4600 has GT2 while The Iris Pro 5200 has GT3e with eDRAM. The hardware is different - binning has nothing to do with it. If Intel is selling these at the same price as the i7-4510MQ, maybe I should sell my shares in their company because that seems just stupid to me.

 

new review here, in english this time Review: Aorus X3 Plus - Laptop - HEXUS.net

 

Interesting how it has the same screen as the razer blade but has better viewing angles. The colors on the blade shifted pretty badly at minor angles.

 

Nice find on the English review, still curious on the noise of the laptop.

 

I mean, that's to be expected since Razer's is glossy and Aorus is matte. I'd rather have a better color gamut than better viewing angle any day though.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Glossy should have better viewing angles, but they really should be about the same unless Razer did something messed up with the color profile. Both units have the same gamut, so that's nice at least. The Razer's screen really did look nice when looking at it dead on. I put stock into viewing angles though, especially when the machine is going to cost $2k+

 

Ah... I thought the glare would make the viewing angles worse. Razer's has 72% NTSC? I thought it was something like 97%.

 

That's 97% sRGB. NTSC is a much bigger space, so it's usually a smaller number. There's only a small handful of laptops that get higher than 90% NTSC. NX500 and GX500 will be the first 4k ones to my knowledge.

72% NTSC equates to 95% or more sRGB, which is great. It's weird of them to not advertise both because it's confusing to so many.

 

I assume you meant 4710MQ, there's no 4500MQ

how is it even related to binning when the key difference is the eDRAM for the Iris Pro? they are two different hardware. you aren't just choosing between a silver and a red corolla, you are deciding between a corolla and a lexus, that's the difference here.

even with what you said, my point still stands. if you are running on battery, your HD4600 has enough power to deal with w.e. you are doing. the 3D processing power for background overlaying requires minimal power. also, hd 5200 consumes a lot more power than hd4600 if you get it under load.

as I said before, while Iris Pro consumes more power, you are still binded by TDP, especially when you are on battery. so what I don't understand is what's the point of paying $50-100 more, when you have absolutely no need for a better iGPU, which would drain your battery faster, is less efficient than dGPU in 3D and is only doing the jobs that a regular HD4600 can handle easily.

 

wait how does the whole 13.9" work if it has the same panel as blade...

I looked up the monitor ID and indeed they are the same... so they managed to call it 13.9" when it's a 14.0" lcd...?

 

Love how HEXUS used Alien vs. Predator when taking the GPU load temperature readings. Tells us nothing about this thing's cooling relative to the GS60 since both aren't under heavy load. Very happy about the matte screen, though

 

Maybe Razer rounded up? I would prefer Aorus called it 14" honestly since I've never even heard of a 13.9" screen until now.

 

I'm pretty sure the igzo ips panel is actually 14.0"... so gigabyte rounded down...? LOL

 

Intel's costs are dictated by the raw materials - total number of transistors, fab machinery Human Time and energy etc and Yield rates.
You've seen a silicon wafer with dud chips X'ed out right? the Cost of any 2 chips along side each other are pennies on the dollal to intel - if a huge company buys lots of chips they get them in bulk - this isnt retail price - in fact not even close - that MSRP is the price after each step of the supply chain doubles the manufacturer price.

If intel can sell a $20 chip for $100 great, if they cant they would still rather sell it at $50, or even at $25 - their biggest risk is that they cant sell enough, or that the perceived value drops - and the consumer is no longer willing to buy at the $100 price point ever (coupled with the inability to sell many more at the lower prices) - thus the celeron brand, thus the core i3,i5,i7 groupings
chips have burnable links that determine top clock speed, or multipliers, or even total quantity of cache this means intel literally produces a much smaller number of chips and differentiates them after the fact.


all that said - i get it you don't like the better integrated graphics - i do. Generic website testing indicates it doubles the 3d performance - and at the same total power dissipation of the previous generation - im all in, cause that means no significant battery hit.

Once they ship i hope you enjoy your laptop, or enjoy another one as fits your needs best.

 

I think you missing something. we are not saying the chip is much different, it's still the same haswell chip. the key difference here is that the iGPU gets eDRAM, which is what jacks up the cost.
if you have seen the 4860hq itself, you can tell that the iGPU package is a lot larger than the typical hd4600. this is what makes up the cost difference.

the other thing you have to understand is, OEMs doesn't have to be nice enough to give you the sweetstake that intel has given them.
even if intel doesn't charge them much, that doesn't mean they won't charge you significantly more for the processor.

even if intel sells to gigabyte at $25 each, gigabyte can still sell it to you at $100 if that meets the nominal price.

the key problem here is that improved iGPU doesn't provide real benefits and yet it costs a bit more than necessary.

if you are talking about 3D performance, like I said before, your nvidia GPU will be almost always more efficient than iGPU. I think we can all agree nvidia knows how to make better gfx cards here.

 

for sure Nvidia makes faster/"better" 3d graphics, and they may even be more efficient per polygon - but they fall outside the power envelope of the processor - they cant be more battery efficient because their data has to flow along a separate connecting bus and generate the floating point calculations. The technology inherent behind the gpu is commonly known, intels main issue isnt the tech, but the yield rates due to the increased transistor count on the same chip as their cpu. The intel integrated graphics are better designed for power efficiency, and aiming for the lower end to keep price and battery consumption lower - and again low power is my use case.

with the OEM i agree and said as much gigabyte will have a sale price that more closely reflects the msrp of the processor - however look at the metal chassis, and the high quality + high rez display, the battery capacity - i simply don't begrudge Gigabyte the desire to make a slightly higher margin on my laptop - i would pay even more for a better(faster) processor, and even more for the next mobile chipset in this form factor.

 

I found the Aorus X3+ on preorder, Aorus X3 Plus Intel i7 13.9" Gaming Notebook with 3K LED Monitor - X3PLUS-CF1 - Scan.co.uk , don't know if it has already been posted.

Price is a bit on the high side for me, almost 2000€, but if they have a version with lower res screen and a single 256gb ssd I may buy it...

 

any idea on price for the 'normal' X3+ with fullHD res.??

 

I don't believe they will come in FHD, it's just 2 resolutions 2560x1440 or 3200x1800. I could be wrong though, which I hope I am

 

I mean the x3 13.9" with FullHD res, that would be perfect for my use.

 

Review up from Hexus:

Review: Aorus X3 Plus - Laptop - HEXUS.net

 

By any chance does anyone know how long this would last doing some light browsing on power saving mode with screen at say 2/10 brightness.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Not liking the throttling they're talking about.

 

Another early look:

Aorus X3+ Unboxing, early impressions & mini review. - www.hardwarezone.com.sg

P.

 

Surprised no one mentioned this yet...

Will be available for order at Newegg and XoticPC starting tomorrow (9/3) for US.

https://www.facebook.com/AORUSGaming/photos/a.1501779653381208.1073741828.1484500491775791/1670047343221104/?type=1&theater

 

I bit the bullet and ordered this. The 8gb of ram on the blade is horrid. I need atleast 16gb, I hope the keyboard and touchpad are decent.

 

Yep it's live on xoticpc, too bad its nearly the price of two premium laptops

 

Wonder when the non-plus version will be for sale

 

3K and 4K Gaming Notebooks - Exciting First Looks - PAX Prime 2014 - YouTube
Pax video about the 3k/4k options.
Can't wait for mine, ordered mine from a Malaysian retailer and was given eta of 2 weeks last week.

 

Hey Everyone,

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned, but does anyone know how easy it is to swap memory or the mSata drive? Wondering if I should do it right now with XoticPC or if I can save up and do it myself later on.

Thanks!

 

I don't think anyone has taken a picture of it open yet. I doubt it would be that hard, although MSI managed to bury their M.2 bays between boards on the GS60. I don't think Gigabyte has ever made it that difficult though.

 

Hello,
You can get an 'under the hood' glimpse if you head over to the Hexus.net review poster earlier.

 

Totally forgot that I saw that already lol. Well there's the answer.

 

Really want this but damn that's a lot of cash.

 

More and more companies are doing this now. All they're doing is disabling turboboost at 70C. The Y50 did this too. You can always just use throttlestop if it affects you in any way.

 

Hey All - started a new thread last night before I found this one. Haven't received any replies to my other thread, so thought I'd toss it in here and see if anyone can give me a few pointers/thoughts. Thanks!

Been doing a lot of research about the aforementioned machine and wanted to get some input from you all. Based on the early info coming in (machine was just released in the US this week), it seems like a solid rig. I am interested in using it primarily for gaming (MMOs, Watch Dogs, Batman, etc), basic web browsing/video watching and email. Have done a lot of research on the high res display and that's honestly the part that worries me the most. While I understand you can turn the resolution down in game, I don't want to get poor FPS. Can anyone who has a screen like this (Razer, MSi etc) shed some light on how it works? Also wondering if anyone here actually has an Aorus X3 Plus and can shed some light on heating and fan noise levels. Heat wise I'm just looking to confirm that the keyboard and areas next to the trackpad don't get uncomfortable (top area near the screen and under side getting hot is fine - plan on using a cooling pad anyway). Fan noise just looking to see if it's like a jet engine or if it's manageable. Also would like to know how the trackpad feels - never seen a glass track pad before.

The other alternative I'm considering is the Gigabyte p35w v2. Seems similar to the Aorus, just a few minor differences. (Sad it does not have a/c wireless). Personally I like the look of the Aorus better, but can certainly handle the Gigabyte.

Lastly, I'm considering ordering from Xotic PC as they have good customization options (including adding the IC compound for cooling). I have never ordered from them before and was wondering if anyone who has could provide some feedback on your experience.

Any advice/insight would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

XoticPC has just uploaded their review video of the Aorus X3 Plus!

AORUS X3Plus - Full Review by XOTIC PC - YouTube

 

Thanks for the link^

I was going to buy the gigabyte p35 v2 as well, but last minute changed my mind and have ordered the x3plus from Scan. Was supposed to be in stock today but has been delayed for a few days (hopefully there won't be any further delays...

 

Yeah thanks MrD - I'll be watching that in depth tonight after work. Ves - if you could put up a review after you get yours I'd greatly appreciate it

 

well this made a lot more sense on the x3+ than the y50. the y50 disables turbo too conservatively, x3+ just from that cooling setup you know it can't cool what it has

 

Does anyone have experience with the IC Diamond paste? Does it make a significant difference?

 

Our Youtube review is up include battery life test, enjoy

 

Are you guys going to try and repaste and retest the thermals?

 

Curious question... Why is your version $150 more than Newegg? I couldn't spot the difference.

 

...I think it's about time to ask the impending question:
With the NVidia 900m series update in the next few days, is it even worth to order the Aorus X3 before the inevitable GPU refresh?